Fish for Friday

Edited by Morris Dean

[Anonymous selections from recent correspondence]

There's something Leonard Pitts, Jr. has never understood about the argument over global warming. "Pope Francis urges consensus on climate change." Excerpt:

...In this latest encyclical, Pope Francis calls for a "bold, cultural revolution" to stem the harm done to the planet from warming that is occurring "mainly as a result of human activity."
    He condemns a fixation on technological advance at the cost of the planet's health - and the "magical" idea that the free market can reverse this damage if corporations and individuals enjoy a sufficient increase in profits. The refusal to accept that Earth's resources are finite has led, the letter says, to "the planet being squeezed dry at every limit."
    It is a powerful and affecting passage - more so, perhaps, if one were to go read it aloud on some shrunken Alaskan ice floe, some cracked California lake bed, some Miami Beach street flooded on a sunny day, some denuded West Virginia deathscape where a mountaintop once lived.
    Not that everyone has been moved. To the contrary, the predictable people responded to the papal appeal in the predictable ways. Rush Limbaugh accused the pontiff of Marxism while Sen. James Inhofe advised that, "The pope ought to stay with his job, and we'll stay with ours." He was echoed by presidential wannabes Jeb Bush and Rick Santorum, the latter advising Pope Francis to "leave science to the scientists."
    So here's what I don't get. It seems to me we are dealing with competing worst-case scenarios....
    One: We could have saved some money and didn't.
    Two: We could have saved the planet - and failed.
    How is that even a debate?

I saw this in my doctor's office: "Which would fit better in your busy schedule: 1 hour of exercise per day, or 24 hours of being dead?"

1948 Los Angeles, street car chaos

Over a barrel. In the days before CPR a drowning victim would be placed face down over a barrel and the barrel would be rolled back and forth in a effort to empty the lungs of water. It was rarely effective. If you are over a barrel you are in deep trouble.

There is nothing just about our criminal justice system. It's racist and destructive. It's not making us safer. And it's a disaster for our economy.
    Please watch End Mass Incarceration [a 3-minute video by Robert Reich] now to see what we can and must do.

Sure, over the years, my heart has been broken. How can your heart not break, when you lose a loved one, or when a child suffers, or even when somebody's beloved pet gets hit by a car? But broken hearts are what give us strength, and understanding, and compassion. A heart never broken, is pristine, and sterile, and will never know the joy of being imperfect.

More truth about "S'tralia" from Douglas Adams:

The last confusing thing about Australia [after its animals] is the inhabitants.
    A short history: Sometime around 40,000 years ago some people arrived in boats from the north. They ate all the available food, and a lot of them died. The ones who survived learned respect for the balance of nature, man's proper place in the scheme of things, and spiders. They settled in and spent a lot of the intervening time making up strange stories. Then, around 200 years ago, Europeans arrived in boats from the north. More accurately, European convicts were sent, with a few deranged people in charge. They tried to plant their crops in autumn (failing to take account of the reversal of the seasons), ate all their food, and a lot of them died.
    About then the sheep arrived, and have been treasured ever since. It is interesting to note here that the Europeans always consider themselves vastly superior to any other race they encounter, since they can lie, cheat, steal and litigate (marks of a civilized culture they say), whereas all the Aboriginals can do is happily survive being left in the middle of a vast red-hot desert, equipped with a stick. Eventually, the new lot of people stopped being Europeans on 'extended holiday' and became Australians.
    The changes are subtle, but deep, caused by the mind-stretching expanses of nothingness and eerie quiet, where a person can sit perfectly still and look deep inside themselves to the core of their essence, their reasons for being, and the necessity of checking inside their boots every morning for fatal surprises. They also picked up the most finely tuned sense of irony in the world, and the Aboriginal gift for making up stories.
    Be warned. There is also the matter of the beaches. Australian beaches are simply the nicest and best in the world, although anyone actually venturing into the sea will have to contend with sharks, stinging jellyfish, stonefish (a fish which sits on the bottom of the sea, pretends to be a rock and has venomous barbs sticking out of its back that will kill just from the pain) and surfboarders.
    However, watching a beach sunset is worth the risk. As a result of all this hardship, dirt, thirst and wombats, you would expect Australians to be a dour lot. Instead, they a re genial, jolly cheerful and always willing to share a kind word with a stranger. Faced with insurmountable odds and impossible problems, they smile disarmingly and look for a stick. Major engineering feats have been performed with sheets of corrugated iron, string and mud.
    Alone of all the races on earth, they seem to be free from the Grass is greener on the other side of the fence syndrome, and roundly proclaim that Australia is, in fact, the other side of that fence. They call the land "Oz" or "Godzone" (a verbal contraction of "God's Own Country").
    The irritating thing about this is they may be right.

Nanosecond photo:

If I agreed with you, we'd both be wrong.

Small town of Blagaj – Bosnia and Herzegovina

We never really grow up – we only learn how to act in public.

The article "Experiment confirms quantum theory weirdness" in ScienceDaily that "At the quantum level reality does not exist until you look at it."
    In a way, this sounds like a metaphor for writing, especially autobiographic writing. One discovers so many relations and perspectives which initially were inert or not understood. That is, the past becomes alive by understanding its latent possibilities.
    It's actually a good metaphor for writing in general. Much thinking, even, doesn't exist until you start writing. You think by the act of writing.

Having a bad day?

Have you ever wondered...how terrifying the human face is when it’s forming in the womb?

Since light travels faster than sound, some people appear bright until you hear them speak.

What a delight to see Al Franken counter Jon Stewart's attempt to get him to name a few of his colleague U.S. Senators he finds stupid. Watch Al Franken on The Daily Show [7:21].

I wonder who the police were hiring with those flashing-lights videos? "New Era in Police Recruitment: Courting Hearts and Minds." [Michael R. Sisak Associated Press, ABC News] Excerpt:

They poach officers from nearby police departments. They entice recruits by playing up the drama and heroism of policing through video close-ups of flashing lights and holstered guns....

If you have strong feelings about guns – whether you love them or hate them – this is a must watch! [15:46]


Limerick of the week:

Chef's Napoleons brought to mind what they say
about apples, how "An apple a day—"
    My wife interrupts my soliloguy
    to push them out of my vicinity:
"Not daily! Bimonthly MIGHT be okay."

[My wife and I enjoyed Napoleons yesterday at The French Corner Bakery, in Durham, North Carolina. The photograph is from Chef Benjamin's Facebook page, which I encourage you to visit. Of course, if you make it to Durham, try a Napoleon too!]

Copyright © 2015 by Morris Dean