Weather: Thanksgiving weekend -- so far snow, then clear, then snow, then clear. Some days it melts off, other times it freezes HARD! My deck is cleared off now, so I'm ready for more -- gotta check my rain gutters too -- I think there's a leak in one area, and it makes things wet underneath.

Wildlife: The lake has been white with snow (except for the aereator-hole in the ice). This morning it was all gray from temperatures in the high 30's turning it all into slush. The geese are flying over by the hundreds still, but they rarely land. There was a small, spotless fawn sharing fallen sunflower seeds with two pheasant roosters. Peanuts are luring the magpies to the deck, and the flickers follow along. The woodpeckers stay in the trees.

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

Media Watch: Thanksgiving NFL was alright. The games were contested enough, for the most part, and the teams I preferred to win did so. Pregame silliness -- Jillian's outfits have looked better in the past, but she was funny.
C-SPAN had something of a Lewis & Clark marathon, but I was interested enough to peek in, and stay awake. I even checked out some more books on this subject from the library!
I saw a documentary about Lenny Bruce "Swearing to Tell the Truth," narrated by Robert DeNiro -- great footage from another time, and clips from routines that wouldn't cause a blink nowadays.
I loved his comedy-as-jazz approach to performing. I was seriously impressed at a young age by Paul Krassner's compilation "The Essential Lenny Bruce." I laughed for many hours reading that book.
My impression of his life at my age now (54) hasn't changed too much. I am even more impressed with his artistry, but I am still appalled by the excesses of his lifestyle, and the injustice of his persecution by our legal system. I'd say that he was caught between the wheels of drug addiction, and faith in a system that was undeserving of his trust. Yeah, Heroin probably would have killed him one day, but the unjust loss of his livelihood killed him sooner. I feel a little comfort in contending that his "example" had the opposite effect of it's intention to "shut down" an emerging change in society.
Hey, look at this on CNN International -- fragments of a rock concert in South Africa, trying to raise consciousness (and money) to fight back against the AIDS epidemic. Nelson Mandela is there, as are U2, Baba Maal, Peter Gabriel, and others. Too bad popular music doesn't have the same power as it did a generation ago, but this is a fight that must go on somehow!
1) We are all here because of Sex.
2) Sex is a drive, and an instinct, besides being a pleasure, for all of Humanity.
3) HIV/AIDS is a debilitating or fatal disease that is spread by Sex.
4) HIV/AIDS is problem for all Humanity.

No college -- we're closed. I'm working around the house this weekend!

Weather: Light snow, and then warming -- reasonably clear roads, but I drove in SLOWLY. Blue skies at the time of this writing.

Wildlife: Two small fawns, who'd just lost their spots, were grazing at dusk. I put up more sunflower seeds for the birds -- the deer are welcome to any spillover. I also put up more suet alongside the big red feeder in the chokecherry tree.

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

Media Watch: Dawg-assed show on the SciFi Channel -- "Sasquatch" with Lance Hendricksen. It consisted of a lot of bleeped-out swearing and stupid white folks. We turned the TV over to "Queer Eye For The Straight Guy," and saw a bald guy burn his toupee. That show must be doing well -- they spent a lotta money for that episode -- some stingy attorney wouldn't buy furniture for his house, so they did it for him. Thom, the decorator, put the ugliest damn mirror on his client's wall as a result -- serves the cheapskate right!

At the College: The students are slackin' off for Thanksgiving! Our president is trying to finance some much-needed building, but it's been a political mess. We are trying to go forward, but a lawsuit instigated by a local hate-radio host might screw us up again, like a previous debacle organized by that same potty-mouth.
EXPIRED LINK ALERT: That newspaper photo of Prof. Gerda Reeb's "Native American Thanksgiving" is no longer online.

Weather: Cloudy and threatening -- my boss is driving right up to the actual border, in Eureka, and taking all sorts of precautions for blizzardy conditions -- water, food, cel phone, and local phone numbers. It's also getting colder by the minute. The local paper showed a picture of MY neighborhood to illustrate how slick the roads could get.

Wildlife: Those geese looked hilarious, gathered by the dozens, in the clear spot left by the aereator system in Middle Foy's Lake, otherwise the whole thing is frozen over now. Mama deer and baby deer grazing bushes by the roadside at dusk as we drove home from dinner.

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

Media watch: Nothing special, I mostly slept yesterday afternoon, after giving blood, and waking up too early the previous morning. I had a nightmare about Medicare being gutted by the Fascists in power, but it wasn't a dream.

At the College: The Native American Thanksgiving was a BIG success! Prof. Reeb told me that she'd written down what and what not to do after last year. The event was shown on the local TV, and written up in the newspaper.
There's a nice photo of fancy-dancer Ashley Matt by Robin Loznak on their website for today at least: The Daily Internet: The Daily Inter Lake Newspaper, Kalispell, Montana

Take a peek at Robin's exhibit at my Museum:
Current Exhibits at the Hockaday Museum
It's actually being held at TWO places, including The Museum at Central School, ot "The M," which is a block north of us.

Weather: (Sunday and Monday) Still snowing steadily -- building up all over the valley, not just in my neighborhood. I have to re-stock the suet cages for the birds, and figure out a way of re-hanging the large seed-feeder. The pole it was hanging from fell down in the wind last week.

Wildlife: The areator system that Dale Crosby-Newman installed last summer seems to be keeping a large area in the middle of the lake ice-free, at least while it's above 10 degrees F.
Sunday we had pheasants, magpies, flickers, and doves grazing around the yard. On Monday morning a large Mule Deer shared the road with me outside my driveway. There were no antlers to be seen, but this is the time of year that the males shed them.

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

Media Watch: The Senate pre-empted Book Notes on C-SPAN. Unless the Democrats hold firmly, we're in for some ruinous new laws that will further blight our economy.
Football -- the team that won last Monday got slapped around on Sunday. Good thing I like parity in the NFL. Pre-game silliness -- Jillian Barberie's outfit was neither as funny, nor as flattering, as others she's worn. Keeshawn Johnson was much better than I expected as a commentator.
PBS -- Nova presented "Chaco Canyon Mysteries." The Solastice Project surveyed the astronomical alignments in this arid region of New Mexico. Many generations of observation and hard work went into building those Anastazi cities, which were abandoned after about 250 years.

At the College: I'm waiting for my library science lesson, but I think the weather may have an effect on that! Later I'm helping Professor Gerda Reeb set up the annual "Native American Thanksgiving" at the county fairgrounds. Steven Small Salmon and his crew of Kootenay fancy-dancers are coming up from the reservation. Let's all hope the road gangs get some of that ice off the highways!

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.