|
|
Friday, February 22nd, 2008
|
9:21p - TGIF
Maybe I can get more done this weekend than last, even though it's only two days. At least we aren't expecting any more weather catastrophes until Monday, when it's supposed to start raining, then turn to freezing rain, sleet, and finally snow.
The local classical music station, WNIU, has been anticipating the Academy Awards ceremony by playing all kinds of motion picture music for much of the day. There have been some unexpected gems in there, and I'm glad their play list is posted to the web, as I've added several CDs to my Amazon wish list from it. Unfortunately the exact recordings they played weren't always available, but usually there was something similar. I was particularly delighted with Miklos Rozsa's Spellbound Concerto, used as a movie soundtrack years ago, and featuring the Hollywood Bowl Symphony with piano soloist and... a theremin. Also some excellent music by Elmer Bernstein for the film The Buccaneer, along with the usual John Williams selections and of course various classical pieces that have been used (and sometimes abused) as background music.
Also much amusement over one of those stupid "passalong" e-mail messages that arrived at work today. This one was all enraged about the supposed fact that the Illinois Dept. of Natural Resources has "imported and released" supposed "big cats" to control the deer population. It featured photos taken through a patio glass sliding door of what was clearly a cougar or puma. It didn't take me long to find a long and respectable article about these rumors, which have been circulating for several years. The cougar was once native to Illinois, but has been considered extinct here since 1870. There has been exactly one confirmed wild cougar found in Illinois since 1950, and it was a female that died after being struck by a freight train near Carbondale. The university there did a DNA study and found that it was indeed an American cougar, and not an escaped illegal pet, since the "pet" pumas or panthers in the US are all descended from South American stock. Apparently most of the reported sitings of "wildcats" and "cougars" in Illinois in the last 20 years have turned out to be.... ta-da! Coyotes. *snicker*
Then I checked Snopes.com and found out that these very photos have been circulated with similar claims against the government agencies in Michigan, Indiana, Kentucky, Iowa, and several other states. The photos were not taken in any of those locations, but rather by a known individual in Wyoming, where cougars do indeed run wild today and are occasionally seen near human dwellings. People sure are stupid, gullible, and eager to believe conspiracy theories, aren't they?
current mood:  hopeful (comment on this)
|
|
|
|