Thursday, June 25, 2009
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Unpopular Crow Dies Savagely
A crow's caw is discordant, but part of our neighborhood backdrop, and easy to ignore. Just now, they set up a racket, the kind that usually heralds their spotting some tasty dog kibble left in the backyard, but this time it was more riotous than usual and was accompanied by a great beating of their wings.
They are big birds and some of them have a 3-foot wing span so if a few of them are together they manage to pound the air and stir things up. A panicked, pleading sound underlay this display, almost like that of puppy being tortured, yet more avian than canine. It was pitiful enough for me to put down my laptop and go investigate.
At first I thought the crows were going after a more mundane bird, but it was one of their own. A giant crow, glossy-black and commanding, was attacking a smaller crow. He was accompanied by three henchmen, and oddly, a bluejay.
The victim flew off, crying and begging, and the others followed. They circled back and the smaller crow tried to move into deeper tree foliage. The bigger one swooped in hard with a premeditated body blow and knocked it off its perch. Then, all of them took turns swooping down on it. It happened so fast and with such a flurry of wings that I couldn't tell for sure if it was being pecked. It managed to right itself and fly off again followed by the crowhood.
The boss's calls were louder than the others and angry, definitely not a dog kibble caw.
They circled back. The blue jay landed on a telephone wire to observe the proceedings. He didn't do any attacking, but still this was crow business, was he crazy? Or, maybe he was just curious like me.
I tried to keep still, but they saw me, and simultaneously cocked their heads in my direction. I quickly calculated how fast I could get inside the house (damn you, Alfred Hitchcock!) They flew off into another yard, but I could hear the attack continuing.
What did the smaller, presumably younger, crow do to deserve this punishment?
Were any of my neighbors aware of this event, or as usual, am I alone in my observations?
Go to Crows for more info.
Wow, this was a surprise. Usually it's the males who have to leave a pack, but this site indicates that the daughters are expected to leave the territory -- this may have been a daughter who needed some urging to leave.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
FIDELITY & MORTAL ILLNESS
How would you feel about your mate having an affair if you were stricken with a mortal illness and unable (or uninterested) in having sexual relations?
Once upon a time, I hooked up with a cheap bus tour in Venice, Italy. The good thing about this tour was that it was packed with Europeans, --- Germans, Irish, British. In fact, the only Americans were a Sikh family from Silicon valley. There was also an Iraqi couple.
But it was the Irish couple who fascinated me. They were in their forties, possibly early fifties. Attractive in a dull, settled way. The wife was a bit tight-lipped. Pissed, actually. The husband was in a constant low-key frenzy trying to please his wife.
After awhile it became obvious that there was something wrong with her. I decided she was mortally ill, and that this vacation was supposed to be a last hurrah for them. Not that she ever got sick in front of us. It's just that his behavior became more frantic at the same time that she looked around and said angry goodbyes to everything. It was as if she hated the way life just went on ready to skip right by her.
I was wallowing in my European jaunt, one of the happiest periods of my life. One night in Rome, the three of us had an interesting dinner together. She ordered a lavish meal and didn't touch a bite of it, just jousted with me all night, looking like she wanted to scratch my eyes out. And not because of her husband (with whom I had no attraction whatsoever), but because I was so damn cheerful.
Death had a grip on her and she had a death grip on her husband, ready to drag him into the grave with her and not because she loved him. Because she hated that it wasn't him dying instead of her.
This is an extreme example, but I think it's true that the ill and dying can be selfish. Anything that helps the living, replenishes their spirit, so that they can give support to the stricken is fair to me.
When it comes to an "affair" the person I pity is the consort or object of affection outside the marriage. Man or woman, I don't see them enduring in the relationship.
Wednesday, June 03, 2009
Creepy Come Ons
Channeling my youth. Awakened thinking of this one:
My bff in hs, Claudette, invited me to visit her older sister who was living in Questa, NM. Her sister had one kid and was expecting another. We took a bus out to Questa which is in the sticks and beautiful country. A small town, lots of mountain scenery.
Her sister's husband was in the armed forces, I don't remember which one, and he'd been wounded. There was something about a plate in his head, but I didn't pay too much attention cause I'd just gotten my license before we left and Claudette's sister owned a '66 Mustang.
Wow, was she insane to let me take that car out on the open road or what? I drove the mountain roads with the pedal to the floor and with both of us squealing as only almost sixteen-year-olds can do. I wheeled around switchbacks skirting the edge until Claudette begged me to stop. Deer and bunnies spread the word to stay off the road.
The husband hadn't been home for a few days. On the bus ride to Questa Claudette shared tidbits she'd picked up about him; he drank and had psychological problems, what we'd term post traumatic stress disorder nowadays, but again adult stuff - not all that interesting.
The house was small and Claudette snored, so I slept on the couch. One night the husband was home. He took us out for burgers, but was mostly quiet during dinner. In the middle of the night he crept into the living room where I slept. Literally folks, the man was on his hands and knees. I'm a light sleeper, and I'm also near-sighted, but the blurred vision of his stealth crawl is vivid in memory.
He crawled over to the couch and started touching me on top of the blanket, kind of petting me like I was a cat or something. I was totally freaked and pretended to be asleep. He reeked of liquor and mumbled some b.s. I could barely understand telling me I was beautiful and that he wouldn't hurt me. My heart beat so hard it filled my ears and drowned out all other sound.
I've always wondered if my heartsound woke up Claudette's sister. She tiptoed into the living room, but stepped on a squeaky floorboard as she rounded the corner. Busted! He immediately laid down on the floor like he was passed out. She went over to him whispering, and he acted like he didn't know how he got there and that he'd fainted. I was still pretending to be asleep.
I could barely look at them the next day and remember nothing more about our stay there.
Shite like that was always happening to me. For a long time I thought I must have some sort of electromagnetic draw for all the adult creeps in the world.
Sunday, May 31, 2009
shame
Paulo Coelho “The secrets we take to the grave are sexual in nature.” Edgar Lee Masters, Spoon River Anthology. I’m paraphrasing, but you get the idea. I don’t think my kids would be surprised at learning - if they don’t know already - that I celebrate my (past) sexual experience. I wish I had a youtube of my memories. Revelation, not discretion, is our pop goddess and public mea culpas and apologias are so in vogue, and yet so tiresome. What shames me more is revealing fear and vulnerability. Don’t care who knows it when I’m dead, it’s the here and now of it that’s more frightening.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Murder and Mayhem, Coast to Coast
My short story, "Death and Taxes . . . and Worms" appears in this anthology. I will be reading
Saturday, May 16, 2009 3:00 p.m. at
Other contributors:
Mario Acevedo Lucha Corpi Sarah Cortez Carolina García-Aguilera Alicia Gaspar de Alba Carlos Hernandez Rolando Hinojosa-Smith Bertha Jacobson John Lantigua Arthur Muñoz R. Narvaez L. M. Quinn Manuel Ramos S. Ramos O'Briant A. E. Roman Steven Torres Sergio Troncoso Other Venues: |
Friday, May 8, 2009 6:30 p.m.
Murder By The Book
2342 Bissonnet
Houston, TX 77005
Meet Lucha Corpi, Sarah Cortez,
Bertha Jacobson and Arthur Muñoz
Thursday, May 21, 2009 5:00 p.m.
The Twig Book Shop
5005 Broadway
San Antonio, TX 78209
Meet Bertha Jacobson and Arthur Muñoz
New York
Thursday, May 14, 2009 6:00 p.m.
East Harlem Cafe
1651 Lexington Ave (@104th St.)
New York, NY 10029
Meet Carlos Hernanez, Liz Martínez,
Richie Narvaez and Sergio Troncoso
Thursday, May 21, 2009 6:30 p.m.
Mysterious Book Shop
58 Warren St.
New York, NY 10007
Meet Sarah Cortez, Carlos Hernanez, Liz Martínez,
Richie Narvaez and Sergio Troncoso
Saturday, May 30, 2009 3:30 p.m.
Author Signing at BookExpo America
Jacob K. Javits Convention Center
635 West 34th Street
New York, NY 10001
Meet Carlos Hernández, Liz Martínez,
Richie Narvaez and Sergio Troncoso
Colorado
Thursday, May 21, 2009 7:30 p.m.
Tattered Cover
2526 East Colfax Ave
Denver, CO 80206
Meet Mario Acevedo and Manuel Ramos
