sisu

Kind of like life itself, I guess. Will have a snort of rum and have to move on.

"Soupçon. Silky Cauliflower Soup with a dollop of Peter Rabbit's Soup. Lots of Chelsea lore, historical and anecdotal, kept the conversation buzzing," we captioned this delicious image from our June 2008 post "A rose is a rose is a napkin."

There was till just this afta a magical "outdoor room" just outside our kitchen window, a Silver Maple Court sheltered by the embrace of cascading weeping boughs that made a shimmering, light-and-shadowing place apart from the brutally sun-baked lawn. Then came well-meaning tree surgeons who reduced our outdoor room to a vast, undefined space with unwanted views of the neighbors' unkempt windows and walls. Just a bare trunk with an umbrella of leafy boughs far above. As we twittered in mental anguish this afternoon:

My precious "outdoor room," The Maple Court shaped by grand old silver maple shading our terrace, has been destroyed by overpruning. Tears.

Twitter gal pal Angela Lash comforted us with sweet sympathy:

I'm so sorry to hear that, Sissy. Those are my favorite kinds of rooms. :(

And we in reply:

I am bereft. Canopy will fill in in time, but lower branches that created the intimacy of my precious garden room won't grow back … Kind of like life itself, I guess. Will have a snort of rum and have to move on.

 

We had a marital spat with the Tuckster over it, he said and she said, but in the end we kissed and made up, sharing the sorrow of our heartfelt loss. Now talking remediation. Multi-stemmed River Birches for starters? They're fast growers and were a favorite of our landscape architectural hero Frederick Law Olmsted's.

Update: Dan sends sweet words of comfort:

Awww, don't worry, tree happy!! ; ) There are no wood chips in heaven!

Feet of clay

Yesterday morning we looked out the window and saw what we first took to be the morning star or the dog star or some such timeless thing. But then we noticed it was moving towards us, and we started to go ballistic, imagining Armageddon was on our doorstep. It turned out to be a major airline plane flying south to north (above), a rare thing in these parts, with Logan Airport just to the east of us, but Tuck reported he'd seen such things from time to time.

"Sissy, actually, I don't think there are any scientists who support Darwin's theory," emails the normally astute John Hinderaker of PowerLine in an eye-popping response to a note we sent the PL boys yesterday following their plug of Mark Steyn's thumbs-up review of Ann Coulter's new book. Here's what we said:

Re the otherwise awesome Ann Coulter, what do you make of her trashing of Darwin's theory of evolution? In my view, it totally undermines her credibility.

Hindrocket's response left our jaw dragging along the floor. We'll probably never recover (just kidding):

They have moved on to other variants of "evolution," but all are, in my opinion, based on faith, not evidence.

We've blogged about the field work and subsequent theoretical thinking of our hero, Charles Darwin, early and often here, of course. "There is a grandeur in this view of life" is one of our own all-time faves. Just as a cat can look at a king -- or in our version, a king can look at a cat -- anyone who's good at one thing can make pronouncements in a field he knows nothing of. But he does so at his own risk, as his credibility is in the balance. It's profoundly disappointing when a person one admires as we do John Hinderaker dismisses Darwin's ideas without anything more than this:

It is striking how much fraud has been committed in support of the concept of evolution, but the fact is, modern science does not support it. This is a big topic which we can't begin to cover here.

"Just because Osama is paranoid doesn't mean the infidel isn't out to get him," we captioned this Photoshopped image of the tormented one back in April of 2004, when we "donned our tin foil hat and came up with a couple of good ones."

Well, yes, in your "opinion." As Allahpundit at HotAir [via Laura Lee Donoho at The Wide Awake Cafe] said re our fellow bloggers who went hysterical over the aborted coming of the 12th Imam earlier this week:

I’ll still read them, but never again with quite the same credulity. That’s how it works, boys.

Credulity can be a problem at anytime, of course. We ourselves have not been above apocalyptic prognostications, and last time we promulgated one, back in April of '04, it got us kudos from the estimable Thomas Lifton of The American Thinker.

Update: Pajamas Media takes note.

What rough beast

Traces of dining room spirits caught by the camera's eye, early morning, Chelsea.

"We live in a spiritual vacuum. There is no purpose," writes blogpal Frank of The Cool Blue Blog in a slouching-toward-Bethlehem moment of introspection:

The trap civilization sets for us is that being relieved of the direct experience of life and death has caused in many the false belief that we are somehow not subject to the laws of the universe. Most people have not experienced the untimely death of a loved one, and we certainly do not experience it on a routine basis. And when we do, we have elaborate rituals designed to separate ourselves from it.

We do everything in our power to separate ourselves from the truth and inevitibility of our death, and by doing so, we actually separate ourselves from life. We do everything in our power to keep ourselves alive. We attempt to employ every medical trick in the book, pay every expense we can afford; demand every service from our governments, employers, priests, shamans and hucksters (then of course complain about the cost) to keep at bay the Man with the Scythe.

And we do this because most do not believe there is anything beyond that curtain no matter how often we pay lipservice (and tithes) to the religion of our choice.

Not faithful to any particular religion, yet we totally empathize with Frank and have found unanticipated comfort and inspiration in the words of Benedetto, the Pope who loves cats and Mozart and recognizes more than his predecessor the threat that Islamicism poses to Western civilization.

Post-traumatic pets disorder

Again standing in for animals displaced by Katrina -- until we get some images from the folks at Animal Rescue League of Boston, now on the scene in Lafayette, Louisiana -- Baby assumes a waiting-to-be-rescued stance as he applies the think system to dislodge our sister (right) from his favorite chair at Goomp's during Labor Day festivities over the weekend.

"Our programmers are currently hard at work developing a comprehensive database to aid the pets affected by Hurricane Katrina," reports petfinder.com. We caught their representative on FOX News this evening, directing viewers to their website, a clearinghouse of links to a variety of animal welfare groups -- shelters, hotlines and relief organizations -- that are on the case.  A progress report:

In addition to an increase in the amount of rescue efforts we are starting to hear more success stories of animals being reunited with their owners. We can’t stress enough the importance of calling the hot-lines to provide descriptions of lost pets and, if owners looking for lost pets are still in the area, stopping by the shelter to look for their pet.

The best way to assist in the disaster relief efforts is to make a donation to the organizations involved so that they can purchase much needed supplies and equipment for the rescue and relief efforts and provide assistance to animal welfare groups impacted by Hurricane Katrina.

We second that thought.  Speaking of donations, the "Blog for Relief Weekend" wrapped up at midnight last night, raising over $1.2 million in five days for bloggers' chosen charities. Thanks again to our wonderful and generous readers and fellow bloggers for helping push this blog's final total to $760 for the Animal Rescue League of Boston's efforts in collaboration with the American Humane Association. According to an AHA field report, the ARL of Boston folks are focusing on sheltering and water rescue efforts from their base in Lafayette, Lousiana.

This just in.  The real thing (You can take the rest of the evening off, Baby Cakes) on CNN's "360 with Anderson Cooper," a traumatized pussycat rescued from the flood by the good folks of Noah's Wish.

Have you noticed the comments on some blogs scoffing at helping displaced animals when so many humans are still stranded and suffering? In our view, there are two things wrong with that kind of thinking. First, we have a social contract with the animals we take into our homes. We give them food and shelter and affection in return for -- as our friend Carol's mother used to say -- "having something live in the house" (and perhaps a little mousing on the side). We are honor bound not to abandon these earnest, amusing, sentient beings midstream, so to speak.

Secondly -- related, but with the emphasis on our own mental-health needs -- there is the Thoreau factor, the renewing and civilizing powers of nature evoked in our fellow New Englander's famous line, "The most alive is the wildest. Not yet subdued to man, its presence refreshes him." We may like to think of our "house pets" as domesticated, but underneath -- especially with cats -- they are far more in touch with their feral selves than most of us are. Our friend Carol, the one whose mother spoke of "something live in the house," herself used to say -- in an attention-grabbing reversal of the old saw -- "Children are animal substitutes."  For a lot of people, there's more than a grain of truth in that. You've probably heard reports of some folks Down Yonder refusing to be rescued because they cannot bear to leave their animals. As flood victims begin to experience the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, what better therapy than being reunited with one's loved ones, whether human or animal?

Technorati tags: Flood aid, Hurricane Katrina.

"Walking over her body for their political deals"

"Terri Schiavo has a right to die in peace," asserts her husband's lawyer.

"I would not want to live like that and I don’t mean just persistent vegetative state, I mean totally dependent on someone else for my care," writes Mind of Mog.  We agree, totally, even as we intimately know and are in awe of persons of faith who would disagree with us:

And I have advance directives to protect my rights. No husband to violate them either or as in Terri’s case eager to kill her (think there’s money involved), just a child who, if the money isn’t flowing in her direction, would be unlikely to oppose it. No parents alive either to oppose it. I am scott free . . . ex-husband . . . doesn't care.

The moral of this story, have advance directives. Hospitals always ask and if you don’t have one, they have people that will help you with it. That’s how I got mine. Doesn’t cost anything either.

As for Terri Shiavo's plight being used now as a political football, that is obscene and despicable. The sight and sound of Tom Delay asserting he was trying to "save" Terri Schiavo because that was "what the American people want" left us gasping for air. As we blogged recently:

Our understanding is that these difficult last rites are usually worked out quietly among doctors, patients and families, unnoticed by the lawyers, within hospital walls.  Something like that happened with us when we finally let our beloved mother go.

When the lawyers swoop in, things get ugly.  Or is it when things get ugly, the lawyers swoop in?  Either way, it is unseemly for such intimate sorrow to be held up to the TV camera's eye.

"Terri Schiavo has a right to die in peace," her husband's lawyer is saying live on FOXNews, chastising the Congress -- and naming names, including Hillary and other Democrats who didn't try to stop Republican efforts to have the feeding tube reinserted into the helpless woman after it had been removed, by court order, this afternoon -- for trying to intimidate Schiavo's husband and "walking over her body for their political deals."

Update:  Mort Kondracke, who recently lost his wife after a long, long, long time of sorrow as she faded away over the years with Parkinson's, says just let her go. Fellow FOXNews commentator Fred Barnes doesn't have a clue. Maybe you have to have been there to get it, or maybe it's just a matter of heredity (you heard the one yesterday about how religiosity is in the genes?).

Terri Schiavo

No, no.  She wishes she were dead.  Can't you see?

To keep showing the videos of Terri Schiavo in her allegedly brain-dead state is obscene. Bloggers on both sides of the divide claim to speak for her, but we cannot know where she lives now or what she feels.  We can know for sure only the unspeakable pain of her loving and ever hopeful parents.  We wouldn't deign to guess the motives or feelings of her husband. It is none of our business.

Our understanding is that these difficult last rites are usually worked out quietly among doctors, patients and families, unnoticed by the lawyers, within hospital walls.  Something like that happened with us when we finally let our beloved mother go.

When the lawyers swoop in, things get ugly.  Or is it when things get ugly, the lawyers swoop in?  Either way, it is unseemly for such intimate sorrow to be held up to the TV camera's eye and presented every fifteen minutes as just one more item among equals, together with the Michael Jackson jury, Scott Peterson's trial, the latest Amber Alert -- and, oh, yes, the latest suicide bombings in the Middle East. For shame. The media -- and the self-righteous bloggers -- should back off and let this precious woman live or die out of the limelight.

"Get out as fast as possible"

"The only way that patients could be treated without being stressed out is for them to be at home," writes Teresa of Technicalities in a thoughtful post offered with TLC in response to InstaPundit's poignant lament about how hospital routines can wear down a patient's patience. Re his wife's current hospital experience Glenn Reynolds writes:

We just spoke on the phone today and she sounded good -- except that the hospital routine is wearing her down with the constant sleep interruptions. People joke about the sleep interruptions, or about the bad food, but it's really no joke when you're in there for a while. I wonder why they don't do better?

As a former nurse, Teresa has an insider's insight into some of the issues:

There are almost too many dynamics to even make sense of it, but perhaps if we look at a few we can see why hospitals, while necessary, can wear down even the best of people.

Do you run things by the patient's schedule or by a schedule set up in the hospital? The problem with running to the patient's schedule is that every person has their own unique schedule that they operate under when normally at home.

Hospital personnel -- generally operating under severe shortages -- have to accommodate shift changes, time sensitive medication, timing for procedures, and just the general daily care of all the people in the hospital. And many times there is a reason that they do things that seem completely ridiculous to someone who hasn't been given the least clue as to the why.

In the end, the trick is in knowing what is coming at you when you're in the hospital. The constant interruption of rest, the frequent poking and prodding, the stuff that seems crazy with no rhyme or reason. Allow that you are going to get more tired and out of sorts the longer you are in there. Get your procedures done and get out as fast as possible . . . then allow for time at home to "really" recover.

"First, do no harm" -- or some variation of the phrase attributed to Hippocrates -- is the ideal. The reality often falls short.

Bah, humbug.

Disgusted with the Pentax Optio 450.  It's got a new thing where it claims the pictures we just took are corrupted and cannot be transferred to the file. This started happening with one or two shots a month or so ago but is now front and center. The last batch of pictures of the Babe framing the tree are all gonzo. Anyone out there know what this is about?

The rattle of the bones

Fox&Friends' golden girl E.D. Hill is getting older, and it shows.  She got remarried and had a baby, had her cheeks tucked, changed her hair style about a zillion times, but her face time is running out. Scary, huh? Been there and done that, and it isn't pretty.  Get over it, girl.  To turn an old saw upside down, a woman of a certain age should be heard and not seen.

A burden of sadness

This story caught us off guard.  'Had heard out of the corner of our ear that some crazy with a gun was at a standoff in the Rev. Robert Schuller's Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, California, but it turns out the perpetrator was a most accomplished man, 57-year-old Johnnie Carl, conductor of the Cathedral Orchestra, "a composer and arranger who worked with Celine Dion and John Tesh." He had apparently barricaded himself in a bathroom and shot himself to death after a nine-hour standoff that started just before a Christmas pageant was to begin, according to an AP report:

The first shots were fired less than two hours before the scheduled start of the cathedral's annual "Glory of Christmas" holiday show, for which Carl had arranged the prerecorded music. Some 100 cast members were preparing for the first of Thursday's two programs, which include the cathedral's world-renowned pipe organ and a Nativity scene featuring live animals.

"He was a genius arranger and conductor," said John Tesh, "one of those guys who lives music 24-7 . . . He was just a real jolly and energetic and gentle guy, not somebody who screams or yells."  You have to watch out for those "jolly and energetic and gentle guys."  Sometimes they're holding a lot inside, bearing a burden of sadness that no one knows till it's too late.  According to the AP story, the composer had "grappled with depression" for years. The image of that Nativity scene with live animals waiting in the wings broke our heart.