What One Writer's Wrought

This image has been going around the internet since at least 2017.   It's often described as the two-mile-wide stump of an ancient tree.   It's actually a geological feature and (as I found out earlier today), it's called Jugurtha's Table . A little research also turned up the fun fact that butte , mesa , and plateau are all words for land formations (small, medium and large) of this type , with steep walls and a flat top, created over millennia by erosion .   My next question was: WHO TF WAS JUGURTHA? N ear the end of the second century BCE, Jugurtha (aka "Yugurten") was a king of Numidia , an area of n. Africa which today includes western Algeria and eastern Tunisia. He had allied with the Romans in part to secure his throne, but for six years had also struggled to evict the Roman occupiers. (Tunis was built on the ruins of Carthage, at one time Rome's greatest enemy.) After losing his first war with the Romans, Jugurtha had been made to surrender his...

I got a bite! I reeled in and I pulled back, and finally I hauled 'em ashore, and I'm happy to report that the City of Austin didn't wiggle or flop around too much. OK, that's as far as I'm taking that metaphor. My friends, I am tickled to inform you that I started a J O B with the City of Austin's Public Health Department on Monday, the first of March: a full-time (40 hours a week) although temporary (minimum six months) jay, oh, bee, baby!! I've been assigned to a vaccination center to work as an usher at Wheelchair Reception, whose principal task will be telling arrivals where to go. What I think the folks in HR liked most on my résumé was how much previous experience I've had telling people where they can go.   It's clearly a position for someone like me who likes people, who's easy-going but responsible, and who's able to put at ease anyone feeling a little anxious. Before taxes the annual salary is in the mid-30s, which is al...