This must be one of the rarer College
transmissions to come across a British academic's desk. Apparently there have been a spike in
sightings recently and people, and especially those who live in the naval
station (NAVSTA) have been told not to
feed them, to practice 'yard hygiene' and not to let their pets out after dark.
They seem to be more of menace than urban foxes in England. What with that and another recent alert about
a big increase in 'deer strikes' and the constant warnings about deer ticks in
the woods around where I live, Rhode Island isn't quite as safe and calm as
appearances might suggest.
The only hazard I see is the influx of tourists
who don't know quite where they are going (and of course, why should they ?)
and who stop in the strangest places and often don't observe the courtesies of
local drivers. So it's dangerous to assume that cars will stop if you want to
cross the road, or for that matter will automatically stop at the many many
stop lines there are on the roads. Newport in particular seems a very safe,
genteel sort of place. When it was even
more of a Navy town than it is now that wouldn't necessarily have been the
case. In fact I was taken to a restaurant right in the centre of town, where I
was told would have been close to a dangerous area, as recently as ten years
ago.
I naturally assume there is some connection
between this and the fact that its
political complexion is strongly Democrat and 'liberal.' Of course at the moment there's a lot of talk
about what might happen at the mid-Terms next week. I listen to National Public Radio (and
in a fit of guilt have even contributed to it in one of their frequent funding
drives ). When they discuss the stolen election that a very large proportion of
Republican politicians and an even larger proportion of the people who vote for
them still adamantly believe in, NPR always say 'for which there is no
evidence.' So I can see why the right are so convinced the media are against
them, but the real problem is that it makes no difference to them. They believe
what they want to believe. The general
expectation is that this plus discontent about the cost of living crisis (which
I have to say is not very obvious here) means the Republicans will almost
certainly take Congress back and make life for the Biden administration even
more difficult than it is at the moment. I've never heard so many pundits
worrying about the survival of America democracy before. Grim, but least
Bolsonaro got booted out if only narrowly. There is serious talk of Trump
throwing his hat into the ring before the end of the month. Could anything be
more appalling or worse for the West ?
Enough of that. It's been a quiet period if not as
quiet as my trackers probably thought as I tend to leave my UK phone at home
when I go out. To get my steps up I have taken to a little evening stroll down
to the waterside where I sometimes chat to a metal detectorist there who has
real yen to come to England 'as they're always finding things over there !' The
Ida Weston yacht club makes a nice picture on a stormy evening. Not that there
have been many of them. It's been mild here as in England with day temperatures
in the mid 60sF and sometimes even 70+ Completely different from earlier
sojourns over here at this time of the year when even snow was quite common. It doesn't look like it but the club is at the end of a very long pier. Behind it you can see a tall ship and, just about, Fort Adam
This morning
delightful session with the family on Zoom and yesterday with Christopher
and Elowen. Won't be long before I am back with them all, provided the Heathrow
baggage-handlers allow it. Christmas is now beckoning, and arrangements are
being made. I began to get into the festive spirit when I re-visited the
Breakers mansion this afternoon. Big Christmas trees up in the main bedrooms,
very recently installed by the look of them. One was crowned by a top hat
instead of a fairy on the top for reasons I couldn't quite fathom. Otherwise
even on the nth visit the Breakers is still a pretty stunning place. Good thing they didn't demolish it, when the Vanderbilts left, as they did several others
After the great hike of getting there and round it
and before the great hike of getting back I took coffee and a weird but quite
nice little pot of grapes and oats which was a lot nicer than it sounds, in the
Garden Cafe. Curiously unfrequented. If it was in the UK people would pour into
it to recover from their visit to the big house just as in National Trust poperties. Just not the American way I
suppose. Anyhow I stayed in there quite a long time very agreeably catching up on my e-mails,
before staggering home.
A big week, next week, to prepare for.....and Christmas.
