Sad News From Anderson and Weird News From Muncie; Passenger Pigeons

 The sad news is ISP investigating deadly OIS in Anderson.

The Weird: Police: Man stole liquor truck in hope of selling off booze to pay drug debt.

MUNCIE, Ind. ( WXIN ) — An accused thief in Indiana told Muncie police officers that he was sitting in his car when he spotted a delivery truck full of beer and liquor pull up outside the Cheers Bar.

A plan reportedly came to his mind: Steal the truck. Sell the booze. Pay off his drug debts.

But the plan didn’t go as intended.

What about passenger pigeons? While putting together this post in a rather hasty manner, I realized that a piece I read last night might just fit in here. The passenger pigeon story is a sad commentary on Americans and the article feels about as weird as stealing a beer truck. The title pretty much covers everything I have just written: Grieving the Passenger Pigeon Into Existence Again.

Revive & Restore may, however, have entered a devil’s bargain in its attempt to resurrect the passenger pigeon as a mode of dealing with collective grief. First, while the project may end up with an animal to release, there is little reason to believe that the pigeon will be successful in recolonizing the Midwest. Most of the land has been modified beyond recognition by agriculture, and those humans that inhabit the bird’s original territory would not likely share the land. Even in 1970 on the 56th anniversary of the passenger pigeon’s extinction, Texas columnist Marjorie Adams, who had a syndicated newspaper series called “Bird World,” commented: “We of today decry the slaughter that brought the extinction of the elegant and tasty passenger pigeon. Yet if we had the pigeon returned to us is anyone foolhardy enough to believe that agricultural American would tolerate its existence in such numbers for long?” Second, there is the potential that the social meaning and significance of the passenger pigeon resurrection will focus on the fantastical, science-fiction qualities of the project rather than the biological or ecological science and its implications.

Now, I need to get ready for church. 

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