One of the most difficult things about moving to Memphis has been trying to find the good npr stations. Coming from the Louisville market, the bar was set extremely high for my public radio expectations. I realized that once I moved out of the yankee north, though, that I needed to adjust to how things are done here in the south. It took a little while, but I found the cool adult alternative station, WEVL, that has some really great programs for blues and soul (duh). So that helped some. And when I finally found the station that did talk radio all day -- I'm talking BBC World Have Your Say, You Bet Your Garden, and Talk of the Nation! -- I thought that everything would be okay here. That station, however, has recently been sold to a religious group and now all my talk radio is gone! The other station that plays classical all day does have Morning Edition and All Things Considered during the week. And it's a little better on the weekend when they have Car Talk and Whatdya Know. But what about Neal and Talk of the Nation? What about Terry and Fresh Air? I'm intellectually impoverished here! I don't watch TV or read the paper or generally get out from under my rock, but npr allowed me to transcend all that and have a clue about what was going on in the broader world. I knew we should have donated!!!
Originally posted at www.myspace.com/wannabedutch on 05/02/07.
Wednesday, May 2, 2007
Tuesday, May 1, 2007
Herpetology week updates
All this talk about snakes made me think of other cool herpetological experiences I had last week. First I got to watch our leopard gecko, Gilbert, do the difficult business of molting. We've seen his skin get cloudy over a couple days, indicating that he's going to molt soon. And then we find him the next day with shiny new skin. But I hadn't actually seen him peeling his skin off.
Since he's nocturnal, we generally don't bother him much during the day. But last week when I was getting ready for Monteagle, I was sprucing up his cage in the middle of the day. Gilbert was awake and hiding in his half of a coconut shell when I went in. I could see his skin was peeled back from around his face, but he didn't do much but glare at me while I working in his cage. As soon as I was done, though, he started doing this weird kind of dance, stepping out of the coconut shell and then backing back into it while moving his head up and down. It took a moment to realize that he wasn't dancing but rubbing his body on the inside of the coconut shell.
Then he began scraping his head around the shell's entrance. His skin peeled back from his head and down his neck. Next he set about peeling the skin off his forelimbs. He used his mouth to tug the loosened skin from his neck down along his leg. After much tugging, the whole section of skin peeled off like a long glove! He paused to eat this bit before performing the same feat on his other leg.
It took about 20 minutes in all, which I didn't get to watch all of because I was packing. After more funny lizard dances, I popped in to check on him again and saw that he was chewing on the tail section and looking shiny and happy. Then I gave him some crickets, and he hunted them despite it being daytime. It looked like a really difficult process for him in all, and apparently Gilbert had worked up an appetite - his shed skin was just an appetizer.
Also, I've been having an affair with a chameleon at Petco, behind Gilbert's back. We, usually I, go to Petco every couple of days for fresh pinheads (baby crickets) for Gilbert. They have had a large male veiled chameleon, the same one I think, since we got Gilbert in January and began going there all the time. I really love watching this guy while the Petco person gets my crickets for me. He changes color, has crazy cone shaped eyes that move independently, a curly tail, and his feet are kinda like hands with two toes on each side which he uses to hold on with.... just too cool, and I'm rather enamored of him. I think I fell for him the time I saw him trying to catch the crickets in the fire-bellied toad cage next to him, since it was just separated by glass. He kept throwing out this impossibly long tongue, which smacked against the glass and stuck there until he retracted it, pretty quickly too. Funny and cute!
Last week, I when I went to call on him, I guess he was in a bad mood. I'd always thought he'd liked me before, but he's a lizard and can't communicate his feelings in the same way we do. He'd perk up and look at me when I visited. Sometimes he changed color to match my shirt. He was always interested in presence, and I assumed he appreciated the interaction. But last time he tried to bite me through the glass! And that mouth is full of many large teeth, I now know. I dunno if I was behaving in some threatening way, but he was out for a taste either way, bumping his open mouth against the glass, then sticking out his tongue onto the glass. It was really aggressive behavior, and it made me realize that our relationship is perfect the way it is ...just don't tell Gilbert!
Originally posted at www.myspace.com/wannabedutch on 05/01/07.
Since he's nocturnal, we generally don't bother him much during the day. But last week when I was getting ready for Monteagle, I was sprucing up his cage in the middle of the day. Gilbert was awake and hiding in his half of a coconut shell when I went in. I could see his skin was peeled back from around his face, but he didn't do much but glare at me while I working in his cage. As soon as I was done, though, he started doing this weird kind of dance, stepping out of the coconut shell and then backing back into it while moving his head up and down. It took a moment to realize that he wasn't dancing but rubbing his body on the inside of the coconut shell.
Then he began scraping his head around the shell's entrance. His skin peeled back from his head and down his neck. Next he set about peeling the skin off his forelimbs. He used his mouth to tug the loosened skin from his neck down along his leg. After much tugging, the whole section of skin peeled off like a long glove! He paused to eat this bit before performing the same feat on his other leg.
It took about 20 minutes in all, which I didn't get to watch all of because I was packing. After more funny lizard dances, I popped in to check on him again and saw that he was chewing on the tail section and looking shiny and happy. Then I gave him some crickets, and he hunted them despite it being daytime. It looked like a really difficult process for him in all, and apparently Gilbert had worked up an appetite - his shed skin was just an appetizer.
Also, I've been having an affair with a chameleon at Petco, behind Gilbert's back. We, usually I, go to Petco every couple of days for fresh pinheads (baby crickets) for Gilbert. They have had a large male veiled chameleon, the same one I think, since we got Gilbert in January and began going there all the time. I really love watching this guy while the Petco person gets my crickets for me. He changes color, has crazy cone shaped eyes that move independently, a curly tail, and his feet are kinda like hands with two toes on each side which he uses to hold on with.... just too cool, and I'm rather enamored of him. I think I fell for him the time I saw him trying to catch the crickets in the fire-bellied toad cage next to him, since it was just separated by glass. He kept throwing out this impossibly long tongue, which smacked against the glass and stuck there until he retracted it, pretty quickly too. Funny and cute!
Last week, I when I went to call on him, I guess he was in a bad mood. I'd always thought he'd liked me before, but he's a lizard and can't communicate his feelings in the same way we do. He'd perk up and look at me when I visited. Sometimes he changed color to match my shirt. He was always interested in presence, and I assumed he appreciated the interaction. But last time he tried to bite me through the glass! And that mouth is full of many large teeth, I now know. I dunno if I was behaving in some threatening way, but he was out for a taste either way, bumping his open mouth against the glass, then sticking out his tongue onto the glass. It was really aggressive behavior, and it made me realize that our relationship is perfect the way it is ...just don't tell Gilbert!
Originally posted at www.myspace.com/wannabedutch on 05/01/07.
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