Stacy Horn

Did I ever tell the story about growing up near a small turkey farm?  I can’t remember the name (which is bugging me).  And I don’t remember how I figured it out, but I discovered that certain noises would cause the turkeys to talk back to me.  I loved visiting the turkeys from time to time to talk to them.  

Me:  High pitched squeaking noises.
Turkeys:  Gobble, gobble.

Back and forth we’d go, me squeaking and the turkeys gobbling back.  I suppose it was inevitable that I stop eating them.

I recently read about the Farm Sanctuary’s Adopt-A-Turkey project. I know some people will think with all the suffering in the world, it’s silly to give what little we might have to a bunch of turkeys, but if there’s a God he’s paying attention to the care we take of his other creatures.

Here’s the important part, the point I really want to make though:  Even if you’re going to have turkey for Thanksgiving, consider doing this.  Just because you can’t go all the way and become a vegetarian doesn’t mean you shouldn’t still do what you can.  I often get people pointing out, “An animal might have suffered so you can have that cheese,” or one of many other things.  “How do you know plants don’t suffer?”  We all do the best we can. Just because I can’t eliminate all suffering doesn’t mean I shouldn’t try at all. It’s such a weird argument for not bothering.  If you walked by two people drowning and could only save one would you say, “Well, I can’t save them both so I’m not going to even bother saving one.” Every step you take to not hurt a living creature matters.

Who knew these little guys liked pumpkin pie, too??

UPDATE:  My sister-in-law Karen Horn just saved the day.  The farm I’m remembering was Finello’s Poutry Farm.

The West Side

The East Side

Extreme Close-Up

I’ve been mulling over something nice to do for the holidays, essentially what charitable organization I’ll contribute to in lieu of giving gifts.

I was looking at this from New York Cares, an organization I volunteer for from time to time. That’s actually the beauty of this organization—you can sign up and volunteer a day here, a day there. It’s perfect for people who don’t know what kind of commitment they can make, and instead volunteer when they can. So New York Cares has this Winter Wishes program which is a variation on the post office’s Op Santa. I like it because I saw right away in the faq that answering most letters will mean spending $40 and less. I don’t know yet how they accomplish that, but part of the problem with Op Santa was sifting through the letters to find one I could afford.

Here I am, literally just rolled out of bed and sitting in front of my computer with my coffee.  Last night I was very unhappy with my haircut because blown-out it had a little dutch boy thing going.  I took a shower to un-do that, but was still unsure.  This morning I am fine with it.  I’m thinking in a day or two I will love it. The problem might be the straight line that he cut my bangs into, which I can remedy in a few weeks or a month, when they grow out a little.

Oh. Finney just jumped up on my lap.  Here is a real time account (I’ve got my isight camera hooked up.)

Finney first appears and gets himself settled.  Hi camera.

Ah, the hand.  Love the hand.

No wait, hate the hand!!  

Doesn’t today feel like a holiday too, even though Thanksgiving is tomorrow?

I love getting my haircut! It puts me in a good mood all day.

I’m not going to do anything all that different though. This is my cut three months ago, the blown-out version. But it turns out I like my hair wavy at this length. So I’m going have him cut it short again, but without the relatively drastic longer-in-front thing which doesn’t work as well with waves as it does straight like this photograph.  

Tyra Banks has been wearing her hair this way in America’s Next Top Model, the wavy version of the longer-in-front bob, and I don’t think it works on her either, although she still looks beautiful of course.