. . . the absence of a skeleton in a marine life form constitutes a form of perfection

21. Octopus and Squid: The Soft Intelligence by Jacques-Yves Cousteau and Philippe Diole

Don't let the wording of this book's title mislead you -- "soft" refers to body makeup, not the animals' intelligence. Published in 1973 as part of Jacques Cousteau's Undersea Discovery series, it is one of the earliest explorations of the four well known cephalopods -- the octopuses (~80% of the book), the squids, the cuttlefish, and the nautiluses. One of my very favorite animals, in fact one of my totems, is the octopus, but I know surprisingly little about this mollusk without a shell beyond that many people find them tasty and I find them mesmerizing. This book, while as old as my sister would be were she still alive, is kind of a "getting to know you" book in which Cousteau describes many of the octopus's abilities that had previously never been known since SCUBA diving was still merely in its toddler-hood. Within the pages are descriptions of the octopus's amazing ability to disappear into a crack, its home-building activities, its mimetic (camoflauge) abilities, its means and manner of movement, its playfulness, its reasoning and problem solving capabilities, and its mating habits. The book is loaded with color photographs at nearly every turn of the page. Here are two photos demonstrating camoflauge, with an octopus being mostly brown with green flecks sitting on an airplane's sunken engine covered with algae, and another gone completely white when placed on a large plastic plate. There is an entire series of photos of an octopus exploring a large glass jar with its arms and then pulling its stopper to retrieve the tasty lobster contained within. The final chapters mention in passing the other three cephalopods, with a clear admiration for the nautilus. This book makes me hungry for more recent discoveries about these beautiful creatures.

Great Big Sea

Over the weekend, my friend Lynlee asked me to go with her to a concert last night in Salina at the Stiefel Theater. The group was called Great Big Sea. I'd never heard of them, despite them even having a Wikipedia page (I bought the CD/DVD combo of Courage & Patience & Grit mentioned in the article). Lynlee has great taste in music, and I like discovering new music, so I said, "Sure! I'm game!"

I'm so glad I did! What a dancing, clapping, sing-along time we had. So, I only knew one song ("Mary Mac"), but I still had a great time. We had an even better time when Lynlee traded in the tickets for disabled seats, which moved us from row 6 aisle seats to in front of the front row. Being in a wheelchair sometimes has its benefits. ::grin::

I have included here a couple of videos of songs performed last night. First is Sean McCann taking the lead on "Mary Mac":





One of my favorite original songs, "Consequence Free," with Alan Doyle doing leads:





Good company, good music, good times.

Quotes

"To love. To be loved. To never forget your own insignificance. To never get used to the unspeakable violence and the vulgar disparity of life around you. To seek joy in the saddest places. To pursue beauty to its lair. To never simplify what is complicated or complicate what is simple. To respect strength, never power. Above all, to watch. To try and understand. To never look away. And never, never, to forget."
— Arundhati Roy


"The secret of the Great Stories is that they have no secrets. The Great Stories are the ones you have heard and want to hear again. The ones you can enter anywhere and inhabit comfortably. They don’t deceive you with thrills and trick endings. They don’t surprise you with the unforeseen. They are as familiar as the house you live in. Or the smell of your lover’s skin. You know how they end, yet you listen as though you don’t. In the way that although you know that one day you will die, you live as though you won’t. In the Great Stories you know who lives, who dies, who finds love, who doesn’t. And yet you want to know again. THAT is their mystery and magic."
— Arundhati Roy (The God of Small Things)

Today's good news is . . .

My cousin Josh's and my cousin-in-law Kyla's new daughter was born at 11:56 p.m. last night. Makynna (muh-KIN-uh) Lynnlee was 8 pounds 9 ounces and 21 inches long. She is Josh's 4th child and Kyla's 2nd. I'm hoping to go visit mama and baby this afternoon.

Also, today is my parents' 39th wedding aniversary! Dad gave Mom a dozen red roses with a card that asked, "How about 39 more?"


Edit: Here's a picture of Makynna, taken by Grandma Shelly.

. . . the manners of this pretty little fish are amusing and engaging

20. Poseidon's Steed: The Story of Seahorses, From Myth to Reality by Helen Scales

In this post's title, Philip Henry Gosse was discussing a pipefish he had collected at the Devonshire seacoast (western England) sometime between 1852 and 1854, but he could just as easily have been talking about their cousins, the seahorses. Seahorses have fascinated me since I was a child, so I was overjoyed to find this "little book" at my local library. In her opening chapter, Dr. Scales questions about the seahorses, also known as hippocampus, "Should we presume these odd-looking creatures were designed by a mischievous god who had some time on her hands?"

Seahorses have fascinated land-walkers from the earliest times, evidenced by their likenesses being found on Lydian jewelry, in Greek and Roman mythology, and on Pictish stone carvings. Scales's book, while only 193 pages of text, is crammed to the hilt with information about these intriguing little fish, including mythology; taxonomy, evolution, and relatives (pipefishes and pipehorses); traditional medicine (especially Chinese); the aquarium trade, starting with how aquariums came to be in the first place (Roman water gardens stocked with edible fish to assure guests will have a fresh meal); and conservation concerns. This book is easily read by the non-scientist and is thoroughly engaging. Included at the end of the book is a complete bibliography of the author's sources and an appendix with brief descriptions of all the known Hippocampus species. Several plates are found in the middle of the book showing a few remarkable individuals as well as ghost pipefish and leafy and weedy seadragons.

In the epilogue, Scales points out that the oceans and the coral reefs are not dependent on seahorses to be healthy or to continue to function. Hippocampi are not keystone species, but they are an aesthetic wonder and an intrinsic joy for millions of people, regardless if they've been seen in person or not. Their loss would be felt if for no other reason than our grandchildren would listen incredulously as we described them:

Imagine what it would be like if all we had to tell our grandchildren were stories of a time when there used to be wonderful creatures called seahorses living wild in the oceans. They looked like miniature horses with rolling eyes and tiny monkeys' tails. It was the males that had babies -- no animals do that anymore -- and they changed color as if by magic and danced elegant dances every day with their faithful partners. If stories were all that were left of the seahorses, I don't suppose anyone would believe us.

He who ruled scent ruled the hearts of men

19. Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Suskind

I started reading this book some time ago, but I'd only gotten a couple of chapters in before having to give up due to an upswing in my academic schedule. The story takes place in 18th century France and is the odd story of a boy born in a fish stall in Paris who grows into a most unique individual. He is saved from death at his mother's hand (she is beheaded when she confesses to not only wanting to kill this child but had killed her three previous infants as well) and given over to a monastery where he is baptized Jean-Baptiste Grenouille. He is a bizarre child in that he himself has no smell, but his sense of smell is so acute that he learns at a very young age how to distinguish between tree species and can find his way in complete darkness using only his nose. People do not consciously realize he has no odor, but everyone who comes in contact with him is unexplainably unnerved by him. He realizes after being sold to a tanner by his foster mother that he wants to catalog in his memory every possible scent. One night, on the anniversary of the king's coronation, Grenouille catches a scent unlike any he has ever smelled before. He follows the trail, mesmerized, blissed out, by the purity of the scent. It is the scent of a young virgin girl, and that amazing, unadulterated scent becomes the driving force of the rest of his life.

Grenouille is not a likable character. At times (especially during a seven year period of his life) he reminded me of Gollum from The Lord of the Rings -- a tragic little creature that everyone despises. Only with Grenouille, you get the sense that he was destined to be an evil little gnome from conception, that no amount of love or positive reinforcement could have altered his path. You know his life is going to end in a train wreck, and what a spectacular wreck it is. And all of it is fueled by scent:

The persuasive power of an odor cannot be fended off, it enters into us like breath into our lungs, it fills us up, imbues us totally. There is no remedy for it.

They're complete perverts with bizarre structures

18. The Emperor of Scent: A Story of Perfume, Obsession, and the Last Mystery of the Senses by Chandler Burr

This was an interesting read about a man obsessed with perfume who proposes a completely new mechanism of smell. At times it is difficult to concentrate on because the writing is as frenetic as the man being written about. You really need a scientific background in order not to get lost in whole chunks of the book, at least a basic knowledge of biology, chemistry, and physics (is that all, you ask). The reason Dr. Turin can propose his theory of smell (that the receptors in your nose read a smell molecule's electron bond vibrations to determine smell, not its shape) is because he is interested in EVERYTHING. His degree is in biology, but he has also taught himself quite a bit of advanced chemistry and physics. The bulk of the book concerns his fight to get his theory taken seriously, much less accepted. As of the publishing of the book (2002), neither had happened. As such, the book also emphasizes what science REALLY is and is not. Scientists have their own ideas and agendas and will fight desperately for those ideas and agendas despite mounting evidence to the contrary. Science urges the publication of "new and original" research, but only as long as it doesn't contradict a "long held" idea or rock a major financial boat. Science is not impartial.

This book takes some time to get through, but I found it interesting given my propensity to play with scents. I think this book is really only readable by people interested in either smell or "trouble-making" scientists.

My statement for tomorrow

Read it here.

I was on the news

Check out Road Hog to see why and watch the video.

Squees!

So, for my recent squees, I will start with today and then tell you about yesterday.

Today: We're getting a rottweiler puppy!!! Dad saw some pups advertized in the paper yesterday and called the guy about pricing. The guy (we'll call him N) originally said $500, and Dad understandably balked. BUT, he started chatting up N -- telling him how he was a dog handler in Vietnam, how we've had three rotties in the last 18 years who were oversized teddy bears, how we lost Rebel to cancer in December -- and N admitted that he'd priced the pups high in order to discourage the types who "want a mean dog." He told Dad to come look at the pups and see if he liked any; if he did, they'd "work a deal." Well, today Dad and Mom went to look, and apparently it all worked out, because we're getting their only girl pup in a week! Dad's stuck on the name Bismarck, so that will be her name even though she's a girl (our other girl rottie was named Rocky -- yeah, my dad's odd). I'll post pics when I have some.

Yesterday: I got my prints back from the framer (OK, so he's actually a photographer, whatever). They look awesome! With Marrus's permission, I am happy to show you my two first official adult art purchases that I've gotten in frames. You can find these prints and many other gorgeous ones to purchase for your very own over at Marrus's site.

First, I will show you pics of the prints that Marrus sent me so you can see why I couldn't put these babies in cookie cutter frames (remember, this is grown-up art), then I'll show you how they look all dressed up and hanging on my bedroom wall. First, the limited edition print I have coveted since the day I met Marrus over a year ago, "Churchstream":





Now, here it is in its framed glory:





Next is "Marriage of Heaven & Earth", a vibrant piece that mesmerizes me every time I look at it:





And in its frame:





See why I loved that green frame so much? It was worth every penny of almost $170 (frames, glass, and tax) to get those particular frames. Every time I go in my bedroom, I just SMILE!

Now I just need to get my other three Marrus pieces framed.

What matters is giving over to what you love

17. The Mermaid Chair by Sue Monk Kidd

I've owned this book for quite some time. It was given to me three and a half years ago by my good friend Diana, a woman I first met in January 2001 in a women writer's lit course. A handful of us who met in that class went on about a year later to form a book club, where one of the books we all read and adored was Sue Monk Kidd's now wildly popular The Secret Life of Bees. Before I returned to New Orleans after Katrina, Diana gave me Kidd's newest book, The Mermaid Chair, as an early birthday gift. It has languished on my bookshelves lo these many, many moons. My mother checked it out from the library three weeks ago, and I figured it was finally time to read it.

Kidd's writing is as lyrical as I remember it being in TSoB, and her exploration of the female psyche is as pointed as I remember it being in her first memoir, The Dance of the Dissident Daughter (you really should read that one, Tracie -- I think you'll get a lot out of it, especially as I know how much you loved TMC). This is the story of Jessie who has ". . . lived molded to the smallest space possible, [her] days the size of little beads that passed without passion through [her] fingers." She gets a call early one morning from one of her mother Nelle's best friends telling her that her mother has deliberately cut off her right index finger with a meat cleaver in the monastery kitchen where she has been a cook for years. Jessie hurriedly returns to Egret Island, a barrier island off the coast of South Carolina, determined to elicit the source of her mother's madness. Coupled with caring for her mother, Jessie searches for an inner independence she realizes she's lacked in her twenty years of marriage. As with most questions like these, everything has to go to hell in a handbasket before minds, hearts, and souls can be mended. I got so wrapped up in the characters that I found myself crying when Nelle's story finally comes to light. This story is a feast for the senses (Kidd's descriptions of Egret Island are beautifully detailed), but it also quietly asks the reader to search herself, to ask if she is living her life for others or for herself?

Thank you, Diana my dear, for giving me another story to treasure.

Happy Mardi Gras!

Happy Mardi Gras, everyone!

*offers King Cake with purple, green, and gold sugar crystals on top*

Is it sad to fancy David Tennant when you're dead?

16. Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger

This was an interesting yet odd book by the author of The Time Traveler's Wife. Julia and Valentina are twins who have never met their mother Edie's twin Elspeth, so they are surprised one day when they are twenty years old to learn that their aunt has died and left her London flat and all her money to them. They will inherit the money when they turn 21, and they must live in the flat for a year before they can sell it (if they choose to sell it). Julia, the more extroverted of the two, is excited to move from Illinois to London, but Valentina agrees simply because she and Julia always do things together.

At Vautravers (the house in which their flat is located), Valentina becomes close with Robert, their downstairs neighbor who was Elspeth's partner. Julia befriends Martin, their upstairs neighbor who suffers from extreme OCD and whose wife has left him after 25 years of dealing with his ever worsening illness (he hasn't left his flat in a year). But their most interesting acquaintance is the one living with them -- Elspeth herself. At first they don't realize she's there, but Valentina can sense her and after a few months can actually see her; Julia can eventually sense her but never sees her. At the heart of the story is Elspeth's and Edie's estrangement as well as Valentina's desire to distance herself from her twin and have a life of her own. This desire for separation leads to a plan that made me go, "Wha-?" Niffenegger deftly blends the everyday with the paranormal, even if the last 50 or so pages take a left turn at Albuquerque.

I get one movie option and you pick, pick, pick at it

15. Heat Wave by Richard Castle

Yes, this book was written by a fictional character (the male lead on ABC's "Castle"). Yes, it's short and super cheesy. I had fun reading it, mainly because I wasn't expecting "The Hound of Baskervilles." The book is very much like the series with the fun banter between characters and a not very complicated case. This book is in the realm of James Patterson (who, incidentally, has had at least one cameo on the show) in that it's not a stay-up-all-night-to-finish-it super thriller, but a fast, fun read when you're stressed out and don't want to process heavy material. It's not meant to be fine literature, and if you keep that in mind as you start it, you might like it. Or not. ::shrugs:: Whatever.

Grooviness

Mom and I took my two bigger Marrus lithos to a framer today. The initial person she took me to see (his business is strictly framing) was out of town today. We did a 180 and were headed back to the van when Mom said, "Let's see about this place." This place was a photography studio next door that also offered framing services. I'm so glad framer #1 was out of town, because Mr. Mann was AWESOME. He really took the time to help me pick good frames for both my pieces, pulling down at least three options for each. For "The Marriage of Heaven & Earth," we decided on a dazzling electric green metal frame about half an inch wide. For "Churchstream," we picked a medium-toned brown wood frame about a quarter of an inch wide with gold undertones. Before I went in there, I would've bet money that I would NOT put "Churchstream" in a brown frame since it is abundantly brown, but the frame he showed me surprised me with how well it shows off the limited edition litho. I also made sure to get conservation glass so light doesn't damage the prints' colors. Altogether I'll spend around $150 plus tax for the framing, but I think it'll be worth it. I should have them back in about a week.

. . . and if that pricked anyone's souls, or balls, they could scratch them with a brick

14. The Angel's Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

This is a crazy good book -- and crazy crazy. Is the narrator truly a victim of a strange puppet master, or is he stark, raving mad? I haven't a friggin' clue. I know I can't intelligently discuss the plot without giving anything away, so I'll settle for this:

Zafon has written a novel that is part penny crime novel, part Grimm's grimmest. If you are into books that keep you guessing, this is the book for you. If you are bothered by a book that comes to a close and still leaves a couple of bits unsolved, this is NOT the book for you. I kind of wish I knew someone who's read it so I'd have someone with whom to discuss it. It's under my skin, niggling at me, and I'm trying to decipher fully what I've read.

Then again, given what I've read, maybe that's the point.

Five bright gold stars.

Quote

"Natural talent is like an athlete's strength. You can be born with more or less ability, but nobody can become an athlete just because he or she was born tall, or strong, or fast. What makes the athlete, or the artist, is the work, the vocation, and the technique. The intelligence you are born with is just ammunition. To achieve something with it you need to transform your mind into a high-precision weapon. . . . Every work of art is aggressive . . . . And every artist's life is a small war or a large one, beginning with oneself and one's limitations. To achieve anything you must first have ambition and then talent, knowledge, and finally the opportunity."

-- The Angel's Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, p. 182


The speaker in this case was talking about becoming a writer, but I think this is true for anything worth doing. A worthy vocation needs to be worked at and pounded on. Sometimes (many times) that working and pounding is hard, or tedious, or even boring, which means we have to work even harder at it. What's the fun in that? you might ask. The end product, that's what. Even if my end product (a scene for a fic, a paper for a class, a poster for a science meeting, a presentation for a symposium) receives a kind word from only one person, that makes all my work worth it.

BOO-YAH, BABY!!!

THE SAINTS WON THE SUPERBOWL!!!

THE SAINTS WON THE SUPERBOWL!!!

THE SAINTS WON THE SUPERBOWL!!!

::D does a crazy happy dance, complete with spinning in circles::

Every girl needs a hobby

13. Flirt (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter series #18) by Laurell K. Hamilton

A bonus book for the year from Ms. Hamilton who usually puts out one Anita book (around April/May/June) and one Merry Gentry book (around October/November/December) per year. This one has Anita back at her job at Animators, Inc. Her latest client, stinky rich Mr. Bennington, wants her to bring his wife Ilsa "back to life." He knows Anita is the only animator in the country who can raise his wife as a zombie and have her look alive. What Mr. Bennington is choosing to ignore is that his wife will eventually become a true zombie and begin to rot. He's deluded that she'll stay life-like forever, so Anita refuses to take the job. Problem is, Mr. Bennington won't take no for an answer.

An extra for this book is that after the story, Ms. Hamilton gives us a look into how this surprise book came to be in an effort to address probably her most often asked question, "Where do you get your ideas?" Now we know -- at least for Flirt.

We're all building narratives

12. The Man Who Loved Books Too Much: The True Story of a Thief, a Detective, and a World of Literary Obsession by Allison Hoover Bartlett

I picked up this book in anticipation of reading not a detective story in a book but a detective story about books. The subtitle, at least as I interpretted it, was a bit misleading. I was anticipating that the book thief would have been far more notorious than he is -- in fact, the only truly notable thing about him is that authorities don't know where he's hidden most of his stolen books (my money says in mummy's house in plain sight). What does make this book interesting is the question Hoover Bartlett asks over and over: what drives the obsession to collect rare books, whether legally or illegally? Money does not necessarily equate to legally purchased books, but what stops a person who clearly does not have the money from stealing a coveted book either from a bookseller or a library? It put me in mind of the couple of times I checked out the second edition of Darwin's On the Origin of Species from WSU's library. Both times I found myself seriously wondering what the library's lost book charge was, but both times I turned it back in. I doubt the 1871 edition has any value, but I wanted it not for the money but to have something from close in time to when the foundation of science was being shaken, close in time to the author himself. A treasure for one person might be junk to another. But wherein does true value lie -- in the money, or in the perception of the beholder?