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Echoes from the

Loafers’ Club Meeting

I feel like a kid.

That’s wonderful. What’s your secret?

I tried opening a childproof cap.

Driving by Bruce’s drive

I have a wonderful neighbor named Bruce. Whenever I pass his drive, thoughts occur to me. Can February March? No, but April May. I’ve known more females named April than I can remember. I asked one if she’d been born in April. She had not. According to the Social Security Administration, April was the 515th most popular name for a baby girl in 2023. The name hit its peak of popularity in 1981 when it was the 25th most popular name for a girl. I was born in March. From 1900 until now, March has never been in the top 1000 most popular names for girls or boys. I don’t know anyone with the first name of March. Pity.

George Orwell’s book “1984,” published in 1949, has this iconic sentence for its first line: ”It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.”

T.S. Eliot, in “The Waste Land,” wrote, “April is the cruelest month, breeding lilacs out of the dead land, mixing memory and desire, stirring dull roots with spring rain.”

If April showers bring May flowers, what do May flowers bring? Pilgrims. A 1610 poem contained the lines “Sweet April showers, do spring May flowers.” “March winds and April showers bring forth May flowers” has been traced to 1886.

When Mr. T was asked what his favorite month was, he replied, “April, fool.”

The Beatles sang, “If you try to sit, I’ll tax your seat. If you get too cold, I’ll tax the heat. If you take a walk, I’ll tax your feet. ‘Cause I’m the taxman.”

I’ve learned

If I feel stupid, I’ve just gotten smarter.

A cat will never hold an elevator door open for you.

To sit down in any pants I’m trying on in a store.

Anything makes a good sandwich if you have enough bread.

“From there to here, from here to there, funny things are everywhere!”―Dr. Seuss, “One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish.”

The talk was about three foods that those seated around the Table of Infinite Knowledge liked that other people might not. I came up with three quickly: Welsh rarebit (sometimes called Welsh rabbit), a dish of melted cheddar cheese sauce (sometimes including mustard or Worcestershire sauce) served on toasted bread; baked beans on toast with ham; and asparagus pickles. That’s a trifecta of fine victuals. I almost said poutine, which consists of french fries topped with cheese curds and hot gravy, but the pickles were a healthier choice.

Nature notes

Owls are like stars. They come out at night. A great horned owl flew in front of my car on a dark night. Owls find roads to be prime hunting locations. An owl-car collision was avoided.

I was stationed at the edge of a lake, an intersection with nature, ready and willing to be astounded by all I might experience. Canada geese flew in for a water landing. I think of geese as accomplished fliers and I don’t think of them as fancy aerialists, but some used a tricky technique to slow themselves for a safe and effective landing. The geese stopped flapping their wings and rolled their bodies upside down while twisting their long necks so that they remained right side up. Then, they rotated their bodies to right themselves just in time for a gentle splashdown. If they’d been passenger geese, the travelers aboard would have applauded the landing. The maneuver the geese performed is called whiffling. Slowing their descent is what I think the big birds wearing goose down were doing, but they might have just been showing off. Either way, it was impressive.

Turkey vultures monitored the roads no matter where I drove. To them, each road is an aisle in the grocery store. Road-killed deer, raccoons and opossums were available for their dining pleasure.

I listened to a tufted titmouse calling “Peter-Peter-Peter” in Lamoni, Iowa. That’s what the mnemonic is. It could have been producing a clear whistle that said pita-pita-pita, cheeva-cheeva-cheeva, or here-here-here. The plural is titmice, and the name has nothing to do with mice. It derives from Old English words meaning “small bird.” The collective noun for titmice is a banditry. One titmouse flew near me, its big, dark eyes giving it the look of a bird that is constantly surprised. It used its feet as a plate to hold a seed and its beak as silverware to open and eat the food.

Meeting adjourned

Don’t flunk gratitude. Be kind.