Marvels of Evolution

I'm reading a recently published work by famed evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, THE GENETIC BOOK OF THE DEAD. The title refers to this book's dominant metaphor of a palimpsest, a document whose text has been written over, sometimes more than once. On a literal palimpsest, the original words have been obliterated by the later ones. That isn't the case with the genetic, anatomical, physiological, and behavioral traces that reveal the ancestral past of animals and other living creatures, so the metaphor isn't perfect (as Dawkins notes) but still makes a fruitful device for contemplating the evolution of life on Earth. As the cover blurb puts it, every creature can be regarded as "an archive of the worlds of its ancestors." What do an animal's body structure, genome, and behavior inform us about the environment that shaped it?

Naturally, it's easy to tell a herbivore's skull from a carnivore's by their teeth. We can learn much more about the past of various species by observing present-day creatures, though. A lizard with skin like rocks and sand must have descended from ancestors that lived in a desert; the forebears of insects that look like twigs must have evolved in trees. Many other types of visual deception exist, some truly weird. The "palimpsest" can tell us about animals whose predecessors left the ocean to become land-dwellers, returned to the sea, and some cases even developed back into terrestrial animals. Convergent evolution can result in animals that look uncannily similar although not at all closely related, because they've developed to fill the same kinds of environmental niches. One page illustrates a variety of marsupials alongside their placental mammal counterparts, some almost indistinguishable to a casual glance. "Divergent" evolution, on the other hand, concerns closely related species that have developed so differently in different habitats that they look nothing alike, e.g., whales and hippos. And those topics take us less than halfway through the book. In an exciting twist in the final chapter, for instance, we learn that we may have acquired a nontrivial portion of our genes from ancient viruses.

For another mind-blowing work by Dawkins, check out THE ANCESTOR'S TALE. This one adopts its metaphor from Chaucer's THE CANTERBURY TALES, which portrays a group of pilgrims coming from far and wide to unite and travel together. Beginning with modern humans, Dawkins follows the evolution of life backward by successive stages to each most recent common ancestor -- our common ancestor with other hominids, then the shared progenitor of hominids and other apes, through primates, placental mammals, etc., back to the hypothetical original ancestor of all life on our planet. Of course, as the author points out, no matter what modern-day creature we start from, we ultimately end up at the same point. He starts with Homo Sapiens simply because that's us. THE ANCESTOR'S TALE is the most comprehensive survey of the development of life on Earth I've ever read.

Some animals and plants are so odd -- to human observers -- that an SF author wouldn't need to search far to discover concepts for bizarre aliens right here on our world. Reverting to THE GENETIC BOOK OF THE DEAD, I find the chapter on convergent evolution particularly interesting. It's often claimed that if life exists on other planets, the inhabitants won't look anything like earthlings. But why not? If we discover a planet with geography, climate, gravity, and atmosphere similar to Earth's, couldn't those environmental conditions lead to the development of organisms that strongly resemble the plants and animals we know? Biological constraints work the same everywhere on Earth, so why not on other Earth-like planets? There could even be humanoid or quasi-humanoid intelligent beings on such a world.

Margaret L. Carter

Please explore love among the monsters at Carter's Crypt.

Old Wives' Tales

This is said to be a sad time of year, as in S.A.D. or Seasonally Affective Disorder.

Laughter is the best medicine, some say. My inner skeptic assumed that those who said so were mostly professional comedians, authors of humor, and cartoonists, but I did some research and found some laughter enthusiasts in the medical field,  including Lawrence Robinson, Melinda Smith, and Jeanne Segal.

See here: https://www.helpguide.org/mental-health/wellbeing/laughter-is-the-best-medicine

Others say that food is the best medicine. Of course, that does not mean any food, and in the instance of food, quality beats quantity.

See here: https://time.com/longform/food-best-medicine/

I created a recipe this morning which I should like to share. It could be way less expensive than a trip to a urologist, and quicker to prepare than a trip to a pharmacy.  Try it at the first hint of a tickle when you tinkle.

Small saucepan, preferably glass.

Large teaspoon.

Bag of dried cranberries. (you will need a generous cupful)

Bag of Pearl Barley (you will need a handful.... this is not scientific)

Heaped teaspoon of Braswell's Jalapeño jam (Braswell's Red Pepper jam will do)

Hot water

Cupful of water in which you previously boiled beetroot (and set aside for any sediment to settle).

Put everything in the saucepan and boil for 15 minutes or longer depending on how soft you like your barley.

Serve warm in a bowl, with spoon.

Reheat later in the day, serve warm again.

You can buy Braswell's jams from Amazon.

If you have gout, add dried cherries, or make with all cherries.

Why? Barley water is an old British wives cure for UTIs. Eat the barley and you add very special fiber which will help with regularity. Look up Lemon Barley water. 

Cranberries are an old American wives cure for bacterial issues in the bladder. Some say they coat the bladder and prevent bacteria from getting a foothold, or whatever kind of hold bacteria get when they set up a squat inside a body.

Water is good for flushing out the bacteria that you wish to eject before they can multiply.

Beetroot water is not essential for the recipe, but if you are starting an infection, your BP may be raised, and beets are high in folate and  nitrates which turn into nitric oxide which relaxes the blood vessels and lowers blood pressure temporarily (without enriching Big Pharma). Beets also fight inflammation.  For other benefits of beets, see here: https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/benefits-of-beets

Since it is a red concoction owing to the cranberries and the jelly, a bit of beet in it goes down a treat.

There's no real reason to add the sweet heat of jalapeño or red pepper jam, except that it is good, and healthy for some folks. I like to boil my beets and then slice and reheat them in the oven with olive oil, a shake of chili powder, and a loving spoonful of Braswell's jelly. I put jelly on halved, microwaved sweet potatoes, too. The jelly is also good slathered on salmon while it bakes.

If it is the only sugary stuff you have all day, you can afford it.

All the best,

Rowena Cherry

Taking the Bucket Out of the Bucket List, Part 1 by Karen S. Wiesner

Taking the Bucket Out of the Bucket List, Part 1

by Karen S. Wiesner

 

 

In this updated, two part reprisal of earlier posts on the Alien Romances blog, I discuss the wisdom and benefits of, and strategies for, drawing up a personal bucket list as early as possible--long before the curtain of a life is drawn. Only slightly belated as you draw up your New Year's resolutions, I encourage everyone, not just those interested in writing (or aliens!), to read this.

About 10 years ago, I sort of watched the movie The Bucket List out of my peripheral vision. My husband is fond of watching movies on one of our TVs while I play videogames on the other. Condensing the theme of that movie, two terminally ill, older men come up with a wish list of things they want to do--and, in an abbreviated amount of time, they attempt to fulfill them--before their time on Earth literally runs out. My first thought in response to the theme of this film was, Why would anyone want to do this when they're old, tired, dying, and it's nearly too late? Why not do the things you're passionate about long before there actually is a countdown to death and while young enough to truly enjoy the adventure(s) undertaken? Few questions have ever motivated me more than these two. 

As far as the internet can tell, the term "bucket list" was either created or popularized by that 2007, so-named movie. A bucket list is believed to relate to the idiom "kick the bucket", which is a term that originated in the 16th century. Be prepared to cringe: The wooden frame that was used to suspend slaughtered animals was called a bucket. I think you can guess what happened after they were hung up by their hooves. Yikes. Long story short, there was a lot of kicking done just prior to death. A bucket list, then, is created to clarify what one wishes to accomplish either in a specific timeframe (as in, "one and done" tasks completed in a short amount of time) or by the end of a life (long-term projects). Bucket list wishes can be self-actualization goals or ones you've set for endeavors such as charity work, career, or family or friend-related purposes. 

While at that time I didn't really sit down and write up a formal bucket list of my own, I thought long and hard about which goals would make mine. The most important factors in doing this, for me, were, first and foremost, that I would be able to enjoy them all throughout the rest of my life, and, only slightly less important, that I'd be able to accomplish my personal goals earlier in life than "at the end". 

My list actually wasn't that difficult to come up with, as I'm sure other people will discover as well, because many of these were already passions I was unwilling or unable to indulge in thus far in my life. In the process, I formulated a list of four things I'd spent my lifetime up to that point dreaming about but not believing I could do. My reasons for not doing them stemmed from a) the expense involved, b) the lack of time to undertake them, and c) being very aware that it takes me a long time and a whole lot of effort to learn new things (in part because I was already 45 years old when I embarked on this). 

Unofficially, I suppose the first real bucket list wish I made started with writing. I wrote (and illustrated) my first story when I was eight, and I always knew that was what I wanted to do more than anything else. There was little if any encouragement around me for this endeavor but, in the defense of my friends and family, becoming a success in this field isn't exactly a stable environment or income. When I was 20, I was determined to make a go of it regardless. My first book was published when I was 27…just after I'd made the heartrending decision to quit writing because I'd already invested nearly a decade attempting and failing to get published. Sometimes it takes that kind of irony to kick you in the pants and inspire you to reach for more. I spent the next 27 years of my life setting goals and pouring my all into making something of my writing. As I near the end of my writing career at the age of almost 55, my published credits in most every genre imaginable have passed 150 titles and these have garnered nominations or wins for over 130 awards. 

The bucket list of lifelong passions I officially came up with after watching The Bucket List was quickly assembled (written down here years later in all the detail I imagined from its origin), prioritizing my wishes according to my deepest desires: 

#1: Learn to play piano. I've loved music all my life. I can't stand silence so music fills all my waking moments. I wasn't allowed to learn an instrument in school, and I'd wanted to from the moment the possibility was brought up. My goal in doing this wasn't fame or to perform in a professional setting. It would only ever be for private enrichment and perhaps to accompany family and friends--many of them musicians. 

I started small with the first Alfred's Piano instruction book and my son's discarded keyboard. I practiced every day, teaching myself from the manual and asking my guitar- and saxophone-playing husband (who was part of the praise team band at our church) for help whenever I needed it. Naturally, that keyboard quickly didn't have what I needed to advance (88 keys and pedals), but a generous gift allowed me to purchase my first beautiful piano. I also started taking piano lessons nearly a year into my efforts and took them for more than four years. When my instructor moved away, I went back to teaching myself. 

At the time I started, I committed myself to this, my #1 bucket list priority, and I was disciplined in daily practice and learning as much as I could about all aspects. I knew going into it that it would be the biggest challenge of my life, and, boy, was (and is) it. But it's worth it. Nearly a decade in now, I'm still learning, still developing, still passionate about it, and it's something I'll do, and enjoy, until the day I die. 

#2: Develop my drawing and artistic skills across many types of media. I've been writing children's books as long as I can remember, but finding someone to illustrate them hasn't been easy. I've had many stories that I've written that I couldn't get anyone to provide artwork for so they're sitting in my story cupboard, unpublished. In the past, I often wished that the fledgling talent I've had all my life in this field could be cultivated and honed into true ability. While I didn't at first intend to make illustrating children's books a career, when I made my decision several years ago to retire from writing soon, I realized that it was exactly what I wanted to do once I'd completed the last of my 16 book series. 

I started slow and cheap. Using inexpensive pencils and drawing pads or typing paper I already had lying around the house, I randomly drew whatever inspired me whenever I had downtime from writing. In the first year I undertook this, I produced a few good things. I wasn't trying to do anything serious beyond seeing what I could accomplish and what my strengths and weaknesses were. I knew if I let myself get too excited, it would interrupt my writing, and I didn't want to do that, considering I was counting down to completing my last several novels. I wanted to devote myself to making those stories the best they could be. 

Finding myself slowing down in general with nearly everything in my life, recovering from writing projects became much more difficult for me. I needed longer breaks and other ways to relax in between projects. I invested a bit more time and money into my artistic endeavors. I found a place that offers affordable DVD/streaming courses taught by some of the best experts in their respective fields and purchased three art classes on drawing, pencil coloring, and painting. These could be done as I had time and I could set my own pace. I purchased artist grade pencils, paper, and other supplies and equipment. Additionally, I reworked my daily and yearly goals to include times of writing and times of art. I also decided to bring along my readers on this endeavor by posting my art (such as it was) on my Facebook page. The response has been both motivating and moving. 

As my artistic abilities grow, I'm finding the process hard, but also realizing I can do things I could never have imagined I was capable of in the past. At the moment, I'm still reining in how much time and effort I devote to these endeavors, but, as of late 2024, I'd finished the final books in my last two series. By the time I'm ready to get started illustrating my first children's book, I'm hoping I'll have a wide variety of mediums I'm skilled enough in to utilize. Now that I'm completely done writing, all I have to do is wait for the last ten of my books to be edited and published. It's full-speed ahead on art while I wait.

#3: Learn a second language. I took a year of French in high school and I was actually really good at reading and writing the language, just not speaking it. When it started getting mathematical (the way they do numbers is hard!), I dropped out. I've regretted my decision not to continue. Also, I used to have a friend who spoke native Spanish, and I always wished I could understand her when she talked to her family in the language. That would have been the perfect time to start learning, as I could have gotten real feedback and help in learning, but I wasn't motivated at that time. My husband is very good at languages--he taught himself ancient Greek and he's using a program that makes learning a language fun and easy to advance for Spanish. He's constantly asking me to join him in the program, but with writing, piano, and art in my daily life taking up most of my time and energy, I'm spread a little thin. In mid-2024, I started using this language program. My Spanish "score" is currently at 20. Six months ago it was 0.) 

#4: Learning. Just learning. Like most people, I have a lot of random interests that I've never had a lot of time to explore--learning to sing professionally (I do have natural talent in this regard, luckily) as an accompaniment to playing piano, professional photography to help my illustrating, finding out more about unique periods of history (Medieval specifically), geography, space, art culture, and science. The place where I got my art DVDs offers courses in a lot of these disciplines that interest me. I don't currently have a lot of time, but I've already mentioned that I don't care for silence. Usually I fill it with music or art lessons. However, there are frequent slots in my day where I could easily be listening to a lecture, learning more about any one of these random interests. I always want to be learning new things that may inspire any of my other abilities to new heights of creativity.

Next week we'll talk about strategies in taking the next step toward achieving the goals in your life you're most passionate about seeing fulfilled. 

"Seize the life and the day will follow!" ~Linda Derkez  

Karen Wiesner is an award-winning, multi-genre author of over 150 titles and 16 series.

Visit her website here: https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/

and https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/karens-quill-blog 

Find out more about her books and see her art here: http://www.facebook.com/KarenWiesnerAuthor 

Visit her publisher here: https://www.writers-exchange.com/Karen-Wiesner/

Character Building

What builds character?

In the fictional sense, I used to assign a star sign and read my fictional character's horoscope and all their astrological compatibilities and incompatibilities. I also put a lot in store by what he had in his pockets or she had in her handbag or purse.

I've got a new one. Just as there are said to be--in fiction--Twenty Master Plots, some psycho-therapists claim that there are sixteen personality types.

You can take a test to find out what your own type is:

https://www.16personalities.com/personality-types

If that is too much trouble, you can reverse engineer this example:

https://www.16personalities.com/intj-personality

As for character in real life, according to Hillsdale College, character is built from the study of the highest things, of the great, the good, and the beautiful in art and literature and philosophy.

The Bible takes a darker view.
https://www.openbible.info/topics/character_development

"The Bible has a lot to say about how suffering produces godly character. In Romans 5:3-4, it says, “We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation.”

https://www.str.org/w/suffering-adversity-and-character-development

Suffering, adversity, endurance, being misunderstood certainly make for a hero or heroine's interesting back story.

I rented INVICTUS last night (on Amazon Prime TV). I've seen it 3x before, but it is quite the study in character, inspiration, and the power of forgiveness and kindness.... also, how supporting a nation's sports team can unite a divided nation.

Happy New Year to everyone.

All the best,

Rowena Cherry

{Put This One on Your TBR List} Book Review: The Wood at Midwinter by Susanna Clarke by Karen S. Wiesner

 

{Put This One on Your TBR List}

Book Review: The Wood at Midwinter by Susanna Clarke

by Karen S. Wiesner

 

 

Susanna Clarke is the author of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, an enormous, epic fantasy that was the author's debut novel. More of that world is explored in the author's short story collection, The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories. I reviewed both of these previously. You can read them here: 

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell https://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2023/09/book-review-jonathan-strange-mr-norrell.html 

The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories https://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2023/11/karen-s-wiesner-put-this-one-on-your_02046837301.html 

Clarke's first novel in this alternative history world felt incomplete to most who read it because it ended on what I consider a cliffhanger. The author intended a sequel set a few years after the first. Though readers had to expect the follow-up to take a long time to write (Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell took ten years to complete), we later learned Clarke is plagued by chronic fatigue syndrome. She's reported that the fate of the sequel is still “a long way off” but may also never be finished because of her condition. I truly hope she someday has the strength to complete it. In the meantime, we've been given a new story set within that magical world, The Wood at Midwinter. I purchased the hardcover as soon as it was published in 2024 (it was read on BBC Radio 4 around the time of Christmas 2022). Illustrations were done by Victoria Sawdon (I couldn't find out much about her online, though she's seems to be active on several social media sites I'm not subscribed to). This tale is so brief, anything I said about it would be to practically tell the whole story, so it might be best to just include the back cover blurb as a summary: 

Nineteen-year-old Merowdis Scot is an unusual girl. She can talk to animals and trees--and she is only ever happy when she is walking in the woods.

One snowy afternoon, out with her dogs and Apple the pig, Merowdis encounters a blackbird and a fox. As darkness falls, a strange figure enters in their midst--and the path of her life is changed forever.

The illustrations are elegant, delicate, and pivotal to the story (which makes it a little sad that the illustrator's name wasn't on the cover!). Grounded in folktale, this charming fable sets the scene for winter's frozen beauty. Slightly sad and very sweet, it would make the perfect gift for Christmas. Also, I tried to view it as a simple children's story. In that way, it doesn't require any aspect to be fleshed out more than it is between the few words and breathtaking illustrations included. If you don't go into it expecting more than that, you won't be disappointed. 

If not for the author's afterword (nine pages out of a total of a mere 60), there's simply no way to link this to the world of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell beyond the very tenuous connection to "magic in the midst". As Susanna Clarke is also the author of one of my favorite stories of all time (Piranesi--read my review here: https://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2023/10/karen-s-wiesner-put-this-one-on-your_0415966123.html), I'll gratefully take this and any story from her. 

Karen Wiesner is an award-winning, multi-genre author of over 150 titles and 16 series.

Visit her website here: https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/

and https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/karens-quill-blog

Find out more about her books and see her art here: http://www.facebook.com/KarenWiesnerAuthor 

Visit her publisher here: https://www.writers-exchange.com/Karen-Wiesner/

Anti-Santas

Nowadays almost everybody has heard of Krampus, the goatlike humanoid creature from central Europe who accompanies Saint Nicholas to punish naughty children:

Krampus

Yuletide legends of various regions, however, include many other scary figures who perform this "bad cop" function in contrast to Saint Nicholas's "good cop" role of bringing gifts to well-behaved children. The Christmas gift-giver, apparently, has often been split into two entities so that Santa can be conceived as kind and generous rather than punitive. Not that our modern concept of him is totally free from the latter trait: "He see you when you're sleeping. . . .he knows when you've been bad or good, so be good for goodness' sake." In Germany, Knecht Ruprecht (who might have evolved from a folkloric image of the Devil, according to some scholars) leaves coal and switches for bad children or sometimes hits them with the bag of ashes he carries. The Dutch Zwarte Piet ("Black Pete"), perhaps originally a kobold or a captured demon, sometimes distributes sweets to good children as well as switches to bad ones but often serves mainly as the "bad cop" to leave the benign role to Saint Nick. "Black" could refer to the soot covering his body, but some traditions depict him as racially Black, a detail that has made this Christmas henchman controversial. Belsnickel, also from Germany, combines gift-giving and punishment-dispensing functions. He traveled to Pennsylvania with German immigrants. In France, Père Fouettard carries a whip to punish naughty boys and girls. One legend gruesomely describes his origin as a butcher who killed and chopped up children; after repenting, he had to do penance by becoming the assistant of Saint Nicholas.

This Wikipedia entry discusses several dark or ambiguous personages who accompany Saint Nick in European legends:

Companions of Saint Nicholas

THE FRIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS (2023), an entertainingly written and profusely illustrated book by Jeff Belanger, collects the lore of a wide variety of "Yuletide monsters."

The Fright Before Christmas

In the Zwarte Piet tradition, some folksongs warn that as the assistant of Sinterklaas (Saint Nicholas) he may carry off naughty kids in his sack to Sinterklaas's workshop, where they're forced to toil for an indefinite period of servitude. Coincidentally, before having come across this bit of lore, last week I posted this twisted-Santa flash fiction on my website:

You Better Watch Out

Margaret L. Carter

Please explore love among the monsters at Carter's Crypt.

Pour BOIR

 Pourboire is French for a tip. Loosely, it means, "To buy yourself a drink." "Pour" means "for" and "boire" means "to drink".

 

B.O.I.R. is the Beneficial Ownership Information report, and here is a tip.

"...the Corporate Transparency Act Beneficial Ownership Information rule (CTA BOI rule) has a looming deadline of JANUARY 1.

It is an unconstitutional rule that treats small business owners like financial criminals and has egregious penalties, including nearly $600 a day and jail time for non-compliance."

However, apparently there has been a temporary "stay" (check the Treasury Department site yourself) owing to a lawsuit, so the swingeing penalties and the deadline may not be in force.

See here: https://fincen.gov/boi

Back in March (of 2024), Mark Friedlich ESQ., CPA, of Wolters Kluwer posted about a minimal number of small businesses who were exempted from filing.

 

Read it here (although it is old news.)

https://www.wolterskluwer.com/en/expert-insights/corporate-transparency-act-ruled-unconstitutional-what-it-means-for-beneficial-ownership-reporting

Here's a better tip.

Now, just a week ago, Carol Roth reports that there has been a real reprieve for everyone who makes decisions within a Condo Association, HOA, small business, S-corp, LLC etc etc.  Her explanation is really worth reading for anyone who might have been caught up in the wide net.

https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/small-businesses-get-temporary-reprieve-from-big-brother-need-more-certainty

For once, perhaps, procrastination pays off!

 

But, maybe don't bank on it. The stay is temporary. Reporting for the time being is voluntary, and it is possible that the next administration might do away with such time wasting, intrusive red tape. 

 

In fact, there is a well-named bill, "Repealing Big Brother Overreach Act" which was introduced in the House of Representatives by Rep. Warren Davidson, R-Ohio, and in the Senate by Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Alabama.... introduced way back in April, and still languishing.

Read about it here: 

https://davidson.house.gov/2024/4/repwarren-davidson-introduces-repealing-big-brother-overreach-ac

 

If you are a writer or an aspiring writer, you probably ought to own an LLC. Legal Zoom is one place to start, or you can look up "Start an LLC...." + the name of the State you are in. If you have an LLC, you will have to file an annual report ($25) online with your State, and you will have to file a BOI report if the rule is reinstated.

You also might like to contact your representatives and senators in order to encourage them to support the Repealing Big Brother Overreach Act.

All the best,

Rowena Cherry

SPACE SNARK™  

https://www.spacesnark.com/  

https://www.rowenacherry.com

Karen S. Wiesner {Put This One on Your TBR List} Book Review: "The Further Adventures of Ebenezer Scrooge" by Charlie Lovett

{Put This One on Your TBR List}

Book Review: "The Further Adventures of Ebenezer Scrooge"

by Charlie Lovett

by Karen S. Wiesner

"Merry Christmas" ringing out in the sweltering heat of a June summer? What else would be on the lips of a transformed man after the events of "A Christmas Carol" (which was the focus of my December 22, 2023 column "The Practice of Benevolence {A Reflection on Dicken's A Christmas Carol}" https://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2023/12/the-practice-of-benevolence-reflection.html). "The Further Adventures of Ebenezer Scrooge" by Charlie Lovett--author of such highly recommended literary mystery titles as The Bookman's Tale and First Impressions--was published in 2015, which came 172 years after Dickens' timeless tale.

In this, Scrooge's testimony of a transformed life, twenty years have passed since he was visited by the ghosts that changed everything in a single night. His radical shift, as the joy and benevolence of Christmas become an integral part of his daily life, have spilled over to those around him, altering them as well, but not always for the better. Scrooge gives of himself and his wealth sacrificially--leaving little or nothing for his own meager requirements--to all in need. Nothing discourages his cheer. However, the hard lessons he's learned haven't necessarily carried over to those he loves.

His nephew Fred (Freddie) has a wife and family, along with an uncompromising governmental position working for the assistant to the undersecretary. Unfortunately, he's grasped that, "with bills to pay…books to balance…a year older and not a farthing richer", he can afford no more than a few days of Christmas each year.

In Scrooge's own business, Bob Cratchit has been made a partner, only he's allowed his extreme work ethic to dominate his life to the exclusion of his once beloved family and their many grandchildren.

Meanwhile, the bankers (affectionately called Pleasant and Portly by Scrooge) have become more concerned with Scrooge's current balance of outstanding debt rather than "making some slight concession for the poor" not simply once a year at the holidays. Scrooge writes cheques his account can't cover in order to help the destitute running rampant in their city.

That evening, Scrooge is visited by the ghost of his former partner, Jacob Marley. His heavy chains of penance have been lessened by Scrooge's redemption--but only by five links. Marley holds no hope that he can ever decrease it more. Scrooge is determined to help his old friend eliminate the weighty burden and send him to a well-deserved rest. To do that, he calls upon the familiar spirits of Christmas Past, Present, and Future to teach valuable lessons about living Christmas charity all year round to Freddie, Bob, and the bankers.

Although I was originally put off by the idea of the characters I knew and loved in the original story taking on the less than appealing traits Scrooge once displayed (essentially becoming hypocrites, as the only time of year that seemed to bring out goodwill in all of them was at Christmas), I did find the evolving facets of their personality realistic:

·       In "A Christmas Carol", Scrooge's nephew was very young, newly married, without a family and position as the breadwinner and a member of society to weigh him down. With greater responsibility come greater burdens.

·       Cratchit was moved overnight from apprentice to partner, and he'd known Scrooge long enough not to be fully trusting that that situation couldn't change in a duplicitous heartbeat.

·       And bankers…well, bankers are known for loving wealth, not spreading it around as if it's easy to come by.

I was also won over by how Lovett took familiar quotes from the original "paraphrasing, parodying, and plagiarizing passages" (as he says). Because of the clever repurposing Lovett did with those beloved sections, I began to notice that this story was structured and laid out almost scene by scene just as the original story had been. In that way, "The Further Adventures of Ebenezer Scrooge" stayed true to its processor.

Additionally, Lovett incorporated Dickens--also a great social reformer in his time, as his debatably most famous character Scrooge became--into this story with references of Dickens as a famous author in Scrooge's time. Finally, allusions were made to Dickens' other works, where he described the less fortunate in Victorian London in such works as Bleak House, Little Dorrit, David Copperfield, and others.

If you love re-reading the enduring morals taught in "A Christmas Carol" during the holidays as I do, you'll adore "The Further Adventures of Ebenezer Scrooge" any time of year as an apt reminder that not only can we bless others less fortunate than ourselves with our kindness and benevolence, but that we inevitably receive the same in exchange by opening our hands and our hearts. In this way, we also further the game-changing principle of "paying it forward" one precious life at a time.

Karen Wiesner is an award-winning, multi-genre author of over 150 titles and 16 series.

Visit her website here: https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/

and https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/karens-quill-blog

Find out more about her books and see her art here: http://www.facebook.com/KarenWiesnerAuthor

Visit her publisher here: https://www.writers-exchange.com/Karen-Wiesner/

Octopus Superpowers

I came across another article about the delightful weirdness and surprising intelligence of octopuses:

10 Incredible Facts About Octopuses

In addition to their amazing powers of camouflage, shapeshifting, and squeezing through tiny spaces, they can use tools, recognize people, and solve problems such as opening jars and navigating mazes. They would make an excellent template for an alien sapient species.

With their eight flexible arms, they arguably have a greater capacity for manipulating objects than we do. However, one problem would inhibit them from developing an advanced technological culture, no matter how intelligent they might become -- their aquatic environment. An underwater creature can't use fire and therefore can't work with metal.

One species, though, spends a nontrivial amount of its life on land:

Adopus Aculeatus

This small octopus "lives on beaches walking from one tidal pool to the next hunting for crabs." We could imagine a planet rich in tidal ecosystems dominated by an intelligent population of amphibious octopuses. For them to invent what we'd consider an advanced civilization, though, their evolutionary history would need to include some urgent motivation for developing such skills. No doubt a clever science fiction author could come up with a plausible scenario to produce that result.

Unfortunately for Earth octopuses' prospect of developing intelligence to rival ours and filling an aquatic niche similar to the human land-bound role, their short lifespans and habit of dying soon after reproducing limit them. Creating a culture that could transmit knowledge from older to younger generations would require a mutation to lengthen their lives.

Another potential limitation might be their solitary lifestyle. Typically, most highly intelligent animals are social. Also, community cooperation would seem to be a requirement for a civilization -- at least, in the sense that we understand it.

An interesting side note: Their copper-based blood is blue. So why is Vulcan copper-based blood green? :)

Margaret L. Carter

Please explore love among the monsters at Carter's Crypt.

Phthongs In A Twist

One of the most intelligent sfr authors of our day, Linnea Sinclair, once opined that even my laundry list would be entertaining. That compliment is very loosely remembered, and is apropos of almost nothing, since I am not writing about carelessly removed thongs.

Perish the thought!

Although, thinking of "knickers in a twist", "panties in a wad" and other underwear idioms, I came upon a great source. https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/panties+in+a+wad

Last week, I mentioned speakers of diphthongs disparagingly... in haste, as an afterthought. I should not have done that, because I was wrong about the diphthongs. I apologize unreservedly. My examples were triphthongs.

With diphthongs, two adjacent vowels slide into one another. With triphthongs, both consecutive vowels are pronounced equally.

Alien is a triphthong. Alien - Ay-Lee-Un...not much different from maniac. May Nee Ak.

Here are some sources:

English Diphthongs,  Pronouncing dinosaur names, Types of vowels, American-English, 3 vowels together, and Words with 3- or more vowels

I wonder what grammarist think of "buoy" (sometimes known as a bobber).

Is that a diphthong or a triphthong. President George W. Bush pronounced it a Boooo-eeeee, so that must be the correct, American navy pronunciation,

When I was a girl, sailing dinghys in near shore races off the Cherbourg Peninsula that could last six hours, which was a serious strain even on a teenage bladder, we pronounced them Boys.

On the other hand, GW pronounced the most serious weapons to which he held the codes, NEW-Cue-Lar rather than New-Clee-Arr, so there is room for doubt.

Other triphthongs of interest might be:

moity

frailty

myocardial

coequal

coitus

oophrectomy

But not oedipal.

And then there is dialysis. As the Speak More Clearly folks share as Secret Number 6, 

"In the triphthong ‘aia’ as in the word ‘dialysis’ / daɪˈælɪsɪs /, the aya has to be fully said and not cut short."

https://www.speakmoreclearly.com/english-pronunciation-tips/your-secret-guide-to-english-vowels/

That's a lot of sources. Would my modest piece have been better if I had only referred to one?

Aside: I loathe AI. It changed my title to Pythons In A Twist. It might do it again. I also noticed a BING pitch for AI touting the ease of never having to check multiple sources for information again. So, what happens to journalistic integrity?

They say that with History, the victors write it. Would it be an improvement if a Chat Bot wrote it?

All the best.

Rowena Cherry 

SPACE SNARK™ http://www.spacesnark.com/  http://www.rowenacherry.com

EPIC Award winner, Friend of ePublishing for Crazy Tuesday   

Beware Ignorance and Want by Karen S. Wiesner

 

Beware Ignorance and Want

by Karen S. Wiesner

 

 

From A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens:

 They were a boy and girl. Yellow, meagre, ragged, scowling, wolfish; but prostrate, too, in their humility. Where graceful youth should have filled their features out, and touched them with its freshest tints, a stale and shrivelled hand, like that of age, had pinched, and twisted them, and pulled them into shreds. Where angels might have sat enthroned, devils lurked, and glared out menacing. No change, no degradation, no perversion of humanity, in any grade, through all the mysteries of wonderful creation, has monsters half so horrible and dread. 

Scrooge started back, appalled. Having them shown to him in this way, he tried to say they were fine children, but the words choked themselves, rather than be parties to a lie of such enormous magnitude. 

“Spirit! are they yours?” Scrooge could say no more.  

“They are Man’s,” said the Spirit, looking down upon them. “And they cling to me, appealing from their fathers. This boy is Ignorance. This girl is Want. Beware them both, and all of their degree, but most of all beware this boy, for on his brow I see that written which is Doom, unless the writing be erased. Deny it!” cried the Spirit, stretching out its hand towards the city. “Slander those who tell it ye! Admit it for your factious purposes, and make it worse. And abide the end!”

The cells that make up the body--whether human, animal, or even plant--are countless, diversified, and specialized. There are different types that each do something special, all with the goal of working efficiently with the rest of the cells. In this way, the body can run so smoothly, few of us are even aware of their existence.

Some cells work with larger organisms within the body. For instance, white blood cells subject themselves to the determination of a higher function that assigns it specific duties. At the times when an invader enters the body, the white blood cell rushes toward danger, often forced to sacrifice itself for the sake of the function it serves. Both danger and self-sacrifice are at the heart of its very existence. For the greater good, it does what it has to in order to defend and keep the body alive. 

Cells don't always work "in community" though. For whatever reason, a cell can become selfish and superior, working against the body with every fiber of its being to serve its own ends. A parasite or cancer cell, literally, considers nothing except its own survival and what it needs to thrive. They maintain complete independence of the whole while freely and selfishly partaking in the benefits of being part of the body. These cells leave the body in want, weaker and sickened. 

In a similar way, individual cells that make up a body are like a community. When all are working together in one place, each undeniably functions better--to the best of their ability. Unconditionally, the individuals within the community share in the fruits and privileges of belonging together. Individual parts have no choice about whether they can live or thrive separate from the rest of the body. A hand, a foot, an eye--none of these can live apart from the rest of the body. But, by existing as a coherent team, everyone flourishes. 

Also, like cells, communities don't always exist in harmony. A community at odds keeps all within it divided and at war, shrouded in the ignorance of shunning everything and everyone around them that doesn't fit a limited agenda. 

Charles Dickens' beloved A Christmas Carol goes out of its way to show us that we can't choose a single day of the year to effect changes within a community that will benefit the whole. Social responsibility must be a daily, continuous pursuit. But so often our global body (our community) is ripped apart by self-focus and flavor of the day, hot-button disagreements. Like cancer cells or parasites, these agendas feed off the slightest bit of hate, superiority, ignorance, and want. 

Another universal truth highlighted in A Christmas Carol is that, when everyone is treating everyone else with respect, regardless of natural or preferential diversity, they become "…fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys." Every part that makes up a body is unique and crucial, even if it's unaware of all each does to make the whole better and healthy. All are equal. None are superior. Humility, acceptance, cooperation, and daily goodwill are the only ways for a body and a community to function. 

This time of the year and every other, human beings can learn a lot from the way our own bodies function in the ideal when every part is grateful for the rest. 

Karen Wiesner is an award-winning, multi-genre author of over 150 titles and 16 series.

Visit her website here: https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/

and https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/karens-quill-blog

Find out more about her books and see her art here: http://www.facebook.com/KarenWiesnerAuthor 

Visit her publisher here: https://www.writers-exchange.com/Karen-Wiesner/

Old-Fashioned Holidays

Having recently discovered we own a copy of Washington Irving's SKETCH BOOK, published around 1820 (one of the books we inherited from my mother-in-law, many of which I shelved without looking at closely), I read his essays/stories about English festivities surrounding Christmas Eve, Christmas day, and Christmas dinner. The narrator, an American visiting England, comments with delight on the customs of the season. The host, a merry old squire, insists on keeping the time-honored traditions as he understands them. None of this modern stuff allowed! Centuries-old songs are sung, games of venerable vintage are played, wassailers are welcomed, the Yule log is burned, a decorated pig's head is ceremoniously carried to the dinner table in lieu of a boar's head. The kindly old gentleman, however, is widely considered eccentric for his devotion to the past. Some of the guests carefully chosen from among the "decent" subset of the local peasantry snicker behind his back. Although the narrator enjoys the celebrations, he makes it clear that the squire is reconstructing traditional customs as he imagines them, not passing them on unbroken from previous generations.

According to THE BATTLE FOR CHRISTMAS, by Stephen Nissenbaum, our concept of an "old-fashioned Christmas" derives in large part from these "sketches" by Irving as well as "A Visit from Saint Nicholas" (aka "The Night Before Christmas"), by his contemporary Clement Clarke Moore, and of course Dickens' A CHRISTMAS CAROL. Nissenbaum offers strong evidence that the Saint Nicholas legend brought to life by Moore didn't cross over intact from Holland. Instead, Santa Claus as popularized in early 19th-century New York and immortalized by Moore was "a conscious reconstruction. . . an invented tradition."

Similarly, Nissenbaum's research reveals that the Christmas tree constituted a purely local custom in a small area of Germany until it became nationwide only in the late 18th century. Moreover, instead of spontaneously spreading from German immigrant communities to the wider American population, Christmas trees first became familiar to the general public from literary sources. Yet already by the mid-19th century people would casually remark that of course they always displayed a tree, as if it were a long-established tradition. Popularization of trees, Santa Claus, and gift-giving went along with the invention of the domestic, child-centered holiday, replacing the REAL "old-fashioned Christmas." To us, the older celebration would look like a rowdy blend of Halloween, Thanksgiving, and New Year's Eve.

Invented traditions continue to spring up in our own era. How could we now imagine the American Christmas season without Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer annually appearing on TV? Yet his story was originally written as an advertising giveaway book for the Montgomery Ward department store in 1939. In a short essay published in the 1950s, C. S. Lewis complains of the Yuletide "commercial racket," implying the phenomenon had intruded on the season quite recently. As Nissenbaum describes at length, though, commercialization of gift-giving infested the child-centered holiday from the beginning. The film A CHRISTMAS STORY, what I think of as "the BB gun movie," presumably set pre-World-War-II like the book it's based on, showcases a department store Santa in a lavishly consumerist setting.

In my childhood home, Christmas traditions included having the extended family over on Christmas Eve, emerging from our bedrooms the next morning to the sight of a dazzling spread of presents from Santa, and driving to my grandmother's house for Christmas dinner. (When I could get away with it, I sat in a corner reading a new book; I figured that shouldn't be a problem because the adults would be talking to each other, not to me, anyway.) Our kids' Christmas traditions, in addition to church, festive dinners, and gifts, involved watching programs such as Rudolph, Charlie Brown, the Grinch (the Boris Karloff cartoon, of course!), and later the BB gun movie. Nowadays, with the prevalence of streaming media, the custom of a family gathering around the TV to watch one show together threatens to die out, if it hasn't already. What will our great-grandchildren (we currently have four) look back on as cherished holiday traditions that have "always" been done?

For many of us, a "traditional" holiday means customs as we imagine them having been celebrated in our grandparents' childhoods, whenever that may have been. "Over the river and through the woods. . . ." With snow, naturally, "dreaming of a white Christmas," even if we live in a region where the most we can expect are a few flurries in January. As Rudyard Kipling's ode of farewell to Romance -- in the sense of an imagined, ideal past more romantic than the dull, mundane present -- concludes, "Then taught his chosen bard to say: Our king was with us -- yesterday."

Margaret L. Carter

Please explore love among the monsters at Carter's Crypt.

Less Envy

I feel a rant coming on.

 

In the world rankings for the best education systems, Great Britain comes third. America comes twelfth, so, as a British-educated person, I feel that I may opine a little.

 

There are two things that may contribute to America's dismal performance... not to mention Noah Webster, who dumbed down the language and  thereby obscured the etymological roots of words. 

One of those things is the First Amendment as applies to advertising and general standards of literacy in broadcast media. There is no mechanism to prevent poorly educated young advertising employees from drumming bad grammar and vile word choices into our heads.

Another is sloppy scholarship, especially in the field of editing works that purport to be educational. Oooh, harsh.

I have two examples: the confusion between the abstract nouns "Envy" and "Jealousy", and between the comparative adjectives "Less" and "Fewer".

Envy and Jealousy are different sins. Envy is like covetousness. It is the desire to have something that someone else has. Jealousy is like greed. It is the desire to keep good things for oneself.

It would be wrong to say, "I'm jealous of his hair..." unless he is wearing a toupee made of my own hair.

 

One is jealous of something that belongs (or once belonged) to one, and that one resents someone else enjoying. One could guard a possession jealously; for instance, one might guard the manicured lawn to one's home, and shout at dog walkers who allow their dogs to squat on it.

It would be grammatically correct to say, "I envy his hair," if my own hair (or lack thereof) does not compare favorably with his.

The simplest, five-word mnemonic for the difference between jealous and envious is:  

"A jealous husband; envious Casca."

 

Othello was a jealous husband. ("Othello", Shakespeare). Casca was described by Anthony as envious. ("Julius Caesar", Shakespeare).

" n Julius Caesar, Antony describes Casca as envious to highlight Casca's underlying jealousy and discontent. This characterization serves to illustrate the personal and political motivations driving Casca's involvement in the conspiracy against Caesar."

Notice how the cheat sheet editors muddy the waters of scholarship by writing that Casca is described as envious because he is jealous? 

My reference: "Julius Casear" Act 3-Verse 2- Line 174. "See what a rent envious Casca made..."

A fine discussion of the actual assassination can be seen here:

https://onlinecoursesblog.hillsdale.edu/the-assassination-of-julius-caesar/

 

Another scholar and his editor apparently did not bother to fact check a reference to murder in "Julius Caesar", and asserted that the envious assassin was Cassius. Of course, Cassius may have also been envious, but he is not immortalized for that motivation by Shakespeare.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/joy-and-pain/201401/what-is-the-difference-between-envy-and-jealousy

Casca has a Wiki page. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Publius_Servilius_Casca

By the way, Publius Servilius, Capurnaum, Brachiosaurus...  what do they have in common? A diphthong. Americans struggle with dipthongs, which might be a topic for another day.

And so, to comparing and contrasting the comparatives of the day.

Fewer vs. Less—Explanation and Examples | LanguageTool

"Less is More" is an oxymoron, (that link links to an excellent explanation of the etymology of "oxymoron" and its use in poetry to stimulate thought), often associated by the architect and designer Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe, who abhorred clutter and excess.

Less Is More - Meaning & Origin Of The Phrase

Less is like a measure of flour in a baking recipe... uncountable elements, measured by the spoonful, or cupful... or vodka in a martini, or trouble, or time, incentives, or money, (especially fixed value units of currency such as 100 dollars, or effort.

Fewer is like the counting of lemons,  or minutes, or seconds, or casualties, or single-denomination dollars, or choices, or alternatives, options, problems, people, customers, demonstrators, members of an audience, ideas, stars in the sky.

'Fewer' and 'Less'

That's it, more or less. Notice it next time an anchor or actor or advertisement gets it wrong. It's probably too late to do anything about it, because the errors will have been scarfed up by AI and will be inserted willy-nilly (will he/ ne will he) into our written consciousness.

PS. The online dictionaries have "willy-nilly" wrong, etymologically speaking, but they are in a majority, so what can one do? 

 

Think about it: "will he" is much closer to "willy" than "will I"... if you speak it.  The "n" part of "nilly" is from the French, where "ne" is a negative prefix.

"In French, a negative sentence is formed by using the words "ne", “n’ ”, and "pas" around a verb. "Ne" comes before the verb, and "pas" follows it.

For example, "Je ne parle pas" means "I don't speak". The placement of "ne" and "pas" around the verb is the most basic form of creating a negative statement."

And, thus, I end on a negative note, much as I began.

All the best,

Rowena Cherry 

SPACE SNARK™ 

https://www.spacesnark.com/  

https://www.rowenacherry.com

EPIC Award winner, Friend of ePublishing for Crazy Tuesday