Blog Posts

Looking for Oz

10/1/2019

“It was easy to make the Scarecrow and the Lion and the Woodman happy, because they imagined I could do anything. But it will take more than imagination to carry Dorothy back to Kansas, and I’m sure I don’t know how it can be done.”
from: The [Wonderful] Wizard of Oz
written by L. Frank Baum
illustrated by Lisbeth Zwerger
NorthSouth, 1996
(first illustrated by W.W. Denslow, and published by George M. Hill
Company, 1900)

I heard a comment the other day that started me thinking along a path I had not been on before. The topic was, of course, the Climate Catastrophe, and the comment went something like this: We’d maybe be better off if we could start over.
   My answer: Well, it wouldn’t actually be us. We’d be gone.
   That pretty much ended the conversation. But it gave me a “what if,” and I remembered a poem by Robert Frost.

     Fire and Ice
Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I’ve tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.
Robert Frost, 1923

   Robert Frost’s poem appeared in his his Pulitzer Prize winning anthology, New Hampshire. His inspiration could have been a conversation he had with an astronomer of his day, Harlow Shapley, who said he answered Frost’s question about how he thought the world would end. Others say his inspiration was Dante’s Inferno.
   Although it doesn’t really have to do with fire or ice, our own emotions manifest themselves as one or the other. Frost’s poem is as relevant today as it was in the 1920s.
   It’s hard not to fall into that downward, swirling vortex of negativity.
   It’s just as hard not to run, scrambling for my rose-colored glasses. In my world, the Emerald City is more ruby-colored.
   Oz seems like the ultimate utopia all four major characters are looking for. All are threatened by the Wicked Witch of the West, who actually has a legitimate gripe. Dorothy killed her sister, after all.
   Outwardly, each of the characters traveled to a place far away. The journey was fraught with dangers, physical and emotional. Each was on his or her own inner journey, too, and came to realize the quality missing from their lives was actually there all along. They only had to find it within themselves.
   Just like the lion, the scarecrow, the tin man, and Dorothy, whether I’m looking for confidence, intelligence, love (giving and receiving), or a way into my own inner self, I imagine I’ll find it in Oz.
   As I begin a new year during this Rosh HaShanah season, I realize I need to continually re-balance my own “fire” and “ice.” The things and qualities I want and need are within my reach. The things I want and need to change are also mine to work on.
   Really, I probably don’t need a wizard to tell me to open my own eyes and look around. I have everything I need to be happy and fulfilled.

-—stay curious! (and realistic)

0 Comments

1,000 Points of Light

9/24/2019

0 Comments

Ivy rolled over onto her back and looked at the sky. “If grown-ups weren’t scared of nature, they’d probably try harder to save it from global warming.”
   “You’re probably right,” said Bean. She sat up. “What if we did our science project on teaching grown-ups to be happy in nature? Is that a global warming solution?”
from Ivy + Bean: What’s the Big Idea?
written by Annie Barrows
illustrated by Sophie Blackall
Chronicle Books, 2010

   Although I know people who have read C. S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia, I am not one who has. I have not even read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. I am okay with that. There are lots (and lots) of books I have not read.
   Narnia is part of our collective culture, though, much like Hogwarts. References to both abound and scholarly as well as frivolous commentary is easy to find.
   One thousand points of light (today’s title) is a reference to Aslan’s creation of stars in C. S. Lewis’s fantastic world, Narnia. Presidents have commented on it.
   The first George Bush, in accepting the presidential nomination at the Republican National Convention in 1988, compared America's clubs and volunteer organizations to “a brilliant diversity spread like stars, like a thousand points of light in a broad and peaceful sky.”
   Later, toward the end of the speech, he assured us all that he would “keep America moving forward, always forward—for a better America, for an endless enduring dream and a thousand points of light.”
   One point of light, or one candle, can both define and defy darkness, as Anne Frank said so well. She was right. About that and so many other things, but I digress.
   One point of light is small. The light quickly dissipates into surrounding darkness. But a thousand lights, now that’s something.
   One person working to help protect our Earth can quickly get swallowed up in the darkness of ignorance, apathy, and despair. But a thousand people working together, now that’s really something.
   One thousand points of light are scattered around the world, doing good work. I’ve mentioned a lot of them in this space. Sivan Ya’ari’s work brings solar energy and consequently water and refrigeration to African nations. The fine folks at https://www.eatortoss.com help us not waste food. Boyan Slat created a barrier system designed to collect and remove trash from the Pacific Ocean without disrupting marine life. His first try failed, but he’s trying again.
   Greta Thunberg, 16 year-old Swedish climate activist who speaks truth to power, is in a class by herself. Last year she began to sit outside her Parliament building every Friday to protest for our climate. This past weekend she spoke for four and a half powerful minutes at the United Nations Climate Summit in New York.
   Her message is clear. If we continue not talking about solutions, if we continue not acting on measures to reverse the damage we have already caused, if we continue not uniting as one human race that needs to work together, the earth and all her inhabitants are doomed. It is not an easy message to hear, or deliver.
   But it is important.
   Of course it’s on YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGVShq47C4o
   I hope you watch. It may change your life, or your children’s lives.
   The United Nations has an outline for the Climate Summit 2019, wrapping up as I finish this writing. Their several action-strategies converge to create a lazar-focused plan, that when implemented, may make a difference.
   From https://www.un.org/en/climatechange/un-climate-action.shtml
“We must change course by 2020, …or we risk missing the point where we can avoid the ‘disastrous consequences for people and all the natural systems that sustain us.’”
   Here are the pieces of the UN plan:

Focus on women around the world as agents of change.
Find consensus on the need to strengthen the resilience to climate impacts, focusing on the poorest and most vulnerable.
Provide successful Early Warning Systems (EWS) to saves lives and jobs, land and infrastructures and support long-term sustainability.
Create 24 million new Green jobs globally by 2030, to provide sustainable practices.
Accelerate efforts by policy makers and administrators to address climate change in cities around the world to keep pace with population growth and the rapid climate change.
Assign to Parties of the Convention the responsibility to educate and make the public aware of climate change and ensure public participation in programs.

Thousands and thousands of people participated in the Global Climate Strike last Friday. Patterned after Greta’s Friday protests. YouthClimateStrike.org was instrumental in organizing events all over the world. I (and about 70 other people) participated in an event right in Youngstown, Ohio.
   Kids and adults spoke about important ideas, from exercising your right to vote to encouraging sustainable local farming.
   Thousands of people care. Thousands more are overwhelmed by the dire circumstances we find ourselves in.
   As Greta Thunberg reminds us, “Only through action will the human race be able to hope for survival.”
We all need hope.
   We all need to act.
-—stay curious! (and hopeful)

0 Comments

How Far does an Apple Really Fall?

9/17/2019

2 Comments

I love apple names. In our markets, first come Ida Red and Paula Red, Twenty Ounce and MacIntosh, Ginger Gold and Jonagold.
   Later there’s Macoun, Baldwin, Northern Spy, and King David, and after that come Winesap and Black Twig and Mutsu and Mutsu’s Mother. And there are lots of others.
from Applesauce Season
written by Eden Ross Lipson
illustrated by Mordicai Gerstein
Roaring Brook Press, 2009

My girls didn’t eat from those little (recyclable) glass jars of baby food. At the time, I thought the companies put stuff in there that my girls didn’t need and probably shouldn’t have: sugar, salt, xanthan gum (a thickener), or guar gum (another thickener). I was probably right. It was not a big deal to cook some carrot circles and mash them with a fork. Or thaw out a few peas. Even though I’ve never been known to eat a banana, I mashed them up and gave them to my babies.
   One of the first foods I gave my girls, even before they grew teeth, I called apple-mash. I peeled and cored an apple, cooked it in a little water, and used my potato smasher to smooth out the lumps. The girls loved apple-mash.
   When they got bigger, I’d slice an apple and replace the core in each half with peanut butter. Another winner.
   We all liked apple cider. Still do! But sweet cider, of course, not the hard kind.
   Hard cider is sweet cider that has been allowed to ferment for a few weeks. It’s about half as strong as wine. If the fermented cider is frozen, and then the ice removed, the resulting applejack can measure as much as 66 proof.
   Most apples were used to make cider back in the in the Colonial days. If left to their own devises, apples are unique in all the world. Each apple, like each person, would be its own distinct variety with its own distinct gene pool. If you saved the seeds from an apple that you really liked, then planted them, you’d get a different kind of tree from each seed that grew. Those seeds, if you planted them, would all be different, too. The scientific term is heterozygosity, “having dissimilar pairs of genes for any hereditary characteristic.” dictionary.com
   The only way to assure that a particular type of apple grows is to graft a slip of wood from a desirable tree and notch it into the trunk of another. If the graft “takes,” the fruit produced on the new wood growing from that juncture will share the characteristics of the more desirable parent (def. adapted from The Botany of Desire. Michael Pollan. Random House, 2001).
   Apples were plentiful thanks in large measure to John Chapman, better know to us all as Johnny Appleseed. He was a real person, born in Leominster, Massachusetts, on September 26, 1774. He died sometime between March 18, 1845, and summer of the same year (depending on the source you are consulting) in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
   Johnny Appleseed collected seeds from apple mills in the fall as he made his way from Massachusetts to Indiana, and back again. He’d plant the seeds to raise seedlings and sold them in the spring, usually for 3-5 cents each. The resulting fruit were mostly spitters, only good for making cider.
   But a land grant in the Northwest Territory (Ohio, in those days before statehood) required a settler to set out at least fifty apple or pear trees as a condition of the deed. The earliest immigrants to America brought grafted Old World apple trees with them, but they generally failed to thrive in their new environment.
   Johnny had the uncanny ability to sense where the next wave of Pioneers would settle. He’d arrive 2-3 years ahead, plant his saplings and wait. Invariably, the settlers showed up and bought his little trees. Johnny moved on, bought another tract of land, and everyone was happy.
   According to Michael Pollan, apple trees originated in Kazakhstan. Wild apple trees are still found there. Travelers on the silk route may have chosen a tasty apple or two to take with them, depositing the seeds along their way. Wildlings sprouted, and the rest is the apple’s genetic history.
   Here are a baker’s dozen of interesting apple facts (mostly) from https://web.extension.illinois.edu/apples/facts.cfm

Apples are a member of the rose family.
The crabapple is the only apple native to North America.
There are 7,500 varieties of apples in the world.
2,500 varieties of apples are grown in all 50 states, but only 100 varieties are grown commercially in 36.
The science of apple growing is called pomology.
Apple trees take four to five years to produce their first fruit.
It takes the energy from 50 leaves to produce one apple.
One apple has five grams of fiber.
Americans ate about 17.7 pounds of fresh apples per capita in 2018. (An average apple is about 1/3 of a pound, so we'll each eat about 6 apples per year.)
Apple blossom is the state flower of Michigan.
One of George Washington's hobbies was pruning his apple trees.
Archeologists have found evidence that humans have been enjoying apples since at least 6500 B.C.E.
Honeycrisp, one of my favorites, was developed in Minnesota and introduced to the market in 1990.

Happy Birthday, Johnny Appleseed. And thanks!
-—stay curious! (and eat well)

2 Comments

Quoth the Raven “Nevermore.”

9/10/2019

0 Comments

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, it 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 (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 violent. It 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 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 https://youthfootballonline.com/developing-aggression-youth-football-players/ 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.
   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)

0 Comments

Which is More a Bazillion or a Gazillion?

9/3/2019

0 Comments

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.
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 what I did to prove to her I would only buy something if 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. They buy electricity to keep the buildings open. 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.
   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 bills are not paid in full each month, the bank or other lending institution applies interest that is added to the total, increasing the National Debt without getting any more goods.
   Besides getting 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 in 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). A billion only has 9 zeros. One trillion one dollar bills laid end to end will reach one quarter of the way from the earth to the moon.
   As of May, 2019, the United States government owes China $1.11 trillion (One trillion, eleven billion dollars). That’s 27% of the debt held by foreign countries.
   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.
   I’ll also look for a class in Chinese.
-—stay curious! (and informed)

0 Comments

(Almost) Hitting Home

8/27/2019

0 Comments

. . .The sound was big, and sharp enough to make me feel like my brain was gonna pop in my head, enough to make my heart hiccup. But the craziest thing was, I felt like the shot—loudest sound I ever heard—made my legs move even faster. I don’t know if that’s possible, but that’s definitely what it seemed like.
from: Ghost
written by: Jason Reynolds
Atheneum BFYR/Simon & Schuster, 2016

My girls went to the Jewish Community Center PreSchool. They went to Summer Camp there, too. I volunteered in the PreSchool Library and worked at the Akiva Academy, our private school for grades K-6.
   Lately, I am a member of our Jewish Community Relations Council and serve on the Social Action Committee. I attend meetings at the Jewish Community Center regularly, participate in programming, and even work out at the gym.
   Last Tuesday my daughter read my blog. She called and said, “Bees, Mom. Really? You could have been killed.” The truth is those were not her exact words, but if I heard her correctly, that’s what she meant. I could only answer, “I’m too close to this one. I can’t process it yet. I don’t know whether to be scared stiff, horrified, or incredibly sad. I guess I’m all of that.”
   She understood. Of course she did. I love her deeply for who she is. She has an incredible amount of common sense, and a practical and loving view of the world.
   Here’s what happened, and what is still unfolding.
   It came to the attention of law enforcement personnel that a self-proclaimed white nationalist intended to go to the Jewish Community Center and start shooting. The right people were notified and did what they needed to do to keep everyone safe. The young man is in jail with a hefty bond. The FBI is considering whether to pursue Federal charges. He may have stay in jail until his trial. He may be released to house arrest if he can make 10% of his $250,000 bail. He will not be allowed to view or post on social media. All firearms will be removed from his home. He pleaded not guilty, but that’s a discussion for another time.
   The man is from New Middletown, Ohio. He may have attended my story hour, although neither his name nor his chilling, smiling police mug shot rings a bell.
   A recent survey shows that most Americans support Extreme Risk Protection Orders commonly referred to as red flag laws. https://www.apmresearchlab.org/stories/2019/08/19/survey-guns-america-poll-red-flag-erpo-suicide-homicide-mass-shootings-storage They require a person deemed dangerous to himself or others to relinquish his/her gun(s) for a period of time. Seventy-seven percent of the population surveyed agreed with the proposal. They included Republicans, Democrats, men, women, gun-owners, those who don’t own guns, people from all races, religions, economic and educational spectrums.
   So what’s the problem? Our government is supposed to work for us. To do what we want. We tell our representatives how to act, and they act in our interest. Except when they are on vacation and stay on vacation until they are contracted to return.
   I began to wonder if our country was beginning to move onto a common sense path when I heard our president say he is in favor of red flag laws. After all, citizens are being murdered on the streets and in places of worship and in entertainment venues…
   After an earful from Wayne LaPierre, head of the NRA, the president retracted, saying that guns don’t kill people. . . and we need to help mentally ill people.
   So much for common sense.
   Some mentally ill people are probably suicidal. Red flag laws will help prevent them from killing themselves. Some mentally ill people are not suicidal. They still deserve to be treated for their affliction the same as a person with a physical affliction.
   That’s not the point. To call mass-murder committed with a firearm the act of a crazy person is just, well, crazy. I don’t have a source for this, but I don’t think all homicidal people are crazy. I think homicidal people are filled with hatred. They act out their hatred on people who don’t share their ethnicity, their sexual orientation, ideas of right and wrong, childrens’ rights, womens’ rights. . . Or their hatred is unfocused, based in fear.
   Ignoring the hatred and fear will only lead to more violence.
   Last week, in Youngstown, Ohio, a tragedy was averted. All security personnel, law enforcement, and the FBI did their jobs and I will be forever grateful.
-—stay curious! (and compassionate)

0 Comments

The Bee’s Knees

8/20/2019

0 Comments

One day [bear] heard a buzz, and in a flash, he ran.
It was time for honey!
Warm, golden, sweet, clear, slowly flowing,
spicy, aromatic, sparkling with sunlight--
“Honey!” just as good as he’d remembered.
He lapped it up, and licked his paws for a long time.
from: Honey
written and illustrated by David Ezra Stein
                   Nancy Paulsen Books/ Penguin Random House, 2018

Good news! I’m not allergic to bees!
   Bad news! I found out.
   Good news! I only got stung once!
   Bad news! It hurt like crazy (for a day and a half!)
   Good news! It was a yellow jacket, not a honey bee. Wait, is that good news or bad news?
   Well, I guess it doesn’t matter. A yellow jacket did sting me the other day, though. I discovered that yellow jackets are aggressive scavengers, not pollinators. Also, they’re wasps, not bees. So whether it’s good or bad, I started thinking about bees and wasps and yellow jackets. And hornets.
   According to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, “the overwhelming majority of bees and wasps are tiny stingless creatures.” http://wildlife.ohiodnr.gov/portals/wildlife/pdfs/publications/id%20guides/Pub5488_Bees%20and%20Wasps%20of%20Ohio.pdf
   Well, that was news to me! Except for honeybees, they all blended into something I thought of as sting-y bugs. But I’m not even sure I could tell a honeybee from a wasp.
   I don’t know if the Pilgrims were troubled by wasps or yellow jackets when they landed on Plymouth Rock in 1620. They knew about honeybees, though. Honeybees arrived on our shores in 1622. They have become so important to our agriculture that many fields, orchards, vineyards, and citrus groves would fail if not for them.
   A bee’s pollination work is purposeful.
   Over 20,000 species of bees are known to scientists and 4,000 of them live in North America. Two of the most common varieties are honeybees and bumblebees.
   Honeybees are hyper-social. They communicate by performing a complicated dance to tell each other where to find good sources of pollen. Wild honeybees build their hives in hollow logs. They live in colonies of several thousand and survive the winter by storing their excess honey. Their queen lives three or four years.
   Honeybees can be domesticated. A responsible beekeeper will maintain several hives and “harvest” some honey for market, making sure to leave enough for the bees.
   So it’s kinda like domesticated honeybees pay honey as rent to their beekeepers for the housing and better weather conditions.
   But, bee colonies are declining. The increased use of pesticides is part of the reason. Malnutrition caused by limited flower diversity is another. Bees are shipped all over the country because beekeepers can get more money from providing pollination services than they ever could be selling honey. If the bees become disorientated, it will lead to stress. It’s hard to make up those complicated dances.
   Most queens are descended from a few hundred breeder queens. This small gene pool leaves the bees susceptible to diseases. Rising global temperatures means that some flowers are blooming before the bees are ready to fly.
   Bumblebees cannot be domesticated, but they are better pollinators. The native bumblebees are more efficient at pollinating than the non-native honeybees the Pilgrims brought, partly because they are bigger and can keep more pollen on their hairier bodies. Partly because they learn fast where to get the pollen, and partly because they don’t make any extra honey. They live in nests with a few hundred friends, but are not honey producers. They eat all they make and only the queen survives the winter. She hibernates underground.
   Taking honey from bumblebees would deprive them of their food. And they probably would sting. And then they would die.
   Most wasps are scavengers. They prey on stink bugs, flies, grasshoppers, and caterpillars as they find food for their young. They are attracted to rotting fruits and vegetables and meat, too. They love aphids, those pesky little critters that gorge on roses.
   Many wasp species are particular in their food choice. Those are selected and bred in laboratories. They’re released as natural pest control.
   But wasps are incidental pollinators. They visit flowers for the nectar. They don’t travel from flower to flower purposefully. They pollinate accidentally as they go.
   Bees and wasps each have jobs to do, and they work together.
   The bottom line is while a tiny fraction of bees and wasps sting, their value far, far outweighs the pain they inflict. Try telling that to a kid.
   All of us were either terrified, horrified, or panic-stricken when a bee, wasp, yellow jacket or hornet flew into our games of tag, hopscotch, or jump-rope. My mom had the perfect solution. She told us, friends included, that the bees…were afraid of us. If we ran around, they would probably chase us, but if we stood perfectly still, they would think we were statues and sniff around a little and then get bored and fly away. Same for screaming. Screaming frightened them even more.
   I’m not sure of the science behind Mom’s theory of bee behavior, but it sure helped us stay in control of ourselves. Not a bad lesson at all.
-—stay curious! (and safe)

0 Comments

Small Lives Matter

8/13/2019

1 Comment

So you know what I think?. . .Why, I think that there must
Be someone on top of that small speck of dust!
Some sort of a creature of very small size,
Too small to be seen by an elephant’s eyes. . .
from Horton Hears a Who
written and illustrated by Dr. Seuss
Random House, 1954

   Some of my favorite tiny things include the balled up fist of a newborn, sesame seeds, buttercups, stars (I know, those are really very big, but they look small from here!)
   And even though they’ve been studied at least since Leeuwenhoek,   in 1702, I just found out about tardigrades. They’re everywhere and they’re tiny. Laid end to end, it takes about 25 of the largest ones to measure one inch. Like Leeuwenhoek, you’d need a microscope to see one.
   Although they can live almost anywhere, tardigrades prefer the sediment at the bottom of a lakebed. Mostly they suck the juices from algae, lichens and moss. Some species are carnivores, some are even cannibals, but they’re tiny, so they’re not scary even if you could see them.
   They’re hardy, too. They can live at almost absolute zero and can withstand heat over 300 degrees Fahrenheit. They are found from Antarctica to the Equator. They are found as high as the Himalayas and as deep as the Marianas Trench. They can live in stone walls and can survive the vacuum of space.
   So how do they do it, survive under all those conditions? When their environment is less than ideal (see above), they go into a state called tun, basically a dehydrated ball. They are able to squeeze the water out of their bodies and remain in that dehydrated state for maybe decades. And when they are rehydrated, voila, in a couple of hours they’re back in business.
   Why is this even important? Tardigrades inhabit new, developing environments. They work as a pioneer species to attract other invertebrates and predators to populate that same area.
   And now tardigrades are on the moon.
   No one thinks they are actually living on the moon, eating and reproducing and frolicking, or doing what they do. They are part of the first installment of the Lunar Library, designed by Arch Mission Foundation.
   An Israeli lunar explorer, Beresheet, offered to carry the twenty-five disk set to the moon, but crash landed last April with the tardigrades on board. Thousands of tardigrades are presumably still enclosed in their DVD-shaped disk within several ultra-thin layers of nickel. Sandwiched between the layers of nickel are thin layers of epoxy containing the thousands of tardigrades. Scientists are pretty sure, after doing some computer modeling, that these disks are the only things that survived the crash intact.
   So, yes, there are thousands of tardigrades on the moon, but they won’t be doing anything tardigrad-ish any time soon. They are in their tun state, and will in all likelihood stay that way.
   This first installment of the Lunar Library contains a 30-million-page archive of human history on twenty-five nickel and epoxy disks. According to https://www.universetoday.com/143139/hardy-tardigrades-on-board-israels-beresheet-lander-probably-survived-the-crash/ among the data on these disks is

A linguistic key to 5000 languages, with 1.5 billion translations between them.
More than 60,000 analog images of pages of books, photographs, illustrations, and documents.
A specially designed “Primer” that teaches over a million concepts in pictures and corresponding words across major languages.

   The Arch Mission Foundation is a non-profit started in 2015 in California. Their library is a sort of electronic time-capsule built and sent to many locations with the hope of ensuring the survival of a record of life on Earth.
   According to their website ArchMission.org hopes to preserve our earthly civilization for billions of years in an accessible format to be retrieved by those who come after us. They will use any available technology to accomplish their mission.
   Tardigrades were the life-form chosen for the mission because “…they are microscopic, multicellular, and one of the most durable forms of life on planet Earth," said Nova Spivack, co-founder and chairman of the Arch Mission Foundation. (https://www.archmission.org/spaceil)
   I’m thinking about the whole idea. A private company is working across country borders to build, blast off from Earth, and land on the moon, Mars, and orbit the sun. The Lunar Library is designed to preserve the records of our civilization for up to billions of years. The records aim to be a comprehensive Earthly catalog and will be updated periodically to stay current.
   The hardiest known life-form is included.
   Sounds to me like we won’t be forgotten even if our current Climate Catastrophe claims our planet. That is, if the life-form that comes next can read.

-—stay curious! (and think big)

1 Comment

What is Common Sense, Anyway?

8/6/2019

0 Comments

After he goes through all the horrible statistics he copied into his notebook, he finishes with a triumphant, “Guns are evil, and that’s why we should take the steps needed to make our society safer and outlaw them completely.”
   “And wouldn’t that be wonderful,” the eight grader starts in, “for all law-abiding citizens to be unarmed and defenseless at the mercy of criminals, who, by the way, don’t follow laws and will have all the guns they want.”
from: The Benefits of Being an Octopus
written by: Ann Braden
Sky Pony Press, 2018

   Two common-sense gun laws stalled in the Senate before the Senators left for their August recess. One is the Bipartisan Background Checks Act of 2019, which passed the House this past February in a 240 to 190 vote and placed on the Senate calendar in March. If approved, the legislation would require background checks on all firearm purchases—including those made privately online or at gun shows. But that was five months ago.
   The other, the Enhanced Background Checks Act of 2019. The House passed it in February, too, (228 to 198) but was tabled in the Senate.
   Over 250 mass shootings in the last year including three mass shootings in the last week (Dayton, Ohio; El Paso; and the Garlic Festival Massacre in Gilroy, California) brought our legislators back early. The original schedule had them returning September 9, but a peek at the Senate calendar shows what business they will take up beginning today, August 6. Those two tabled Acts are not listed. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CCAL-116scal-2019-08-06/pdf/CCAL-116scal-2019-08-06.pdf
   We Google statistics on mass shootings, we map out locations where they occur, we track gender, age, nationalities of shooters and victims. All those numbers desensitize us, force us lose sight of the actual people, human beings, that are traumatized or killed.
   Families change in an instant.
   I’ve admitted before that my brother and I, along with the neighbor kids played with toy guns. I like to think we (all) have moved away from that kind of play toward activities that are more co-operative, more sensitive, and more compassionate. I know that’s not true as I move through my day trying to avoid, ignore, divert my attention away from fear while I watch/read/listen to the news. Maybe I’m traumatized, too. Maybe we all are. So what can we do?
   Ignoring the news is not a good answer.
   Staying engaged can become overwhelming.
   Finding a balance between the two is difficult, at best.
   It comes down to common sense, which my mom liked to remind me is not common. The causes of gun violence are many. Too many guns. Too few laws. Too much fear, anger, and frustration. Too much unchecked mental illness.
   The help for mental illness needs to be as accessible as the help for physical illness. Right now it is not. In addition to the stigma placed on mentally ill people from the society at large, our health care system, such as it is, treats mental illnesses differently, when it addresses it at all.
   But fear is not a mental illness. Neither are hatred, anger, or frustration. We need to teach our children (and practice ourselves) self-control, moderation, composure.
   Most Americans don’t want to be at war with each other. But these days, it seems as though we are. We are divided on many issues, including gun ownership.
   Making sure, as best we can, that only responsible people can own guns is common sense. Outlawing automatic and semi-automatic weapons makes sense, too. Prohibiting the modification of guns to make them work faster and deadlier also feels right.
   In the aftermath of the violent acts or acts of domestic terrorism this week, most politicians are refraining from only offering prayers and thoughts of understanding.
   At last.
   At least some are admitting we have a problem. That’s a good first step.
   But the rhetoric about condemning racism, bigotry, and white supremacy needs to be more than rhetoric. The talk about common sense gun laws must lead to action. Laws need to be made and enforced.
   And the comments of our president? It’s hard for me to trust someone who said yesterday (Monday), “our nation must condemn racism, bigotry, and white supremacy,” when just three months ago at a rally in Panama City Beach, Florida, the he joked when an audience member shouted “shoot them” in response to his (rhetorical?) question: “But how do you stop with those people?”
   He heard the person's comment, chuckled and said, “only in the Panhandle you can get away with that statement.”
   What does that even mean except racism, bigotry, and white supremacy are alive and well and living in the White House?
--stay curious! (and tolerant)

0 Comments

The State of Puerto Rico…not, really!

7/30/2019

1 Comment

…Mom says she wants to unplug on vacation, so I can hang on to [her phone]. I look around and spot the one sign that doens’t have an English translation: !BIENVENIDOS!
   I don’t speak Spanish, but I know that means “welcome.”
from: Marcus Vega Doesn’t Speak Spanish
by Pablo Cartaya
Viking/Penguin Random House, 2018

The summer before eighth grade, I played clarinet in a community orchestra in our local summer stock venue, Cain Park. Medium-named stars played lead roles in hit shows. That year we put on Gypsy, Bye-Bye Birdie, and West Side Story. I don’t remember who held the leads in the other two, but Tony Dow, Beaver Cleaver’s big brother in Leave it to Beaver, played Tony in West Side Story.
   I had the clarinet solo for Maria’s song, “I Feel Pretty.”
   The play is about a girl and a boy who meet at a dance and fall in love, but Maria is from the “wrong side of the tracks.” Big fights break out and Tony is killed. Prejudice, honor, and the importance of family loyalty are some issues dramatized. Poverty, juvenile delinquency, and the devastating influence of gangs are some others.
   The Jets were American. The Sharks were Puerto Rican. About all I knew about Puerto Rico in those growing-up days came from that play. That might have been pretty much all anyone knew, unless, of course, you were Puerto Rican.
   The play’s setting is the 1950s, a time of American pride. We had, after all, recently won World War II and lots of former servicemen and women were, rightly, receiving lots of honor.
   Puerto Rico is a small island east-southeast of Haiti/Dominican Republic with a population of a little over 3.5 million.
   In 1898, at the end of the Spanish-American war, Spain ceded Puerto Rico to the United States under the Treaty of Paris. Nineteen years later, In 1917, the Jones-Shafroth Act made all Puerto Ricans American citizens.
   A free election by the people has been held to select their governor since 1948, when the United States government stopped appointing one.
   Puerto Rico is an unincorporated territory of the United States. That means the island is controlled by the Federal government and Congress. Puerto Ricans are American citizens by birth, but they can’t vote in presidential elections and lack voting representation in Congress. A little local control, some Constitutional rights, non-voting but legal status for citizens. An ambiguous position, to be sure.
   Puerto Ricans don’t pay Federal Income Tax, but they do pay payroll taxes, social security taxes, business taxes, gift taxes, estate taxes, you get it, to the Federal Government.
   So what do they get for their tax money? Well, not FEMA money when Hurricane Maria hit in 2017. The island is still reeling from the devastation she wrought.
   The government has been in turmoil since July 13, 2019. Two high ranking members of Gov. Ricardo Rosselló’s administration were indicted on federal charges last week. They are accused of diverting over fifteen million dollars worth of work contracts to unqualified, politically connected businesses.
   Gov. Ricardo Rosselló recently announced his resignation amid a barrage of published emails and chats. The ensuing outrage, protests, demonstrations. . . along with the outrage, protests, and demonstrations about the corruption ruined Rosselló’s government.
   His resignation will take effect this Friday (August 2, 2019).
   Next in line is Justice Secretary Wanda Vazquez. It would have been Secretary of State Luis Rivera Marin, but he resigned as part of the email and chat scandal. But Vazquez, who inspires little public confidence and was investigated last year for ethical violations, said she does not want the top job.
   Gov. Rosselló is looking for his own replacement. Anyone he appoints will likely stay in office until elections for a new governor in 2020.
   According to a Gallup Poll survey, in 2017, ninety-seven percent of Puerto Ricans favor statehood. https://news.gallup.com/poll/260744/americans-continue-support-puerto-rico-statehood.aspx
   Now and then, a pro-statehood faction rises up, and about as often one that promotes self-determination. Some Puerto Ricans claim satisfaction with the status quo. The three main political parties each promotes one or the other of these positions.
   Most U. S. Presidents have supported statehood, if the majority of Puerto Ricans are also in favor. But not the current one.
   Why does all this matter?
   If Puerto Rico became a state, the people would be eligible for Federal programs like Food Stamps for disaster victims. Statehood would help modernize the economy, and help the mainland, too. Instead of needing to form their own various trade agreements, alliances, and treaties to stimulate their economy, the island could immediately use the ones already in place for the Fifty States.
   Puerto Ricans would gain full representation in Congress if they could choose two Senators with the same voting rights allowed to the rest of the States. The citizens would be allowed to vote in all elections, including the ones affecting them and their island.
   But Statehood would change the overall structure of Congress. One hundred and two senators will look different from the 100 now seated. The House of Representatives would need to be reconfigured, realigned to accommodate the five seats allotted to Puerto Rico, based on their population and under the current format, without going over the maximum 435 members.
   If Puerto Rico joined the Union, they would receive seven electoral votes, which would change the make-up of the Electoral College.
   Puerto Ricans would not be allowed to compete under their own flag in either the Olympics or the Miss Universe pageant. They do now.
   Statehood would change the way crime and poverty statistics are reported. Puerto would hold last place in both categories. Is this good or bad?
   The island is in dire financial straights, much still caused by Maria. Statehood would mean the United States would absorb that significant debt.
   But first, Puerto Ricans must take care of themselves. A stable government elected by the people, continued disaster relief that is not diverted by selfish and greedy politicians, and a better understanding of the people and their challenges will make everyone want to sing “I Feel Pretty.”
-—stay curious! (and informed)

1 Comment

<<Previous

Forward>>

"Live life as the work of art you are."
Abraham Joshua Heschl (1907-1972)
Rabbi, Humanitarian, Peace Activist

Looking for Oz

1,000 Points of Light

How Far does an Apple Really Fall?

Quoth the Raven “Nevermore.”

Which is More a Bazillion or a Gazillion?

(Almost) Hitting Home

The Bee’s Knees

Small Lives Matter

What is Common Sense, Anyway?

The State of Puerto Rico…not, really!

I'm a children's writer and poet intent on observing the world and nurturing those I find in my small space .

Archives

"Live life as the work of art you are."Abraham Joshua Heschl (1907-1972)Rabbi, Humanitarian, Peace Activist​

I'm a children's writer and poet intent on observing the world and nurturing those I find in my small space .

Archives

"Live life as the work of art you are."
Abraham Joshua Heschl (1907-1972)
Rabbi, Humanitarian, Peace Activist