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.

Weather: March 1 -- in like a lion? More like a kitten -- its cloudy, but warm and dry.

Wildlife: About a hundred Canada Geese set down at a time on the open water in our lake during the day. They raise their voices loudly when eagles swoop over the scene, and fly away in the late afternoon.

Charity Alert: I include these six sites on this blog to encourage everyone, including myself, to visit them and click -- The Rain Forest Site

Media Watch: Nope, didn't see the Academy Awards, although it looks like Joan Rivers and her daughter will re-run the "Red Carpet" all week on the TV Guide Channel. We are watching the Jeopardy tournament to see who'll get to face Ken Jennings at the end of it -- the questions are actually hard sometimes! Queer Eye for the Straight Guy has had some interesting shows -- including one pretty stubborn client.

In the Community: Tomorrow we start the Honors Symposium -- a series of lectures by people who know the world at large. Our first speaker is Dr. Scott Wheeler, who will introduce the concept of "Political Economy" to the audience. The "unseen hand of the marketplace" is a pickpocket. Governing institutions and individuals in a society have the greatest effects on that society's prosperity. Later on we'll have T.R. Ried talking about The United States of Europe. I'm stage-managing these events for the next two months.

Wildlife: The aereation pond has melted all the way to the east shore of Middle Foy's Lake. We are been visited by dozens of migrating Canadian Geese. The eagles stll hold court at the west side.

Weather: Snowpack is 60% of normal, and there's been a drought going on for about seven years. Enjoy another nice day!

Charity Alert: The Animal Rescue Site and five other charities will get some help if you just click!

Blog News: A reader from here in Kalispell, named Courtney, wrote a comment -- thanks, it's nice to know that these notes are read by somebody. Stand by Michael Gold, I'm getting some things ready for you, and the other Flash Gordon fans.

Media Watch: I finished The DaVinci Code by Dan Brown. There are better mystery authors around -- like P.D. James, Sue Grafton, and Marcia Muller. There's been a crop of related books cashing-in on the tide of DaVinci's popularity. Some of them are "debunkers." Well and good, but wading through the historical rubbish in that silly pot-boiler is like conducting a guided tour of a landfill. Mark Twain's Prince and the Pauper is a better tall tale.

Wildlife: We are beginning to wonder if that immature Bald Eagle is a relative of the two mature eagles who are still feeding at our lake. He or she comes around a couple of times a week.

Weather: No clouds in the cold dry sky today.

Charity Alert: The Hunger Site, and five others -- your clicks can help thousands!

In the Community: Teleconferencing madness today! From Lakeland College in Sheboygan, Wisconsin to Libby, Montana with our little community college as the hub.

Media Watch: I'm reading The DaVinci Code by Dan Brown. It's only a second-rate mystery novel, but it is SO POPULAR! One of it's riffs is name-dropping, and linking famous individuals with "secret societies" -- Leonardo DaVinci, Issac Newton, yeah yeah, they're obvious -- what's this? Jean Cocteau!? Pretty good, at least he has taste, but here's the kicker -- Walt Disney made the list too. Brown's hapless protagonist even wears a Mickey Mouse watch!

Charity Alert: Six charities on one site -- just click to contribute!

Wildlife: Even without his antlers, the buck deer is easy to spot -- he's almost 25% bigger than the others.

Weather: Without more snow this winter, we are going to have conflicts over water this summer -- especially along the Missouri River.

Media Watch: Flash Gordon Conquers The Universe -- actually he just frustrates Emperor Ming on Planet Mongo again. It's episodes 7 thru 12 of the Purple Death series on DVD. The film print was kind of dark and jumpy.
Dr. Zarkov (Frank Shannon)is as much the hero as Flash Gordon (Buster Crabbe) in this 1940 serial, third and last, which incorporated Alex Raymond's "Forest Kingdom," and "Frigia, the Ice Kingdom" sequences from the newspaper comics. Carol Hughes replaced Jean Rogers as Dale Arden, Shirley Deane replaced Priscilla Lawson as Princess Aura, and Roland Drew (dressed as Errol Flynn) replaced Richard Alexander as Prince Baran. It was made two years after Warner Brother's Robin Hood.Raymond, or his editors at Hearst, tapped into the "Rogue of Sherwood Forest's" popularity for Flash Gordon's interplanetary adventures -- thus we see these "Merrie Men of Mongo" in the Universal serial. (Film imitating Art imitating Film -- uhhh, shouldn't we just stick with imitating and leave it at that?)
The ski scenes are pretty good, but the moviemakers didn't have access to Raymond's see-through duds, and as a result,the Ice Queen of Mongo isn't quite so stunning.
I like Jean Rogers' two versions of Dale Arden more than Carol Hughes' secretary-in-distress of 1940. Both actresses sported toned-down looks after Rogers' sex-bomb portrayal in the first series. In Death Ray From Mars, the second series, Dale even saved Flash Gordon's outnumbered ass by some timely bombing from her sparkling rocket ship. That reversal of roles impressed me when I saw it on TV as an 8 year old in the 50's.
Priscilla Lawson's Princess Aura was a spitfire in 1936, but Shirley Dean's was a milquetoast in 1940.

Weather: A little snow over the weekend, mostly in the mountains -- more needed, please!

Charity Alert: The Hunger Site -- just click to help somebody.

Wildlife: Our Bald Eagles were perched on the lake when a third mature eagle swept low overhead -- calling out in a shrill bird-voice. I think it was saying "Whazzup?"

In the Community: Today I'm formally submitting my resignation as webmaster for the NW Montana Historical Society. I finally completed editing Flathead Valley Community College's monthly news video too -- it turned out pretty, but it sure was an intricate project this time.

Media Watch: Because of the magic of DVD, and the skip button, I watched all 40 "Secret Rocket Fuel" episodes from the first season of Rocky and His Friends.
Bill Scott and June Foray were fabulous as Bullwinkle and Rocky. Paul Frees was hilarious as Boris, and Ms. Foray was unbeatable in her double role as Natasha.
TV Tome's take on this fantastic series.
Australian actor Keith Scott did Bullwinkle's voice in the CG/Live Action movie a few years back, but June Foray was still around to voice Rocky. (Probably still is!)
Culture Vulture's Review
Producer Jay Ward was the first to use the half-frame-per-second method of animation when he did Crusader Rabbit for TV in the early 50's. If he earned any time in Purgatory for that feat, he won a get-out-of-perdition card for his great satirical cartoons, especially Fractured Fairy Tales, Dudley Do-Right, George of the Jungle, and Hoppity Hooper.
Don Markstein's Jay Ward Page
Rather than zapping commercials during the Super Bowl this year, I just didn't pay attention. Paul McCartney's 4 song set at halftime was pleasant. New England's defense was truly awesome -- 24 to 21 in the Patriots' favor. Philly's Donovan McNabb had kind of a bad night. I hope to see him take the NFL championship one year, though.
Ugh -- BookTV had some right-wing flacks scaring me away, but there was one good show -- Essie Mae Washington discussed her book, Dear Senator: A Memoir by the Daughter of Strom Thurmond. She was interviewed by U.S. Congressman Harold Ford, Jr., who represents Tennessee's 9th district.
Flack#1 -- Charles Murray; His vitae may sound good, but he's a bought-off jerk! -- W.H. Brady Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, DC. Author of ..."The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life" - co-authored by Richard J. Herrnstein (Simon & Schuster, 1994), "What It Means to Be a Libertarian: A Personal Interpretation"...
Flack #2 -- My Doublespeak Detector pegged on this guy -- maybe I should give him a listen, BUT -- The Open Society Paradox: Why the 21st Century Calls for More Openness -- Not Less from January 30, 2005 Author Dennis Bailey addresses the issue of individual privacy in his book, "The Open Society Paradox: Why the 21st Century Calls for More Openness--Not Less." In it, the author stresses the need to maintain America's policy of openness but to do so while developing the technology necessary to keep track of the increasing population. The author recommends doing so via surveillance, data mining, and biometrics, the statistical analysis of biological specifications and phenomena.