Publius & Co.

Friday Rat Blogging

We put our dear hairless dumbo girl, Kanga, to sleep the other night. Monday evening, she seemed a bit subdued, but OK otherwise. Tuesday afternoon, though, see seemed disoriented and off-balance; when the gf tried to take her out of the cage to cuddle with her, Kanga bit her and wouldn't let go for several minutes. When she finally let go (after the gf put her hand inside the cage) she had a seizure and fell down one of the ramps. The doctor thinks she may have had a brain tumor, while we feel it might have been a stroke.

Kanga was a sweet and unusual girl, being hairless first of all, and having dumbo ears (large ears on the side of her head) instead of standard ears second of all. She enjoyed eating anything she could get her hands on and nibbling on my fingers, and she'll be missed tremendously.

Roo on the left and Kanga on the right, nibbling her first human's finger as a little ratling in the first picture, and my finger in the second.

She loved sleeping *inside* the hammock lining, especially when the temp dropped (this pic was taken last November). I suspect the fact she had no fur may have had something to do with that.

Good night, sweet Kanga, and flights of angels sing thee to thy rest!

Wednesday is Poetry Day

One thing that is little-known about me is that I enjoy poetry. I'm not a poetry geek, nor do I make any attempt at writing it, if only because I think any poetry I produce would make Vogon poetry sound like Shakespeare. But I do enjoy a good poem, and I've always enjoyed Poetry Day at annika's. Today, annika reminds us it is Robert Burns's birthday.

There's a snippet of a Burns poem that is seared (seared!) into my memory. I first read it in the most excellent The Forever War* by Joe Haldeman. It's an appropriate choice for this book, as the poem commemorates the Battle of Bannockburn in the form of a fictional address by Robert the Bruce to his army. Burns has Robert speaking this to his army as, basically, a pre-game speech. I'm sure Robert did give his army a speech of some sort; whatever it really was is lost to history but it must have worked: the Scots kicked King Edward's ass.

In The Forever War the first stanza is used as a hypnotic trigger to turn an army into a bunch of blood-thirsty killers. In my opinion, Scots Wha' Hae' is so powerful and stirring a poem the fictional Sgt. Cortez probably could've just read the poem to his troops to turn them into a bunch of bloodthisty killers.

Scots Wha' Hae'

Scots, wha hae wi' Wallace bled,
Scots, wham Bruce has aften led,
Welcome to your gory bed
Or to victorie!

Now's the day, and now's the hour:
See the front o' battle lour,
See approach proud Edward's power
Chains and slaverie!

Wha will be a traitor knave?
Wha can fill a coward's grave?
Wha sae base as be a slave?
Let him turn, and fleel

Wha for Scotland's King and Law
Freedom's sword will strongly draw,
Freeman stand, or freeman fa',
Let him follow me!

By Oppression's woes and pains,
By your sons in servile chains,
We will drain our dearest veins
But they shall be free!

I understand it's traditional to have a dram of Scotch today to commemorate Mr. Burns's birthday; sadly, I can't stand that stuff. But I'm sure I can find something that will make a perfectly reasonable substitute, and I'll enjoy a post-dinner drink of...something. It's been awhile since I've dug thru the liquor cabinet.

*If you've never read The Forever War I can give you a quick synopsis: Take Starship Troopers, pass it thru a post-Sixties Vietnam disillusionment filter, have it written by a Vietnam vet to add some authenticity to the battle scenes, and that's it.

If you've never read Starship Troopers, why haven't you?

In the office door 55 minutes before starting time.

You sure do get to work early when you drive to work on a holiday.

I Love Stupid People

Some of you may know about the tragic murder on New York TIMES reporter David Rosenbaum. There has been an arrest in the case:

Michael C. Hamlin was arrested shortly after 6 p.m. when he walked into the 7th District police station in the 2400 block of Alabama Avenue SE, which is in the block where he lives, and asked why "my face is on TV," police said. Only an hour earlier, police had released to the media images from surveillance videotapes taken at a CVS store in Southeast Washington and an auto parts business in Prince George's County. Police said the tapes showed Hamlin using or attempting to use Rosenbaum's credit cards.