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Only Natural Bits of Gossip
 Okay. I admit that I’m an occasional reader of The Weekly World News, a
supermarket tabloid so out there that it never even reports about
Hollywood celebrities unless they marry Martians descended from Elvis.
It’s comic relief in a world that takes itself too seriously.
How, you and my publisher might wonder, does this relate to
our Lake Superior region? I’ve often thought about how our
over-the-snow-fence gossip might fit into a tabloid format. After all,
we have the same mysteries, big stars and ribald behavior as make
headlines anywhere. Of course, our news is usually grounded in the real
world … and I do mean the real world. Check these out …
Mysterious Tales of Feline Intrigue. Cats, big cats,
abounded in our neighborhood this year. Two cougars were spotted near
the Temperance River in Minnesota. Cougar reports also are coming from
Lake Superior Provincial Park in Ontario. I am told that bobcat
sightings east and west and lynx to the north are increasingly
prevalent. Nothing verified really, but community gossip rarely is.
Huge Celebrity Sightings. Quick-acting visitors to
Seney Wildlife Refuge in Michigan snapped shots of two antlered
celebrities - a pair of impressive moose. I remember a moose munching
weeds in our back yard when I was growing up. Compared to the bears
that knocked over things and dented our screen door, moose never caused
a reportable ruckus. But they are always an impressive sight.
Bear-vs.-Mom Encounter. This news in Grand Marais,
Minnesota, did make headlines. A mother bear, with cub, wandered into a
garage. When the resident mom came out, the bear attacked her. She
punched it off, yelling for it to Get Out! - an extremely reasonable
request considering it was a B-E-A-R. I’m not sure whether I’m
more amazed by the rare attack or the brave woman’s response. Still
more amazing, the woman, despite her stitches, held no grudges.
In-Flight Displays of Drunken Rowdiness. A bumper crop
of overripe mountain ash berries and crabapples made fruit-eating
songbirds tipsy. Some pestered windows and had near-misses (usually)
with cars. Oh, and for a few days an incredible influx of tourists was
the talk of the town in Duluth when the migrating raptor tally at Hawk
Ridge hit a new record of 102,329 southbound birds of prey in a day. At
Whitefish Point Bird Observatory in Michigan, red-necked grebes and
American avocets made news. A record 6,789 grebes (waterfowl) flew by
in one day. The six avocets (a long-legged shore bird) had never been
seen there.
Arnold Schwarzenegger Elected Governor. Sure, you
might be surprised at this headline, but we do have a local tie here.
Arnold happens to be a graduate of the University of
Wisconsin-Superior, which also gave him an honorary doctorate degree.
If visitors to Seney Wildlife Refuge saw Arnold crashing through the
woods, I suspect they would have taken pictures of him, too.
I guess that our local headlines are quite tame compared with The Weekly World New’s reports, but then I’d still rather encounter a roving moose than the mad mom of a baby Loch Ness Monster.
Konnie LeMay
Editor
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