Carrion Luggage (Book)

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Carrion Luggage

Carrion Luggage

Native to the Americas, the turkey vulture (Cathartes aura) travels widely in search of sustenance. While usually foraging alone, it relies on other individuals of its species for companionship and mutual protection. Sometimes misunderstood, sometimes feared, sometimes shunned, it nevertheless performs an important role in the ecosystem.

This scavenger bird is a marvel of efficiency. Rather than expend energy flapping its wings, it instead locates uplifting columns of air, and spirals within them in order to glide to greater heights. This behavior has been mistaken for opportunism, interpreted as if it is circling doomed terrestrial animals destined to be its next meal. In truth, the vulture takes advantage of these thermals to gain the altitude needed glide longer distances, flying not out of necessity, but for the joy of it.

It also avoids the exertion necessary to capture live prey, preferring instead to feast upon that which is already dead. In this behavior, it resembles many humans.

It is not what most of us would consider to be a pretty bird. While its habits are often off-putting, or even disgusting, to members of more fastidious species, the turkey vulture helps to keep the environment from being clogged with detritus. Hence its Latin binomial, which translates to English as "golden purifier."

I rarely know where the winds will take me next, or what I might find there. The journey is the destination.

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Show Recent Comments

10 Most Recent Blog Comments:

Ren~Busy as Usual

about 16 hours ago
In response to "Pay Me"

The floating ads…I have abandoned many a web page because of these. Ads in general, I ignore them all, the same way I get up and go to the bathroom or get a snack during television commercials. Oddly enough, I worked in advertising.

1 Like

🌖 HuntersMoon

about 18 hours ago
In response to "Pay Me"

Duly noted! I wrote a poem (item:2148922} which ended with the final stanza:

My greatest fear is they'll attend
my funeral and, at the end,
they’ll rent the space inside my casket:
I'll get eternity in a wastebasket!

2 Like

Robert Waltz

about 19 hours ago
In response to "Pay Me"

Stik to My Own Beat

- it might have, if I remembered it existed.

1 Like

Stik to My Own Beat

about 20 hours ago
In response to "Pay Me"

I take it the Wayback Machine also couldn't send back a usable version?

1 Like

🌖 HuntersMoon

a day ago
In response to "Entropical Storm"

So, what he's saying is that everything will end. No shit. Of course, that ending is so far in the future as to be never for those of us alive today. I see why I've never put too much faith in philosophy.

Stik to My Own Beat

Sep 13, 2025 at 10:16pm
In response to "Zucchi-NO"

As someone who is a bit mad that Noodles and Company recently removed the zoodles from their menu, I take mild offense to pretty much any anti-zucchini sentiment out there.

It can also be a literal pain in the ass, if you know what I mean.

I'll just leave this

right here. (Sorry about the vertical nature of it.)

The internet is overgrown with zucchini bread recipes (which, guys, is just spice cake with weird, wet fiber smuggled inside).

My aunt made zucchini bread when I was a kid, and I remember liking it. I don't remember this texture thing the author is alluding to. Then again, my flavor of autism has more issues with meat textures and is way more forgiving when it comes to plant-based or mostly plant-based foods.

I think the problem with being a food writer is that you get jaded pretty quickly, and always seek out the new and shiny over the tried and true classics.

That might be a subcultural thing. Sometimes in the Midwest the classics get more attention from food critics than the zany new stuff. The State Fair is an exception to the rule.

Which is to say, zucchini is definitely work. It needs to be cared for, both in the garden and in the kitchen.

Really? I've always found it easy to work with. I do sauté it, but I also grill it and sometimes roast it. After cooking, I like to add it to scrambled eggs. And one of these days I'm going to put my new-to-me spiralizer to work. Someone left it in the building lobby with a sign saying it was free. I was all, "Thank you very much!" and brought it home. You can tell who misses zoodles.

1 Like

Ren~Busy as Usual

Sep 13, 2025 at 5:13pm
In response to "Zucchi-NO"

I guess I’m weird. I love Zucchini and so does Z, though he only likes it the way I make it, so he really likes butter, Turmeric and pepper but he, that’s okay. I like it cut like into spears and breaded, then fried and dipped in sauce. Damn, I really just like bread and sauce.

Nevermind. That went south fast.

1 Like

Jayne

Sep 13, 2025 at 12:55pm
In response to "Zucchi-NO"

I never understood "it doesn't have a taste." Same with people who say parsley doesn't taste like anything.

Parsley most definitely tastes like the epitome of green. It's a pleasant green, unlike the monstrosity called kale, or the medicinal bite of oregano.

Anyway.

Zucchini definitely has a flavor, the same way cucumber has a flavor. Both are useless. However, one is inoffensively, and perhaps pleasantly, useless, unlike zucchini. Zucchini: the dishwater of vegetables.

Eggplant earned it's status as an emoji. At least it is now somewhat useful and often amusing, which it is definitely not in its culinary form.

Of course, I'm old now, so I eat the same rotation of 12 meals because I can't be bothered. I guess I won't make it as a food critic.

1 Like

🌖 HuntersMoon

Sep 12, 2025 at 12:26pm
In response to "Teamwork"

So... did they ever accomplish anything? Of course, I mean noteworthy. I mean, come on, I can drink whiskey and eat ice cream for Pete's sake. I even have the "heart of a poet" thing covered.

1 Like

🌖 HuntersMoon

Sep 11, 2025 at 11:08am
In response to "That's Life"

No comments yet? Well, let's see if I can take advantage of my Darwinian evolution and find something intelligent to say.

Nope.

2 Like

#187. Pay Me
ID #1097412 entered on September 15, 2025 at 8:36am

#186. Entropical Storm
ID #1097342 entered on September 14, 2025 at 10:47am

#185. Zucchi-NO
ID #1097273 entered on September 13, 2025 at 9:19am

#184. Teamwork
ID #1097212 entered on September 12, 2025 at 7:59am

#183. That's Life
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#182. Let's Scroll
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#181. In a World of Pure Imagination
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#180. A Star Trek
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#179. WDC25, Day 7
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#178. WDC25, Day 6
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#177. WDC25, Day 5
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#176. WDC25, Day 4
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#175. WDC25, Day 3
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#174. WDC25, Day 2
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#173. WDC25, Day 1
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#172. Paint It Black
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#171. Welcome Back Again
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#170. We're All Runners
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#169. Gamma Ways
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#168. It's Not What You Think
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#167. Titanic
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#166. Instant Kama
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#165. Alfredo Their Own Shadows
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#164. Keep the Cat Alive
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#163. Melon Collie
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#162. Ferry Tale
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#161. Elephants of Style
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#160. That Joke Is Older Than Dinosaur Meat
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#159. Grumpy Old Man
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#158. Still Running
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#157. Sleep On It
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#156. Unhappy Campers
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#155. Burger? I Barely Know 'Er
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#154. Why So Selfies?
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#153. Allergic to Selfish
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#152. That's Corny
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#151. Three Times
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#150. Past Tents
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#149. Hold Me
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#148. Bold Strategy, Cotton
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#147. Lager? I Barely Know 'er
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#146. Live Long and Suffer
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#145. Put On a Happy Face
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#144. Search and Research
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#143. Go Go Godzilla
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#142. Lightning's a Beach
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#141. Sun of a Beach
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#140. What I Think
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#139. Strings Attached
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#138. Reality Check
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#137. Pill Bugs
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#136. Light the Fuse
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#135. Going Wit Out
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#134. Y'all-Inclusive
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#133. Inside the Box
ID #1093951 entered on July 23, 2025 at 8:36am

#132. Enduring Durian
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#131. First Light
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#130. Accidents
ID #1093752 entered on July 20, 2025 at 11:18am

#129. Judgment Day
ID #1093690 entered on July 19, 2025 at 8:48am

#128. Untrained
ID #1093643 entered on July 18, 2025 at 10:50am

#127. The Hole Schmear
ID #1093594 entered on July 17, 2025 at 12:21pm

#126. Long in the Tooth
ID #1093541 entered on July 16, 2025 at 10:31am

#125. Material Reads
ID #1093479 entered on July 15, 2025 at 11:38am

#124. Bug Out
ID #1093397 entered on July 14, 2025 at 8:52am

#123. Bard to the Bone
ID #1093342 entered on July 13, 2025 at 9:42am

#122. Tip Top
ID #1093288 entered on July 12, 2025 at 10:02am

#121. Blood Relation
ID #1093226 entered on July 11, 2025 at 9:22am

#120. Mind Control
ID #1093166 entered on July 10, 2025 at 9:57am

#119. Hey Rubin
ID #1093097 entered on July 9, 2025 at 11:06am

#118. Into Arkness
ID #1093027 entered on July 8, 2025 at 10:21am

#117. Curiosity Killed the Categories
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#116. He Said, Archly
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#115. Twongue-tisters
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#114. Book It, Not Done
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#113. Gatekeeping
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#112. Lawn Forcement
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#111. Rococo's
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#110. Wall-Crawler
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#109. It's On the House
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#108. Not Apparent
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#107. The Holy Roll
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#106. Duo or Duo Not (There is no Tri)
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#105. Forewarned is Eight-Armed
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#104. Concrete Notions
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#103. The Sniff Test
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#102. Pei Attention
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#101. The State of Spelling
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#100. Stillsun
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#99. Terra Incognita
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#98. No Good Deed
ID #1091737 entered on June 18, 2025 at 6:29am

#97. Purrsuit of Knowledge
ID #1091681 entered on June 17, 2025 at 9:16am

#96. We Come In Peace
ID #1091599 entered on June 16, 2025 at 8:18am

#95. Central Intelligence
ID #1091536 entered on June 15, 2025 at 8:49am

#94. Kids These Days
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#93. The Hole Truth
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#92. Predictionary
ID #1091321 entered on June 12, 2025 at 10:06am

#91. Re-Versed
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#90. Homework
ID #1091174 entered on June 10, 2025 at 10:25am

#89. Let Us Not Park Take
ID #1091101 entered on June 9, 2025 at 10:16am

#88. What You Eight Last Night
ID #1091039 entered on June 8, 2025 at 8:47am

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