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CynthiaW's avatar

Drama Queen and her husband went out to dinner. Grandparents failed at getting the baby to stop wailing, but Uncle Thor had the touch.

My leg hurts a lot after going to Southport and unexpectedly hiking. I didn't realize I would need my boots and full camp outfit.

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IncognitoG's avatar

Hope it’s something you can sleep off.

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CynthiaW's avatar

Me, too. Hurts a lot. If I spend tomorrow lounging, that will be fine.

Sheldon decided to walk over two miles to the Dairy Queen, even though I pointed out that he could drive. He's an odd little duck.

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Mary Stine's avatar

Thanks, Cynthia for letting us all know how endangered these bright little creepers are, due largely to poaching. Whenever I walk the beach pondering shell collecting I try to remember that a shell is an important shelter and portable home to some small, but essential creature. Usually the prettiest I pick up are inhabited and I have to apologize to the little guy waving its arms and legs at me!

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Jay Janney's avatar

Maybe he's trying not the be shellfish and share with you?

I know, I know, 🚪!

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Angie's avatar

66 here, supposed to get into the low 80s later this afternoon, might get a little bit of rain, but late this evening we are expecting thunderstorms that might be serious.

Rick had to bail me out when I locked my car key in the car yesterday...and he gave me a hard time...then when I get home I find out he locked himself and one of the cats out of the house...lol serves him right..karma

I can not wait for this week to be over, work has been crazy......and I stupidly ran my baby toe on my left foot into one of my boxed Disney Princesses and it is all red and hurts ( I did this same thing last year to the toe next to it, it was broken. I was in the middle of night on the way to the bathroom ( I don't turn on any lights, as I might not go back to sleep if I do)

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Jay Janney's avatar

How do you know the boxed Disney Princess is hurting? It seems in the movies they tend to be pretty tough, to survive poisoning, backstabbing, etc. And that doesn't include Rachel Zegler denouncing things!🤦‍♂️

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Angie's avatar

Ha, ok, you got me, bad grammar...lol

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Midge's avatar

Snails with love darts.

Bringing sexy back, very slowly.

(How one brings sexy back when it never left is another question.)

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BikerChick's avatar

There’s a mantra on the biking world, “There’s no bad weather, only bad gear.” Well I disagree. If you have 40-50 mph crosswinds there’s no gear that can remedy the situation. We had to get off our bikes twice and walk them in a few dicey areas where if you fell from a wind gust, you might fall down a canyon. 😬 May Mother Nature shape up today! We had wind, cold, rain and some beautifully sunny spots yesterday.

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R.Rice's avatar

I enjoy all riding, but a nice thing about MTB is the wind is generally less a factor. You are going slower, and the trees (if in the trees) block the worst of it. May Mother Nature shape up for you today!

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Mary Stine's avatar

Always a pleasure to read your very honest and pragmatic epistles, BikerChick! My bike riding hubby would agree...stay alive to ride another day!

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Jay Janney's avatar

Maybe Right Said Fred could do a song to help these endangered animals; "I'm too sexy for my shell". It'd fit the rhythm of their last hit!

I will confess when I saw a picture, I thought "I ought to buy Katie one of those", but now I know they are endangered, I won't.

I'll spend an hour today modifying my submission to a journal. Apparently they now require a dozen statements of things I did not do. I don't use subjects in this study, so I assumed I didn't have to report on whether I have IRB approval (which is required when you use subjects), or whether this is funded research (it is not). I've published here before, but these are new requirements. 🤦‍♂️ I'm just wondering if I'll anger the editor by including a statement that I wrote the study in an office that acknowledged it took the land from those who lived here before us. At my journal, we have something similar about conflicts of interests, etc., but we don't require they acknowledge they don't have it, only if they do.

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Midge's avatar

"Maybe Right Said Fred could do a song to help these endangered animals; 'I'm too sexy for my shell'. It'd fit the rhythm of their last hit!"

I'm too sexy for my slime, too sexy for my slime,

too sexy all the time!

I'm too sexy for my eye stalk, too sexy for my eye stalk,

but not for some sly talk...

I'm a mollusk, you know what I mean?

And I take my love-dart turn on the slime trail,

On the slime trail, yeah, on the slime trail.

I take my love-dart turn on the slime trail.

I'm too sexy for my shell, wanna mate with mysel',*

too sexy for my shell.

I'm too sexy for my pneumostome, too sexy for my pneumostome,

Looks like I'm headed home...

(* Some snails can mate with themselves, though not P picta)

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Phil H's avatar

Everyone thinks I just give out 🚪s. Not true.

For that effort, you get a ⭐ !

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Jay Janney's avatar

That is better than anything I could have done! Good job! 😀

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Midge's avatar

Ah, the sweet song of praise from a master! ;-)

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IncognitoG's avatar

+1

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DougAz's avatar

You know should just include the known and hypothetical anthropological, geologic genealogy way back before the Lenai Lenapi and Mohicoans. It will guarantee you a zero review adjustment from an otherwise undereducated sports major who can only understand 23% of the 3 to 5 letter words in your submission.

🐰🐰🐰🐰🐾🐾🦉

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Phil H's avatar

You have to deal with "land acknowledgements"? Yuck.

If you went back to the Shawnee, you would still not get to the "original" occupants of your land in western Ohio, only the earliest *documented* occupants. I'm sure the Shawnee displaced some other tribe before the Europeans arrived. That's why "land acknowledgements" are bogus.

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Jay Janney's avatar

The funny part is one of our county schools is "Preble Shawnee" (mascot is now the arrows).

I think it would by funny at commencement to announce "This school is built on land appropriated by force from the tribes before the Shawnee, although they were the last ones we robbed, so we credit them with our school name.

I bet I'd get shown the 🚪for that one!

But I agree they are bogus.

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Phil H's avatar

In Clark County (Ohio) where I was born and raised, one high school is named "Shawnee". Their nickname is the Braves. Another is named "Tecumseh," its district not-so-coincidentally containing the birthplace of that great Shawnee chief. A third high school, Northwestern, has the nickname "Warriors" with a logo depicting a Native Indian chief in full headdress. The Shawnee left a lasting impression here.

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CynthiaW's avatar

Yes, the Shawnee were latecomers to Ohio.

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BikerChick's avatar

I prefer gemstones and precious metals.

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CynthiaW's avatar

I'm okay with stainless steel and glass.

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Angie's avatar

I have both, though I am allergic to Nickel, so I must be careful with costume jewelry...I still prefer real gemstones and at least 14K gold, because anything less and it drives me nuts

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CynthiaW's avatar

My mom had that happen in old age.

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Angie's avatar

It's been a problem since I started wearing jewelry...I hope it doesn't get worse...lol...Then I had a lot of green rings around my fingers before I found out why...lol

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Jay Janney's avatar

Katie does not. She told me years ago she has too much jewelry already, too many "willow tree" figurines, etc. And I have no clue what fat quarters she likes for her quilting projects. She mostly buys what she wants.

Although she complains I am impossible buy for, as she doesn't understand tech, any book she thinks I'll like I've probably already read, and she isn't sure when my walking shoes have worn out (I change them about every 600 miles).

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R.Rice's avatar

Those snails are beautiful. I had not heard of them before, thank you.

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IncognitoG's avatar

Shucks! Missed the duplicate video link. Replaced the second one on the homepage just now with this one:

https://youtu.be/k9VAHLRRloc?si=ufy8AL6u9hmc-QvX

Lots more examples of their coloration.

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CynthiaW's avatar

Thanks!

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IncognitoG's avatar

You’re welcome.

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Kurt's avatar

Cool snails. I like the last part of the last video...the snail slowly making a getaway.

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Paul Britton's avatar

I don't know what to think. In the culture wars, I've been insisting for years that "two sexes" is the norm across the animal kingdom, and this information about snails is simply not helpful!

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BikerChick's avatar

I think it’s safe to say it’s the norm in humans (mammals?) except for rare birth defects.

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Phil H's avatar

That seems to be the norm in almost all vertebrates, definitely all mammals, birds and (I think) reptiles. Maybe some exceptions in amphibians and fish.

Snails, being in the phylum of mollusks, are different.

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IncognitoG's avatar

> mucus on the darts stimulates reproductive hormones <

That’s the sort of detail left out of gender ID discussions. At least in polite company.

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Phil H's avatar

"Like most air-breathing land snails, painted snails are hermaphroditic"

Which means they don't have to worry about "transitioning". 🙂

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DougAz's avatar

😉🫠

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IncognitoG's avatar

Morning all. Been taking care of spring outdoor stuff ahead of a week’s worth of travel, so didn’t have as much to say here recently. Will remain a bit tongue-tied from all the to-do for the next few days, too…

About 53 now, supposed to be in the low 70s and sunny—or at least not rain. Good thing. I’ve got a day of lawn mowing today.

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Jay Janney's avatar

Saturday will be my workday.

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Phil H's avatar

Good morning, (First post!). Temps here at 62, maybe getting to 80. No more rain.

The mothership is reporting on the state of the civil war in Sudan, which grinds on, killing tens of thousands and starving and displacing millions.

The FP points out that, for all the Trump theatrics, Trump has deported fewer illegal immigrants than did Biden.

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IncognitoG's avatar

You and John M. must have timed the first post quite precisely.

Sudan brings to mind that our turn to pacifism worldwide over the past two decades is going to come at a heavy cost a few years from now. All our enemies and rivals are gearing up to take parts of America’s de-facto protectorate by force, and they’ve been working on the tools and techniques for doing so unchallenged.

Whatever Trump says in public is different from what’s going on behind the scenes—that’s something we all know by now. But what’s actually going on behind the scenes remains obscure, since there’s always an effort to hide what they’re doing from public attention and widespread disapproval.

That’s how the preparations were done for the Jan. 6 action. Everyone was so used to paying attention to Trump’s loud and obnoxious tweets that they missed the important ground work for staging an assault on the Congress. “Stay paranoid” seems to be the best advice when it comes to this administration…

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Mary Stine's avatar

I've had the suspicion for a long time that Trump is the master clown chosen for his ability to create constant distraction from what is really planned and happening:

the destruction of our Constitution and the substitution of rule by oligarchs. Trump is so skilled (or pathologically talented) at distraction that even big, awful wrongs can be whisked away, distorted or ignored. God knows how many millions of dollars have been spent on media distortion by the Oz-oligarchs behind the scenes. But it must be a lot if we can all be urged to ignore the fact that Elon Musk has been and keeps on offering to pay voters to vote for his choices. It must be a lot if so many Republican voters still believe that January 6 was a "peaceful demonstration". It must be a lot if a president accepting a new, state of the art airplane as a personal, permanent gift is touted as okay. I could go on, but I'm sure everyone here is as well, or better informed on all this.

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Phil H's avatar

In fairness to Trump (I believe in giving the devil his due), the Sudan civil war began under the Biden administration, who similarly ignored it. And the roots of this conflict go way back. The independence of South Sudan in 2011 was supposed to bring peace to Sudan. it did not.

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Kurt's avatar

Smart observation...he roots of so many conflicts in different parts of the world all go way back, often so far back it's pre recorded history. (That's not pre-recorded history...)

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John M.'s avatar

Thanks, Cynthia. Their shells are so nice that it's a wonder that they aren't already extinct.

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Angie's avatar

They are quite pretty

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