Christopher Donahue

Tonight, I have nothing to write at home about. In an effort to break an acute case of blogger’s block, I will look for inspiration to the latest  Bird Sightings column from the Massachusetts Audubon Society.

There have been several northern-lapwings seen recently, and what they are up to is anyone’s guess. They have been seen hanging around in farm fields and  ponds in southeastern Massachusetts, but since they have not done anything out of the ordinary, nor made their intentions clear, what they will do next is entirely up to speculation. In a sign something big is afoot, an ibis was seen in the vicinity along with white-rumped sandpipers and American pippets.

The situation was not much better at Plum Island. In the dunes, several cave swallows were observed with two red-headed woodpeckers. The public has been notified to keep their distance and not to move suddenly while wearing shiny objects.

At Salisbury beach, the tension was palpable. Twenty five red-crossbills were engaged in a stare down 150 white-winged crossbills. While simultaneously, a lone,  hoary-redpoll stared down 25 common-redpolls. Observers appealed for calm.

Alarmingly, Wild turkeys appear to be absent from their natural habitat as of late. Experts say this might have something to do with their high level of avian intelligence.  Frozen turkeys have been found in abundance.

Looking to the future, ornithologists anticipate an influx of turtle doves next month, and at least one partridge-in-a- pear-tree.

Copyright 2012 Magnus Incognito

Last weekend we viewed the Mario Testino: In your Face exhibit at the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) here in Boston. For the uninitiated, Mario Testino is a famous fashion photographer whose work has appeared in Vogue, Vanity Fair, and Popular Science (just kidding) and who has never taken my picture because I am not beautiful and I am not a celebrity (not kidding). On the surface, the exhibit is about glamorous fashion photos. But upon closer inspection, it became apparent the exhibit was really about the concept of celebrity itself. Both the celebrity of Mario Testino and the celebrity of the famous people he photographs. The show was not about a photographer who takes pictures of beautiful people. It was about a celebrity who takes pictures of celebrities!

The exhibit started off with a bank of television monitors showing clips of Testino being interviewed, walking on red carpets, and appearing on television shows all around the world. This put the viewer on notice that Testino is a glamorous person and celebrity in his own right. And the viewer is not.

Next came several galleries of great looking, flashy pictures of beautiful people. Because I neither attend the Cannes Film Festival, nor read People magazine, I was oblivious most of the time as to which celebrity I was viewing. And, not knowing who the subjects were did not necessarily raise the photographs above stylish advertising. I can’t say many of these photos took on any more importance once I realized, or was told, whose portrait I was viewing.

For instance, a pretty photograph of Jennifer Aniston made me wonder if anyone would care if they were unfamiliar with Jennifer Aniston. It also seemed that a bar of soap or bottle of perfume could be inserted in the photo and it would make a nice advertisement. Most of the exhibit was like this, fun but light-weight.

A photo that did stand out was of Tom Brady. Besides being the husband of super-model Giselle Bundchen, Tom Brady is more widely known, and idolized, in these parts as the three Super Bowl winning quarterback of the New England Patriots. Was Brady’s  photo included because he’s a star fashion model now, or married to a super model, or simply because he’s a local sports hero?

One thing for sure, the New England Patriots haven’t won a Super Bowl since their leader began to morph into a fashion celebrity.

Copyright 2012 Magnus Incognito

Appropriately enough, this “US Presidential Election Eve” post follows my first post on Halloween Eve.

There are lots of similarities. Tales of horror and impending doom, threats of eternal damnation, ghosts, goblins, skeletons (in and out of closets), witches (a.k.a. feminist Harvard professors for some), things that go bump in the night, lots of tricks, and most importantly, very few treats.

It is now time to get this election over with. Over with! Like many people I just stopped watching the campaign commercials. As I said to my wife, if a person from another planet came to the US and watched the campaign advertising, after a half-hour of viewing the mud-slinging the extraterrestrial visitor wouldn’t be voting for either candidate. Or any candidate. Ever.

That the campaign ads have no effect on me anymore might simply mean that I am a “decided voter.” But my reaction, being fed up with the ads and ignoring them, does not seem to be uncommon with people from all over the political spectrum, at this point. And that raises the question of when do the ads become ineffective and just a colossal waste of money. I presume the political consultant campaign industry would say they are fighting for the last undecided voters. Ok. The last undecided voter, watching TV, and waiting for the commercials to help him/her decide?

Sounds like a horrible mythical beast, like a ghost or goblin, to me.

Copyright 2012 Magnus Incognito

As fate will have it, this first post on the Magnus Incognito blog occurs on All Hallows Eve.  I will now ramble after a long day….

One of my earliest memories of Halloween is falling down the stairs in my Batman costume.  I was about three or four years old. We lived on the third floor of a three decker tenement in an old Massachusetts mill town. Of my sisters and various cousins I went out trick-or-treating with that night, I was the youngest. We went out in our neighborhood which was composed of similar three story houses.   I can remember laboring up a long flight of dark stairs, toward a lit doorway with a bunch of other kids jostling me along. It was tough going because of my ill-fitting mask and my fantastic cape which kept tripping me up. Everything seemed to be going fine and the new experience didn’t seem to be all that bad.

Then disaster struck.

The knot of kids had reached the door and I was unfortunately at the back of the group. This meant I was standing at the top of the stairs backward! What follows happened very quickly. A woman who lived in the apartment suddenly appeared at the door. The kids crowded up to the screen door and shouted a lusty “trick or treat!” The woman began to slowly push the door open so she could distribute some treats. The knot of kids jostled back a few steps so the screen door could swing open. The knot shuffled one half-step back too many because the last jostle pushed Batman right down the stairs, backward! In the dark!

Poor young Batman took a pounding that night tumbling backward down the blackened stairs, not knowing what was happening until he got to the bottom, and realizing only then that not only had he suffered a punishing indignity, but he didn’t even get any candy. Young Batman called it a night right after that.

Thankfully, Halloween and trick or treating couldn’t help but get better after that.

The family relations remain the same!

Copyright 2012 Magnus Incognito