SLUG WARS

Earlier this year, during the spring, I noticed holes all over the leaves of my newly planted coleus plants. The problem got worse and pretty soon many of the leaves were only stems, the fleshy part having been eaten away. Some had been attacked from the edges and all were a sorry lot. The container in which this problem was manifest also contained a sweet potato vine which also had chewed up leaves but it wasn't as bad and as the vine got longer the problem lessened.

I fought back with Sevin which usually kills flying parasites and caterpillars after only one substantial application especially if the infestation is caught early and the parasites are small. It didn't help at all even after several applications and I realized I was fighting a pest I hadn't encountered before.

It is difficult fighting an enemy you can't see or even know. So I turned to that repository of all commonly accepted human knowledge and discovered that what was eating my coleus was probably slugs. This knowledge came with some suggestions on how to eliminate them, such as using poison or copper strips or wire or by enticing them with beer. Finding the latter to be the most practical and using the most available ingredients, I set up Soupy's Slug Bar and waited for customers.

That evening, one of my assistants confirmed the presence of slugs in the coleus pot by photographing some as they approached the bar for a late night drink.

I also set up a tavern at a different location where we had observed potential customers, assumed to be pretty heavy drinkers based on their size and one evening discovered a customer on his way in. Not wishing to lose his custom, I helped him along with the use of a small stick and he landed inside. I thought that would do it, but wouldn't you know, about 5 minutes later I saw him leaving. I wasn't going to let him go, so I prodded him back in again, but again he climbed out. It had rained earlier and a member of my team observed that the reason my customers were leaving was because I watered the beer.

Subsequently I caught four rather large critters along with some beetles, all in my western branch. While my initial quest was to eliminate the things that were eating my coleus, where I had opened the original bar, so far I hadn't caught anything there. In frustration, I bought a jar of snail bait and applied it. So far I haven't seen any results but today I also noticed a whole colony of inchworms in the soil under the coleus and think that maybe they are eating the leaves. I destroyed them (by stepping on them) and will report back in a few days when I see if the the holes in the leaves have remained status quo or  have increased.

Stay tuned.

BACKGROUND MUSIC

When we were young and giving parties every few weeks, we would have friends over for snacks and drinks and good conversation. Likewise, our friends would invite us to their homes and usually, a good time was had by all.

One of the features of most of the parties, in fact almost de rigueur, was the stereo (remember this was at the birth of the component boom) tuned to some station or playing records or tapes with what some people considered suitable mood music for the occasion.

I never saw (or heard)  it that way since it was difficult to hold a conversation among a group of people while the music was either a distraction or interference. Many times, when a  conversation got a bit boisterous, the host would increase the music volume in order to hear the music over the buzz which only served to make the conversation even louder as the participants in an animated discussion tried to drown out the program which led to another increase in volume. You can figure out the rest. With other hosts, the volume would be kept to a minimum at first and when only a few people had arrived it could be quite pleasant (depending upon your individual tastes) but as the crowd increased there would be an inevitable call for an increase in volume so that the music could be heard.

At that time, some engineers and psychologists came up with the idea that if every salient note would be taken out of music it could serve as a universal palliative which would calm people in public venues so that something would soothe them but not engage them. The invention was called Muzak. Some famous playwright would have one of his characters refer to it as "elevator music."

Elevators were actually a perfect location for this new kind of music because usually, (except for Alfred Hitchcock) people are silent there, shuffling about, staring at the floor indicator, clearing their throats and looking everywhere up and down except at other passengers.

Supermarkets and the lobbies of public buildings also became places who subscribed to Muzak although its purpose there is less undestandable.

Another type of background music was "mood" music, supposed to evince a scene of low light, candles burning, table set for two with fresh flowers and a woman lounging on a couch dressed in a long silky gown in front of floor to ceiling windows showing the dusk skyline of a large US city. Remarkable  about this music was its dullness and lack of excitement. Maybe that is what it was meant to convey.


A disturbing use of "background music" is its implementation as an accompaniment to the spoken words in videos, typically those created for institutions for display at their fund raisers. Someone is depicted in an interview or making a speech  with a dubbed bass accompaniment. The designers and producers of these oeuvres insist that the music is necessary in order to avoid boring the audience. I can't understand this kind of thinking. Just imagine the President of the United States making a speech  
 le an orchestra alongside him plays music long on beats and short on melody.

Although these days everyone carries around his own personal entertainment and communication center and wears earbuds from wakeup to bedtime (and even during sleep) most public places still have enough background music to impact on the general noise level that modern man is subject to.

It's time we concentrate on the foreground.