'Pillars and Bad Editing

It is necessary to write, if the days are not to slip emptily by. How else, indeed, to clap the net over the butterfly of the moment? For the moment passes, it is forgotten; the mood is gone; life itself is gone. That is where the writer scores over his fellows: he catches the changes of his mind on the hop. ~Vita Sackville-West

Bet you laid awake, wondering what was happening in the world of swallowtail caterpillars, didn't you? And, BTW Gay, I'm not alone in my rearing of them. Check out Bird Chick, especially this post, and this one and this one.

Anyway...

Looks like Phil, the pill, is even more of a pill than I thought. He is the second smallest 'pillar we have -- Eenie and Lily are far larger -- so when Phil began traveling last night, I didn't think he was getting ready to pupate. He has a history of traveling for no good reason. So I separated him and put him inside a Tupperware container.

My bad.

This morning, he's settled up against the side and in the position to pupate. This is NOT GOOD. First, when they wiggle to get their skin off, if they're on something too slick, they'll fall. The last time this happened, the butterfly was born missing part of its wings.

Second, I don't want to have him in the blasted container for two weeks. Dang it.

Phil, the pill, was aptly named.

Edited to add -- Pictures!

LOOK: It's Phil the Pill (pre-pupa)



The happy little caterpillar home -- there would have been more holes with netting (like the roof that you don't see, cuz it's not on), but Moe made his pupa the same day I was putting this together and precluded me from cutting the sides.

If you look closely at the dill, you can see I took this photo when Eenie and Phil still shared the same clump -- see how much smaller Phil is than Eenie? What the HECK is Phil doing, becoming a pupa??? He is so messed up.



What DD does in her spare time:



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Judy and I currently have the uncomfortable job of refusing some reviews for LASR this week. One of our reviewers let us know that the story she had to review was full of typos.

Our biggest policy for LASR is this: no snark. As an author, I know how hard it is for someone to say nasty things about my work. OTOH, our second biggest policy is this: honesty first. So, we won't tell you something is good if it's bad. We just don't review it.

We rec'd several reviews from the same small publisher. They are all poorly edited, and regardless of story line, we simply cannot recommend them. And I get to go back and tell the authors. That stinks. But it has to be done.

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Yes, I'm an old lady.... Look what happened the year I was born:

In 1967 (the year you were born)

Lyndon B. Johnson is president of the US President Johnson and Soviet premiere Aleksei Kosygin agree not to let any crisis push them into wore Thurgood Marshall is sworn in as the first black Supreme Court justice The first home microwave is released by Amana Dave Matthews, Kurt Cobain, Liz Phair, Vin Diesel, Julia Roberts, and Anna Nicole Smith are born St. Louis Cardinals win the World Series Green Bay Packers in Super Bowl I Boston Bruins win the Stanley Cup Disney's The Jungle Book and The Graduate are the top grossing films One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez is published Paul McCartney announces that all four members of the Beatles have "dropped acid" For the first time, Jimi Hendrix sets his guitar on fire during a concert in London Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is released The first issue of Rolling Stone magazine is published The FCC orders that cigarette ads on television, radio and in print must include a warning about the health risks of smoking

What Happened the Year You Were Born?