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 Items to fit into your overhead compartment |
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Carrion Luggage  Native to the Americas, the turkey vulture (Cathartes aura) travels widely in search of sustenance. While usually foraging alone, it relies on other individuals of its species for companionship and mutual protection. Sometimes misunderstood, sometimes feared, sometimes shunned, it nevertheless performs an important role in the ecosystem. This scavenger bird is a marvel of efficiency. Rather than expend energy flapping its wings, it instead locates uplifting columns of air, and spirals within them in order to glide to greater heights. This behavior has been mistaken for opportunism, interpreted as if it is circling doomed terrestrial animals destined to be its next meal. In truth, the vulture takes advantage of these thermals to gain the altitude needed glide longer distances, flying not out of necessity, but for the joy of it. It also avoids the exertion necessary to capture live prey, preferring instead to feast upon that which is already dead. In this behavior, it resembles many humans. It is not what most of us would consider to be a pretty bird. While its habits are often off-putting, or even disgusting, to members of more fastidious species, the turkey vulture helps to keep the environment from being clogged with detritus. Hence its Latin binomial, which translates to English as "golden purifier." I rarely know where the winds will take me next, or what I might find there. The journey is the destination. |
| As noted yesterday, I ran off for a couple of days. A friend I haven't seen in a few years was visiting Virginia Beach, which I also haven't seen in a few years. So, something different today. I didn't pack my links. Instead, a bit about Virginia Beach. I don't know if I'm just older, or if it's something else, but this place kinda sucks now. It used to be my favorite beach spot, if only because it also happens to be the closest. Or maybe I just got used to the much quieter Outer Banks, south of here. It didn't help when I heard that my favorite restaurant/bar on the beach closed. I went through the four stages of grief about that. Yes, I know there are five stages of grief. I'm not done grieving yet. But what clinched the suck for me was, last night, I was walking past Neptune Park  while a loud concert was going on, not very crowded. Well, okay, middle of summer and all that, so you expect some of that shit in a beach town, even on a Wednesday night.Turned out, though, that the band was... Queensrÿche. In a small park. On a weeknight. The completely superfluous umlaut in their name always cracked me up, because it reminded me of Spın̈al Tap, but then I found out that This is Spın̈al Tap came out after Queensrÿche, so I suppose the movie was mocking them? I don't know. Somehow, that makes it all the more hilarious to me, but then, I'm easily amused. Point is, though, while I was never a fan, I was aware of them and knew they used to sell out shows in stadiums. I know the band has gone through lineup changes, as one might expect after forty-some years, but I don't really care enough to look it up. So here they are playing a concert in a half-a-city-block park. That's not as funny as the superfluous umlaut, and is actually kind of sad. Still, the crowd seemed to enjoy it. Here's something else I don't understand, though: Up there, I linked the Wiki page for the King Neptune statue. In looking at the link, I see the statue was completed 20 years ago, in 2005. But I have absolutely clear memories of visiting VA Beach in the 1990s and seeing the Neptune statue, just as it appears now. I suppose it's possible that my memories are distorted. There's always the possibility that Wikipedia is wrong. But, obviously, the true explanation is that I've shifted timelines again, and ended up in one where the Neptune statue is newer and Queensrÿche is still touring.  |
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