One afternoon I heard a ruckus outside and went to investigate. Way at the top of a giant ficus was a humongous owl, with about 10 crows harassing it loudly. The owl couldn't have cared less.
I think it had to do with your polar bear yesterday, but last night I dreamed I had to walk down this narrow path through really tall grass, and I was told to be careful because there were bears in there. I took a few steps and looked down and saw a sleeping bear RIGHT next to me. I turned and started running and I wanted to see if he woke and was chasing me, but I didn't dare.
Oh, I also thought it was cute! I loved it! But I guess my mind was stuck on how adorable I think bears are, and how I love their paws and they seem so sweet but then I was feeling stressed so here comes the bear...
When I was little--this is indeed my earliest memory--my grandparents lived on a farm in Minnesota and when we visited Grandpa would take me to the landfill and we'd watch the bears there going through the garbage and I KNEW they'd never hurt me with Grandpa there. And then we'd walk home picking blackberries.
Thank you for the Morning Owl. I have a stuffie Great Horned Owl. (My stuffies are a collection, not an obsession) He's one of the few stuffies with a name - it's X, in honor of Mr. Rogers.
Very interesting! I only have a red fox, but he does say, "I am Fabian Fox. Would you like a Cafe au Lait?" I'd love a tardigrade - especially if it was playing the violin. That's one of my favorite memes.
Fond of owls. Only fairly rarely see them. Love when I do. That silent flight they have, the sheer size of many of them (I usually see barred if anything around here—they have some wingspan), it’s always a little dramatic.
Some weeks back tho I saw one around dawn gliding level across a ski trail maybe ten meters in front of me around dawn—first in some years. Didn’t seem to be diving for prey—just flying level—possibly I startled it.
I had literally just the day before told the artist working on an EP cover to go with the owl image he’d suggested among other options (see https://substack.com/@ajmilne/note/c-197258609) and I took it as a good omen.
Seriously, it’s bizarre. I’ll instinctively wonder if it’s real. I remember another I probably startled, like a decade ago in the woods near my parents’ place. The size of the thing and it’s really close and it’s moving pretty fast and...
... and it was like watching a movie with the sound off. Like am I hallucinating this thing is even there? I see it. But I hear NOTHING.
An owl hangs out in the pine trees around my community, I hear him almost every night. I've only see him once, when I looked up and saw him swallowing a lizard. Yum!
I have so many stories I could share about Great Horned Owls that I wouldn't know where to start. Let's just say my experiences have left me with a deep affinity for them.
We tend to get barn owls in this area. I saw one perched on my backyard fence one night, and watched it silently swoop into my neighbor's yard, presumably to grab a rodent.
We have a lot of owls in in our neighborhood (bunches of oak trees = bunches of squirrels = bunches of owls) and often hear them hooting at night. Lemme tell ya, having one of these flying murder pillows silently zoom past your ear when out for our pre- or post-supper stroll is...unnerving.
I'll never forget going on a late night owl watching experience with park rangers while camping at South Carolina's aptly named Hunting Island State Park. Magnificent creatures.
I've had a loooong lust for Catherine O' Hara for the last few decades, and I haz a sad. But! I have discovered episodes and compilations from SCTV on teh TouYubes and am blissfully watching and lusting after 1980s Catherine. God, people really need to pay more attention to SCTV. Damn fine show!
It never hurts to ask, specifying that you understand it's not in the lease and they don't have to, but could they smoke outside sometimes bc it's making your asthma flair up. I bet they will.
Mostly they do smoke outdoors, but it's been -11 outside, When they do, prevailing breezes tend to shift the smoke in my windows. I can try. At least find out when I should decamp to another part of the house
A previous neighbor thought I was lying like a common manager-calling Karen.
This happened early in January ago but I just saw it last night. It's probably in the news because an attorney filed something.
ICE detained this guy and from detention a few hours later they took him to the hospital with a head injury. They claimed he had purposefully run into a wall in an effort to escape. Hospital people not buying it -- he had 8 skull fractures and 5 areas of bleeding in the brain. Horrible story, including how ICE hangs around hospitals when someone they have detained is there.
Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville also responded, after he had said in an interview with Newsmax that he would be watching TurningPoint USA’s halftime show. Tuberville wrote on X, “Roger ‘WOKE’ Goodell better be taking notes. Millions of Americans would rather hear good music from these patriots instead of anti-American propaganda from Bad Rabbit, or whatever his name is…”
I'm a bit disappointed there is no tab referencing how thirsty el-on was to party with the cool pedophiles on the island of his fondest fantasies. The worst criminals of all time dissed him. They sneered at his temerity when he desperately begged to sit at their table. He too wished to feast on human flesh.
That part of the Trump/Epstein files will never cease to make me happy. Being rejected by criminal, sex trafficking, pedophiles had to be traumatic! No wonder he bought, and then ruined, a social media company; no wonder he keeps blowing up rocket ships; no wonder he ruined his own car brand.
He's obviously consumed with self-loathing and cannot stand himself.
I do hope the mommy blog eventually gets around to dragging him for this. But in the meantime I'll just watch rerun clips of Grammy artists dunking on Nicki and donnie.
“You guyyyyyyys apparently some of these ICE Gestapo losers are on Reddit whining that they’re not being paid or getting insurance “
Totally called it. I bet in the field it’s almost like a pyramid scheme where a few “top dogs” are gathering groups of the weaker ICE agents to abduct people but then the top guy keeps the bonuses. It’s going to turn into Lord of the Flies soon. And they are all stuck there because the sign on bonus (which is paid out at 10000 a year, not 50000 all at once) has to be repaid if you don’t stay 2 years.
ICERS not getting paid? Then quit, no you don't wanna, cuz you enjoy killing people, beating people up, and dragging people out of their cars? Figures.
Did anyone see the vid of the woman screaming she would NOT get out of her car? They dragged her out anyway, and the M cops defended her. Apparently a first time move.
"ICERS not getting paid? Then quit, no you don't wanna, cuz you enjoy killing people, beating people up, and dragging people out of their cars? Figures."
And they're not skilled enough to do much else too, also.
I wonder how many of them got sign-up bonuses (part of the $50K?) and already spent it so if they quit they'll have to find a way to give it back somehow.
If they all quit and found themselves an extra $50K in debt, with no option to declare bankruptcy, I'd be all in for paying them the full bonus on day one.
Oh, hadn't thought about that. But by making it 5 years, it's guaranteed to go past this administration ... meaning the next one - either Dem OR GOP - will just fire them all and save at least 2 years of that bonus money.
Fuck you chodes. Bwahahaha.
and that's of course if Trump doesn't fire them all right before the midterms and pretends it's an "olive branch" to the left (while also turfing Bondi and Noem) to try and sway voters ... when he's really doing it to stiff the contractors - AGAIN!
Your hed gif info: https://martiniambassador.substack.com/p/great-horned-hunter
And meme chat: https://open.substack.com/chat/posts/cb4138a8-7ef1-4cc1-abdb-441f72c24dd8?utm_source=share
This one is too cute not to repost. Fawn discovers snow. https://www.instagram.com/reels/DUOYowzii6r/
BOING!
"Uh, mom?"
When skunked by the Skunk
the dog will howl
Stupid dog! Leave the Skunk
to the Great Horned Owl
fun fact - Great Horned Owls are immune to skunks...
Owls are big and dour and impressive, then you lift up their skirt and they've got skinny legs. No wonder they perch like that.
One afternoon I heard a ruckus outside and went to investigate. Way at the top of a giant ficus was a humongous owl, with about 10 crows harassing it loudly. The owl couldn't have cared less.
I think it had to do with your polar bear yesterday, but last night I dreamed I had to walk down this narrow path through really tall grass, and I was told to be careful because there were bears in there. I took a few steps and looked down and saw a sleeping bear RIGHT next to me. I turned and started running and I wanted to see if he woke and was chasing me, but I didn't dare.
Hi Babe- your dream sounds like this Bjork video-
https://youtu.be/p0mRIhK9seg?si=eLqza7PLVyRjEHIx
Dream interpretation time.
Your exercise program needs to include more aerobic exercise. Make sure to do some stretches before you hit the street.
I was surprised to find that several people found yesterday's disturbing. I thought it was cute 😬
Oh, I also thought it was cute! I loved it! But I guess my mind was stuck on how adorable I think bears are, and how I love their paws and they seem so sweet but then I was feeling stressed so here comes the bear...
When I was little--this is indeed my earliest memory--my grandparents lived on a farm in Minnesota and when we visited Grandpa would take me to the landfill and we'd watch the bears there going through the garbage and I KNEW they'd never hurt me with Grandpa there. And then we'd walk home picking blackberries.
Thank you for the Morning Owl. I have a stuffie Great Horned Owl. (My stuffies are a collection, not an obsession) He's one of the few stuffies with a name - it's X, in honor of Mr. Rogers.
I need an owl stuffie. My collection is eclectic, including a fennec fox, an octopus, a cholera germ, a tardigrade, a giant isopod, and a brick.
oh, and the goddess Bast.
I have a lot of stuffies, including an owl and several viruses that have had an impact on my life.
Very interesting! I only have a red fox, but he does say, "I am Fabian Fox. Would you like a Cafe au Lait?" I'd love a tardigrade - especially if it was playing the violin. That's one of my favorite memes.
[David Attenborough voice]: "Tonight on 'The Life of Birds,' we look at Owls - Cats of the Air."
Fond of owls. Only fairly rarely see them. Love when I do. That silent flight they have, the sheer size of many of them (I usually see barred if anything around here—they have some wingspan), it’s always a little dramatic.
Some weeks back tho I saw one around dawn gliding level across a ski trail maybe ten meters in front of me around dawn—first in some years. Didn’t seem to be diving for prey—just flying level—possibly I startled it.
I had literally just the day before told the artist working on an EP cover to go with the owl image he’d suggested among other options (see https://substack.com/@ajmilne/note/c-197258609) and I took it as a good omen.
I was once at an educational display of raptors, and the handler put the mic right up to the owl's wing and had it flap through the sound system.
The noise was " " even in a small room with an amplifier.
Seriously, it’s bizarre. I’ll instinctively wonder if it’s real. I remember another I probably startled, like a decade ago in the woods near my parents’ place. The size of the thing and it’s really close and it’s moving pretty fast and...
... and it was like watching a movie with the sound off. Like am I hallucinating this thing is even there? I see it. But I hear NOTHING.
An owl hangs out in the pine trees around my community, I hear him almost every night. I've only see him once, when I looked up and saw him swallowing a lizard. Yum!
I have so many stories I could share about Great Horned Owls that I wouldn't know where to start. Let's just say my experiences have left me with a deep affinity for them.
Lucky you. We hear them at our house but I have yet to see one and I really want to. We do get to the the Western Screech owl however.
We tend to get barn owls in this area. I saw one perched on my backyard fence one night, and watched it silently swoop into my neighbor's yard, presumably to grab a rodent.
F-owl feathered friend.
But not if you're a mouse!
One of the few instances when I use Facebook is to check on the group, The Owl's Kingdom.
That is what death looks like.
We have a lot of owls in in our neighborhood (bunches of oak trees = bunches of squirrels = bunches of owls) and often hear them hooting at night. Lemme tell ya, having one of these flying murder pillows silently zoom past your ear when out for our pre- or post-supper stroll is...unnerving.
Just like spiders - they're not after you.
Just like spiders - I don't need them near *me*.
Harbingers of death. No worries
I'll never forget going on a late night owl watching experience with park rangers while camping at South Carolina's aptly named Hunting Island State Park. Magnificent creatures.
Gorgeous but deadly!
Those are magnificent creatures. Think I will re-watch a Nature recording I have about them today.
But are they what they seem?
They are not.
Wait'll they find out Jesus wasn't white. Shh!
That Radley Balko Bluesky thread is comedy gold. Thank you for sharing that Evan.
I've had a loooong lust for Catherine O' Hara for the last few decades, and I haz a sad. But! I have discovered episodes and compilations from SCTV on teh TouYubes and am blissfully watching and lusting after 1980s Catherine. God, people really need to pay more attention to SCTV. Damn fine show!
"Maybe them [ICE] bitches should pull themselves up by their bootstraps and get a real job. " The thing is, scholarship suggests the reason they took gestapo jobs in the first place is that they mainly can't get real ones: https://www.bostonglobe.com/2025/12/28/opinion/research-on-secret-police-staffing/
My neighbors smoke an irritating (literally, irritating my asthmatic lungs) amount of pot. :( Maybe I should get a gas mask, *snort*
It never hurts to ask, specifying that you understand it's not in the lease and they don't have to, but could they smoke outside sometimes bc it's making your asthma flair up. I bet they will.
Mostly they do smoke outdoors, but it's been -11 outside, When they do, prevailing breezes tend to shift the smoke in my windows. I can try. At least find out when I should decamp to another part of the house
A previous neighbor thought I was lying like a common manager-calling Karen.
This happened early in January ago but I just saw it last night. It's probably in the news because an attorney filed something.
ICE detained this guy and from detention a few hours later they took him to the hospital with a head injury. They claimed he had purposefully run into a wall in an effort to escape. Hospital people not buying it -- he had 8 skull fractures and 5 areas of bleeding in the brain. Horrible story, including how ICE hangs around hospitals when someone they have detained is there.
https://apnews.com/article/immigration-enforcement-minneapolis-hospitals-dc033249051cd5b72a900ca533a3718b
HAHAHAHA:
Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville also responded, after he had said in an interview with Newsmax that he would be watching TurningPoint USA’s halftime show. Tuberville wrote on X, “Roger ‘WOKE’ Goodell better be taking notes. Millions of Americans would rather hear good music from these patriots instead of anti-American propaganda from Bad Rabbit, or whatever his name is…”
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/maga-reacts-to-line-up-for-turning-point-s-rival-super-bowl-halftime-show/ar-AA1VzfQc?ocid=winp2fptaskbarhover&cvid=a3fa33b40b3f4c41894817e2716559fa&ei=66
He's not Bad, he's just drawn that way.
So... Anyone know what the fuck is going on in Venezuela?
I'm a bit disappointed there is no tab referencing how thirsty el-on was to party with the cool pedophiles on the island of his fondest fantasies. The worst criminals of all time dissed him. They sneered at his temerity when he desperately begged to sit at their table. He too wished to feast on human flesh.
That part of the Trump/Epstein files will never cease to make me happy. Being rejected by criminal, sex trafficking, pedophiles had to be traumatic! No wonder he bought, and then ruined, a social media company; no wonder he keeps blowing up rocket ships; no wonder he ruined his own car brand.
He's obviously consumed with self-loathing and cannot stand himself.
I do hope the mommy blog eventually gets around to dragging him for this. But in the meantime I'll just watch rerun clips of Grammy artists dunking on Nicki and donnie.
Land of the free to shoot, abuse, insult, teargas & pepper-spray...for free?
Fuck me. Goddamn ICE goons in my neighborhood.
whistle! whistle!
I absolutely believe that if not for Judge Reyes we would be watching a literal shooting massacre of Haitians in Ohio today.
“You guyyyyyyys apparently some of these ICE Gestapo losers are on Reddit whining that they’re not being paid or getting insurance “
Totally called it. I bet in the field it’s almost like a pyramid scheme where a few “top dogs” are gathering groups of the weaker ICE agents to abduct people but then the top guy keeps the bonuses. It’s going to turn into Lord of the Flies soon. And they are all stuck there because the sign on bonus (which is paid out at 10000 a year, not 50000 all at once) has to be repaid if you don’t stay 2 years.
I watched about 8 or 10 episodes of Schitt's creek - you're telling me ALAN FUCKING TUDYK is on the show? Gonna have to get back to that one!
ICERS not getting paid? Then quit, no you don't wanna, cuz you enjoy killing people, beating people up, and dragging people out of their cars? Figures.
Did anyone see the vid of the woman screaming she would NOT get out of her car? They dragged her out anyway, and the M cops defended her. Apparently a first time move.
"ICERS not getting paid? Then quit, no you don't wanna, cuz you enjoy killing people, beating people up, and dragging people out of their cars? Figures."
And they're not skilled enough to do much else too, also.
"ICERS...enjoy killing people, beating people up, and dragging people out of their cars."
It's called the fringe benefits package because you have to be on the fringes of the human species to benefit from it.
I wonder how many of them got sign-up bonuses (part of the $50K?) and already spent it so if they quit they'll have to find a way to give it back somehow.
If they all quit and found themselves an extra $50K in debt, with no option to declare bankruptcy, I'd be all in for paying them the full bonus on day one.
It’s being doled out to them, that’s how the bosses keep them. If one of them actually quit and talked about why, it would make a great feature story.
I read somewhere it’s being doled out to them, not just handed over.
They don't get their bonuses until they've served for five consecutive years.
Meaning, they ain't getting their bonuses.
These guys have to lie about EVERYTHING. A "bonus" that requires 5 years future service is not a bonus. A bonus comes with no strings attached.
Oh, hadn't thought about that. But by making it 5 years, it's guaranteed to go past this administration ... meaning the next one - either Dem OR GOP - will just fire them all and save at least 2 years of that bonus money.
Fuck you chodes. Bwahahaha.
and that's of course if Trump doesn't fire them all right before the midterms and pretends it's an "olive branch" to the left (while also turfing Bondi and Noem) to try and sway voters ... when he's really doing it to stiff the contractors - AGAIN!
And they still have to pay the tax on it. Shame.
*chortle*