Quotes from Groucho Marx
Those are my principles, and if you don't like them... well, I have others.

Marriage is a wonderful institution, but who wants to live in an institution?

Behind every successful man is a woman, behind her is his wife.

From the moment I picked your book up until I laid it down, I was convulsed with laughter. Someday I intend reading it.
(Groucho could not have been talking about my Murder on Money Mountain ...could he?)

Fireworks and Wildlife
For several reasons, one of which is toxic residue left after a display, fireworks have drawbacks. Others include wild fires, personal safety, noise, and frightened animals both domestic and wildlife.
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Fireworks can disturb and sometimes harm animals including birds."The noise and lights disorient them," said Audrey DeRose Wilson, The Florida Audubon Bird Director. She pointed out that the booms and bangs risk driving parents away from chicks in the nest leaving them unfed and unprotected from predictors.

Industry estimates for the number of fireworks displays nationwide over the July 4th weekend will be close to 16,000. Data shows that New Years fireworks celebrations in Europe sent flocks of geese flying on the celebration night as much 300 miles over the next three nights.

Fireworks leave toxic residue and pollute air and water long after the display. "They're toxic time bombs waiting to be passed on," said Bill Bateman*, ecologist who published a book in 2021 outlining how fireworks affect wildlife.
  *Acanthoplus. Behavioural ecologist; herpetology, urban ecology, conservation

It is better to attend organized formal community displays instead buying and shooting your own individual fireworks.

Quotes
"I found that with depression, one of the most important things you can realize is that you’re not alone. You’re not the first to go through it, you’re not gonna be the last to go through it.”
— Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson

“The humanity we all share is more important than the mental illnesses we may not.” 
― Elyn R. Saks

“Mental health problems don’t define who you are. They are something you experience. You walk in the rain and you feel the rain, but, importantly, YOU ARE NOT THE RAIN.” — Matt Haig

"Sometimes the people around you won’t understand your journey. They don’t need to, it’s not for them.”
— Joubert BothaJoubert Botha

Rethinking Mental Illness
Researchers at University of Colorado Boulder are finding new ways through telemedicine and brain imaging to help stem the growing crisis in mental illness. Trained peers using telemedicine could, in the near future, help anyone who needs treatment, as envisioned by researchers.

The National Alliance on Mental Illness is seeing cases growing to where 1 in 6 children and 1 in 5 adults experience a diagnosable level of mental illness each year. As the disease grows new ways of treating it are needed as well as new ways of preventing it are desirable. Roselinde Kaiser, assistant professor in the CU Department of Psychology said, "We tend to wait until folks are in urgent need before we do anything ... and the way we treat them often has more to do with what has the least side effects rather than what's going to be the most effecive."


Monarch Migrating

Facts
Monarch caterpillars need milkweed plants to grow and develop;

Monarch leaves contain toxins that monarchs accumulate in their bodies and that makes them unpleasant for predators.

The migration covers more than 1500 miles to a site unknown to them.

They gain altitude by soaring in updrafts of warm air. In this way they cover 25-30 miles a day.

Most monarchs join the migration in spring or fall  and none survive the whole journey. It takes four generations. or more each way. How they can navigate remains a secret of nature.

Progress for Murder on Money Mountain
Currently looking for an editor of Xs and 0s, and commas, periods and spelling. Also a coordinating supervisor of publication is on the list. Not all can do all that is needed and none are inexpensive.

After 47 years, Denver Nuggets are finally the National Basketball Association Champions.

Quotes
“Meow” means “woof” in cat.”
― George Carlin

“I am fond of pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals.”
― Winston S. Churchill

“The dog is a gentleman; I hope to go to his heaven, not man's.”
― Mark Twain

“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.”
― Mahatma Gandhi


 

California's Proposition 12
The Proposition protects farm animals by requiring hens, mother pigs, and calves raised in California not be confined and even prohibits the sale of some products from confined animals no matter where the product originates. Simply put, farm animals are not to be confined until the farmer is ready to use them. In the case of pigs and calves, to butcher them for meat. Such pens are used where animals don't even have room enough to turn around

Proposition 12 was approved by 63% of the voters. The egg and veal industries agree to comply. Only large corporations which are represented by industrial organizations (i.e. National Pork Producers Council) challenged the law in court.

In the Supreme Court the divisions are different from the traditional liberal-conservative lines. As usual the Justices asked tough questions of both sides, The decision is expected from the Supreme Court before the summer recess.The court may send the case back to lower courts claiming the law in question is not covered  by the constitution.

Meanwhile 65,000 pigs a day are slaughtered by farms that do comply with Proposition 12 and 500,000 pigs each day nationwide are slaughtered by farms that are not required to comply with Proposition 12 type laws.

Murder on Money Mountain Progress
The historical mystery novel is ready for the editor. We are now picking the right editor..

Early Bluegrass
A typical bluegrass band consists of violin, banjo, bass, guitar, and mandolin (not shown) The music of the back hills of the south as played by settlers from from the British Isles is the basis of most early bluegrass. No electric instruments..

Bill Monroe, a native of Rosine, Kentucky, born on Sept. 13, 1911, is generally considered the “father of bluegrass music.”  Bill grew up working and playing music with his siblings on the family farm (known as Jerusalem Ridge) in the early 1900s.

Bill and his band first appeared on the Grand Ole Opry stage in 1939 and soon became one of the most popular touring acts to emerge from Nashville’s WSM studios.  Bill’s band was different from other traditional country bands because of its hard-driving and powerful sound that used acoustic instruments and featured distinctively high vocal harmonies.


Bill’s music incorporated songs and rhythms from string band, gospel (black and white), black laborer work songs, country, and blues music repertoires.  Vocal selections included duet, trio, and quartet harmony singing in addition to Bill’s powerful “high lonesome” lead singing.






Today bluegrass bands come from all over the world. It is interesting to listen to French and Japanese singers singing about the old cabin on the hill.

Quotes
When I was playing bluegrass, I was living down in West Hollywood - starving. - Chris Hillman

There are so many wonderful, wonderful musicians in the world, I cannot possibly make a distinction between the fact that they might play classical music, or bluegrass, or Irish traditional, or Indian music. -  Daniel Hope

People like bluegrass. It's had a following amongst a lot of hip and young people. A lot of college kids like bluegrass.- Dolly Parton

Bluegrass is not country music, -G. Eldon Smith

Quotes
We may achieve climate, but weather is thrust upon us.  --- O. Henry

I've lived in good climate, and it bores the hell out of me. I like weather rather than climate. --  John Steinbeck

The weather is like the government - always in the wrong.  Jerome K.

Utah Monuments
Former President Donald Trump illegally decreased the territory of Bears Ears National Monument by 85%  and Grand Staircase- Escalante by 47%. during his Presidency..This shrinkage puts 100,000 cultural sites in
danger of destruction by oil and gas drilling sites. Indian tribes filed suites claiming the territory was the home of ancient cliff dwellings.

Litigation  led the Biden administration to restore both parks. The state of Utah aims to poke in the Antiquities Act which has brought the slogan, "The earth needs a good lawyer."

                                         The Valley of the Gods

Mothers' Day Thoughts
“When you are looking at your mother, you are looking at the purest love you will ever know.”
—Charley Benetto

“Mothers are like glue. Even when you can’t see them, they’re still holding the family together.” —Susan Gale

Quotes
Politics and straight thinking do not mix. -G. Eldon Smith

Will Rogers said...
“Common sense ain't common.”

“Everyone is ignorant, only on different subjects.”

“When you find yourself in a hole, quit digging.”

“The minute you read something that you can't understand, you can almost be sure that it was drawn up by a lawyer.”

“The short memories of the American voters is what keeps our politicians in office.”

Be Against Anything The Other Side Proposes 
1)  Earlier this year Congress voted against an Environmental Protection Agency rule proposed to insure clean water.

2)  The prairie chicken at one time was estimated to number in the millions. While a million is not considered as much in Washington, it was a lot of prairie chickens. That number has been reduced to 30,000 remaining prairie chickens. The numbers alone make it clear the chickens need some protection, but Congress voted for a bill repealing Federal protections for the rare bird.
Senator Roger Marshall said greater protections aren't needed and that government instead should rely on voluntary conservation efforts already in place.

3)  Two years ago the voters of Colorado voted to reintroduce gray wolves to the state within three years. Now we are in the middle of the third year and the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission approved a plan for the reintroduction and the State Legislature approved it. (Why did it take this long?) Now the problem is where do you get 25-50 wolves? Parks and Wildlife is scrambling to get them by the end of the third year.

We are taking bets that the reintroduction program will need a time extension to get started, if it ever does.




"pro is the opposite of con, what is the opposite of Congress?”
“If stupidity got us in this mess, how come it can't get us out?”
“A fool and his money are soon elected.”
“I don't make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts.”
― Will Rogers








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