Weather: More snow -- about 6 more inches at Foy's Lake. 5 degrees F! (Fahrenheit) Gotta drive to school tonight to video the play "You're A Good Man Charlie Brown."

Wildlife: One BIG bald eagle flew right past my deck about five feet off the ground. He or she landed on the lake (almost all frozen now) to dine on a previously-dead duck. A couple of magpies showed up, but didn't get much until the eagle was done. I also shot a photo or two.

Charity Alert: The Hunger Site : Give Food for Free to Hungry People in the World

Media watch: Strange version of "From Earth To The Moon" on TMC this morning. Joseph Cotton and George Sanders from 1958. Kind of like a B-movie with good actors, but lacking a sense of humor (and much else). "Seven Thieves" with Rod Steiger and Joan Collins from 1960 -- a big-budget black and white B-picture, if that makes sense -- Eli Wallach, Edward G. Robinson, and Sebastian Cabot on the French Riviera -- in Cinemascope!

At the College: Much of the Flathead Valley has been spared the heavy snow, so the theater is full -- the energy is good, it's an easy production, and a delight to do. (I hope I get home alright!)

Weather: A real winter snow. About a foot at my house, and 4 to 8 inches on my SLOW drive in to work.

Wildlife: I was greeted by a whitetail fawn as I got to my driveway yesterday. The little creature was grazing, and didn't seem to mind me opening the garage and parking the car.

Charity Alert: The Rainforest Site: Help Save Our Rainforests!

Media Watch: Peter Jennings did a long program on ABC last night about the Kennedy assassination. I believe -- no I am sure, that the truth was buried with the president. By that I mean that a lot of evidence about the real events and circumstances, whatever they were, "got lost," or were destroyed in the aftermath of the crime -- by incompetents, or people who "didn't want to look bad."
One thing that Jennings did that was laudable was refute the most preposterous depiction/fictions in Oliver Stone's movie JFK. That thing was functionally as much a fantasy as Stone's much-earlier movie The Hand.

Forty Years Ago: Yes, I remember where I was when Kennedy was assassinated -- 8th grade at Jackson Junior High School in Salt Lake City. The rest of my memories of the aftermath are shared by tens, hundreds, thousands, and millions of others.
Here's a Kennedy memory that I doubt anyone has read:
President Kennedy visited Salt Lake City one morning in October 1963. His motorcade took the main route into Salt Lake from the airport about two blocks from Jackson Junior High. About sixty students, including me, were lucky enough to have teachers who indulged our curiosity and walked with us to a spot where we could see him driving by.
This "spot" happened to be a freeway underpass -- there were plenty of places to stand and watch.
Kennedy's open car slowed down, he stood up and waved to all of us, with that famous grin on his face.
He was a very handsome man -- the black & white pictures from the time never did him justice -- they were often shot from below and made him look pudgier than he was. I can testify to the magic of his gaze and presence -- even at ten miles an hour.
We walked back to the school and heard the broadcast of his inconsequential speech from the Mormon Tabernacle over the P.A. By 1 PM of that day the president was back on his plane and flying elsewhere.
Other memories of the time: The military bugler goofed up "Taps" at the president's funeral. No one's ever mentioned it that I can remember. Paul Harvey was smugly dismissing Kennedy's tenure on his radio show within a week -- free speech, for sure, but I'd never liked him before, and I respected him even less after that -- Oliver Stone is not the first to fantasize history and politics under the guise of entertainment.

Weather: The two-day windstorm is over! There was a light dusting of snow, but the roads weren't too bad on the way to work this morning.

Wildlife Report: White seagulls are perching on the light poles around our campus, instead of the big, black ravens.
Watch out where you park!
I think the wind might have blown them down from the dump. (5 miles north of here.)

Charity Alert: The Hunger Site : Give Food for Free to Hungry People in the World

Media Watch: Still reading -- finished Data Smog from 1998, and picked up another "computer & people" book from 1972. This one was written by someone who'd operated IBM equipment at Los Alamos in 1946 (B.C. = Before they made Computers) and pioneered a time-sharing mainframe system at Dartmouth College in the 60's. His perspective on computer history, and his extrapolations from three decades back are interesting.

At the College: A full day of training students to use the Kron video editing system. Now they can make their OWN TV shows! I think I'll look at ways of putting yesterday's project onto DVD -- Prof. Hegland's instructional video might work well when it's multi-tasked with the actual software.

Weather: %$#@! wind blew all night. I hope all my shingles are still on the roof. Something nasty is moving in from the west because it's getting darker & darker. The air is a miserable mix of spotty rain and wind-bourne grit. Tumbleweeds are still bouncing everywhere today.

Wildlife: A half-dozen whitetail deer cruised our yard at sunset yesterday. A huge red-tailed hawk was hunting in the fields by Little Foy's Lake as I drove to work this morning. The persistant wind broke up any remaining ice on Middle Foy's Lake. The geese didn't seem to mind, but they were huddled against the trees and hills in the southwest corner.

Charity Alert! The Animal Rescue Site : Feed an Animal in Need

Media Watch:
Doesn't this guy ever READ?!
Sure -- I just finished reading Vol. 3 of Parisian Review Interviews, edited by the late George Plimpton.
I also finished My Life In Search of Africa by John Henrick Clarke
Right now I'm in the middle of Data Smog -- I'm reading the book too! HA HA HA HA! (by David Schenk)

At the college: Prof. Hegland is in my office, editing a how-to video about her digital jewel-making equipment.
View that article again: The Daily Internet: The Daily Inter Lake Newspaper, Kalispell, Montana

Weather: Winter is advancing slowly. Temperatures in the low 40's make for a nice November morning. Middle Foy's Lake lost even more ice -- the geese are happy! That white shelf of frozen stuff at the shaded west end will last for awhile, though. The mountains are sugar-coated. Everything above 1000 meters got snow last night, but the valley escaped with light, unfrozen rain.

Wildlife: Ice is an issue. Beside the open water attacting migrating birds, an early ice-over can kill all the fish in the lake before the spring thaw. A few years ago, the lake was a disgusting mess for that reason. One ironic joy was the plethora of eagles feeding off the watery carrion.

Don't skip the charity site:
The Animal Rescue Site : Feed an Animal in Need

Media Watch:
Monday Night Football had an hour of lead-ins by Britney Spears, then Jennifer Garner, and finally Britney-clips mixed with Hank Williams Jr. introducing the show.
Like him or not, Williams has a booming, resonant singing voice, and his honky-tonk "Rowdy" song has been an appropriate opening call for this TV cash-cow.
Ms. Spears doesn't have much of a voice anyway, and she came off looking like an afterthought. I didn't mind her doing an on-field performance at the start of the season, but I think the audience, and the entertainers, deserve better than what I saw last night. Oh yeah -- the game was kind of a dog, unless you enjoy seeing a defense die right before your eyes, as Pittsburgh's did in the second half.

I mainly watched "Coyote Waits" on PBS' "Mystery." OK scenery, OK acting, OK seeing Native Americans portrayed in their own communities -- but the distortions of Tony Hillerman's plots and characters bothered me. Also when a mystery is hard to solve simply because it's preposterous, I'm kinda disgusted.
Back to the game -- Whoops! 17 points in about seven minutes?!? Somebody's defense has DIED! (see above)

Noon Update: RAINBOWS -- the low clouds to the north have rainbows under them -- a color storm!

Afternoon Update: Damn wind started roaring outta the west -- tumbleweeds started gathering up and tangling in people's clothes and legs.

Weekend Weather; Foggy-bottomed Saturday, snow in the night, and an alright wintery day on Sunday -- snow melting and an unobstructed view all around. The ice on Middle Foy's Lake grew a little, then shrank a bit. The shaded far-west end is a snow-covered shelf where the Canadian Honkers perch, while others swim and feed in the water.

Wildlife Report: A Great Blue Heron glided right past my deck yesterday morning. The ducks drove off a marauding eagle by staying in a watchful group, and making noise at the sight of the predator, instead of feeding alone.

Here's a composite website that I'm visiting every day -- free clicks for charity.
It's nice to know that "eyeballs" are still worth something!
Animal Rescue Site (and the Hunger Site etc.)

Media Watch: CSpan1's Book Notes had Michael Moore as a guest on Sunday. Host Brian Lamb had some pointed questions for him, and Moore wasn't able to "do a performance." It was good to see Moore actually think first, then speak. He came off well, making his points about the book "Dude, Where's My Country?" I always thought that shallow stand-up comedy never served him well anyhow.
Hey! Look at this: Michael Moore is in the U.K. at the same time as Bush. Stay tooned for some PR nightmares:
Michael Moore: 'You need to show that the people of Britain don't support Bush'

The Hockaday Art Museum website was updated over the weekend. I took down my own image for Members Only on the EXHIBIT page, but that's alright, it is still included on the home page. One funny thing is that we are showing medieval manuscripts in a Power Point presentation in our Discovery Gallery
The upcoming holidays at the museum will be a flurry of snow, ice, and activity, but I'll deal with them in good time.
See for yourself! Hockaday Museum of Art

One of my on-campus friends, Gayle Hegland, has her jewelry class mentioned in the local paper:
The Daily Internet: The Daily Inter Lake Newspaper, Kalispell, Montana
The "Native American Thanksgiving" is happening soon, with our most energetic Prof. Gerda Reeb taking on the responsibilities again this year. A group of Kootenay fancy-dancers, led by Stephen Small Salmon, were here a year ago, and it was a good ol' time. About 300 plus school kids had a great feed and a unique experience.