Photo-a-day: 365 July/August

Day 109: Found this tiny Xysticus sp. spider hanging out on my table in the back yard. Managed to snap one photo before the sucker lunged at me and leapt off the table somewhere in the vicinity of my leg...

And here's some good ol' Dave Barry:
Electromaggots
Today's science question comes from eight-year-old Bobby Johnson, an imaginary child who lives in Maryland. Bobby asks: "What good are insects, anyway? You know?"

ANSWER: It's a shame, Bobby, but for far too many people, the usual reaction upon encountering an insect Is to want to smash it with a rock. That's certainly my immediate reaction, although there are certain insects I would prefer to use a flame-thrower on, such as those large tropical-style spiders that appear to be wearing the pelts of small mammals.

Oh, I can hear you junior-high-school science teachers out there now, spitting out your cafeteria entree ("Tuna Warmed Up") and shouting: "Wait a minute! Spiders aren't insects! Spiders are arachnids!" That's exactly what's wrong with our junior high schools today: all those snotty science teachers going around telling our young people that spiders are not insects, when they (the science teachers) could be leading voluntary organized prayers. Of course spiders are insects. The very word "insect" is a combination of two ancient Greek words: "in," meaning "a," and "sect," meaning "repulsive little creature." Thus not only are spiders insects but so are crabs, jellyfish, the late Truman Capote, bats, clams, olives and those unfortunate little dogs, "Pugs," I believe they are called, that appear to have been struck repeatedly in the face with a heavy, flat object such as the Oxford English Dictionary.

So, Bobby, we can see that ... Bobby? Bobby! Take that finger out of your nose and pay attention when I answer your Science Question! Whose finger is that, anyway?! Put it back where you found it this instant!!

All right. So, Bobby, we can see that the insect family is very large and varied indeed. just sitting here thinking about it, I would estimate that there are over 600 billion species of insect in my basement alone, which is a real puzzle because we pay $16 a month to have a man come and spray an allegedly lethal chemical all over the place. What I think has happened is that the insects got to this man somehow. Maybe a group of wasps met him at the end of our driveway one afternoon and made it clear to him by gesturing with their feelers that they wouldn't want to see him or his wife or God forbid his small children get stung in the eyeballs, and so what he has actually been spraying around our basement all this time is Liquid Insect Treat.

This is probably good. We cannot simply destroy insects in a cavalier manner, because, as many noted ecology nuts have reminded us time and time again, they (the insects) are an essential link in the Great Food Chain, wherein all life forms are dependent on each other via complex and subtle interrelationships, as follows: Man gets his food by eating cows, which in turn eat corn, which in turn comes from Iowa, which in turn was part of the Louisiana Purchase, which in turn was obtained from France, which in turn eats garlic, which in turn repels vampires, which in turn suck the blood out of Man. So we can see that without insects there would be no ... Hey, wait a minute! I just noticed that there are no insects in the Great Food Chain. Ha ha! Won't that be a kick in the pants for many noted ecology nuts! I bet they all race right out and buy 4,000-volt patio insect-electrocution devices!

Nevertheless, we do need insects for they perform many useful functions. Without insects, for example, we would have no reliable way to spread certain diseases. Also, in some part of Africa that I saw in a documentary film once, they have this very, very large insect, called the Goliath beetle, which grows to almost a foot in length, and the children actually use these beetles to pull their little toy carts. Wouldn't that be fun, Bobby, to have a foot-long beetle of your own, pulling a cart around and clambering into bed with you? Perhaps I'll get you one!

Of course most of us find it difficult to talk about insects without bringing up the subject of sex. According to scientists who study insects (known as "entomologists," or "Al"), the male insect initiates reproduction by rubbing his legs together to produce a distinctive sound, which attracts a bird, which eats the male, then throws up. The female insect then lays 1.5

billion eggs, eating them as she goes along so she will have the strength she will need to suckle them when they hatch. The young insects, called "maggots," enjoy a carefree childhood, writhing playfully under their mother's 76,806,059 watchful eyes and engaging in maggot games that teach them skills they will need to survive as adults, such as scurrying under the refrigerator when the kitchen light comes on. Eventually, they reach a point where their mother can teach them no more, so they eat her, and the males start rubbing their legs together. This life cycle takes about 18 minutes, slightly less in my basement.

So there you have it, Bobby, a fascinating look at the jillions of tiny life forms that inhabit Spaceship Earth with us, and that will still be around long after we're all dead from nuclear war! Of course the insects know this, too, and they do everything they can to promote international tension. They send their top-rated chiggers to all the nuclear-arms-reduction talks, so after a few minutes the negotiators for both sides are so welt-covered and irritated that they lunge across the table and try to punch each other in the mouth. It's just one more way these amazing little creatures adapt to the world around them. So the next time you're about to stomp on an insect, Bobby, remember this: A sudden, jerky motion can lead to serious muscle strain!

Well, kids, that's it for this month's science question. Tune in next month, when a child from Ohio named "Suzy," or perhaps "Mark," will write in to ask about the Six Basic Rules of cattle-prod safety.

Day 110:
You can search throughout the entire universe for someone who is more deserving of your love and affection than you are yourself, and that person is not to be found anywhere. You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe deserve your love and affection.
-Buddha

Day 111: Crumb for a day, Feast for a lifetime

I celebrated Thanksgiving in an old-fashioned way. I invited everyone in my neighborhood to my house, we had an enormous feast, and then I killed them and took their land.
-Jon Stewart

Day 112: Desert Pathway

As a single footstep will not make a path on the earth, so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind. To make a deep physical path, we walk again and again. To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives.
-Henry David Thoreau

Day 113:
Woo
You might not ever get rich
But let me tell ya it's better than diggin' a ditch.
There ain't no tellin' who ya might meet. .
A movie star or may be even an Indian Chief.
...
Come summer the work gets kind a hard
This ain't no place to be if ya planned on being a star.
Let me tell you it's always cool
And the boss don't mind sometimes if ya act a fool.
-Rose Royce

Day 114:
I managed to capture this beautiful, illusive Crate
Turkey on my latest outing to the neighborhood grocer. Nestled between the zero-calorie ginger ale and the gluten free chips, it likely was a youngster awaiting its mother to return and feed it a regurgitated meal of bulk saltwater taffy. Adorable!

Day 115: Baby Brain Yantra

Day 116:
We are all the same person trying to shake hands with our self.
- Wavy Gravy

Day 117:
"Last Salmon Man (Fisherman's Chronicles, Part IV)",
by Primus

The river waters diverts to other places
to nurture central valley seeds
The Northern water that sloshes desert fairways
Fulfills So-Cal golfers needs

The mighty chinook that used to bend the rivers
Into the ground within it pond
Fade numbers as the tributaries wane
Soon they'll all be gone

Jimmy Mac runs the troller of his father
Who got it passed down from his Pa
Three crow seasons and a backnote on his shoulder
Jimmy's hiding from the law

Jimmy watched as the bulk of the fleet
Sold their boats or moved away
But after the stroke
He promised to his father
He'd do his best to stay
Bodega Bay

He remembered the days when his father used to show him
How to set and tend all of the gear
With his hand on his shoulder he looked out at the water
And said son "It is my fear, that you'll be the Last Salmon Man"
You're the Last Salmon Man
You're the Last Salmon Man
You're the Last Salmon Man of the MacGonagle Clan

2010 they re-opened Nor-Cal waters
To the Salmon chasing slew
Four straight days Jimmy trolled the jagged coast line
But the fish were far and few

Jimmy watched as the bulk of the fleet
Packed their boats and moved away
But on his deathbed
He promised to his father
He'd do his best to stay
In Bodega Bay
Bodega Bay
Bodega Bay
Bodega Bay
Bodega Bay
Bodega Bay

He remembered the days when his father used to show him
How to set and tend all of the gear
With his hand on his shoulder he looked out at the water
And said son "It is my fear, that you'll be the Last Salmon Man"
You're the Last Salmon Man
You're the Last Salmon Man
You're the Last Salmon Man of the MacGonagle Clan

Last Salmon Man
He's the Last Salmon Man
He's the Last Salmon Man
He's the Last Salmon Man of the MacGonagle Clan

Day 118:
Our time here is magic! It's the only space you have to realize whatever it is that is beautiful, whatever is true, whatever is great, whatever is potential, whatever is rare, whatever is unique, in. It's the only space.
-Ben Okri

Day 119: Thousand Petal Lotus of the Mind Yantra

Day 120: On this lovely, cool and rainy day, I got out the brushes and paint and started (continued) working on a project that has been long overdue... I love painting so much!

"The same stream of life that runs through my veins night and day runs through the world and dances in rhythmic measures. It is the same life that shoots in joy through the dust of the earth in numberless blades of grass and breaks into tumultuous waves of leaves and flowers. It is the same life that is rocked in the ocean-cradle of birth and of death, in ebb and in flow. I feel my limbs are made glorious by the touch of this world of life. And my pride is from the life-throb of ages dancing in my blood this moment."
-Rabindranath Tagore

Day 123:
"Not gross, not not gross." -The Pajama Men

Day 124: Lunchtime

It was the Law of the Sea, they said. Civilization ends at the waterline. Beyond that, we all enter the food chain, and not always right at the top.
-Hunter S. Thompson

Day 125: Firefly

The difference between the almost right word & the right word is really a large matter--it's the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning.
-Mark Twain

Day 126: Babyscape

Life is like a landscape. You live in the midst of it but can describe it only from the vantage point of distance.
-Charles Lindbergh

Day 127: Hunting lightning

I think I'm addicted to hunting lightning - it's exhilarating and terrifying all at once. The storm was further north from us at first, and I climbed on the roof to check it out (I know, I know - not a great idea; I told my husband to let our child know I love him if I did not return...), but as the storm moved closer, I moved down into the yard. It passed directly over us, and the thunder was so loud it startled me, and the lightning seemed to be striking out at me... 'Just one more' I kept saying to myself, waiting for the next capture, but eventually I was driven inside by the rain.

Day 128: LC

The human voice is the organ of the soul.
-Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Day 129: Double Rainbow

We live in a rainbow of chaos.
-Paul Cezanne

Day 130: Chamomile and Calendula oil

The stars, that nature hung in heaven, and filled their lamps with everlasting oil, give due light to the misled and lonely traveller.
-John Milton

Day 131: SuperBaby Visits Manhattan

"Dreams save us. Dreams lift us up and transform us. And on my soul I swear... until my dream of a world where dignity, honor and justice becomes the reality we all share... I’ll never stop fighting. Ever."
-Superman

Day 132: Serendipity

Today, I tried a new thing - I wore my camera as a belt and set it to take photos every minute as I walked around the aquarium and botanical gardens. Shooting from the hip :) Here is one of my favorites from the outing.

Day 133:
I was seeing in a sacred manner the shape of all things in the Spirit, and the Shape of all Shapes as they must live together like one being and I saw that the sacred hoop of my people was one of many hoops that made one circle, wide as daylight and as starlight, and in the center grew one mighty flowering tree to shelter all the children of one mother and one father. And I saw that it was holy.
—Black Elk

Day 134:
I didn't want to tell the tree or weed what it was. I wanted it to tell me something and through me express its meaning in nature.
-Wynn Bullock

Day 135: Today I said goodbye to a dear friend. These are some of our final photos together. My Olympus went to the great zoom error in the sky We had many good times together, friend. You will be missed.

"The entrance to Olympus was a great gate of clouds, kept by the Seasons. Within were the gods’ dwellings where they lived and slept and held court. In its great halls they feasted on ambrosia and nectar and were entertained by Apollo’s lyre, the Graces and the Muses."
-mythman.com