It's MONDAY -- that means I gotta fill-in what happened over the weekend!

Weather: A long, soft snow fell over Friday and Saturday. It let up by Sunday, but we're all still digging out today.
I had to shovel the walks and stairs at the Hockaday Museum of Art on Saturday,
Hockaday Museum of Art - Prime visual arts resource in Flathead Valley of Northwest Montana. but I wonder if it was worth it -- the de-icer will tell the tale tomorrow.

Wildlife: That snow covered up all the food I put out for the wayward goose -- I'm sure the deer are helping themselves to some of it too. I caught Momma Deer and her two fawns crunching away the other night. The suet feeder is drawing Flickers, Magpies, Woodpeckers, and the Pheasants are congregating below the feeders.
Yesterday, a Bald Eagle made it's rounds near the aereator pond -- the Ducks, and Goose got right in the water!

Charity Alert: The Breast Cancer Site : Fund Mammograms for Free

Media Watch: On the news programs, it's SADDAM 24/7 -- Michael Jackson must be jealous. Kid Rock's Christmas was a welcome, if vulgar, respite. Football -- speaking of vulgar, Bush's unnecessary prattle pre-empted Mad TV and Jillian Barbarie on Fox's pre-game show -- I really wanted something to laugh about instead. Later that afternoon, I saw a home team force a game into overtime, and then win against a tiring visiting defense.
My wife and I somehow found ourselves watching Miss America Pagents from 1958 and 1983 -- the comparisons were interesting, especially since the outlines of both events were so similar -- overly-decorated formal gowns, swim suits with almost unwalkable high heels, and talent competitions that made most of the contestants look pretty dorky. Both shows had former Miss America winners on parade too.
Let's see -- Mary Ann Mobley won the 1958 pagent with her quick wits, Anita Bryant was a runner up. Mobley made some movies later, and seemed to get along with fellow Mississippi native Elvis Presley. Bryant, whose subsequent fame was built on pitching Florida orange juice, was eventually used as a poster-child for some anti-gay bigotry, with her consent, in the years before the '83 pagent -- bad career move -- her B-minus voice couldn't carry her through that controversey.
Miss America 1984 (Uh oh, watch out for THAT year!) was the extraordinarily talented Vanessa Williams, later to become a movie and recording star, and perhaps a millionaire by now. A "scandal" ensued late in her "reign," when the sleazy Bob Guccione found, doctored, and published some nude photo sessions she'd done earlier as a student. The M.A. Pagent dropped Ms. Williams like a hot rock -- my friend George Clinton gave her a job singing in the P-Funk All-Stars almost immediately, and her talent took her above all the B.S. in a few years.
Miss America of the next year was a somewhat prissy Miss Utah. To the lady's credit, although she was neither the most talented nor the best looking contestant, she was NOT the first to be selected for political reasons.
Utah doesn't deserve any recognition as a beacon of morality -- the so-called "religious" patriarchs that run the place have much more in common with Bob Guccione than with Martin Luther.