The Unbelieved Dusan Popov

James Bond was named after the author of Birds of the West Indies, first published in 1936 — a book that happened to be on Ian Fleming's desk back in 1953 when he began to write Casino Royale while staying at Golden Eye, his villa in Jamaica.

The character of Bond was modeled after the playboy-gambler-spy Dusan Popov whom Fleming had seen gamble in Portugal, placing a massive bet in order to get a rival to withdraw from the baccarat table — the very set-up used as a plot device in Casino Royale.

Dusan Popov, it should be noted, was a triple agent -- a Serbian who posed as a double agent for Germany and, while working for Germany, did work for MI6 during the war.

Popov was part of the Twenty Committee, so named because the Roman number for twenty is XX, or a "double cross".

Popov traveled widely and was sent to the US by the German Abwehr military intelligence network. One of his assignments was to answer detailed questions about US defences at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. 

Popov notified the FBI that Pearl Harbor was in jeapardy on August 12, 1941, but FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover did not trust Popov, finding him too flamboyant and, as a triple agent, a likely liar.

When Trump Finds This Massive Debt….

Over at the University of Virginia Law School, professor Mitu Galati writes:

“Donald Trump, a president who has proven himself to be highly transactional and keen on reducing debt, may find a potentially trillion-dollar foreign IOU too tempting to overlook – even if it's over 100 years old. Britain borrowed roughly $4 billion from the U.S. during World War One. Afterwards, London resisted repayment, asking for the debt to be forgiven. Why? Because it was a so-called virtuous debt, incurred to fight an enemy common to both nations, and, Britain argued, it had paid in blood – lots of it.

“After some push and pull, the U.S. largely went along, not insisting on repayment, opens new tab. The U.S. Treasury does not even include these debts in its official list of foreign debts outstanding.

“However, the debt has never been officially cancelled. And given the power of compound interest, the liability would now be enormous. If one calculates interest at even the original concessionary rate of 3%, the amount owed in today’s terms would be in the trillions.”

And the lesson here is … Never let a lawyer settle a bill.

The actual amount due would be about $80 billion. 

A Wet Week Ahead, But the Ferns Are Happy

A Shower Thought

Upping My Safety Game

I’ve dropped and sectioned quite a few big dead trees, but a conversation with my small engine repair guy (he fixed some issues on my yard tractor) convinced me that chainsaw chaps were a good investment. 

The proximity of four very dead 90-foot oaks to my hives and shed, and the necessity that they come down in an orderly manner, got me investing in an arborist throw line, rope, and bags for the same.

Chainsawing is easy when it all goes right. The trick is making sure it never goes wrong. 🤞

The Holy Water That Kills Fascism

 “The devil's aversion to holy water is a light matter compared with a despot's dread of a newspaper that laughs.” —- Mark Twain

Michael K. Williams Was An Amazing Actor

This is the most haunting video I know.

😢

The Homeland of the Insane

TEN YEARS AGO, St Elizabeth's mental hospital was being repurposed into Homeland Security HQ in Washington, DC.  This is the hollowed out center building preserved for history and now filled with fascism. John Hinckley, Reagan's attempted assassin, lived on this campus for over 31 years.

Barney’s Owner

This would have been me in 1981. I was going to college and living in Oberlin, Ohio in the big Queen Anne-style house behind me, which backed up to a farm which, in turn backed up to a reservoir and a small bit of forest.

My dog in these days was Barney, a mutt terrier rescued off the streets. He was a great dog. I was known as Barney's owner, which tells you quite a lot about the both of us.

The Purple Flowers of Variegated Liriope

Tree-captured Golf Ball

Golf balls don’t break down too fast. Found this embedded in a tree stump.

Beyond Left & Right

Rain Pushing Them Up

Deep Pileated Woodpecker Holes

This tree is still living… for now. The woodpeckers are drilling for ants and wood-boring beetles. 

The back of my house (brick) can just be seen through the foliage in the first picture.The brick arches support my back deck, with the terrier yard underneath of it (30 feet by 30 feet, half in sun, half in shade, half on concrete, half on gravel). 

We have no shortage of trees, but I think we are losing ash to Emerald Ash Borer beetles that came over from Asia and were first identified in Michigan in 2002. Massive ash loss across 38 states and six Canadian provinces.

Pileated Woodpeckers are magnificent birds. About the size of a crow, they look very much like the extinct Ivory-billed Woodpecker, and have a call that could orchestrate an African jungle movie.

God Makes Spare Parts

I am an adoptive parent of two now-grown children.

I used to sit on the board of an adoption agency.

Long story short, it came to pass that I helped two Thai conjoined twins come to the US. 

Yes, REAL Siamese Twins. 

They were separated at CHOP, the Children’s Hospial of Philadelphia, (yes, I know), and adopted by a doctor and nurse.

Just a day or two after separation, the surgeon came to Virginia to attend a fundraiser for post-operative care.  I was the auctioneer, and I got to button-hole him to ask a medical question about the kids. 

His reply was that he used the appendix to solve the problem in question (they were short a bladder) and then he leaned in close and whispered in my ear: “God makes spare parts.”

I tell this story because you are the owner of spare parts.

If you think taking someone else’s body autonomy away from them is fine “to save the life of a child,” then I want you to sign up TODAY for surgery.

You see, people are literally DYING for your spare parts. 

Very sick living and breathing people need your extra kidney, your extra lung, your extra liver.

To be clear, I want every forced-birther to VOLUNTARILY donate body parts today, but I also want forced-birthers to support MANDATORY forced organ donation from the living.

Because why should only pregnant women lose body autonomy?

What? 

That’s outrageous?

Really? 

I can’t force you to give a kidney, or a liver, or a lung?

Why not?

Why is YOUR body autonomy so special, and why are the real lives to be saved from taking your spare parts now of so little consequence?

How about blood and blood plasma? 

Can we force people to donate these in order to save a life? 

If they refuse to have a needle put in their arm and a bag of life-giving whole blood siphoned off every month, can we JAIL them and fine them for failing to protect human life?

Why not?  Let's get this legislation rolling TODAY.  

Let's see Amy Coney Barrett, Samuel Alito, Brett Kavanaugh, John Roberts, Clarence Thomas, and Neil Gorsuch not only endorse this legislation, but volunteer to donate their organs TODAY.

And let’s see all those who would ban abortion already standing in that line.

Zulu Bohemian Rhapsody

The Ndlovu Youth Choir

Neck Deep In Deer

There are now more whitetail deer in the eastern US than there were when Columbus arrived in the New World.

In fact, whitetail deer are the most populous wild large mammal in the world, with a global population in excess of 35 million.

Local picture taken by me, Frederick, Maryland.

Joan Baez :: Forever Young

I saw Joan Baez in 1976 at Georgetown.

Getting Plants In Before the Rain

It looks like rain for the next 5 days or so, which is perfect, as I have all 20 Wood Ferns in the ground, as well as 5 Christmas Ferns, and the 4 Pieris.  I’ve also over-seeded with grass seed that I soaked for three days before mixing it with Moorganite and spreading.

I still have 16 smaller plants to get into the ground, but they’re fine in pots for now, and will get placed after — or perhaps between — the rains.

The 16 small plants include two Bee Balms, three smaller ferns of unknown type (one is labeled Tassel Fern), a Japanese Holly-fern, four Salvia, and six pink Hummingbird Mints.  These will join the many Black-eyed Susans, Day-lilies, Daffodils, and Cat Mints in the side yard and the orchard area.

Something New Every Day

I opened my phone this morning to this — a “historical novel” called ‘Terrierman’ by Ezio Bassano.

The ad copy from Mr. Bassano says “this book grew out of many years spent studying the history of British terriers, and particularly the working tradition from which the Jack Russell Terrier emerged.

“TERRIERMAN takes the reader back to Britain in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when terriers were not primarily dogs for the show ring, but working dogs shaped by the countryside, the Hunt, the earth and the men who worked alongside them.

“Through the story of a terrierman and his dogs, the book explores the world of working terriers, fox hunting, otter hunting, earth work, Hunts, breeders and the gradual development of the terrier breeds.

“Although written as a historical novel, its background is based on extensive historical research using period books, records, articles, photographs and contemporary sources.”

Cool.

And yet I wonder how a novel bridges a pretty long history?  Characters with Biblical longevity?

The ad blub has a kicker in the lower right corner: “For everyone who loves the true history of the Jack Russell Terrier.”

Ah yes, the true history of the man (John Russell) who bought his first dog based on appearance alone, who bought and sold dogs his whole life, who went bankrupt several times, and whose obituary never mentions terriers at all, as he was mostly a houndsman?  Is that the story we are going to be told?

Maybe. I don’t know. I do know that the last time I was sent “historical fiction” about terrier work, from a fellow in Texas who claimed to be British, it was filled with enough romance and error that I set it aside without comment. Oof!

In any case, there’s a new book out there, and folks are free to have at it.  I hope it’s good.

A quick search tells me Mr. Bassanno is Italian, and most of what he has put up that I can find on the internet is AI-animation of old photos with music added.

For those who want the true history of the Jack Russell Terrier without the novelization part, I give that away for free here >> https://terriermandotcom.blogspot.com/2014/12/the-real-john-russell-and-his-terriers.html? and in other posts.

For those looking for a practical book on terrier work, without any romance or fiction get “American Working Terriers” on Amazon >> https://a.co/d/007LwSRc. 

This book is so old, it was written before AI.  Imagine!