After dropping off Mr. Excitement at the crack of dawn, I got a call less than two hours later saying that he was ready to be picked up.
To my surprise, he was awake; Mu was groggy when she came home. Then again, it’s a different procedure altogether for males and females.
He began meowing quite a bit on the way home and the carrier smelled of musk, so I put him in the upstairs bathroom with a fresh litter box. He immediately stumbled over to the litter box and sprayed.
When he was done, there was a clump at least six inches in diameter giving off the foulest eye-watering stench I’ve smelled in a while. My head still hurts thinking about it.
There were also drops of musky urine all over the bathroom floor. He’s staying there all night.
Perhaps to chase any doubt from my mind about getting him fixed, Mr. Excitement filled the entire house with the smell of musk this morning. It was so powerful I could smell it in my sleep. I hope he enjoyed the experience; at this time tomorrow he will be missing some vital equipment.
They also reported on a practice called “universal default”:
Universal default criticized
Another troubling finding, Sherry said, was the increased use of a controversial practice known as “universal default” by the credit card issuers. Banks now regularly check their customers’ credit reports for signs of late payments on any of their bills. In fact, credit reporting agencies now offer daily account reviews, with names like “notification services,” and “risk triggers,” to alert credit card firms of any late payments. Any reported late payment can be used to trigger increased credit card interest rates, even if all payments to the card issuer are up to date.
That’s just bullshit.
If your credit card company engages in this practice (regardless of whether it affects you), consider canceling that card.
NPR’s Melissa Block talks with John Colapinto, author of As Nature Made Him: The Boy Who Was Raised as a Girl, about David Reimer, who killed himself at the age of 38 years on May 4. Reimer had become a focus in the “nature vs. nurture” debate after he was raised as a girl, along with his identical twin brother. But, Reimer later in life decided to live as a boy. He decided to go public after the publishing of the book in an effort to reverse the findings of the study.
Remember last fall? The weeks after the special election? Well, we’ve got some more fires going on. While they’re not as bad as last fall’s, they underscore once again that policies that allow human settlements to get too close to hills which historically burn down every few years are completely irresponsible. When you link the danger to human lives to other urban problems of congestion, pollution, and reduction of open space, you might want to start thinking about imposing a moratorium on further outward growth.
Of course, such a moratorium would be considered completely anti-American by some. The acceptable alternative would be to charge new developments in these areas hefty fees to pay for the construction and maintenance of vital infrastructure to these areas and for a heavy duty rapid response local fire crew. After all, if some people choose to live out in fire country, they should pay for the services needed to keep them healthy and safe.