Back at the drawing board . . .
Moving is hard work! But I am settling into a routine, and greatly enjoying life further in-land than I have ever lived. Because "everyone's doing it" I thought I would add my answers to the infamous "tagged" quiz. Promise to write more later; must dash.
10 years ago I was... the only kid disappointed that the school year was being delayed (private school) due to unfinished construction. But that year was the best and second worst of my life!
5 years ago i was... embarking on my senior year of college. Struggling to discern God’s will – law school? Grad school? Work?
1 year ago I was... frantically looking for a job, any job!
Yesterday i was... hard at work, researching, reading, writing, and editing; had dinner with my Mom and watched some television.
5 songs i know all the words to... anything in Les Miserables (yes, it’s scary), Cry Me A River (as sung by Harry Connick, Jr.), Amazing Grace (1st, 3rd, and 4th verses only, I’m a good Baptist – okay, I confess I know the 2nd and 5th verses, too), The Man I Love (and assorted other Ella Fitzgerald singing the Gershwins songs), and Money, Money, Money (surprised you, didn’t I?)
5 things i would do with 100 million dollars... pay off my debt; purchase homes for my mom and me; pay off my friends’ school debts; rent a villa in Tuscany and pay for others to come visit the neighboring villa; buy a flat in London – near the British Library.
5 places i would run away to.... Virginia; London; Prague; Strasbourg; Wales
5 things i would never wear... boots (don’t mind them on others, I just don’t like them on me); polka dots; paisley; clothes that advertise products; a size 0
5 favorite tv shows... of all time? “Get Smart”; “Mission: Impossible” (the early years with Martin Landau); “House, M.D.” (the ever-caustic Hugh Laurie is much preferred to the Bumbling Bertie Wooster); “The Dick Van Dyke Show” (classic!); “Quantum Leap” (not as much now, but there was a time…)
5 bad habits... Living in my head rather than in reality; Not speaking up when I should; Letting my nerves get the best of me; Worrying about what other people think more than what God thinks; Cracking my knuckles (I know, it’s disgusting; I need to stop!)
5 biggest joys.... Getting my mom to smile; Watching a baby sleep or a child play; discovering something new; hearing from my friends; listening to a great song
5 favorite toys.... Piano; Computer; Journal; Library card (assuming I also get the library); TiVo (I prefer ReplayTV actually, but you get the idea)
5 people I tag to do this (if they'd like to)... Mom, Vicki, Lindsey, Sarah, and Random blog site visitor.
Irony
Okay, I understand irony. It is present - in some form - in the topics of my last two posts. The first laments poor plots and our culture's focus on sex over courtship. The subsequent post concerns the breeding habits of pandas. Duly noted and catalogued.
Ran across this quote and think it relates to the first point from my former posting regarding good writing. Enjoy!
"A skilful literary artist has constructed a tale. If wise, he has not fashioned his thoughts to accommodate his incidents; but having conceived, with deliberate care, a certain unique or single effect to be wrought out, he then invents such incidents -- he then combines such events as may best aid him in establishing this preconceived effect. If his very initial sentence tends not to the outbringing of this effect, then he has failed in his first step." Edgar Allan Poe, "Unity of Impression" (1842).
A Word About Pandas . . .
One of the best daily editorials / compilations available on the web is the
Wall Street Journal's "Best of the Web," by James Taranto.
This excerpt appeared in the column a few weeks ago and amuses me greatly. Hope you enjoy the diversion into some rather . . . er . . . fascinating facts about our panda friends as well!
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The Case Against PandasMei Xiang, a panda at Washington's national zoo, gave birth to a cub Friday night, the Associated Press reports. The new cub is the sixth to be born at the zoo since 1983; the others "all died within days."
Pandas have great difficulty reproducing.
The Washington Post noted in March that Mei Xiang's efforts to mate had been rather ineffective:
"In past years, they've shown excellent sexual behavior but have been a bit out of sync," Lisa Stevens, the zoo's assistant curator for giant pandas, said yesterday. "We're very concerned about the lack of synchrony."
Translation: The male giant panda is eager, Stevens said, but has "alignment" problems; the female cries out to him loudly and displays other come-hither behavior, but then lies flat on her stomach.
As it turned out, the zoo had to resort to artificial insemination to get Mei Xiang knocked up; and it really was a now-or-never situation: "Giant pandas are capable of becoming pregnant for only a day or two once each year."
As Slate's David Plotz noted in 1999, the zoo's previous panda pair, Hsing Hsing and Ling Ling, also were carnally clueless:
At first Hsing-Hsing failed to inseminate Ling-Ling because he tried to mate with her ear and her arm. (He may have been inept because he never learned about mating in the wild.) Then the zoo imported a male panda from London Zoo to mate with Ling-Ling. He mauled her instead. (So much for panda comity.) Eventually Hsing-Hsing got it right, and between 1983 and 1989, Ling-Ling bore five of his cubs. All of them died within days. One cub perished after Ling-Ling sat on it. Another seems to have been killed by a urinary tract infection acquired from Ling-Ling. Keepers believe Ling-Ling infected herself by sticking bamboo and carrots up her urinary tract, surely neurotic behavior.
Reproduction isn't the only area of biology that gives pandas problems. Ninety-nine percent of their diet consists of bamboo, which is "high in indigestible fiber" and "loaded with abrasive compounds" and therefore "difficult to eat and to digest"--especially for pandas, which have "a digestive system characteristic of a carnivore."
