Bird Internet

It's time for a post about Baltimore's birds! No, not the Orioles. And ok, not the pink flamingo either. It's heron blogging season! Usually Nick takes care of this, but now that the herons are on my way home from rollerskiing, he has to share. And anyway, pretty clear that the new bird internet revolution will be tweeted, not televised or blogged. Anyway, yellow-crowned Jones Falls herons: At least 7 herons and 3 nests on the tree they used last year. Also spotted: two bipedal binoculared birders on the bridge.

And yes, that's right: I strapped my poles to the toptube, threw the rollerskis in an ikea bag over my shoulder, and toodled over to Druid Hill Park for a late afternoon rollerski. I've been doing this with poles and rollerblades, but now I have the realdeal skis, and I guess because they make me look even more ridiculous but now somehow more earnestly ridiculous, I'm getting lots of comments. "Great cardio! Two thumbs up! Did you make those yourself? etc.... It is good cardio, I'd give thumbs up back, but I'm busy trying to balance on these skinny things, and sadly no, did not make them myself. Also worth stating that even without rollerskis I seem to attract comment while exercising.

Most notably, I was told once jogging at 62nd and Christian in Philadelphia, well into West Philadelphia proper (not "Left of Center/ University City,") that "the British are coming, and they're going to free the slaves." And you know what? He wasn't wrong, if two centuries late. The War of 1812 conference I've just returned from had a whole paper about British naval officers who went to Georgia and Louisiana to wrassle up maroon community ex-slaves and as many blacks and cherokees as they could find and who were willing to fight the Americans, and then declaring them manumitted and British citizens and enemies of the US. Also, did you know that Hail to the Chief came out of The War of 1812 and was adapted from a poem by that most American of Americans, Sir Walter Scott? Yupp. Or that American generals, who should have been writing dull editorials to American periodicals about civic duty and republican ideals were actually desperate to be Napoleonic heroes in ever-more outlandish fancy dress? You thought the War of 1812 was about overtures and Andrew Jackson and a "second war for independence." Nope: just more proof that at heart we're all Anglophiles and bon amis of the cheese-eating surrender monkeys.