GUYS
JUST CHECKING IN TO MAKE SURE
EVERYONE HAS THE LATEST INFO
INCOMING FRESHMAN TED YOUNGBLOOD IS IN THE 
HOSPITAL FROM THAT HIT HE TOOK AT CAMP TODAY.
IT’S PRETTY BAD, NOT SURE HOW BAD YET
BUT I HEARD HE’S STILL UNCONSCIOUS.
                                                 from Game Changer
                                       written by Tommy Greenwald
                                                 Abrams/Amulet, 2018

    The closest I’ve ever been to a football was my job at the Wilson football factory in Ada, Ohio. I laced rubber footballs and sewed leather ones back in the mid 1970s. I finished my days there working on soccer balls. I also don’t follow soccer, which is football everywhere else in the world.
    My mom played clarinet in her high school marching band during football games. So did my girls. That must be a trait that skips a generation.
    Both of my sons-in-law like football, and the girls know quite a lot more than I ever did. I never got interested in the game. Boys (or 300-pound grown men) running at each other trying to throw, catch, or prevent someone else from throwing and/or catching a crazy-shaped “ball” is just dangerous. Does a ball even have to be round to be called a ball? I guess not!
    And the complicated rules!
    Football, American football, is dangerous. When a person’s brain slams into the inside of the skull, the result is a concussion. The harder the hit, the more severe the concussion. But brain injury occurs over time, too. There is a cumulative effect on the brain when it is concussed over and over again. Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is the term used to describe this serious brain condition.
    Have you seen the movie Concussion (starring Will Smith, 2015)? It’s the true story of a Nigerian doctor who discovered the alarming connection between head injuries sustained in playing football and brain damage (CTE) in older, retired players.
    Even though leather helmets have been available since 1893, according to NFL.com, football helmets were not even required until 1943. Energy absorbing helmets were introduced in the 1970s. Full face masks were, too. In 2011, an impact indicator on the helmet’s chin strap was devised. It’s used to identify head injuries. But, really, isn’t it too late if the injury has already occurred?
    Football, American football, is a violent sport. It attracts and condones violence on the football field, and elevates winning to a crowning achievement. It is whether you win or lose, not how you play the game. Not all refs stop aggression. There’s the problem of proving intent. Did a player really ram into another one on purpose. Well, yes. To get the ball, to complete the play, to score.
    Part of the attraction for the players is probably money. Professional football players are paid millions of dollars each season. In 2018, the minimum NFL salary for a rookie was $480,000, not quite half a million. Fame is an incentive for some, no doubt. And the ability to sway public sentiment to a cause worked (in a way) for Colin Kaepernick. He was noticed. He still is being talked about. He is not playing football. He recently did an ad for Nike, whose CEO reinforced standing up (or taking a knee) for what you believe in. So Colin is working.
    But the young kids. Why should a dangerous sport still be allowed, even encouraged? Since Concussion came out in 2015, more and more parents are thinking twice about letting their kids play. 
    In fall/winter of 2015/16, 1,083,308 boys played high school football. For the 2018/19 school year, 1,006,013 boys are signed up. Girls play, too: 1,565 in 2014/15 and 2,404 in 2018/19. A much smaller number than the boys, but why are more girls choosing to play? 
    Aggression must be learned. It is a goal in developing young football players according to YouthFootballOnline. Although they are encouraged to keep safety as a first priority, the first bullet-point in a list for coaches states:
“Each act should be with aggression as soon as child hits the practice field. If he puts his helmet on, have him do it aggressively. When he drinks a cup of water, have him do it with aggression. No meek actions.” (emphasis included on webpage.)
    Their premise is that aggressive actions on the field will lead to a confident attitude off the field. “It’s the attitude of if you want something bad enough, you have to go out and get it.”
    In other words, take what you want from whoever has it. No asking nicely, no compromising, no patiently waiting. No wonder so many people love the game!    
    Not all team names are angry and aggressive sounding, but a lot are. I don’t think cheese factory workers in Green Bay are dangerous, but their team is the Packers. Besides the birds, lots of teams chose animal names. I’ll save Native American tribal names for another post.
    Among the non-violent names, the Dolphins come to mind.
    Bluejays are an aggressive bird, but they play baseball. We have Cardinals, Falcons and Eagles, and Seahawks in the bird category. And Ravens.
    Of course the other side of the argument is the character-building, teammate-building, responsibility-building aspect of any group sport.
    I still choose to quote Edgar Allen Poe’s Raven (from Baltimore, just like him).
    “Nevermore.”
                                                -—stay curious! (and safe)    

    After Joey leaves, Mary Ann and I go back to pushing coins into my piggy bank. When we’re done, I pick it up and shake it. It’s so  full, it barely makes a noise. It’s heavy too.
    I hand it to Mary Anne so she can feel it. “I can’t believe how much you have,” she says.
                                      from: In Business with Mallory
                                         written by Laurie Friedman
                                        illustrated by Barbara Pollak
                                            Carolrhoda Books, 2006
    In high school I worked as a sales clerk for The May Company, a national department store chain with a local outlet. The store was close to home and I usually walked there and back. I had my driver’s license, but I didn’t have a car. Not too many of my friends (and none of the girls) had one, and that was okay. 
    I earned $1.60/hour. When I started working, most people paid with cash. Some used a Charge-a-Plate to buy on credit. I think their bank issued it. I approached my mom with the idea for my own credit card, but she didn’t think much of it. I’m not sure how I convinced her I would buy something only when I already had enough money in the bank to pay for it. That seemed counter-intuitive to me, but I played by Mom’s rules. I opened up a checking account so I could pay off my new Charge-a-Plate as soon as I received my bill.
    The card was a small silver-colored rectangle, embossed with my name and a number. It was about half the size of the Visa Card and the Discover Card I have in my wallet today. I wish I could remember what my first purchase was.
    People spoke about a cashless society and I wondered what that would look like. Well, it looks like now. I know people who buy their morning coffee on credit, and charge restaurant meals and groceries, too. 
    Here’s the thing about buying groceries on credit. Before they’re paid for, I’d have cooked, eaten, and eliminated (or more likely, stored as fat!!) most of what I bought. That feels strange to me.
    I understand the necessity for credit. Not everyone can save up for a car, or a home remodel, or even a washer or dryer or new fridge. I expect to pay interest to the bank for the convenience of having what I want (or need) immediately. Sometimes, it’s an emergency.    
    When I asked them, my parents explained the National Debt in familiar terms. People pay taxes to the government, then the government pays the senators, congressmen, and judges. The government pays to run the national parks and federal agents to solve crimes and the CIA to keep us safe. And the government funds Social Security and Medicare. Aid goes to people who don’t make enough money or who don’t make any money for whatever reasons, some good, some bad. And the government buys electricity to keep their buildings open.
    When the government spends more money than it has and needs to borrow, it is called deficit spending. It’s what my mom cautioned me not to do. 
    If the government’s bills are not paid in full each month, the bank or other lending institution applies interest that is added to the total. The National Debt increases, but without the benefit of getting more goods.  
    Besides receiving money from the tax-paying population, the government can issue bonds. Private citizens and corporations can buy them. The government can borrow money from other programs (or really our kids) by tapping into Social Security and Medicare. And they can borrow on the world market. Our government borrows from other countries, too.
    About 66% of the National Debt is money the government owes the public, businesses, and foreign governments that bought investments is the US. The rest is what the Federal government owes itself for loans it took from Social Security and Medicare and other trusts. 
    The US debt is over 22 trillion dollars. That’s a 22 with 12 zeros (22,000,000,000,000). (2021: over 28 trillion) Only four trillion one-dollar bills laid end to end will reach all the way from Earth to the moon.
    As of May, 2019, the United States government owes China $1.11 trillion (one trillion, eleven billion). That’s 27% of the debt held by foreign countries. 

2021 update: According to a paper called Foreign Holdings of Federal Debt (Updated July 9, 2021) and published by the Congressional Research Service:
    Based on their estimates, Japan holds approximately 17.7% of all foreign investment in U.S. publicly held federal debt, China holds approximately 15.2%, and the United Kingdom holds approximately 6.2%. The other (approximately 60% is domestically held, what the government owes itself and its citizens.) https://sgp.fas.org/crs/misc/RS22331.pdf 
    And, since the government can only use reconciliation a limited number of times, if they raise the debt ceiling before December, 2021, they will not be able to use it to pass any or all of the Infrastructure Bill. 
    Meanwhile the Freedom to Vote Act languishes, at the peril of our free and fair elections.

    Why does all this even matter? If the US keeps borrowing and increasing the amount of the debt, world markets could lose confidence in our government. Obligating ourselves to other countries is a risky business.
    Raising taxes and reducing spending is one way to borrow less. That’s pretty uncomfortable, too. 
    I don’t know the answer to this very complicated problem, but I’ll keep reading and listening. Stay tuned.

2021:The Deficit Myth by Stephanie Kelton (PublicAffairs, 2020) is an interesting book (well the introduction is, anyway). In it she discusses Modern Monetary Theory and claims governments should not be run like households. That is, tax revenues do not fund the government since the Treasury is controlled by the government and can provide printed money in an endless supply. Now if someone could just explain that to Mitch McConnell and the rest of his Republicans…
    Maybe I’ll look for a class in Chinese.
                 -—stay curious! (and take a deep breath, or two) 

     The music started.  
     [Boomer] tumbled. He tangled. He toppled. He flew . . .
right through the ceremonial flame.
     He got the lowest score in [Summer] Olympic history.
     Mr. Hamstring croaked, "Any final words for our viewers at home?"
     “Well, Hammy, maybe I didn’t win a gold medal today,” said Boomer, “but I realized something very important. I realized. . .today has been terrific practice for the Winter Olympics!”
                   Olympig! The Triumphant Story of an Underdog
                       written and illustrated by Victoria Jamieson
                                Dial Books for Young Readers, 2012
       
       I’ve never been much about sports. (see a few previous posts: Football Memories 2/8/16, Heart of a Champion 8/2/16, and Cleveland, Ohio 7/19/16) The High School Band was always more important to me than the game. Of course, my girls were in the band and I didn’t have any children on the football team, or any other team, for that matter. My younger daughter had a brief time on a soccer team, but that’s a different story.
       This week is a sports trifecta, though.
       Last Monday, a Major League Baseball statement announced that Chief Wahoo, mascot of the Cleveland Indians, will be retired after the 2018 season. The team has been moving away from the Chief by replacing his image with a block-style “C” on road caps (2011) and batting helmets (2013). Cleveland is stepping up to the plate and doing the right and sensitive thing. 
       The Super Bowl will start just hours from now. Football always seemed to me a violent sport. So much smashing and falling and piling on each other. I have a good book, (The Wonderling, by Mira Birtok, Candlewick Press, 2017). It’s about discovering one’s destiny and finding one’s place in the world. I’ll read while my husband watches the game. 
       I *do* have a football connection. I worked at the Wilson football factory in Ada, Ohio while my ex-husband finished his degree at Ohio Northern University. My brother sent me a link to a great story about the factory. (see also the reference above to Football Memories)
       More than 100 million people will be tuned in this year. I’ll probably look up for the commercials, although I haven’t heard any hype about them this year. Thirty-second ads will cost companies $5 million dollars, ten times the price of a 30-second ad during Game 7 of the 2016 World Series. That’s a lot of Pepsi! or Coke! or V8! or beer?
    (2021 addition) Meanwhile, The Washington Football Team will continue to play under its temporary name through the 2021 season and, according to Washington Football Team President Jason Wright, will announce its new name and new logo early in 2022. 
      All eyes will turn to PyeongChang, South Korea on Friday as the Winter Olympics Games begin. The big news for me is that North and South Korea will have a joint Women’s Field Hockey team. I’m not sure how that will impact world peace or nuclear de-escalation.
       But five is symbolic. The five continents are united by athletic competitions. The five interlocking rings are made of colors found in flags of all participating nations. Races, nations, religions, genders, and cultures are connected in their passion for sports.
       So with the emphasis this week on sports of all kinds, I’ll go about my days taking care of important responsibilities: volunteering at a local diaper bank, making an eye-doctor appointment, and staying in touch with friends and family. 
                          --stay curious! (and take some time to play)  

    Nya filled the container all the way to the top Then she tied the gourd back in place and took the padded cloth doughnut from her pocket. The doughnut went on her head first, followed by the heavy container of water, which she would hold in place with one hand.
    With the water balanced on her head, and her foot still sore from the thorn, Nya knew that going home would take longer than coming had. But she might reach home by noon, if all went well.    
                                          From A Long Walk to Water
                                                      by Linda Sue Park    
                                                     Clarion Books, 2010
    The summer before I turned 12, I went to overnight Girl Scout Camp for two weeks. It was my first experience with an outdoor bathroom. I didn’t like it. It stunk. But it was private. It was far enough away from where we slept and played and learned about nature and how to get along with each other. It was an experience all of us girls shared.
    We carried water in our canteens when we hiked. Mine had a long strap that crossed my body so the canteen could ride on my hip. It was easy to reach whenever I wanted a drink. (Now, I suppose, the ones in charge condone using plastic water bottles!) 
    I pay my quarterly water bill to ensure that water comes into and out of my house whenever I wish. For washing—clothes, dishes, myself. For drinking. For cooking. 
    When my husband and I bought our house, all those years ago, there was a working well on the back patio with a working pump. We had the water tested. It’s good water, but tastes a little iron-y. I use it to water the plants around my house. I pump the water into a 2-1/2 gallon galvanized can. It takes many trips to and from the pump, filling and sprinkling, to satisfy my flowers, tomatoes, and herbs. My house-plants are on their out-of-doors stay-cation and drink their share, too. The water is very cold. I also drink my fair share.
    Not too long ago, (11/20/18) I told you about Sivan Ya’ari, founder and CEO of Innovation: Africa. She almost single-handedly brought solar energy to many remote villages in many countries in Africa. She taught the people how to use it to provide electricity  for schools, refrigeration, irrigation, and wells to pump water.
    But over two billion people around the world are still without safe water. Water that it is accessible when it is needed, affordable, and free from contaminants. 
    The United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution in 2010 stating that “the right to safe and clean drinking water and sanitation [is] a human right that is essential for the full enjoyment of life and all human rights.” http://www.un.org/en/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/RES/64/292 It builds on a previous resolution creating the International Day of Water.
    The United Nations General Assembly officially designated March 22 as World Water Day in 1993, and has been celebrated around the world ever since.
    The day is set aside to highlight the importance of freshwater. According to UNICEF, 800 children die daily from unsafe water. Every 88 seconds, water-borne disease kills a child. Worldwide, 2.1 billion people have no safe drinking water. Smart and caring people are working on the problem, but it is a problem. 
    Each person on the planet needs about 2-3 liters (4-8 cups) of clean water to replenish what is lost through respiration, perspiration, and elimination. Every cell depends on water to survive. We can't live more than a week without it. And we've got a finite supply -- only a fraction of the water on our planet is drinkable. 
    Even though 71% of our Earth is covered in water, less than 2% is fresh water, and most of that is frozen, or found underground. 
    We all know how to conserve water. 
    This March 22, at least for that one day, I’ll be conscious of my water use. For at least one day, I will use water wisely.
Here are a couple of good places to find more information and join the efforts of the good people trying to solve a big problem, one drop at a time.
    World Water Day Organization: https://www.worldwaterday.org 
                        http://www.unwater.org/world-water-day-2018-2/ 
    Greening the Blue http://www.greeningtheblue.org 

2021 update: Here are some photos from Innovation Africa’s 10th anniversary. A summit was held recently with leaders representing 39 of Africa’s 54 countries. 
Here in the US, almost half the country is experiencing drought conditions. 
Increased evaporation due to high temperatures combine with lower than average snowfall is depleting California’s reservoirs. 
Currently (September, 2021) Lake Mead, the reservoir formed by Hoover Dam on the Colorado River, is at 35% of its capacity. It’s at its lowest level since the 1930s.
The Colorado River Basin supplies water to San Diego, Las Vegas, Phoenix, and Los Angeles and 4-5 million acres of farmland in the Southwest.
                                              -—stay curious! (and involved)

    …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)