…If bacteria are making you sick, the doctor usually prescribes some drug. The drug will either kill the bacteria or stop them from growing.
    Doctors do not yet have drugs to cure diseases caused by [all] viruses. But they can give you shots to prevent some of these diseases.
                                            from Germs Make Me Sick
                                               written by Melvin Berger 
                                           illustrated by Marilyn Hafner
                                                  Harper, 2015 (revised)
                                                      EPUB edition, 2020
    Here’s a definition to start things off this morning. “A vaccine is a substance that helps protect against certain diseases. Vaccines contain a dead or weakened version of a microbe. It helps your immune system recognize and destroy the living microbe during a future infection.” https://www.webmd.com/cold-and-flu/qa/what-is-the-definition-of-vaccine 
    Polio, short for poliomyelitis, is an infectious disease caused by the poliovirus. When I was growing up, polio was still a common and dreaded disease. It did not kill most of its victims, but many were forced to live with crippling aftereffects. 
    There is no cure.     
    Franklin D. Roosevelt contracted polio in 1921. It left both his legs paralyzed. Shortly into his second term as president, he helped create what would become the March of Dimes Foundation, originally formed to to find a cure for polio.
    The March of Dimes was Jonas Salk’s primary funding source as he researched his vaccine to prevent polio. Salk developed a “killed-virus” vaccine. He grew samples of the virus, then killed them with formaldehyde so they could not reproduce. The inactive strains of the virus tricked the immune system into producing protective antibodies to prevent an infection.
    Most scientists, including Albert Sabin, believed only a live, but weakened microbe would be effective. They called Salk’s “killed-virus” vaccine dangerous. But it takes a long time to develop a live-virus vaccine. Funding went to Salk.
    Between April 26, 1954 and the end of June that same year, 1.8 million people became “polio pioneers,” volunteering to participate in a double-blind experiment to prove the Salk vaccine’s efficacy. It was declared “safe, effective and potent,” on April 12, 1955. 
    Sabin’s oral vaccine did not become available until 1962. It was given on a sugar cube and quickly replaced Salk’s injection. The Sabin vaccine was less expensive and easier to administer. But according to the World Health Organization (WHO), although polio vaccination prevents countless infections, in 2019, Sabin’s live-virus vaccine was responsible for nine new polio cases. WHO calls it the final obstacle to eliminating polio and urges the use only of Salk’s killed-virus vaccine.
    I was around ten years old when, after dinner one evening, Mom and Dad rounded us up and hiked with Gram the quarter mile to our elementary school. We were off to get our vaccination for polio.  
    It seemed like the whole neighborhood turned up. We chatted as we stood in line, waiting our turn. The proper amount of drops of the Sabin oral vaccine was dosed on a sugar cube and given to men, women, children, grandparents, and babies. It was easy. 
    According the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), the United States has been polio-free since 1979.
    The first step to developing a vaccine these days, is to discover the genetic code of the virus. This structure is used as a guide to learn which antibodies will create immunity in humans. Scientists then determine whether any of several vaccine candidates fights the virus effectively. 
     An antibody is the only component of our immune response that recognizes a virus before it has infected a cell. So right now, the only people who can produce antibodies against the protein in the COVID-19 virus are people who have recovered from an infection.  
       Two processes need to work together: the combination of antibodies to prevent further infection and those antibodies’ effect on a person’s own T-cells. The antibodies cause a person’s T-cells to clear out the existing infection.
    Once an antibody to the specific virus is isolated, it must be tried out in people to see if it is effective (that’s the T-cell component) and what, if any, side-effects it might cause. This is necessarily a slow process. The collection of antibodies, the trials in real, infected people, and analysis of the data all take time. No one wants a drug that is ineffective. For sure no one wants one that is harmful. 
    Once a vaccine has gone through the clinical trials and determined to be safe and effective, scientists determine the proper dose. Making proper dosage adjustments could take a year or more.
    Scientists all over the world are looking for an effective and safe vaccine for COVID-19, delivered at the proper dose. When it is discovered, people all over the world will be grateful.
                                             —stay curious! (and patient)  
2021 update:
    Three versions of a safe, effective vaccine are available to all people in the United States 12 years old and older. While breakthrough infections happen, they are rare and much less serious.             
    The current, deadly surge our country is experiencing has confined itself (mostly) to unvaccinated individuals. They claim many reasons for refusing the vaccine. Very few are valid.  
                          -—stay curious! (and get vaccinated, please)   

    I’m the same girl and not the same...Folks keep growing from one person into another all their lives, and life is just a lot of everyday adventures. Well, whatever life is, I like it.
                                               from Caddie Woodlawn 
                                        written by Carol Ryrie Brink
                                 originally illustrated by Kate Seredy
                                                         Macmillan, 1935
                          (new illustrations) by Trina Schart Hyman
                                                         Macmillan, 1973
                                         winner: Newbery Medal 1936
    Yesterday was Labor Day. 
    My first job was babysitting for my neighbor’s three kids: two and a half; four; and five. I was eleven.
    It wasn’t babysitting, really. I played with the kids while their mother was keeping house. You know, laundry, dusting, mopping the kitchen floor, and such. She was a housewife in a day before we had a name for stay-at-home moms (and dads). Then, it was the moms who mostly stayed home. 
    It was summer so we played outside. I’d give the kids some lunch and my job was finished. My neighbor paid me 50 cents an hour for a couple of hours of work.
    I learned responsibility, time management, and how to have fun.
The kids looked up to me. I learned to respect myself and trust my decisions.
    (In 2015) I just spent a week working closely with fourteen smart, creative, and high energy teenagers. They mostly reported for work on time, stayed focused, and worked well together. And they had fun.
    (Now, 2021) my grandkids are growing up, faster than I imagined when I held them in those tiny, soft blankets and they each squeezed my pinkie finger and we gazed into each others’ eyes. 
    Maybe it’s my rose-colored glasses, but despite the global pandemic of COVID-19, Climate Catastrophe, rampant gun violence, laws skewed toward the wealthy, inequality between demographic groups (Black, white, brown; LGBTQ; women; national origin; well the list is long, but you get it) watching and listening to the kids is what gives me hope.
    The world will be in good hands when these kids are in charge.
    Have a great and productive week!  
                                         --stay curious! (and work hard)                                                                                                  

“But can you really and truly tell what sort of a dream it’s going to be simply by listening to it?” Sophie asked.
    “I can,” The BFG said, not looking up.
    “But how? Is it by the way it hums and buzzes?”
    “You is less or more right,” the BFG said. “Every dream in the world is making a different sort of buzzy-hum music. And these grand swashboggling ears of mine is able to read that music.”
                                                       from  The BFG
                                                written by Roald Dahl
                                          illustrated by Quentin Blake
                                      Farrar, Straus, & Giroux, 1982
    In June, 2016, I wrote this:
    They say dreams help us work out problems and troubles. Trouble is, for me at least, I often don’t remember my dreams, so I just have to trust that my dreaming self is taking care of things for me.
    When I wrote that, the movie BFG was about to hit the theaters. I read the book, which I had somehow missed when my kids were growing up. I missed it when I studied and read lots and lots of children’s literature. I missed it until 2016. The BFG is about a giant who is the vehicle our dreams use to find us when we’re asleep.
    Dreams are funny things.
    We all have them, whether we remember them or not. That fact has been documented and studied and discussed. Dreams can be bad or good. Horrifying or inspiring. Expressions of our most dreaded fears or of our wildest wishes.
    August 28 (today) is the 55th anniversary of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech. He delivered it in front of the Lincoln Memorial before 200,000 people at a peaceful civil rights demonstration. (It was 1963. Math’s not my best specialty, so I figured it out for you, too.)
    MLK’s dream was the good kind. The best kind. He envisioned a country where prejudice and hatred disappeared into the dust of history. He spoke about the necessity for changes and America’s potential for hope in that change.
    Kinda like our Founding Fathers when they wrote the Constitution. High hopes were the order of that day, too, despite half the population being ignored and another half being taken for granted. (I counted black and brown and indigenous women twice, but they deserve it!) Jefferson, Madison and the rest were on the right track. We were headed in the right direction for a long time. Now, I think we’re not. (In 2021, we still have lots of obstruction to the common good and America’s goals. It has just become quieter and less visible.)
    Our country’s best dreams will come true with a good plan, good people to carry it out, and our trust in the forces of good that we can’t see. That’s another part of my 2016 post. I still had on my rose-colored glasses.
    Here’s my dream now. (In 2021, it is still my dream.) I dream of a time when my granddaughters and my grandsons will grow into responsible adults who are able to rise to their potentials. Become grown-ups thoughtful enough to move our great country back onto the path where we define our collective goals:
        to trust the news of the day
        to ensure our children are safe at school
        to live in a world where we breathe clean air and drink clean water
        to grow and harvest clean food
        to protect trees and whales and butterflies
        to trust each other
and act on those goals. Volunteer for a congressman. Support an environmental organization. Demonstrate or write letters promoting sensible gun laws.
    Martin Luther King, Jr. had a dream. I think it was more of a vision, but he called it a dream. I’m sure he did not need the BFG to deliver it to him. He thought up that great dream all by himself.
    We might need to depend on the BFG to deliver our dreams, and we can’t make them come true all by ourselves.
    We need to all dream together.
                                        Stay curious! (and dream big)

    Except for Papa, everything [Zavion] had known his whole life was gone. The big oak tree and its shade and the brick walkway leading up to his house. Gone. The house. Gone. Everything inside the house. Gone. And the one last thing that had reminded him of Mama. Gone.
    All of them swept away in the hurricane.
                                     from Another Kind of Hurricane
                                         written by Tamara Ellis Smith
                                       Schwartz & Wade Books, 2015
    I’m glad to tell you that I don’t have a lot of weather-related experience. An unforgettable snow storm closed school for two weeks when I was in third or fourth grade. We built forts with the neighbor kids, forged paths through the backyards, and drank as much hot cocoa as our mothers allowed.
    The last memorable tornado spun through Northeastern Ohio in 1985. It was a doozy. According to one source, the wind was clocked at 260 miles per hour. Eighty-nine people died and many, many more were injured. Its path traveled about 10 miles north of us. 
    My older daughter was in Tallahassee, Florida, in 1996, the year of Tropical Storm Josephine. Before Josephine made landfall on October 8, winds measured over 70 miles per hour. (A category I hurricane clocks in at 75mph.) Still a Tropical Storm, Josephine blew through the campus of Florida State University with sustained winds of 28.8 mph and gusts of 39.1. The storm dropped 7.79 inches of rain from October 2-8. https://emergency.fsu.edu/resources/hazards/tropical-storms-hurricanes/tropical-storms-hurricanes-history-fsu My daughter spent her 21st birthday hunkered in place instead of celebrating with her friends.
    Does it seem like the weather is wilder than ever? Well, it is. Besides the devastating fires in the West (over 7,000 square miles burned so far, an area the size of New Jersey), we are experiencing another active hurricane season. 
    Storms are named each year according to where in the world’s six basins the storm originates. Each basin has an organization that comes up with names for storms. The Atlantic and Eastern North Pacific share a six-year list. The lists are alphabetical, but skip the difficult letters Q, U, X, Y, and Z. Naming began in 1953 and men’s names were finally added in 1979. Each year, gender-specific names are alternated. If a male name goes first one year, the next year a female name is chosen first. At the end of six years, the lists start over. If a hurricane is particularly severe, its name is retired. The World Meteorological Organization has retired 88 names through 2018. Because of COVID-19, they will not address the 2019 season until they meet in Spring, 2021. https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/aboutnames_history.shtml 
     (2021 update: According to the World Meteorological Organization, Laura, Eta, Iota, and Dorian will all be retired from the 2020 and 2019 Atlantic hurricane seasons.) ​
    In 2018, Florence and Michael were retired and replaced by Francine and Milton, who will first appear (if necessary) in 2024. If more than twenty-one letters are needed to name storms, the Greek alphabet is used, adding 24 more. 
    The first year the Greek alphabet was used was the record-breaking year 2005. There were 27 named storms that year. Although Zeta reached peak strength January 2, it originated from a trough of low pressure on December 29th.  
    Hurricane Season is June 1- November 30 each year, but hurricanes can occur outside of that time frame. We are on track for another record-breaker. In 2005, the Beta storm made landfall in the Caribbean in late October. Yesterday (9/21/2020), our own Tropical Storm Beta was already causing storm-surge damage in Texas and Louisiana as it moves through the Gulf of Mexico with sustained winds of over 50 mph, a month earlier than the Beta storm of 2005. Beta made landfall at 10:00 last night.
    As Mother Nature dictates, when a storm makes landfall, the winds decrease. No more water can be added to the cloud formation. Even though most of the damage is caused by flooding and storm surge, rain, winds knocking down trees, ripping off siding and roofs, and blowing debris are serious cause for concern.
    Tropical Cyclone is a generic name. Hurricanes, typhoons, and cyclones are all names for the same weather system, a large-scale, atmospheric wind-and-pressure system characterized by low pressure at its center and a circular wind motion. Storms forming in the North Atlantic, central North Pacific, and eastern North Pacific are known as hurricanes. A storm in the Northwest Pacific is a typhoon. Storms originating in the South Pacific and Indian Ocean are called cyclones. A tropical cyclone in Australia is called a willy willy. https://www.dictionary.com/e/typhoons-hurricanes-cyclones/ Hurricanes rotate counterclockwise in the northern hemisphere and clockwise in the southern hemisphere.
    Cyclones form in the tropics because they need warm water (at least 80 degrees F) and wind. As air blows across the warm ocean, water evaporates and rises. The water vapor cools as it moves higher and higher and condenses back into large water droplets. Storm clouds form. As more water evaporates and cools, the clouds get bigger and bigger. They start to spin with the earth’s rotation. If enough water gathers into storm clouds, they organize into the familiar pattern we see on weather maps.
    Scientists are still studying whether warmer water will produce more frequent storms. They agree, though, that warmer oceans do produce more severe storms. As the ocean temperature rises with our warming climate, more evaporation will occur to create larger storm clouds and more severe storms. 

                                    -—stay curious! (and be prepared)

And all that the Lorax left here in this mess
was a small pile of rocks with the one word…
“UNLESS”
Whatever that meant, well, I just couldn’t guess.
…
“But now,” said the Once-ler,
“Now that you’re here,
the word of the Lorax seems perfectly clear.
UNLESS someone like you
cares a whole awful lot,
nothing is going to get better.
It’s not…”
                                                   from The Lorax
                                                        by Dr. Seuss
                                                 Random House, 1971
                              accessed on YouTube April 19, 2021

    I like to believe that no one is as mean and as greedy as the Once-ler who only wanted to make more and more Thneeds, a clothing item that nobody really needed. He used up a resource until it was gone, then packed himself up and let his factory go to rack and ruin while the nearby forest, pond, and the very air suffered mightily.
    I like to believe that, but I know it’s not true. There’s plenty of greed fed by over-consumption, thoughtless disregard for natural resources, and careless disposal of trash. Who knew that cigarette butts are the largest source of plastic pollution? According to EARTHDAY.ORG, as of August 28, 2020, 4.5 trillion butts are littering the world. It takes 10 years for the plastic in the filters to completely degrade. The toxic chemicals stay in the ground much longer.
    I’ll stop myself before a rant begins about the deplorable state of the world and the humans who inhabit it. Look around. Lots of good is going on.
    In two days it will be April 22, the day the whole world celebrates Earth Day.
    Gaylord Nelson, a senator from Wisconsin who served from 1962 to 1980, decided to pivot the energy college students displayed in their anti-Viet Nam War protests, civil rights protests, and women’s rights protests to the growing environmental movement. 
    He was concerned about the spewing smokestacks, overflowing garbage dumps, and oil spills. In January, 1969, he witnessed a massive oil spill in Santa Barbara, California and the destruction that followed. Nelson and a fellow Congressman recruited Denis Hayes, an activist, to lead teach-ins on college campuses. April 22, a date half-way between Spring Break and finals seemed a likely time to reach lots of students. 
    The name Earth Day caught the ear of national media who shared the story far and wide. On April 22, 1970, over 20,000 people attended the first Earth Day celebrations across the US, over 10% of our entire population. Earth Day grew and continues to grow.
    Earth Day went global in 1990. Recycling efforts worldwide got a huge boost and countries began to mobilize for the 1992 United Nations Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro.
    President Bill Clinton awarded Senator Nelson the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1995, for his role as Earth Day founder.
    Thirty years after the first Earth Day, the millennium year saw citizens around the world sending a clear message to their leaders to take “quick and decisive action on global warming and clean energy.”
    Today EARTHDAY.ORG provides volunteer opportunities and outlets for civil engagement to over one billion people in 193 countries. Earth Day is widely recognized as the largest secular observance in the world.
    According to their website, “The social and cultural environments we saw in 1970 are rising up again today — a fresh and frustrated generation of young people are refusing to settle for platitudes, instead taking to the streets by the millions to demand a new way forward.”
    Digital and social media are bringing people together as never before, “catalyzing generations to join together to take on the greatest challenge that humankind has faced.” 
    This year’s world-wide celebration begins at noon eastern time on April 22, 2021, and can be accessed here: https://www.earthday.org/earth-day-2021/ 
    Scroll down to find the Global Youth Summit beginning today (April 20, 2021) at 2:30 ET. Continue your scroll to find the rest of the three-day-long activities.
    Further down the page you’ll come to the Five Pillars of Restore Our EarthTM where you’ll find hundreds of ways to be informed and involved. 
    Since 2010, the Canopy Project has planted millions of trees all over the world in communities most at-risk from Climate Change and in communities cleaning up after natural and human-caused disasters.
    During The Great Global Cleanup you can register your group or yourself to clean up a lot or a little and get a pin on the world map. Their slogan is “Sign Up, Show Up, Clean Up.”
    The Global Earth Challenge is a citizen science initiative to explore current issues like plastic pollution, changes in insect populations, and how air quality differs in different locations.
    And EARTHDAY.ORG is not the only organization working hard. Here’s a list (in alphabetical order) of organizations whose missions make our Earth their priority. 
    The Arbor Day Foundation https://www.arborday.org 
    Audubon Society https://www.audubon.org 
    Environmental Defense Fund https://www.edf.org  
    Greenpeace https://www.greenpeace.org/international/ 
    NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council) https://www.nrdc.org 
    Sierra Club https://www.sierraclub.org 
    The Wilderness Society https://www.wilderness.org 
    World Wildlife Fund https://www.worldwildlife.org 

    A very handy source to find information about nonprofits and charities is The Charity Navigator. https://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary&orgid=3671 Type in the organization’s name and discover their mission, their history, their staff, how much of their donations go to programming, salaries, and how much it costs them to earn each dollar.
    Celebrate our Earth on Thursday (and every day.)
                          -—stay curious (and hug a tree, or two!)

Edward, face it. Your neck is impressive.
It allows you to do amazing things.
                                               from Giraffe Problems
                                                  written by Jory John
                                              illustrated by Lane Smith
                                                   Random House, 2018


    The first time I saw a giraffe was on a field trip to the Cleveland Zoo. All us second-graders were amazed at its height. Its legs alone, are taller than most people I know. A giraffe is almost as tall as a two-story house. Male giraffes are 16 - 18 feet tall, and the females are only a little smaller. 
    What really fascinated me, though, was how it wrapped its long, black tongue around the leaves at the top of a thorny acacia tree and worked around the prickles. A giraffe’s long tongue (up to 20 inches long, but most are a mere 12-18 inches) is prehensile.
    And its tongue is long enough to clean its own ears!
    Giraffes eat about 100 pounds of leaves per day. That takes a lot of time. The pigment that make their tongues black also keeps them from burning in the hot African sun. 
    Most of the water they need comes from their food. Good thing, too. Their long legs make reaching lakes and rivers difficult.             
    Giraffes only sleep about 2 hours per day, but take lots of short naps. I know some people who do that, too!
    Late in 2016, the most current year statistics are available, about 97,000 giraffes lived in the wild, down about 30 per cent from 30 years ago.* The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (https://www.iucn.org) consists of more than 8,000 scientists in 162 countries. That year, they moved the giraffe from a species of Least Concern to its list of Vulnerable Species. If humans don’t intervene, giraffes face extinction in the medium-term future. (As of today, 8/10/21, their numbers continue to fall even though they’ve been protected from trade in the US since 2019. International Fund for Animal Welfare, ifaw.org)
    Lost habitat is one reason giraffes are vulnerable. Civil unrest and poaching also contribute to the giraffe’s decline. These are problems created by people.
    Here’s a bit of sort of good news. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said this past Thursday (April 25, 2019) that it is considering protecting the giraffe under the Endangered Species Act. This could lead to import restrictions on hunting trophies and body parts including hides and bones. Considering, we’ll wait and see. A letter to your congressman and representative could help sway their consideration to a “yes.” Finally. 
    As early as 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt called attention to the dwindling population of many species of birds by declaring the first National Refuge site on Pelican Island in Florida. https://www.fws.gov/refuge/pelican_island/ 
    Rachel Carson published Silent Spring in 1962, but it took ten years for the U. S. Government to ban DDT. 
    The following year The Endangered Species Act of 1973 provided a framework to conserve and protect endangered and threatened species and their habitats. https://www.fws.gov/international/laws-treaties-agreements/us-conservation-laws/endangered-species-act.html 
    Nearly 1,700 species (plants and animals) are currently listed under the act.* The ESA has prevented the extinction of about 291 of those, according to a study published last week (April 22, 2019) in the journal PeerJ. That’s more than 99% of the species under its protection. https://peerj.com/articles/6803.pdf
    The easiest way to see a giraffe is at a zoo. In recent years, zoos have become much more humane places for animals. Their habitats try to mimic a natural environment. 
    Some zoos are interactive. Food is available for purchase (giraffes like Romaine lettuce) and feeding the animals is encouraged. 
    Recently, a tiger attacked a zoo worker. (April, 2019). And a horrible incident occurred at the Cincinnati Zoo in June, 2016.
    Here’s what I said in 2016 (6/14/16):
         I will continue to visit zoos. My connection with animals
         is fostered by being able to see exotic, endangered,
         even dangerous animals. And imagine interacting with
         them, respecting them, encouraging their ability to
         continue their earthly existence. 
    The animals who live in zoos do not do so by their own choice. They are wild animals, no matter how cute or tame or social they look. When we visit, we need to remember we are visiting in their home. Be aware, be courteous, be inquisitive.

• In July of 2021, according to International Fund for Animal Welfare (ifaw.org) the number has shrunk to 68,000.

• According to epa.gov over 1,300 endangered or threatened species in the United States today. (8/10/21) 

                                             Stay curious! (and careful)

A line is thin. A line is narrow --
curved like a worm, straight as an arrow.
        .   .   .
Yes, a line is fine, but when a line swerves,
when a line bends, watch what can happen . . .
a shape begins!
from: When a Line Bends . . . A Shape Begins
                                             By Rhonda Gowler Greene
                                          Illustrated by James Kaczman
                                       Houghton Mifflin Company, 1997

    I like to think my vote counts. After all, that’s what a representative democracy is supposed to provide for its citizens, a meaningful election. While I understand that a majority is necessary, I vote for a representatives who, in turn, will vote in my interest. But what happens when our representatives don’t voice the majority’s opinions? How can that happen anyway?
    In 1812, Elbridge Gerry, governor of Massachusetts, signed a bill that created a partisan district in the Boston area. He drew a line around neighborhoods that were not defined geographically, but included more of “his” people. Because its shape was compared to a mythological salamander, we get Gerry-mander . . . gerrymander. Here's a map of MA including a map of his gerrymandered area around Boston. 
    This re-districting technique caught on quickly. Districts in any particular state can be drawn to include or exclude areas and create politically advantageous voting blocs. The only conditions: the district must be contiguous and the district must not cross state lines. 
    In 1911, Congress ruled that the number of representatives be capped at 435.*
    Because the cap remains at 435 but the population continues to grow, the average Congressional representative now represents well over 700,000 people. Raising the cap comes with its own set of problems. Most involve providing enough room for office spaces and meeting rooms.
    The U.S. Constitution requires a census every 10 years for the express purpose of redistributing Congressional districts. States may gain or lose any number of representatives, based on their current population. But populations do not grow evenly. In the mid-1960s, the Supreme Court decided that a similar number of people should reside in each district.Sometimes an area needs to be re-drawn so a more consistent number of people can be represented. 
    The Census is a population count. Citizenship is not a requirement for inclusion. As a matter of fact, inmates, although most do not have the privilege of a vote, are generally counted in the district where they are housed, not where they lived before. 
    Each state decides who draws the lines.                
    If the district lines are seen to be gerrymandered, that is giving advantage to one group over another, especially if the targeted group is in the minority, the Courts can be called in. That is what is happening now in Ohio and several other states.
    As late as last month, Federal judges in Ohio have declared that Ohio’s map, drawn by Republicans, gives the GOP an unfair advantage. The Supreme Court is reviewing claims of gerrymandering in Maryland and North Carolina. 
    According to Politico.com https://www.politico.com/story/2019/05/03/ohio-redistricting-gerrymandering-1301141 “The high court’s conservative majority signaled during oral arguments that it might be uncomfortable with judicial efforts to rein in partisan gerrymandering.” Michigan, Ohio and several other states with pending legislation concerning gerrymandering will most likely not make any decisions until the Maryland and North Carolina decisions have been handed down.
    Even if the Supreme Court is okay with gerrymandering, I am not. I understand that a direct democracy in a country of 328,868,954 people, (https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/us-population/) is impracticably cumbersome. But when I cast a vote for the candidate who I expect will represent the majority of people in my district, I also expect that he or she has a fair shot in receiving a majority of the votes cast. 
    I hope I have not presented an over-simplified summary in my search for understanding this complicated issue. I’m glad gerrymandering is finally getting some of the attention it deserves. We cannot be a true democracy if our elections suppress minority opinions. If we are not heard at the ballot boxes of this country, we need use other means to make our voices heard. Here’s a handy way to find your Representative. https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative 
    Even though my vote might not count the way I think it should, it still matters. 

*The total membership of the House of Representatives stands at 441. Non-voting members include representatives from the District of Columbia and the U.S. territories of Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and American Samoa. A non-voting Resident Commissioner, serving a four-year term, represents the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.

                                           -—stay curious! (and be heard)

They fished
and they fished
all across the sea,
And down in the depths a mile.
They fished among all the fish in the sea,
For the fish with the deep sea smile.
                                  from The Fish With a Deep Sea Smile
                                      written by Margaret Wise Brown
                                              illustrated by Henry Fisher
                                    e-edition Parragon Books Ltd., 2015
                                        www.libraryvisit.org (7/12/2020) 
    Human beings have universal emotions. We all feel sad, angry, frightened, happy, grouchy, pensive. Different cultures show these emotions differently. But smiles are universal. We all smile when we are happy. Even monkeys grin to express friendliness. Here's an article about primate smiles, including human.    
    Depending on the circumstances, though, not all smiles reflect happiness or joy. Smiles convey nervousness, a need to please, submission, amusement, attraction and according to modern psychology, much more. 
    Duchenne de Boulogne (1806-1875), was a French physician and neurologist who introduced studies on electrical stimulation of muscles. He used the results of his experiments as a tool to learn about human anatomy in living people. He mapped all the human facial muscles.
    In one of Duchenne’s most famous experiments, he tested the facial muscles of a man who could not feel pain. Duchenne stimulated the man’s muscles to make him smile then photographed his many expressions. The man’s smiles never looked happy. But when Duchenne told the same man a funny joke, his mouth smiled broadly in reaction as expected, but he also involuntarily contracted the muscles around his eyes. That was the smile Duchenne was looking for, one of pure enjoyment. 
    A genuine smile, one that conveys happiness, friendliness, joy, one that is sincere, is called a Duchenne smile. https://practicalpie.com/duchenne-smile/. 
    Controversy surrounds whether or not you can fake a Duchenne smile. While our mouth muscles are pretty easy to voluntarily manipulate, it’s really difficult to work the ones that produce “crows-feet.” So, some say no. But a study from 2012 showed some participants could actually manipulate all the muscles needed to produce a Duchenne smile. Good actors can do it. You can, too. Train yourself in this skill by thinking up happy memories. The orbicularis oculi muscles, the ones at the corners of our eyes, are tied to the part of our brain where we process emotions. So, some say you can fake a Duchenne. I’m in that camp.
​    The first gummy ear-to-ear grin that lights up the precious face of a two-month old baby is a great example of a Duchenne smile. I remember my babies’ first smiles. Huge, gummy grins they were, that took up at least half their little faces. I worked hard for those grins and was immensely rewarded. Scientists believe babies are born with the ability to smile. Even blind babies smile. Actually, I’m smiling at my baby-memory right now. Not a Duchenne smile, more wistful, Mona Lisa-ish. Maybe you are, too. 
    Smiles are the spontaneous expression of joy. And smiles are contagious.
    By now we all (I hope) are covering our mouths and noses with masks. Made of cloth or synthetic polymer fibers, decorated or plain, they trap germs. They protect us when we breathe in and protect everyone else when we breathe out. They are most assuredly necessary.
    But we lose an important piece of non-verbal communication: the smile. 
    Not all smiles are Duchenne smiles, of course. A researcher at The University of California-San Francisco identified 19 different kinds of smiles and divided them into two categories, polite/social smiles, and sincere/felt smiles. The polite smiles use many fewer muscles than the sincere smiles.
    Sincere smiles affect our moods. Even if we “fake it till we make it,” our belief that a genuine smile improves our outlook, well-being, and even health, proves correct. Our bodies are more relaxed when we smile. That contributes to good health and a strong immune system. https://www.laughteronlineuniversity.com/fascinating-facts-about-smiling/ 
    About the only place I go anymore is the grocery store. The other day, I was shopping with a list as fast and carefully as I could. When it was my turn to check out, I felt myself smile. Why did I do that? Habit? The store clerk I was acknowledging couldn’t tell I was smiling, unless she noticed my crow's feet! My smile was a spontaneous reaction, the expression of joy I felt greeting another human being. Face to face. I'm sure she smiled back.
    Polite smiles don’t show up behind our masks. We need to practice Duchenne smiles. We’ll feel better and people will notice. Then they’ll smile, too. That’s the kind of contagion I can live with.
                                         -—stay curious! (and keep smiling)

     “I see in you someone who is destined for great things. You’ll find your way, if you’re true to yourself.”
         from: Brambleheart: A Story About Finding Treasure
                         and the Unexpected Magic of Friendship
                             written and illustrated by Henry Cole
                                        2016, Kathrine Tegen Books
       As I thought about this week’s post, I tried hard to think of something I consider myself to excel in or be outstanding at. Not grammar with that sentence!
      I was not very successful with my piano lessons, although I gained a great appreciation for the instrument and a real love of Chopin, especially his preludes, waltzes, and other dances, the simple ones and the complex. 
       Although I can usually spit back a phone number and I add and subtract my checkbook in my head (mostly), numbers are not my thing.
       My daughters are both good cooks. I told my older daughter she must have a tongue in her brain that helps her think of ingredients that go well together. I don’t have that, but I can follow a recipe.
       Common sense is not my forte, either. I do a lot of forehead slapping, you know, when all of a sudden some logical, elusive answer becomes crystal clear. I have lots of ideas, though. 
       I am not a champion athlete. You might remember I taught myself to roller skate with belts and pillows. And that ice-skating fiasco. 
       This week, lots of eyes will be on Rio de Janeiro. Kids, really, are participating for their chances of a lifetime to excel, to perform, to compete.  Athletes, it’s said, love speed: objective, measurable, quantifiable times and distances and weights. Thousands of practice hours culminate in one race, one jump, one lap, one journey to the end of one balance beam, one barbell lift. 
       Did you know that table tennis is an Olympic sport? Go to https://www.olympic.org/sports for the complete list.
       But what about the ones who come in fourth or fifth or merely finish? No medal. No national anthem. No lucrative contract with Nike, UnderArmour, SpecialK.       
       Gym was always my worst subject.  In seventh or eighth grade we were supposed to master lots of equipment. Lucky for me I had friends in the class. Friends who really made themselves useful by holding my hand on the balance beam, giving me a boost over the pummel horse and pushing me over the uneven parallel bars, more than once, to perform my “routine.” If you think it was a hoot, you’re right! Even I was laughing, making it more impossible. My teacher was generous. She gave a D because I showed up. I didn’t chicken out or complain. 
       Maybe I’m a little bit of a champion after all. 
       Maybe all those athletes who come in fourth, fifth or even finish are champions, too.
       Maybe we all are. 
                                               --stay curious! (and active)
2021 update:
The Summer Olympics will begin in Tokyo this Friday (7/23/21) and continue through 8/8/21. The athletes will compete with no fans in the stands. The award ceremonies will be contactless (they will hang their earned medals on their own necks.) Some athletes, coaches, and staff have tested positive for COVID-19. 

And I said, “You can stop, if you want, with the Z
“Because most people stop with the Z
“But not me.”
“In the places I go there are things that I see
“That I never could spell if I stopped with the Z.
“I’m telling you this ’cause you’re one of my friends.
“My alphabet starts where your alphabet ends.”
                                            From: On Beyond Zebra
                                written and illustrated by Dr. Seuss
                                                  Random House, 1955

      This morning, the 90th annual National Spelling Bee begins with a written preliminary competition. Hopeful students from all over the country have gathered in Washington, D. C. today, to vie for the $40,000 prize from Scripps and an engraved trophy, a $2,500 savings bond and a complete reference library from Merriam Webster, $400 worth of reference works and a 3-year subscription to Encyclopedia Britannica on-line. And of course, the recognition. The student’s school also gets a plaque and prizes are awarded to the finalists. An amazingly big deal! 
       Scripps made the bee tougher after ties in 2014 and 2015. Now the last two spellers need to get through three times as many words as in years past. But, another set of co-champions was crowned in 2016. 
       Oral and written competitions go many, many rounds. Elimination is usually swift at the start.  The final round will be broadcast on ESPN. Here’s how to watch the whole match, beginning tomorrow with the oral competition:
       The ESPN app will carry all preliminary rounds live on May 31, from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., with a break from 12:15 to 1:15 p.m. 
       Live coverage of the finals will begin June 1 at 10 a.m. on ESPN2, ESPNU (Play Along Version) and the ESPN app. 
       The competition will conclude on ESPN, ESPNU and WatchESPN at 8:30 p.m.
NOTE: Because the event is in the Washington D. C. area, all times are Eastern Time.

2021 UPDATE: Last Thursday, July 8, 2021, Zalia Avant-garde made history. She is the first speller from Lousiana and the first Black American to win the National Spelling Bee.. It was the 93rd National Spelling Bee and Zalia won in 17 rounds. 
Click here to see her win. Scroll down to “watch the event” then click on Zalia's picture. 
       
       Schools participate on the local level. My grandson was chosen to compete two years in a row, but didn’t make it to Washington. My daughter, his mom, also did not go to Washington. I didn’t qualify for my elementary school’s event, but I like to sing the Jiminy Cricket song E-N-C-Y-C-L-O-P-E-D-I-A. 
       My dad was an excellent speller. He attributed his skill to his high school study of Latin. He liked to trace many English words to their Latin roots. Great dinner table conversations started this way.  We all learned how to spell antidisestablishmentarianism. We knew what it meant, too. At 28 letters, my parents told us it was the longest English word.  Then in 1964, Mary Poppins came out with supercalifragilisticexpialidocious at 34 letters. It was added to the OED in 1986.     
       Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis (45 letters) though, is recognized as the longest word, according to The National Puzzlers' League at the opening session of their 103rd semi-annual meeting in 1939. So even though they may have the best intentions, parents can sometimes be wrong.  
       Lots of parents are supporting lots of kids in their enthusiastic and optimistic participation at the National Spelling Bee. Also, parents are Little League coaches, Boy and Girl Scouts leaders, and Summer Reading Library Challenge encouragers. 
       Lots of parents are just good general life lesson deliverers. So as Dr. Seuss said at the end of On Beyond Zebra (see quote above), 
      “There's no limit to how much you'll know,
      depending how far beyond zebra you go.”
                         --stay curious! (and look for new possibilities)