Department Of Sometimes I Just Can’t Help Myself
Last week I ordered some Star Trek birthday cards, featuring the visage of Captain Jean Luc Picard, from an Etsy vendor. The vendor emailed me to verify the order:
I just wanted to contact you to say thank you for your order and to confirm your shipping information. So, you would like a set of 5 Star Trek Next Generation Birthday cards, shipped to ______(my address)
I of course had no choice but to respond: Make it so.
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Department Of I Love Learning New Things
And here are four New Things ® I’ve recently encountered. [1] The first, via my “reupping” my volunteer status for C.A.T. (Cat Adoption Team).
The typical female kitten or cat is (or once was) spayed via an abdominal incision. For several years now veterinarians have had the option of performing a “flank spay” – which uses a lateral entry. A lateral entry is especially useful for cats that are lactating, as it reduces chances of infection and makes it easier to monitor the incision as the cat does not have to be handled (turned on its back and its tender belly exposed) to do so.
How intriguing. Do tell us more.
New thing #2 is the third meaning of the word, abduction.
I was aware of the first two meanings of the word (1. The act of forcibly taking someone somewhere against their will; 2. The movement of a limb or muscle or other body part away from the mid-line of the body), but didn’t know that abduction is also a form of scientific reasoning, abductive aka inference) reasoning:
This came courtesy of a Freethought Radio podcast interview with physicist Sean M. Carroll,
Get on with it, please.
New Thing #3: “Your brain has a chemical imbalance.”
That statement always sounded fishy to me, even when I was using it, with family members suffering from depression, to discuss their situation. Sure, it sounds scienc-y…but what does it actually mean? As it turns out, in cases of brain disorders (aka depression and other mental illnesses), probably nothing, according to professor and psychologist Elliott Ingersoll, [2]. Ph.D. , who has given a provocative TED talk on the subject.
Unlike chemical imbalances in body organs or systems that can actually be measured (e.g. the insulin/blood sugar imbalance in diabetics, which can be measure through blood and urine tests), brain chemistry is highly complex and not completely understood. There is no way to measure levels of neurotransmitters, hormones and other messenger transmitters which may be involved in clinical depression, nor even an agreement on which ones are involved and what a “balance” of those would be.
I spent a decade researching psychopathology and psychopharmacology and neuroscience…but, I kept thinking I was missing something because I never came across what the actual chemicals were in this mysterious ‘chemical imbalance’ everyone kept talking about…. I came to realize that there was no such thing, and that, for years mental health professionals were telling clients, ‘You have a chemical imbalance in the brain,’ (A) there was no way to measure brain chemistry – it’s too complex and you can’t get it through peripheral measures like spinal fluid and, (B) I was more horrified to realize that this was being driven by marketing and pharmaceutical companies….”
(Dr. Ingersoll’s interview with Freethought Radio, 6-5-16
There is no New Thing #4.
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Department Of Kids Say The Darndest Things
Background info to apropos to this Department:
- Our annual family Solstice/Christmas/Year’s end letter to family and friends opens with a quote from each family member, chosen by each person to be somehow representative of the year for that particular family member…or to just confuse people.
- Son K is reveling in young adulthood: gainfully and happily employed, he’s residing in a house he rents along with four of his friends.
On Monday, apropos of seemingly nothing, K initiated the following exchange via FB Messenger:
K: Okay, my Christmas letter quote will be, “I am the Folks.”
Moiself: Nice to know in advance. I’m sure an explanation will be forthcoming.
K: door to door sales type guy asked if my folks were home and that was my response.
They are the folks.
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Department Of All Things Must Pass
Buh-bye to our Honda Odyssey minivan. It joined our household…over sixteen years ago – can that be? That’s the longest period of time MH or I have ever had a car.
MH decided to get the van during the height of his company’s stock boom years. While many of his (male) work peers were opting for what Perspicacious Friend © SCM describes to her daughter as, The kind of car a man buys when he has a small penis,” MH opted for the Practical Family Car ® . Indeed, the van served our family well over the years, with little output in terms of repairs, until recently, when that mutha Father Time turned it into a new-transmission-needing money pit.
Although I came to see the logic of acquiring a minivan, I was initially and strenuously opposed to the purchase. (“If I want to drive a bus I’ll get a job with Trimet,” I huffed to MH). And then, I found a way to make it – driving a minivan, FFS – more tolerable to me: I bumper-stickered the holy crap outta that vehicle:
The above picture was taken (unbeknownst at the time, by me) by a reporter for the now defunct [3] Hillsboro Argus, and appeared on the paper’s front page, circa late 2009. Although we subscribed to the paper MH and I had no idea the back of our van front page news, until a friend e-alerted us to check out the paper’s latest edition (“That HAS to be your van!”). The photo was accompanied by a sweet – if misleading – caption, written by someone who AS to be yourobviously didn’t read all the stickers:
No Personal politics on display, but a bumper crop of humorous stickers to make fellow motorists smile at stoplights.”
Over the years, after shopping at New Seasons Market or running some other errand, or returning to our van after, say, seeing a movie, we discovered hand-written notes pertaining to our stickers left on the windshield. On more than one occasion I returned to the van as someone was in the process of writing such a note. I enjoyed sneaking up on them, pretending to be Not The Owner, and usually greeted them by indicating the back of the van and cracking, “Get a load of these weirdos, eh?” to gauge their reaction.
It’s hard to believe, given the political and freethought nature of many of the stickers, that not once did anyone leave a negative comment (or slash our tires). Most of the notes expressed sentiments along the lines of this one, the only one I kept:
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Department Of Not Exactly Late Breaking News
In fact, I was wondering why it was even considered news, when I read that Rep. Speaker of the Houser Paul Ryan announced he will support Trump.
What an earth-shaking, bone-breaking, tooth-rattling, sphincter clenching surprise that absolutely no one could have predicted: The Republican Party leader announces he will support the Republican Party’s presidential candidate.
Please, someone bring me the smelling salts.
DO YOU SEE WHAT GAY MARRIAGE HAS LED TO ?!?!?!?!?!?!?
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Snakes on a Plane! ( Actually, in terrariums…. )
That was the subject line in ads MH and I placed on Craig’s List and the FB page for Oregon Reptile Association. We are trying – successfully, if current arrangements go well – to re-home our cornsnake, T’Pol, and ball python, Andy.
The snakes were acquired many years ago by our offspring, along with the late great bearded dragon, Belle (from whom my daughter took her pseudonym for the purposes of this blog).
Blueberry-loving Belle
All were captive bred, acquired during the kids’ Reptile Are Cool Years ® (Belle the BD has since gone to join the great Beardy collective consciousness). In the past couple of years the snakes weren’t getting much pet action, what with son K and daughter Belle out of the house; thus, MH and I decided that finding another home for them was a Nest Cleaning ® thing to do.
T’Pol on a hot day, enjoying a dip in her water dish.
We let K and Belle know of our intentions. [4] Even as they understand our reasons for re-homing the reptiles, I imagine they’ve a certain sense of poignancy re the matter: another piece of childhood passing by.
A rare picture of Andy not curled up into a ball (which ball pythons like to do).
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Department Of Signs Of The Times
The first (and not last, I hope) political yard sign of the season that’s made me laugh.
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Department Of Current Events: In Case You Hadn’t Noticed
I am not planning on addressing the case of the Stanford Student/Swimmer who raped an unconscious women in this space. The despicable incident is just now coming to the general public’s attention due to the sentencing of the rapist and the revealing statements from the victim, the rapist’s father, and the rapist himself. I’ve let just a smidgen of my disgust and outrage leak out onto FB, but I just cannot go there…here.
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May you heed the signs of the times;
May you leave kind notes on other people’s windshields;
May you be able to there when you are here,
…and may the hijinks ensue.
Thanks for stopping by. Au Vendredi!
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[1] New to moiself, although other people may find some of these tidbits old nets.
[2] Yep, related to (a great-grandnephew of) the greatest American few people outside of the Freethought and atheist communities have heard of, the 19th century civil rights champion, orator & lawyer Robert G. Ingersoll.
[3] as an actual, as opposed to virtual, community newspaper.
[4] And overrule it, should they be able to provide a home (read: get a landlord’s approval) for one or both snakes.
