Begging for Metablogging

I've been trying not to metablog both Jo Stockton and Asteroidea, but with Jo Stockton's announcement that she is moving into the apartment next to Asteroidea's, [the announcement], I've just got to ask, is this where they jump the shark? or will it become a whole new level for us to appreciate?

Jo has compared it to Mary Tyler Moore, but that analogy fails because the show started with them being in the same building, and when Rhoda was well enough established, Rhoda moved away to her own show.

This is more like Mary Tyler Moore moving in to an apartment building with Lucille Ball or Carol Burnett. (If Lucille Ball or Carol Burnett were people who told you about their first orgasms.)

Also, Mary Tyler Moore didn't have bats.

Causes Conch Shell Might Donate to This Week

Pine Forest Cheerleading Camp - "the camp where the Booty Drop was born"

Wildlife Preservation Canada - working to save the Piping Plover, Swift Fox, Burrowing Owl and Spiny Softshell Turtle.

Spring Cleaning the Capital - Clean up public property or an area in your neighbourhood to help keep Ottawa clean, green and litter-free.

The Ingmar Bergman Foundation - to administer, preserve and provide information about Ingmar Bergman’s collected artistic works.

The Hank Williams Appreciation Society - Celebrating nine years on the internet please...

Dental Clinic for the Homeless - Extractions, fillings, cleaning, restorative, root canals. All of it.

Gimme an "E" .... "S" ... "I" ...

Coyote, the Research Director and I saw the Ottawa 67's implode the other night in a stunning loss to the Belleville Bulls. The hometown boys succumbed despite the best efforts of the enthusiastic 67's Ice Girls.

And it got me thinking: wouldn't it be totally inspiring to have my own personal squad of cheerleaders to follow me around and kick in whenever I need a little boost?

For example, I really don't enjoy flossing my teeth. But with those pom poms rustling and chipper voices ringing out (The IO's flossin' / Who's he bossin'? / Cavities! Cavities!) I could floss all morning long.

Or maybe I don't want to write that life-sucking memo my bosses need before lunch. But a peppy little cheer would put me over the top (The IO's at the keyboard / Typin' out words / Sendin' off a memo / To the pencil-necked nerds!)

I think this idea will catch on. Because the holidays may be long over. But we still need some good cheer.

Springifying

We coyotes are a nocturnal bunch. Comes with the genetic territory. When we're not howlin' at moons, we like runnin' under 'em. And it so happens that on my nocturnal perambulations, I've been seeing signs of spring returning to the centre of the city. Others note the seasonal birds chirping in the mornings. Bah. The little buggers wake me up, no matter how cheerful they sound. What I'm talkin' about is clean sidewalks and gutters.

As the city sleeps, the hired help is out sweeping sidewalks with pushbrooms and pressure-hosing them off, a winter's grim grime swept down the catchbasins in a single night.

As a four-legged type who eschews, (but sometimes, uh, chews) shoes, I appreciate this greatly. It means far fewer soggy cigarette butts squishing between my toes. Always a plus, in my books.

I also like the relative silence of this cleaning work. The plows that rush into the middle of the night after winter snowfalls are noisy damn things, given to loud, irritating roars and odd scraping and crashing noises that are hardly conducive to good napping.

Hand-held pushbrooms and water hoses beneath an early morning moon, on the other hand seem tolerably organic. After midnight, a city sounds quite different. The people who clean the streets during that time seem to respect this, and match quieter rhythms. The hum of traffic remains, but is greatly muted, and one can hear smaller sounds that rarely stand out after daylight. Like, say, the toenails of rather undomesticated dog types, splashing in puddles and romping on newly clean concrete...

Listen, and you can hear 'em...

Image: David Woodward, Cardiff University School of Physics and Astronomy

Monday: Eigga's Day to Blog

It was 4th Dwarf's idea that we would each blog one day of the week. However, he has gone and usurped my day with his dating issues. I met Coyote for coffee this afternoon and when I complained about this, he said, "Maybe he blogged just after midnight." That is still usurping my day, is it not?
Coyote and I had a lovely coffee and did some wonderful people/canine-watching. We saw:
-- a woman who looked straight out of an Ingmar Bergman film. The depression. The bun in her hair. Etc...
-- a very chic looking woman picking up the shit of her weiner dog.
-- a little girl in pink coat and pink rubber boots on her scooter in the rain.
-- a beautiful coyote-looking mutt who looked like he could be Coyote's cousin.