*Still cold and snowy. Walking (or in my case, sliding) down steep hills covered in ice is treacherous business.
*Thinking about redesigning this site. Except I'm not sure how I want to redesign it. Definitely not something flashy, gaudy, or cute. Maybe I'll just end up changing the colors.
* * *
Move Over, 'Meerkat Manor'. The nature writer who got plagiarized by a romance author (see previous post) speaks out in Newsweek. I am amused by the variety of reactions this has garnered:
a) People confirming their own stereotypes about a particular genre just because one author writes badly and behaved unethically.
b) People angry at the nature writer for bashing romances.
c) People forgiving the nature writer for this instance of bashing romances because, hey, he was plagiarized.
d) The nature writer gains an army of fan girls.
e) People start donating money to save the ferrets.
f) People wondering why others are donating as an "apology" when it's supposed to be the plagiarizer who should be apologizing.
g) Donors argue that it isn't an apology. They just want to save the ferrets.
My reaction: Why are people only wanting to save the cute fuzzy animals? Where I live, there's a giant earthworm that needs help.
The charismatic megafauna win every time. But the main donations are going to Defenders of Wildlife as a whole, not only the ferret program. I hope DoW will use some of it toward habitat conservation. (Though it's not a huge amount of money, in the scheme of things!)
