Friday, March 12, 2004

Weather: Another spring-like day -- Morgan, one of our students, looks very nice in shorts, but I hope she doesn't catch cold!

Wildlife: The geese "slept over" at our lake, and took off as I went to work. It's getting hard to tell where the water ends anymore -- ice breakup soon!

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

Media Watch: The "straight guy" from this week's "Queer Eye" was skating on A&E -- John Zimmerman -- mostly in group choreography.
Lou Dobbs on CNN is still poking his finger at "Exporting America," meaning job losses and outsourcing -- good. Hobbes' Leviathan will eat up the world, and then starve to death if left alone. Half-baked, discredited ideologies are never effective substitutes for public policies.
I actually spent very little time in front of Da' Tube last night -- a discussion of Jewish history attracted my attention on an email list.

Geneological Talk: No, I'm not Jewish, but I have Swiss ancestors named Silverstein and Mangold on my paternal grandmother's side -- from Great-Grandmother Bushman, who married Great-Grandfather Rhodes.
Via the Rhodes family, I'm related to George Washington, the imperialist financier Cecil Rhodes, and have thousands of polygamous cousins in Central Utah, many of whom are also named Rhoades -- after a Mormon patriarch who was associated with a legendary "lost" gold mine. (Double-great Grandma Rhoades married a man named, uh -- Rhodes.)
OK, OK -- now that THAT quarter of my family tree is online -- how about my paternal grandfather?
His mom was Janet Buchannan from Rothsea, Scotland. She walked to Salt Lake, because the railroad wasn't completed yet. His daddy was Johnathan Evans, born in Salt Lake City, Utah to Mormon immigrants from Llanelly, Wales.
Both of my maternal grandparents were from Oslo, Norway -- they immigrated to Salt Lake City during WWI, along with hordes of other Norwegian LDS converts.
Even though I'm named Evans, I resemble my Norwegian grandfather named Waring (His father was named Larsen). None of my immediate family is associated with the Mormon church, especially me!

Thursday, March 11, 2004

Weather: Cold and bright -- maybe 40 degrees (F). People are risking brochitis the way they're dressed.

Wildlife: Flocks of birds migrating northwards -- checking out the pond at Middle Foy's Lake.

Charity Alert: The Child Health Site : Help a Child in Need Lead a Healthy, Active Life

Media Watch: Steven King's Kingdom Hospital again -- not bad -- 2 to 1 ratio between drama time and commercials this week. -- last time it was 1 to 1.
TV's 'Kingdom Hospital'

Wednesday, March 10, 2004

Weather: Early Spring weather -- cool in the mornings, and warming up in the day to almost 50 (F).

Wildlife: Those pheasants were chasing off the deer in the front yard -- they want first peck at the seeds and cracked corn!

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

Media Watch: A new Queer Eye for the Straight Guy was shown last night -- Thom, the interior decorator, sure has to do a lot of work! I also bought a Sarah Brightman CD called Classics. It has "La Luna" and "Nessun Dorma" -- my favorite songs from her concert last week. Here's a general discography:
Sarah Brightman

Tuesday, March 09, 2004

Ain't Monday no more!

Weather: All of last week's snow has melted -- our back yard's fulla deer poop.
This morning was foggy at the college, but as the sun rose, a near-rainbow arched across the Northwestern sky. It was mostly white, with just a gimmer of the prismatic colors of a conventional rainbow, but it was impressive. I wonder what you call these things? Fog-bows?

Wildlife: The eagles are still haunting Middle Foy's Lake, and the deer are haunting our bird feeders. There are dozens of pheasants eating corn and sunflower seeds.

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

Media Watch: The Concert for George on PBS was pretty darn good -- Eric Clapton led an all-star band at the Royal Abert Hall featuring the songs of George Harrison. The line-up was mostly musicians who had worked with Harrison, or were his friends. The great Ravi Shankar was there, which was only right, but I was pleased to see Dhani Harrison too. Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney both did very well -- especially when Ringo was wisecracking from the drum stool.
Great Performances . Concert for George | PBS

John Waters' Female Trouble was on TV last night -- wotta gross, wonderful flick!
A John Waters Site: Welcome to Dreamland