New on the Mountains-to-Sea ‘stack: Yee, Haw! Don’t drink the water. Lovely autumn days along the Haw River, where natural beauty and the legacies of industry will be at odds for some time.

Interesting essay about mini-trucks, which I have considered buying when my ancient Ranger eventually dies. But as Road and Track mentions, reviewing a Toyota bare-bones truck, it is not urban design but 21st-century safety mandates that prevent their being sold in the U.S. Build in compliance with federal regulations, and you double the price, beyond what anyone will pay for something so simple—and beyond what a young person just trying to start a micro-business could afford (or an older person, ahem, trying to run a micro-business can justify).

Well, it has been thirty-six hours now and the American Ornithological Society still has not responded to my demands, so I am going to have to consider stronger measures, such as gluing myself to an art gallery. I hear that’s what the kids are doing these days.

Forget racism and misogyny: The fact that we allow “societies” of “experts” to tell us what we may call things, such as birds, is itself fascistic. I call upon all such “societies” to disband immediately.

The Haw River was just begging to be a jigsaw puzzle this morning.

Carved ornament #3: Noel With Miscellaneous Random Motifs. (Why “Noel”? Because it has only 4 letters and the ornament is only a little over 3 inches across. It fits.)

Carved ornament #2: 8-point star.

Carved ornament #1: snowflake rosette pattern. Practicing detail carving by making lots of these for holiday sales.

Consider livening up your Hallowe’en party: “As to apples, there is an old custom, perhaps still observed in some localities on this merry night, of hanging up a stick horizontally by a string from the ceiling, and putting a candle on the one end, and an apple on the other. The stick being made to twirl rapidly, the merry makers in succession leap up and snatch at the apple with their teeth (no use of the hands being allowed), but it very frequently happens that the candle comes round before they are aware, and scorches them in the face, or anoints them with grease. The disappointments and misadventures occasion, of course, abundance of laughter.”

Today in headlines I won’t be bothered to click on: “I Can Hear You Fine. Is It Rude That I’m Still Wearing AirPods?” Yes. Yes, it is rude. You actually have to make the gesture that says “I give a rat’s ass about what you are saying.” Even if you don’t.