Coyote Underground

And To All, A Good Night

coyoteunderground@hughes.net (cmw) — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 02:49:00 +0000

Arbeit Macht Frei

coyoteunderground@hughes.net (cmw) — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 15:22:00 +0000

The sign over the Auschwitz death camp was recovered over the weekend by Polish authorities. NY Times story here.

Every story, since the theft was first reported, had the tag line, Six million Jews died in Nazi concentration camps.

Eleven million people died in the camps. Eleven.

Six million Jews, and five million others, equally as innocent.

The Holocaust was a crime against humanity.

To revise it into something else, is a crime of equal proportion.

Overlooked Millions.

Why do I care?

My uncle was a soldier in the American troops who liberated one of the camps. He never recovered from what he saw.

He brought pictures home to his mother. I remember seeing these pictures -- in those little yellow covered books, the way Kodak used to return developed pictures.

Death camp pictures. Not in a history book. Or on some televised documentary. In my Grandma's kitchen, captured the same way her family had previously preserved marriages and births.

I wondered what my Grandmother thought? All her boys went out into the world, and brought back pictures and stories of cruelty and destruction.

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder hadn't been named then, although it surely existed. That my uncle couldn't cope with the magnitude of the inhumanity he witnessed is not evidence of a failure on his part. He was a victim of the Nazis as certainly as any who died during World War II, and none of them should be forgotten.

Eureka!

coyoteunderground@hughes.net (cmw) — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 23:03:00 +0000

I passed my EMT Practicals.

Watch Your Language

coyoteunderground@hughes.net (cmw) — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 17:00:00 +0000

This video struck me funny since all semester, the young men in my Advanced EMT class have apologised to me whenever they swore.

Now, I'm a writer. I am not offended by language.* I'm not above using whatever language I need to get the effect I want.

I also went to college in the 60s. Drugs, Sex & Rock and Roll, my generation invented that.

So far, nothing these baby boys have come up with has shocked, appalled, or even surprised me. But, because I'm 30 years older than they are,** they treat me like a little old church lady.

Should I tell them?

Husband Dearest says there is nothing wrong with being treated like a lady.

Should I tell him?

So kids, today's lesson is:

Judge not by appearance,

and

for God's sake,

mind your fucking language.

*For the record, I'm offended by stupidity, cruelty and liars.
**oy

Nervous Energy

coyoteunderground@hughes.net (cmw) — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 16:02:00 +0000

This is my brain, one week to EMT Practicals.

I'm waking up in the middle of the night doing patient assessments.

So, if I'm not here for a bit, that's why.

My suggestion, check out Second Cite (sidebar) and see the pretty pictures.

Happy Thanksgiving Day

coyoteunderground@hughes.net (cmw) — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 15:18:00 +0000

Pie is baked.

Stuffing stuffed.

Bird in oven.

Dearest down the hill to pick up the one thing I forgot.

Isn't there always one thing?

Time for a cup of tea in front of the fire before company arrives.

Have a good one.

November Sunset

coyoteunderground@hughes.net (cmw) — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 23:22:00 +0000

Dream Big

coyoteunderground@hughes.net (cmw) — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 22:40:00 +0000

I hate U-Tube.

Vimeo is better.

Found

coyoteunderground@hughes.net (cmw) — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 13:57:00 +0000

10,000 Views

coyoteunderground@hughes.net (cmw) — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 16:39:00 +0000

Gosh.

The Devil's Backyard

coyoteunderground@hughes.net (cmw) — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 18:08:00 +0000

This is the project I worked on all summer, with multiple hikes into the burn of the Meriwether Fire. The show's not up anywhere yet. I decided to put it online.

Funded by a grant from The Puffin Foundation.

Follow the Leader . . . Or Not

coyoteunderground@hughes.net (cmw) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 13:00:00 +0000

I read this great story about a research study done with chimps.

In an enclosure of a group of chimps, researchers placed a pole with a platform on top. On the platform, they placed goodies chimps favor. However, when one of the chimps would start to climb the pole to reach the goodies, the researchers would spray water on the rest of the troop.

Soon, whenever a chimp tried to climb the pole, the other chimps would drag the climber down.

When that behavior was well established, researchers began to change the balance of the troop, removing one original member while adding a new chimp. And they stopped spraying the water.

The chimps continued to prevent the new member from climbing the pole to get the food reward.

Eventually, researchers had replaced all the original chimps with a new troop, none of whom had ever been sprayed with water, yet, they continued to pull down any chimp who tried to climb the pole.

Remind you of any people you know?

We can't do that because we always do this.

Moral of the story?

Sometimes you have to thumb your nose at the other chimps and climb the pole anyway.

The Cheese Stands Alone

coyoteunderground@hughes.net (cmw) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 12:28:00 +0000

If you do the best you can,
you will find,
nine times out of ten,
that you have done as well as
or better than anyone else.
- William Feather

Can it REALLY be Winter?

coyoteunderground@hughes.net (cmw) — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 13:00:00 +0000

When the kiddo moved to Europe, her Dad and Grandpa helped her move her stuff home. They set her potted rose on top of the load in the back of a pickup and during the trip, all the leaves blew off the poor little thing.

She said, it's still alive.

I shoved it into a corner of the living room, and surprise, it's about to bloom.

Boo

coyoteunderground@hughes.net (cmw) — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 13:00:00 +0000

Happy Halloween

Big Sky

coyoteunderground@hughes.net (cmw) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 07:09:00 +0000

1st Snow

coyoteunderground@hughes.net (cmw) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 14:54:00 +0000

Perfect night to sit by the fire
with one's true and faithful dog.

Looks like a little angel, doesn't she.

Don't you believe it.

Naughtiest Puppy Dog In The World

coyoteunderground@hughes.net (cmw) — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 04:27:00 +0000

Been a while since we've had a Gracie update.

As mentioned previously, when kiddo moved to England, the cat came back.

Now, this cat is the size and shape of a speed bump and yet, still manages to eat the last flower off my begonia, poop in the dining room, and knock the clock off the coffee table in under 15 minutes.

So, I wondered why I kept finding him asleep in a pile of Gracie's toys.

Being, basically a dog person, I figured it was some nefarious cat conspiracy along the lines of --

dog. these are my toys now. boohoo for you.

When I found him sleeping in the recliner amid a pile of Gracie's toys, I figured it out.

The conversation went more like this.

Gracie: Cat? Ball? Play ball, cat? Ball.
Cat:
Gracie: Cat? Rope. Tug of war, cat?
Cat:
Gracie: Cat? Stuffed duck, cat. Duck, cat?
Cat:
Gracie: Cat? DuckyEgg, cat. This one squeaks. Cat!
Cat:

Poor Gracie. I think she needs a little brother.

You Want Fries With That?

coyoteunderground@hughes.net (cmw) — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 10:49:00 +0000

Why does the boy with the anarchy tattoo work at McDonalds?

Return with me now, to those thrilling days of Yesteryear

coyoteunderground@hughes.net (cmw) — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 16:32:00 +0000

I had this poster on my wall when I was in college.

Dennis Hopper, in Easy Rider, just before he's blasted into the Promised Land by rednecks with a shotgun.

The script I sent out to Contest Voir Dire this year is

To get her Marine father home, a young girl drags a recluse hippie out of self-imposed exile to stop the war in Iraq.

What I learned (besides I'm placing too much emphasis on contest results) is that RETRO needs readers old enough to recognize the social context.

I read an article about Clint Eastwood in which he said, don't aim projects at the lowest common denominator.

So, I keep telling myself, not everyone in Hollywood is 20.

Not everyone in Hollywood is 20.

Not everyone in Hollywood is 20.

Surrogates

coyoteunderground@hughes.net (cmw) — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 23:47:00 +0000

Well, you know I have a thing for Bruce.

This one reminded me of an old joke.

When you're down and out,

Lift up your head and shout,

I'm down and out.

Why?

coyoteunderground@hughes.net (cmw) — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 12:01:00 +0000

Here's why.

Power to the Writer

coyoteunderground@hughes.net (cmw) — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 12:00:00 +0000

Archaeology News

coyoteunderground@hughes.net (cmw) — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 15:15:00 +0000

This made me feel old.

Archaeology gets groovy with ’60s commune dig.

When kiddo announced she was going to England to study paleo osteology, I told her I had old bones right here.

I was more right than I knew.

600

coyoteunderground@hughes.net (cmw) — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 13:39:00 +0000

600 posts and still have something to say.

Who knew?