Opinions

Are birds multi-lingual? Do chickadees speak junco? Do goldfinches speak sparrow? Do cardinals speak blue jay?

I was just wondering because what started out as a single chickadee on our bird feeder a couple of weeks ago has grown to a United Nations of chickadees, woodpeckers, finches (gold and purple), sparrows, mourning doves, cardinals, juncos and flickers. Do they communicate with each other? Do they spread the word that VanHarens have some good stuff out in the feeders, so you better get over there before it’s all gone? Just wondering.

Another thing. I’ve read that birds do not have taste receptors, so that if you want to keep the squirrels out of your feeders, all you have to do is add cayenne pepper to the birdseed. The squirrels don’t like pepper, so they’ll stay away. You can even buy peppered seed at some stores.

We’ve recently moved to a new home in a neighborhood completely across the city from where we’ve lived for the last 18 years. At our previous house, I fed the birds on a bunch of feeders suspended from the branches of the trees in our enclosed patio. I think the birds liked it there because it was protected from the cold north and west winds. We had many birds who visited the feeders every day, not to mention the squirrels and chipmunks who fed there everyday as well.

But then I had a little health situation that made it difficult for me to keep the feeders filled, so we lost our little feathered friends, and eventually we sold all the feeders at a series of garage sales in preparation for our move to the new house.

Stored in our basement are two pieces of original artwork. One is a pastel painting of my grandmother, Christine VanHaren, done many years ago by my cousin Larry VanHaren, a professional artist who lived in Dallas until he was struck and killed by a car.

I never met my grandmother because she died shortly before I was born, but I feel I know her when I look at that picture.

The other original is a crude oil painting of an old log cabin, its torn tarpaper siding nearly stripped away by the winds of many northern Wisconsin winters and the vandal woodpeckers whose search for wood-boring insects led them to its gables. My mother painted the picture in an art class at the Senior Citizens Center in Oconto Falls, and my dad framed it using rough-sawn barn boards salvaged when our old barn was torn down many years ago.

Do you ever get distracted during the homily in church? I try very hard to pay attention because I know that the priest is trying to dispense a message for my welfare, but we recently had a visiting priest whose message was somewhat less than compelling and I happened to notice that way up in the ornamental hanging lights in church there were some very intricate spider webs.

I decided right then that I would make it a point not to sit under those lights - who knows when one of those little buggers might decide to “eliminate.” And you know how hard those little spider spots are to get off!

“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”

Juliet says that in Shakespeare’s “The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet.” She’s trying to rationalize her newfound infatuation with Romeo, a member of the Montague family, her family’s fiercest enemies.

“Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?/ ’Tis but thy name that is my enemy;/ Thou art thyself though, not a Montague./ What’s Montague? it is nor hand, nor foot,/ Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part/ Belonging to a man. What’s in a name?/ That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet./ So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call’d,/ Retain that dear perfection which he owes/ Without that title. Romeo, doff thy name;/ And for that name, which is no part of thee, Take all myself.”

So, she’s saying if Romeo had another name, he’d still be the hunk she’s fallen for, but he wouldn’t be an enemy. What’s in a name?

You know about Costco, right? Big wholesale membership store with everything from gourmet food to TVs and tires.

I wonder if it’s ever occurred to anyone that a trip to Costco might make a great date adventure. If a guy had the guts to ask his girl for a date to Costco, just think how inexpensive (maybe “cheap” is the right word) that would be.

Instead of dinner and a movie, be creative, take her to Costco. It could be fun and inexpensive! Borrow your parents’ membership card and head out for a new dating experience.

Does it surprise you when the news on TV these days has so many videos and photos of things that have just happened? It seems that nothing today goes undocumented or unphotographed because a large percentage of the population has smartphones, and unlike me, they know how to use them!

I read an article on the internet that said that 68 percent of adults in America now have smartphones. In 2011, the figure was 35 percent. And unlike me, many of the users walk around with their phones in their hands all the time. When something happens, they’re ready to photograph it or video it. More often than not, I forget to take my phone when I leave home, so I’m not likely to take video of some major disaster and sell it to NBC.

To the editor:

Recently there has been a barrage of letters by those who hope to push our great country far to the left. Personally I believe that our country and state of Wisconsin need leaders who support our traditional values.

For the U.S. Congress, Mike Gallagher will do the best job of representing Wisconsin. Mike served seven years on active duty (deployed twice to Iraq) and earned the rank of Marine captain. He will be a voice for veterans and believes in reforming the VA.

Incumbent U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson deserves to return to Washington as well. We can’t let Congress fall to the free-spending Democrats.

To the editor:

Conservatives say they uphold our values. Those may be their values, but they’re not ours. Life is probably great for rich conservatives, but for those of us who scrape by in Walker World, not so much.

Mike Gallagher: A pretty face who hasn’t lived in Wisconsin for years. Gallagher was recruited by the Republican Party to vote exactly as Paul Ryan instructs. Mike loves Donald Trump and supports massive cuts to Social Security and Medicare.

Ron Johnson: our invisible senator who also loves the Donald. Johnson has done nothing in six years, including his most important job: voting on Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland.

To the editor:

One of the greatest virtues of an elected official is a willingness to listen to all their constituents, not just those who make major financial contributions. Two such officials are Congressman Reid Ribble and Senator Tammy Baldwin.

I wish to acknowledge their leadership on Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest management and thank them for actions that are helping restore the health of our state’s 1.5 million-acre national forest, and by extension, the health of the economic cluster established in its proximity.

When Congressman Ribble invited me to speak before a U.S. House subcommittee several years ago regarding the economic impact of CNNF mismanagement, it was but one step of many toward both raising awareness and correcting the problem. That same day Senator Baldwin stepped out of a budget mark-up meeting at the U.S. Capitol to meet me and accept my invitation to see the problem firsthand.