TYWKIWDBI ("Tai-Wiki-Widbee")

Today while on a butterfly hike at Badger Prairie County Park (Verona, Wisconsin) I encountered Rosie the Rock Snake.

An Astronomy Photo of the Day, from NASA.

How do I get to be 80+ years old and not know basic facts about nature?

I didn't know this creature existed.

Have I not reviewed this movie before?

"Reawakening" is a remarkably well-performed movie.

As reported by The Guardian: A 200-year-old illustrated condom will go on display with Dutch golden age masters in Amsterdam this week, after the 19th-century “luxury souvenir” became the first-ever contraceptive sheath to be added to the Rijksmuseum’s art

When we moved into our present home 25+ years ago, I spent the better part of three summers grubbing out invasive buckthorn from the small woods behind the backyard (in subsequent years, native wildflowers have emerged in the same soil after the canopy-cr…

This is an actual documentary about the real world, not a fictional docudrama about an alternative earth.

"But in general, take my advice, when you meet anything that's going to be human and isn't yet, or used to be human once and isn't now, or ought to be human and isn't, you keep your eyes on it and feel for your hatchet."

An outstanding example, nicely documented in Marcy O'Connor's absolutely outstanding Prairie Haven blog.

“People using Maps in the U.S. will see ‘Lake America,' those in Canada will continue to see ‘Lake Ontario,’ and those outside of the U.S. and Canada will see both names,” Google said in its statement.

(deleted) Back in about a week

I first learned about Elizabeth Bathory 40 years ago when I was researching the manifestations of sleep paralysis in literature and folklore.

Reposted from 2023, when I wrote this as a serious post.

In a video posted to Parton’s X account 15 minutes ago, her nephew Bryan Seaver announced the death of his aunt, for whom he acted as head of security.

Found while going through some family archives today.

Found online years ago.

Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema 'The Inundation of The Biesbosch in 1421" "Lawrence Alma-Tadema painted [the top image] in the 1800s, after a true story from 1421 when a flood carried off a cat and a cradle.

I hope I'm not violating too many copyright regulations by reproducing these three pages.

A tip of the hat to my cousin Meridee in Oregon, who noticed this passage written by our grandfather Knute Olaus Finseth in a personal diary.

I'll add some commentary later, but for now this will suffice: This from the New York Times: The morning after he pulled negotiators from trade talks in Washington and set off a new round of American tariffs, Prime Minister Mark Carney called the U.S. pro…