Top of the world

I've been a little out of sorts lately; there's an old joke about how easy it is to quit smoking, "I've done it dozens of times!"  Every few years I give it a try and always fail after a couple of days but maybe, just maybe, this year will bring success.  I'd forgotten what an ordeal it is and how loopy you can get as you try to break a decades-long addiction.  Cold turkey, day five, and all I'm able to think about it is scoring some tobacco and lighting up.  That's my pathetic tale of the week, or weak if I fail.

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I mean what does an oak tree have that an elm tree doesn't?

Acorns!  But seriously folks, Uncle Ken raises a good point about diversity, one of Mother Nature's proven survival strategies and part of the evolutionary process.  There was a time when there was zero life on Earth and then, through a fortuitous combination of chemistry and physics, life began.  What kind of life, I don't know but look where we are now and marvel at the diversity of life across the planet, from the deepest ocean depths to the highest mountain peaks there is life everywhere.  Diversity: it works and I'm all for it.

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There was a part of the satellite view of Beaglesonia I meant to ask Mr. Beagles about.  Near the middle of the image, towards the bottom, there is a little green square that looks like it was hand-painted and is not part of the original image.  Is something being covered up?

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I still can't picture Uncle Ken as a wannabe hoodlum in his high school days.  I recall that black engineer boots were the footwear of choice amongst the tough guys in my neighborhood but that could have been a local variance; diversity in action.  So what happens when the faux hoodlum meets a group of the real thing, does he get his ass kicked or is he welcomed on the next foray to liberate a few hubcaps?  There's something more than a little creepy about hanging around on a street corner looking cool, though.  Did Uncle Ken ever notice anything odd about some of the gentlemen who were slowly driving by?  Wait a second!  That was about the time that West Side Story came out, isn't it?  The Sharks!  The Jets!  Is Uncle Ken a song and dance man at heart and only the tragedy of bone spurs has kept him from a career on the stage?  The hoodlum aspiration makes sense if you think of Jimmy Cagney.