Friday Five: Wotcher, Harry! ...or not

(I don't even know what that means. It sounds like something Hagrid would say. That's how much I know. Although I am sympathetic to the phenomenon, I'm not nearly well-versed enough in Potteriana to attempt the first question set. So, although I hate thinking of myself as a Muggle, here goes:)

Option 2: Please Mommy, Anything But Those Blankety-Blank Books!

And we do mean anything:

1. Former U.S. First Lady "Lady Bird" Johnson died this week. In honor of her love of the land and the environment, share your favorite flower or wildflower.

Lady Bird's beloved bluebonnets are my favorites too. For those who have only admired them in photos, or from the highway, you may not know that when you are actually in the midst of a stunning field of bluebonnets, you can detect a faint lavender-like fragrance that is as lovely as the flowers themselves.

Although in central and south Texas they tend to peak in early April, if we have a good spring next year there should be plenty to see by late March. I'm just sayin'.

2. A man flew almost 200 miles in a lawn chair, held aloft by helium balloons. Share something zany you'd like to try someday.

Let's see...chuck everything (except the Scientist, of course) and run away to Italy forever? Italy, where I don't speak the language (buon giorno, grazie, and dove il Bancomat, per favore? don't count) and have no way to make a living? Is that zany enough? Maybe I'd better focus on goals that aren't so zany, like playing the piano, closing my practice, and managing our nest egg so that someday we can visit Italy, and other places too, whenever we like.

3. Do you have an iPhone? If not, would you want one?

No, and no. The cell phone I have now can do everything except take out the garbage, but all I want it to do is take messages and let me make phone calls.

4. Speaking of which, Blendtec Blenders put an iPhone in one of their super-duper blenders as part of their "Will It Blend?" series. What would YOU like to see ground up, whizzed up or otherwise pulverized in a blender?

I'm sorry...the only image this question brings up for me is, "Mmmm...that's great bass!"

5. According to News of the Weird, a jury in Weld County, Colo., declined to hold Kathleen Ensz accountable for leaving a flier containing her dog's droppings on the doorstep of U.S. Rep. Marilyn Musgrave, apparently agreeing with Ensz that she was merely exercising free speech. What do you think? Is doggy doo-doo protected by the First Amendment?

No. The operative term here is speech. Big girls and boys use their words. If Ensz is displeased with Musgrave's record, she has a perfect right to picket, make a speech of her own, write a letter to Musgrave or to the editor, and to support Musgrave's opponent in the next election. The English language offers numerous options for expressing one's opinion. And my opinion is, what looked like free speech to Ensz and that jury just looks tacky to me.