There once was a writer from Memph-is
Whose poetry was all full of guess-is
About the nature of sex.
Was it a blessing or a hex?
And if all things were bigger in Tex-is.
Tag Archives: Texas
Library cat fur-loughed
Library Cat is Being Taken Away from the Place He Calls Home After 6 Years
Source: http://www.lovemeow.com/save-library-cat-browser-1889260522.html
Browser being evicted from only home he’s known.
A cat that has been a loyal worker and family to a library for six years is being taken away from the place he calls home.
Browser has been living at the Friends of the White Settlement Public Library (White Settlement, TX) for six years. He’s done great to contribute to fixing the library’s rodent problem and is loved by everyone there. However, things took a different turn, when suddenly he was asked to move out of the place he calls home.
This friendly feline has been a fixture at the library and people from all ages adore him and his purrsonality.
“I don’t have any animals. But this cat is so gentle and so lovable and he brings so much comfort to so many people, it seems like a shame to take him away,” Lillian Blackburn, president of the library, told Star Telegram.
It all happened after a city employee complained to the city council that they weren’t allowed to bring their puppy to work, but also pointed out the fact that Browser was allowed to stay at the library.
Despite “an outpouring of support for the cat”, the White Settlement City Council voted to evict the cat.
Ironically, it was the city council that voted to allow the library to have a cat to help them with pest control.
Mayor Ron White, a nonvoting council moderator, also wants Browser to stay.
“That cat doesn’t have anything to do with whether somebody can have their puppy at City Hall. That cat doesn’t hurt anybody,” he said to Star-Telegram.
Browser is a wonderful cat and always so helpful around the library.
Not only does he keep the rodents at bay, he helps his humans with their work too.
Browser, the supercat, protecting the library from rodents.
What a hero!
He helps kids and adults pick good reads and brings a big smile to everyone that walks in.
Mayor White hopes they could reconsider its decision at the next council meeting on July 12, two days before Browser has to move out.
“Browser is still at the library for now,” White Settlement Public Library told Love Meow.
If you’d like to show your support in favor of keeping Browser the cat at the library, you can contact White Settlement council members at this link.
Haiku to you Thursday: “Town”
Tiny Texas town /
clutching its two-lane necklace, /
and tattered church clothes.
Filed under 2015, Haiku to You Thursday, poetry by author
Saturday update: “‘Breakneck speed'”
[Editor’s note: below is a follow up article to the one posted in this blog on Thursday: https://talltalestogo.wordpress.com/2014/12/04/haiku-to-you-thursday-brain-drain/.]
UT: Missing brains were destroyed
By Benjamin Wermund | December 3, 2014
The bizarre mystery of the University of Texas at Austin’s missing brains came to a swift end Wednesday, as officials revealed that the preserved organs had been destroyed more than a decade ago. But some questions remain.
One hundred brains, kept in formaldehyde-filled jars, were reported missing this week from the state’s premier research university. About 200 brains dating from the 1950s, which originally belonged to patients at the Austin State Hospital, were given to UT for research in the 1980s.
About half of them briefly went unaccounted for and officials spent Tuesday and Wednesday scrambling to find them. A preliminary university investigation found that UT environmental health and safety officials disposed of multiple brain specimens in 2002 in accordance with protocols concerning biological waste.
But questions remain — including why the brains were destroyed — and the university said it would appoint an investigative committee to get answers.
“As researchers and teachers, we understand the potential scientific value of all of our holdings and take our roles as stewards of them very seriously,” UT officials said in a statement. “The university will also investigate how the decision was made to dispose of some of these specimens and how all brain specimens have been handled since the university received its collection from the Austin State Hospital in the 1980s.”
The brains were in poor condition when the university received them in the 1980s and were not suitable for research or teaching, the university said in a statement. Workers disposed of between 40 and 60 jars, some of which contained multiple human brains, the statement said.
Despite reports that the missing brains included that of Charles Whitman, the sniper who went on a shooting spree from the UT Tower in 1966, UT officials said they had no evidence that Whitman’s brain had been destroyed with the others. Other reports Wednesday that the brains had been given to UT campuses in San Antonio also appeared to be false, UT said. The university will continue to investigate both claims, however.
“We’re moving at breakneck [Editor’s note: An interesting word choice considering speed to figure this all out,” UT spokesman Gary Susswein said Wednesday. “We obviously take this very seriously.”
Author Alex Hannaford discovered the brains had gone missing while reporting for his book, “Malformed: Forgotten Brains of the Texas State Mental Hospital.” Hannaford detailed the mystery in an article for the Atlantic, published Tuesday.
Timothy Schallert, a neuroscientist at UT and curator of the university’s collection of preserved brains, told Hannaford that by the mid-1990s, about 200 of the organs, sealed in jars, were taking up much-needed space at UT’s Animal Resources Center. Jerry Fineg, the center’s then-director, asked Schallert if he would move half of the jars elsewhere.
Eventually, Schallert discovered about half of the brains had gone missing. “I never found out exactly what happened—whether they were just given away, sold or whatever—but they just disappeared,” he told Hannaford.
Hannaford said Wednesday that UT still has a lot of questions to answer. He questioned whether 100 brains could possibly fit into the 40 to 60 jars UT says it destroyed.
“It leaves the question, are there some that are unaccounted for?” he said, adding that it was “pretty obvious that Whitman’s brain was part of the collection.”
Coleman de Chenar, a pathologist at the Austin State Hospital in the 1960s, conducted the autopsy on Whitman, who had left a note for police, urging physicians to examine his brain for signs of mental illness. Whitman’s brain reportedly ended up in the collection of specimens then housed at the hospital that was later given to UT, Hannaford said.
“As far as I’m concerned, it leaves some sort of open ended questions,” Hannaford said.
Monday morning writing joke: “An Irish priest in Texas”
An Irish priest was transferred to Texas.
Father O’Malley rose from his bed one morning. It was a fine spring day in his new west Texas mission parish.
He walked to the window of his bedroom to get a deep breath of the beautiful day outside.
He then noticed there was a jackass lying dead in the middle of his front lawn. He promptly called the local police station.
The conversation went like this: “Good morning. This is Sergeant Jones. How might I help you?”
“And the best of the day te yerself. This is Father O’Malley at St. Ann ‘s Catholic Church. There’s a jackass lying dead in me front lawn and would ye be so kind as to send a couple o’yer lads to take care of the matter?”
Sergeant Jones, considering himself quite a wit and recognizing the foreign accent, thought he would have a little fun with the good father, replied, “Well now Father, it was always my impression that you people took care of the last rites!”
There was dead silence on the line for a long moment. …
Father O’Malley then replied: “Aye, ’tis certainly true; but we are also obliged to notify the next of kin first, which is the reason for me call.”
Filed under Monday morning writing joke
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