The Plight of Red Eared Sliders

Dinky, admiring his own reflection.  Isn't he pretty?

In honor of World Turtle Day, I want to focus on the problems associated with the breed of turtle that I own: the Red Eared Slider (Latin name: Trachemys scripta elegans, but commonly abbreviated as RES). These turtles, the size of a small coin as hatchlings, are widely sold by street vendors, flea markets, Chinatown tourist shops, carnivals and fairs. Buyers are rarely aware RES live 70+ years and grow as big as 12-inch dinner plates. Those who buy the cute little green turtles receive no information -- or wrong information -- about their care, even though raising a healthy turtle requires very specific elements and becomes more expensive as the turtle gets bigger and bigger.

Performing at the 2011 Catskills Irish Arts Week

2011 was a big year for the my Irish band, the Washington Square Harp and Shamrock Orchestra. The release of our first CD in March 2011 (see the sidebar on the right) brought us lots of performance opportunities. In this video you will see highlights of our performance at Catskills Irish Arts Week last summer. We were thrilled to perform at this prestigious US Irish music festival which has "the largest faculty (65 instructors) teaching the largest number of classes (120) of any summer school devoted to Irish traditional music and dance in the U.S." (Earle Hitchner, The Green Hills of the Catskills, The Wall Street Journal, July 6, 2011)




This 5-minute video contains snippets of three songs from our CD. You'll see me on your left up there...  Close-ups (at 2.53 and 4:11) reveal I'm having lots of fun!

Many thanks to Albany photographer Timothy Raab for tirelessly documenting the music at Catskills Irish Arts Week year after year. Tim's entire collection of 2011 CIAW videos can be viewed HERE.



© 2012, Linda Mason Hood
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