Sunday Morning

Dawn approaches with its hammer of heat. As yet, there is but a hint of color in the world. The sky is more gray than blue, and the green of trees and bushes is so deep as to suggest shadow more than form. The first true green to emerge is that of the lawns. A few suggestions of pink and purple hover like clouds around flowering trees, but the actual clouds which striate the east soon outglow them, flushing with what seems an inner light. Awakening birds pipe their presence just as the redness of camellia blossoms is restored, the shadow in which they lurked all night receding behind the newly greened leaves. Lilac can now be distinguished from the white cherry blossoms, and young oak leaves emerge from the dark needles of their neighboring pines. Woodpeckers begin to drill for their morning meal, and the clouds turn gold and white. The younger cat is eager to go out and explore the flourishing day, but the elder hops onto the bed, as content as I to nap while the forest wakes.

( Sunday Verse )

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The sun set more than an hour ago, but I'm sure that at least a small part of it is trapped in my attic. I can feel the radiation. My skin feels the way it did when I got a bad sunburn once -- as though I were the main course at Red Lobster. I hardly spent any time outdoors today, so I know it's only the heat in the house causing this effect. Still, the reminder is most disconcerting.

Sluggo has limited time under these circumstances, so all I am going to do is post a link (unearthed by waning_estrogen) to Chilling Effects Clearinghouse. This site is a . . . well, since it's all about posting stuff written created by people other than the one doing the posting, I'll just paste a couple of paragraphs copied from the site:

Do you know your online rights? Have you received a letter asking you to remove information from a Web site or to stop engaging in an activity? Are you concerned about liability for information that someone else posted to your online forum? If so, this site is for you.

Chilling Effects aims to help you understand the protections that the First Amendment and intellectual property laws give to your online activities. We are excited about the new opportunities the Internet offers individuals to express their views, parody politicians, celebrate their favorite movie stars, or criticize businesses. But we've noticed that not everyone feels the same way. Anecdotal evidence suggests that some individuals and corporations are using intellectual property and other laws to silence other online users. Chilling Effects encourages respect for intellectual property law, while frowning on its misuse to "chill" legitimate activity.

That about sums it up. Among their related resources is a letter written to Warner Brothers by Groucho Marx in response to the studio's demand that the Marx Brothers not use the title A Night in Casablanca for their new movie because it was too similar to the title of their movie of several years earlier, Casablanca. Not Groucho's best work, but amusing.