Good Morning Gloucester

From the New Yorker

“Enough from the hatemongers, the fearmongers, and the warmongers. When are they gonna let the fishmongers speak?”

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This was the sky on the other side of the road from where the fallstreak hole was at Good Harbor.  I don’t ever remember seeing crazy cloud formations like these before in my life.  I see them all the time now, and they just look very strange to me.  Does anyone else find them strange?

E.J. Lefavour

Crows are very social and caring creatures, and also among the smartest animals on the planet.  (See WPBS A Murder of Crows)

When I was a girl, I rescued an injured crow and nursed him back to health.  The day after I released him in the back yard and he flew off, he returned with a mass murder numbering scores of crows, all cawing and covering the back yard, with him at the head of them.  I guess he brought them to meet me, or they came to thank me for taking care of him.  It was pretty amazing, and I still remember it like it was yesterday.

A group of crows is called a “murder.” There are several different explanations for the origin of this term, mostly based on old folk tales and superstitions.

For instance, there is a folktale that crows will gather and decide the capital fate of another crow.

Many view the appearance of crows as an omen of death because ravens and crows are scavengers and are generally associated with dead bodies, battlefields, and cemeteries, and they’re thought to circle in large numbers above sites where animals or people are expected to soon die.

But the term “murder of crows” mostly reflects a time when groupings of many animals had colorful and poetic names. Other fun examples of “group” names include: an ostentation of peacocks, a parliament of owls, a knot frogs, and a skulk of foxes.

E.J. Lefavour

It came up in conversation the other day that most of us don’t know each other’s phone numbers.  True that.

I remember clearly a moment that happened YEARS ago……

A few years before our kids became a reality, a bunch of us were hanging out on July 3rd.  We were in my living room with some local friends as well as a few friends from Rockport who were home visiting for the 4th of July week.  On the 4th we all had different plans/obligations, but we wanted to meet up at the end of the day.  The questions arose, “Do we all have each others’ phone numbers so that we can track each other down?”   I, silly me, jumped up to retrieve a pad of “sticky notes” so that we could all swap numbers….   I walked back into the living room to see everyone else had whipped out their cell phones to add contacts.  I, of course, had a cell phone back then….but, hadn’t quite transitioned to the modern day way of easily saving phone numbers.  Much like some people now still jot down recipes from a website rather than taking a screen shot….or write down a child’s wish list from a store rather than snapping a photo of the toy or item.

So, back to phone numbers.  I can tell you without a second’s thought that my phone number from birth to age 9 was 774-7451.  My phone number from age 10-17 was 468-4544.  However, I can’t tell you my mother or father’s current cell phone number.  Nor can I tell you anyone else’s.  The only cell phone number I actually know is my husband’s and that is probably only because it is one number away from my own.

I do, however, know our dentist’s and doctor’s office phone numbers off the top of my head.  I could also order a pizza from two local take-out restaurants….because, I’m happy to report, they’re not simply saved in my contact list.

So, my question to you is….   In thinking of family members and good friends, how many phone numbers do you actually know?   Who could you call if you were to lose your contact list?