When good turkeys go bad

While we are still in the Thanksgiving weekend, I thought I would have a turkey-related post. I wrote recently about the aggressive turkeys that hang around the place where I live and to whom I give a wide berth. Just recently, I was out for my walk and saw about ten of them spread out across the width of the street and slowly coming towards me. It was rather like those scenes in westerns where a gang of bad guys ride into town, park their horses, and then walk slowly down the main street to show that they are the boss. Like the residents in those towns who quickly move out of the way so as not to become a target of the gang, I too ducked into a side path and waited there until the turkeys strolled slowly past before coming out again and continuing on my way. I was not the only one taking evasive action. Two women with a young boy came out of their home, saw the turkeys, and quickly went back in and one of them advised me to take another route.
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Correcting the opinions of strangers

I have written before about the Nextdoor website that connects people in your neighborhood and enables them to share information, ask for advice, etc. It provides quite an interesting insight into your neighborhood.

But today, I got this message from a resident.

Free · Free fortune reading based on kabbalah and unique techniques

I took advantage of a free fortune reading advertised on Nextdoor and based on the Kabbalah. Just wanted to say to anyone who may be interested in this service (free or otherwise) that the reading was very spot on, and offered a bit of insight for me to further consider. I did not pay for this service (Kabbalah reading) but will be setting an appointment for a fuller reading in the future. This was quite a unique take on the system of numerology.

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The new neighborliness

While the internet has been blamed for a decrease in person-to-person interactions and the increase in people checking their phones even when they are with someone in person, in other ways it has increased communication by enabling people to get in touch with like-minded people whom they would never have encountered before. Internet dating, for example, has enabled people to connect with people who share the same interests and whom they might never have found in the random interactions of daily life.
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Neighborhood social media

There has been much discussion about the benefits and costs of social media. On the one hand, it enables people to form communities and relationships with like-minded people without proximity being a factor. This has been a boon for people in low-density population areas or who have interests shared by just a small fraction of the population. But one downside is that immediate physical communities may suffer as people withdraw into their virtual worlds.
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