Water Cooler Chit Chat

[Puget]

What a nice idea--
Mamselle I suspect you are are thinking about Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac. Not sure if that is in the public domain yet.

On the psychology front, Piaget illustrated his work with  a lot of verbatim transcriptions of dialogs with children which are quite charming and might make for good duets. Here's one I use in class, illustrating the slow development of children's understanding of what is alive:

Piaget (1929), interview with 7 year old:

Is a cat alive?
Yes
A table?
No
Why not?
It can't move
Is water alive?
Yes, it moves.
Is the moon alive?
Yes, sometimes it hides behind the mountains.

[hmaria1609]

Seafood lovers in DC were happy campers today--the historic Fish Market reopened for business:
https://wtop.com/coronavirus/2020/04/wharfs-municipal-fish-market-reopens-saturday-to-calm-crowds/
The nearby Wharf has boomed with new businesses and restaurants in the past few years.

[mythbuster]

Along similar lines, we have asked/ commissioned my Aunt to paint a painting for our bedroom. She's a wonderful painter who sells her work occasionally at local art shows. Last year, she took a week long workshop on painting plen aire. She was thrilled with something to do during quarantine. It's been fun emailing ideas for the subject etc. So I encourage all of you to also engage your local artist friends. I bet they would love the work. I'm really looking forward to my Aunt Sherri original.
   My artistic ability only goes as far as layout for photo albums. Which I may get to once I have this semester squared away.

[smallcleanrat]

SO: So, I noticed you were petting the blanket and smiling in your sleep. Wanna tell me what that was about?
Me: I dreamed we adopted a dozen dogs and cats. There were cute critters in every room.
SO: Of course. I should have known. Just remember in real life we agreed to one of each. Two at most. You want a dozen? Keep dreaming. You can have as many hypothetical pets as you like.

Reminiscent of a conversation I had with someone who had decided with his wife and young daughter that the family would adopt a kitten. "I agreed to one kitten, knowing it will probably end up being two. But if I agreed to two, then we would end up with three or four..."

[Anselm]

Stop all activities now.   Whatever you are doing, put it on hold.  Go check the price of oil.  MarketWatch, Yahoo Finance, CNBC, whatever.

If I told you then you would not believe me.

[dismalist]

Stop all activities now.   Whatever you are doing, put it on hold.  Go check the price of oil.  MarketWatch, Yahoo Finance, CNBC, whatever.

If I told you then you would not believe me.

Ooooh, it's free! I'm gonna buy a swimming pool and fill it with crude to speculate! :-)

[Parasaurolophus]

Stop all activities now.   Whatever you are doing, put it on hold.  Go check the price of oil.  MarketWatch, Yahoo Finance, CNBC, whatever.

If I told you then you would not believe me.

Ooooh, it's free! I'm gonna buy a swimming pool and fill it with crude to speculate! :-)

Better than free. They were paying people $37 to take it at one point!

[dismalist]

Stop all activities now.   Whatever you are doing, put it on hold.  Go check the price of oil.  MarketWatch, Yahoo Finance, CNBC, whatever.

If I told you then you would not believe me.

Ooooh, it's free! I'm gonna buy a swimming pool and fill it with crude to speculate! :-)

Better than free. They were paying people $37 to take it at one point!

Now that is unsustainable! :-)

[Cheerful]

Bought and baked a frozen fruit pie, Mrs. Smith's Very Berry.  I don't think I've ever bought a frozen fruit pie.  I don't recommend it unless you like plentiful crust (this one's pretty good) and fruity liquid.  I can't find many berries!

[Parasaurolophus]

All my marks are in, now. Oof!

Now I just have to drop in to that grad class this afternoon...

[spork]

There is a fat rabbit sitting on the ground in my backyard right below the window of my home office. These things have been chomping on my plants for weeks now. If I had a gun I'd be cooking up some rabbit stew.

[spork]

I just threw a rock at it and hit it in the butt. It didn't even move.

[spork]

I went outside and chased the rabbit out of the yard. Now it's back. Not eating, just staring at me through the window, like it's possessed by a demon.

[evil_physics_witchcraft]

I went outside and chased the rabbit out of the yard. Now it's back. Not eating, just staring at me through the window, like it's possessed by a demon.

Maybe it is...

[Parasaurolophus]

Kwell. I'm off to plant seeds.