…you can’t really see atoms, either: But you can think of them as extremely tiny building blocks that make much bigger stuff, like stars and planets.
    Yes, exactly like Uranus, or Jupiter, or Mars.
                                       from How to Bake a Universe
                                                written by Alec Carvlin
                                              illustrated by Brian Biggs
                                         Norton Young Readers, 2022

    Last Friday, April 8, 2022, Axiom launched Dragon from SpaceX’s site on Cape Canaveral. A little less than 27 hours later, it successfully docked with the International Space Station. Their plan is to stay at the ISS for eight days then return to Earth in a splashdown off the coast of Florida. It’s a first for an all-civilian crew. 
    The four international astronauts will conduct over 25 experiments in preparation for building and running a private space station. The research will include collecting information from “human health considerations to novel infrastructure and design for our future homes away from Earth…” from Axiom's website While Axiom is its own company, it is working in partnership with SpaceX.
    Using TESSERAE technology, one experiment will focus on different methods of self-assembly to produce necessary components of the Space Station. They will also investigate the effect of a microgravity environment on cancer cells. A Japanese company will demonstrate the ability of light to enhance air quality to “convert volatile compounds in the air into carbon dioxide and water…” from Axiom's website 
    A variety of health data will be collected from each of the astronauts and centralized in a research database. They are expected to find how long-distance and long-duration space travel will affect human health and how to prepare for the demands made by long-lasting and faraway trips including to the Moon and eventually, to Mars.
    Axiom’s long-term goal is to build privately owned Space Stations within Earth’s orbit. According to their website, they want to sustain human growth away from Earth and to provide untold benefits for all humans everywhere. 
    That sounds like science fiction to me. Thinking about robots, holographic transport, and AI feels like I’m stepping off the universe, ungrounded, incredibly exciting and unbelievably scary at the same time. 
    I struggle with finding balance in my life. I love being able to see my grandkids and kids whenever I want, sorta. FaceTime, Zoom, sending silly and beautiful and inspiring photos makes my life wonderful. At the same time, I’m very OK with my dumb TV (without cable), a grocery list I keep on paper with a pencil that I actually sharpen, and lights that I turn on and off manually. I like the TV clicker, even though I don’t have a clue about why it works.
    And I love my solar panels! (See this space on June 9, 2020 for my over?simplification of how they work.)
    An English professor of mine once explained Chaucer in his time; he had one foot in his century and his other foot on a banana peel. Chaucer was born in 1342 or maybe 1343, just before the Black Death killed 1/3 of the population (1348-1359). He died in 1400, at the precipice of Richard II’s turbulent reign. So, Chaucer, like all of us moderns, lived during a time of great societal change. The Peasant’s Revolt, corrupt religious institutions, and pervasive ill-health all influenced him and his writing. He coped as we all do by looking for meaning in his everyday. He wrote about it.
    But change is inevitable. And necessary. It’s the current pace of change that makes living with it difficult for many of us.
    I remember when a long distance phone call was complicated and expensive. Now astronauts communicate in outer space, with each other and with us. I remember when a phone had a dial and a dial tone, and a chord, but no camera, internet connection, or Solitaire. Everyone watched "The Ed Sullivan Show" and "All in the Family" at the same time each week. Weekly magazines kept up with the news. Real journalists told the truth as best as they could understand it. 
    We are being catapulted into a future almost faster than time itself. My coping strategies: Breathe deep, spend time in nature, and enjoy the ride!
                         -—stay curious! (and embrace the future) 

    “I never found one before,” I said, surprised. “How’d they get here, in our field?”
    “How do you think, Reb?” Amos went back to chopping at the dirt. “This was Indian land long before it was ours. How do you reckon arrowheads got here?”
    Finding that arrowhead had a powerful effect on me because I had never before thought about Indians living on the same ground where we lived now. …looking at that little gray-colored arrowhead gave me a peculiar feeling.
                                               from Crooked River
                                                  by Shelley Pearsall
                 Random House Children’s Books/Yearling, 2008
    
    I’m sometimes accused of being opposed to progress. If progress means ripping trees out by their roots to plant a one-stop grocery/big box retail store, or finding more uses for plastic, or passing legislation permitting more and more deadly weapons in our towns and cities, I am opposed to progress. 
    But, what if Ohio becomes home to a UNESCO World Heritage Site? I’d call that progress.
    Last month (March, 2022) the National Park Service announced that the Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks is being considered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization's World Heritage Committee as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Earthworks has been on The Tentative List since 2008, and has just received its place in the Nomination File. The site will be reviewed by the Advisory Bodies in 2023, and, if approved, the Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks will take their place alongside the Pyramids of Giza, the Great Wall of China, Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, Stonehenge, and the Everglades, the Galapagos Islands and the Taj Mahal.  
    Over 1,000 World Heritage Sites are divided into three categories. Some are cultural, some are natural, and some are a combination of both cultural and natural. UNESCO's website says “[t]o be included on the World Heritage List, sites must be of outstanding universal value and meet at least one out of ten selection criteria … The criteria are regularly revised by the Committee to reflect the evolution of the World Heritage concept itself.” You can find the current list of criteria here. Click here for their list of sites.
    In 1972, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) drafted an agreement to document a plan to conserve natural and cultural properties around the world.   
    The sites are all more than special. They are important markers of human civilization, places of extraordinary natural formations, and homes to unique and in many cases endangered plants and animals. 
    The Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks is really a complex of several locations in central and southwestern Ohio. The nine different locations are now archeological sites. They were originally constructed by the Hopewell people during the Woodland Period (1-1000 CE, in the Common Era). It is believed that the massive, geometrical structures were used for ceremonial purposes. They were probably also a way to calculate astronomical patterns and mark time. 
    Along the Scioto River near Chillicothe in southwestern Ohio, you’ll find geometric structures made of earth. Over 2,000 years ago, indigenous peoples met here, traded here, used the place for sacred ceremonies. You can see examples of tools the Hopewell made and used, learn which crops they grew, and what kinds of animals they hunted. A wide variety of many types of finely crafted objects have been discovered during excavations of the various mounds. 
    Southwestern Ohio is also home to Fort Ancient. Here the people used deer and elk shoulder bones, clamshell hoes, and digging sticks to move approximately 550,000 cubic yards of soil to build 18,000 linear feet of earthen walls. It took 19 generations to complete the work. Inside the linear walls, four circular mounds accurately predict the 18.6-year lunar cycle. 
    Several huge octagon- and circle-shaped earthworks in central Ohio are 1,200 feet in diameter. Their five- to 14-feet high walls surround a moat that is between 8 and 13 feet deep. The Newark Earthworks includes the Octagon Earthworks, a structure of eight 550-foot-long walls which are five to six feet high and enclose 50 acres of land. The Octagon was also used to record the complicated rising and setting cycles of the moon and track the 18.6-year lunar calendar.
    The Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks are the largest earthworks in the world not used as fortifications or defensive structures. As stated in the Newark Earthworks Center blog, “Their extraordinary size, beauty, and precision make them outstanding examples of architectural form, landscape design, and human creative genius.”     
    The Great Serpent Mound is expected be part of the next group of sites to try for the UNESCO designation. It was built several hundred years after the Hopewell Mounds. Only about three feet high, its 1/4 mile length makes it the largest surviving example of an effigy mound. Although not used for burials, the Serpent may have served as a shrine. A 120 x 60 foot oval at the western edge of the mound has been interpreted as the snake’s head, its eye, or maybe an egg it is holding in its mouth and points directly to the Summer Solstice.
    If the Earthworks is selected as a World Heritage Site as expected, archeologists, anthropologists, geologists and tourists will come. And stay. And spend money on hotels, food, and entertainment. It is expected that tourism in the area will at least double in just three years. We current residents of Ohio have the opportunity to showcase the extraordinary cultural contribution made by Native Ohioans. 
    We can conserve the monuments they built and honor the land we took from them if we are careful not to overbuild those hotels, restaurants, and entertainment venues. 
                           -—stay curious! (and honor your heritage)

At last 
Dad says it’s 
time for us 
to pick 
cherries.

We’re 
going
to make
a pie!
                                                 from Pie in the Sky!
                               written and illustrated by Lois Ehlert
                                                       Harcourt, 2004
    I always wondered if the Japanese gifted the United States with cherry trees to replace the tree young George Washington famously chopped down. The short answer is “no.” The longer answer is “it’s complicated.”
    Turns out the story is, well, just that, a story made up by a traveling minister and bookseller, Mason Locke Weems. After Washington’s death in 1799, the public was hungry for information about his life. Weems wrote the cherry tree story, but did not include it until the fifth edition of his extremely popular biography. A minister, after all, Weems included the story to illustrate honesty, one of Washington’s “Great Virtues.” 
    The marketing aspect was not lost on him either. He knew if he wrote a popular book, it would have a high sales volume. “Weems knew what the public wanted to read, and as a result of his success he is considered one of the fathers of popular history.” www.mountvernon.org 
    Many years later, William Holmes McGuffey re-wrote the tale as a children’s story and included it in his series of Eclectic Readers. 
    The story has endured for more than 200 years and is a tribute to good story-telling and the high value we Americans place on telling the truth. (The irony is not lost on me. I take exception with the values of our former president and his ardent followers.)
    The real story of Washington’s cherry trees winds through our history. It begins with Eliza Scidmore, the c is silent. Among her many accomplishments, Eliza successfully convinced the United States Government to plant cherry trees in the barren land surrounding the Capitol.
    In 1885, Eliza traveled to Japan to visit her brother. She was smitten with the people and the beauty of the land. She wanted more than anything to plant the beautiful cherry trees she saw there around the Tidal Basin surrounding the Capitol in Washington DC. Her idea was rejected when she presented it in 1885, and time after time for 24 years.
    David Fairchild, a prominent horticulturist and botanist, was an official in the US Department of Agriculture. In 1906, he imported 100 cherry trees to test their viability in the Maryland environment, especially around his home in Chevy Chase. A year later the experiment was a confirmed success. Two years later, to celebrate Arbor Day, Fairchild gave saplings to children in the Washington DC school district to plant in their school yards. He closed his Arbor Day speech with the announcement of his wish to transform the Tidal Basin into a “Field of Cherries.”
    Eliza Scidmore had found her advocate. She immediately began a fund-raising campaign to purchase trees and donate them to the city. She appealed to First Lady Helen Taft. Mrs. Taft, who was very familiar with the beautiful cherry trees, responded by assuring Eliza that she was promised the trees and would like to “make an avenue of them.” 
    The day after she wrote Eliza of her plan, Dr. Jokichi Takamine, a Japanese chemist, asked if Mrs. Taft would accept a donation of 2,000 more trees to fill in the area. Since he was in New York visiting the Japanese consul at the time, the deal was quickly made. The mayor of Tokyo agreed, too, and the trees were on their way.
    In December 1910, two thousand trees arrived in Seattle and one month later they arrived in Washington DC.
    A few days after their arrival, an inspection team from the Department of Agriculture discovered the trees were diseased and infested with insects. To protect American growers, the trees had to be destroyed. About a dozen affected trees were set aside for study. The rest were burned. All parties, East and West, were disappointed but determined and Tokyo’s mayor approved another shipment. This time they sent 3,020 trees in 12 different varieties.
    On March 27, 1912, two trees were planted, one each, by Mrs. Taft and the wife of the Japanese Ambassador. Those two trees still stand where they were planted and are marked by a large bronze plaque. Between 1913 and 1920, workers planted cherry trees of the other 11 varieties. 
    Throughout the years, cherry trees continue to be planted. Grafts are taken and grown to ensure the lineage of the original trees. 
    In 1982, when a river flooded in Japan and destroyed an embankment of Yoshino cherry trees, Japanese horticulturists collected about 800 cuttings from the Tidal Basin trees to help restore their flooded grove. 
    In Japan, the cherry tree has become a symbol of restoration and renewal. Even though the beautiful blooms last only a short time, the beautiful memory has staying power. Since 1927, (except for the years of WWII) the annual Cherry Blossom Festival is a continual a celebration of friendship between the two countries. 
    Even though the trees in Washington DC do not bear edible fruit, they have borne a lasting friendship between allies which remains strong. 
                   -—stay curious! (and treasure your friendships)

    By spreading her flower seeds far and wide, the Ogress grew a field of flowers that increased every year. The bees increased along with them. The more the Ogress gave, the more she had. This magic was everywhere.
                                 from The Ogress and the Orphans
                                                       by Kelly Barnhill
                  Algonquin Young Readers/Algonquin Books, 2022

    Mom and Dad were not rich, that is in the money sense. We always had what we needed, even though maybe not always what we wanted. I haven’t checked with my brother or sister, but I suspect they would agree that we never felt deprived of material needs.
    We were taught that it is better to give than receive, and that’s a hard lesson for a little kid. We learned that when you point a finger at someone else, three fingers point back at you. 
    Mom liked to tell us that if we asked for something, we wouldn’t get it, especially when we went to the grocery store. That kinda kept us from asking for cookies, candy, and every other kind of goody. I always wondered how she’d know what we wanted if we didn’t tell her, then remind her a few more times. But usually, she did.
    When we were growing up, Daddy went to work, and Mom paid the bills. It’s just what they did. I don’t remember anyone talking about “enough” or “not this week” (or month). Those conversations didn’t involve us kids.   
    When I grew up, no one was talking about abundance vs. scarcity, the theory of reciprocity, or even gratitude. 
    In 1968, a book review of The Discovery of Abundance: Simon N. Patten and the Transformation of Social Theory, reviewer Joseph Dorfman pointed to an advisor of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, R. G. Tugwell. As the New Deal got under way, Tugwell said, “the people and the government must realize that the nation had long passed from a ‘deficit’ economy to a ‘surplus’ economy.” The terms surplus and deficit, used this way point even further back, to Simon N. Patten (1852 - 1922), a well-respected professor of economics at the University of Pennsylvania. 
    But it wasn’t until The Discovery of Abundance was published in 1967, that Patten’s theory of abundance bumped a little closer into main stream sociology and popular economics. Then in 2013, Robin Wall Kimmerer published Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants. She combines the theory of abundance with the theory of reciprocity to explain how all the parts of the world are connected to each other. Her surprise of a blockbuster book showed everyone who read it the importance of giving back, especially to Nature. 
    In today’s quote, the Ogress has a reciprocal relationship with the bees. She uses their honey and wax, and gives back seeds which grow into the flowers the bees need for nectar. 
    I think the whole world is like that.
    I enjoy birdsong and return the favor by keeping their feeder full.
    Even though (or maybe especially because) I don’t save their seeds to replant, I always thank my tomato plants (and parsley, basil, and chives) before I harvest. I nurture the plants. I amend their soil with compost, which is its own form of reciprocity. I pull out their competition (weeds), and make sure they have enough to drink. They give me, well, they give me themselves.
    Being in reciprocity with Nature comes from an internal belief in abundance. Maybe Robin Kimmerer said it best. Here are a few quotes from Braiding Sweetgrass.  

• “In some Native languages the term for plants translates to those who take care of us.” 
• “Action on behalf of life transforms. . .As we work to heal the earth, the earth heals us.” 
• “Ask permission before taking. Abide by the answer. Take only what you need. Take only that which is given.”
• “This is really why I made my daughters learn to garden—so they would always have a mother to love them, long after I am gone.”
• “I choose joy over despair. Not because I have my head in the sand, but because joy is what the earth gives me daily and I must return the gift.” 

    Bravery comes from an Italian word that translates to bold. The word courage is related to coeur, the French word for heart. 
    It takes courage, for sure, to foster the attitude of abundance and to practice reciprocity. As I have said before in this space, (12/7/21) “Courage is the ability to feel fear, but act bravely anyway.” Many of us hold onto an idea of scarcity. We might run out of oil, clean water, or clean air. We might not have enough money. 
    It takes courage to trust. To trust in the Truth of reciprocity. We can create abundance by giving back to Earth, giving kind words, and doing kind acts for each other, and forgiving ourselves for our own limits.
                           -—stay curious! (and promote positivity)

When I collected this stuff, I didn’t know if I’d submit it all, but sometimes you need to hear a lot of points of view to get the whole story. Journalists have to pay attention to things like that.
                                                        from Breakout
                                                       by Kate Messner
                                                       Bloomsbury, 2018
    I came home and enrolled in my local Community College after my first quarter of Sophomore year at a small university. I volunteered to write for their fledgling newspaper. It’s called Tri-C Times, now, but back then it was less than glossy and not as comprehensive. Even though I was an English major, I had never taken a journalism course and decided it would be a good idea. One of our first assignments was to interview someone we found interesting. It could be a family member, friend, or someone we did not know. The written article did not need to be lengthy, but it was supposed to be thorough.
    I made mine up. It was pure fiction, not even based on someone real and my teacher did not appreciate my creativity. 
    I did not do well in that class, but was assigned weekly editorials for the young paper, opinion pieces, as everyone knows, but based on verifiable and reliable sources. Even that long ago, I wrote about garbage and the importance of recycling (which was a pretty new idea). 
    Although I enjoy many different styles of writing including non-fiction, I’ve never been drawn to journalism. It has to do with the way the information is gathered, not in reporting it. I sensed interviews and steered clear.
    Journalism, like any good piece of non-fiction, reports facts. It is “the collection and editing of news for presentation through the media. It is reporting characterized by a direct presentation of facts or description of events without an attempt at interpretation.” merriam-webster.com 
    Journalism depends on a free press, “a body of book publishers, news media, etc., not controlled or restricted by government censorship in political or ideological matters.” dictionary.com  Since newspapers and news magazines, TV and radio stations are not owned by the government, their journalists are not restricted in their reporting. 
    An informed listener or reader can usually identify the direction a particular outlet leans. Although the best reporters strive for balanced articles by sharing true statements with their audience, many others skew across the spectrum from raging right to unlimited left. Here's a chart prepared by Ad Fontes Media, a news literacy company. Charts like these are becoming more and more popular. It’s helpful to see “your” source’s reliability score and see where it lands on the left to right bias spectrum.
    I like to believe that we all want to know that the news we hear and read is true. But undisclosed bias is real and unless a journalist’s sources are listed or referred to or identified, it’s difficult to tell if what we’re reading is true. That’s where Media Bias Charts are helpful. 
    You can find a list of fake news websites on Wikipedia  (not my favorite source, but it’s much better that it was at its beginning). 
    And there’s confirmation bias. We tend to process those articles that match what we already think is true. We are more likely to remember (and repeat) information that is consistent with our beliefs and forget or ignore information that is not.
    Confirmation bias is dangerous when people discredit the science showing the efficacy of vaccines, or try to disprove that we are in a climate catastrophe, or claim our elections are unfair and full of fraud. 
    It is a difficult task to purposely seek an argument that disproves our own biases. It feels like holding two opposite ideas in your mind at the same time. A good place to start is to ask why you believe a certain “fact” is true. An honest answer is hard to find, but probably very reliable.
    That’s why fake news is so long-lasting.
    The purposeful use of lies, half-truths, and rumors to influence public opinion, or promote a particular political cause is propaganda. 
    Propaganda is a form of disinformation. Lies are spread to gain political power. Hate speech drives fear. Rumors foment anger. Propaganda causes harm on purpose. The person spreading propaganda knows it is false and wants to deceive their audience usually to gain power or status, or both.
    Misinformation is told by someone who’s spreading a mistake. The intent of the person telling the story is to inform their audience. The information is incorrect, even though the person telling it really believes it is true. Examples abound. Earth is flat. The climate is not changing. President Biden lost the 2020 election. Misinformation can and often does cause harm, but that is not its purpose.
    Confirmation bias is one way misinformation and disinformation make stories so sticky, so long-lasting, even in the face of reliable evidence like science and eye-witnesses.
    In today’s Russia, calling Putin’s “special military operation” in Ukraine a war or an invasion can land the teller a fifteen year jail sentence. 
    A free press is the backbone to a working democracy.
                         -—stay curious! (and check your sources)

I do not know how many miles Storm and I ran together. Eight, ten, perhaps twelve thousand miles. He was one of the first dogs and taught me the most and as we worked together he came to know me better than perhaps even my own family. He could look once at my shoulders and tell how I was feeling, tell how far we were to run, how fast we had to run—knew it all.
                                                    from: Woodsong
                                           written by Gary Paulsen
                              illustrations by: Ruth Wright Paulsen
            Bradbury Press/Macmillan Publishing Company, 1990
    
    This past Saturday, March 6, 2022, forty-nine mushers and their teams of about 16 dogs each took to the 1,049 mile Iditarod Trail from Anchorage to Nome, Alaska. Those who complete the race from first place through 20th, will get a percentage of the final purse, this year at least $500,000.00. The first place percentage, of course, is higher and decreases until the 20th place. Those who finish successfully after 20th place will receive $1,049.00, the customary prize. 
    You might wonder about the significance of the prize money and the distance of the race itself. The actual mileage from Anchorage to Nome is about 1,000 miles. The extra 49 miles were added to honor the entrance of Alaska as our 49th state. The extra miles include a southern route, run in odd years, and a northern route in the even. Here's a link to the Trail map.
    The journal entry in today’s quote is from author Gary Paulsen’s book Woodsong. He kept that journal for his 1983 race which he finished in 17 days; 41st place out of 54 teams.                 
    To run a team in the Iditarod, you must submit proof that you’ve completed at least two races of 300 miles each and one race of 150 miles. Paperwork regarding good health and humane treatment of the dogs, a list of sponsors, and the entry fee is also required.
    To keep the finances in perspective, this year the early entry fee of $4,000.00 increased to $8,000.00 for those who registered after November 30, 2021. Add equipment for the dogs and the musher: travel costs, pre-race vet checks, sled maintenance costs, harnesses, booties for the dogs, dog food, musher food, fur hood ruff, headlamps, goggles, dog coats and leg protectors and you can expect a reasonable estimate of $8,000.00 more.
    Inspired by a life or death mission to deliver anti-diphtheria medicine to Nome, Alaska, in 1925, the race always begins on the first Saturday of March. The first Iditarod began on March 3, 1973. 
    That year, John Schultz earned a red lantern (kind of a booby prize) for his slowest time: 32 days, 15 hours, nine minutes and one second, a record that still holds. 
    The quickest time was Dick Mackey’s 14 days, 18 hours, 52 minutes and 24 seconds. That record has held since 1978. 
    Even though it's popular to think the race is over when the first musher crosses the finish line with their team, the Iditarod is not over until the last musher has reached Nome and is off the trail. A lamp called a Widow’s lamp is lit in Nome at the start of the race and hung at the finish line. When the last team crosses the finish line and leaves the trail, the lamp is extinguished and the race is officially over. 
    As a safety measure, the dogs are microchipped. They also wear tags with their musher’s bib number and a letter. According to iditarod.com, “The dog collar and microchip is rechecked each time the dog is moved along his/her trip [back] to Anchorage. Once in Anchorage, the information is checked by the crew that will transport the dogs to the Eagle River Correctional Institute where a group of inmates care for them until the mushers’ handlers arrive to take them home. The prisons also have a copy of the paperwork and a microchip reader. Each dog is rechecked when picked up to insure the correct dog is released to the handler.”
    My own relationship with animals goes back pretty far, even though we were not allowed to have pets with fur. Mom and Dad told us it had to do with walking, cleaning up, and the generally huge responsibility of caring for something totally dependent on us (read them).
    As I grew up, I suspected it had something to do with the heartbreak my mom experienced when my grandma sent Mom’s dog off to war. Mom was 18 years old at the start of the Second World War, and Blackie had been a true and loyal friend since he was a pup. When the call for volunteer dogs was sent up from the U.S. Army, Grandma answered with Blackie. 
    He didn’t come home.
    So we had a series of short-lived, unnamed goldfish and longer-lived turtles, all named Oscar, the later ones with Roman numerals after their names, Oscar II, III, IV and so on. I’m not sure how many Oscars are in the ground behind the house where we grew up and I don’t know why we named them all Oscar. 
    But no dogs.
    I’m a cat person. I’ve shared my life with fifteen cats, so far. Two are still in my care. Except for getting their own food and cleaning their potty, they are independent. Neither one likes to play very much. They’re content with a little lap time and some ear scratching.
    They don’t like snow. They don’t like long treks in inclement weather. They don’t like wearing booties. Tristan didn’t mind getting dressed up, though. He wore a little polka-dotted tie for special occasions. 
    Needless to say, I won’t be running races with or without a dog, and especially not with a cat. But the weather in northern Ohio is slowly getting warm enough for a leisurely walk to the library. 
                                             stay curious! (and  warm)

    I … give Emmy one more glance, just in time to see her stick her tongue out at me. I try to suppress a giggle, but it comes out all snorty, and Emmy starts snickering. Halla joins in, and we’re a mess. Even Mr. Jordanson can’t stop us at that moment.
                         from: Greetings from Witness Protection!
                                                           by Jake Burt
               Feiwel and Friends/Macmillan Publishing Group, 2017

    I used to think being a Children’s Librarian was the funnest (an acceptable use of “fun” as an adjective macmillandictionary.com) job anyone could have. But, what if you could be a laughter scientist? People like Sophie Scott, a neuroscientist at University College London and Robert Provine, a laughter researcher, do just that.
    According to Sophie, we use laughter to express emotion. It’s much more effective than a verbal explanation. Think about that for a minute and you’ll know what I mean. As a matter of fact, people the world over interpret laughter as being spontaneous or communicative. Different parts of our brains light up when we hear someone, probably a friend, in the midst of an uncontrolled belly laugh, than when we hear someone’s controlled, polite laugh. In the second instance, the parts of our brains that light up involve communication. We’re looking for meaning in the laughter. In the first instance, it is the area that creates and maintains relationships that lights up. 
    All people all over the world are really good at making that distinction. Laughter, it turns out, is just as universal as music.
    Each person’s laugh is as distinct as their sneeze. (I’m still working on using the singular they-1/18/22) What do you think of when you hear the words guffaw, chortle, giggle, snicker, titter? Who makes those sounds when they laugh like that? We need so many words for laughter to distinguish laughter’s many uses. 
    And just like yawns, laughter, for better or worse, is contagious. I took my almost grown daughters to see The Secret Garden when the movie was released in 1993. It was my mom’s favorite book and I read it to the girls when they were young. The story is heartwarming and the movie has some very touching moments. At the very end, when Colin shows his father how well he is, mostly due to his friendship with Mary Lennox, people all around us started sniffling. When I began to search for a kleenex for my younger daughter, my older daughter caught my eye. She chortled and tried to swallow it. That was enough to set me off and my younger daughter, too. We tried to control our fit, but the sniffling sounds were too much. We laughed as quietly as we could. Not at the movie. Not at the emotional people. 
    We laughed to express the bond we felt with each other. Inappropriate laughter? Oh, yeah. Could we help it? Oh, no. Sophie Scott says we are more likely to “catch” laughter from someone we know well than someone we hardly know at all. We did, and our bonds deepened.
    Hearty and deep laughter is healthy. We expel lots of stale air when we exhale huge guffaws and belly-laughs. We push out the stale air and make room for fresh air to reach deep into our lungs. Most of us ordinarily use about 25 percent of our lung capacity. But not when we laugh!
    Oxygen moves through our respiratory system to retard the aging of human cells. It helps relieve headaches, fatigue, and stress. Oxygen boosts the immune system and purifies the blood by removing the toxic wastes in the blood stream.
    Laughter is a Yoga practice. By breathing deeply and exhaling forcefully, we can concentrate on our breath and move to a meditative and spiritual place. Laughter can physically improve our lung function, lift our mood, and increase our ability to focus.
    But what about tickling? Is it good or bad or just tickling? Here are a couple positive comments I found. Charles Darwin called tickling a mechanism of social bonding. And, science shows we burn calories when we laugh. Laughing for 10 to 15 minutes a day could result in losing about four pounds in a year. So, don’t give up your gym membership (as long as you’re vaccinated, boosted, wear a mask, maintain social distance, and clean your hands thoroughly and often).
    We associate tickling with laughter, good times, and closeness between the tickler and the ticklee. There’s nothing as glorious as the sound of a baby’s raucous laughter. Some kids like it. Some grown-ups do, too. And some really don’t. Tickling can be a little scary, especially if the person being tickled has no say in when the tickling stops. Or if they can’t catch their breath. In different periods of our history, tickling was used as a form of torture. People were sometimes tickled to death. Tickle with caution, and permission.            
    You can’t tickle yourself. Tickling is your brain’s response to a surprising stimulus. It’s true. My feet are very ticklish. If I try to tickle them, I feel the sensation, but it doesn’t make me laugh.
    Then there is the nervous laughter I couldn’t seem to control when I was an angsty teen. Familiar comments included, “Wipe that smirk off your face.” And “Oh! You think that’s funny?” Of course, I did not.
    And how about the evil laughter of villains who want to control the universe? Bwha-ha-ha! Or the Wicked Witch of the West who cackled warnings to Dorothy Gale in The Wizard of Oz?
    Laughter communicates more than language can. It fosters understanding among strangers and acquaintances and cements relationships between friends and loved ones.  
    So meet up with friends and family and belly-laugh, guffaw, and bellow. You’ll all be glad you did!
                  -—stay curious! (and laugh as often as you can)    

When the snails saw the boy’s face as he opened the letter, they knew their journey was worth it.
                                                         from Snail Mail
                                         written by Samantha Berger
                                               pictures by Julia Patton
                                               Running Press Kids, 2018
    When I was in third grade, I was finally old enough to attend Hebrew School. Our class met after regular school on Tuesdays and Thursdays. We learned about traditions, values, and most exciting, how to read and write in another language. The letters were exotic to my young eyes and hand. Being able to form different letters to represent familiar sounds clicked happily in my young brain.
    My great-grandma could not read or write English, although she spoke fluently (with a charming accent). She could read and write Russian and Yiddish, though. Although she said she didn’t remember any Russian words but Nyet (no), the Yiddish she spoke with my parents to protect us from what was going on in the world was a comfortable way for them to communicate.
    Years later, Gram lived with us. But not then and my eight-year-old self had an idea. I could practice my Hebrew letters to write English words and send my messages to Gram. Transliteration is a real thing, but I thought I made it up. 
    I wrote out her address the way we learned in regular school. I got a stamp and knew where on the envelop to stick it. I was old enough to walk to our corner mailbox by myself.
    When Gram got that letter, she was tickled pink!
    Who still mails letters? Or receives them? My mailbox is full of advertisements (read Junk), requests for contributions to causes worthy and otherwise (read more Junk), the regular utility and credit card bills, and once in a blue moon, a real letter or card from an old friend or a grandchild.
    But, the United States Postal Service is in financial trouble. This is not new trouble and it’s not going away. Louis DeJoy, the US Postmaster General has lots of ideas, some good, most bad, to fix the financial mess. 
    The USPS is an independent US Government Agency, but does not receive any taxpayer funds. Its only source of income comes from sales of stamps and other service fees like package deliveries. That’s a large part of the problem. 
    Before we delve into that, here are some fun facts.
    Forty-nine bicycle routes in Florida and Arizona are provided by the USPS. Mail Carriers also use planes, hovercraft, trains, trucks, cars, boats, ferries, helicopters, subways, and feet. The most unusual route uses between 10 and 22 mules to deliver mail to the Havasupai people who have lived in the Grand Canyon for at least the last 800 years. The trip is nine miles long. It takes three hours to get down and five to get back up. 
    Mail is collected in 140,875 blue mailboxes found in mostly convenient locations throughout cities and towns. According to USPS, in 2020, the Postal Service spent over $73 billion to pay almost half a million employees and maintain over 34,000 post offices and over 230,000 vehicles on 231,579 routes to deliver almost 130 billion pieces of First Class mail. That doesn’t count junk mail.        
    In 1963, ZIP (Zone Improvement Plan) codes were introduced to allow mail sorting methods to be automated. Numbers range from 00501 (IRS office in Holtsville, NY) to 99950 (Ketchikan, AK). One easy-to-remember ZIP Code is General Electric’s office in Schenectady, NY (12345). Newton Falls, OH (44444) and part of Arlington County, VA (22222) are the only places in the US that sport five identical numbers. 
    So back to the financial woes and how Congress proposes to solve them. Earlier this month (February, 2022), the House passed the hugely popular Postal Service Reform Act by a bi-partisan vote of 342-92. The aim of the legislation is to “[put] the Postal Service on a sound financial footing so it can continue serving all Americans for years to come.” (House Oversight and Reform Chair Carolyn Maloney) 
    The Act requires retired postal employees to enroll in Medicare when they become eligible, and drops the mandate that forces the agency to cover its health care costs years in advance. The projected savings is over 50 billion dollars. 
    While the Postal Service receives no taxpayer funds, it is not allowed to set its own prices. Only Congress can do that. The result, USPS is operating in the red to the tune of almost $5,000,000,000.00 (five billion dollars) in 2020.
    Louis DeJoy wants to replace the fleet of gas-powered vehicles with electric vehicles. After the initial outlay, it is a huge cost-saver.
    He also wants to shorten office hours, lengthen delivery times, and remove equipment. The Postal Service Reform Act would mandate mail delivery six days per week, and provide for more transparency. The huge debt may be forgiven. The Act would allow the Postal Service to provide non-postal services like hunting and fishing licenses.
    Just when forward movement seemed possible, Rick Scott, Senator from Florida, dragged his feet. Senate Majority Leader, Chuck Schumer accused Scott of holding up the bill over a “technical detail.” 
    So in the short run, we will pay a little more for a little less service. The Senate will vote (well, that’s the new plan) next month when they reconvene.
    In July 2020, the price to mail a letter was 55 cents. The price went up to 58 cents in August, 2021. Starting in July 2022, the USPS will increase First Class Mail prices twice a year. The amount of the increase has not been announced. It might be wise to stock up on Forever Stamps.
    But, fifty-eight cents to put a smile on someone’s face? For me, it’s still a bargain.
                                       stay curious! (and stay in touch)

Needed a week off to re-focus.
Thanks for understanding!
Next week...same time, same place!
​                                                     --stay curious!

Grrrr!
I sulked and moaned and whenever I heard my name. I said, “I don’t want to!”
                                                     from: No, I Won’t!
                                            written by Manica K. Musil
                                                  Windmill Books, 2020
   
A couple of years ago, when a new Mejiers was being built in the town next to mine, I vowed to not shop there. I have nothing particular against the store. It stocks everything from soup to nuts. Clothing, food, books, towels, pet toys, garden supplies, and a pharmacy. I took a look at their website just now. It looks great, but I still won’t go there. 
    The company built on land that was wild. They built a retention pond because the amount of land they needed for the store and the parking lot is vast. Now it’s paved and landscaped. I’m sure some people were hired. In my area of Ohio that’s not nothing. I understand. 
    My priorities are different, though. I value the land more than I value another one-stop- shopping store. But that’s just me. My personal boycott, even though I told many people about it, and now I’m mentioning it here, won’t make a bit of difference to Mr. Mejiers’s bottom line. I don’t need to shop there, and I don’t. It makes me feel like I’m at least doing something to defend Mother Earth, even though I know that something is very small.
    It’s my personal boycott. Which got me thinking about the word boycott. It’s an odd-duck of a word. Not made up. Not derived from another language. Not even very old, for a word. Turns out boycott is really Boycott, as in Charles Cunningham Boycott (March 12, 1832 - June 19, 1897). He was a land agent in Ireland. It was his job to make sure seasonal workers harvested the crops on Boycott’s boss’s land. When local activists decided to protect workers’ rights, they encouraged Boycott’s employees to “withdraw their labour.” Even the shop owners in nearby towns refused to serve Boycott. He wrote a letter of complaint to the London Times that got the attention of the local Irish government. Some sources say the work stoppage cost the British government and others ￡10,000 to protect the workers and make sure the crops were harvested.
    It was such a big deal, that Boycott’s name lost its capital B. Just like kleenex, xerox, and white-out, (wite-out is the brand’s spelling)  boycott, as a word, was coined. 
    Individuals have reasons to boycott. Activists have reasons to boycott, too. Even governments have reasons to boycott. In its simplest terms, a boycott is a refusal to buy something from a company or an individual whose policies you disagree with. A boycott could be a refusal to work for an employer whose work ethic is immoral or unethical. It could be a refusal to participate in activities financially beneficial to a country whose government acts immorally or unethically toward its citizens.
    And here we are at the Winter Olympics, 2022 in Beijing. The Biden administration is staging a diplomatic boycott over what it calls genocide and crimes against humanity in the Xinjiang region of China. The humanity he’s referring to is the Uyghur population. They are Muslim. And Chinese. It has been said that more than a million Uyghurs have been detained in “re-education camps” (read: concentration camps). They are not allowed to use their native language and must speak Chinese. There is evidence of forced labor, torture, and sexual abuse. 
    The United States is not alone our diplomatic boycott condemning this behavior. Canada, Australia, Japan, Lithuania, and the United Kingdom have all announced diplomatic boycotts.            
    The Games have been boycotted before for different reasons, by other countries. 
        1956: Seven countries boycotted the games held in Melbourne, Australia for a variety of reasons. 
            The Soviet Union had invaded Hungary in an attempt to stop a
            revolution against the Communist regime. In protest, the
            Netherlands, Spain and Switzerland all refused to participate.

            The People’s Republic of China withdrew because Taiwan
            was allowed to participate as a separate country. 

            Egypt, Iraq, and Lebanon boycotted the Olympics due to the
            British-Israeli-French invasion of Egypt to control the Suez
            Canal. That year, 1956, in a show of peace, the Olympic
            athletes, for the first time, marched into the closing
            ceremony mixed together, rather than as separate nations.
            It’s a tradition that continues today.
        1976: Twenty-eight African nations decided to boycott the games when the IOC allowed New Zealand to compete. New Zealand’s Rugby team had recently toured South Africa, defying an international sports embargo due to South Africa’s apartheid policies.
        1980: Sixty-five countries supported the US-led boycott of the Games held in Moscow. Soviet Russia had invaded Afghanistan and the world spoke out. Some athletes competed without a flag, some competed under the Olympic flag, but most sat out the games entirely. With so many powerful athletes out of the competition, the                 Soviets won 195 medals, an Olympic record that still stands.
        1984: Fourteen countries followed the Soviet Unions’s retaliation of the 1980 games. Even so, the Olympic Games set a record for the most-seen event in TV history.
        1988: Cuba, Ethiopia, Nicaragua, and North Korea boycotted the events held in Seoul, South Korea, claiming security issues. Even with the boycott, the Games set new participation records. Eight thousand athletes competed from 159 nations.
    All these boycotts are motivated by politics. This year, though, the United States did not prohibit our athletes from competing. President Biden’s press secretary Jen Psaki stated, “The athletes on Team USA have our full support, we will be behind them 100% as we cheer them on from home.”
    While protests are also political, a boycott usually has some financial consequences attached to it. While I continue to boycott Mejiers, Home Depot, and Chick Fil-A, I know I’m doing so for my own reasons, not for any financial repercussions to the companies. After all, I’m a pretty small coin in a very large banking system.
                     -—stay curious! (and true to your convictions)