In human years, these two Peach-fronted Conures lived to be 100 — On January 29, 2021, my 30-year-old Peach-fronted Conure Sheldon passed away resting against my heart. He was weeks away from reaching age 31 — extreme old age for this species. Two years earlier, on March 15, 2019, my Peach-front Courtney passed in the same way. He was exactly 29 years…

She’s snoozing underneath my window as I type — Awful photo, I know. But I’m so thrilled my hummingbird with no field marks is still here in my hummingbird garden. This news wouldn’t necessarily be worthy of a post except it got down to 23ºF on Saturday night, and I had to chop down the frost-bitten vegetation yesterday. …

Dark thoughts as the grocery store gets down to the last eight cans of chicken noodle soup — Omicron is tearing through my parish because of stupid people not wearing masks. Know how I know? I went to the grocery store, and they were running out of chicken noodle soup again. I thoughtfully bought the last eight cans. Ah, the stupid sickness, as Arthur Herzog III called it…

A review of Arthur Herzog III’s IQ 83 — As I like to say on Twitter, we’re living in a slow-rolling zombie novel. If you think people are getting dumber, you’re probably right. As carbon dioxide levels rise in our atmosphere, people lose intelligence because they can’t think as clearly. Since carbon dioxide levels are still rising, we don’t…

The wind won’t blow this Great Blue Heron away… — The human heart lifts when a bird recognizes us as an individual with predictable behaviors. There’s magic in it. We are here. We are seen. The Great Blue Herons and Great Egrets of southeast Louisiana are some of the more visible beauties of the region. …

Are you setting the right tone? — I recently heard from two authors with the same problem. One has been self-publishing for a decade. The other just released her first novel. Both were losing money hand over fist. When we advertise our books on Amazon, we pay every time a browser clicks on our ad to visit…

Am I a bad person for thinking everybody concerned knew all along the cards were fake? — I’m just gonna say it. I don’t believe Logan Paul lost any $3.5 million on those Pokemon cards. I don’t believe any money changed hands at all. Don’t get me wrong. If he did lose the money, he certainly deserved to. Spending $3.5 million to collect something you’ve never seen…