Animal Kingdom--Not As Far Away As We Thought

Recently I ran across two primate studies.   First one, then two months later, the other showed up.  You really have to wonder about primate researchers, especially those that do their studies in the wild.  Maybe it's loneliness, but they keep proving these animals can do what we do, and are almost like us.  No, they stop short of speech (although I can remember when some animal researchers famously taught sign language to a couple of monkeys (at least I think they were monkeys--we'll see what Google has to say--nope, they were chimps).

First, the study of orangutans established that they planned their travels the day before and the leader gave notice the day before, especially to the females in the hope they would follow.  He would clearly point in the direction he planned to go; then he'd go to sleep, wake up ten or twelve hours later, holler to the others and set out.   The females would follow.  There is no evidence to establish whether or not the females told the leader where he was going to go in the first place, but it they really are like humans....  Well, you draw your own conclusions.  But it's a fact, "orangutans make plans."

 A couple of months later, another bunch of anthropologists with too much time on their hands were watching dozens of chimpanzees.  Studies of anthropologists in the wild have established that if they watch chimps long enough, they will begin to despise bananas and have dreams at night about their colleagues becoming chimps one inch at a time, beginning from the tops of their heads, and... but that's another story.

Back to the study of chimps.  It turns out that chimps make friends by sharing meals.  The anthropologists determined this be measuring oxytocin levels in chimpanzees.  Oxytocin is a hormone identified in humans (and, f course, chimps) as evidence of bonding, such as that which occurs between a mother and her breastfed child.  Another finding was that the oxytocin levels were equally high, whether the chimp was giving food or receiving it.  So, "chimps that share are chimps that care."

A comparison was made between sharing of food and grooming one another, which is an indication of friendship among chimps.  It seems that if you are really good friends, you pick the bugs out of each others hair.  But, the anthropologists noted, this only occurs between old friends.  Sort of makes you want to go out and find new friends and escape the old, doesn't it?  But, you might just want to reflect on the notion that you singles out there can meet and make friends in a bar, drinking too much of your favorite beverage.  You might just be better off inviting a few friends over for dinner, asking each of them to bring a friend.  Sharing meals is what makes friends, not making eyes at members of the opposite sex in a bar, even if you can dance.

All About You

"They're never about me
that much all can see,"
She says with a frown.
"You're letting me down."

Ah but look here, I say--
Not today, not today.

Today I have found
the cheerful one 'round
Her spirits don't wane
on a day filled with rain.

Has something yet changed?
Her thoughts rearranged?

She's not been her usual
and my feelings are mutual,
a bit down and out
storm clouds were about

But this morning there's hope
and I think I can cope

About her there's light
as her spirits aright
Finally here's a poem,
I'm sure that'll show'em.

Today's poem for certain is all about you
Rainy day that this is, what else can I do?

No More Cursive, And Our Own Rosetta Stone

In the newly advanced Common Core, the national standard for education, there is no room for cursive handwriting.  It is on its way to obsolescence, someday archeologists will need the skill of reading cursive, just as those of the 20th century had to interpret hieroglyphics.  For that there was the Rosetta Stone that allowed archaeologists to interpret hieroglyphics   I wonder if hieroglyphics had as much variation as our cursive does?  There were no prescriptions being written by doctors in a nearly unreadable form.  There were no doctors.   

The diaries of those who wrote in hieroglyphics would have been difficult to preserve.  The notion of having a diary that only the writer ever saw was nearly impossible as well.  Imagine the teenage girl writing in her diary (secretly in her bedroom) using a chisel and a hammer.  "What's that?"  "Oh, it's only Alexandra writing another entry in her diary.   She'll finish it up, then put it in the stack of valuables set aside to go in the family mausoleum inside our pyramid.  I told her not to be so long-winded, those stones are piled up as high as the Sphinx."  Clearly there wasn't much room for diaries way back then, but when I was young, lots of people kept hand-written journals and diaries.  Who will be able to read the varied scrawl of so  many young people?  No worries about today, it's all on Facebook.

Then, of course, there are the great documents of the past centuries when cursive writing was all there was of written tradition.  Before the invention of moveable type, most everything was written in cursive.  It's hard enough keeping up with the evolution of language, but when you add in the relative few who will be able to read in cursive....  In the Middle Ages, the monks preserved much of the culture of the age writing everything in cursive.  Talk about the Da Vinci Code, whew.

I remember a sci-fi novel where an entire civilization was summed up by a hand-written grocery list.  What was it?  Oh yes, A Canticle For Liebowitz.  A monk in the future discovers the sacred shopping list—probably written in cursive—from the archive of the Saint himself.  I remember there was some hilarious misinterpretation applied to it, but at least they could read it!

I'm really worried.  I think our only hope may be Google.  If someone teaches cursive to Google, our history will be saved.  Future historians and researchers will not need the Rosetta Stone, the will just google it.

She Snores Gently Beside Me

She snores gently beside me
As my sleep, it slips away
Sighing, I sit up, then stand to see
The slow and steady rising day

The water’s like a mirror’s glass,
The inlet echoes trees and sky.
Searching for breakfast, gliding birds do pass.
But I can watch the morning scene with but one eye.

The other looks for water, pills and coffee.
Sitting again, I grind out a few more words.
The scene once more plays out before me,
And I wonder how the birds

Are awakened in the morning,
To go gliding even soaring,
without coffee or pills to take with label’s warning,
And most of all without a mate that’s gently snoring.

You'll Know You're At A Fishing Seminar When....

Not long ago I decided I needed more interests in my life, that I needed a new avocation.  Learning something new is said to prolong brain health, and it's likely I could make a new friend or two in the process.  For some unknown reason, I decided to try learning to fish.  As it happens I live around all kinds of water.  There are lagoons, creeks, inlets, marshes, sounds, an ocean and an intracoastal waterway.  In fact, I can see people fishing out my kitchen window.  Usually, they appear to be enjoying themselves.  They are in the great outdoors, often they are conscious of environmental concerns.  They think about maintaining the health of the fisheries.  They help with research and practice "catch and release," etc.

Fishing is an activity that can be enjoyed with friends or in solitude.  It doesn't look expensive.  Although, it apparently can vary, depending upon how involved you want to get.  I'm finding it a bit awkward, learning to fish.  There doesn't appear to be a school you can attend, and I don't think any of my friends are or have been avid fishermen.  I went on a fishing charter last summer, but the captain and the mate did all the work and just handed us the rod and reel with the tackle and the bait already properly applied or whatever.  

The good news is I'm gaining some traction.  My son gave me a rod and reel for Christmas.  It's still in the closet but I'll be taking it out soon.  I purchased a copy of Fishing for Dummies, and have read five or six chapters.  Today, I attended a fishing seminar.  Which led to the following discoveries:
You know you're at a fishing seminar when...

• the door prizes aren't books, CD's and DVD's about the subject, but tackle boxes. hand made lures and rigs.
• the titles of the presenters are not M.D.'s and PhD's, but Capt.'s.
• participants buy towing insurance, not from AAA but Sea-Tow.
• the destination you enter into your GPS is not a street, city and state, but latitude and longitude of the best artificial reef in the area for catching Redfish.  
• maintaining self-control and balance is not anger management, but anchor management, and
• the pointer used in the slide presentations is a fishing rod. 

Back, Back, Back, it’s Gone!

When I was a child, or at least a lot younger than I am now, I listened to baseball games on the radio.  On the few occasions that I watched a televised game, I was disappointed by the sparse conversation/narrative provided by the broadcasters.  One element was the stories the broadcasters told on the radio.  They were aimed at filling the “dead space,” radio abhorred space without sound, so the broadcasters would talk about whatever came to mind, whether it was a story about some historic event in someone’s career, or what they had for dinner the night before, we heard about it.

Of course, there were stories we didn’t really want to hear, but their descriptive commentary was absent as well.   They were probably counseled to say less, and let the picture speak for itself.  Whatever it was, I preferred, as some still do today, to turn down the volume on the TV, and listen to the radio broadcast.  This led to a few comical moments as radio announcers misrepresented (or missed altogether) things that were shown on TV.  With all that said, the description of the proverbial long fly that wound up going the distance was way more exciting than simply watching it on TV.  

It usually involved in some way, the expression “back, back, way back, it’s gone—a home run!”  All of that arises because I am trying to help someone I know well deal with some serious, chronic back pain.  Fearful of the notion that someday spinal surgery might be recommended, required, or otherwise become something to be reckoned with, we have explored more conservative options.   There have been chiropractic visits, long harangues about the need to exercise, lose weight, etc.  Facing all of this, I keep hearing it again an again: “back, back, way back, it’s gone—a home run!”  To me, one who has experienced the occasional spell of back pain, it’s simple—you find a set of exercises that provide some relief, and you do them.  Sure, in the long run, you might had better lose weight, but these exercises are about relieving pain.  The person dealing with the problem is hearing “exercise” and hearing another exhortation about lifestyle change and weight loss. 

But, to me, it’s about dealing with the back on its own—“back, back, back—before it’s gone…”  Anybody know how to convince this person to do the three or four simple exercises twice a day—before "it's gone", meaning gotten worse?  I always learned how to deal with things by reading a book, so, wouldn’t you know—I found a book to use as an assist to get things going.  That's gonna work, don't you think?  Or, should I keep quiet and try to find in on video somewhere, it’s a generational difference, right?  "No more words, just show it to me on YouTube." 

Jimi Hendrix, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Death by Drug Overdose

There is a Citibank Visa card commercial in circulation right now that features an olympic skier in the Nordic Combined talking about his tastes in music.   He says he prefers listening to hip-hop while working out, classical music while skiing cross-country, and "something special" when on the ski jump.  He uses his Citibank visa card to download his music and the scene cuts to him headed down the ski ramp, with Jimi Hendrix singing "...excuse me while I kiss the sky" as the skier reaches for the apex of his jump.  Pretty nice work, a striking example of music matching the activity.

As I recalled it, Jimi Hendrix died at age twenty-seven, and drugs were involved.  I thought I recalled it was a heroin overdose, and quickly linked Hendrix to the recently deceased Philip Seymour Hoffman.  Another celebrity I lumped in with Hendrix was Janis Joplin.  She. too died at age 27, and in her case it was also a heroin overdose, I thought.  When I checked, I learned that Hendrix had taken nine doses at once of a barbiturate commonly used as a sleeping medication.  This meant that his death was drug-related, but not heroin-related.  Janis Joplin did indeed die of a heroin overdose.

Newspaper articles have popped up about the "heroin epidemic," or more concisely, "the opioid epidemic."  Prescription opioids like Percocet, Oxycontin and Vicodin are more common among the affluent, with heroin costing a fraction of what it costs to obtain illicit prescription drugs.  There is no question that opioid use is increasing at a faster pace than other forms of drug use.  So are deaths from overdose.  Simply put, the reason for this is heroin users often have little indication of the strength of what they have purchased, or the even more dangerous drugs it may be laced with.  A strange thing happens when enforcement is tightened up on policing prescription drugs.  The reduction in deaths related to abuse of prescription drugs is more than made up for by more deaths due to heroin use.

But what is it about drug use that attracts so many of the highly-talented actors, musicians and even comedians (see John Belushi and Lenny Bruce--both of whom died overdosing on heroin or heroin-related substances--speedballs and morphine) to serious drug abuse?   Do you suppose if we knew we might save them?  Is it about substituting something for the rush of the spotlight?  It's sort of a pat answer and doesn't allow for the many thousands who don't resort to heroin, etc.  Are they people with an inner flaw of some sort that is exposed by the excessive attention, affection and adulation, nay adoration and  that comes their way all at once?

What about the ups and downs that accompany their initial drug use?  Isn't the aftermath just more of the same brutal return to earth they experienced when the show was over?  Wouldn't that tell them their drug use was another dead end?  And, having seen so many others perish by way of a drug overdose, don't they get it?  These are exceptional people in so many ways, a higher dose of that invulnerability of youth probably comes with it.  It can so quickly turn to addiction, maybe they never have a chance against it.  Philip Seymour Hoffman certainly knew it--he had made it back from the precipice once before, hadn't he?  He beat the odds and "got clean" at 22 years of age, but still succumbed.

In my view, we are none of us perfect or invulnerable, and even the most talented among us fall victim.  We hear more about these talented people, but they are a tiny fraction of those who lose their lives this way.  I have to admit I have listened to the proponents of legalization, noting that we have had little success with the "war on drugs."  As I think about these deaths, there's not much of an argument here for legalizing it all, is there?  

First Ever Super Bowl On Groundhog Day

So, the question is which coach or quarterback will be seeing this one over and over with the same dismal outcome.  Will it be the young quarterback?  Russell Wilson has the same part that Colin Kaepernick played last year.  He ended the game with 3 consecutive incomplete passes.  Or will it be head coach Pete Carroll or John Fox.  This time the "rookie" coach (in his first Super Bowl) is Pete Carroll.  Fox's team lost by a field goal in the final minute when he coached the Carolina Panthers to their first (and only) Super Bowl appearance.  I am certain that Fox relives that game in his dreams even if it didn't occur on Groundhog Day.

Last year's Super Bowl was rare indeed, with the outcome decided on the very last play.  The game used to be decided in the first half.  That trend has tapered off.  Five of the last six have been decided by less than seven points.  When the game is that close, it is understandable that the quarterback or the head coach will feel as if just one play or one decision could have been the reason for their loss.  Hence, the Groundhog Day analogy, Bill Murray relived the day over and over with the same outcome.

The other quarterback, Peyton Manning, had a Hall of Fame season.  Throwing for more touchdowns than any other quarterback in history, I think.  The Broncos were the best offensive team in the league this season.  He has been NFL MVP five times!  Yet, people have the opinion that he somehow underperforms in the big games.  If he gets time in the pocket, he is likely to pick apart the Seahawks.  But...

The the Seattle Seahawks were the best defensive team in the league.  I'll go with them, because the best defense beats the best offense most of the time.   The game is only eight hours and forty minutes away.  Get cooking!