Wildlife: A big crescent moon was shining over the big crescent pond melted out of our de-icing lake, and reflected in its waters. Over a hundred geese and ducks of various species were sleeping on the edge of the rapidly-thinning ice, or swimming about. The log outside our bedroom window is surrounded by water, and attracts the Mallards or Goldeneyes who want to perch for a while. Sweet-singing Redwing Blackbirds are starting to look for nesting areas along the shore.

Weather: A clear blue sky -- nothing but some greasy plumes of smoke from slash fires.

Charity Alert: Clicking helps buy food, books, medicine, and rainforest land -- an easy way to give!

In The Community: On Tuesday night, Flathead Valley Community College's Honors Symposium presented Dr. Scott Wheeler from the U.S. Military Academy lecturing about The Creation of Political Economy in the Western World, and our secular, utilitarian political heritage. Instead of slides and overheads, he used a PowerPoint presentation projected from a laptop computer onto a large screen, and wandered around the room wearing a wireless microphone.
(I set up all that stuff, that's my part in these affairs -- stage manager.)
Scott communicated some important concepts about the U.S. Constitution;
It is easily read in one sitting.
Its writers were committed to NOT failing in their establishment of a "government of laws," so they kept talking until their work was done.
Compromise is not a four-letter word, and neither means bullying nor abnegating ethical principles.

Media Watch: Ya' just can't get away from the Academy Awards! I guess January and February are some kind of "Red Carpet Season." Here's part of Maureen Dowd's take on the fashion aspects (quoted from the NY Times): ...wouldn't you love to hear the Bard on the Oscars? Others found the Oscars boring; I found the show slightly alarming.
I used to worry that women were heading toward one face. Sometimes in affluent settings, like the Oscars or the shoe department at Bergdorf's, you see a bunch of eerily similar women with oddly off-track features - Botox-smoothed Formica foreheads, collagen-protruding lips, surgically narrowed noses, taut jaws - who look like sisters from another planet...
In the future, there will be only one face. And if the Oscars are predictive, there will be only one body - big chest, skinny body - and one style. It was bizarre how actress after actress came out in the same mermaid silhouette: a strapless sheath with a trumpet-flared or ruffled skirt...
In decades past, each top glamour girl aimed for a signature face and measurements, a trademark voice, a unique walk. You never saw Katharine Hepburn and Ava Gardner showing up in the same dress, or Audrey Hepburn and Marilyn Monroe looking like a pair of matching candles.
In some wacky, self-defeating conspiracy, stylists have joined forces with surgeons to homogenize today's actresses so it's hard to tell one from another; the Oscars had a safe, boring, generic look. Top female stars who have had a lot of work done start looking like one another on magazine covers, and being confused for one another at publicity events...
It's the same problem Hollywood has making movies: too much cloning, not enough originality. As Shakespeare wrote of the ultimate glamour girl, Cleopatra: "Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale her infinite variety." Women have become so fixated on not withering, they've forgotten that there are infinite ways to be beautiful. Dowd knows what being beautiful is about too -- she looks like her picture: Maureen Dowd's Archives (Registration required)
One person who fit the 'mermaid mold' was fellow New Yorker and 'best actress' winner Hillary Swank -- who became famous for being an actor, rather than a 'glamour girl.' The other 'Oscar' for supporting actress went to the excellent Cate Blanchett, who wasn't wearing a 'mermaid' costume, but was decked-out in a more conventionally 'glamourous' way than I normally see her in the media.
Ms. Swank, besides her undeniable talent, also possesses the hyper-pouty, hyper-skinny, hyper-busty features Dowd noted on display Sunday night. Her red-carpet gown hugged every curve on her body, flared over her feet, and dragged along the ground. Her entire back was bare, except where the long skirt began at the edge of her hips. The fabric followed the curves of her gluteus, exposing her lumbo-dorsal fascia almost to the "oops" point. Other actresses looked outright comical wearing variations on this theme, and I'm afraid this particular 'look' diminished the dignity of everyone who was draped in it.