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Wed, Jan 28, 2026

4:20pm EST

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Carrion Luggage

by Robert Waltz

Rated: 18+ · Book · Opinion · #2336646

Items to fit into your overhead compartment

Carrion Luggage

Native to the Americas, the turkey vulture (Cathartes aura) travels widely in search of sustenance. While usually foraging alone, it relies on other individuals of its species for companionship and mutual protection. Sometimes misunderstood, sometimes feared, sometimes shunned, it nevertheless performs an important role in the ecosystem.

This scavenger bird is a marvel of efficiency. Rather than expend energy flapping its wings, it instead locates uplifting columns of air, and spirals within them in order to glide to greater heights. This behavior has been mistaken for opportunism, interpreted as if it is circling doomed terrestrial animals destined to be its next meal. In truth, the vulture takes advantage of these thermals to gain the altitude needed glide longer distances, flying not out of necessity, but for the joy of it.

It also avoids the exertion necessary to capture live prey, preferring instead to feast upon that which is already dead. In this behavior, it resembles many humans.

It is not what most of us would consider to be a pretty bird. While its habits are often off-putting, or even disgusting, to members of more fastidious species, the turkey vulture helps to keep the environment from being clogged with detritus. Hence its Latin binomial, which translates to English as "golden purifier."

I rarely know where the winds will take me next, or what I might find there. The journey is the destination.

Show Recent Comments

10 Most Recent Blog Comments:

Winter's spud❄️

about 3 hours ago
In response to "He Said End-to-End"

I was hoping this was a joke. Seriously I don't want anybody but my doctor, the laboratory or myself looking at my shit. Thats why I flush religiously.

2 Like

Jayne

about 4 hours ago
In response to "He Said End-to-End"

Well, thank you for crossing my WTAFITFSN? threshold before second coffee.

(What the actual f*ck is this f*cking sh*t now?)

I wonder if that's how the Kohler cam also reacts. 😆

3 Like

Just buddhangela

about 5 hours ago
In response to "Up On Blocks"

I just meant that I sometimes give more input that folks are asking for. Just can't help myself sometimes

Robert Waltz

about 6 hours ago
In response to "Up On Blocks"

Just buddhangela

- thanks for the encouragement. I appreciate it. And I wouldn't have made this public here if I didn't expect comments, so, no, you're not being nosy.

Just buddhangela

about 6 hours ago
In response to "Up On Blocks"

Your story sounds intriguing to me, especially if you started it some 20 years ago! If you haven't definitively decided to drop it, I'd encourage you to give it another go. With your sense of humor and appreciation of the ironic, I can see this story being amazing. Also, looking at any project and thinking, "I have to edit this and make it better" is a definite motivation-killer for me. I wonder if you could pull yourself out of author/editor mode–impossible? yeah, maybe–and just read the story as though someone else wrote it and you're doing a review for them. Maybe that'll help you be less judgemental (since we're all harder on ourselves than others–at least most of the time

). I know lots of us are writing with hopes to be published and feel successful, but what if you just decide to finish this story for yourself as a personal accomplishment ("There is no audience.") Just my thoughts. Sorry I get so involved trying to trouble-shoot/problem-solve–I don't mean to be nosy. Nosy? Saints, I don't know.

Good luck, whichever way you go.

Elisa, Stik of Clubs

about 7 hours ago
In response to "He Said End-to-End"

I am moved to wonder: is this article really a privacy warning or, given the repetition of the vendor, product name, and price tag, is it actually an ad?

I think it actually is a warning to the demographic that would be most likely to purchase this item (upper middle class trendsetters). The mentioning of the vendor and other details are intended less as an advertisement and more as a shorthand for indicating the type of market this product is for.

3 Like

Robert Waltz

about 7 hours ago
In response to "He Said End-to-End"

Shoveling Richard

- heh heh huh huh he said stream.

2 Like

Shoveling Richard

about 8 hours ago
In response to "He Said End-to-End"

"Is there a subscription fee?

Using Dekoda requires an active Kohler Health membership. There are two different types of memberships: single-user and family."

After I read this blog post, the first thing I thought of was, "Kohler can't be doing this out of the goodness of their hearts or a concern for our health."

And indeed, using the product requires a subscription, which provides Kohler with a continuous revenue stream.

3 Like

Shoveling Richard

about 22 hours ago
In response to "Drug Story"

I think peers and environment have a great deal of significance in what direction addictions might take.

As a youngster, I did quite a bit of work with musicians much older than myself. None of them did drugs, but they all drank alcohol. So my gateway was alcohol. The gateway never opened to anything else, so I guess it wasn't much of a gate.

Nothing should be discounted, and it's entirely possible that some people might be predisposed to addictions.

1 Like

TJ says, "keep on keeping on!"

about 24 hours ago
In response to "Drug Story"

After my divorce, one of my ex's friends asked her, "What's wrong with you, are you on drugs?"

She answered, "No, I have never used drugs."

I suggested, "Maybe you should."

What's that got to do with any of this? Not a damn thing. I may have been born with a damaged brain; it would explain my eccentricity!

1 Like

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