Farm News 07-09-06
Sunday morning, after chores, 72°, light rain starting
Ducks Coalesce
I thought it wouldn't happen until Autumn, but the ducks have merged into one flock during the past week. There are six mature ducks, seven in late adolescence, and eight in early adolescence. The three baby ducks with two mothers didn't survive. Having two mother ducks was probably too much for them.
This big flock of over twenty ducks now patrols the place in a broad skirmish line, throwing despair into the hearts of grasshoppers.
Rabbits
It is too hot to raise bunnies, so the rabbits are biding their time. The females are storing fat to help them rear young and the males are storing testosterone for no apparent reason. At least that was what I thought they were doing, until Saturday morning, when I discovered Suzette running around with a mouth full of shredded paper.
She was pulling out fur and building a nest in her box Saturday evening. This morning she was in her nest box and very busy. There are new bunnies in there, I suppose. I'll look them over in a few days.
Nick Zorro and the FBI
There is a drug rehab facility in Kansas City called Renaissance West, still operating almost forty years after it's founding. It was dreamed up in 1969 by Nick Zorro, a purveyor of LSD to the masses. Nick was one of three young men, all Scorpios if you care about astrology, who, in the mid-60's, were roommates in college. One of the three was a chemistry major and, using his college training, he made up a batch of synthetic mescaline. Up to that point none of the three had experienced any drugs other than tobacco and alcohol. Homemade mescaline, they discovered, was a whole new experience, one they all liked a great deal.
Steve, the chemist, was so pleased with the result of synthesizing mescaline that he next brewed up a batch of DMT, di-methyl tryptaline, often called the lunch break psychedelic. If you treat some marijuana with DMT and then smoke it, the result is an incredibly intense psychedelic experience that only lasts 20-30 minutes.
Nick did some library research and found pictures of marijuana. Lo, he found that it was growing in the ditches all over the country side. So, late one night, he went out and picked a gunny sack full, took it home, and dried it in the oven. They then sprinkled it liberally with DMT and allowed it to dry.
At about this time the three had decided they needed a larger stage for the drama of their experiences, so they moved to Kansas City. The chemist found a job in a lab where he could pursue his synthesis projects after hours. Another, who we will discuss later, found a job in a power plant, and Nick took a job with the Missouri Agricultural Extension Service to promote the virtues of 4H in urban Kansas City.
In those days Nick's hair was hanging down around his shoulders and his costumes were exotic, so much so that he didn't feel that he fit in very well in the local Extension office. He set up his base of operations in the Ecstatic Umbrella, a local crisis center for hippies and the outfit that had convinced the Extension Service that they needed to hire a young person for outreach in KC.
Nick worked hard for a year trying to bring 4H virtues to young, urban outcasts, but when it came time for him to write his first annual report, he felt that the Extension Service would not be able to appreciate his greatest achievement. Nick met with a white poverty area teen gang and taught them some useful skills. The kids in this gang stole hubcaps and such for money, a traditional source of income for poor urban kids, and then used the money to buy vodka, which they injected into their veins for maximum affect, and glue, which they sniffed in the traditional manner. Nick convinced them that smoking pot was healthier and more fun, and then taught them how to grow their own for fun and profit. Nick was a real urban mover and shaker.
A few of the kids were having trouble giving up IV vodka and glue, and Nick could see that they needed help. Viet Nam vets were returning to become junkies and teaching their little brothers to use. At that time the most common treatment for drug addiction was to throw the addict in jail and beat him up a few times. This treatment methodology didn't work any better with young people that it did anyone else, so Nick decided he needed to establish a treatment center.
Nick gave up his job with the Extension Service, left the Ecstatic Umbrella, and set himself up dealing LSD and other psychedelics to angry young black men. He figured that if they got stoned enough they might not blow their tops completely, even though that was the response for which the situation seemed to call. He had a girlfriend, a very nice, middle-class appearing young woman who moved in with him, which absorbed some of his time. His business prospered, Nick became well known in the black ghetto underground, and he devoted a great deal of his spare time to creating a drug dependency treatment facility.
In less than a year Nick had pulled together a group of 'initiators', people who get things started, and they had created a not-for-profit corporation to create and operate a drug treatment facility, to be called 'Renaissance West'. He figured that a drug dealer would certainly know more about addicts than would a cop, and drug dealing left most of his time free during conventional business hours. Nick and his quiet, pretty girlfriend were welcomed into the Kansas City jazz culture and recognized as good people.
Shortly after Renaissance West opened its doors and admitted the first 'class' of dopers, Nick was sitting at home, smoking a joint, wondering what to do next with his free time, and decided to walk around the neighborhood. He stepped out his door and, before he could turn around to lock the door, pistols were pressed against each temple and a third against his forehead. The pistoleros eventually identified themselves as FBI agents, and Nick started down a trail that led to a federal prison.
Federal prisons are much nicer than state prisons. While in prison Nick finished a Master of Science degree in geology and learned to speak Russian. Nick was never one to waste spare time. The prison officials were fairly certain Nick hadn't lost his taste for drugs, a correct assumption, as it happens, so when he was paroled from prison the first condition of his parole was that he successfully complete a drug treatment program. Guess where he went for treatment? Right, Renaissance West.
When he graduated from treatment he landed a job escorting Russian scientists on tours of the USA. Down in Albuquerque, while on a tour escorting Russian scientists, Nick dropped into a bar to have a beer one evening. Who should he see in there but his old girlfriend from his dope dealing days!
They slipped into a secluded booth with their drinks and started to catch up. She was first with the questions, and learned what had happened to Nick. Then he asked her what had happened to her. “Oh, nothing, really,” she said.
“What are you doing now?” he asked.
“The same job I've had for years,” she replied, “I work for the FBI.”
Ducks Coalesce
I thought it wouldn't happen until Autumn, but the ducks have merged into one flock during the past week. There are six mature ducks, seven in late adolescence, and eight in early adolescence. The three baby ducks with two mothers didn't survive. Having two mother ducks was probably too much for them.
This big flock of over twenty ducks now patrols the place in a broad skirmish line, throwing despair into the hearts of grasshoppers.
Rabbits
It is too hot to raise bunnies, so the rabbits are biding their time. The females are storing fat to help them rear young and the males are storing testosterone for no apparent reason. At least that was what I thought they were doing, until Saturday morning, when I discovered Suzette running around with a mouth full of shredded paper.
She was pulling out fur and building a nest in her box Saturday evening. This morning she was in her nest box and very busy. There are new bunnies in there, I suppose. I'll look them over in a few days.
Nick Zorro and the FBI
There is a drug rehab facility in Kansas City called Renaissance West, still operating almost forty years after it's founding. It was dreamed up in 1969 by Nick Zorro, a purveyor of LSD to the masses. Nick was one of three young men, all Scorpios if you care about astrology, who, in the mid-60's, were roommates in college. One of the three was a chemistry major and, using his college training, he made up a batch of synthetic mescaline. Up to that point none of the three had experienced any drugs other than tobacco and alcohol. Homemade mescaline, they discovered, was a whole new experience, one they all liked a great deal.
Steve, the chemist, was so pleased with the result of synthesizing mescaline that he next brewed up a batch of DMT, di-methyl tryptaline, often called the lunch break psychedelic. If you treat some marijuana with DMT and then smoke it, the result is an incredibly intense psychedelic experience that only lasts 20-30 minutes.
Nick did some library research and found pictures of marijuana. Lo, he found that it was growing in the ditches all over the country side. So, late one night, he went out and picked a gunny sack full, took it home, and dried it in the oven. They then sprinkled it liberally with DMT and allowed it to dry.
At about this time the three had decided they needed a larger stage for the drama of their experiences, so they moved to Kansas City. The chemist found a job in a lab where he could pursue his synthesis projects after hours. Another, who we will discuss later, found a job in a power plant, and Nick took a job with the Missouri Agricultural Extension Service to promote the virtues of 4H in urban Kansas City.
In those days Nick's hair was hanging down around his shoulders and his costumes were exotic, so much so that he didn't feel that he fit in very well in the local Extension office. He set up his base of operations in the Ecstatic Umbrella, a local crisis center for hippies and the outfit that had convinced the Extension Service that they needed to hire a young person for outreach in KC.
Nick worked hard for a year trying to bring 4H virtues to young, urban outcasts, but when it came time for him to write his first annual report, he felt that the Extension Service would not be able to appreciate his greatest achievement. Nick met with a white poverty area teen gang and taught them some useful skills. The kids in this gang stole hubcaps and such for money, a traditional source of income for poor urban kids, and then used the money to buy vodka, which they injected into their veins for maximum affect, and glue, which they sniffed in the traditional manner. Nick convinced them that smoking pot was healthier and more fun, and then taught them how to grow their own for fun and profit. Nick was a real urban mover and shaker.
A few of the kids were having trouble giving up IV vodka and glue, and Nick could see that they needed help. Viet Nam vets were returning to become junkies and teaching their little brothers to use. At that time the most common treatment for drug addiction was to throw the addict in jail and beat him up a few times. This treatment methodology didn't work any better with young people that it did anyone else, so Nick decided he needed to establish a treatment center.
Nick gave up his job with the Extension Service, left the Ecstatic Umbrella, and set himself up dealing LSD and other psychedelics to angry young black men. He figured that if they got stoned enough they might not blow their tops completely, even though that was the response for which the situation seemed to call. He had a girlfriend, a very nice, middle-class appearing young woman who moved in with him, which absorbed some of his time. His business prospered, Nick became well known in the black ghetto underground, and he devoted a great deal of his spare time to creating a drug dependency treatment facility.
In less than a year Nick had pulled together a group of 'initiators', people who get things started, and they had created a not-for-profit corporation to create and operate a drug treatment facility, to be called 'Renaissance West'. He figured that a drug dealer would certainly know more about addicts than would a cop, and drug dealing left most of his time free during conventional business hours. Nick and his quiet, pretty girlfriend were welcomed into the Kansas City jazz culture and recognized as good people.
Shortly after Renaissance West opened its doors and admitted the first 'class' of dopers, Nick was sitting at home, smoking a joint, wondering what to do next with his free time, and decided to walk around the neighborhood. He stepped out his door and, before he could turn around to lock the door, pistols were pressed against each temple and a third against his forehead. The pistoleros eventually identified themselves as FBI agents, and Nick started down a trail that led to a federal prison.
Federal prisons are much nicer than state prisons. While in prison Nick finished a Master of Science degree in geology and learned to speak Russian. Nick was never one to waste spare time. The prison officials were fairly certain Nick hadn't lost his taste for drugs, a correct assumption, as it happens, so when he was paroled from prison the first condition of his parole was that he successfully complete a drug treatment program. Guess where he went for treatment? Right, Renaissance West.
When he graduated from treatment he landed a job escorting Russian scientists on tours of the USA. Down in Albuquerque, while on a tour escorting Russian scientists, Nick dropped into a bar to have a beer one evening. Who should he see in there but his old girlfriend from his dope dealing days!
They slipped into a secluded booth with their drinks and started to catch up. She was first with the questions, and learned what had happened to Nick. Then he asked her what had happened to her. “Oh, nothing, really,” she said.
“What are you doing now?” he asked.
“The same job I've had for years,” she replied, “I work for the FBI.”
posted by The Geezer at 7:26 AM
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