Notes From A Bear's Journey

      Remember those moments, that unexpected gift or that opening of the door and being greeted by a room full of friends?  And who doesn't love a good mystery or a movie with a surprise ending?  Of course, surprises can come at the wrong times as well: the end of a relationship, the car accident, the shooting.  My wife and I just finished watching the 4-epidode series, Little Boy Blue , a true story of an 11-year old caught in a cross fire between gangs in England.  And as you may know, the penalty for having an unregistered gun in the UK is quite severe (just getting a permit to own a gun there is rather difficult and, as with Canada, is usually reserved for hunting; police there --at least those who are armed-- are limited and are required by law to verbally yell "armed police" whenever entering any home or facility in a raid).  What was so surprising to us, however, was the outstanding acting by all parties, the believability they put in the...

      Those were the 3 "Rs" I learned as a child, a memorization tool for what parents and society felt was something every child should be taught and should learn while in school.  The basics, it was called, and it was a good idea but a horrible way to "learn" spelling and grammar (jump forward half a century later and you may find yourself saying that same thing about STEM*).  Look up the 3 Rs today --a mnemonic which is still around (perhaps not in Florida)-- and you'll likely find all new definitions for the words...reasoning, relationship, resilience, reality.  They are all there and more, perhaps reflecting what today's society feels is needed more than any "school" education; all of which begs the question, what's important to you, now?   For me, it may well be the last "R," that of rest.   The foothills of Salt Lake City on April 1, 2023      There is much to think about around this time of year, everything from pa...

     An odd couple to be sure, that original clash of stereotypes in Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau that made me wonder, what happened to the word "stereo?"  But old pairings and phrases aside, something else quite old and stereotyped just happened a few weeks ago (and by now likely forgotten)...the Oscars.  It had been well over a decade since my wife and I viewed any such sort of  "awards" show, especially those where a media industry pats itself on the back and makes a production of praising its own people...the Emmys, the Grammys, the Oscars (and those are just in the US for the practice has now spread across the world).  A quick peek at the BAFTA winners showed results almost opposite those of the Oscars.  How could that be?  And who exactly gets to vote anyway?    Quartz had this to say about the mysterious process of who the voting members are who decide who will or won't get an award from the "academy:" ... a 2012 investi...

      As disgusting as this title may sound, I was intrigued when I remembered astronaut Mae Jemison say this on NPR  some years ago:  Pus is one of the neatest things ever, right?  When I was a little girl, I got a splinter stuck in my thumb and it got infected, pus came out of it.  My mother told me to go look it up and then I found out it has all these really cool things in it.  It's just the most fascinating thing that your body could do.  Pus (and boils) are words I remember from childhood but rarely hear these days, despite pus being described in  Medical News Toda y in this manner:  Liquor puris  is a "protein-rich fluid" (what??).  It went on to explain: L eukocytes, or white blood cells, are produced in the marrow of bones.  They attack the organisms that cause infection.   Neutrophils, a type of leukocyte, have the specific task of attacking harmful fungi or bacteria.   For this reason, ...