She dances with cats

There's major animal rescue mission underway in the Santa Clarita Valley of California, USA.

Rescuers at Animal Acres Sanctuary and The Gentle Barn Foundation, along with L.A. County Animal Regulation & Control, area dog rescue organizations and other sanctuaries, are in the process of rescuing, providing veterinary care for, and rehoming 200 dogs, 30 or more cats, and 300 or more farm animals including goats, sheep, ducks, pigs, geese, a llama, an emu and a pregnant horse-- almost all of which are in need of medical attention. The animals were found at an area ranch, abandoned and sick. The only water they had was polluted by gasoline.

Both of these rescues are in need of volunteers and donations to help provide medical care for these animals, and they are searching for permanent homes particularly for the ducks and geese right now. If you visit either of these websites, you'll see links for "Emergency Animal Rescue" that will have more information.

Here's a link to a story about the rescue that appeared in the Santa Clarita Valley Signal.

Even one abused and neglected animal is too many, but hundreds? I love all my cats, dogs, goats, chickens, geese and bunnies, and just to think of someone doing anything but treating animals with kindness makes me terribly sad. If I lived in California, I'd be volunteering to help out.

If any of you can render assistance--either as volunteers or through donations--please do so. If you can't give time or money, then please spread the word so that more people learn about this tragedy and more help can come to those animals and their rescuers.

Audio: Share a song with powerful lyrics.

In my childhood--and even still today--I am profoundly impressed by some of the powerful lyrics written by Paul Simon. Probably a lot of people know Simon for his more insipid tunes such as "The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)," but songs like the ones below hit me a lot harder:

The Boxer
I am just a poor boy and my story's seldom told
Ive squandered my resistance for a pocketful of mumbles, such are promises
All lies and jest, still the man hears what he wants to hear
And disregards the rest, hmmmm

When I left my home and my family, I was no more than a boy
In the company of strangers
In the quiet of the railway station, runnin' scared
Laying low, seeking out the poorer quarters, where the ragged people go
Looking for the places only they would know

Li la li...

Asking only workman's wages, I come lookin' for a job, but I get no offers
Just a come-on from the whores on 7th avenue
I do declare, there were times when I was so lonesome
I took some comfort there

Now the years are rolling by me, they are rockin' even me
I am older than I once was, and younger than I'll be, thats not unusual
No it isn't strange, after changes upon changes, we are more or less the same
After changes we are more or less the same

Li la li...

And I'm laying out my winter clothes, wishing I was gone, goin' home
Where the New York City winters aren't bleedin' me, leadin' me to go home

In the clearing stands a boxer, and a fighter by his trade
And he carries the reminders of every glove that laid him down or cut him
Til he cried out in his anger and his shame
"I am leaving, I am leaving, but the fighter still remains"
Yes he still remains

Li la li...

American Tune
Many's the time I've been mistaken, and many times confused
And I've often felt forsaken, and certainly misused.
But it's all right, it's all right, I'm just weary to my bones
Still, you don't expect to be bright and bon vivant
So far away from home, so far away from home.

I don't know a soul who's not been battered
Don't have a friend who feels at ease
Don't know a dream that's not been shattered
Or driven to its knees.
But it's all right, all right, We've lived so well so long
Still, when I think of the road we're traveling on,
I wonder what's gone wrong,
I can't help it, I wonder what's gone wrong.

And I dreamed I was flying. I dreamed that my soul rose unexpectedly,
And looking back down on me, smiled reassuringly
And I dreamed I was dying.
And far above, my eyes could clearly see
The Statue of Liberty, drifting away to sea
And I dreamed I was flying.

We come on a ship we call the Mayflower,
We come on a ship that sailed the moon
We come at the age's most uncertain hour
And sing the American tune
But it's all right, its all right
You can't be forever blessed
Still, tomorrow's gonna be another working day
And I'm trying to get some rest,
That's all, I'm trying to get some rest.

This may be interesting, or it may be nothing. I guess I'll see soon enough. Click and paste at your own risk. If I get spammed I'll be deleting this post.

Goats do roam
It never ceases to amaze me how each species on our farm--and each individual within that species--has such a unique personality and temperament. Not only that, but how smart each one is.

For example, the goats are ranging freely right now (it's winter here in the northern hemisphere, and at my latitude the days aren't very long, so they don't go far). But this morning, they got down the driveway almost to the road, and one of the chickens started making a frantic "buck-buck-buck-buck-SHRIEK!" and didn't stop until I looked out the door and saw the goats too close to the road. The chicken basically warned me that the goats were in danger. Of course, I shooed them back up the driveway, running behind them clapping my hands and yelling "Git! Git! Git! G'wan, git!" until they were safe.

Of course, Shamrock, our yearling buck (whom I call "my little billy goat gruff"), had found some fresh green grass down in a ditch and he wouldn't move from his spot. He just sat there alternating between stuffing his face and staring up at me with a "Yeah, whatever" expression. So I picked him up (all 70 or 80 pounds of him) and carried him 100 feet up the driveway to where the rest of the herd was standing.

(That photo at left is Shamrock and me last spring, when he was about 10 weeks old. Yes, he's trying to eat my hair.)

One of these vulvas is not like the others
In other goat news, all the does are now in heat. Typically they'd go into heat in the late fall and get serviced by the buck, resulting in kids in late February or early March. However, our big beautiful buck, Thunder, died last September: He just keeled over one day, probably from a heart attack or something. He wasn't young. And Shamrock wasn't developed enough to do anything about the does' autumn estrus.

I noticed it yesterday, when I was bringing water to the goats and I saw one doe with an inflamed vulva who was holding her tail up and wiggling it suggestively. (When they're not in heat, the vulva is just a little flap of skin barely recognizable as anything but a pee hole*, but when they go into heat, it stretches out and into a "receptive" position for the buck to do his business.) Bu the end of the day, half of the does were in heat, and this morning pretty much all of them are.

Penis goes WHERE?!?!
Shamrock is enjoying a newfound popularity as a result of the does' estrus. Prior to this heat, they'd been kicking him away from the herd ever since he got old enough to graze with them--mostly due to the fact that he was a bottle baby because his mother rejected him after he was born. But now they're bleating a different tune!

Unfortunately, the little guy would probably need a step stool to service the does (it's as if every dwarf goat gene in that gene pool came to him), and he's really not quite sure how to deal with this whole new situation where all the female goats want to hang out with him and keep wiggling their tails in his face. I can see a little thought bubble over his head that says, "Duh ... what?"

*Like cats, dogs and most other animals, female goats use the same orifice for urinating and mating. Trufax! If this grosses you out, please remember that urine is quite sterile when it comes out and because of its high pH is not supportive of bacterial life.

So allegedly Iranian ships "threatened" a US Navy vessel in the Strait of Hormuz. Does anyone else have the odd feeling that they've heard this crap before?

Official Version of Naval Incident Starts to Unravel
Analysis by Gareth Porter

WASHINGTON, Jan 10 (IPS) - Despite the official and media portrayal of the incident in the Strait of Hormuz early Monday morning as a serious threat to U.S. ships from Iranian speedboats that nearly resulted in a "battle at sea", new information over the past three days suggests that the incident did not involve such a threat and that no U.S. commander was on the verge of firing at the Iranian boats.

The new information that appears to contradict the original version of the incident includes the revelation that U.S. officials spliced the audio recording of an alleged Iranian threat onto to a videotape of the incident. That suggests that the threatening message may not have come in immediately after the initial warning to Iranian boats from a U.S. warship, as appears to do on the video.

Also unraveling the story is testimony from a former U.S. naval officer that non-official chatter is common on the channel used to communicate with the Iranian boats and testimony from the commander of the U.S. 5th fleet that the commanding officers of the U.S. warships involved in the incident never felt the need to warn the Iranians of a possible use of force against them.

Further undermining the U.S. version of the incident is a video released by Iran Thursday showing an Iranian naval officer on a small boat hailing one of three ships.

The Iranian commander is heard to say, "Coalition warship 73, this is Iranian navy patrol boat." He then requests the "side numbers" of the U.S. warships. A voice with a U.S. accent replies, "This is coalition warship 73. I am operating in international waters."

The dramatic version of the incident reported by U.S. news media throughout Tuesday and Wednesday suggested that Iranian speedboats, apparently belonging to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard navy, had made moves to attack three U.S. warships entering the Strait and that the U.S. commander had been on the verge of firing at them when they broke off.

Typical of the network coverage was a story by ABC's Jonathan Karl quoting a Pentagon official as saying the Iranian boats "were a heartbeat from being blown up".

Bush administration officials seized on the incident to advance the portrayal of Iran as a threat and to strike a more threatening stance toward Iran. National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley declared Wednesday that the incident "almost involved an exchange of fire between our forces and Iranian forces". President George W. Bush declared during his Mideast trip Wednesday that there would be "serious consequences" if Iran attacked U.S. ships and repeated his assertion that Iran is "a threat to world peace".

Central to the depiction of the incident as involving a threat to U.S. warships is a mysterious pair of messages that the sailor who heard them onboard immediately interpreted as saying, "I am coming at you...", and "You will explode after a few minutes." But the voice in the audio clearly said "I am coming to you," and the second message was much less clear.

Furthermore, as the New York Times noted Thursday, the recording carries no ambient noise, such as the sounds of a motor, the sea or wind, which should have been audible if the broadcast had been made from one of the five small Iranian boats.

A veteran U.S. naval officer who had served as a surface warfare officer aboard a U.S. Navy destroyer in the Gulf sent a message to the New York Times on-line column "The Lede" Wednesday pointing out that in the Persian Gulf, the "bridge-to-bridge" radio channel used to communicate between ships "is like a bad CB radio" with many people using it for "hurling racial slurs" and "threats". The former officer wrote that his "first thought" was that the message "might not have even come from one of the Iranian craft".

Pentagon officials admitted to the Times that they could not rule out that the broadcast might have come from another source

The five Iran boats involved were hardly in a position to harm the three U.S. warships. Although Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman described the Iranian boats as "highly maneuverable patrol craft" that were "visibly armed," he failed to note that these are tiny boats carrying only a two- or three-man crew and that they are normally armed only with machine guns that could do only surface damage to a U.S. ship.

The only boat that was close enough to be visible to the U.S. ships was unarmed, as an enlarged photo of the boat from the navy video clearly shows.

The U.S. warships were not concerned about the possibility that the Iranian boats were armed with heavier weapons capable of doing serious damage. Asked by a reporter whether any of the vessels had anti-ship missiles or torpedoes, Vice Adm. Kevin Cosgriff, Commander of the 5th Fleet, answered that none of them had either of those two weapons.

"I didn't get the sense from the reports I was receiving that there was a sense of being afraid of these five boats," said Cosgriff.

The edited Navy video shows a crewman issuing an initial warning to approaching boats, but the footage of the boats maneuvering provides no visual evidence of Iranian boats "making a run on U.S. ships" as claimed by CBS news Wednesday in its report based on the new video.

Vice Adm. Cosgriff also failed to claim any run toward the U.S. ships following the initial warning. Cosgriff suggested that the Iranian boat's manoeuvres were "unduly provocative" only because of the "aggregate of their manoeuvres, the radio call and the dropping of objects in the water".

He described the objects dropped by the Iranian boat as being "white, box-like objects that floated". That description indicates that the objects were clearly not mines, which would have been dark and would have sunk immediately. Cosgriff indicated that the ships merely "passed by them safely" without bothering to investigate whether they were explosives of some kind.

The apparent absence of concern on the part of the U.S. ships' commanding officers about the floating objects suggests that they recognised that the Iranians were engaging in a symbolic gesture having to do with laying mines.

Cosgriff's answers to reporters' questions indicated that the story promoted earlier by Pentagon officials that one of the U.S . ships came very close to firing at the Iranian boats seriously distorted what actually happened. When Cosgriff was asked whether the crew ever gave warning to the Iranian boats that they "could come under fire", he said the commanding officers "did not believe they needed to fire warning shots".

As for the report circulated by at least one Pentagon official to the media that one of the commanders was "close to firing", Cosgriff explained that "close to" meant that the commander was "working through a series of procedures". He added, "[I]n his mind, he might have been closing in on that point."

Despite Cosgriff's account, which contradicted earlier Pentagon portrayals of the incident as a confrontation, not a single news outlet modified its earlier characterisation of the incident. After the Cosgriff briefing, Associated Press carried a story that said, " U.S. forces were taking steps toward firing on the Iranians to defend themselves, said the U.S. naval commander in the region. But the boats -- believed to be from the Iranian Revolutionary Guard's navy -- turned and moved away, officials said."

That was quite different from what Cosgriff actually said.

In its story covering the Cosgriff briefing, Reuters cited "other Pentagon officials, speaking on condition of anonymity" as saying that "a U.S. captain was in the process of ordering sailors to open fire when the Iranian boats moved away" -- a story that Cosgriff had specifically denied.

*Gareth Porter is an historian and national security policy analyst. His latest book, "Perils of Dominance: Imbalance of Power and the Road to War in Vietnam", was published in June 2005.

-----------------------------

Note to the Bush-Cheney Junta: You know, guys ... if you're going to try to scam the American public into yet another war, you might not want to use a rerun of an incident that's still within living memory for most of the US population.

Source: http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=40747

Last night I watched Michael Moore's film, Sicko, for the first time. For those of you who've lived either outside the US or inside the US under a rock, this film, released June 29, 2007, shows the horror of the US healthcare system.

I know there are a lot of people out there who think Michael Moore is nothing but a propagandist, and probably even question the veracity of some of the stories people told on his film. The woman whose baby died because she went to an outside-network emergency room for treatment because it was the closest hospital. The man who was denied treatments for his kidney cancer because they were either "too expensive" or "experimental" and therefore died and left his young children without a father. The old woman who was literally thrown out of a taxi in front of the Rescue Mission on Skid Row in LA because she couldn't pay her hospital bill. Sure, a lot of people are going to dismiss these claims as exaggerations or atypical. But sadly, they're not.

I know personally people who have suffered because of our so-called "health care" system. I had a friend who was diabetic and needed a pancreas transplant. She was covered by Medicaid (state health insurance) because she was unable to work due to her disability. But Medicaid wouldn't pay for her pancreas transplant because it would have to be done outside the state. And the hospital demanded a 50% payment up front. Fifty percent of $100,000. From a person who was on disability and couldn't work. So, in the "uniquely American" way Moore documents in his film, her friends put together fundraisers. They raised enough money to at least get her seen by a specialist, but they didn't raise enough money for the procedure. By the time Medicaid finally approved her -- because by this point she was so sick that she not only needed a pancreas transplant but a kidney transplant as well, and she was going blind from her diabetes -- it was almost too late. She got her transplants, and was placed on anti-rejection drugs. Sadly, a couple of years later she developed a severe systemic infection because of her weakened immune system (and her inability to find safe and healthy housing), and she died. At the age of 36.

My mother almost died of congestive heart failure. Why? Because for years and years she'd been having serious problems with her teeth. She wouldn't see a dentist because she knew how much it would cost (and that she wouldn't be able to afford the cost, and she didn't have good enough credit to apply for Care Credit or other "revolving loans") to get her teeth fixed, and she tried to hold out until she was old enough to be eligible for Social Security and Medicare. It didn't work. One night she started having excruciating chest pain and trouble breathing. She called 911 and was taken by ambulance to the local hospital, where the examined her and admitted her right away because she had a "pleural effusion" (a type of congestive heart failure in which fluid builds up around the lungs and causes pressure that makes breathing difficult). The next morning they started doing diagnostic tests. They did a CAT scan of her head and found out that the problem that started as a simple dental infection which could have been solved by antibiotics and a root canal, had she been able to afford them, had spread to her sinuses and into the bones all around her upper jaw and cheek. She was in the hospital for a week and a half.

Fortunately, Medicaid picked up the bill because of her low income. But she wouldn't have even had this problem to start with, if there had been a system in place that allowed people to have access to preventive health and dental care. And the state of Maine paid at least 10 times as much for my mother's emergency care, diagnostic tests, hospital stay and medications as they would have for routine, affordable or free preventive care.

I know a guy who tried a DIY tooth extraction because he had an abscessed tooth and couldn't afford go to the dentist. Result: He got half the tooth out and the rest of it sat there rotting and throbbing and causing him even more problems.

I know a guy who died of colon cancer because he wouldn't go to the doctor for screening when he first had the problem. Why: Because he knew his wife's insurance wouldn't pay for the stuff he needed.

One of my college friends also died of colon cancer -- at the age of 35. Why: Because she didn't have health insurance and so she ignored the symptoms she had. Until her colon literally exploded and she was rushed to the hospital, where she stayed for a long time due to the surgery, the cancer, and the peritonitis that resulted from having shit all through your abdomen.

This isn't "some guy I heard about on the internet." These are not exaggerations or hyperbole. These are people I met, and know (or knew), in real life.

This kind of shit shouldn't be happening in a supposedly civilized country.

I know that the socialized healthcare systems Michael Moore talks about in his documentary are painted in a slightly more rosy picture than the reality of them. I have a friend who's lived in England for about six years now, and she's had to use the NHS for treatment of chronic illness and a serious injury that resulted from a fall. She's said that the wait time to see a specialist can be long, and that sometimes the doctors seem less than truly caring. But then again, she lives in a rural area in northern England that's probably considered a "hardship posting" for the doctors who work there. Also,  I'm sure that as in rural Maine, in rural Northern England there are really not all that many specialists around. I think if she lived in London or Manchester, she'd probably find she had better and faster access to specialists and diagnostic tests -- just as I would if I lived in Boston rather than in East Overshoe, Maine. But frankly, she gets the healthcare she needs for the problems she has. And that's a damn sight more than a lot of people I know. Even those who have insurance!

I'm also pretty sure that no matter what the Cuban hospital staff said, the Americans he took over there probably did get the red-carpet treatment. But who the hell cares, if they got the medical care they needed -- which they couldn't get in their OWN COUNTRY?!

But I'm also sure that, as Moore points out in Sicko, a lot of the propaganda about the Canadian healthcare system is overstated. A lot of Mainers living near the border go to Canada to get their medication prescriptions filled. They also get them by mail order. Many physicians here in Maine actually do what they can to help uninsured and underinsured Mainers to get prescriptions from Canada because they know that the drugs are so goddamn expensive here that a lot of elderly or poor people have to choose between medication or food, or medication and a way to heat their homes. Of course, now that a passport is required to cross the Canadian border, thanks to our new "homeland security" regulations, I'm sure that's keeping a lot of people from driving over the border. After all, it costs $80 or more (plus the cost of photos, which have to be 'just so') to get a passport. And if you haven't got money for your meds, you sure as hell don't have the money to get a passport!

There's guaranteed to be lots of wank from the right wing and from the insurance company and drug company lobbyists about how universal healthcare is going to raise your taxes through the roof and blah blah blah. Frankly, I'd rather pay taxes for a health care system that takes care of all, no matter what their means, than for the stupid, criminal war machine that keeps our soldiers (and innocent citizens) dying in the middle east, that increases our terror threat rather than reducing it, and that makes a few gazillionaires even richer because they own stock in companies like KBR that have "no bid" contracts to provide "support services" for the American military. And if you're such a rich and special snowflake that you want to see a private specialist -- fine! You just knock yourself right the hell out. That's what they do in England. But don't fuck the rest of us over with your bullshit about how universal healthcare = communism. After all, we have "universal" fire protection and "universal" police protection and "universal" airport security. Why not universal health care?

Why not? Because it's in somebody's interest that the vast majority of Americans be sick, poor and demoralized.

I'd really love to move to Canada. Maybe I can bring my mother along so she can get access to good health care. Anyone got a decently paying job for me? I'm a great writer, administrator, cat lover, dedicated volunteer, etc. And I've got fantastic references!

So I was out getting my afternoon coffee and I overheard a couple of guys talking about a book or an article someone had written about the Mormon "church," which brought to mind a couple of odd videos I've recently seen.

1. The Cartoon Mitt Romney Doesn't Want You To See (describing Mormon theology and cosmology):

2. The South Park version of the Mormon cosmology (dum-dum-dum-dum-dum):

Today's Writer's Block (basically the QOTD) on LiveJournal--where I maintain another blog--was "When did you stop believing in Santa Claus and why?

I thought I'd share my answer with you all, too, since it seemed a seasonally appropriate topic.

What? You mean Santa Claus isn't real?!?!?

I first learned "the truth" about Santa Claus from my friend Donna W., when I was 8 years old. I stayed overnight at her house one night in December, and she broke the news to me. Then she proved it by bringing me up to the attic, where her parents had hid all the Christmas presents.

I wasn't all that surprised--I was going through a very cynical phase at the time, at the tender age of 8--but I never did try to find where my mother hid the "Santa" presents. Why? Because half the fun of Christmas when you're a kid is not knowing what you're going to get. And I already knew I was a lousy enough liar that I'd have a hard time acting surprised if I wasn't.

I considered telling my little brother "the truth" about Santa Claus, but once again compassion and wisdom--such wisdom as a young child might have--prevailed. I even helped to build his mythology a little bit by saying that I'd seen Santa Claus putting presents under the Christmas tree one year when we stayed at my grandparents' house (I was sleeping on a hide-a-bed in the living room and I half woke on Christmas eve to see my grandfather putting the presents under the tree).

I actually think it's kind of unfair to burst a child's bubble about Santa before they're about 9 or 10. By that point they're sort of starting to "get it" anyway, if they're raised in a family that "plays Santa" for less fortunate families or for homeless pets.

My mother told my little brother about Santa when he was probably 9 years old. The reason she did is that she was pretty sure we weren't going to have much of a Christmas that year because she was desperately poor and it was more important to put food on the table. My little brother cried so hard, and then he got really angry and screamed, "You LIED to me!" to my mother and cried some more. I felt so bad, both for him and for my mother.

Once my brother calmed down, Mom explained to him that Santa represents the spirit of generosity and kindness that is the hallmark of the Christmas season. She said that Santa Claus is always real if we see Santa as the embodiment of a generous and kind heart--and that even if he isn't a fat guy in a red suit who delivers presents, "Santa" is definitely real.

And so, in the sense that Santa represents the "Christmas Spirit" of generosity (which should really be an all-year-round spirit), I still believe in Santa Claus.

In keeping with that theme, I present you the lyrics of one of my favorite Christmas songs, "It's in Every One of Us," which I heard for the first time on a Nettwerk Records Christmas CD, sung by Dayna Manning. My lyric search revealed that its first appearance was on the John Denver & the Muppets Christmas album, but somehow Dayna Manning's sweet voice seems so much more appropriate to the lyrics:

It's in every one of us
To be wise
Find your heart
Open up both your eyes
We can all know everything
Without ever knowing why

It's in every one of us
By and by

It's in every one of us
To be wise
Find your heart
Open up both your eyes
We can all know everything
Without ever knowing why

It's in every one of us
By and by
By and by...

Were your holiday cards store bought, handmade, online, TBD or MIA?

Most of my cards were store bought--I don't have the time to make handmade cards these days because I simply can't think that far ahead. I mean, really, I still have Christmas shopping to do and it's less than a week till Christmas. I just sent off my last batch today.

I did handmake one card, for my vet's office. I drew a picture of my three cats wearing Santa hats, with LOLcat speech in thought bubbles. Siouxsie was thinking "Do not want!"; Thomas was thinking "I can has cheezburgr?"; and Dahlia was thinking "It can be hugz tiem nao plz?"

On the inside I wrote "Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to Dr. Sarah, Dr. George, Dr. Margo and all the wonderful techs and office staff at [vet hospital name redacted for privacy]. Purrs and headbonks, Siouxsie, Thomas, Dahlia, and Mama [dances_withcats]."

What was your major or field of study in college? Did you wind up working in that field or using that degree? If not, what field have you wound up in? 
Submitted by sneuf. 

I was an English major with a concentration in creative writing. I've used that degree in one way or another in just about every job I've had. Not all my jobs were directly associated with writing (I've done two stints as a layout designer at newspapers) but I've always had the need to use my writing skills even in non-writing-associated jobs.

In my various work capacities, I've written press releases, grant applications, how-to manuals, research synopses, essays, website copy, and more. Right now I use the writing and research skills I learned in college primarily in my capacity as the author and webmaster of my cat advice site, Paws and Effect. I've also written a few novels (in stages from finished and edited to a couple of chapters of rough draft), and I use my writing skills in my current job as well.

Writing skills never go out of style, and regardless of what anyone out there says about English being a fluff-bunny, useless major -- when you talk to real employers with real hiring needs outside of very specific job fields (engineering, for example), most of them will tell you they'll be glad to hire an English major, especially one with a good GPA, over most other majors. For that matter, I've heard from a lot of employers who hire people at the Bachelor's Degree level that they'd rather hire someone who has a degree that connotes a well-rounded education rather than a very specific (business administration, for example) type of degree. Even my editors at the newspapers said they'd rather hire and English major than a journalism major: English majors are generally good writers, and you can learn everything you need to know about AP Style, libel, and journalistic ethics with a bit of common sense, integrity, and an AP Style Guide.

After having read some other QOTD responses, I feel compelled to point out that I actually chose to be an English major (it wasn't my "default degree"). I went into college with an undeclared major and some fantasy about being an airline pilot--which came crashing down around me as I realized just how much I hate physics and higher mathematics, being an airline pilot is pretty much like being a glorified bus driver (doing the same route over and over again), and I probably couldn't pass the physical with my less-than-perfect eyesight.

I took a semester off to figure out just WTF I was going to do with my life. I quickly found a minimum-wage job at the only Jewish deli in northern Maine, where I worked the 5:45 a.m. to 2 p.m. shift and learned everything there is to know about "applied kosher law." :-)

One day I arrived home before my roommates and started reading what may just have been the worst-written fantasy novel ever to be published by a non-vanity press. I was literally groaning at least once per page and the florid overwriting, bad grammar, etc. Then I had one of those amazing "a-HA!" moments, where the light shines down and choirs of angels sing beautifully harmonic chords: I recalled how much fun I had writing short stories and poems when I was in high school, how well received my 35-page creative writing project was received by my senior English teacher (and the comments he made on my story--"Great dialogue and characterization, excellent plot. Keep writing!"--danced before my eyes). The next day I hopped a bus back to college and re-registered for the May term, declaring my major as English. The rest, as they say, is history.

I did go to graduate school, working toward an MA in English, but I only stayed a year. I had a teaching assistantship, but I didn't particularly like the program and I began to get a whiff of the nasty stench of "the politics of academia." So I've got half a Master's Degree, too. I'm quite certain I won't finish that degree, because if I do go back to school it won't be for a master's in English.

I've thought about going to school and getting a 2-year vet tech degree because I love animals and want to open a sanctuary/hospice for special needs cats someday. I could probably get that degree without much effort, since all of my English and social science credits from a 4-year college would transfer. I'd have to re-take all my science classes (it's been more than 15 years since I graduated college, and I'm sure a lot of my knowledge is out of date) and any classes specific to the vet tech field. I don't want to go all the way for vet school because I don't want to invest that much time (and money)--but a vet tech degree from Eastern Maine Technical College wouldn't be overbearing in terms of cost or time commitment.