December is done. 2022 is done. It’s time to pick through the rubble and snowdrifts to see at least part of what WC may have missed. As always the Magpie Principle applies and absolutely no journalism has been committed in writing this blog post. WC has written earlier about Juli Mazi, who was indicted by…
WC will close 2022 and welcome 2023 as he always does, with the full text of Robert Burns’ classic poem, usually drunkenly sung to an ancient Scottish folk tune of unknown provenance. Translation from the Gaelic is left as an exercise for the reader. Should auld acquaintance be forgot And never brought to mind? Should…
In what passes for tradition here at Wickersham’s Conscience, we spend the last week of each year thinking about the year that is ending, and making our wishes for the coming year. This is the final blog post in that annual tradition. Despite the abject failures of his wishes for 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 and most…
In what passes for tradition here at Wickersham’s Conscience, we spend the last week of each year thinking about the year that is ending, and making our wishes for the coming year. This blog post is firmly in that tradition: a look back at the kidney stone that was 2022 and a look forward to…
As most readers know, WC has very, very low expectation of American politicians. Most of them, Republicans, Democrats and Independents, have as their first principle getting re-elected, seeing everything else as a means to that end. There’s a spectrum, of course. At one end you have the Lauren Broberts of the nation, whose only principle…
In what passes for tradition here at Wickersham’s Conscience, we spend the last week of each year thinking about the year that is ending, and making our wishes for the coming year. This blog post is firmly in that tradition: a look back at the kidney stone that was 2022 and a look forward to…
In what passes for tradition here at Wickersham’s Conscience, we spend the last week of each year thinking about the year that is ending, and making our wishes for the coming year. This blog post is firmly in that tradition: a look back at the kidney stone that was 2021 and a look forward to…
In what passes for tradition here at Wickersham’s Conscience, we spend the last week of each year thinking about the year that is ending, and making our wishes for the coming year. This blog post is firmly in that tradition: a look back at another kidney stone of a year and a look forward to…
In what passes for tradition here at Wickersham’s Conscience, we spend the last week of each year thinking about the year that is ending, and making our wishes for the coming year. This is the final blog post in that annual tradition. Despite the abject failures of his wishes for 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 and most recently 2020,…
In what passes for tradition here at Wickersham’s Conscience, we spend the last week of each year thinking about the year that is ending, and making our wishes for the coming year. This blog post is firmly in that tradition: a look back at the kidney stone that was 2021 and a look forward to…
In what passes for tradition here at Wickersham’s Conscience, we spend the last week of each year thinking about the year that is ending, and making our wishes for the coming year. This blog post is firmly in that tradition: a look back at the kidney stone that was 2021 and a look forward to…
In what passes for tradition here at Wickersham’s Conscience, we spend the last week of each year thinking about the year that is ending, and making our wishes for the coming year. This blog post is firmly in that tradition: a look back at the kidney stone that was 2021 and a look forward to…
In what passes for tradition here at Wickersham’s Conscience, we spend the last week of each year thinking about the year that is ending, and making our wishes for the coming year. This blog post is firmly in that tradition: a look back at the kidney stone that was 2021 and a look forward to…
In what passes for tradition here at Wickersham’s Conscience, we spend the last week of each year thinking about the year that is ending, and making our wishes for the coming year. This blog post is firmly in that tradition: a look back at the kidney stone that was 2021 and a look forward to…
WC’s Return of Bird of the Week usually appears on Saturdays. But by the vagaries of the calendar, the next two Saturdays are holidays, with their own special blog posts. Return of Bird of the Week will . . . return . . . on January 8, 2022.
Yes, the photo is from two years ago. Yes, there are telephone lines crossing the photo. Yes, a New Year deserves better. But 2020 is done, most of us have have survived, and in less than three weeks Trump will be behind us. Not the consequences of Trump; we’ll be living with that for a…
In what passes for tradition here at Wickersham’s Conscience, we spend the last week of each year thinking about the year that is ending, and making our wishes for the coming year. This is the final blog post in that annual tradition. Despite the abject failures of his wishes for 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 and most recently 2020 (a…
For WC, at least, this year it was pretty easy. Can you name one high-profile Trump Administration official who, across the entire disaster area of the Trump Presidency, has handled himself with class, professionalism and dignity, doing his or her job effectively in the face of all manner of attacks? WC can. Dr. Fauci has…
In what passes for tradition here at Wickersham’s Conscience, we spend the last week of each year thinking about the year that is ending, and making our wishes for the coming year. This blog post is firmly in that tradition: a look back at the kidney stone that was 2020 and a look forward to…
In what passes for tradition here at Wickersham’s Conscience, we spend the last week of each year thinking about the year that is ending, and making our wishes for the coming year. This blog post is firmly in that tradition: a look back at the kidney stone that was 2020 and a look forward to…
In what passes for tradition here at Wickersham’s Conscience, we spend the last week of each year thinking about the year that is ending, and making our wishes for the coming year. This blog post is firmly in that tradition: a look back at the kidney stone that was 2020 and a look forward to…
In what passes for tradition here at Wickersham’s Conscience, we spend the last week of each year thinking about the year that is ending, and making our wishes for the coming year. This blog post is firmly in that tradition: a look back at the kidney stone that was 2020 and a look forward to…
Okay, technically these are the Odontophoridae (New World quail) and Phasianidae (the pheasant family), but basically they are chicken-like birds of the order Galliformes. They are described by wildlife management authorities as Upland Game Birds, but WC, like many birders, refuses to classify birds by whether or not they are hunted. In the Intermountain West,…
The votes are in. The results are final. A little over 300 readers chose to vote (less than a third of those who viewed the page). Here are the totals: Candidate Percent of Vote Rep. Scott DesJarlais (R, Tennessee and Horny Dogs) 38.00% Ex-Alaska Attorney General Kevin Clarkson 29.00% U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John…
This is the third entry in a sometimes series of birds WC photographed in 2020. This post focuses on raptors, an imprecise term for mostly eagles, hawks and falcons. It’s a lifestyle, not a Linnaean classifiction. In fact, hawks and falcons turn out to not be closely related, despite a shared hunting lifestyle. Of course,…
This is the second entry in a sometime series of birds photographed in 2020. This post focuses on Rallidae, the family of birds that includes Rails, Coots and Gallinules. It’s a family of birds with some 159 species, that range from incredibly hard to see, let alone photograph – the Black Rail comes to mind…
Traditionally, the symbol of the New Year is a baby, as the Old Year is an old man. Some historians have traced the Baby New Year back to Ancient Greece and the re-birth of Dionysus, the god of wine, reborn each year as a symbol of fertility. The Greek myth was co-opted, like many other…
In what passes for tradition here at Wickersham’s Conscience, we spend the last week of each year thinking about the year that is ending, and making our wishes for the coming year. This final blog post in that tradition. Despite the abject failures of his wishes for 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 and most recently 2019, WC, in his continuing triumph of…
Not since the events before the Civil War has it been more important for our elected officials to set aside politics, set aside the exigencies of getting re-elected, and simply do the right thing. That’s not happening. What is happening is that their collective obsession with getting re-elected overrides all other considerations, at the expense…
WC couldn’t decide between two candidates; as a result, we have the first co-Person of the Year here at Wickersham’s Conscience. WC isn’t the only one very impressed with Greta Thunberg’s willingness to speak truth to power. Time Magazine named her its Person of the Year. WC does so because she spoke truth to power.1 Her…
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