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A Salute to Red Heads!

Apr30

Less than 2 percent of all hair colors

April 30, 2024

A display in a store window in Edinburgh in support of “Gingers” everywhere

Most humans have some variation of black or brown hair, followed by blonde and white. The least common color, various shades of red, account for only one to two percent of hair colors and is usually found in people who are genetically connected to the west Eurasian populations.

The country of Ireland, with about 10 percent of its population sporting natural red colored hair, is the highest of any on earth. Edinburgh, Scotland – it turns out – is known as the ‘Red Head’ capital of the world.

According to the Infallible Wikipedia:

“In Scotland, around 6% of the population has red hair, with the highest concentration of red head carriers in the world found in Edinburgh, making it the red head capital of the world.”

During a trip to Edinburgh this past week, I started to notice the incredibly high number of people with red hair and that, of course, made me curious about the hair color.

Of course it is VERY easy to get lost in the weeds on a topic as fascinating as genetics. I admit I have a pretty limited understanding of the topic, having never studied it in depth. But once again the Infallible Wikipedia explains it thus:

“The genetics of red hair appear to be associated with the melanocortin-1 receptor (MC1R), which is found on chromosome 16. In 1995, Valverde, et al. identified alleles on MC1R associated with red hair. The number of alleles linked to red hair has since been expanded by other authors, and these variants are now identified as the RHC (Red Hair colour) alleles.”

Apparently the selection of this genetic trait can be traced back to between 20,000 and 100,000 years ago and to regions with limited sunlight. Because the non-tanning skin associated with red hair can absorb more sunlight it was advantageous genetically for the health of the population.

Like blue eyes, the red hair gene is recessive which means that both parents must contribute the MC1R gene to their offspring for the baby to have red hair.

The hubby with his red hair, 1979

I never gave it much thought growing up. My family all had blue eyes with the exception of my sister whose eyes were green. It all seemed normal to me. I can remember one boy in elementary school with vibrant red hair and heavy freckles. It was just who he was. Again, normal to me.

Even when I met my hubby – who was at the time a red head – I thought nothing of it, not understanding how rare his hair color was!

My oldest has brown hair and eyes (getting a brown from his father and blue from me) and our youngest was born quite blonde with blue eyes. So obviously there are some nice recessive genes lurking about between the hubby (whose eyes are brown) and me.

When pregnant with my first child I thought it would be really cool to have a red headed baby. Alas, I do NOT have the MC1R gene and THAT is a requirement.

But the hubby confirmed for me earlier today while we were walking about Edinburgh and discussing the topic that he had, in fact, been teased a lot about his red hair as a kid. Children do have a way of exploiting anything which makes another child different and, for the hubby, it was his red hair.

In looking at his genetics it’s no wonder he got the RHC. His mother was a natural strawberry blonde when she was young (THE rarest of all hair colors) and his paternal grandmother had carrot colored red hair. Of his siblings he is the only one who is a true red head.

But back to our wanderings around Edinburgh. I started randomly snapping photos of the red heads I spied and it really put the camera to work. In about a 10 minute time period, up at the castle entrance, I took photos of 11 red heads! But I also started noticing in my pictures from the week that the red heads were everywhere.

The random redheads I found on a lovely – and apparently somewhat unusual – sunny day in late April in Edinburgh. I especially love the photo in the middle as she revels in the sunshine even while using the large umbrella to protect her skin.

Somehow the sheer number of all those red heads in Edinburgh served to add to the surreal feel of the place. It’s been inhabited for thousands of years and the streets feel as though they are from a movie set. The presence of the red heads, like the city itself, provides a certain vibrance and fiery determination to the Scottish people.

It wasn’t until I started seeing all the red heads that I understood WHY JK Rowling created the Weasley family… all with red hair. Living and writing in Edinburgh, she was surrounded by them and has even sported red hair herself from time to time.

For someone whose ancestors came to America from before its founding until the late 1800’s, there’s a certain pride in knowing that one line of my people once trod the ground in Scotland. According to my Ancestry DNA profile I sport a whopping six percent of Scottish blood, traceable back to 1766 when my fourth great-grandfather, Joseph Simons, was born in Connecticut. His father had been the emigrating ancestor but, alas, his identity and the reasons for emigrating are, for now, lost to history. What we do know is that the first wave of Scottish emigrants came to America beginning in 1763 following defeat at the Battle of Culloden in 1746 and the societal upheaval which took place after.

Regarding the hubby, he has a bit more Scot in him than I do with 10 percent. The red hair on his mother’s side is bolstered by her 28 percent Scottish and Irish heritage. From his paternal grandmother, who was fiercely German apparently, came the rest where some 5 percent of the population sports the red.

I suppose what all this does for us melting pot Americans is give us a brief glimpse into what it might be like to be solely identified as Scottish, or Irish, or English. And although I don’t have the red hair or, particularly, Scottish features, it was fun to buy a Fraser tartan scarf as my Simon family is part of that clan.

As always a few wee links:

https://www.eupedia.com/genetics/origins_of_red_hair.shtml

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/nov/25/mapping-redheads-which-country-has-the-most

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Edinburgh

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_hair

Easter Confusion

Apr16

One never quite remembers year to year when it will be

April 16, 2024

Back on April 16, 2019, I posted an article about Easter which, that year, was on April 21st.

I’ve decided – even though Easter was sixteen days ago – to repost the article since I think people sometimes forget how convoluted a formula it takes to figure it out each year and what they can look forward to next year.

Traditional Easter egg dyeing event with my kids which, based on this 1999 photo, would have likely been on April 3rd since Easter was on April 4th that year.

When I was a child and began to understand the concept of time and dates, I was fascinated with how this one holiday could be on a different day – heck, month even – from year to year.

And so I learned that you could figure out the date of Easter with the following:

“The first Sunday following the first full moon after the vernal equinox.”

Even this requires that one knows what a vernal and an equinox might be. 

Vernal is a fancy word for things related to ‘spring’ and an ‘equinox,’ according to Dictionary.com, is “the time when the sun crosses the plane of the earth’s equator, making night and day of approximately equal length all over the earth and occurring about March 21 (vernal equinox, or spring equinox ) and September 22 (autumnal equinox ).”

While all of this is, in today’s world, is seemingly straight forward, for Christians throughout the world – and as early as 325 AD with the first council of Nicea – the date on which Easter is celebrated has been disputed.

According to the Infallible Wikipedia:

“Easter and the holidays that are related to it are moveable feasts which do not fall on a fixed date in the Gregorian or Julian calendars which follow only the cycle of the sun; rather, its date is offset from the date of Passover and is therefore calculated based on a lunisolar calendar similar to the Hebrew calendar. The First Council of Nicaea (325) established two rules, independence of the Jewish calendar and worldwide uniformity, which were the only rules for Easter explicitly laid down by the council. No details for the computation were specified; these were worked out in practice, a process that took centuries and generated a number of controversies. It has come to be the first Sunday after the ecclesiastical full moon that occurs on or soonest after 21 March, but calculations vary.”

The full moon of March 2020 was on the 8th which meant that Easter was on the Sunday after the April full moon, on the 12th. The moonrise that day was spectacular even with using a phone to take this photo.

One might think that setting out a fairly straight forward calculation would end the debate but, over the centuries, it’s become more confusing.

Things really went sideways when, in 1582, Pope Gregory XIII decreed that the Julian calendar was way off and introduced his own calendar. The Gregorian calendar is the one we still use today. I wrote about it here: https://barbaradevore.com/2022/10/11/october-1582/

So what does that have to do with Easter and how to calculate the date? There are people in the world who still – over 400 years later – like the Julian calendar and use it to determine the date on which Easter is celebrated.

There’s also the whole question of the equinox. Back in the fourth century there was no modern science used to calculate the exact moment of the equinox. Instead it was determined based on the above mentioned lunisolar calendar. Which is a fancy way of saying that the people who use such calendars needed a way to adjust the dates based on what was happening around them. Think of it as the spring equinox begins 14 days AFTER the new moon or, approximately, with the full moon of the season.

According to religious rules about Easter, then, the holiday is not truly based on it being on the first Sunday following the full moon after the vernal equinox. No, the calculation is based on it occurring on the first Sunday following the full moon AFTER March 21.

In 2019, Easter fell on April 21. But should it have? The full moon and the vernal equinox both occurred on March 20 – a mere 3 hours and 45 minutes apart – with the equinox crossing the finish line first at 2:58 pm (PDT).  The moon was full at 6:43 p.m. So by scientific calculation, Easter SHOULD have happened on March 24.

Instead, the rule – for those who follow the Gregorian calendar – is to think of March 21 as the hard and fast equinox which places Easter on this coming Sunday. In the Infallible Wikipedia article, there’s an interesting table which shows the calculated dates of Easter for each competing calendar.

Note that in 2019, there is a column for Astronomical Easter giving that year three different dates from which to choose. The chart is also incorrect as we know the scientific full moon occurred on March 20 and not the 21.

And for the record? The most common date for Easter to occur since the inception of the Gregorian calendar through the year 3000 is April 16. You will be happy to note that in four years April 16th is, once again, the date of Easter on both the Gregorian and Julian calendars.

One of these days I’m certain the whole controversy will be settled. In 1997 a movement was afoot to make a change. Also from the Infallible Wikipedia:

My son, age 1 1/2 at a Timberline neighborhood community Easter egg hunt in 1991. Like this year Easter was on March 31 which explains why everyone is dressed in coats and sweaters for the mid-March hunt.

“At a summit in Aleppo, Syria, in 1997, the World Council of Churches (WCC) proposed a reform in the calculation of Easter which would have replaced the present divergent practices of calculating Easter with modern scientific knowledge taking into account actual astronomical instances of the spring equinox and full moon based on the meridian of Jerusalem, while also following the Council of Nicea position of Easter being on the Sunday following the full moon. The recommended World Council of Churches changes would have sidestepped the calendar issues and eliminated the difference in date between the Eastern and Western churches. The reform was proposed for implementation starting in 2001, but it was not ultimately adopted by any member body.”

And so it goes. All I know is that hunting for Easter Eggs is usually much more pleasant the third weekend of April than it is in late March. But what’s stopping us from boiling a pot of eggs, coloring them, and then hiding them among the grass on our likely too long lawns? Nothing. Think of it as second Easter for when the weather is, we hope, nicer.

The links!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter

https://www.staff.science.uu.nl/~gent0113/easter/easter_text2b.htm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunisolar_calendar

Hedonic Escalation

Mar19

What is the magic combination?

March 19, 2024

A Tuesday Newsday Classic updated

I can think of nothing which tastes better and scientific study now backs up my claim.

Salted caramel is the number one food that people can’t seem to stop eating.

Termed ‘hedonic escalation’ the research confirms what people experience when they are unable to stop eating a particular food. This article from the UK Independent – and  not from the Infallible Wikipedia – draws its conclusions from a test conducted at the University of Florida a few years ago:

“Marketing analysts Dr. Cammy Crolic and Professor Chris Janiszewski revealed that eating it actually causes a rare phenomenon called ‘hedonic escalation.’

Here, our instinctive brains keep craving more and more with every mouthful as it detects new flavours with each bite.

By contrast, with other foods we tend to experience ‘hedonic adaptation’ – the point where your appetite says you’ve had enough.

‘Hedonic escalation is more likely to occur when a palatable food consists of a complex combination of flavours, and a person is motivated to taste additional flavours on each successive bite,’ the researchers write. ‘Hedonic escalation can also increase consumption and influence food choice.’”

So what is this mystery food?

Salted Caramel.

Today, March 19th, is National Chocolate Caramel day, the perfect day to enjoy two perfect foods together.

I’ve noticed more and more foods touting the substance in recent years. In December 2018, during a pre-Christmas shopping trip to Costco, I happened upon a jar of Dark Chocolate Sea Salt caramels. Over the past several years I have found that when, given a choice of chocolates, I tended to seek out the dark ones with caramel. So when I saw this large jar AND it was dark chocolate, I had to have them.

A palette of delight awaits at Costco. You can also now buy them online.

Once home, I selected a morsel from the jar and took a bite. The first taste was wonderful, the second was heaven, and by the time the morsel was consumed I was addicted.  Fortunately for me I have pretty good discipline when it comes to eating. So I was good and did not eat the entire jar.

Over the next couple months I showed, in my opinion, amazing restraint.  Each day I would have one; at most. Soon Christmas gave way to January but the jar of deliciousness remained. Committed to the ‘only one a day’ program – and sometimes none – the supply lasted. By the time early March rolled around, however, one day I stared forlornly at the nearly empty vessel

I knew I would miss my Dark Chocolate Sea Salt Caramels because, Costco being Costco they were, no doubt, only available for the holiday season.

Then a couple of days later a miracle occurred. The hubby and I were at Costco (one or the other of us seems to be there at least once a week…) and on a whim I haul him over to the candy and chocolate aisle to see if there was anything else which might fill the void in my life.

 And then I spied them!

A glorious Costco size stack of jar after jar after jar of Sanders Dark Chocolate Sea Salt Caramels beckoned to me. Oh, sweet mysteries of life!

Being that I was obsessed, I shared far and wide – with anyone who would listen about the wonders of this perfect food –  of the joys of hedonic escalation. When I first published this article in March 2019 I imagine I snagged at least a few folks who went in search themselves.

Even so, my biggest fear since 2018 has been that Costco will run out (Regular price is about $18 but you can get your own 36 ounces of wonder for about $14 on sale) or cease to carry this product. Thus far, it has been a perennial selection all seasons of the year. More than a few of my friends and families now also keep it on hand.

My current supply of Sanders Dark Chocolate Sea Salt Caramels. Thanks to the hubby there are two full jars waiting for me when the last of the current jar are gone (sometime this week likely)

But this article is a call to action. What I urge everyone who reads my blog to do is this: go to Costco today and buy at least one jar. It’s the least you can do to properly celebrate National Chocolate Caramel day. Plus, if I know anything about Costco, the more they sell, the higher the likelihood they will keep them on the shelves forever. Do it for you. Do it for me. Do it for all of America.

A couple of important links:

On Hedonic Escalation:

https://academic.oup.com/jcr/article-abstract/43/3/388/2199201?redirectedFrom=fulltext

https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/salted-caramel-not-stop-eating-science-university-florida-hedonic-sugar-fat-a8078296.html

You don’t even have to leave home! If Amazon or some other retailer is your preferred dealer, a quick internet search reveals many who now sell this product.

https://www.costco.com/Sanders-Dark-Chocolate-Sea-Salt-Caramels-36-oz.%2c-2-pack.product.100321779.html

p.s. – I considered writing about the history of chocolate and caramel but tossed that out the window. For those who do not know, Chocolate’s origins can be traced to MesoAmerica some 1500 years ago.

And Caramel? It’s simply cooked sugar! What’s not to like?

“God, You May Have Already Won’

Feb27

God shows himself in mysterious ways…

February 27, 2024

A Tuesday Newsday Classic updated

A good editor is the key to making sure whatever is written reads right and, well, doesn’t make ridiculous mistakes. In late February 1997 an American Family Publisher’s Sweepstakes entry was received by the Bushnell Assembly of God Church. It began thus:

“God, we’ve been searching for you”

Apparently when dealing with the topic of God the Infallible Wikipedia is silent. Therefore, I share this brief clip from the Spokesman Review:

Cartoon by Jack Ziegler

“If God were to win, the letter stated, ‘What an incredible fortune there would be for God! Could you imagine the looks you’d get from your neighbors? But don’t just sit there, God.’

Sweepstakes officials did not return several telephone calls for comment Thursday.

(Pastor Bill) Brack said his 140-person congregation is considering whether to mail in the entry. The church could use the money.

And if American Family chooses a different winner?

‘God would be disappointed,’ Brack joked.”

This story reminded me of something similar which I experienced a couple of years ago. Over the course of a ten year period, I made frequent trips from Seattle to Yakima to help with my elderly parents. During that time, I had a 10+ year old Garmin GPS which I liked to turn on and use to give me approximate arrival times, elevation, etc. I would play little games in my brain, estimating what time I would arrive at which city, town or exit along the road.

One da, as I was headed back home, I stopped at the westbound Indian John rest area and, since I hadn’t yet sent my husband an update as to my estimated arrival time (ETA) I tapped out a quick text message just before I backed out of the parking spot and put the car into gear. It wasn’t until I read his reply at my next stop that I realized autocorrect on my phone had done this:

“God says I’ll be home at 4:30”

Apparently the terminology “GPS” didn’t exist in my phone’s spelling brain and switched it to the word “God” instead.

My Garmin GPS on October 29, 2016 somewhere on I-82 between Yakima and Ellensburg

I believe I got back a reply something to the effect of “its good God knows when you’re getting home.”

For several years I sent him messages about my ETA I type in “God” instead of “GPS.” I even referred to my arrival time as “God says” to those who did not know the history. I received more than a few strange looks from time to time. The way I see it is that it’s good to have God giving me travel advice.

If I had any doubt that my GPS truly was God my disbelief was dispelled in late October of 2016. I was on my way back from Yakima and was driving up I-82 towards Ellensburg. I glanced over at the GPS but what I saw left no doubt that some higher power was in charge. Instead of an elevation of about 2700 feet as expected “God” let me know I was at over… 50,000 feet!

As Doc Brown says in Back To The Future “Roads? Where we’re going we don’t need… roads!” Although the photo I snapped was a bit fuzzy, you can clearly see the elevation and God’s direction that I continue to an unpaved road. What road, I never did find out. This craziness continued for about 30 miles until I arrived at Thorp when, apparently, I was no longer flying and once again on solid pavement.

Jane Jetson learns to drive a flying car

To be sure, there were many, many times when I wished for the flying car as imagined in the 1960’s cartoon “The Jetsons.” It would have cut down on many hours of driving back and forth to Yakima. In retrospect – now that both my parents are gone – I have come to appreciate those hours in the car. It served, in both directions, as an opportunity to think about whatever challenges I had going on in my life; I listened to a whole lot of music; and sometimes I would simply work out story plots in my head. There were a few trips when I drove east and it was clearly autumn in the mountains only to return five days later and it was winter. Perhaps God was in charge after all.

To read the entire article on God winning the sweepstakes, here’s the link: http://www.spokesman.com/stories/1997/feb/28/god-you-may-have-won-11-million-sweepstakes/

And, of course, the original movie trailer from the 1977 George Burns and John Denver flick “Oh, God.”

Paricutin Volcano

Feb20

Sometimes a volcano blooms overnight

February 20, 2024

A Tuesday Newsday Classic Updated

Geologically, nine years is a very short time period. But for farmer Dionisio Pulido of Paricutin, Mexico, the event which began at 4 p.m. on February 20, 1943, forever altered his life in a matter of moments.

Paricutin Volcano shortly after it first started erupting

As he is quoted in the Infallible Wikipedia:

“‘At 4 p.m., I left my wife to set fire to a pile of branches when I noticed that a crack, which was situated on one of the knolls of my farm, had opened . . . and I saw that it was a kind of fissure that had a depth of only half a meter. I set about to ignite the branches again when I felt a thunder, the trees trembled, and I turned to speak to Paula; and it was then I saw how, in the hole, the ground swelled and raised itself  2 or 2.5 meters high, and a kind of smoke or fine dust – grey, like ashes – began to rise up in a portion of the crack that I had not previously seen . . . Immediately more smoke began to rise with a hiss or whistle, loud and continuous; and there was a smell of sulfur.’

“He tried to find his family and oxen but they had disappeared so he rode his horse to town where he found his family and friends, happy to see him alive. The volcano grew fast and furiously after this. Celedonio Gutierrez, who witnessed the eruption on the first night reported:

‘…when night began to fall, we heard noises like the surge of the sea, and red flames of fire rose into the darkened sky, some rising 800 meters or more into the air, that burst like golden marigolds, and a rain like artificial fire fell to the ground.’”

And thus began an eruption which provided scientists an opportunity to study and record how a volcano is formed. During this time the volcano not only destroyed Pulido’s farm but forced the permanent evacuation of two towns, caused the deaths of three people (but not the farmer!), grew to 1,341 feet, and allowed scientists to witness the entire life cycle of a volcano.

Paricutin as it is today

Also from the Infallible Wikipedia:

“The importance of the Parícutin eruption was that it was the first time that volcanologists were able to fully document the entire life cycle of a volcano. The event brought geologists from all over the world,  but the principal researchers were William F. Foshag of the Smithsonian Institution and Dr. Jenaro Gonzalez Reyna from the Mexican government, who came about a month after the eruption started and stayed for several years. These two wrote detailed descriptions, drew sketches and maps and took samples and thousands of photographs during this time. Many of these are still used today by researchers. Foshag continued to study the volcano until his death in 1956. Between 1943 and 1948, almost fifty scientific articles were published in major journals about the volcano, with even more since. The worldwide effort to study Parícutin increased understanding of volcanism in general but particularly of scoria cone formation.”

It was quite likely I saw this documentary as a child and it was this that first sparked my interest in volcanoes. Some might call it an unhealthy obsession. But whatever it is I have a distinct memory of sitting in a darkened classroom and learning about this volcano.

Back in the 1960’s, every elementary school had an AV – that is Audio Visual – component. Manned by the kids who, today, rule the tech world, it was an unglamorous job (sort of like being a crossing guard or a hall monitor) which required said geeky boy (it was all boys at the time – just the way it was) to wheel the tall carts into classrooms and get it set up so the class could watch whatever educational program our teacher managed to snag so she (or he) could get a few minutes of down time. To be fair, WE unruly students loved those days also. But I digress.

Atop the cart which we had at Nob Hill Elementary in Yakima was a black and white TV connected by wires to a very crude version of video equipment. Once it was set up, off would go the lights and some item of interest would flicker to life.

While I couldn’t find a photo of the carts, we were all familiar with projectors that looked like this

As a child seeing a volcano literally grow out of the ground where it had just been a field was terrifying. Could that happen in MY backyard? Being that my natural state was to worry about such things I’m pretty certain I became quite concerned for my home. No doubt we learned about other deadly volcanoes: Mount Vesuvius, of course, and the most fascinating of all Krakatoa. Oh, and did I mention that on nice days I’d often see Mt. Adams – one of five Washington State volcanoes – off in the distance?

Of course my mother no doubt assured me that Mt. Adams was a dormant volcano and that Yakima was not prone to sudden volcanic eruptions and my family continued to live in blissful calm. It was only later in a college geology class that I learned Yakima sits on top of what is known as the Columbia River Basalt Group, which was a series of volcanic flows, that eventually covered about 81,000 square miles AND had depths up to 5,900 feet. That’s a whole lot of basalt which no one can take for granite… it was a gneiss fact to know.

Of course that was millions and millions of year prior, so of course there was no danger. Well, that was until May 18, 1980… when THAT myth was blown to pieces. I might have covered stubby Mt. St. Helens in another Tuesday Newsday article or two.

Volcan de Colima – aka Volcan de Fuego or the English translation ‘Fire Volcano’. Photo taken by my son in late January.

A couple of years ago our son moved to Guadalajara, Mexico. And until recently I hadn’t thought much about Mexican volcanoes. Of course I did know that the Pacific ring of fire which, in addition to being earthquake prone, also had a few volcanoes…913 to be exact. Whoa.

Mexico, specifically the region which stretches from the Pacific Ocean to the Caribbean Sea which starts near Puerto Vallarta and extends east to Guadalajara and then Mexico City and ending just north of Veracruz, has 23 of these volcanoes in a region known as the Trans-Mexican Volcanic belt.

So now I have new volcanoes to worry about. Of course I shouldn’t be concerned that Volcan de Colima, also known as Volcan de Fuego, is a mere 78 miles from where my son now lives. Or that Volcan de Fuego erupted as recently as January 2017. Or that our son went hiking on neighboring volcano Nevado de Colima – which is 3 miles north of Volcan de Fuego – in January of this year. I’m sure there’s nothing to worry about!

A map showing the location of the 23 volcanoes which define the Trans-Mexico Volcanic Belt
My son on his recent hike to Volcan Nevado de Colima in front of the ‘you have arrived’ sign

For reference, Paracutin is much, much further away from Guadalajara, more like 150 miles how the crow flies. The next time I’m in Mexico I plan to take a much closer look at the landscape to see how many of Mexico’ volcanoes I can identify.

For those who want to learn more:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Par%C3%ADcutin

Not sure if this is the video I saw but the music alone is enough to instill terror into a child….

https://video.search.yahoo.com/search/video;_ylt=A0SO8zjY84paVDAA0RNXNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTEzbGZiMWJ1BGNvbG8DZ3ExBHBvcwMxBHZ0aWQDVUlDMV8xBHNlYwNwaXZz?p=Paracutin+documentary&fr2=piv-

And a few more articles and linkes about one of my favorite topics:

A Blast From The Past
Mt. St. Helen’s

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbia_River_Basalt_Group

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volc%C3%A1n_de_Colima

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volc%C3%A1n_Nevado_de_Colima_National_Park

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ring_of_Fire

All Tortellini All The Time

Feb13

Navel Gazing in Italy

February 13, 2024

It often amazes me as to ‘what’ things have their own ‘day,’ ‘week,’ or ‘month.’ In the past I’ve written about “National Nothing Day –January 16th,” “National Cleaning Week –March 24th,” and “World Turtle Day – May 23rd,” to name a few.

Photo courtesy of https://www.freeimages.com/

But when my brother shared with me that February 13th is “National Tortellini Day” I knew it had to be the topic of this week’s Tuesday Newsday.

So what is, exactly, a ‘tortellini’? The Infallible Wikipedia does not disappoint:

“Tortellini are stuffed pasta originally from the Italian region of Emilia (in particular Bologna and Modena). Traditionally they are stuffed with a mix of meat (pork loin, raw prosciutto, mortadella), Parmesan cheese, egg and nutmeg and served in capon broth (in brodo di cappone).

In the area of origin they are usually sold fresh or home-made. Industrially packaged, dried, refrigerated, or frozen, tortellini appears in many locations around the world, especially where there are large Italian communities.”

Additionally, there is a legend that the pasta was concocted by an innkeeper in the small community of Castelfranco Emilia which is located in the same vicinity as an ancient Roman village in the northern section of Italy near Modena.

As the legend is told the goddess Venus stays at the inn and the innkeeper, so enamored with her beauty, spies on her through the keyhole of the door to her room. Yet, all he can see of Venus is her navel which inspires him to create a pasta in the shape of it. Okay, it is kinda creepy. Oh those crazy Italians!

Apparently, to this day, there is a festival held in Castelfranco Emilia to honor tortellini.

Growing up the only pasta which ever seemed to grace my family’s dinner table was spaghetti. I’m pretty certain that I never ate tortellini until I was in my 30’s – not because I had anything against it, just that it wasn’t on my culinary radar.

That all changed one day in 2012 when, as an adult advisor for the Bellevue Rainbow Girls, I was asked by the Worthy Advisor (President) Janessa if the hubby and I would be willing to make and serve the ‘main’ course for a progressive dinner she was planning.

We agreed and then I asked her if there was any particular food she would like us to prepare. Her response: tortellini.

When I was a Rainbow Girl back in the dark ages we also had ‘progressive’ dinners. What happened is that the girls would travel, usually by cars driven by advisors, to one home for appetizers. After that it might be a salad course, followed by the main course, and concluding with dessert.

In my day these were rather tame affairs with everyone sitting properly at the dining room table at the hosts house and that is, I’m certain, what the girls were expecting that spring day of 2012.

The cover of the 2012 Papa Gino’s Menu

But that is NOT what they got. As the hubby and I contemplated this event we decided to go all in. In our family room I arranged four or five card tables as though in a café and made dark red satin tablecloths to go over them. There were lit pillar candles in the center of each table plus silverware and napkins at each place setting.

In our front hallway I set up a large white board proclaiming that they had arrived at “Papa Gino’s” which served “All Tortellini All The Time.” I created paper menus. But the absolute best part was that the hubby took on the role of the proprietor “Papa Gino” complete with a painted on fake mustache and dressed like we imagined a restaurateur from Italy might appear.

Soon we received word that the girls were leaving their previous stop and would soon arrive. With Papa Gino stationed behind his check in podium, when the door opened there was a look of confusion on the faces of the first group as “Papa” loudly proclaimed in his best ‘worst’ Italian accent, “Welcome to Papa Ginos, how many in your party?”

Oh, but that was not all. From the moment the guests arrived, Papa and the long suffering cook “Mama” bickered with one another. But Papa’s impatience wasn’t confined to Mama, if the guests didn’t answer a question right away, Papa would badger them for an answer. And heaven forbid if they asked for ANYTHING besides tortellini because Papa would shame them and point at the menu suggesting they needed to learn to read as it clearly said “All Tortellini All the Time.”

Both girls and adults were in stitches over the banter that evening and were talking about “Papa Gino’s” for several years.

Back cover of the 2012 menu. I searched and searched for at least one photo I know exists, but alas could not find it! Papa’s identity will remain a mystery.

Fast forward to 2015. In anticipation of my father-in-laws 90th birthday we volunteered to be the hosts. My mother-in-law – having heard the tales of Papa Gino’s previous gig – requested that we present an encore performance. As you wish.

It was a beautiful late September day and my in-laws, three of their children, all six grandchildren, and spouses arrived. Finally, around 5 p.m., everyone was kicked out of the family room, a bed sheet ‘curtain’ was erected and, once again, Papa Gino’s restaurant was brought to life.

Papa was in fine form, showering abuse on his older brother who was attempting, but failing, to pull Papa Gino out of character; Papa suggested to his niece – who, at five months pregnant was the epitome of health and beauty – that perhaps she needed to cut back on the pasta.

Table by table he worked the room, taking orders, engaging the guests, and the gales of laughter told the story of everyone having great fun as if dining at a live performance dinner theatre where Papa taking orders and serving, and with Mama, and their idiot son, Davi, cooking WERE the entertainment.

Papa, Mama, and Davi retired after the 2015 performance but, who knows, they might be willing to reopen… for the right price.

“Right, Papa? Right?”

“Just waiting for you, Mama!”

Davi shrugs.

A few links:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tortellini

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castelfranco_Emilia

National Tortellini Day

Coddiwomple

Jan9

Traveling in a purposeful direction

January 9, 2024

The author’s collection of dictionaries. The Webster’s New World Dictionary, third from the left, was often used for playing ‘Dictionary.’

Back in the early 1980’s I was introduced to a game my hubby and his family loved to play. There was no game board or markers to move around. Instead it required a dictionary, a piece of paper for each player, and a pen. They called the game Dictionary.

A search of the internet reveals, from the Infallible Wikipedia, that the genre is more commonly known by another name: Fictionary. In the years since being introduced to this delightful pastime there have been actual games developed and sold. As noted by the Infallible Wikipedia:

“The board games Balderdash, Dictionary Dabble, Flummoxed, and Weird Wordz are based on Fictionary. In one round of the board game Derivation, players describe or fabricate a word’s etymology; players who provide a correct etymology receive one point for doing so, but their entries are then removed from play, and they lose their chance to receive multiple points by drawing multiple votes from other players. Similarly, in the board game Wise and Otherwise, the Picker randomly chooses a quotation and reads the beginning, and other players try to create realistic endings to the quotation.”

It’s amazing what interesting words one can find when perusing a dictionary.

While these games have been successful, I rather like how we played it: Get a group of people together (the more the better) and then pick one person each round who looks through the dictionary until they find a sufficiently obscure word. They then announce the word to the group and each person has to come up with a definition for that word. The chooser writes down the REAL definition.

Once everyone has written his or her definition, the papers are passed to the person who picked the word and they read each entry aloud, being sure to hide the papers from others. Each participant then decides which might be the real meaning of the word. Those who guess correctly get one point. The chooser gets one point for every incorrect guess.

Now, I’m sure you are wondering what this has to do with the title of this week’s Tuesday Newsday, Coddiwomple. Up until the hubby and I were driving home from Yakima on New Year’s Day this year I had never heard of Coddiwomple. But it immediately made me think of playing Dictionary and probably the most favorite word I ever found and used which is ‘gardyloo.’

The hubby had read an article on the term Coddiwomple and shared it with me. What I learned, from author and philosopher David Marlowe – who coined the term – is this:

I was immediately struck by the rhythm of the word and how it seems to fit its definition. Of course the purpose of the word is to help people stop and contemplate what, exactly, they are each trying to accomplish in life.

It was exactly seven years ago today when I wrote my first Tuesday Newsday. At that time I had no idea where I was going with it; only that, via a very decidedly Coddiwomple experience, I had been nudged to take the path of starting a website for ‘someday.’

That ‘someday’ was aimed for that moment, in the murky future, when I would have a book published and be able to share it on my website.

And thus began a Coddiwomple journey toward a vague destination. My first Tuesday Newsday was all about one of my favorite musical artists, Jim Croce.

Of course I screwed it up a bit on that first go round – being unfamiliar with WordPress and how it all worked – and accidently posted it on Wednesday, January 10th instead of that Tuesday, January 9th. So I ended up with TWO articles about Jim Croce a year apart, with the other one on January 11th the following year. (here’s the link to both which I combined into one for ONLY January 10th): https://barbaradevore.com/2017/01/10/jim-croce/)

But that was okay because, well, Jim Croce. One of his best… and so bittersweet.

What I did know after that first post is that in addition to the fiction stories which invade my brain and compel me to write, I had a whole lot of personal stories which came pouring forth.

Some have been funny, some philosophical; they range from recounting early childhood memories to recent impactful events. They cover music, TV, movies, nature, history, geeky musings, and cultural references. War and politics are never included.

But what do any of these ramblings have to do with traveling purposefully toward a vague destination?

For me, no matter what think I chose to do, it is the desire to fully embrace each experience in life. New opportunities frequently present themselves and, as someone who probably has undiagnosed ADD, I am often distracted by such shiny objects.

Yet, as I have matured, I’ve come to understand a universal truth: our most precious commodity is TIME. I’ve become quite protective of my time. And the one thing in life which is elemental to who I am and where I want to spend my time is writing. It’s been that way since I first put a piece of chalk to a chalkboard desk I received as a Christmas present at age three when my family still lived in Clarkston, Washington.

The author, age 3, with her chalk board. Captured with a cell phone camera from the home movies my dad took.

So now I begin year eight of my blog in basically the same way as I did in 2017, traveling in a purposeful manner toward a vague destination. Coddiwomple.

Now, if you’ll excuse me I need to go write Nicole out of the entanglement in which she finds herself. Who will she choose: Nathan, Sam, or ???. And how will her parents react? I’m not sure she has quite embraced Coddiwomple but then again she’s only 21 and has a lifetime ahead of her.

Finally, for those who have read all the way to the bottom, here’s your reward. Gardyloo is, according to Dictionary.com, “a cry formerly used in Scotland to warn pedestrians when slops were about to be thrown from an upstairs window.” Oh those crazy Scots. You’re welcome. Of course if you looked closely at the photos, you already knew the definition.

The links:

David Marlowe’s substack: https://ikiquest.substack.com/p/coddiwomple

The Infallible Wikipedia never lets me down: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fictionary

Biosphere I vs. Biosphere II

Sep26

Is Utopia possible?

September 26, 2023

A Tuesday Newsday Classic Updated

It was the stuff of science fiction when, on September 26, 1991, four women and four men entered the project known as Biosphere II.

Biosphere II located in the Arizona desert north of Tucson

Located in the Arizona desert forty-one miles northeast of Tucson, the facility was developed in hopes of learning how colonization on other planets might work. The idea was that these eight scientists would live within the biosphere complex for two years, would grow their own food, and manage all aspects of their world without help or interference from outside sources.

Inside Biosphere II were five distinct ecosystems. From the Infallible Wikipedia:

 “Its five biome areas were a 1,900 square meter rainforest, an 850 square meter ocean with a coral reef, a 450 square meter mangrove wetlands, a 1,300 square meter savannah grassland, a 1,400 square meter fog desert, a 2,500 square meter agricultural system, a human habitat, and a below-ground infrastructure. Heating and cooling water circulated through independent piping systems and passive solar input through the glass space frame panels covering most of the facility, and electrical power was supplied into Biosphere 2 from an onsite natural gas energy center.”

Biosphere II’s ‘ocean’ environment

For those of us not trained in meters, I did the approximate calculations. Rainforest= 6,000 square feet. Ocean=2,800 square feet. Mangrove=1476 square feet. Savannah = 4300 square feet. Fog Dessert=4600 square feet. Agricultural =8200 square feet. That adds up to 27,376 square feet or over five square miles.

As one can imagine, the project was beset with problems including not enough oxygen, dietary issues and – when one of the biospherians became ill and was removed from the project for a time – if outside intervention was justified.  When the first experiment ended two years later, on September 26, 1993, plans were already underway for another set of scientists to participate in a second project:

“Biosphere 2 was only used twice for its original intended purposes as a closed-system experiment: once from 1991 to 1993, and the second time from March to September 1994. Both attempts, though heavily publicized, ran into problems including low amounts of food and oxygen, die-offs of many animals and plants included in the experiment, squabbling among the resident scientists, and management issues.”

Personally, I find it difficult to envision what it would be like to exist for two years in only five square miles and with the same 7 people as your daily companions. Kind of like the reality TV show Survivor but longer and you can’t get rid of annoying people. From a writer’s perspective, however, I think this is a fascinating premise for a science fiction book (with romantic elements perhaps?). Has someone researched and written such a book? I wondered. Indeed they have. The Terranauts, by TC Boyle, was published in October 2016 (hardback) with the paperback version was released on October 3 2017.  The critics on Goodreads have not been kind: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28925208-the-terranauts.

Update 2023:

I considered writing about a completely new topic this week but somehow my musings seem to dovetail with Biosphere II. For those who have been following my blog for awhile you likely know that I am not a fan of autumn. I suspect I suffer from at least a little Seasonal Affected Disorder (SAD) and I struggle this time of year with the reduced hours of daylight and the drops in temperature.

Living where I do, just north of the 48th parallel, I am acutely aware of the changing of the seasons. As I am writing this the wind is blowing and it has been threatening rain with another front moving in this afternoon. In other words, a prototypical fall day. While most of the leaves have not yet turned color or started to make their exit from the tree branches, I know the day is coming. I miss summer already.

But I wonder if I were to live in a controlled environment like Biosphere 2, would I like that? What if the seasons never changed? What if every day the weather was exactly like the day before and tomorrow would be the same as today?

Ten degrees wasn’t even the coldest temperatures we experienced in Fairbanks. On our last day it was MINUS 28 degrees. I had the gloves off only for the photo.

When visiting a high school friend in Fairbanks, Alaska, in March 2017, I considered what it would be like to live there. The world was white with snow and ice and had been since October. In fact, the earliest snowfall ever in Fairbanks was August 29, 1922, and the typical date of the first measurable snow is tomorrow, September 27th. And did I mention that they get about 65 inches of the white stuff each year? While I was there I discovered that I could not go outside without wrapping a scarf around my face as it was physically painful to have my skin exposed to the cold. It was the coldest I had ever been in my life. I came away from that trip in awe of her ability to live and thrive in Fairbanks. I am not, I concluded, sturdy enough for that climate.

So, over the next several weeks I will come to terms with reality: summer in the Pacific Northwest is over and it is time once again for turtlenecks, sweaters, and jackets. And in spite of my whining about the shorter days with less sunlight and the inclement weather, I do think it’s better than living in a controlled environment day after day.

And that’s the great thing about Biosphere I – also known as ‘Earth’. It’s always changing and visually interesting and a grand place to live. Biosphere II or III or V or X will never be able to equal the original.

The tree progression photos were taken from my office window on the following dates: September 9, 16, 30, October 19, 29, and November 19, 2020

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biosphere_2

The Refrigerator

Aug8

One of my favorite appliances

August 8, 2023

A Tuesday Newsday Classic Updated

This invention, which was patented on August 8, 1899, ranks right up there with my two most favorite inventions: electricity and flushing toilets.

A Monitor-Top refrigerator

Refrigeration revolutionized how our food is processed and stored. Without this invention – which includes the freezer – people would still be spending up to 8 hours a day in the preparation and storage of food. But refrigeration has freed up hours and hours of woman and man hours that can now be devoted to other pursuits.

The Infallible Wikipedia, of course, has much information on its history including this information which highlights some of the challenges of early home models:

“The first refrigerator to see widespread use was the General Electric ‘Monitor-Top’ refrigerator introduced in 1927, so-called, by the public, because of its resemblance to the gun turret on the ironclad warship USS Monitor of the 1860s. The compressor assembly, which emitted a great deal of heat, was placed above the cabinet, and enclosed by a decorative ring. Over a million units were produced. As the refrigerating medium, these refrigerators used either sulfur dioxide, which is corrosive to the eyes and may cause loss of vision, painful skin burns and lesions, or methyl formate, which is highly flammable, harmful to the eyes, and toxic if inhaled or ingested.”

Obviously that refrigerator was not ideal.

Personally, I love the refrigerator because it makes it harder for those two miscreants, Sam and Ella, to hang out at my house and wreak havoc. But also because I can put things in the fridge and they’ll stay there for months and months before my hubby cleans out the really old stuff to make room for wonderful fresh food! It’s magical really. Kind of like the magic table in this clip:

No matter how many times I view this it makes me laugh. That poor guy probably never knew what happened.

Growing up, my family had the very latest in a refrigerator. Yes, the always popular avocado green model. I’m not really sure why people loved that color, or harvest gold, but it was a thing in the 1970’s. We also had the avocado green range. I can’t recall on the dishwasher. I do know my Mom’s first dishwasher was a portable white one which was rolled over to the sink and attached via hoses to the faucet. Seems like when that one failed the one  which replaced it was avocado green.

Capturing a moment in time… August 1980 in the kitchen of the home where the author grew up. You can see the side by side avocado green fridge on the far side of my Mom (in the yellow) and by best friend from 9th grade talking to her. Behind my sister in law you see the matching avocado green stove and tea kettle.
Kenmore brand portable dishwasher ad from the 1980’s

When the hubby and I bought our fixer upper house in 1981, there was not a dishwasher. So we did what any young couple with a house but zero money for anything else did: we went to the Sears Roebuck scratch and dent store. It was located in the basement of the building which is now Starbucks headquarters on First Avenue South in Seattle.

And just like my mom’s kitchen a portable dishwasher was needed. We had to buy a skinny minny sort of model so it could fit in the small space available. Just like Mom’s, it was avocado green with a butcher block top. Double duty! Not only did it wash dishes but it served as a cutting board. It looked something like the one pictured here, but much, much smaller.

Man, we were livin’ the dream! Had fridge AND a dishwasher too.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refrigerator.

World Turtle Day

May23

Protecting them since 2000

May 23, 2023

Occasionally a topic comes up which triggers a long forgotten memory. Such is the case for May 23. Today is World Turtle Day; a day which, since the year 2000, has been designated to bring awareness of the need to preserve and rescue turtles and tortoises.

It’s a thrill to swim with the Hawaiian Green turtles when snorkeling. This photo is from Hawaiianpaddlesports.com

First, a bit about Turtles from the Infallible Wikipedia:

“Turtles are an order of reptiles known as Testudines, characterized by a special shell developed mainly from their ribs. Modern turtles are divided into two major groups, the Pleurodira (side necked turtles) and Cryptodira (hidden necked turtles), which differ in the way the head retracts. There are 360 living and recently extinct species of turtles, including land-dwelling tortoises and freshwater terrapins.” 

Granted the scientific information does not really do the animal justice. Turtles are truly fascinating creatures due, in my opinion, to their exoskeleton bone cover which gives them a look unique to other creatures.

Turtles can be gigantic, like the huge leatherback turtle, which can be almost 9 feet in length and weigh more than 1,100 pounds, or as small as the Speckled Cape Tortoise. Native to South Africa it measures no more than 3.9 inches and weighs less than 6.1 ounces.

But back to the long ago memory. It is September 1966 and the long anticipated Central Washington State Fair. In those years, there was one weekday afternoon when every elementary aged school boy and girl was released at noon for “Fair Day.” Oh what a glorious event that was. The horde would descend upon the midway and rides filled with screaming children; cows, goats, and other livestock were terrorized by thousands of small hands all seeking to pet the animals; and the carnival barkers collected every last cent the kids had to spend.

This particular year – and to this day I’m not quite sure HOW it came to be – my sister and I happened upon a booth which was selling turtles. Incredibly cute and tiny turtles. Each one probably cost the victim buyer 50 cents but those turtles instantly became a ‘must have’ item. So we each got a turtle which, if I remember correctly, was put into a plastic bag partially filled with water and then ‘inflated’ to give the creature air, for us to carry home.

I also cannot recall my mother’s reaction but I imagine she was less than thrilled as a space had to be found for our two new residents. A large round avocado green tub was acquired and an ‘island’ was built inside for the turtles.

The author and her sister in the summer of 1967, saying goodbye to Gilligan and the Professor

My sister and I named our two turtles Gilligan (mine) and the Professor (hers) after two characters from one of the most popular and favorite TV shows of the time “Gilligan’s Island.”

My childhood memory is that we dutifully fed our turtles and took good care of them. No doubt the chore fell mostly to my mother who didn’t want the turtles in the first place.

On it went and then, in the summer of 1967, it was decided that Gilligan and the Professor had outgrown their avocado green paradise and needed to find a new home. That new home, it turned out, was Sportsman Park just east of the Yakima River.

It was a hot summer day when my Dad, sister, and me took the turtles to the designated release spot. My grandmother – Dad’s mom – was along with us and took two pictures that day. On the back of one she wrote “Goodby turtles! Swim Happy! 1967” So my sister and me said our goodbyes, placed them on the ground and watched as they eagerly ran to the water and slipped into the pond, swimming away.

At Sportsman Park about to set the turtles free

I imagine I was a bit sad watching Gilligan leave but being that I was barely 10 years old, I got over it.

Fast forward to 2013, maybe 2014, and the hubby and I are Geocaching at Sportsman Park in Yakima. As we are walking along a path, I notice there are signs which tell about the various wildlife which lives there. We stop at this one pond and depicted there are pictures of turtles… which look just like Gilligan and the Professor.

I imagine there were other children whose parents also sought new ‘homes’ for turtles which had been brought home as a prize from the fair; I doubt ours were the only such creatures who found a new home in that pond.

On the other hand, while it was common practice to sell animals at fairs in the 1960’s, as a society we’ve come to appreciate that the introduction of non-native species can have a negative effect on the native species and the new habitat. Unfortunately, we didn’t know any better back then. The practice of selling turtles at fairs ended in the mid-1970’s.

So celebrate World Turtle Day through admiration of these amazing creatures and by leaving them alone to be, well, turtles.

For more information, a few links:

https://www.worldturtleday.org/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turtle

9 Types of Turtles in Washington State