February 16, 2026

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Arfside
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Reply to  nighthawks
18 days ago

Me, and my shadow
Walkin’ down the avenue.

SusanSunshine
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Reply to  nighthawks
18 days ago

A black panther is, of course, a melanistic (ie black) leopard or jaguar…. About 10 or 12% of leopards are melanistic, and they don’t seem to notice.

By that I mean, there doesn’t seem to be much preference for a leader or a mate of one color or the other, and the young are all treated the same.

Like it should be with humans.

Arfside
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Reply to  SusanSunshine
18 days ago

Yup. Watching “Finding Your Roots” with Henry Louis Gates Jr, I’m seeing that people didn’t always let it stop them. Religions and other beliefs, on the other hand, seem to have been larger barriers.

JP Steve
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Reply to  Arfside
17 days ago

When my (white) cousin married a (black) African my family was scandalized. I thought it was the best thing they could have done for the human race!

SusanSunshine
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Reply to  nighthawks
17 days ago

I searched this image last night, and again just now…. Mostly I found different descriptions everywhere…

However I just found one comment saying “This is a well known photo taken by dutch photographer wim k steffen from 1957 called cattle dealers in cafe.”

Quick edit…. I googled the photographer, and managed to find one mention… It did lead to this picture, and the above is true.

It doesn’t look like the wild West because these are cattle dealers in the Netherlands, in 1957.

Last edited 17 days ago by SusanSunshine
Arfside
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Reply to  nighthawks
18 days ago

Probably got that mouse hiding down there under the snow.

SusanSunshine
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Reply to  nighthawks
18 days ago

Actually, yes.

According to my image search, this is a fairly common sight in some places.

The mouse isn’t necessarily hiding…

This is a snow print made by an owl, when it pounces on small prey.

Some people online called them “owl angels”. I didn’t know whether they actually say that, or it was just for the comments on that site.

happyhappyhappy
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Reply to  nighthawks
18 days ago

There is a story there that’d like to hear. 😀

SusanSunshine
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Reply to  nighthawks
17 days ago

This image is all over the place on line.

It’s told differently on different Facebook and IG pages, but apparently, either there were multiple copies of the sign made, and posted in various libraries, or this photo of the only sign went viral… In any case, commenters on most sites are asking about it, not solving the mystery.

But on two sites, people who seemed to know said this was a joke, done in answer to a funny Oreos Superbowl ad… one gave a link to the ad. Unfortunately this picture and that Superbowl ad are from 2011 or 2012, and the link no longer works.

Last edited 17 days ago by SusanSunshine
JP Steve
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Reply to  nighthawks
18 days ago

He was a boy
She was a girl
Can I make it any more obvious?

Tigressy
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Reply to  nighthawks
18 days ago

And now imagine that scene only a split-second later.

DancingBuffalo
Reply to  nighthawks
18 days ago

“Please do not feed the ducks.”

mr_sherman
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Reply to  nighthawks
17 days ago

“Pull my finger.”

JP Steve
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Reply to  nighthawks
18 days ago

Gotta be a story in there somewhere…

Arfside
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Reply to  nighthawks
18 days ago

I recognize the gal on the right, but I can’t put a name on her. Clueless about the gal on the left.

Solstice-1947
Solstice-1947
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Reply to  nighthawks
18 days ago

The story is…
“The Help”

and the actresses are…
Jessica Chastain and Octavia Spencer

Last edited 18 days ago by Solstice-1947
Tigressy
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Reply to  Solstice-1947
18 days ago

I knew it!

SusanSunshine
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Reply to  nighthawks
18 days ago

I’ve never seen this movie, but I’ve been watching short clips of it for a long time on YouTube.

It’s called
The Help

The actresses are…
Jessica Chastain and Octavia Spencer, who won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for this role.

SusanSunshine
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Reply to  SusanSunshine
17 days ago

Oops… We must have posted at almost the same time.

Solstice-1947
Solstice-1947
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Reply to  SusanSunshine
17 days ago

No problem. It happens frequently. At least we agree. 😉

SusanSunshine
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Reply to  Solstice-1947
17 days ago

Funny that our actual comments were so similar.

Arfside
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Reply to  nighthawks
18 days ago

and furthermore, if I’m elected….

More_Cats_Than_Sense
Reply to  nighthawks
18 days ago

“Now you may be wondering why I asked you all here today….”

SusanSunshine
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Reply to  nighthawks
18 days ago

If those llamas look especially cute, it’s because they’re actually alpacas.

Tigressy
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Reply to  SusanSunshine
18 days ago

So the cat’s name isn’t Dalai?!?

happyhappyhappy
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Reply to  SusanSunshine
18 days ago

Elf llamas. !!!

JP Steve
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Reply to  nighthawks
18 days ago

Guilty as charged…

JP Steve
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Reply to  nighthawks
18 days ago

You make it look almost safe…

SusanSunshine
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Reply to  JP Steve
18 days ago

As in, close but no cigar.

happyhappyhappy
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Reply to  nighthawks
18 days ago

Is there a tree trunk or fire hydrant in the middle?

More_Cats_Than_Sense
Reply to  happyhappyhappy
18 days ago

Could be a statue inside.

Tigressy
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Reply to  More_Cats_Than_Sense
18 days ago

Or a microchip.

DancingBuffalo
Reply to  More_Cats_Than_Sense
18 days ago

Lenin?

More_Cats_Than_Sense
Reply to  DancingBuffalo
17 days ago

A fair chance, though not sure if the authorities would appreciate a statue of Lenin being entombed in ice and snow.

Arfside
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Reply to  nighthawks
18 days ago

What a wonderful picture. Now why would somebody put that stepstool in there and ruin it? There’s just no telling about what passes for “art” these days.

Tigressy
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Reply to  nighthawks
18 days ago

Yup. That’s from that site.

happyhappyhappy
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Reply to  nighthawks
18 days ago

A pack of wolves.

SusanSunshine
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Reply to  happyhappyhappy
18 days ago

Pack is generic… lots of animals are in packs and herds.

There really are fanciful words for individual animal groups, even though they’re rarely used except maybe by poets, not scientists.

Some of the ones on this chart seem made up… then again, so do some real ones.

I’ve heard of a few of them, and one is “rout” for a pack of wolves. No “e” on it though.

I thought a barrel of monkeys was just a joke… I dunno, but I know people do say a troop of monkeys.

Gaggle of geese is actually used, and supposedly a murder of crows and a parliament of owls, but I think those two are just in a picture book.

SusanSunshine
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Reply to  nighthawks
18 days ago

Gee… could it be… Yes!

It’s….
The Twilight Zone.

”People Are Alike All Over'” ….. season 1, episode 25, March 25, 1960.

Starring….
Roddy McDowall. It’s a bit hard to tell whether that’s him in the picture, but I’d say probably.

SusanSunshine
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18 days ago

Just in case you, like me, live in an area where there’s nothing called Jared’s… I searched it for us.

Jared’s is, as you might tend to assume from context, a jewelry store. It’s owned by the same huge corporation that owns Zale’s and Kay Jewelers, and some smaller chains, plus online jewelers Blue Nile.

Kay and Zale’s are mall chains… Jared’s has some stand alone stores and the parent company promotes it as a bit more upscale… But it’s not upscale on a par with, say, Tiffany’s, or especially, Cartier.

Then again, Clara isn’t likely to be shopping at Tiffany or Cartier. That would be a bit over the top, unless Cleo is a bigger star than I thought.

But if that were the case, Claude probably wouldn’t be excited about a 25¢ VCR rewinder from the flea market. Then again… he’s Claude.

More_Cats_Than_Sense
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18 days ago

Child Car Seat – 1950’s.

Child-Car-Seat-1950s
SusanSunshine
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Reply to  More_Cats_Than_Sense
18 days ago

They did keep the baby relatively confined… But in an accident they were pretty much worse than nothing.

The baby isn’t strapped in, and the seat was only hooked over the car seat back… In a sudden stop they both went flying, not necessarily together.

That said, I rode in one sort of like this, and later, my little sister used it. IIRC, ours was just cloth, though… no metal frame under us.
Like a square bag, hanging from a thin wire frame, with holes for the legs.

happyhappyhappy
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Reply to  More_Cats_Than_Sense
18 days ago

Looks like a launch pad to me.

SusanSunshine
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Reply to  happyhappyhappy
17 days ago

Yup!

Arfside
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Reply to  happyhappyhappy
17 days ago

Especially bad on 2-door sedans with the front seat able to swing out of the way to let in the rear seat passengers.

JP Steve
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Reply to  More_Cats_Than_Sense
17 days ago

I remember having the steering wheel off of one to use in my cardboard box racing cars…

More_Cats_Than_Sense
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18 days ago

Gray Fox, Sebastopol, California.

Gray-Fox-Sebastopol-California
SusanSunshine
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Reply to  More_Cats_Than_Sense
18 days ago

That’s only about 10 miles from me, on the way out to the coast.

Wanna come over, little guy?

It’s more rural there, so he probably wouldn’t like my neighborhood.

More_Cats_Than_Sense
Member
18 days ago

White-browed Robin Chat found in east, central and southern Africa, its natural habitats include riverine forest and thickets.

.

.

(Had to look up the word ‘riverine’, it means adjacent to a river, or riverbank).

White-browed-Robin-Chat-found-in-east-central-and-southern-Africa-its-natural-habitats-include-riverine-forest-and-thickets
SusanSunshine
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Reply to  More_Cats_Than_Sense
18 days ago

I was told about real estate that “riverine” meant in the water, like riverine otters, and navigational rights… I’ve never heard of riverine forests.

Near, or on the banks of, a river is “riparian”, like use of the riverbank, or like Hyacinth’s picnics.

Tigressy
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Reply to  SusanSunshine
18 days ago

Auwälder. Quite common here.

SusanSunshine
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Reply to  Tigressy
18 days ago

For which?

Tigressy
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Reply to  SusanSunshine
18 days ago

Riparian forests.

Last edited 18 days ago by Tigressy
SusanSunshine
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Reply to  Tigressy
17 days ago

Okay… Yes, here too, though we don’t have a separate word for the trees…. Just riparian this or that.

As you know, German creates a lot more descriptive combined words than English does.

I’d say the word itself isn’t common, but it’s well known to those who need it, for instance, riparian rights are spelled out on property deeds.

SusanSunshine
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18 days ago

Yin and his brother Yang…

SmartSelect_20260215_232012_Samsung-Internet
Tigressy
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Reply to  SusanSunshine
18 days ago

Or her brother…

SusanSunshine
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Reply to  Tigressy
18 days ago

Or his sister, or her sister… I just get tired of typing every alternative.

Tigressy
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Reply to  SusanSunshine
18 days ago

Nope.
Yin is the female principle, Yang the male.

SusanSunshine
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Reply to  Tigressy
18 days ago

Sigh …

Tigressy
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Reply to  SusanSunshine
18 days ago

Yes indeed.
I do know it was meant as a joke, but please take your own advice too sometimes.
Peace.

SusanSunshine
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Reply to  Tigressy
17 days ago

Okay… .. still trying to figure out what advice I’ve forgotten.

happyhappyhappy
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Reply to  Tigressy
18 days ago

I did not know that.

Tigressy
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Reply to  happyhappyhappy
18 days ago

I’ve got that the wrong way for decades.

Alexikakos
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Reply to  SusanSunshine
18 days ago

 
Edgar Allan Poe:
…all cats are she…
 

JP Steve
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Reply to  Alexikakos
17 days ago

And all dogs are he…

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