They woke me up at the crack of dawn.
Looked out my window. Here’s what I (heard and) saw …
On the Wires now live at qarrtsiluni in the ‘Animals in the City’ issue.
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It was early. It was loud. It was the beginning of June and I’d just returned from a trip abroad. I’d spent a full month in Read the rest of this entry »
Bunny, my honey. I love him like money even though he’s got a mean left hook.
It’s a byzantine relationship. Do you have one of these with your pet?
~
Click mouse for more feline fun.
This is the only traffic I encountered along the 5 km stretch of forest
that connects Hévíz to Keszthely, Hungary.
Before heading down the pathway, I asked a local woman:
Any wild animals that should concern me?
No, she said, then laughed, and looked at me funny.
~
For more on Hévíz, go here, here, and here.
Trees, the forest, the view from my room in the Hungarian spa town of Hévíz.
Every day, for 21 straight, these birds broke my sleep at 4 in the morning.
Wonder what they’re saying…
~
Prepared for Festival of the Trees—
a monthly blog carnival for all things arboreal.
Festival #52: Healthy Curiosity
This bird sang for me on a May day in Hungary.
I was strolling streets aimlessly in the spa town of Hévíz.
Any idea what kind of bird this is?
Not long ago, I wrote about the human practice of assigning homo-sapiens the names of non-human animals.
Now, in a ‘stone’ called ‘Catch & Release’, I offer a cross-species sporting reference to a mate-selection ritual used by some individuals. The 22 words–in all their glory–appear in the U.K.-based web-zine A Handful of Stones. According to editor Fiona Robyn, a small stone is a very short piece of writing that precisely captures a fully-engaged moment.
To read ‘Catch & Release’,
click the fish below:
A note about the image: I captured it while staring through water, looking down at a pond, standing on the bridge behind Festetics Castle in Keszthely, Hungary–the place where ‘Catch & Release’ was conceived.
And a question:
Do you use non-human animal references to describe assorted human activities and practices?
I find contradictions between morality and ethics interesting–those disconnections that sometimes exist between a person’s notions of right and wrong (or good and bad) and their daily practice of living. Another curiosity is the extent to which people shift their morality retrospectively in light of their behavior and decisions. I find these topics even more compelling when the forces of consumer culture are factored in.
I explore these curiosities in a Twitter length story–140 characters or less. It appears in PicFic–a California-based picofiction online magazine.
Here it is → The Fickle Consumer
Wonderful news …
The Curious Practice of Pet-Naming wins a 3Cheers Award!
The story appeared earlier this year in PicFic — a Folded Word Press Twitter-zine.
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The other winners?
Gregory Sherl and Ben Nardolilli
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The prize includes:
the video interpretation above ↑
the “blog bling” below ↓
and the honor, of course.
It’s so nice to hear someone else read my words …
A big thank-you goes out to voters and Folded Word’s California-based Managing Editor, J.S. Graustein.
I’ve written about secrets, and taken photos of paradox.
The challenge?
To combine these phenomena in a micro-story of 50 words exactly — no more, no less.
Not long ago, I observed a secret paradox close to home — it concerns business, humans, nonhuman animals, and eating habits.
The story appears in the weekly New Jersey-based e-zine 50 to 1. Editor, Glen Binger, “posts only 50 word stories and first line inspirational sentences that are meant to get the reader hooked ...”
Here’s the link → Secret Beef
Some puzzling labels for humans are as follows:
Some men are teddy bears, some women are cougars, some people are pigs (regardless of sex), while others are simply called animals. In Animal Planet—a postcard story—Rose Hunter provides more examples.
Nonhuman animals themselves are the recipients of perplexing naming practices.
I explore this phenomenon in a Twitter-length fiction—140 characters or less. It appears in PicFic—the Twitter fiction wing of Folded Word Press.
Above, as it appears on Twitter.
And here, as it appears on the PicFic website: The Curious Practice of Pet-Naming
Another curiosity:
What have you named your companion animal(s)?
He told me his name and the name of his cat.
Don’t remember either and forgot to ask:
Does the weight of the cat make your head hurt?
~
I’m curious since they take long walks around town … just like that.
