Positive ID

I am not what you might call an avid bird-watcher, so spare yourselves the effort of picturing yours truly prowling about the pine forests, attired in khaki shirt, cargo pants and solar topee, with a pair of binoculars hanging around my neck, a pencil behind my ear, and my hands, sweaty with the excitement of the chase, clasping a spiral notebook. I am not that man.

Still, I do possess a modicum of interest in our feathered friends, and have always been somewhat keen on trying to identify birds by their song (or calls or hoots, as the case may be). A few nights this past week, when I took Daisy, the official dog of Paco Enterprises, into the front yard for her evening constitutional, I heard a couple of birds calling to one another from a stand of pines on the other side of a field that faces our house. At first, I imagined that they were whippoorwills, but then, quickly recollecting that I wasn't, in fact, sure I had ever heard a whippoorwill, I went to the internet and discovered, after a few minutes on YouTube among audios of whippoorwill recordings, that I was on the wrong track. I feared that I was at the beginning of a long journey of discovery, but, after about 15 minutes, finally got the bird...that is to say, I uncovered the identity of the mystery bird.

It turns out to be something called a chuck-will's-widow. It is, like the whippoorwill, a member of the nightjar family, and has a distinctive call...



Case closed. Call your next case.

Sunday funnies

Victor Borge, probably the greatest of musical comics, provides an example of his piano whimsy.



Raccoon imagines how a cat would act.

You know the rules, dude: you've got to play it where it lies (this and the previous link courtesy of the excellent David Thompson).

Good dog!



A little mean, I suppose, but still kinda funny...



Via Powerline's "The Week in Pictures"...



Good Pelosi joke (via Misanthropic Humanitarian at Ace of Spades)...

Last Saturday afternoon in Washington, D.C. an aide to Nancy Pelosi visited the Bishop of the Catholic Cathedral in D.C. He told the Cardinal that Nancy Pelosi would be attending the next day's Mass, and asked if the Cardinal would kindly point out Pelosi to the congregation and say a few words that would include calling Pelosi a saint.

The Cardinal replied, "No. I don't really like the woman, and there are issues of conflict with the Catholic Church over some of Pelosi's views." Pelosi's aide then said, "Look, I'll write a check here and now for a donation of $100,000 to you if you'll just tell the congregation you see Pelosi as a saint."

The Cardinal thought about it and said, "Well, the Church can use the money, so I'll work your request into tomorrow's sermon." As Pelosi's aide promised, Nancy Pelosi appeared for the Sunday worship and seated herself prominently at the forward left side of the center aisle. As promised, at the start of his sermon, the Cardinal pointed out that Ms. Pelosi was present.

The Cardinal went on to explain to the congregation, "While Ms. Pelosi's presence is probably an honor to some, the woman is not numbered among my personal favorite personages. Some of her most egregious views are contrary to tenets of the Church, and she tends to flip-flop on many other issues. Nancy Pelosi is a petty, self-absorbed hypocrite, a thumb sucker, and a nit-wit. Nancy Pelosi is also a serial liar, a cheat, and a thief. I must say, Nancy Pelosi is the worst example of a Catholic I have ever personally witnessed. She married for money and is using her wealth to lie to the American people. She also has a reputation for shirking her Representative obligations both in Washington and in California . The woman is simply not to be trusted."

The Cardinal concluded. “But, when compared with Hillary Clinton, Ms. Pelosi is a saint."


Oh, and Happy Earth Day from George Carlin...

Good point

Via Western Rifle Shooters Association...

Of course she did

It's called "journalism", these days: "NYT Reporter Amy Chozick Covered Up for Sexist Men in Hillary’s Campaign".

Hey, but it was all for the greater good, right?

Cuba not so libre

Ah, for the good old days of journalism, when reporters were objective, transparent and fastidious about presenting the facts.

Or, meh, maybe not so much: "ABC News reporter is revealed to have been intimate with Fidel Castro while also serving as a secret intermediary between the Cuban leader and the US government". I love this part: "[W]e did get to bed and he made love to me quite expertly and it was, of course, thrilling and ecstatic - as much as anything I have ever experienced." Who knew that a brillo-pad beard, cigar breath and smelly fatigues could be such a turn-on? I bet that, instead of thinking about baseball in order to prolong the, er, presentation of arms, he summoned up images of firing squads.

And on the subject of Cuba, Humberto Fontova reminds us of another Kennedy scandal: the Bay of Pigs fiasco, that occurred 57 years ago.

Truth in labeling

Finally! A Democratic candidate for office who admits that he's a far-left socialist.

Elsewhere, the former head of the Dept. of Just Us, Eric Holder, is stirring the rumor pot of a 2020 presidential bid.


"I'm so smart, I only pick my own brain."

Happy Feet Friday

Here's the always delightful Ella Mae Morse with her Boogie Four performing "Pine Top Schwartz".