Althouse: The tundra swans are back on Lake Mendota.

December 31, 2020

The tundra swans are back on Lake Mendota.

This morning at sunrise:

80 comments:

rhhardin said...: Wann fährt der nächste Schwan?; 12/31/20, 11:16 AM
Fritz said...: They've just shown up in Slower Maryland as well.; 12/31/20, 11:17 AM
Tommy Duncan said...: I heard them calling with their distinctive honk as they flew over my house a few days ago. There is still lots of open water on the Mississippi and our local rivers.; 12/31/20, 11:19 AM
stevew said...: They don't come here, apparently. We do have a great many Common Eiders bobbing along our local rocky shore. They make a racket, particularly at dawn. From the allaboutbirds.org site it says they don't go much further south than Maine. Cape Cod is shown as the southern most extent of their breeding range.

Had never heard of Tundra Swans before this post.; 12/31/20, 11:27 AM
traditionalguy said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 12/31/20, 11:42 AM
NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...: I read the title as "The tuna swans are back on Lake Mendota". Guess I spent too much time over at the sandwich/orgasm thread.; 12/31/20, 12:28 PM
Lurker21 said...: Liv and Maddie had Maddie's boyfriend leaving Wisconsin for the eternally frozen wasteland of Tundrabania.

But really, is there any difference?; 12/31/20, 12:33 PM
Richard Dolan said...: So Slezak lives on in rhhardin-ville. Nice to know. See you at Lohengrin one of these days (if those days ever return).; 12/31/20, 1:03 PM
Nonapod said...: If anyone is curious about the ongoing progress of the vaccine distribution you can check here. So far in the US there's been about 3.13 million doses administered out of around 12 million distibuted so far. My understanding is that they hold the second dose in reserve.; 12/31/20, 1:41 PM
Rusty said...: Their water up north has frozen over. Always a treat to see swans. I heard cranes overhead a week ago. That's very late for cranes. I hope the rest of the winter is just as mild.; 12/31/20, 1:46 PM
wildswan said...: A white and black swan event. Well, it's 2020. see Dave Barry:

https://www.telegraphherald.com/news/features/article_1f2dd634-9f65-5ae4-bf83-9554efe89819.html; 12/31/20, 2:01 PM
FullMoon said...: Hey! You guys ever see that documentary made about forty years ago about the band named Spinal Tap?

Their music was pretty good, but the band members were really, really stupid.

I never heard of them before I saw the doc a couple of nights ago.; 12/31/20, 2:19 PM
Rabel said...: I'm hoping that FullMoon is setting up a joke.; 12/31/20, 2:27 PM
Joe Smith said...: "Wann fährt der nächste Schwan?"

My Schwanz isn't going anywhere...except maybe to get a sandwich.; 12/31/20, 2:29 PM
Rabel said...: If you read the post headline in Katherine Hepburn's voice it fits.; 12/31/20, 2:30 PM
Jupiter said...: For years, Big Tech’s version of section 230 has gone unquestioned. Journalists,
members of Congress, and the public have assumed current practice reflects the
law Congress passed in 1996. This paper challenges many of those accounts. It
briefly explains what the law was before section 230, why section 230 was drafted
and what it was intended to do, and how the courts—influenced by Big Tech’s
lawyers—distorted section 230 into something unrecognizable from the law that
Congress passed.; 12/31/20, 2:49 PM
Narr said...: I keep hoping for a repeat of the great flyover here, but I guess the route south along the Mississippi wanders every year, since nothing like it has happened since about 2018 IIRC.

Narr
Wan fart the nasty swine; 12/31/20, 3:08 PM
wildswan said...: I think that Trump's two biggest achievements were, first, demonstrating that it is true that bad policy decisions were dragging down the US economy and, second, getting a vaccine at warp speed. With the vaccine we can resume life. But there'll be a sharp red-state / blue-state divide. There'll be Resumers and non-Resumers. And those who continue to want to stay masked and locked, the non-Resumers, will be shown to be those who also want to continue to destroy the economy. Nationally, Biden will be run over by progressives who point out his mental decline. Destroy-the-city programs will continue to be enacted and the people who thought Biden would be "back to normalcy" will see they were marks. Things will be worst in the Blue States, however, since progressives will reign unchecked there and they never admit mistakes. It'll be all Newsom all the time, except when it's Cuomo. So the State of the Union will be like East and West Berlin - one place bustling, festive, the other, empty and fearful. And all the time, Trump in the Free Zone, pointing out to the miserable Blue Staters that election variability from past adherence to norms and their own consent thereto has led to their own misery. And then... tune in tomorrow.; 12/31/20, 3:20 PM
john said...: Do they shit like Canada geese?; 12/31/20, 3:24 PM
BUMBLE BEE said...: I've noticed a trend of supporting masks for flu season. It is the collective thing to do. Do you think about how many people you've killed by spreading Influenza?; 12/31/20, 3:29 PM
BUMBLE BEE said...: Somebody is watching it. You can bank on it.; 12/31/20, 3:30 PM
Howard said...: True Story, Moon. I've never seen This is Spinal Tap. I do know what dialed to eleven means. anywho; 12/31/20, 3:51 PM
Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...: black swans??

Pulitzer has now caught a Georgia voting machine wirelessly communicating back and forth with a smart TV to China via a hidden network

https://t.co/92LAQkMNT4?amp=1

...so maybe there was something to that "wireless in the thermostat" report; 12/31/20, 4:11 PM
Tomcc said...: This is Spinal Tap, Best in Show, A Mighty Wind. Very appealing to my own sense of humor, but not to everyone's taste. See also the three Monty Python films.; 12/31/20, 4:24 PM
Michelle Dulak Thomson said...: Howard,

Honestly, you can't be without This Is Spinal Tap. You just can't. (There is a sequel of sorts, A Mighty Wind -- lines from the eponymous song: "It's blowin' peace 'n' freedom/It's blowin' you 'n' me!") which isn't as good, but still wickedly funny.

Tundra swans are, IIRC, what used to be known as "trumpeter swans" in my youth. Biggest swan species on the continent. Whistling swans look similar but smaller, and obviously don't have those great honkin' bass notes, and mute swans (the decorative kind with the arched necks and the orange bills, introduced I think) are, well, mute.

Count me among the Lohengrin-listeners, but the origins of that line escape me. I know I've heard it before -- was it a massive set failure, or what? (SF Opera, a few decades back, did a Lohengrin with no swan at all, which caused its then-and-still critic, Joshua Kosman, to have fits in more than one article.)

Other musical swans? Swan Lake, obviously. Hindemith's Der Schwanendreher, which is a viola concerto named after the guy who turns the roasting swan on the spit -- or, rather, after a folk song about said guy. A number in Carmina Burana, sung from the point of view of the roasted swan. (I think -- I've managed in all my musicking years never to listen to Carmina Burana, except for the inevitable "Oh Four Tuna" -- Google that if you don't know it.) The shot-down swan in Parsifal. Orlando Gibbons' "Silver Swan." Anyone else?; 12/31/20, 4:26 PM
FullMoon said...: Howard said...

True Story, Moon. I've never seen This is Spinal Tap. I do know what dialed to eleven means. anywho

Check them out. Way better than The Eagles, who only had one good song . But, like I said, they were good musicians but stupid people. Really stupid. Might be the British educational system, but more likely they were just born that way.; 12/31/20, 4:29 PM
Rabel said...: There's another great doc playing that's about the National Dog Show.

Don't want to be a spoiler but ... keep an eye on the Bloodhound.; 12/31/20, 4:37 PM
FullMoon said...: We don't have no swans around here. Mainly crows, and ducks down at the park, which has no body of water. It is against the law to shoot birds with BBguns now. Has been that way for years.

Heck, we can't even feed the ducks stale bread anymore, without chance of a fine, or even arrest if you argue with the warden.

Not much of an outdoorsman, myself, which explains my court appearance for fishing with two fishing poles, which my friend Micheal set me up with.And, after I went through the trouble of actually getting a license. Mike said probably would have just been a warning if I didn't get all up so close to the guy and become so agitated and vociferous, which led to the ranger putting his hand on his gun. Rangers didn't use to have guns here.

Anyway, me and Micheal went to court, and after numerous men caught in a prostitution sting and a few guys carrying conceled weapons and some burgalars, I am called up and judge reads charge of fishing with two poles.All the criminals and most of the audience laughed out loud and I ws humiliated.

Would have been better if I assaulted the ranger and got a more respectable charge.

Anyway, Mike paid both our fines, since it was his fault in the first place. I don't even like fish, except tuna.; 12/31/20, 4:42 PM
Narr said...: Saint-Saens, Michelle.

There was 'breed' of dog in Britain called a 'spit-turner' as it was employed in just that activity. It may have been known elsewhere, too.

Swans are apparently not very tasty birds.

Narr
Book-knowledge; 12/31/20, 4:50 PM
Churchy LaFemme: said...: Would have been better if I assaulted the ranger and got a more respectable charge.

At least you weren't in there with mother stabbers & father rapers..; 12/31/20, 4:53 PM
narciso said...: there was also the rutles, which were the python take on the beattles, I think they debuted on saturday night live around 1978,; 12/31/20, 4:59 PM
Churchy LaFemme: said...: Ricky Fataar was both a Beach Boy & a Rutle.; 12/31/20, 5:03 PM
Anonymous said...: We didn't create this world. Like the swans, we live in it.; 12/31/20, 5:04 PM
Michelle Dulak Thomson said...: Narr,

Saint-Saens, Michelle.

slaps forehead D'oh!; 12/31/20, 5:17 PM
YoungHegelian said...: @MDT,

Can't leave out Schubert's Schwanengesang.; 12/31/20, 5:18 PM
YoungHegelian said...: @MDT,

I hesitate to list Heinrich Schutz's Schwanengesang, 'cause I don't he named it that. I don't know who first called it that or Opus Ultimum. I bet ol' Heinrich just called it Opus 13.; 12/31/20, 5:24 PM
Kate said...: Fun comments! I'd add Barber's art song Un Cygne with Rilke's poem as lyrics.; 12/31/20, 5:31 PM
FullMoon said...: Speaking of movies, last night I caught about thirty minutes of Best Little Whorehouse in Texas.
I had seen the title in the menue numerous times over the years, but had kind of lost interest in Western movies, so never watched it.

Because Dolly Parton had been in news lately, I clicked on it and was very surprised to see it was not a Western movie at all. Even less so than the Mandalorian, which I watched because being kind of a car guy, I figure it might be about the Government setting up the other car guy, DeLorean, who was responsible for the '64 GTO, as well as the stainless steel Back to the Future car. Yeah, typical situation, govt agents encourage him to deal large amounts of cocaine in order to finance his car company, then bust him for following their suggestions.

Anyway, Mandalorian like old time Westerns with tons of killing, I counted around 189 bad guys shot with sophisticated firearms before I gave up.

Anyway, Best Little was amazingly bad, although I was pleasantly surprised to see the half breed blacksmith from Gunsmoke, Bert Renolds, now sporting a bushy mustace, as co-star. Liked him better in Gunsmoke, although obviously not as good as other secondaries, Chester, or the hillbilly Festus, but way better than Mulie.

So, Bert grew a mustache and went from TV to movies. He was in Smokey and the bandits, which is on my list because I like that fat old time comedian, Jackie Gleason.

Also, Bert was connected with Sally Fields, a former actress and feckless cunt (JK); 12/31/20, 5:58 PM
FullMoon said...: Crazy stuff.

“We’re In” – Witness Testifies Dominion Voting Equipment, and Internal Data, Hacked Live During Georgia Senate Hearing; 12/31/20, 6:10 PM
Bilwick said...: "The tundra swans are back on Lake Mendota." Yes, and:

"Jean has a long mustache."

"Wounds my heart with monotonous langour."

"A wet bird never flies at night."; 12/31/20, 6:24 PM
John henry said...: A couple of people have mentioned in the comment threads that the Nashville bomber's girlfriend had gone to the FBI about a bomb in the RV and the FBI did nothing.

What we didn't know, and what I've not seen mentioned here is that before (I think) calling the FBI, the woman called the local police to report the bomb.

They sent several police to the house but They saw the RV in the backyard. Warner would not talk to them.

So they said OK and left. That was the last they did.

They also, at some point, talked to Warner's attorney who, according to the police report told them:

Warner’s OWN ATTORNEY said, and AGAIN I QUOTE:

“[Warner] frequently talks about . . . bomb making[,] . . .knows what he is doing and is capable of making a bomb.”

Yet nothing happened. No followup, no investigation, nothing other than a report to file.

It's almost like they want things to be blown up.

Alex little is a Nashville attorney and has a lengthy thread detailing this, including copies and links of the police reports from a year ago.

Thread is here: https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1344146621676859392.html

Little has some other threads on the bombing also interesting.

John Henry; 12/31/20, 6:24 PM
John henry said...: Blogger Tomcc said...

This is Spinal Tap, Best in Show, A Mighty Wind. Very appealing to my own sense of humor, but not to everyone's taste. See also the three Monty Python films.

I like all of them, though I tend to prefer my Monty Python in clips rather than the full movies. A little bit goes a long way for me.

I think of Mighty Wind, Best in Show and Waiting for Guffman together since they had a lot of the same cast and crew. I never thought of Spinal tap in that group though.

Am I missing something?

I rather liked the idea of My Dinner with Andre action figures from Guffman. It seemed to me like there would be a limited but upscale market for someone to actually produce them.

John Henry; 12/31/20, 6:31 PM
Narr said...: "Am I missing something?"

Writer-director Christopher Guest, maybe?

Narr
Not an expert; 12/31/20, 6:38 PM
Josephbleau said...: There's a kiss at the end of the rainbow, more precious than a pot of gold. Sniff, cry cry.; 12/31/20, 6:47 PM
Josephbleau said...: Old Nintey Seven got in the wrong hole. Now in mine number 60 there is blood on the coal.; 12/31/20, 6:49 PM
John henry said...: "I was known for doing a certain thing that many of the other girls wouldn't do."; 12/31/20, 6:51 PM
Josephbleau said...: Blood on the tracks, blood in the mine, brothers and sisters what a terrible time. The late shift was early and the early shift was late. The foreman ate his diner from a dirty tin plate.; 12/31/20, 6:55 PM
Josephbleau said...: You Mic Jagger, don't keep regular hours. You are the leader of the greatest rock and roll band in existence but you do not play an instrument.; 12/31/20, 7:04 PM
YoungHegelian said...: They took this song out of "A Mighty Wind". It was too good to be satire. But they did play it over the closing credits. Ladies & gents, When I'm next to you.; 12/31/20, 7:05 PM
YoungHegelian said...: @John Henry,

"I was known for doing a certain thing that many of the other girls wouldn't do."

A female friend who saw the movie with my wife & I asked me what I thought that "certain thing" might be. I told her I suspect they meant anal sex, but that was just a guess.

It wasn't the sort of thing I wanted to explain to a female friend after a movie.; 12/31/20, 7:08 PM
steve uhr said...: “The Vice President — the only defendant in this case — is ironically the very person whose power [plaintiffs] seek to promote. A suit to establish that the VP has discretion over the count,filed against the VP, is a walking legal contradiction.” — USDOJ, on behalf of VP Pence; 12/31/20, 7:18 PM
iowan2 said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 12/31/20, 7:19 PM
iowan2 said...: I see the National Teacher of the Year is calling for a hit on Mitch McConnell.
He asked for who ever is a neighbor of Mitch to do a Rand Paul on him. Asult resulting in days in the hospital, and weeks of recovery.

Gee, leftist are worse than scum. To think thugs like this influence our kids and receive accolades, tells everyone how debased and vile Democrats are.

Also the Superintendent accepted his apology, and said he was just joshing. The education culture is vile.; 12/31/20, 7:22 PM
wild chicken said...: They really are bloody-minded aren't they.; 12/31/20, 7:23 PM
Flat Tire said...: Anybody soaking their black eyed peas to make Hoppin' John tomorrow?; 12/31/20, 7:29 PM
Ambrose said...: Are they African or European tundra swans?; 12/31/20, 7:34 PM
Rt41Rebel said...: @Flat Tire
No but I finished cooking my yearly pot load of ham and 15 bean soup. I somehow always end up with a free ham at Christmas, and more than half of a free ham by NYE.; 12/31/20, 7:36 PM
stevew said...: I do respect and appreciate the regular commenters here, but the ignorance on display about classic satirical comedy movies is disturbing.

This is Spinal Tap
Waiting for Guffman
Best in Show
A Mighty Wind

Common element: Christopher Guest

Catch up, please.; 12/31/20, 8:06 PM
Rory said...: In the Pathetic New Year's Eve Derby, can anyone beat lying on the basement floor with a dog who is terrified of firecrackers? I'm thisclose to giving him an extra Xanax.

Tonight MeTV is showing the wonderful "Lebeau and the Little Old Lady" episode of Hogan's Heroes, featuring the lovely Celeste Yarnall.; 12/31/20, 8:09 PM
Lurker21 said...: Twilight Zone Marathon on Syfy.

There is a Fifth Dimension beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man's fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area which we call the Twilight Zone.

I guess that Fifth Dimension is where Kenny Rogers is now.

He finds himself in a world ruled by chickens and discovers yet more reasons why Kenny Rogers Roasters was not a good idea.; 12/31/20, 8:14 PM
Josephbleau said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 12/31/20, 8:14 PM
narciso said...: Strange world indeed

https://mobile.twitter.com/SohrabAhmari/status/1344627890235834369; 12/31/20, 8:43 PM
narciso said...: Oh really

https://mobile.twitter.com/TomFitton/status/1344659691335540740; 12/31/20, 8:44 PM
mandrewa said...: Thanks FullMoon.

That is almost unbelievable.

During live testimony before the Georgia Senate Committee (yesterday), a witness demonstrates how to break into the Fulton County voting system (Dominion Voting Systems) via the internet.

BREAKING: DOMINION MACHINES HACKED LIVE IN GEORGIA RUNOFF!; 12/31/20, 8:51 PM
The Godfather said...: Willie Nelson and Bob Dylan singing "Pancho and Lefty": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fd41cVwl9FY&feature=emb_rel_end; 12/31/20, 9:16 PM
madAsHell said...: Today, I saw three bald eagles flying over Husky Stadium, and the UW (yeah....the other UW) campus.

I also recently noticed a flight of Trumpeter Swans at Magnuson Park.

When I was a kid, they told me all the Trumpeters Swans, and the Bald Eagles would be extinct by now.

They even told me the Canadian Geese would be gone.

Magnuson Park is filthy with geese. They selectively mow the lawns because the geese don't like the grass scratching their asses!!; 12/31/20, 9:50 PM
Michelle Dulak Thomson said...: YoungHegelian,

I'm not sure Schubert named Schwanengesang that any more than Schuetz did; IIRC the Schubert "cycle" was nothing of the kind, the songs are in no particular order and it's unclear whether "Die Taubenpost" is even part of it or not. There are a bunch of different 19th-c. orderings. But, yes, another one (or, rather, two) I inexplicably forgot.

Kate, I don't know the Barber. Did he start as a song composer by setting Lied texts, as Ives did? Everything I know (Dover Beach, Knoxville: Summer of 1915, a bunch of individual songs) is in English. (And why is Rilke writing in French, anyway?); 12/31/20, 10:21 PM
Michelle Dulak Thomson said...: madAsHell, if the bald eagles do go extinct, the wind turbines will be a major cause. But they (the eagles, not the turbines) seem to be doing very well so far.; 12/31/20, 10:23 PM
LA_Bob said...: michelle Dulak Thomson said, "Other musical swans?"

I'm thinking of Sibelius's 5th Symphony, 3rd movement, inspired by swans taking off and circling overhead, over and over.; 12/31/20, 10:51 PM
Doug said...: Did you just take down a post about a Scottish law that can punish people for what they say in the privacy of their homes?; 1/1/21, 6:52 AM
Doug said...: You Mic Jagger, don't keep regular hours. You are the leader of the greatest rock and roll band in existence but you do not play an instrument.
Mick plays guitar (Mixed Emotions) and harmonica (Little Red Rooster); 1/1/21, 7:03 AM
Fritz said...: Michelle Dulak Thomson said...
madAsHell, if the bald eagles do go extinct, the wind turbines will be a major cause. But they (the eagles, not the turbines) seem to be doing very well so far.

A few years ago, the Bald Eagles were so abundant on Chesapeake Bay that some the young eagles were leaving the area and going elsewhere. We had a couple bad years where a bunch of eagles got poisoned on the Eastern Shore (it's not clear if it was accidental or deliberate) and the population seems a little lower. Still, I saw four in the sky at once this year. And eagles don't like each other very much.; 1/1/21, 7:19 AM
Fernandinande said...: Mick plays guitar (Mixed Emotions) and harmonica (Little Red Rooster)

He played harp on a lot of songs, as in this great rendition of Midnight Rambler in 1971.; 1/1/21, 8:28 AM
Michelle Dulak Thomson said...: Fritz,

My parents live on Eastern Shore, and are wildlife photographers in their retirement. They have a lot of bald eagle images -- Dad sent me one just last week of an eagle taking off from a tree on their property. (The first time my husband and I visited them at home, a bald eagle flew right past the kitchen window while we were eating lunch, maybe half an hour after we'd arrived.) Their place is on a tributary to the Chesapeake.

There's a dam -- Connowingo Dam, I think -- where the eagles congregate and fish. My folks drive there on occasion and, with lots and lots of other photographers, set up to catch the eagles who are catching the fish. I went once. The whole setup is pretty spectacular.; 1/1/21, 12:18 PM
Michelle Dulak Thomson said...: Bob,

I didn't know that about Sibelius 5. But I should've added Rautavaara's Cantus Arcticus, which is full of recorded far-Northern bird calls, probably including tundra swans. Which (to add to my previous comment) are also on the creek at my parents' house, every winter. Dad caught a spectacular dustup among their number many years ago, called it "Swan Fantasia," and gave it to me for my birthday.; 1/1/21, 12:23 PM
Narr said...: Did I miss mention of Tuonela?

Narr
Talk about "d'oh!"; 1/1/21, 2:32 PM
LA_Bob said...: Narr, you're right. I forgot all about The Swans of Tuonela.

Sibelius and his swans!; 1/1/21, 5:35 PM
Narr said...: As Granny used to say, "Well, I'll swan."

As great as that piece is, the rest of Lemmenkainen is unfairly neglected.

Narr
In My Honking Opinion; 1/1/21, 6:44 PM
Michelle Dulak Thomson said...: Narr, honk away! I am not exactly clothing myself in glory here. Hell, I've played the thing. More than once.

And you're right: the rest of the Lemmenkainen legends are underplayed. I blame the dearth of sustained English horn solos in the orchestral literature.; 1/1/21, 7:59 PM
Narr said...: The first movement blows me away; Sibelius had the energy and long line of Beethoven, to my layman's ear.

"En Saga" is similarly underplayed, if you ask me.

Narr
Or even if you don't; 1/1/21, 9:37 PM