2014-11 5enses

Celebrating art and science in Greater Prescott

Alan Dean Foster visits an alternate reality TV show P. 12

Ty Fitzmorris winds down for winter P. 16

James Dungeon takes a nebula by the horns P. 6

Gene Twaronite plants ideas & arms bears Pp. 10 & 25

And much2 more

e u q s e e r u t Pic

A snapshot of-art e state-of-the-finhy photograp P. 13

NOVEMBER 2014 | VOLUME 2, ISSUE 11 | 5ENSESMAG.COM

LOCALLY & INDEPENDENTLY OWNED & OPERATED

METHOD COFFEE

3180 WILLOW CREEK • 777-1067

5enses In which:

4 5 6 10 11 12

Robert Blood

Micah Riegner

Ty Fitzmorris

James Dungeon

Matt Dean

Gene Twaronite

Agent Deep Black

Jacy Lee

Paolo Chlebecek

kills two birds with one stone, but not in the way you’re thinking, so, please, no angry letters.

takes the bull by the horns and discuss the Crab Nebula with Arizona State University’s Dr. Joe Foy.

plays matchmaker for verdant partners and plants the seeds for budding relationships, naturally.

accepts a mission that involves philosophical regicide and the birth of America’s only native furniture.

Alan Dean Foster

channel surfs until his brain wipes out and washes ashore with the ultimate realty show man o’ war.

Copyright © 2014 5enses Inc. unless otherwise noted.

Publisher & Editor: Nicholas DeMarino Copy Editor: Susan Smart Read a new 5enses the first weekend of every month.

Visit 5ensesMag.Com, Facebook, & Twitter for more.

Contact us at 5ensesMag@Gmail.Com & 928-613-2076.

Plus

5/6 8 20 26

13 16 21 22 24 25

Peregrine Book Co.

peers into the world of insects, typography, shadows, reincarnation, and science and religion.

November 2014 • Volume 2, Issue 11

Flip Photo

A visual puzzle by the Highlands Center for Natural History

discusses photography and fine art with Stephen Smith, Katherine Minott, Lisa Faust, and Dale O’Dell.

Left Brain/Right Brain

comes in from the creeping cold outdoors and quiets down as the wilds becomes less so.

grooves on an aircraft that’s famous for lots of things other than a nod in an Earth, Wind(,) & Fire song.

Find out what’s going on in Greater Prescott

Oddly Enough

Comics by Russell Miller

Spot-on Spotlights

Prescott’s premier happenings and happenstances

outer spaces out and daydreams about nocturnal visitors who don’t appreciate Uncle Ted.

rewatches “Dick Tracy” and notes the surprising similarities to “Star Trek” and “Get Smart.”

Gene Twaronite

flexes his secondary, amenable constitutionals and proffers the right to arm bears, naturally.

(Box^2)^2

Doodles by Jacques Laliberté

COVER: “Spirited Away.” Photo by Stephen Smith.

RIGHT: “Some Settling May Have Occured.” Digital art by Dale O’Dell.

See Robert Blood’s story on Page 13 for the full story.

5ENSESMAG.COM • NOVEMBER 2014 • CONTENTS • 3

Peregrine Book Co.

Staff picks

By Peregrine Book Company staff “The Insect World of J. Henri Fabre”

By Jean-Henri Fabre The best nature writing on insects ever, as well as some of the best allaround nature writing. Fabre is the naturalist whose observations most impressed Darwin. Exceptional. –Ty “Typography Sketchbooks”

By Steven Heller & Talarico Lita Brain candy for all artists and designers. Just open it up and see what’s inside! It’s great. –Lacey

“Shadow”

By Suzy Lee A beautifully rendered children’s book about the play of light, shadow & imagination. With little text, the story is left to your own creation. –Sarah

“Cloud Atlas”

By David Mitchell Incredible language — comparable to Nabokov’s mastery. A labyrinth of a story — themes of colonialism, environmentalism, & of course, reincarnation. –Kim

Looking for a special spot for your Holiday Parties?

Highlands Center Natural History Highlands Centerforfor Natural History

offers a variety of options: • Indoor and Outdoor combinations • Service kitchen • Comfortable amenities • Reasonable rates

Don’t miss our Holiday Bazaar November 15th 10 AM - 3 PM 928-776-9550 • highlandscenter.org • 1375 S. Walker Rd., Prescott, AZ 86303

Wonder • explore • discover 4 • FEATURE • NOVEMBER 2014 • 5ENSESMAG.COM

“The Great Partnership: Science, Religion, and the Search for Meaning”

By Jonathan Sacks Sacks argues that science and religion are both essential perspectives for understanding life, the universe, and everything. He says, “Let us join hands and build a more hopeful future.” —Tom

***** Visit Peregrine Book Company at PeregrineBookCompany.Com and 219A N. Cortez St., Prescott, 928-445-9000.

By Micah Riegner

Bird of the Month

Wander

through the creeks of Prescott in the fall and winter and, with luck, you might find a Pacific Wren skulking through the dense streamside vegetation. Often, these diminutive mouse-like birds are tricky to see. But if you’re still and patient, they’ll come quite close and grant incredibly rewarding views.

Pacific Wrens favor creeks and shaded canyons in closed conifer forests where they skulk among fallen logs, cattails, root tangles, and brush piles. They primarily feed on insects and spiders, but occasionally eat earthworms. They are resident throughout the Northwest, but in the winter a few trickle down into the canyons of Arizona.

It’s hard to believe that a bird that spends the majority of its life hopping through dead leaves and whose wingspan is scarcely 5.5 inches can migrate any significant distance, but every winter, several show up in the Prescott area. Check for them behind the Watson Lake and Willow Lake dams, around Granite Basin Lake, and along the creeks in the Bradshaws.

In

2010, ornithologists who work on taxonomy (the study of classification — in this case birds) split the Pacific Wren from the Winter Wren based on genetic, vocal, and plumage differences. The Pacific Wren is found west of the Rockies, and the Winter Wren extends to the east.

Pacific Wrens differ from Winter Wrens by their darker, richer brown plumage on the breast, and fewer white spots on the back. They also differ by call. When alarmed, Pacific Wrens give a double chip note reminiscent of the sound of two small stones hitting together, while Winter Wrens give a low-pitched bark similar to that of a Song Sparrow. Pacific Wrens seem to be the more common species in Central Arizona, but, in recent years, there have been increasingly more observations of eastern Winter Wrens as more and more birders become attuned to the birds’ subtle

Pacific Wren “Pacific Wren.”

Watercolor by Micah Riegner. differences.

So, next time you see a small, dark bird skulking in the undergrowth, take a careful look. Then look again.

Highlands Center for Natural History’s

pilF Photo

***** Micah Riegner is a student at Prescott College where he studies natural history, ecology, and art.

He has spent the past three summers in the Amazon either bird guiding or participating on bird research teams, and he hopes to pursue a career of research and conservation in the tropics. He leads local birding trips for Jay’s Bird Barn.

Visit Prescott Audubon Society at PrescottAudubon.Org. Contact them at Contact@ PrescottAudubon.Org or 928-778-6502.

How does fall forge fantastic foliage?

5ENSESMAG.COM • NOVEMBER 2014 • FEATURES • 5

Space is the Place

Dr. Joe Foy preps prime pulsar primer

By James Dungeon [Editor’s note: The following interview was culled from conversations between the reporter and Dr. Joe Foy, honors faculty fellow at Arizona State University. Foy is giving a talk about the Crab Nebula at 12:10 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 6 at EmbryRiddle Aeronautical University, AC-1 Room 107, 3700 Willow Creek Road, 928-777-6723.]

The Crab Nebula. Image via NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, public domain.

Highlands Center for Natural History’s

Flip otohP

As Fall begins, deciduous leaves transform into magnificent colors — a change brought on by reduced daylight. Plants have the ability to transform the sun’s energy into useable energy, and with fewer daylight hours, plants slowly filter out nutrients from their leaves to store in their roots and stems for winter. Through this process, fantastic Fall colors emerge.

6 • FEATURES • NOVEMBER 2014 • 5ENSESMAG.COM

Let’s start with the basics. So, what exactly is the Crab Nebula, and why is it important?

It’s a supernova remnant — the remnant of a star that blew apart 1,000 years ago. The Crab Nebula is significant, in part, because of its particular history and because it’s about 6,000 light years away from us. That may not sound close, but in terms of astronomy, that’s like a neighbor at the end of the street. When the star blew apart, it was as bright as the moon for several nights. We know this because of records created by Chinese and Korean astronomers.

That was in 1054. The date is often given as July 4, 1054, but we’re not quite so sure about the exact date.

Let’s say it was the summer of 1054. … The Crab Nebula is quite well known and documented. It’s in the constellation Taurus and listed as M1 in the Messier catalog. In terms of scale, I usually put it this way: The distance from the sun to the Earth is eight light minutes; the Crab Nebula is six to eight light years across.

There’s one particular image of the Crab Nebula that’s ubiquitous — it’s on posters and even album covers. I’m guessing quite a few people are familiar with it even if they don’t know that it’s the Crab Nebula.

My adviser, Dr. Jeff Hester, a great astronomer, was one of the people who worked on the Hubble Space

Telescope to get that image. The Hubble and Jeff are also responsible for the “Pillars of Creation” image from the Eagle Nebula that’s on a postage stamp. The Hubble’s made quite a few famous images. It sees in the optical band, which is what we see in. Dr. Hester has made some time-elapsed images — basically a movie — with the telescope that I’ll show at the talk. It shows these dynamic structures that look like ripples. You know what it looks like when you drop a pebble in a pond? Those round ripples? It looks like that, with ripples or wisps. My doctor’s thesis with Dr. Hester was about trying to understand what those are.

Did you reach any conclusions about what they, in fact, are?

I think I know what causes the wisps, and that’s part of what I’ll be talking about. It’s likely an interplay between particles that make up the gas and supernova and very strong magnetism. The gas, which is called a plasma, is an ionized gas, which means the outer electrons of the gas’s atoms have been stripped away. Ordinary plasmas we are used to, such as a hot flame, consist of an equal number of electrons and those ionized atoms that are positively charged because they are missing an electron. There are other, more exotic, kinds of plasmas that exist in the unusually high-energy conditions found near pulsars. These plasmas are composed of equal numbers of electrons and their anti-matter counterparts, called positrons. You know that old episode of “Star Trek” where Scottie talks about his matteranti-matter field? That really exists in nature. There’s an equal amount of matter and anti-matter there.

The colors in the images taken with the Hubble Space Telescope — are they accurate or added post facto?

I get this question all the time.

People often ask is that false color or real color, and the answer is yes — it’s both. We color all of the images we take, but they’re keyed to the wavelength of emission. In some cases, with the Crab Nebula, radio emission is colored red, the optical region is colored yellow, and the x-rays are colored blue. The wavelength of radio emission is not equal to the wavelength of red light, though. In other words, the Crab Nebula is a false color photograph.

As human beings, it’s easier for us to differentiate structures when they’re colored this way. From the Crab Nebula image, we can quickly tell

***** Dr. Joe Foy is an honors faculty fellow at Arizona State University and co-author of the forthcoming undergraduate physics textbook “Introduction to Classical Electrodynamics,” published by Yale University Press, available in early 2015. Contact him at Joseph.Foy@ ASU.Edu. Find out more about Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University at Prescott.

ERAU.Edu. James Dungeon is a figment of his own imagination. And he likes cats.

Contact him at JamesDungeonCats @Gmail.Com.

Dr. Joe Foy, who’s giving a talk about the Crab Nebula at 12:10 a.m. Thursday, Nov. 6 at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.

Photo via Arizona State University.

4 Prescott’s 4th Friday

4FRIDAY

ART WALKS

’S

I’m sure adding color leads to plenty of realizations.

It does. At first you get something that’s rather crude. It’s kind of like developing film in photography.

There’s always a surprise when the image forms, but then you can sit down and look for details. You may or may not encounter something significant. With the Crab Nebula, you can see that the x-ray region is smaller than the optical region, which is smaller than the radio region. It’s obvious once somebody points it out. That tells you something very interesting. It tells you the mode of emissions.

You’re getting x-ray emissions, then optical emissions, then radio emissions. At first, near the pulsar, you get a lot of energy, mostly x-rays. As you go outward you move away from the center, optical light dominates the area, which is a lower emission. By the time you get to the edge, you’re mostly in radio frequencies, which is even lower in terms of energy. The morphology of the nebula depends on the energy of the emissions, so it tells you what’s going on. Pulsar wind nebulae that are still dynamic aren’t that common. Most of the supernova remnants we know of are really old. It’s the corpse of a dead star that’s slowed down and stopped rotating.

It’s stopped transferring that rotational energy into gas, therefore the gas between the center pulsar and the edge isn’t emitting much other than light at the edge that’s due to other processes. But the Crab Nebula is only 1,000 years old.

That pulsar is still pumping out this energy, exciting the electrons, so you see a lot of dynamic structures. And

that’s exciting.

COT T

What surprised you during this process?

I was surprised I could figure something like that out, for one. I’m a theoretician. I have a lot more respect now for my colleagues who do observational work.

It takes a lot of work to take small objects in the sky and turn out images that are useful. My advisor has a real gift when it comes to looking at an image and, without much math or equations, figuring out what’s happening in terms of the physics. I developed that skill myself, but not to that level.

that the center is dominated by x-ray emissions. It’s for the same reason MRI images are colored. If you look at x-rays from prior to the 1960s, you’ll see they’re black and white. It wasn’t until later people thought of adding color for ease of reading. It lets you see contrasts more quickly.

I’ve processed a lot of images from Hubble and added color.

PRE S

So, why does this matter?

Well, it’s not going to solve the energy crisis or climate change. Still, it’s darn interesting, and it tells us something about our universe. The energies in the Crab Nebula are so high that even the CERN’s Large Hadron Collider can’t replicate them.

There’s interesting physics that happens there, even though we might not be able to replicate them here in the lab. … We can look at the high energies and hope that theories we have will be confirmed. This helps us in our areas of knowledge, and who knows what that can be used for.

EVERY

TH

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Left Brain: November’s mind-full events Events

1

LAN party • Noon Saturday: Play multiplayer computer games like Quake, Counterstrike, and Tribes at monthly Local Area Network party. Via Western Sky PC. (Game On, 1957 Commerce Center

6-8

“The Ghosts of Dandy Crossing” & “Home Sweet Jereome” • 2 p.m. Saturday: Longtime wilderness activist, author, and actress Katie Lee and author, editor, and publisher Diane Sward Rapaport book signings. (Peregrine Book Co., 219A N. Cortez St., 928-445-9000)

2 3 4 5

“Underground Prescott” • 2 p.m. Sunday: Author Patricia Ireland-Williams takes a look at the Old West in Prescott.

(Prescott Public Library, Founders Suite, 215 E. Goodwin St., 928-777-1500).

“Tales From the Wild Blue Yonder” • 2 p.m. Monday: Author John Olson discusses flying off of Mingus Mountain for 33 years.

(Prescott Public Library, Founders Suite, 215 E. Goodwin St., 928-777-1500).

“Geysers: What, Where, & How” • 6:30 p.m. Tuesday: T. Scott Byran, author of “Arizona Rocks!,” discusses geysers at monthly Central Arizona Geology Club meeting. (Prescott Public Library, Founders Suite, 215 E. Goodwin St., 928-777-1500) “Relicts of a Beautiful Sea” • 5:30 p.m. Wednesday: Prescott College alum Chris Norment reads from his book about survival, extinction, and conservation in a desert world. (Peregrine Book Co., 219A N. Cortez St., 928-445-9000)

“Astronomy Equipment Auction” • 6:30 p.m. Wednesday: Equipment auction at monthly Prescott Astronomy club meeting.

(Prescott Public Library, Founders Suite, 215 E. Goodwin St., 928-777-1500)

6

“Dynamics of the Crab Nebula” • 12:10 p.m. Thursday: Dr. Joe Foy, Arizona State University honors faculty, discusses the dynamics of the Crab Nebula. A 2014 Science Speaker Series talk. (ERAU, AC1-107, 3700 Willow Creek Road, 928-777-6600)

“Chasing Ice” • 6:30 p.m. Saturday: A documentary about a National Geographic photographer's mission to change the tide of history. (Highlands Center for Natural History, 1375 S. Walker Road, 928-776-9550, $10-$15)

8

Prescott Audubon Society Bird Walk • 7:30 a.m. Saturday: Monthly Audubon bird walk. (Highlands Center for Natural History, 1375 S. Walker Road, 928-776-9550)

“Low-water-use Landscapes” • 10 a.m. Saturday: A guided tour of lowwater-use landscapes at Citizen’s Water Advocacy Group’s monthly meeting. (Granite

Peak Unitarian Universalist Congregation Building, 882 Sunset Ave., 928-445-4218) “29” • 2 p.m. Saturday: Author and NPR commentator Mary Sojourer reads from her newest novel. (Peregrine Book Co., 219A N. Cortez St., 928-445-9000) “Charles Lindbergh: The Lone Eagle” • 7:30 p.m. Saturday: Was Charles Lindbergh a paragon or a parish? A hero or a traitor?

(Prescott Center for the Arts, 208 N. Marina St., 928-445-3286, $22)

9 11 13

“Urban Wildlife Interactions” • 2 p.m. Sunday: Jeff Schalau, University of Arizona Cooperative Extension county agent, discusses how to minimize conflict with hungry wildlife. (Prescott Public Library, Founders Suite, 215 E. Goodwin St., 928-777-1500).

“Bad Country” • 5:30 p.m. Tuesday: CB McKenzie reads from his hard-boiled noir crime thriller set in Arizona Indian country. (Peregrine Book Co., 219A N. Cortez St., 928-445-9000) “Pre-Columbian Agaves in the Southwestern U.S.” • 6:30 p.m. Thursday: Wendy C. Hodgson, Desert botanical Garden herbarium curator and research botanist, talks about local flora.

(Highlands Center for Natural History, 1375 S. Walker Road, 928-776-9550) “From So Simple a Beginning” • 7 p.m. Thursday: John Anderson gives a brief history of natural history.

(The Natural History Institute at Prescott College, 312 Grove Ave. 928-350-2280)

14

“Hope & Other Dangerous Pursuits” & “Tséyi/Deep in the Rock” • 7 p.m. Friday: Author Laila Lalami and poet Laura Tohe book signing. (Yavapai College, 1100 E. Sheldon St., 928-776-2000)

8 • EVENTS • NOVEMBER 2014 • 5ENSESMAG.COM

The First World War Symposium • Thursday, Friday, & Saturday, Nov. 6, 7, & 8: Yavapai College professors look back at The Great War 100 years after its commencement. Topics include “Causes, Course, and Consequences,” “For the Duration: Women's Roles and Women's Fashions in WWI,” “The Trauma of War," “How the Great War Modernized Medicine,” "Artistic Reactions to the First World War,” and “All Quiet on the Eastern Front: The Untold History of Russia and WWI.” The full schedule is online at YC.Edu/WWI. (Yavapai College, Building 19 Room 147, 1100 E. Sheldon St.) PHOTO: Australian infantry (Australian 4th Division, 45th Battalion) wear small box respirators on Sept. 27, 1917 in trenches at Garter Point near Zonnebeke, Ypres sector. Photo

by Capt. Frank Hurley, public domain.

“Memphis Belle, Hot Stuff, Gen. Andrews, & the Quest to be First to Complete 25” • 7 p.m. Wednesday: William Waldock, ERAU safety science professor, discuses which heavy bomber actually first completed 25 missions. (Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Davis Learning Center, 3700 Willow Creek Road, 928-777-6985)

15 18

“Ancient Cultures of the Americas” • 2 p.m. Saturday: Historian and linguist Raymond Tarpey discusses his recent research findings on Mayan and Aztec history and spirituality. (Peregrine Book Co., 219A N. Cortez St., 928-445-9000)

“Searching for Gravitational Waves with Pulsar Timing Arrays” • 12:10 p.m. Tuesday: Dr. Justin Ellis, postdoctoral fellow at Caltech/JPL, discusses the search for gravitational waves via pulsar timing arrays. A 2014 Science Speaker Series talk.

(ERAU, AC1-107, 3700 Willow Creek Road, 928-777-6600)

19

“Dan & David” • 5 p.m. Wednesday: The Nature Conservancy conservationist Dan Campbell and Prescott College outdoor educator David Craig talk.

A Campus Conversations event.

(The Natural History Institute at Prescott College, 312 Grove Ave. 928-350-2280)

20

“Stories of the True West” • 5 p.m. Thursday: Award-winning illustrator, magazine editor and Western personality

Bob Boze Bell talk. A Third Thursday Dinner Lecture. (Phippen Museum, 4701 Arizona 89, 928-778-1385, $20-$25) “Mars Rover” • 6:30 p.m. Thursday: Dr. Ken Herkenhoff, of the U.S. Geological Survey, lead scientist for Opportunity’s microscopic imager, discusses Mars rover missions. Third Thursday Star Talk via Prescott Astronomy Club.

(Prescott Public Library, Founders Suite, 215 E. Goodwin St., 928-777-1500)

22

“From Tragedy to Recovery” • 2 p.m. Saturday: Written and produced by Yarnell residents Emad Mohit, Barbara Kelso, and Kurt Florman. (Peregrine Book Co., 219A N. Cortez St., 928-445-9000) “Starry Nights” • 6:30 p.m. Saturday: Star party via Prescott Astronomy Club. (Vista Park, 1684 Sarafina Drive, 928-778-6502)

23

“Cranksgiving” • 10 a.m. Sunday: Third annual bicycling food-buying ride. Benefits the Coalition for Compassion and Justice's “Open Door” food pantry. (Park Plaza parking lot on Goodwin Street, 314-566-3386)

Multi-day Bird walks • 8 a.m. Nov. 5, 15, 21, & 25: Bird walks at Lynx Lake, Stricklin Park/Butte Trail, Watson Lake/Peavine Trail, and Willow Lake South.

(Jay’s Bird Barn, No. 113, 1046 Willow Creek Road, 928-443-5900, RSVP) Modern-day meditation • 6:50 p.m. Nov. 5 & 19: An active, four-part practice for today’s demanding lifestyle.

(Deva Healing Center, 520 W. Sheldon St., 619-917-1337, first class free, $10) Prescott Area Boardgamers • 5 p.m. Nov. 12 & 26: Play board games.

(Prescott Public Library, Founders Suite, Bump and Elsea conference rooms, 215 E. Goodwin St., 928-777-1500) Community yoga • 5:15 p.m. Tuesdays & Thursdays, 10 a.m.

Saturdays: Free community all-levels yoga class for people from all walks of life.

(Deva Healing Center, 520 Sheldon St., DevaHealingCenter.Org) Mindfulness meditation • 6:30 p.m. informal sit, 7 p.m. formal sit Tuesdays: Meditation group followed by optional discussion. (601 Miller Valley Road, park in back, PrescottVipassana.Org) Scrabble group • 1 p.m. Thursdays: Play Scrabble and Upwords. (Prescott Public Library, Bump and Elsea conference rooms, 215 E. Goodwin St., 928-777-1500)

November’s art-full events :niarB thgiR

5 6 8

Events

Poetry discussion group • 1 p.m. Wednesday, Dr. Janet Preston’s monthly poetry discussion group.

(Prescott Public Library, Elsea Conference Room, 215 E. Goodwin St., 928-777-1500) Poets’ Cooperative • 6 p.m. Thursday: Share your work with other poets in a supportive atmosphere.

(Prescott Public Library, Elsea Conference Room, 215 E. Goodwin St., 928-777-1500) “Balloonfish Bash” • 6 p.m. Saturday: Tsunami on the Square 2015 revival celebration and fundraiser featuring fire dancing, belly dancing, jazz, jugglers, and more.

(544 Dameron Drive, 928-273-4365, $10)

The Improvitionians • 8:30 p.m. Saturday: Improv comedy at 5,000 feet. (Stage Too, North Cortez Street alley between Willis and Sheldon streets, 928-445-3286, $5)

15

Smoki estate sale • Saturday: Native American and Southwestern items from museum members for sale, including katsinas, pottery, baskets, jewelry, dolls, fine art, and Navajo rugs. (Smoki Museum, 147 N. Arizona Ave., 928-445-1230)

“Pre-holiday Shopping Bazaar” • 10 a.m. Saturday: Annual sale of holiday and gift items featuring natural materials, upcycled materials, and nature-themed items.

(Highlands Center for Natural History, 1375 S. Walker Road, 928-776-9550, $10-$15)

19 22

Open mic poetry • 5:30 p.m. Wednesday: Poet Dan Seaman emcees monthly open mic poetry. (Peregrine Book Co., 219A N. Cortez St., 928-445-9000) “Navajo Day” • 10 a.m. Saturday: Artists, food, traditional music and dance, and more.

(Smoki Museum, 147 N. Arizona Ave., 928-445-1230, $6-$7)

Contra dance • 7 p.m. Saturday: Contra dance lesson and dance at monthly Folk Happens event.

(First Congregational Church Annex, 216 E. Gurley St., 928-925-5210, $4-$8)

28

4th Friday Art Walk • 5 p.m. Friday: Monthly art walk including more than 18 galleries, artist receptions, openings, and demonstrations.

(ArtThe4th.Com)

“Holidays” • From Nov. 3: Holiday show and sale.

(Mountain Artists Guild & Gallery, 228 Alarcon St., 928-445-2510)

“The Odd Couple” • 7:30 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, Nov. 20-22 & Friday & Saturday, Nov. 28 & 29, with matinees at 2 p.m.

Sunday Nov. 23 & Saturday & Sunday, Nov. 29 & 30: Neil Simon’s quintessential oddcouple pairing of the slovenly Oscar Madison (Bruce Thomson) and the fastidious Felix Ungar (Kevin Nissen). Directed by Catherine Miller Hahn.

(Prescott Center for the Arts, 208 N. Marina St., 928-445-3286, $ 15-$20, $12-$16 matinee) IMAGE: “The Odd Couple” promotional poster.

Fair use, manipulated.

20-30 Multi-day Writers workshop 9:30 a.m. Saturdays: Weekly critique group.

(Prescott Public Library, Bump Conference Room, 215 E. Goodwin St., 928-777-1500)

Theater & film “Carmen” • 9:55 a.m. Nov. 1: Via satellite, The Metropolitan Opera’s presentation of Bizet’s steamy melodrama. (Yavapai College Performing Arts Center, 1100 E. Sheldon St., 928-776-2000, $12-$30) “A Streetcar Named Desire” • 6:30 p.m. Nov. 3: Via satellite, the National Theatre Live’s presentation of Tennessee William’s timeless masterpiece. (Yavapai College Performing Arts Center, 1100 E. Sheldon St., 928-776-2000, $10-$15)

“Holiday Wrap” • From Nov. 7: Annual Christmas craft show.

(Prescott Center for the Arts, 208 N. Marina St., 928-445-3286) “Natural History” • From Nov. 7: New selections from the Josephine Michell Arader Natural History Print Collection.

(The Natural History Institute at Prescott College, 312 Grove Ave. 928-350-2280)

“Crazy Days of Summer” • 7 p.m. Nov. 13: A staged reading of Richard Warren’s comedy in which misperceptions abound as matriarch Willie Hoover struggles to keep family members and their friends in check during her annual President Herbert Hoover birthday barbecue.

Via Tomorrow’s Theatre Tonight.

(Prescott Public Library, Founders Suite, 215 E. Goodwin St., 928-443-1638) “Hansel & Gretel” • 7 p.m. Nov. 13-15 & 3 p.m. Nov. 15: The Yavapai College vocal music department presents this world-famous opera as the college’s first fully staged opera on the performing arts stage. (Yavapai College Performing Arts Center, 1100 E. Sheldon St., 928-776-2000, $15) “Il Barbiere di Siviglia” • 10:55 a.m. Nov. 22: Via satellite, The Metropolitan Opera’s presentation of Rossini’s classic comedy.

(Yavapai College Performing Arts Center, 1100 E. Sheldon St., 928-776-2000, $12-$30)

Art Abia Judd art classes • From Nov. 1: Art show featuring work from Abia Judd Elementary school art classes.

(Method Coffee, 3180 Willow Creek Road, 928-777-1067) Juried Student Exhibition • From Nov. 1: Fall juried student exhibit including printmaking, painting, watercolor, jewelry, sculpture, ceramics, and digital representations. (Yavapai College Art Gallery, 1100 E. Sheldon St., 928-776-2031)

“Click!”

• From Nov. 8: Exhibit highlighting works of photographic art that celebrate the beauty and majesty of the American West and its diverse cultures. (Phippen Museum, 4701 Arizona 89, 928-778-1385, $5-$7) “Change it Up: An Artisan’s Closet” • Through Nov. 14: Creative up-cycling and fun additions to your clothing and accessories by Joan Knight, Carol Hunter Geboy, and Linda Scott. (’Tis Art Center & Gallery, 105 S. Cortez St., 928-775-0223) “A Strand of Fiber to a Grain of Wood” • From Nov. 15: Functional and fun fiber art

by Jo Manginelli and explorations in wood and mixed media by Anne Legge. (’Tis Art Center & Gallery, 105 S. Cortez St., 928-775-0223) Finchum & Gunther • Through Nov. 20: Art by Connie Finchum and Alice Gunther. (Mountain Artists Guild & Gallery, 228 Alarcon St., 928-445-2510) “Miniatures” • From Nov. 20: Mountain Artists Guild member miniature show curated by Judy Lewis. (Mountain Artists Guild & Gallery, 228 Alarcon St., 928-445-2510) “Best of Both Worlds” • Through Nov. 25: A vivid, colorful, and creative show featuring work from Southwestern Artist Association artists. (’Tis Art Center & Gallery, 105 S. Cortez St., 928-775-0223) “Eclectic Works in Various Media” • From Nov. 28: Annual show featuring eclectic works in various media. (’Tis Art Center & Gallery, 105 S. Cortez St., 928-775-0223) “Other Lives” • Through Nov. 29: Photography from Dan Farnum and Robert Gerhardt Jr. (Prescott College Art Gallery at Sam Hill Warehouse, 232 N. Granite St., 928-350-2341)

9

How to choose the perfect plant

Gene Twaronite’s

The Absurd Naturalist

By Gene Twaronite In finding the right plant you must keep in mind that there is no such thing as a bad plant, only bad choices.

But how do you choose when there are so many thousands of possibilities?

The first step is to assess your personality. Are you the kind of person who can really be trusted

with a plant? Or are you the kind who goes into a restaurant and thinks that the fake plants are real and, worse, actually prefers them to live ones? If so, don’t even think about buying a plant.

Assuming that you can be trusted, you need to determine how far you are willing to go with this. Are you looking for a one-night stand kind of relationship or a long-term commitment?

Is your plant going to pine away in the lonely darkness for weeks at a time while you go out and have fun?

Or are you willing to stand by it, in sickness and health, till death do you part?

For

those seeking a more casual affair, may I suggest a Sansevieria. Sometimes called a snake plant or mother-in-law’s tongue, this is the familiar houseplant often encountered in the darkest, dirtiest corner of your local saloon or barbershop. It is capable of surviving the most inhospitable conditions — under-watering, too little light, second hand smoke, disco music, and even nastier things. If you somehow manage to kill a snake plant, then there is no hope for you.

If you are looking for a full time commitment, however, a hybrid tea rose is the perfect choice. What with all the constant pruning, deadheading, fertilizing, mulching, watering, spraying and aphid picking, your life will be completely filled.

The rose is a plant that just keeps on asking for more and more of you until there is nothing left to give, and you are nothing but a dried up husk of your former self with no other purpose than to throw yourself on the compost heap so that your rose can keep on merrily growing.

Fortunately there are many in between choices. As you wander the nursery, here are some things to look for.

10 • COLUMN • NOVEMBER 2014 • 5ENSESMAG.COM

Make

sure your plant has roots. You would be surprised to learn how many people overlook this basic necessity. Since the roots are in the soil and hence not easily observed, you might wish to take the prospective plant out of its pot to take a closer look. Don’t worry about the dirty looks you might receive from the nursery people. How else are you going to tell if a plant has roots without taking it out of the pot? Examine the roots carefully. Pull apart some of the soil to make sure that the roots are firm and light colored, not black and squishy. Be sure to smell them. If the roots stink, this is definitely a bad sign. And so what if you make a mess. Don’t be afraid to look at as many roots as you wish. This is not a simple affair like buying a car. This is your plant, after all.

Speaking of roots, if the plant’s roots stick out from the bottom of the container and extend halfway across the parking lot, you should probably not buy it. It means the poor thing has been at the nursery since before the Truman administration.

You might say it is too attached to ever leave.

Leaves are also a good idea, unless the plant in question is a cactus or an ocotillo. In general you should pass on any foliage plant with no leaves. It is a sure sign of trouble.

If the leaves display obvious chew marks or the stem has been neatly chopped down, then this could be a sign of insects or other pests, such as beavers. If you hear any loud chewing or sucking sounds coming from the plant or actually see a live beaver in the pot, you should definitely not buy it.

If choosing an outdoor plant, you should always purchase plants that are appropriate for your climate zone. Planting a hosta or azalea in the low desert makes about as much sense as planting a saguaro in Alaska. You are just asking for trouble.

Purposefully seeking such a relationship will only bring you and the plant pain and heartache.

And if the plant in question has no leaves, the twigs and roots are all brittle and dry, and the poor thing can be just pulled up out of its container with no resistance, it is most likely dead. Such a plant, no matter how low the price, is seldom a good bargain. ©Gene Twaronite 2014 ***** Gene Twaronite’s writing has appeared in numerous literary journals and magazines. He is the author of “The Family That Wasn’t,” “My Vacation in Hell,” and “Dragon Daily News.”

Follow Gene at TheTwaroniteZone.Com. “The Absurd Naturalist” logo by Jonathan Devine.

Mission quite possible How America got its first original furniture style

By Jacy Lee

Queen

Victoria ruled England from 1837 to 1902, a period during most of which England was one of the major world superpowers. Victorian furniture was aptly named after this long standing ruler, regardless of whether it was made in England, the United States, or one of the many other Westernized nations.

Victorian furniture was ornate, usually dark and brooding, and nearly always overbearing and uncomfortable. The same could be said of Victorians, i.e. the people, too.

Toward the latter part of the 19th century, with the growing popularity of expositions and world’s fairs, an influx of new ideas bombarded the Western world. A new breed of both furnishings and social thinking began to arise. An ideology emerged that was based on simplicity, comfort, and nature, which translated into furniture, that was a direct rebuttal to decades of Victorian furnishings and ethics. This was the mission of Mission.

The

Mission movement, often referred to as Arts and Crafts, actually has its earliest roots in the 1870s. An Englishman by the name of William Morris (the inventor of the Morris chair!) redesigned some of the simpler Art Nouveau furniture to be even plainer. With the help of a man named Raskin and a designer named McIntosh, a few studios were born that were dedicated to this simpler form of furnishings with thought and philosophy intertwined.

For America, the big step occurred in 1898, when Gustav Stickley visited the English colonies of this “new trend” and got caught up in the philosophy himself. Stickley was already in the furniture making business with his five brothers, working for their uncle, Brandt.

Stickley stripped all ornamentation and decoration from his furniture to the point that form was controlled by construction and function. Wood pegs, stiles, flat slats and mortise and tenon joints all became the style of his furniture.

He is credited with the only true American furniture style ever created.

Stickley’s multi-floor department store in New York City had much more than furniture, pottery, and artwork. It also contained a restaurant and an auditorium for events and public speaking. One of the more noted speakers of the time was Frank Lloyd Wright. Wright was an architect, and his designs were both daring in construction, yet simple and straightforward in design. Even the Sears Roebuck Company began to produce Mission style bungalow kits for middle class American.

Their colony, outside of Buffalo, New York, was quite proficient in iron, brass,and copper workings. The Roycrofters also churned out periodicals, publications, and books. Eldred Hubbard’s “Little Journeys” became quite popular and was still published many years after his death. Coincidentally, Hubbard was married to the Larkin Soap Company heiress.

“Larkin” oak furniture was obtained by cashing in coupons from soap purchases and was ultra popular in the early 1900s.

So, just like the Renaissance of Europe hundreds of years ago, the Mission movement formed as a solution to some of humanity’s problems. It’s reassuring that today, many major contemporary furniture makers still offer a line of Mission-style furniture, be-

cause, boy oh boy, we could sure use another movement toward simplicity right now. ***** Longtime Prescott resident Jacy Lee has been in the auction business for 37 years and is directly responsible for a fraction of a million pounds of minimally processed recycling each year.

Missionstyle furniture.

Photos by Jacy Lee.

Colonies

of the Mission philosophy began to spring up across America. Viewed as almost cult-like in their appearance, they never the less exerted an influence on the mainstream society of the day.

Probably the most well known and influential of these colonies was the Roycrofters, led by Eldred Hubbard.

5ENSESMAG.COM • NOVEMBER 2014 • FEATURE • 11

How to create a successful new TV series

Alan Dean Foster’s

Perceivings

(in one column)

By Alan Dean Foster Even more so than the movies, television has always been infamous as a medium in which lip service is given to originality.

Ask the relevant executive or producer in Hollywood what they would like to see in the way of a pilot for a new show and like as not they’ll reply, “We want something original! Something new and unexpected, something edgy! Something nobody’s seen before!” (All these folks end their spoken sentences with exclamation points that appear, hovering like drifting, dark spiderweb, directly above their heads.)

This is entertainment industry-speak for, “What we really want is a copy of the current No. 1 hit show — but just different enough so that we can’t be sued!”

It

started with situation comedies, because they were cheap to make. It became egregious to the point of absurdity when police dramas and lawyer shows hit it big and immediately began slavishly imitating one another. The latter are particularly noted for their essential interchangeability. If you watch enough of them, it gets to the point where you can no longer tell who is prosecuting whom. There are more personal injury lawyers on American television than in all of Japan. As if that’s not bad/sad enough, their presence is supplemented by the interminable advertisements for the real ones. You know the latter.

My personal favorites are the ones that attempt to inveigle you into contacting them by alluding to incomprehensible but nearly universal diseases.

“HAVE YOU OR A LOVED ONE EVER WORKED IN A FAST FOOD ESTABLISHMENT? IF SO, AND YOU’VE EVER ENCOUNTERED DIFFICULTY SMELLING, YOU MAY BE ENTITLED TO A PORTION OF A CLASS ACTION SETTLEMENT ON BEHALF OF THOSE SUFFERING FROM A PERMANENT INABILITY TO

DISTINGUISH BURNT BACON FROM BOILED SUCCOTASH. THE FIRM OF HIDE, DUCK, AND COVER MAY BE ABLE TO RECOVER A PORTION OF THE OUTSTANDING FUNDS FOR YOU. OPERATORS ARE STANDING BY. [This is not an offer of solicitation, even though we’re plainly soliciting you. Offer not valid south of the 54th parallel or west of Guam. Principal attorney Lackland Quackenbush, lic. suspended, based in St. Kitts and Nevis].

But I digress.

I

but that’s a game show.

Aliens: Okay, they’re mostly un-reality, but that’s how they’re categorized. “Uncovering Aliens,” “Ancient Aliens,” “Alien Race,” “In Search of Aliens.” I don’t include “Alien Encounters” because … because (mumble, mumble ... I’m on it ... additional mumbling ...).

Okay;

what’ve we got? Dangerous fishing. Gold. Survival. Aliens. Putting our collective genius together, we arrive at ...

Fighting to survive among dangerous fish as we search for alien gold.

Can’t miss. Now we need a title.

Utilizing still another currently popular reality show trope, we announce the looming production of the hunt for ...

“Surviving Shark-guarded Alien Gold!”

Dangerous fish. Gold. Survival. Aliens. Sharks (bonus points).

I hereby declare the aforementioned idea copyrighted, notwithstanding an almost overwhelming urge to giggle uncontrollably. The show’s symbol will consist of a lump of gleaming pyrite slashed in half by a Popeil Pocket Fisherman.

Sponsors of new products, AS SHOWN ON TV!, who offer unconditional money-back guarantees (and which are invariably sold from a post office box in New Jersey, and for returning you pay only shipping and handling, which inevitably equals or exceeds the actual cost of the product), will fight to sponsor the show. A fortune will be made by all.

But I’ll have to surrender my membership in any and all recognized writers’ organizations, and never show my consonants at a writing confab ever again.

didn’t think this filmic copycatism could get any worse, but the entertainment industry never fails to surprise, and with the advent of “reality” shows, they have done so. The mad scramble to copy successful reality shows like “Deadliest Catch” and “Bering Sea Gold” reminds one of a procession of lemmings. (And don’t tell me that the lemming story has been scientifically disproved — you’ll ruin my analogy.)

Science says that to understand something, it is often best to reduce it to its most basic component. I therefore propose the creation of a can’tmiss, sure-fire reality show based on reducing (yes, ad absurdum) the most pertinent ingredients to their primal elements, and then combining them. So … what do we have?

Dangerous fishing: “Deadliest Catch,” “Cold Water Cowboys,” “Catching Hell,” “Extreme Catches,” and “Wicked Tuna.” (I am not making these up.)

Gold: “Bering Sea Gold,” “Bamazon,” “Gold Rush Alaska,” “Black Gold (okay, that one’s a cheat … but it’s got “gold” in the title),” “Jungle Gold,” and “Yukon Gold.”

“Survival” shows: “Dual Survival,” “Man vs. Wild,” “Best Defense Survival,” “Surviving Disaster,” “I Shouldn’t Be Alive,” “Expedition Impossible,” “Survival Life,” “Dude, You’re Screwed” (points for not using “survival” in the title), and last but not least among this ignoble list, “Naked and Afraid,” whose attraction to viewers has nothing whatsoever to Pyrite photo by Jonathan do with survival.

Pocket Fisherman, I’d mention “Survivor,”

12 • COLUMN • NOVEMBER 2014 • 5ENSESMAG.COM

***** Alan Dean Foster is author of more than 120 books, visitor to more than 100 countries, and still frustrated by the human species. Follow him at AlanDeanFoster.Com.

Zander, Creative Commons 3.0; fair use. Illustration by 5enses.

By Robert Blood

It

started with a question: When does a photograph become art?

Following the lead of high school valedictorians through the ages, I consulted the venerable Merriam-Webster, which defines a photograph as “a picture or likeness obtained by photography.” And art? That’s “the conscious use of skill and creative imagination especially in the production of aesthetic objects.”

Unfazed, I followed these semi-circular definitions down a rabbit hole of semantic gymnastics and mixed-martial arts metaphors. Soon, I was unable to delineate each constituent, let alone their confluence.

Somewhat fazed, I looked to the experts in academic journals. After tearing through a ream of essays on the subject, I reached a profound realization. Namely, that the writing in academic journals is constipated and best left to students working on master’s degrees and six-figure student loans.

Decidedly fazed, I just Googled the damned phrase, “When does a photograph become art?”

Turns out even the Greatte Oraclé Digitalus isn’t sure, THOUGH LOTS OF PEOPLE WHO POST ON MESSAGE BOARDS IN CAPITAL LETTERS HAVE VERY STRONG OPINIONS ABOUT IT!!1!1 Then I stopped for lunch.

After that, I decided to pass the buck to four Prescott-based photographers, each of whom was selected according to the following criteria: i.) I enjoy her or his work. ii.) I have her or his phone number handy.

Here’s what they think. …

CONTINUED ON PAGE 14 >>>

“Naked Summer.” Photograph by Katherine Minott.

5ENSESMAG.COM • NOVEMBER 2014 • PORTFOLIO • 13

... FROM PAGE 13 True to form Stephen Smith discovered photography as a way to meet diversity requirements at an art school in New York.

“My major was studio art, but I went to college to study sculpture,” Smith said. “They told me I needed to take more classes.”

His sculptural sensibilities helped him excel at the medium.

“When you look at nature — or anything, really — it has a form,” Smith said. “And if that form is beautiful, and if a photograph is taken properly, then it translates.”

Almost immediately, he jumped from straight photography to fine art pieces.

“Everyone takes the big picture, especially with landscapes,” Smith said.

“I follow the details and the curves.”

He stopped shooting in the 1980s — teaching and raising a family can (SPOILER ALERT) take up a lot of time — but started again around 1996, when he moved to Prescott and took a job teaching photography at Bradshaw Mountain Middle School.

“That’s when I started shooting color,” said Smith, who taught until 2006. “It lent itself to my sculptural work even more; it brought out a lot of the different forms and lines I use in

my furniture, too.”

At times surreal, his photography focuses on details rather than the proverbial big picture. Watery reflections and female gestalts abound.

When pressured to distinguish between photography and photography as fine art, Smith tried on a few maxims then frowned.

“I think it’s each person’s interpretation,” he said. “Whether it’s a photographic representation or not, I consider a photo to be fine art when it’s got rich tonality and great composition.”

Smith still shoots on film, though it’s getting harder to find developers.

“None of my work is altered,” Smith said. “Everything is pretty much as I shot it.”

On the rare occasion he dabbles in Photoshop, he limits himself to minor color correction and other darkroom analogs.

“There are people who see some of my work and say, ‘You could’ve done it in Photoshop,’” Smith said. “That might be true, but I didn’t. I went there and took this photo, and there’s a difference.”

He’s not bitter about the ascension of digital photography, though. He’s a fan, actually.

“I see tons of what I’d call ‘street photography,’ on Facebook … and a lot of it’s really good,” Smith said. “If one

out of 10 people out there have an eye for it, and that one person gets into photography because of the technology, that’s great.”

In February, Smith exhibited his woodwork and photography alongside his late brother Glen’s paintings and mosaics for “Brothers Forever,” a show at Sam Hill Warehouse. (A portion of proceeds benefited AIDS and HIV research. It was one of 2014’s mostpatronized shows at the venue.)

“I tried to pick pieces that complimented his work,” Smith said. “So much of his stuff was in triptychs, so I arranged mine to mirror his.”

This included novel juxtapositions of photographs. These kind of presentational fidgets are fair game. Smith doesn’t, however, appreciate it when someone manhandles his carefully crafted images.

“I’d rather you didn’t do that,” he told me as I rotated then cropped one of his horizontal photos on a computer to see if it could work as a square-ish magazine cover. “Yeah, please don’t do that.”

The subject matter: “Figure Study No. 7,” a literal line in the sand.

Starts & stops Katherine Minott discovered photography as a way to enjoy free classes while teaching at Yavapai College.

“I didn’t have to pay and just thought

of photography because of my family,” said Minott, a Prescott College grad whose brother is a biomedical photographer.

“To be honest, I found the darkroom wholly frustrating.”

Although she didn’t immediately embrace the process — or, more specifically, the processing — she learned composition and other basics from Yavapai College’s Steve Hoover, whom she cited as a mentor. (She further admires the work of Frederick Sommer.)

“I kind of let photography go by the wayside for years,” said Minott, who left the area in the late 1990s. She recently returned and now teaches English at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.

“It was wasn’t until my sister died four years ago that I picked up a camera again,” Minott said.

The exact circumstances were “… a bit prickly,” she said but, as far as the art side of things goes, digital photography was a revelation.

“I loved the immediate feedback,” she said. “You shoot, and you can immediately see what you’ve got.”

One of the first things Minott photographed was an abandoned junkyard in Sierra Vista.

“I love beat up stuff like old cars; they’re beautiful,” she said. “I also love

natural decay.”

Minnot paused for a moment then waxed poetic about her sister.

“I think, perhaps, it’s part of that cycle of loss,” she said.

“Maybe that’s why I’m looking at things that are temporal.”

Much of Minott’s work documents metamorphoses like metallic patinas and lichen-covered trees.

“It’s the textures and colors that I’m drawn to,” Minott said. “I can’t paint them, so I capture them with a camera.”

While Minott dabbled with Photoshop effects in her early work, she’s greatly toned down post production.

She’d rather go out to shoot the day after it rains than digitally saturate an image post facto.

“I want things to be more true to form,” Minott said. “It makes me pay more attention when I’m photographing.”

Stil, she occasionally turns that rule on its head.

“I have one set of images where I’ve taken color to the Nth degree,” Minott said. “I wouldn’t necessarily call those photographs anymore, though.”

Although the digital revolution helped her embrace photography, Minott said the newfound accessibility is a double-edged sword.

“Apparently, I picked a bad time to become a photographer because every-

one now claims to be a photographer,” Minott said with a laugh.

“I think it ups the ante with fine art photography, though,” she continued.

“You have to do something that sets you apart.”

Whether she’s taking a straight shot of an old chair or an abstract shot of what you’d only recognize as wheelwell rust if she told you, Minott has the same intention.

“I want it to look authentic and I want it to have an emotional impact,” she said.

Photography, for her, isn’t so much a medium as it is a way of seeing the world.

“It makes me stop and admire things I might not otherwise look at,” Minott said. “It’s given me a childlike wonder about the world.”

It’s also helpful to have a big, professional-looking camera and a business card with the word “photographer” on it when you get caught trespassing, she added.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 18 >>>

COUNTERCLOCKWISE, FROM BOTTOM LEFT: “Figure Study No. 7” and “Wavy Trees,” photos

by Stephen Smith; Stephen Smith, courtesy photo; “Woodstock” and “Kayak is Kayak Spelled Backward,” photos by Katherine Minott; Katherine Minott, courtesy photo.

14 • PORTFOLIO • NOVEMBER 2014 • 5ENSESMAG.COM

15

News From the Wilds Prescott weather Average high temperature: 60.6 F, +/-4.2 Average low temperature: 27.3 F, +/-3.2 Record high temperature: 83 F, 1933 Record low temperature: -1 F, 1931 Average precipitation: 1.23”, +/-1.36” Record high precipitation: 8.68”, 1905 Record low precipitation: 0”, 12 percent of years on record Max daily precipitation: 4.3”, Nov. 11, 1919

Hermit Thrushes are among the last of the migratory songbirds to pass though our region on their way to their wintering grounds in Mexico & Central America. Photo by Ty Fitzmorris.

By Ty Fitzmorris

November

is the beginning of the long quiet of winter for the Mogollon Highlands. The cold has crawled from the cracks of night into the light of day, and it has changed how all of the creatures of the region live. The coming season brings scarcity of food and water, along with low, sometimes killing temperatures, and every species, plant and animal, has their set of adaptations to these challenges. These adaptations are sometimes physiological and sometimes behavioral, though for most species there’s a little of both.

Mammals (including humans) and some non-migratory birds begin to undergo cold acclimatization now.

This includes redirection of blood flow away from skin, accumulation of insulative body fat and fur, and metabolic and chemical changes, all resulting in an overall increase in tolerance for low temperatures.

Insects undergo a wide variety of changes — some, including bumblebees, generate propylene glycol, or

antifreeze, in their blood, which prevents them from freezing, while others develop the ability to raise their body temperatures far above that of the surrounding air, proving themselves anything but “cold-blooded.”

Reptiles and amphibians are able to tolerate very low body temperatures without injury, though some snakes, such as rattlesnakes, gather together in large numbers in caves to avoid the killing frosts.

Many birds, such as the swallows and warblers, migrate south, both for food and to avoid the cold.

Meanwhile other mammals such as Black Bears, Rock Squirrels, and Beavers, create dens in which to shelter.

The

less-discussed winter adaptations, however, are those that are evolutionary in nature, such as the development of life stages suitable for extreme conditions. The most conspicuous are plant seeds and insect eggs, which are excellent for dispersal but also are capable of extraordinary feats of survival. Seeds might remain dormant for decades in soil,

16 • FEATURE • NOVEMBER 2014 • 5ENSESMAG.COM

waiting for perfect germination conditions, while some invertebrate eggs are tough enough to withstand outer space and still hatch. It was this hardiness that led NASA to take the eggs of fairy shrimp far outside of our atmosphere, holding them with mechanical arms outside of spacecraft for long periods, and then hatching them with no apparent injury back on Earth.

These

quiet months are a challenge to the naturalist after the bewildering panoply of the growing season, but some of the more neglected aspects of the natural world remain for us to explore. Winter is a great time to study the rocks and landforms of the Mogollon Highlands, which form the basis for our ecoregion as a whole.

Formerly called the Central Highlands, the Mogollon Highlands are defined as the broad band of mountains and valleys between the Mogollon Rim of the Colorado Plateau and the deserts of the South, from the Chihuahua to the west to the Sonora to the south to the Mojave to the

east. As a result, the Mogollon Highlands have plants and animals from all of these regions, though they’ve intermingled in ways that remain largely unstudied.

The

three geologic processes that have affected our region most are the volcanism that has provided the extrusive igneous basalt cap of the Colorado plateau as well as the intrusive igneous granite that formed the Granite Dells and Granite Mountain; the spreading of the geologic plates, which have pulled the highlands apart, causing dropped blocks of crust to form valleys; and the movement of rock materials by gravity, water, and wind, which continue to carve the majestic valleys such as Sycamore Canyon, the Agua Fria, Walnut Canyon, and Beaver Creek Canyon. ***** Ty Fitzmorris is an itinerant and often distractible naturalist who lives in Prescott and is proprietor of the Peregrine Book Company, Raven Café, Gray Dog Guitars, and is a founder of Milagro Arts, a community arts nexus, all as a sideline to his natural history pursuits. He is also the curator of insects at the new Natural History Institute at Prescott College. Contact him at Ty@ PeregrineBookCompany.Com with questions or comments.

News From the Wilds, too A very brief survey of what’s happening in the wilds ...

By Ty Fitzmorris

them as drought periods return.

• Phainopeplas, the sole member their family (the Silky-flycatchers) in North America, return to the desert from the uplands. These pitch-black birds would seem to be incongruous in the hot desert, but thermal studies have shown that their black plumage actually functions to decrease their skin temperature, in much the same way that the black robes of the Bedouins of North Africa diffuse incoming solar heat.

Visit: Agua Fria National Monument.

High mountains • Young Ravens gather into large groups (called a “congress of Ravens”), sometimes as many as 50-70 individuals, and can be seen at sunrise and sunset flying from communal roosts to feeding sites.

• Though Black Bears finished mating in the summer, they delay implantation until now and begin their pregnancy as they enter hibernation.

Visit: Spruce Mountain Loop, No. 307.

Ponderosa Pine forests • Mule Deer and White-tailed Deer ruts reach their peak now, as bucks finish rubbing the velvet from their full-grown antlers. Look for bare spots on saplings where male deer have rubbed off their velvet.

• Arizona Black Rattlesnakes (Crotalus cerberus), along with the other five rattlesnake species in our area, begin looking for hibernacula in which to spend the winter, sometimes with many other rattlers.

Rattlesnakes are much maligned, but are typically very interested in avoiding humans, and will not bite unless harassed.

Visit: Schoolhouse Gulch, No. 67.

Pine-Oak woodlands • Young Western Screech Owls find temporary territories. These beautiful small owls, which weigh from 3.5 to 10 ounces, prey on worms, insects, rodents, birds and even crawdads.

Some have been observed catching rabbits and, rarely, ducks.

• Galls on oak trees and shrubs are very visible now. The most common is the Oak-apple Gall, which looks like a red-orange peach, but is really an incubation site for an immature wasp. The wasp stings the plant, laying its egg in the growing tissue of the oak, and the plant grows this specialized structure around the developing larva. Oaks have more than 300 types of galls, including some that look like furry animals, curled leaves, and gnarled twigs.

Visit: Little Granite Mountain, No. 37.

The last of the fall colors peak at the beginning of the month in the riparian corridors of the Verde Valley.

Photo by Ty Fitzmorris.

Pinyon-Juniper woodlands • Javelinas switch to eating large amounts of prickly pear along with whatever protein-rich plant food, such as acorns and pinenuts, still remains.

Visit: Tin Trough Trail, No. 308.

Grasslands • Pronghorn change their diets to shrubs and tough evergreen plants now that grasses have died back.

Pronghorn can digest many plants that are poisonous to cattle, and thereby graze grasslands evenly.

This, in turn, allows for a greater diversity of plants to thrive where Pronghorn graze, since no one species can outcompete others.

Visit: Mint Wash Trail, No. 345.

Riparian areas • Many of the creeks in the Prescott area dry up until the snows of winter arrive and melt.

• The leaves of trees in lower-elevation riparian areas change now, reaching a riotous diversity of color before dropping.

• Hermit Thrushes, one of the last of the songbird migrants to sojourn through our region, stop over only long enough to regain lost body fat and drink water. These relatives of

American Robins migrate according to the magnetic field of the Earth, and keep a straight, unwavering path, flying night or day. The only time they change course is when they pass near lightning storms, in which case the Hermit Thrushes fly directly toward the storm.

• Ducks and other waterfowl begin to arrive at our man-made lakes, such as Watson and Willow near Prescott.

These lakes have become important migratory stop-over points for many species, and will have thousands of individuals of many different species from now until February.

• Beavers cut branches from Aspens and riparian trees, pushing them into the mud to store for midwinter food. Because Beavers slow down the flow of rivers and distribute nutrients in riparian areas, they are very important for maintaining river health in the Southwest.

Visit: Lower Wolf Creek Falls, No. 384.

Deserts/Chaparral • The leaves of Ocotillos (Fouquieria splendens) change color and fall.

This species, along with Yellow Palo Verde (Parkinsonia microphylla), has photosynthetic bark, and only grows leaves during times when water is abundant. They then drop

Skyward • Nov. 5: Taurid Meteor Shower Peak. This is a long-running shower, from Sept. 7 to Dec. 10, which occurs as we pass through two separate dust trails — one from Comet Encke and one from an asteroid, called Asteroid 2004 TG10 that broke off of the comet at some point in the past. Meteors from this shower are typically not very bright, and the full Moon will wash out much of them, but the patient observer will be able to see a few bright ones.

• Nov. 6: Full Moon at 3:23 p.m.

• Nov. 17: Leonid Meteor Shower Peak. This bright meteor shower will make for excellent viewing this year due to the waning Crescent Moon. This shower is caused by dust particles from the tail of Comet Tempel-Tuttle, which last passed through our solar system in 1998, and will return next in 2031. The 33year period of this comet results in a 33-year cyclonic peak for the shower, during which meteors are extremely abundant. The last of these was in 2001, during which time more than 30 bright meteors were visible per hour in dark locations. As with all meteor showers, best viewing is after midnight, as our position moves onto the side of the Earth facing into our rotation around the Sun, which is the side that collides with the most meteors.

• Nov. 22: New Moon at 5:32 a.m.

17

CLOCKWISE, FROM TOP: “Honey, I Feel Like Something Has Come Between Us” and “Roosters,” photos by Lisa Faust; “Smoke No. 42” and “People Live There,” digital art by Dale O’Dell.

... FROM PAGE 15 Seeing the light Lisa Faust discovered photography as a way to interact with her family.

“I was a stay-at-home mom in the late ’80s, with a couple of kids, so I was taking pictures of them,” said Faust, whose younger brother became a professional photographer around that time.

Faust shifted to artier subjects in the late 1990s and early 2000s — old trucks, old barns, and similar Mid-

west-ery —and shot and developed high-speed black-and-white film.

“Digital cameras were soon available for professional photographers, but I wasn’t interested,” Faust said.

There’s also no replacing the goodmusic, good-wine compliments of the darkroom, she added.

During the majority of the 2000s, Faust worked in corporate sales but ran a small photography studio on the side. Two years ago, when she moved to Prescott, she decided it was time to take photography to the

18 • PORTFOLIO • NOVEMBER 2014 • 5ENSESMAG.COM

next level.

“There were no jobs for me here, and pet photography was an idea I’d been thinking about, so I just went for it,” said Faust, who opened Dog Patch Studio in September of 2012.

In this context, digital technology was a must. So, too, were additional skills.

“I was self-taught and had learned through trial and error for years, but I took formal classes to learn to work with studio lighting,” Faust said. “It really is a whole different ball game.”

While Faust has to overlay a doz-

en-plus Photoshop layers to perfectly pose each member of a six-pack of dogs from time to time, that’s part of the territory that comes with pet photography.

And while she — and anyone with a decent skill set and camera — can luck into a perfect shot, the key word, she said, is consistency.

“If you take enough shots, you’ll luck into something,” Faust said.

“It’s being able to see something and reproduce it that makes someone a photographer.”

Although more people call themselves photographers these days, she said, it’s those who have an artistic temperament who’ll rise to the top.

Still, she lamented, there’ve been and will be more casualties along the way.

Lisa Faust. Courtesy photo.

“A lot of really good photographers have gotten out of this business because they can’t compete on price,” Faust said. “That puts the pressure on to make each image something more — something that’s artistic, that has its own style.”

In this era of ubiquitous “iPhotography” and “faux-tography,” she said, most people are beginning to distinguish between amateur, hobby, and professional photographers.

“A professional photographer knows how to manipulate light and create contrast that’s appealing to the eye,” Faust said. “In that way, a photographer’s like a painter.”

If you had to pinpoint it, she said, “photography becomes fine art the moment you purposefully compose something.”

In her own work, she sees it as a modal distinction.

“I’d say I compose as an artist, I capture an image as a journalist, and I revise on the computer as an artist,” Faust said.

Credentials aside — actually one more of note: Faust is the Arizona Professional Photographers Association’s 2014 Emil Egar Photographer of the Year — she considers herself a student of art.

“I love to study the old artists, how they played with light and light patterns,” Faust said. “Whether you look at painting or photography, it’s all about light.”

End of the roll Dale O’Dell discovered photography as a way to become a mad scientist.

“When I was 14, I got a kit for Christmas that included a way to develop your own pictures,” O’Dell said. “Right away, I was introduced to the chemistry of photography and started experimenting.”

The art-meets-science hobby became O’Dell’s major at college in Texas then his career, first in the corporate sector in the early 1980s, then as stock photographer. He’s been based in Prescott since 1994.

An early digital technology adopter, O’Dell discovered computers did more than simply simplify photo processing.

“The computer isn’t just a digital darkroom; it’s a whole new toolbox,” he said. “I find it shortens the conduit between the concept in my head and the image on the paper.”

O’Dell’s artwork is often created by stripping photographs of various elements and staging new images, most of which are Surreal with a capital S. (Think Salvador Dalí.) Actual forests and deserts may serve as organic settings, but the fantastic images (and/or fantastic arrangement thereof) that occupy those settings are the stuff of dreams. Physical and temporal scale are fluid. So’s meaning.

“It couldn’t be done with just a camera, so it’s not photography,” O’Dell said. “You can’t go to that place and take a picture of it, which is why I call some of my work antiphotography.”

Regardless, during the past two decades, his work has, more often than not, been shown alongside that of photographers in art galleries (and, ahem-ahem, in print publications).

“I’ve been fighting this battle for almost 20 years,” O’Dell said. “I ask, time and time again: How much work do you have to do to a photo before it’s no longer a photo?”

It’s that rare rhetorical question for which many people have practical answers. And because “less manipulated” generally means “more real,” contemporary photography has, in many instances, pushed back against digital tinkering. Although

this could be a boon for O’Dell — it’s doubtful anyone would confuse one of his images with a raw photograph — he lamented that it makes for especially dull photography exhibits.

“It all seems very academic; it all seems very real and documentarystyle; and it all bores the shit out of me,” O’Dell said. “I don’t think the appropriate venue is an art gallery.

Most of it belongs in news magazines or online because it’s journalism.”

O’Dell uses a camera to capture likenesses, then he manipulates them on a computer like a painter mixing paints on a palette. Or is the computer screen like the canvas? Analogies only go so far in this endeavor.

“People are either incapable or unwilling to recognize that digital technology has created a new kind of artwork,” O’Dell said. “We’re at the vanguard of that right now.”

Still, were it not for the click of the shutter, there would be little source material for two of his most recent bodies of work — “Invisible Light,” which features infrared photography, and “Ephemera,” which captures briefly-lived phenomena (some real-world based, some computer-based).

For O’Dell, the point at which a photograph becomes art isn’t particularly important; that it ultimately did so — that’s what’s important.

As he writes in “Quantum Realism,” “The photograph for me, now, is truly a means to an end.” ***** See more of Stephen Smith’s work at StephenSmithStudio.Com and

Dale O’Dell. Courtesy photo. at Krieger-Marcusen Gallery, 110 S. Montezuma St., Suite F, Hotel St. Michael’s Alley, 928-778-4900.

See more of Katherine Minott’s work at KatherineMinott.Com. See more of Lisa Faust’s work at DogpatchStudio.Com and at Dogpatch Studio, 212 N. Cortez St., 928499-2183.

See more of Dale O’Dell’s work at DaleODell.PhotoShelter.Com and at Van Gogh’s Ear Gallery, 156 S. Montezuma St., 928-776-1080.

Robert Blood is a Mayer-ish-based freelance writer and ne’er-do-well who’s working on his last book, which, incidentally, will be his first.

Contact him at BloodyBobby5@ Gmail.Com.

19

When frogs hibernate, they stop breathing as they normally do and, instead, take in air through their skin. Frogs can be found throughout the world in a variety of shapes and sizes. some frogs are used by Aboriginal people to poison the tips of their arrows. One frog in Asia has feet so big that it can glide from tree to tree. When fully grown, one species of frog in central Africa is no larger than a housefly.

ODDLY ENOUGH ... The Giant Frog of Africa measures 2.5 feet long and weighs more than 14 pounds. That’s larger and heavier than a standard mason’s cinder building block. *****

In 1682, the Vasa was launched by Sweden. It was built to be the largest ship ever.

ODDLY ENOUGH ... As most of Stockholm watched the ship’s spectacular launch, water rushed into the open gun ports and the Vasa slipped beneath the waves of the Baltic Sea. ***** Russell Miller is an illustrator, cartoonist, writer, bagpiper, motorcycle enthusiast, and reference librarian. Currently, he illustrates books for Cody Lundin and Bart King.

$5 off any service ≥$30!

Call 778-0860 & schedule an appointment today!

515 E. Sheldon St., Prescott, www.erasalonandspa.com

20 • FEATURE • NOVEMBER 2014 • 5ENSESMAG.COM

Bird Watching (No, The Other Kind)

The Boeing 747 ...

... it’s a big deal

By Matt Dean

labyrinthine set of landing gears.

The

As

Boeing 747 is arguably the most iconic aircraft of all time. When the passenger “Jumbo Jet” was first revealed in 1969, its immense size was gazed upon by the aviation world with low whistles and raised eyebrows. It didn’t take long for the general public to view the aircraft in the same regard.

Because it was designed to carry more passengers and more cargo farther distances than anything that came before it, airline demand for “Queen of the Skies” was instant.

The first commercial customer to receive a 747 was airline Pan Am, who put the plane in service in early 1970.

Like many successful airframes, a version of the 747 is still currently produced.

While the technological difference between that first 747-100 and the upto-date 747-8 is significant — nearly 50 years of aircraft innovation — the characteristic physical feature of a half second deck on the forward part of the fuselage remains the same. A 747 is instantly recognizable by the second deck, but also by its four turbofan engines and a

an Arizona kid, the 747 held a certain mystical allure for me. The Queen of the Skies was primarily a transcontinental aircraft, so they were unlikely to be seen in landlocked Arizona (except for a brief time in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s when America West flew a few 747s out of Sky Harbor).

There was, however, a real world glimpse of the Queen of the Skies for me in a photo album at my grandparent’s house. In 1975, my grandfather flew to Germany to visit my mom. The photo is of him going out on the tarmac to board what most certainly was 747-100.

That picture was proof a grounded rural boy could one day ride the Queen of the Skies. My opportunity to see one, much less be a passenger on one, didn’t come until 1997, when I boarded a 747-400 in L.A. for a flight to New Zealand. I was lucky enough again in 2005 to ride another 747400 direct from Phoenix to London.

The

versatility of the 747 is renowned. It’s served as

a stallion for the now-retired space shuttle and a heavily modified 747200 serves as Air Force One. There is one 747-100 that started its career with Delta Airlines and is now an aerial firefighting supertanker. That tanker helped fight the Wallow Fire in Arizona in 2011.

The original jumbo sized jet was designed to impress with beauty and size as well as with airlines and their expanding markets. The Boeing 747 is the classic jet airliner that will be remembered for generations.

***** Matt Dean is a Prescott native and a teacher for Prescott High School’s online program who enjoys spending time with his family and walks with the dogs. Contact him at Matt.

Dean@PrescottSchools.Com.

A Boeing 747-8 test plane in assembly.

Photo by Jeff McNeil.

Creative Commons 2.0.

Be small minded

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5ENSESMAG.COM • NOVEMBER 2014 • COLUMN • 21

Some ‘thing’ Agent Deep Black casts a critical eye on another peculiar image

By Agent Deep Black Recent photograph taken near Cliff Rose Subdivision, Prescott.

Analysis: At approx. 2:22 a.m. resident awakened by a “rumbling” sound that vibrated his home.

Typical, heavily-armed Arizona resident exited his house with AR-15 rifle equipped with ‘gun-site action camera, mil-spec.’

From the driveway witness took this photo as he pointed his weapon at the brightly-lit, disc-shaped craft.

No shots fired, but witness reports soiling his pajama pants.

Witness reports neighbor’s abduction in-progress when he came upon the scene.

Entire incident lasted less than two minutes, estimated.

Spacecraft “disappeared” after abduction.

Image No. 1, allegedly taken near Cliff Rose Subdivision, Prescott. inoperable after encounter.

This was the only photo recovered from memory-card.

Recommendation: Authentic.

Neighbor has not been seen since night of abduction.

Secondary recommendation: Do not point weapons at unknown advanced technology.

End of Report.

Witness reports weapon and camera

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22 • FEATURE (HINT: SATIRE) • NOVEMBER 2014 • 5ENSESMAG.COM

***** Agent Deep Black files reports from The Bunker at an undisclosed location somewhere underground in Yavapai County. Contact him at Dale@ Cybertrails.Com.

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11-30-2014.

Diagnosis: Technology

Watch out!

Wearable tech poses new, exciting potential wardrobe malfunctions

By Paolo Chlebecek

Wearable

tech is in. (Err, on.)

Whether you’re in the “no, not another gadget” or “ a cool new gadget — bring it on” camp, there’s new tech hardware just for you.

When the iPad was first released in March of 2010, it completely took over the mobile tech market and created a new niche of tablets that globally reached 229 million units this year. Believe it or not, that’s up 11 percent from last year, but that represents a slowdown compared to two years ago, when they were up 55 percent.

Recently, Apple unveiled its Apple watch, i.e. the iWatch. While they were certainly not the first to proffer such devices, they’ve shined a brighter light on the wearable market. So, where are people focusing gadget purchases? Yes, wearable tech like cameras, fitness trackers, and smartwatches.

Why

would anyone need a smartwatch or any wearable tech to begin with?

Hold on a moment. While it might not make sense to say that wearable tech includes pacemakers, insulin pumps, and the like, but we can say there are a number of implantable devices that many simply wouldn’t survive without. Manufactures are hoping you feel as attached to your new smartwatch as much as any medical device.

That may not happen, but think of your cell phone . Most of us have it next to us 24/7. Now it’s possible to can be tethered even closer with a smart device. While that may not sound good, I can tell you from personal experience with my Pebble Smartwatch that it can be fun and benefi-

cial. (I love it).

Aside from the expected email and text notifications forwarded to the smartwatch via Bluetooth from your cell phone, there’s a dizzying array of features available to you. You can get anything from a fitness and sleep tracker to music control and even games — all right on your wrist.

(Whatcha talkin’ ’bout Willis? Wearable tech, that’s what.) Yes these fancy devices do way more then tell time. I’ve even found that my phone battery lasts longer because I don’t have to turn on the battery-draining screen every time I get an email from Amazon trying to sell me more stuff I don’t really need.

How

do you know what will work for your wrist? It’s hard to say. Wearable technology is an emerging market and many manufacturers are still trying to figure out what works best for the consumers.

To add to the confusion, most brands like Samsung, Sony, Apple, LG, Motorola, and, my favorite, Pebble, have a vested interest in keeping that tiny piece of real-estate, your wrist, in their domain.

There are a lot of new devices soon to be released, likely before the end of the year. It may be in your best financial (and mental) interest to see how the big companies duke it out. Hopefully, by then we will see who comes out on top … of your wrist.

***** Paolo Chlebecek is founder and owner of PaoloTek, which he started in 2003. He loves dogs of all sorts and oddly finds himself driving around town between 2 p.m. and 3 p.m. every weekday. Wave hi when you see him or contact him at Paolo@PaoloTek.Com.

Nerdology Since Jan. 1, there’ve been 78 edits to the “Wearable Technology” Wikipedia page.

In the interim, t here’ve been 38 edits to the “Sliced Bread” entry.

"Dick Tracy" has netted 18, at least one of which references smartwatches.

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928-772-9876 6350 E. State Route 69 Ste. C Prescott Valley, AZ 86314 Info@WesternSkyPC.com

24 • FEATURE • NOVEMBER 2014 • 5ENSESMAG.COM

LiterallyinBaskets.Bandcamp.Com

Gene Twaronite’s

The Absurd Naturalist

By Gene Twaronite Photos from two different observers — the first recorded case in the Sawtooth Mountains of Idaho — clearly show an adult female wolf, armed with a .444 Marlin, shoot and kill an elk hunter with one clean shot to the head.

Witnesses report that the hunter did not appear to suffer and that the wolf then nonchalantly slung the rifle over her shoulder and trotted off into the woods without a trace.

In the days following the incident, social media was abuzz with questions and theories as to how the wolf came into possession of a weapon, not to mention how it learned to shoot. Yet, despite an all-out publicity campaign and statewide wolf hunt, the killer was never found.

Meanwhile,

other reports began streaming in from all over the country. In New York’s Adirondack Park, a group of hikers observed a deer using an AK-47 to fend off a pack of stray dogs.

The most surprising thing about the incident, aside from the military precision with which the weapon was used, was the way the deer appeared to aim just below the feet of the dogs as if to frighten them, and that no dogs were injured. In another case, in Kentucky, a bobcat was photographed employing a .22 Winchester to dispatch a rabbit. The photographer, a zoologist from the local university, then observed the bobcat skillfully cleaning the carcass with his claws, after which he consumed the rabbit in the usual manner. According to the zoologist, this was the first time that a bobcat, or any animal, had ever been observed using a firearm to kill its prey.

Unlike the first case, widely viewed as a cold-

The case for animal gun rights blooded execution, most of the new incidents seemed to involve a more responsible and less lethal use of firearms. In the months to come, a gradual public consensus emerged that most animals were not out to get humans after all, and, what’s more, appeared to be following sensible gun safety precautions.

Though some animals continued to use their guns for hunting and protection, others were observed clearly using their weapons for target shooting and training their young. Humans observed one five-foot gopher snake in Texas plinking cans out in the desert with a subcompact Glock 26 pistol. Behavioral scientists are still at a loss to explain exactly how the creature managed this.

While

some of the anti-gun people predictably complained that guns in the “hands” of animals was just another example of the country’s out-of-control gun lobby, others argued for the rights of animals, claiming that they had demonstrated a good faith effort to use their guns responsibly. The lone wolf episode, as it came to be called, was a case of one bad apple, an obvious nut job that never should have gotten its paws on a gun in the first place.

The NRA finally suggested that the Second Amendment be rewritten to include the rights of all animals to own and carry firearms.

In a wildly popular TV ad, a happy family appears in their living room, doting on their two children, Labrador retriever, and Siamese cat. “We love our kids,” proclaims the proud couple, while a scene shows the two tykes blasting away with their Uzis at a human-shaped target, under the careful supervision of a trained instructor. “And we love our pets. So why shouldn’t they be allowed to have guns, too?” Scene flashes to same shooting range, only this time it’s Fido and Tabby blasting away, as patriotic music plays in the background. Then the words “Save the Animals.

Support Animal Gun

Rights” flashes on the screen. This ad paid for by NRA members like you.

Firearm

dealers, as expected, salivated at the prospect of a huge new pool of customers, despite thorny issues of currency exchange, licensing, and delivery. There were also philosophical questions. Should guns be sold to grizzly bears, tigers, great white sharks, and other potentially dangerous animals? How old must an animal be to own a gun? And just how do officials run a background check?

No matter. Such issues will surely be resolved in due time, as they always have. Already two similar bills are making their way through the House and Senate. The time is now to extend gun rights to all God’s creatures.

Column ©Gene Twaronite 2014

***** Gene Twaronite’s writing has appeared in numerous literary journals and magazines. He is the author of “The Family That Wasn’t,” “My Vacation in Hell,” and “Dragon Daily News.”

Follow Gene at TheTwaroniteZone.Com. “The Absurd Naturalist” logo by Jonathan Devine.

5ENSESMAG.COM • NOVEMBER 2014 • COLUMN • 25

“From So Simple a Beginning: A Brief History of Natural History What: Dr. John Anderson, William H. Drury, Jr. chair of Evolution, Ecology, and Natural

History at College of the Atlantic and author of “Deep Things Out of Darkness:

A History of Natural History,” discusses the role of natural history in modern

science and introduces natural historians (including Humboldt, Thoreau, Darwin,

and Rachel Carson) who played key roles in exploration and increased under standing of the natural world long before “Citizen Science” was trending.

When: 7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 13 Where: Prescott College

Natural History Institute

312 Grove Ave.

Prescott, AZ 86301 Worth: Free Why: “Science and the scientific method have been regarded as among the most signifi cant achievements of civilization. Recent polls, however, suggest growing distrust

and misunderstanding by the general public in the U.S. of science as a way of

knowing. ... Natural History offers a potential way out of this problem by drawing

a broad range of people back into science at its fundamental best: place based, tangible, and open to individual examination.”

Web: NaturalHistoryInstitute.Org

Children’s Story Time What: Storytelling for younger children followed by a longer story time for children ages 3-7.

When: 11 a.m. Saturdays, Nov. 1, 8, 15, 22, & 29 Where: Peregrine Book Co.

219A N. Cortez St.

Prescott, AZ 86301 Worth: Free Why: It’s for the children.

Web: PeregrineBookCompany.Com

133 N. Cortez St., Historic Downtown Prescott, 928-776-8695

26 • FEATURE • NOVEMBER 2014 • 5ENSESMAG.COM

Huckeba Art Gallery 227 W. Gurley St. Prescott, AZ 86301 928-445-3848

www.huckeba-art-quest.com charlesnjill@yahoo.com

Where ancient meets abstract

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a sanctuary for women and teens DevaHealingCenter.org • 520 W. Sheldon (next to Prescott College)

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