Well it's over now

I see now all over the place that the serial snipers that have been terrorizing the Washington-Richmond area has been captured. This means we can go back to our normal lives. No more huge traffic jams and zillions of police cars all over the place. We can walk to the store and to the gas station, and our kids can safely go to school. But take notice. The snipers did instill fear in us through acts of violence. According to the definition of the term, that is terrorism. Yes, this was a terrorist attack. But not from al-Qaeda. Terrorists don't come just from overseas. They can be individuals from this country stalking in the woods. Last year our President declared a war on terrorism. This means he wanted to destroy what was causing us to fear. So he invaded Afghanistan and scattered the al-Qaeda gang all over the place. Now he wants to invade Iraq. That will stir up enmity to our nation and lead to increased terrorism. Further, he has paid scant attention to the sniper attacks. According to an article in the Washington Post, people feared the sniper more than they feared Planeattack or the anthrax attacks of last year. If Bush is really serious about getting rid of terrorism, he should have paid more attention to the sniper attacks and less to invading a dictator who does not have much to deal with terror in America. Sure, attacking al-Qaeda and capturing the snipers remove some of the terrorists from our society, but to really make headway in reducing terrorism, he also needs to improve our relations with the rest of the world, and he has not done much of that yet. Until he does, I will feel afraid.

Junk Sparrows

A little while ago I wrote a poem called "Junk Sparrows". I decided to put that on my website, on a new poetry page that I added to my site. I also pointed that page to my other poem "Where's the Way?" and a short story "The Fountain", that were already on my site. "Junk Sparrows" will be a jolt for many people, especially Americans whose ancestors came from another continent, especially Europe. I have also added another non-word, superennery, meaning (usually of a digit) greater than 9.

Woodchucking

At the Outer Banks we saw many sandpipers. I have always thought that was a strange name, but then it reminded me of the woodchuck phrase: How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood? So is it that way with sandpipers? How much sand would a sandpiper pipe if a sandpiper could pipe sand? The image of a sandpiper piping sand is a silly one to me, but I suppose no more than a woodchuck chucking wood. What's that? Stuffing pieces of wood in its cheeks? Chopping the wood with its teeth? I suppose a sandpiper pipes sand through its long beak.

A long time ago I came up with other versions of the woodchucking question. I call this general pastime woodchucking. The woodchucking I came up with earlier was : How many bears would a bare bear bear if a bare bear could bear bears? Well, how many cubs does a bear usually have, anyway? How much bark would a bark bark bark if a bark bark could bark bark? That one is not so good. Bark is an intransitive verb, although I suppose you could imagine a dog, or if you stretch your imagination, a ship, spewing out pine bark mulch when it barks. I decided to look all over the Internet for woodchuckings by searching in Google for "how much * would a * if *", and by trying to find them myself. Here are some of the entries I got:

How many books would a bookmark mark if a bookmark could mark books?

How many flags would a flagpole poll if a flagpole could poll flags?

How much ground would a groundhog hog if a groundhog could hog ground?

How much wind would a windbreaker break if a windbreaker could break wind?

How much web would a weblog blog if a weblog could blog webs? (how much does this web blog?)

How many kings would a kingfisher fish if a kingfisher could fish kings?

How much chain would a chainsaw saw if a chainsaw could saw chain? (Don't try this one. The saw will buck and chop off your hand.)

How much wocky would a jabber wock, if a jabber could wock wocky? (from http://www.planethalflife.com/features/mailbag/mailbag112701b.shtm)

How much trouble would a noble cause if a noble could cause trouble? (from http://www.rpgageoff.com/news/geoffnews.html)

But the winner I feel is this one, which outdoes all the others by a huge margin:

How much C would a C++ if a C+ could +C? (from http://www.geocities.com/EnchantedForest/Cottage/4388/geobook.html)

I'd have to go back to my C++ book to check up on that one.

The Outer Banks

This past weekend I made my trip to the Outer Banks. It was a surreal place. For one thing, the thin islands were a linear place. All the places were along essentially a straight place: Kitty Hawk, Kill Devil Hills, Nags Head, Pea Island, Rodanthe, Avon, and Buxton. Everything is up and down Route 12. For another thing, it was warm. It was like a return to summer, with temperatures, both water and air, in the 70s. I swam a bit in the ocean in October. The vegetation was unlike what I usually see. It was flat, with sea oats and the like. We were part of a birding trip, Wings over Water. Therefore, we saw lots of birds, including hyperactive sanderlings moving back and forth on the surf hunting for food, herons and egrets foraging the water for something to eat, graceful pelicans in the air, and ducks of many varieties, including a hybrid duck. We lucked out on the weather: clear and warm every single day, with rain on the day before and the day after we came back. The beach piles up in huge dunes, including the monster Jockey's Ridge south of Kill Devil Hills, from which come kites and hang gliders. We saw it on a moonlit night, it looked really out of this world, like something from Chesley Bonestell. But it was Earth; we could tell for we saw the vague outline and eyes of a gray fox galloping along the ridge. The food was expensive but good. I would like to come back again, but I don't know if I will get as good weather as we had this past weekend.