Sad and Unexpected

NBC News’ Russert dies at 58

Tim Russert, NBC News’ Washington bureau chief and the moderator of “Meet the Press,” died Friday after collapsing, NBC News said. He was 58. Russert, the recipient of 48 honorary doctorates, joined NBC News in 1984 and took over the helm of “Meet the Press” in December 1991.

Link

When it came to covering politics, he was the best.

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Mmmmmmm . . . Buffalo

I just finished eating my very first buffalo (bison if you want to be technical) burger and it was pretty darn good.  The texture seemed about the same as beef, but I would say that the taste was a bit sweeter.  I also hear that it’s a healthy meat, but the only sources I could find doing a cursory Google search came from bison organizations, so I couldn’t find any independent data.

Originally I was trying to find an animated gif of the lone running buffalo that was used in U2’s video for One, but just couldn’t find one so I decided to use this famous photograph by David Wojnarowicz.  I’ve alway wondered how he got this shot and the story behind it, but once again my Google skills are lacking.  If you have any info on it, please let me know.  But in my search I did find a few interesting things.

Native Americans use to run bison off cliffs, often called a buffalo jump, as an efficient way to kill them and then use their meat and other parts.  This was something that was actually documented by Lewis and Clark.  Link

And then there’s this piece about the location from Douglas Stebila’s website:

For a long time, ever since I first heard of it in Dave Barry’s Only Travel Guide You’ll Ever Need, I’ve wanted to visit Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump, a UNESCO World Heritage Site (http://www.head-smashed-in.com/). According to the Wikipedia article about the location, “when [Dave Barry] found out about the site, he called the phone number of the Interpretive Centre, and the telephone was answered, ‘Head-Smashed-In, may I help you?’ He claims this was a highlight of his life.”  Link

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