crow talk

crow with nest materials
Crow with nest materials on the grounds of the Albemarle County office building.

In his book “A Miracle of Catfish”, Larry Brown listens in on some crows watching a dozer dude nap.

A clan of local crows flew in and lit and walked around on some limbs and started saying in
their crow language, “What the hell’s up? Anything to eat?…
You think we ought to sneak in on the ground for them scraps? He ain’t
got no gun. Least I don’t see one.
Naw, man, he may be just playing possum. They do that sometimes. That’s
how my uncle got killed. My mama told me. Fell for one of them owl decoys
and a good mouth caller. Let’s just watch him for a while.
I think he done eat it all anyway. What was it? Fried chicken?
Yeah. Fried chicken. Wing and a leg and a thigh.
That’s another bird, too. I mean if you think about it. Seems kinda cannibalistic
if you know what I mean.
I ain’t related to no chicken, but I can see that other biscuit from here.”

Urban Design

Our City is currently involved in several urban design discussions simultaneously.
Are cities gender neutral? Our city, being Charlotte’s Ville. Maybe she can multitask. Talk about redesigning her central park and her bridge downtown and not cut off the wrong leg by mistake.
I have missed the bridge-design events & discussion. Watching the video by Dan Bluestone and Brian Wimer has me playing catch-up.

Why do we allow our bad things to happen to our cities? Why do we allow our cities to be designed by autos and fire engines?
Jim Kunstler talked a bit about the Law of Perverse Outcomes in his November 2011 “Eyesore of the Month”.

http://www.kunstler.com/eyesore_201111.html

day of rest

woolen mills sunday school picnic
Victoria Dunham and I are doing a presentation of the Woolen Mills Village and WM Neighborhood this afternoon. Arg. Some technology involved. HDMI, UDF, MP4, codecs. Crazy modern stuff.
I went for a walk in the brilliant morning light, in the graveyard. I know a lot of people in graveyards. In the memory business. In the learning business. Learning from the lives of others, learning from our own, it is important, joyful and simultaneously very very sad.
Talk is at Cville Coffee, 1500hrs.

falling

wet press
Verdict came down in the case of of The Commonwealth of Virginia vs. George Wesley Huguely V. So did the rain.

Dave Chapman
Commonwealth’s Attorney Warner “Dave” Chapman addresses the media on the stairs of the Circuit Court following the jury’s announcement of their sentencing recommendation.

anti-icing

anti-icing brine
Had a few inches of snow Sunday afternoon. In preparation, Saturday night the City applied some manner of brine solution to the streets. I’ve seen this stuff on the interstates before but never in town. Much tidier than the salt slinging trucks…