The Blaisdell Blog

My husband got an alert via e-mail Monday night.   The call came this afternoon.   As requested, he will leave our house around midnight tonight and drive the 90 miles from Edinburg , Texas to South Padre Island on a cold, dark night.   Soon he will be in a wet suit, walking around and around an ocean cold tank supporting the weight of a 9 feet long, 440 pound melon-headed whale.   It is cold, back breaking, and generally thankless work.   The track record for saving these cetaceans is poor.   But he will be there, walking around and around, keeping the animal moving, surfaced and breathing.   Tom will be a link in a chain of volunteers from the Texas Master Naturalists program who have had special training in saving endangered animals.   He and the others will be there, cold, tired and muscle weary, doing what volunteers do.             The melon-headed whale was found, beached on the island, and the scientists at the Coastal Studies Lab are trying to save its life.   These sma

Another salvo in the effort to shape President Obama as a good instead of an emotionally disinterested and intellectually absent President was fired in, of all places, Duluth , Minnesota .   I have been to Duluth .   We stayed at the RV Park in the downtown marina, visited the waterfront museum and ate dinner at Hell’s Kitchen.   It was great.   Little did I know that in the middle of a truly reconstructed, mining and port city, filled with polite Minnesotans there is, evidently, a powder keg of racism.   The proof of it is the Un-Fair Campaign.   This publicity barrage, sponsored by some 15 community organizations, is billed as, “an educational campaign to raise awareness about white privilege…and facilitate dialogue…towards racial justice.”             The message states that if you were born white you were born into a life of privilege, bought on the backs of all non-whites.   It also states that you are, by virtue of being white, a racist.   Besides providing billboards, fly

Today is Presidents’ Day.    I have read 15 presidential biographies and it is my default position when it comes to books or television.   Friends who know this frequently ask me who my favorite President is.   That is a difficult question.   Harry Truman was probably the most likeable.   George Washington was the most admirable, Lincoln the most complex, and Wilson the smartest.    Chester A. Arthur actually earned some grudging admiration from me as a man who rose above his, “political hack” background upon ascending to the Presidency.   He was an example of how the office itself can cause a person to transcend his own weaknesses and rise to the occasion.   That being said, I am going to devote today to a little study of our Presidents.   The easiest way to tackle this is to group the Presidents by ability. The top tier of Presidents, which are almost universally acclaimed as indispensible leaders, shapers and saviors of our Union orbit in a rarified atmosphere of their own

This Valentine’s Day is a real treat for me.   Not because I am spoiled by my husband (I am), or because I am particularly loveable (between errors and attitude, I really am not) but because the next day I get to enjoy an astronomical treat.   Studying the stars makes me feel both very small and very big.   Being married to an amateur astronomer feeds this passion in a big way.   There is nothing like an article from Sky and Telescope to give you the real nitty gritty on what is going on in the celestial neighborhood.   Friday, we are getting an interesting drive-by from a potentially dangerous, but actually harmless space visitor. Asteroid 2012 DA14 will not be destroying the earth.   It won’t even be creating any minor chaos.   But it will come close enough to give us pause.   This asteroid is a 150 feet long, about 1/2 the length of a football field.   It is also 50 feet longer than the asteroid that produced the famous Tunguska Explosion over Siberia in 1908.   That astero

Which of these activities best describes a good day for you? 1.        I need a job to do. 2.       I like roving around in the great outdoors. 3.       I’m a couch potato who needs congenial company. 4.       No matter what, I need to get my ducks in a row. 5.       Nothing makes me happier than digging in the dirt. 6.       Doing nothing special, just going with the flow. 7.       I like to nose around and find things out for myself. How would you describe your size? 1.        Small 2.       Medium 3.       Large How active are you? 1.        Always on the move 2.       I am busy, but know how to relax too. 3.       I live a sedentary life. What is your attitude about having people around? 1.        I like companionship and affection. 2.       I am social, but like my solitude as well. 3.       I tend to be a loner. When given a new piece of technology, what is your reaction? 1.        I want to learn everything about

On Monday I saw two news stories that played back-to-back.   The contrast between the two principals is so striking I can not get it out of my head.    Let us start with the less consequential of these two young women.   [I would use the term, “young ladies” but, while one of them certainly is, the other is a common tramp.   I will not even use her name because she would enjoy the 15 minutes of undeserved fame way too much.]   In Florida an 18 year old smart ass, arrested in possession of xanax, decided the judge who set her bond at $10,000 was harshing her mellow.   In a fit of temper (which probably works on both her weak parents and easily manipulated friends) she threw both a gesture and an insult in the judge’s direction.   Judge Jorge Rodriquez-Chomat responded by giving her 30 days in jail.   The brat was shocked.                This story was followed by the first, post surgery, news conference, of Malala Yousufzai.   I wrote about her some months ago.               M