short stuff
by Linda McThrall, editor

I don’t want to scare you, but a couple of things happened in June that make me a little worried.

The last Friday of the month, I was driving to work and I came up on a wild turkey. From a distance, I thought it was a peacock. As I got closer, part of me was saying, “That’s a dadgummed turkey,” while the other part of me was saying, “Turkeys don’t live in the desert – especially not by Target.”

I kind of tried following her in my car to shoot a picture with my phone (what a waste – this is the same Blackberry phone I wrote about a few months ago). She kept getting away, so I decided to drive to the office, grab a real camera and get back to the bird before she went back to Plymouth Rock, where she really lives.

Unbelievably, she was still where I left her, so I got an actual photo of the turkey. I not only got a picture, but I also have a corroborator Times editor Mike Scharnow saw her, too. He has dubbed her The Times’ mascot, although nobody has seen her since. (I’m telling you, turkeys live in Plymouth Rock – you know, Home of the Pilgrims.)

So the last Monday of the month, my husband was outside grilling chicken (I swear it was not turkey), when he called us outside to see – a toucan.

A toucan – like the bird on the Fruit Loops box. Like the character on Lion King. A toucan. We didn’t get a picture of the toucan. The mister and I were pretty excited to see this jungle bird. Her majesty came outside to look at it, but she acted like there was a toucan on the tree every day of her life. Kids today. They are just so unimpressed.

I think we should take these sightings as a sign. A sign of what, I’m not sure, but when you are driving to work and a turkey is trotting up the street, you have to kind of think about it.

* * *

We’re enjoying the Dog Days of Summer right now. (I’d say Turkey Days of Summer, but nobody has heard of that.) The idea of Dogs Days comes with an ancient belief in the rising of Sirius, the “dog star” in conjunction with the sun added to the summer heat, creating a long stretch of hotter days. The period of time that is “actually” the dog days of summer is 20 days before and 20 days after Sirius and the sun rise together. Seems right.

Dog days can go for a very long time in the desert. Way more than 40 days. Maybe the turkey on Technology has something to do with it. Turkey Days of Summer. Nah – it doesn’t have the same ring.