A month or so ago I went to a lecture by photographer Art Wolfe. He lives in Seattle and was showing pictures of his property, because he gets a lot of wildlife visiting. He has an area where he made a pond that feeds into a little stream going down a hill. Anyway, he said he had expensive large koi in the pond. One day he looked out and saw a river otter carrying one off! They eventually ate all of his koi. He said he put large cheap goldfish in there and the otters won’t touch them, but they do come back all the time looking for koi. I would have such a hard time being made. Otters are sooooo adorable!
http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1662099/paul-mcdonald-american-idol-conference-call.jhtml
Typically, after leaving “Idol,” the contestants say they have no regrets about the songs they picked on the show, but, again, McDonald was different than most finalists. “Some of the song choices that I did weren’t probably the best ones for me,” he said, without elaborating on which ones he was uncomfortable with or who suggested he sing them. And though he didn’t even expect to get as far as he did in the competition, McDonald lamented listening to the advice of others when his first inclination was to stick to his guns. “I wish I had done some more of these obscure artists, more of the vibe of music that I’m into ... because it came across onstage. ... I didn’t feel comfortable a whole lot of the time up there because I felt like it wasn’t me all the time.”
“My main goal is just to make music that lasts and people enjoy,” he said, mentioning acts such as Mumford & Sons, the Black Keys and Ray LaMontagne as contemporary bands he’s into.
We do have raccoons coming into our yard. They love it when one of us puts a trash bag out beside the back door rather than walk it out to the alley where the bins are. But they also play in the pond and sometimes rip up a plant in there. They don’t seem to catch the big fish. Maybe they don’t taste good. Never knew that before!