#2018MMM Wildcard Preview and Reaching for Cthulhu

Daily Ramble 169: #2018MMM Wildcard Preview and Reaching for Cthulhu

Today I take a look at the Wildcard battle for the 2018 March Mammal Madness and I’m thinking I might lean toward the Goldcrest edging out the Praying Mantis. I could easily see the contest going either way, but I like birds better than bugs. Oh and BTW, these are part of the 2018MMM because…When the Kat’s Away other animals get to play.

I also take a look back at two recent books I’ve read and ramble on about how I wish people would honor Lovecraft with better stories. Basically, I ramble on about Winter Tide and Annihilation and wish they could have pulled things together in better ways.

#2018MMM A Look at the Upcoming Wildcard Battle

This year’s Wildcard Battle for the honor of joining the 63 teams that have already scored a birth in March Mammal Madness takes place between two challengers who’ve never dreamed of making it this close to the bracket. These guys are fighting to become the 64th entrant in the tournament and the 16th ranked combatant in the When the Kat’s Away division.

This battle pits the Praying Mantis against the Gold Crest. Insect versus Bird in a battle that will finalize our 64 seed tournament. Sure, either of these guys could compete in the National Invitation Tournament, but they’re looking to compete with the big boys in the 2018 March Mammal Madness.

But how does a 9cm bird take on what could be an 11cm insect? Actually, the Praying Mantis is a common name for an entire order of insects that include over 2000 species with the largest in North America being the Chinese Mantis that can reach the 11cm size mentioned. The bird too has an interesting background in that it is often called the King of the Birds since there’s a Greek legend that a small flame bearer bird hid under an Eagle’s tail feathers in a contest to see who could fly the highest. As the Eagle reached as high as it could fly, the Goldcrest emerged from the hiding and easily out flew the tired bird. As you can see from the image, he seems to have flown so high that his head was set on fire…

In any case, the insect is a formidable ambush predator usually targeting other insects – moths, butterflies, and crickets – but some have been known to attack small hummingbirds. The Goldcrest similarly consumes mostly insects as well but they’re usually targeting small caterpillars and flies so I’m thinking this contest could tilt in the Mantis’ favor.

Of course the terrain of the battle could prove a deciding factor as it has in the past. From what I can tell, the ecosystem will be determined right before the fight and since I don’t see who was seeded higher in the Wildcard battle, I think it’s gonna be a random assignment. Regardless, the Goldcrest might have the advantage here since it can handle cold winters and warm summers while the Mantis tends to prefer the heat.

It should be a good battle and I look forward to seeing who fills out the last spot in the tournament.

You can follow all the 2018 March Mammal Madness action at Mammals Suck…Milk! and in particular on Twitter with the hash tag #2108MMM.

Disappointing Lovecraft

March marks the second month in a row where I’ve read a book that has ties or at least reminds me of H.P. Lovecraft and sadly it’s also the second month where said book has been a disappointment. Actually I guess since I didn’t have much expectation about Winter Tide by Ruthanna Emrys, I suppose it wasn’t a let down except once I realized it was in the Lovecraftian world I got excited to see where it would lead. Instead of following along the lines of the wonderful 14 by Peter Clines, Winter Tide just sorta dragged on and on and really the best thing I can say about it was that I finished it. The whole story just seemed to be a slow motion grind that built up to an ending that was blah. As I indicated it was almost a DNF for me but even though the story wasn’t what I wanted the writing was well done so I managed to push through to the conclusion. I do have no motivation for reading the followup books though.

Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer was almost the opposite of Winter Tide but where the pace was quick and intense the ending was similarly blah. This book really felt like it was too short and at 208 pages I think it would have worked much better as part of a larger whole. While I enjoyed the worldbuilding and the Lovecraftian themes, there didn’t seem to be much going on. Not only was there not much going on, but there were no answers to what Area X is, how it got there, or why the mysterious Southern Reach was only sending in a few people at a time. It really felt like the TV series LOST but with even fewer answers. I suppose if I knew this was only an introductory tale I would have felt better about the outcome, but usually I expect to get a full story when I read a book. Sadly, I don’t have much motivation to read the followup books here either. While I appreciated the fast pace and interesting setting I just wish there was a complete story here rather than just a creepy, weird, vague concept of an adventure.