Dr. Dale A. Russell (1937-2019)

 During a visit to the website of Caitlín R. Kiernan, one of my favourite writers and a paleontologist, I learned that Dr. Dale A. Russell had passed away in December. As dinosaurs remain a life long interest I wanted to remember him here. 

Wikipedia notes that 

"Dale Alan Russell (27 December 1937-21 December 2019 was an American-Canadian geologist and palaeontologist. He was Research Professor at the Department of Marine Earth and Atmospheric Sciences (MEAS) at North Carolina State University and Senior Paleontologist at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. Dinosaurs he has described include Daspletosaurus, and he was amongst the first paleontologists to consider an extraterrestrial cause (supernova, comet, asteroid) for the extinction of the dinosaurs.[1]

In 1982, Russell created the "dinosauroid" thought experiment, which speculated an evolutionary path for Troodon if it had not gone extinct in the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event 65 million years ago, and had instead evolved into an intelligent being. Russell commissioned a model of his dinosauroid by artist Ron Sequin, and the concept became popular." 

In fiction the British writer Neal Asher evokes Russell's dinosauroid reconstruction when describing the artificially created alien dracomen of his polarity SF series. 

 

I was surprised I could not find an obituary for Russell on a news service like CBC, but Keirnan offers a lovely tribute here. 

https://greygirlbeast.livejournal.com/1519682.html

A more recent take on the evolution of dinosaurs, assuming they had survived can be found here and Russell is mentioned. 

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20170918-what-if-the-dinosaurs-hadnt-died-out 

“I have never listened to anyone who criticized my taste in space travel, sideshows or gorillas. When this occurs, I pack up my dinosaurs and leave the room.”

from Zen in the Art or Writing
by Ray Bradbury

Summer slough. At the cabin

"Human existence is girt round with mystery: the narrow region of our experience is a small island in the midst of a boundless sea, which at once awes our feelings and stimulates our imagination by its vastness and it's obscurity. To add to the mystery, the domain of our earthly existence is not only an island in infinite space, but also in infinite time. The past and the future are alike shrouded from us: we neither know the origin of anything which is, nor, its final destination. If we feel deeply interested in knowing that there are myriads of worlds at an immeasurable, and to our faculties inconceivable, distance from us in space; if we are eager to discover what little we can about these worlds, and when we cannot know what they are, can never satiate ourselves with speculating on what they may be; is it not a matter of far deeper interest to us to learn, or even to conjecture, from whence came this nearer world which we inhabit; what cause or agency made it what it is, and on what powers depend its future fate?"

Three Essays on Religion, 1874
John Stuart Mills

Venice

"The day was now departing; the dark air
released the living beings of the earth
from work and weariness; and I myself
alone prepared to undergo the battle
both of the journeying and of the pity."

Inferno, Canto II, Dante Alighieri
(trans. Allen Mandelbaum)

Florence and Venice

 

"Day was departing and the darkened air 

released the creatures of the earth

from their labor, and I, alone,
prepared to face the struggle-
of the way and of the pity of it-"

Inferno, Canto II, Dante Alighieri
(trans. Jean & Robert Hollander) 

Boboli Gardens - Florence (How many translations does he have they ask?)

" So the brownout evening and the dark air
Let go the sleepy earthly animals
and I alone Got ready for the combat, both with the path

and also with the weeping.

Inferno, Canto II, Dante Alighieri
(trans. Mary Jo Bang)

Florence - Arno River

 

"The day was going, and the darkened air 

Was taking from its toil each animal 

That is on the earth; I only, alone there, 

Essayed to arm my spirit against all

The terror of the journey and pity's plea. 

Inferno, Canto II, Dante Alighieri  

(trans. Laurence Binyon) 

More Dante and Florence (Warm day)

"The light was departing. The brown air drew down
all the earth's creatures, calling them to rest
from their day-roving, as I, one man alone,
prepared myself to face the double war

of the journey and the pity,"

Inferno, Canto II, Dante Alighieri
(trans. John Ciardi)

To celebrate the return of warmer temperatures we had lunch at Native Tongues (scrumptious) and visited the wonderful Shelf Lifebooks were I purchased Gou Tanabe's magna of HPL's At the Mountains of Madness V.1

https://www.nativetongues.ca

https://shelflifebooks.ca

Venice - Masks and the night. (and Walking New York)

"Day was departing, and the darkening air
Called all earth's creatures to their evening quiet
While I alone was preparing as though for war

To struggle with my journey and the spirit
Of pity,"

Inferno, Canto II, Dante Alighieri
(trans. Robert Pinsky)

Last night Helen and I watched a great film called the world before your feet. From Rotten Tomatoes.

"There are 8,000 miles of roads and paths in New York City and for the past six years Matt Green has been walking them all - every street, park, cemetery, beach, and bridge. It's a five-borough journey that stretches from the barbershops of the Bronx to the forests of Staten Island, from the Statue of Liberty to Times Square, with Matt amassing a surprisingly detailed knowledge of New York's history and people along the way. Something of a modern-day Thoreau, Matt gave up his former engineering job, his apartment, and most of his possessions, sustaining his endeavor through couch-surfing, cat-sitting and a $15-per-day budget. He's not sure exactly why he's doing it, only knowing that there's no other way he'd rather spend his days. Executive produced by Oscar (R) nominee Jesse Eisenberg, The World Before Your Feet is a tribute to an endlessly fascinating city and the freedom to be found, wherever you live, in simply taking a walk."

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_world_before_your_feet

I loved this film, New York has always fascinated me and I love walking around cities taking photos and generally observing things. Venice is a perfect place for this, no cars. Green has a lovely blog detailing his walks. It is found here. 

https://imjustwalkin.com/

Venice - Dante visited Venice shortly before his death ( & Soviet Photos Link)

     

"Day was departing and the dusk drew on,
Loosing from labour every living thing
Save me, in all the world; I -I alone -
Must gird me to the wars - rough traveling,

And pity's sharp assault upon the heart - "

Inferno, Canto II, Dante Alighieri
(trans. Dorthy L. Sayers)

Helen sent me this link, we loved the photos.

The Village Genius: Astonishing Photos Of Soviet Life Found In An Abandoned House

https://www.rferl.org/a/astonishing-photos-of-soviet-village-life-discovered-in-abandoned-house-in-moldova/30383072.html

Dante's Florence

"The light was failing, and the growing gloom

relieving every creature on the earth

Of all it's toil and trouble, I alone

Was getting ready to endure the stress 

Both of the road and the resultant anguish,"

Inferno, Canto II, Dante Alighieri 

(trans. J.G. Nichols) 

Florence

 "Day was departing, and the dark air was

taking the creatures on earth from their labors;

and I alone was making ready to sustain

the strife, both of the journey and of the

pity, "

Inferno, Canto II, Dante Alighieri 

(trans. Charles S. Singleton) 

Dante and Florence

 

"Day is departing, and the embrowned air

Released the animals that are on the earth

From their fatigues; and I the only one

Made myself ready to sustain the war, 

Both of the way and likewise of the woe,"

Inferno, Canto II, Dante Alighieri 

(trans. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow) 

Dante - Florence Since it is very cold here -28 C (-14.8 F) WC -36 how about some photos of Italy

"The day was fading and the darkening air

was releasing all the creatures on our earth

from their daily tasks, and I, one man alone,

was making ready to endure the battle 

of the journey, and of the pity it involved,"

Inferno, Canto II, Dante Alighieri 

(trans. Mark Musa) 

December Deer

"I have come a long way
without arriving
torn songs up

from the roots of weeds
but made no 
silence sing:

climbed the peak but
found no foothold
higher than the ground"

from Return
by A. R. Ammons

Dec. - Trip to Calgary

p k page
from “Stories of Snow”

Those in the vegetable rain retain
an area behind their sprouting eyes
held soft and rounded with the dream of snow
precious and reminiscent as those globes
– souvenir of some never nether land 

–which hold their snowstorms circular, complete,
high in a tall and teakwood cabinet.

Winter Flicker

"He lived in the bush, the wilderness

but he made light of it

He was at home, sitting

with the small birds around him

gathering seeds, the bare 

earth showing through the snow"

A Garland for Milne

by D.G. Jones

Books, Reading, Beauty, Summer Bird, Great Crested Flycatcher

“I try to write,” says Rachel Blau Duplessis in The Blue Studio, “so that if a single shard were rescued in the aftermath of some historical disaster, that one shard would be so touching and lucid as to give the future an idea of who we were.”

Where I found it, in this beautiful year end essay on books by Shawna Lemay's at Transaction with Beauty.

http://transactionswithbeauty.com/home/bibliobalm

Cows in the snow

" We turn into winter;

when the next spring comes we will melt until

we run like rivers down the high green hill."

from We are sitting on a high green hill

by Gwendolyn MacEwen

Home again cont

“And this is what I learned: that the world’s otherness is antidote to confusion, that standing within this otherness—the beauty and the mystery of the world, out in the fields or deep inside books—can re-dignify the worst-stung heart.”

From Upstream: Selected Essays

by Mary Oliver

I wanted to post some shots from the trip home. The roads were good and there was a lot of hoar frost transforming the landscape. We also saw lots of animals most I did not get photos of. We saw Pronghorns which I mentioned last post. A deer had just crossed the road as we went through. We also saw Snowy Owl, a coyote, partridges and two unusual sights, the first a Red fox amid a cloud of crows. The second a Bald Eagle with Magpies. I thought in both cases they were being mobbed but Helen though they had a been feeding from the same road kill. It was a vey blue and white day.

The combination of moving car and moving animal rarely make for a stellar photo. But I have including it because I was really surprised to see a Bald Eagle here. We were heading towards the tiny badlands town of Dorothy Alberta at the time. I did not realize that this portion of the Red Deer River Valley had Bald Eagles.