Small Business Saturday

Small Business Saturday is in its fifth year and encouraging people to shop small and local, thus supporting their community.  It's a great idea if we don't want the future to be only big box (Wal-Mart type) shops and Amazon warehouses! Here are six of my favorite small businesses in Hyde Park, Chicago:

Parker's Pets (pet market) on 53rd Street https://www.facebook.com/parkersnaturals

Hyde Park Animal Clinic (veterinary services) on 53rd Street www.hydeparkanimalclinic.com/

Freehling Pot and Pan (kitchen shop) on 53rd Street https://www.facebook.com/FreehlingPotandPan

 Cafe 53 on 53rd Street (small, laidback coffee house) www.cafe53rd.com/

Hyde Park Records on 53rd Street www.hydeparkrecords.com/

Neighborly (a pop up gift shop based in Ravenswood) on 53rd Street neighborlyshop.com/

Photos inspired by Lithuanian forests

I like these surreal photos, inspired by forests in Lithuania, on the Bored Panda website:
http://www.boredpanda.com/surreal-forest-nature-photography-raggana/

American red squirrel on Thanksgiving

Photos: Marge Ishmael

I took this photo of an American red squirrel munching on an acorn on Thanksgiving Day (yesterday). It was a dull, grey day and I took it through a glass window so the photo hasn't come out too clearly! Info. on the American Red Squirrel @ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_red_squirrel

And here's my attempt at a Thanksgiving pumpkin pie:

 

Hiker killed by a bear that he was photographing

Photo: Darsh Patel

A 22-year old New Jersey hiker, killed by a 300 pound bear in September, had taken a series of photos of the bear with his cellphone before it mauled him to death. Darsh Patel was hiking with four friends in the Apshawa Preserve, 45 miles northwest of New York City. The bear did not seem interested in food and exhibited "stalking behavior" according to experts who surveyed the photos. It reminds me of the time I saw a wild black bear cub in Colorado. Luckily I was at a safe distance and sitting on a balcony. He was a cute bear and I was tempted to go over to him but, soon after he appeared, a much larger mama bear came in search of her cub! It taught me to always have the ultimate respect for wild animals when encroaching on their natural habitat -- and especially when they weigh around 300 pounds! Here's a link to the Apshawa Preserve: http://www.njhiking.com/best-hikes-in-nj-apshawa-preserve/

More on the American black bear: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_black_bear 
 

Keystone Pipeline and endangered animals

Photo of a swift fox: www.thedodo.com

The Keystone Pipeline was blocked in the Senate this week. If the proposed pipeline does eventually get passed, it will cross the Midwestern habitat of Swift Foxes who have only recently recovered from being nearly wiped out. https://www.thedodo.com/keystone-pipeline-animals-829268898.html?utm_source=upworthyfb

The New York Times gives pros and cons of the proposed pipeline in this article: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/19/us/politics/what-does-the-proposed-keystone-xl-pipeline-entail.html 

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part I

The trailer for the latest Hunger Games movie "Mockingjay Part 1" was released to the excitement of Katniss Everdeen fans around the world.  The film will be released on November 21st and I'm excited!  

Update: I saw the movie today and it lived up to expectations. Jennifer Lawrence is a fiercely talented actress and perfect as the heroine, Katniss Everdeen. I've been a fan of hers since her role in the 2010 "Winter's Bone" movie. This is the movie version of the third book in Suzanne Collins' dystopian-literature juggernaut. Co-star Donald Sutherland describes Lawrence as a genius and compares her to Joan of Arc and Christ in the following piece: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/donald-sutherland-jennifer-lawrence-is-750770

"She's the right person at the right time in the sense of Joan of Arc or Jesus Christ, any genius, in that sense." [Donald Sutherland]

Cute raccoon photos

There are some cute raccoon photos at this link: http://www.buzzfeed.com/kaelintully/causin-a-big-old-ruckus-and-lookin-super-cute-doin-it   I find these animals adorable and fascinating!

China, Climate, Coal

I've been following this week's climate talks (between President Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping) with interest.  Mr. Xi said his country would curtail carbon dioxide emissions so that they would peak “around 2030.” Mr. Obama pledged that the United States would cut emissions by at least 26 percent from 2005 levels by 2025 — a goal in line with targets he promised in a 2009 United Nations accord. This is better than nothing, but still sounds like too little and too late....
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/11/12/world/asia/climate-goals-pledged-by-us-and-china-2.html

Here is Paul Krugman's opinion and he's more optimistic than I am. I respect his opinion on most things and hope he's right in this case: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/14/opinion/paul-krugman-china-coal-climate.html?_r=0 

Blackhawks & Beards

Is it just my imagination or are beard-wearing men on the increase in Chicago? I wonder if it's due to the popularity of the Chicago Blackhawks (ice hockey team) or the extreme polar vortex last winter, or some other factor? One thing's for sure -- I seem to be noticing a lot of young men with beards around the city these days!  

[Just after I posted this, I spotted a BBC article comparing the current trend for beards with a similar trend in Victorian times (mid-1800s onwards) so I guess I wasn't imagining things. http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-30037914]

Celebration of Indigenous Dance

I went to a Celebration of Indigenous Dance this evening at the Newberry Library. http://www.newberry.org/11132014-celebration-indigenous-dance

It was a great evening and I especially enjoyed the Black Hawk Performance Company (an authentic Native American dance troup) and the Chicago-based Nuahalli Aztec Dancers. Both dance troups wore very colorful national dress, with a great drum beat. More on the Black Hawk Performance Company @ http://www.chicago-american-indian-edu.org/chicago-american-indian-university-education/Black-Hawk-Performance-Company.html

Other dance troups included BIBAK traditional Igorot dance and song:  http://www.4kbreathsofheritage.com/blog

Here is a link to a 2011 video showing a performance by the Black Hawk Performance Co. at University of Chicago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DKuNSMqRCc 

K9S for Warriors and Peshmerga Warriors

Two items of news struck a chord with me yesterday (Veterans/Armistice Day):

K9S for Warriors -- dedicated to providing service canines to warriors suffering from post-traumatic stress and/or traumatic brain injury as a result of military service post 9/11. Their goal is to give a new "leash on life" to rescue dogs and military heroes, empowering warriors to return to civilian life with dignity and independence. http://www.k9sforwarriors.org/

Kurdish Peshmerga female fighters, like the one in the photo below who killed over 100 ISIS extremists. Syrian Kurds treat women as equals and many of them are fighting in Kobani right now.  More info. on the Peshmerga @ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peshmerga   Last night's NBC News featured a female Peshmerga sniper:  http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/isis-terror/inside-kobani-men-women-defend-city-isis-militants-n246511

Armistice Day or Veterans Day

1. Armistice Day (or Veterans Day in the USA) is commemorated every year on 11 November to mark the armistice signed between the Allies of World War I and Germany at Compiègne, France, for the cessation of hostilities on the Western Front of World War I, which took effect at eleven o'clock in the morning—the "eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month…"

   I'm attaching two photos -- firstly of my Grandfather, George William Ishmael, in World War I uniform. He saw action on the Italian front in WWI but survived.  Second photo of his brother, Walter Ishmael, who was killed in action on 5th April 1916 near Basra, which was then in Mesopotamia but now in Iraq .

My Grandfather

My Great Uncle

"They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn

At the going down of the sun and in the morning

We will remember them."

~ Ode from the Laurence Binyon poem "For the Fallen"

Smoke tree?

One of our favorite ornamental trees is gradually dying off, but we don't know what sort it is!  It's too late to replace it this year so we'll have to wait until Spring. We are wondering: "is it a smoke tree?".... http://www.gardeningknowhow.com/ornamental/trees/smoke-tree/growing-smoke-trees.htm

Grebe

We spotted a Grebe today - near to La Rabida Hospital: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grebe

Photos: Marge Ishmael

And a recent shot of a cormorant: n.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cormorant

Fracking banned in its birthplace - Texas!

Reuters/Terry Wade

On Tuesday, voters in Denton, Texas, banned fracking within the city limits by a large margin of 59 to 41. The first such restriction in Texas, Denton has been a hotly contested site for the industry and one of eight locales with fracking bans on the ballot this election. Denton has about 125,000 residents and sits on the Barnett shale. It already has 275 fracked wells.

Denton remains solidly Republican. Oil companies reportedly spent $700,000 to defeat the ban, according to the Denton Record-Chronicle. Residents were fed up with the noise and disruption of fracking, and the constant traffic and fumes from wells and trucks operating in residential neighborhoods.

More at Time magazine: http://time.com/3559160/fracking-activists-texas-ban/

Fred cartoon

http://www.rupertfawcettcartoons.com/

Snow buntings!

We spotted snow buntings this week, at 63rd Street Beach, Chicago.  According to Wikipedia, the snow bunting (sometimes known colloquially as a "snowflake") is a passerine bird in the longspur family Calcariidae. It's an arctic specialist with a circumpolar Arctic breeding range throughout the northern hemisphere. More @ http://birds.audubon.org/birds/snow-bunting

Photo: Jane Masterson