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Crane-Spotting
"China's Last Eunuch" Less Salacious, More Interesting Than Headline Implies
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Everything MidnightBikeRide does is a balloon.
04/07/09

In reply to Crane-Spotting
If I ever have a lot of time on my hands and want to get nerdy about it, I would totally do this. Sometimes I'll go out to watch bald eagles when they're around.
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Piranha426
04/07/09

In reply to Crane-Spotting
I'd like to volunteer to start a Bay Area Jezzie bird-watching club. This will be AWESOME!!! Think about it. We can head out to Point Reyes, try to distinguish between the different Calidris species, and then go do cocktails and oysters at Hog Island. Who's with me?!?
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Tart of Darkness
04/07/09

@Piranha426: Me, if I were closer! One of our best camping trips ever was to Point Reyes and we had fresh oysters...oh man! Wonderful!
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Aesop's Foibles. YES.
04/07/09

In reply to Crane-Spotting
I like birds. I have some bird statues and some cool bird prints I bought on Etsy in my dressing room at home. My favorites are the tiny ones you hear in the summer that go "weeeeeeow!!!!" really loudly and high-pitched, and robins. Here in PA, robins are everywhere in the spring. I like seeing them, especially when there's a ton of them all spread out, standing still on a lawn. They look, to me, like fat little sentinels with their red vests and all. Anyway, I think that anything you're very passionate about, be it your pets or stamp collecting or grandchildren or a spouse, can provide more than just a distraction. It can be a reason for living, really.
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mahada
04/07/09

In reply to Crane-Spotting
I *watch* my pet birds. Mostly to make sure they don't do anything stupid. But that is the extent of it.
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AuntieEm (robots from the year 2000 > zombies)
04/07/09

@mahada: me too, but they are so damn entertaining
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Tippi Hedren
04/07/09

In reply to Crane-Spotting
I wouldn't call myself a birder by any means, but I effing LOVE crows. Whenever I see one hopping around on the ground, I crack up like a crazy person.

The other day, I saw one hopping along the sidewalk with a whole sandwich in its mouth! This doesn't really pertain to Phoebe Snetsinger, but I just wanted to share.
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Aesop's Foibles. YES.
04/07/09

@Pilar Ternera: Oh noes!! I am a crow-hater. I have this superstition about them that they're a bad omen. Any time one flies overhead or anything, I fork my fingers at them to ward off their bad vibes. I've never admitted this before because it's weird, but I do it all the time. I just think they're scary.
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badmutha
04/07/09

@Pilar Ternera: Crows are crazy big. They can be kind of scary too. Did you know a group of crows is called a "Murder of crows?"
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Tippi Hedren
04/07/09

@badmutha: a "murder of crows"?! I love it...
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Tippi Hedren
04/07/09

@..now it's just Aesop's Foibles.: I'm scared of just about everything that flies or crawls, so I'm not sure why crows get a free pass.
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LaComtesse
04/07/09

@Pilar Ternera: @..now it's just Aesop's Foibles.: @badmutha: CROWS ARE WONDERFUL! My mom has a murder of crows that chills out in our backyard... because my mom loves them and feeds them.

Me: Mom, this bread is stale.
Mom: Feed it to the crows!

Me: Darn! I burned my eggs.
Mom: Feed them to the crows!

We've been lucky. Also, my mom is crazy.
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Tippi Hedren
04/07/09

@LaComtesse: I would probably feed them, but I don't really want them to chase away all the cute baby squirrels that run around in my yard!
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Tart of Darkness
04/07/09

@Pilar Ternera: Crows crack me up, too. I almost always make a fool of myself by talking to them. I can't help it.
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LaMorena
04/07/09

In reply to Crane-Spotting
I am a terrible bird-watcher. I can never find them in time with my binoculars. One of my more frustrating moments was trying to translate (accented english to english) for my Grandma (an avid birdwatcher) on a day-long bird tour while on vacation in Africa.

Guide: Ovah they-ah, a horn-billed bahrd
Grandma: Whaa?
LaMorena: A horn-billed bird.
Grandma: But where?
LaMorena: Where he pointed.
Guide: Now eet haz flown away.
Grandma: Great, I missed another one. Grumble...
LaMorena: *sigh*
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pear.shaped.Sara
04/07/09

In reply to Crane-Spotting
We have a resident bird watcher in my office (her parents were ornithologists). She keeps binoculars in her office to spot birds that make appearances at the canal behind our building. So far the rarest sighting has been a Wood Duck!
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LaComtesse
04/07/09

In reply to Crane-Spotting
Whenever we go to the park, Mr. is always upset he forgot his binoculars. His step-father is an avid birder and Mr. dabbles in it from time to time. The other day we saw one of these...

... and he could point out that it was a common grackle.

I DO NOT RECOMMEND driving with birders, however. "Oooh! Look! A hawk!" "DRIVE OR BIRDWATCH! DRIVE OR BIRDWATCH! DON'T DO BOTH AT ONCE!"

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badmutha
04/07/09

@LaComtesse: Yes, that is a common grackle. We have them all over down here in Texas. And in my backyard in abundance. We also have two types of woodpeckers, who are so much fun to watch. I can look out my kitchen window and see them!
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LaComtesse
04/07/09

@badmutha: I've always loved grackles, crows and ravens, chickadees, and these...

they're shore birds of some sort and super-cute and dainty. They have tiny legs that move very fast and they're puffy and (to quote myself squealing the first time I saw it) "I see so much of myself in that little bird."

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badmutha
04/07/09

@LaComtesse: I think they are sand pipers. They are awfully cute!
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Red-headed bookworm
04/07/09

@badmutha: Yep, I work near the shore of Lake Michigan and they show up in the parking lot sometimes.
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Everything MidnightBikeRide does is a balloon.
04/07/09

@LaComtesse: @freudian_slip: These are the reasons I can't drive. And historical markers, and interesting houses, and flowering trees, etc. etc.
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morninggloria
04/07/09

In reply to Crane-Spotting
There's a wetlands preservation area near where I grew up, and once I saw a whooping crane. That's the coolest bird I've ever seen.

Them shits are tall.
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Mediokra
04/07/09

@morninggloria: The voice in my head read "them shits are tall" in an old man's southern drawl for some reason, and now I can't stop laughing.
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hello.kitty
04/07/09

In reply to Crane-Spotting
Hmmm, maybe I should give this a try.
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victorinemeurent
04/07/09

In reply to Crane-Spotting
As dorky as this is to admit, Mr. Meurent and I are avid bird-watchers (and whale-watchers, in fact). It's actually gone a long way to help our relationship, since Mr. M is a big outdoorsman, and I get bored very easily if I can find no purpose in participating in his long rambling walks and more arduous hikes. And it's actually quite challenging...kind of like a really difficult Where's Waldo for the eco-set.
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linnyt is a walking cliché
04/07/09

@victorinemeurent: my parents have sailing as their common hobby. they credit that for keeping them in a happy relationship for almost 30 years.
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Eleanor Ramilly
04/07/09

@victorinemeurent: My grandparents travel the world for their bird-watching. It seems like such a fun hobby! I'd like to go whale watching but I am terrified of whales.

Why they gotta be so big?
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hortense
04/07/09

In reply to Crane-Spotting
Is it an autobiography? The cover makes it look that way.
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megnificent
04/07/09

@hortense: The cover is from her biography, published after she died. The new book is a bio by Olivia Gentile.
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megnificent
04/07/09

@megnificent: Should have read, "her autobiography." Need more coffee.
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hortense
04/07/09

@megnificent: Ah, I see. And I need more coffee, too. Thanks!
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Rare Affinity
03/16/09

In reply to "China's Last Eunuch" Less Salacious, More Interesting Than Headline Implies
I heard a recording of the last Eunuch at the PAPAL court. He died in 1922. For hundreds of years the Catholic Church had no qualms of having countless boys sexually mutilated to preserve their voices. In fact the practise was only banned from church choirs in THE TWENTIETH CENTURY!!
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ritualtheory
03/16/09

In reply to "China's Last Eunuch" Less Salacious, More Interesting Than Headline Implies
China, I have got my OWN castration secrets, thank you.

The belief that castrati were unambitious and therefore unthreatening to the regency existed far beyond China ~ Byzantium, for example. In case anyone, anywhere doubted the connection between masculinity, drive, and the physical presence of a penis.
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morninggloria
03/16/09

In reply to "China's Last Eunuch" Less Salacious, More Interesting Than Headline Implies
If I had a penis, I would be clutching it protectively.
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