Eight feet tall.

 

Friday night was the village Burns night. A good natured affair with accordion and fiddle music washed down with copious quantities of Gods amber nectar. The remains of the two 'mundane' cases of  Pinot Grigio that Angus ordered last summer were well received by the non-whisky drinkers.  The village has two prime  demographics - kilt wearing Scots farmers  and academic incomers . Conversations can range from the market price of  cabbage to advances in keyhole surgery . There is another Angus there , a tractor driver come odd job man, but he spells his name Aonghas. How Scottish is that ! He's from New Zealand. This year the planned expansion of the caravan park is the topic of conservation. The owners want to double it in size. It seems that caravans are exempt from the strict green belt zoning laws. There is to be a public meeting which, on the basis of the dram fueled opinions I heard, should be a lively event. The local councillors response to the proposals is said to be ' useless'. I quietly wonder who in their right mind would ever be a local councillor. A thankless task.

Saturday night was a grander, duller, affair. An academic event. Everyone was on their best behaviour. No raucous belly laughs here. Half of the kilts had that pristine look that said they came out once a year for special occasions. A tall and enthusiastic American gentleman from South Carolina wore a Tam O'Shanter with two large pheasant feathers sticking out of it at jaunty angles. The distance from the  tips of his feathers to the soles of his feet must have been all of eight feet. This was a sight that was, in many ways, remarkable. He forecast that the former President will win 60% of the vote in his states primary. A lady from the Persian studies department tells me that AI is having a huge impact on the jobs market for language graduates. Why hire a translator when you can have documents scanned and translated online ?

This morning the town full of Japanese teenagers. We're in peak 'open day' season for prospective students. Seems Japanese kids take their exams in March and want to know whether they've been accepted asap afterwards. Do they arrive independently from Japan or is there an educational company that arranges these trips ? Where do they stay and why are they up so early ? The boys all take photos and act as if they've known each other forever. The girls maintain an aloof distance from them .

Plenty of parking spaces this morning. The students are recovering from last nights excesses .

We have the small Italian cafe to ourselves.

Nebraska cranes and Australian Morning Glory :https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/seven-natural-phenomena-worth-traveling-for-180983663/

Todays ' Well, I never ' :https://arstechnica.com/science/2024/01/massive-melts-and-monstrous-tsunamis-resulted-from-early-earth-impacts/

The story of this picture on the radio  :https://winslowhomer.org/fox-hunt.jsp