this week i

published on medicare advantage overtaking the fee-for-service program nationwide, among those eligible to choose between the two

passed rosemarie's to the st lawrence watershed civilization, francylvania to be precise.   this lovely honda crv in quebec city thar be dragonsed me



watched ronnie burkett yada yada shakespeare, convince three audience members to undress sans hypnosis.  still life worse than whiskey in the jar

 

memorized the yukon song.  elderly quebecer wore what i can only assume was an unironic beret.  online dating: same hit rate as those claw games


watched broadway danny rose then john cusack impersonate woody allen in bullets over broadway.  [toasts] to an ideal world with no compromise

you actually burned down your school?  //  it was lincoln's birthday.  there was nobody there


read the voyage of the beagle by charles fucking darwin.  only thirty of the four hundred eighty pages devoted to the galapagos.  the book which had the most profound effect on darwin was charles lyell's principles of geology..darwin did not write his beagle narrative with a coherent theory of human evolution in mind; awakened curiosity and uncertainty best describe the mood governing his observations

we were bivouacking late one evening near coquimbo, in chile, when my servant, noticing that one of the horses was very restive, went to see what was the matter, and fancying he could distinguish something, suddenly put his hand on the beast's withers, and secured the vampire

a fine specimen of the yagouaroundi cat

i carried with me some promethean matches, which i ignited by biting; it was thought so wonderful that a man should strike fire with his teeth, that it was usual to collect the whole family to see it

we passed the night in punta alta, and i employed myself in searching for fossil bones; this point being a perfect catacomb for monsters of extinct races

we did not reach the posta on the rio tapalguen till after it was dark.  at supper, from something which i said, i was suddenly struck with horror at thinking that i was eating one of the favourite dishes of the country, namely, a half-formed calf, long before its proper time of birth.  it turned out to be a puma; the meat is very white, and remarkably like veal in taste.  dr shaw was laughed at for stating that 'the flesh of the lion is in great esteem, having no small affinity with veal, both in colour, taste, and flavour.'  such certainly is the case with the puma.  the gauchos differ in their opinion, whether the jaguar is good eating, but are unanimous in saying that cat is excellent

my passport, which began with 'el naturalista don carlos'

it was snowing butterflies

the phosphorescence of the sea

except when rising from the ground, i do not recollect ever having seen one of these birds flap its wings

a strong desire is always felt to ascertain whether any human being has previously visited an unfrequented spot.  a bit of wood with a nail in it, is picked up and studied as if it were covered with hieroglyphics.  possessed with this feeling, i was much interested by finding, on a wild part of the coast, a bed made of grass beneath a ledge of rock.  close by it there had been a fire, and the man had used an axe.  the fire, bed, and situation showed the dexterity of an indian; but he could scarcely have been an indian, for the race is in this part extinct, owing to the catholic desire of making at one blow christians and slaves

the mule always appears to me a most surprising animal.  that a hybrid should possess more reason, memory, obstinacy, social affection, powers of muscular endurance, and length of life, than either of its parents, seems to indicate that art has here outdone nature

 the assumption of the immutability of species

the happy doom of the mendozinos is to eat, sleep, and be idle

we rode on to ballenar, which takes its name from ballenagh in ireland, the birthplace of the family of o'higgins, who, under the spanish government, were presidents and generals in chile

young tortoises make excellent soup

the well-beaten paths made by the thousands of huge tortoises..there is no other quarter of the world where this order replaces herbivorous mammalia in so extraordinary a manner

 captain porter has described those from charles and from the nearest island to it, namely, hood island, as having their shells in front thick and turned up like a spanish saddle, whilst the tortoises from james island are rounder, blacker, and have a better taste when cooked

the all-powerful and never-tiring waves of that great sea, miscalled the pacific

i believe we were all glad to leave new zealand.  it is not a pleasant place.  amongst the natives there is absent that charming simplicity which is found at tahiti; and the greater part of the english are the very refuse of society.  neither is the country itself attractive

the sloping plain of the pamplemousses

a traveller should be a botanist

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