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Flowers on the razor wire
Apr. 14th, 2012 02:25 am
Currently at Toronto Pearson: 6. High today: 16.
This afternoon I tacked my first twenty-five feet of chicken wire to the bottom of the fence. I don't believe it can prevent a determined groundhog from getting at my vegetable gardens; I'm just hoping they won't be quite that determined. In other dispatches from the small-mammal wars, I'm coming around to the view that the most effective simple and non-destructive strategy for managing bird-feeder squirrels is frequent pole-oiling. (Baby oil doesn't work; too thin. I have yet to succumb to the temptation of WD-40. After my can of cooking spray is used up, I'm going to try just wiping the pole with canola oil.)
Related to what I said to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
kest the other day about "nomadism" being responsible in some part for the lack of beauty in the modern world: I'm planning to plant some fruit trees in the backyard; we'll probably be here long enough to get fruit from them--we could end up being here for decades, who knows--but maybe not. Whoever lives here next might well cut them down. Thinking along these lines is discouraging. I don't imagine there are many people anymore who plant trees in their yards for their future grandchildren. Of course, you might plant a tree for someone's future grandchildren--I hope you would--but it requires much more of a leap of faith.
I think I will institute a new recurring feature here: Real World Watch. Today's Real World Watch brings us a fascinating new use of "in the real world", from a comment on the Globe idiot board for its story on this, um, unusual move by Ryane Clowe, reaching off the bench with his stick to poke the puck away from Jaret Stoll as he was leading the rush into the Sharks' zone: "In the real world Clowe would be suspended for a long time, but in the NHL where attempting to permanently injure an opponent is worth anywhere from zero to 5 games I have no idea what will happen." On the face of it, this use of "in the real world" is completely nonsensical. But the idea seems to be that the real world is the place where harsh and certain justice is served; you don't get away with things in the real world. Of course, as everyone knows, in the real world, life ain't fair. But I suppose that this use of "in the real world" represents the view that, in the real world, while reward may be uncertain and paltry, punishment is sure and terrible--the real world is fair, but only Satanically so.
This afternoon I tacked my first twenty-five feet of chicken wire to the bottom of the fence. I don't believe it can prevent a determined groundhog from getting at my vegetable gardens; I'm just hoping they won't be quite that determined. In other dispatches from the small-mammal wars, I'm coming around to the view that the most effective simple and non-destructive strategy for managing bird-feeder squirrels is frequent pole-oiling. (Baby oil doesn't work; too thin. I have yet to succumb to the temptation of WD-40. After my can of cooking spray is used up, I'm going to try just wiping the pole with canola oil.)
Related to what I said to
kest the other day about "nomadism" being responsible in some part for the lack of beauty in the modern world: I'm planning to plant some fruit trees in the backyard; we'll probably be here long enough to get fruit from them--we could end up being here for decades, who knows--but maybe not. Whoever lives here next might well cut them down. Thinking along these lines is discouraging. I don't imagine there are many people anymore who plant trees in their yards for their future grandchildren. Of course, you might plant a tree for someone's future grandchildren--I hope you would--but it requires much more of a leap of faith.I think I will institute a new recurring feature here: Real World Watch. Today's Real World Watch brings us a fascinating new use of "in the real world", from a comment on the Globe idiot board for its story on this, um, unusual move by Ryane Clowe, reaching off the bench with his stick to poke the puck away from Jaret Stoll as he was leading the rush into the Sharks' zone: "In the real world Clowe would be suspended for a long time, but in the NHL where attempting to permanently injure an opponent is worth anywhere from zero to 5 games I have no idea what will happen." On the face of it, this use of "in the real world" is completely nonsensical. But the idea seems to be that the real world is the place where harsh and certain justice is served; you don't get away with things in the real world. Of course, as everyone knows, in the real world, life ain't fair. But I suppose that this use of "in the real world" represents the view that, in the real world, while reward may be uncertain and paltry, punishment is sure and terrible--the real world is fair, but only Satanically so.
