For The Love of Axolotls

I don’t remember when I saw axolotls for the first time, but I was hooked right away. I mean, who could NOT look at that sweet smiling face and feel anything but love?? Marv disagrees. He thinks they are creepy and ugly.

 

I will admit not all axolotls look cute. There are actually some fairly ugly ones. But all axolotls matter. They all need love. They are found only in Mexico and are critically endangered.

 

I’m not going to give you a science lesson. You can look the stuff up yourself. These critters are fascinating. They can regrow just about any part of their body including parts of the brain. They’re easy to breed for scientific study, but if you want to keep one as a pet in an aquarium, there are some fairly important rules to keep your axolotl alive. They average around 9 inches, but can grow up to 18 inches. That would take a pretty big tank. It’s best to just leave them where they are to enjoy life. BTW, they are illegal to own in California.

 

They can be eaten and are considered gourmet food in Japan. But how could you look at that cute little face and then eat it??

 

I’ll end with a pic of this cute little blue beauty.

 

 

ABC Book Challenge P – S

 

P – Poetry

I didn’t show any specific book because I have many, many books of poetry. Instead I will comment on three of my favorites. I’ve written a lot about Mrs. Malloy, my 4^th grade teacher and the way she opened my mind with her selection of classic lit and poetry that she read to the class. In no special order:

#1 The Highwayman by Alfred Noyes (1880-1958) The class loved this one and requested it often from Mrs. Malloy.

#2 Little Orphant Annie by James Whitcomb Riley (1849-1916) Another oft-requested poem.

#3 The Rubáiyát by Omar Khayyám (1048-1131) The class didn’t care one way or the other about these poems, but I LOVED them. I asked for a book of them for one of my birthdays and my mom got me a really lovely illustrated book of a few select poems. I’ve since collected 3 more editions of the many, many poems he wrote.

 

 

        

Q – Question in the title          Where’s My Cow? (2005) by Terry Pratchett

This is part of the Discworld universe brought to life by Pratchett. If you’re not familiar with it, you’ve done yourselves a huge disfavor. Where’s My Cow is the favorite picture book of little Sam, son of Commander Samuel Vimes of the City Watch. Daddy Vimes does all the animal sounds to the delight of young Sam. You’ll laugh! You’ll cry! You’ll say “Where’s My Cow??”

 

 

R – Rare book                         Voynich Manuscript by unknown (1404?-1438?)

OK. I know. NO ONE READS THE VOYNICH MANUSCRIPT!! It was written in an unknown language that has stumped academics for years and years. No clue as to what it say. There have been some reasonable guesses, but that’s about it. I first heard of it when watching an episode of Elementary, where Sherlock Holmes is trying to distract himself by going through some of the copied pages to see if he could make any sense of them. As good as Sherlock is, even he was baffled. I Googled it and saw all the illustrations that were listed and read the Wikipedia article and did some more research. I was fascinated. Even though it’s unreadable, the text is visually appealing. The illustrations are amazing. The original now belongs to Yale. So I took a deep breath, used a $10 coupon for Amazon, and bought the Yale approved facsimile. It’s the same size as the original with the same fold-out displays. I love it. I love looking through it. It inspires me in my artwork. It was worth every penny. 

 

 

S – Sci-fi                                  Interstellar Pig (1984) and Parasite Pig (2002) by William Sleator

Great books!! I’d read Interstellar Pig several years ago and when the sequel came out I got that one, too. A kind of mix of the games Dungeons & Dragons and Clue. In the first book, Barney is on vacation with his parents by a beach in New England. He notices the next door renters playing some kind of board game with obsessive passion. He likes games, and gets himself invited and “absorbed” by the new people. Who don’t seem quite human… The sequel continues the story with the same aliens and Barney is off on another adventure.

 

A Cheer for the Good Ones

 

This past week was Teacher Appreciation Week. With all the crap going on concerning school openings and teacher squabbles and parental squabbles and mask squabbles and the very real tragic effect it’s having on our kids, I thought I’d pay tribute to the very special teachers who had a positive influence on me. I’m sure there are a lot of what my Dad would call “one of the good ones”, but it’s always the negatives that make the news. Some of my teachers I’ve already blogged about, but they all deserve kudos.

 

1^st grade – Norma Vanderley. She was a SAINT. So blessed to have had her as a teacher.

 

4^th grade – Dee Maloy. Kinda scared me, but she OPENED MY MIND.

 

Junior High English – Virginia Sherman and Lois Copenhaver. The first played Bill Cosby records and the Sgt. Pepper album. The latter had a great sense of humor and treated us like we had a brain.

 

High School English – Mrs. Padgett. Very sympathetic and compassionate dealing with my massive insecurities. Did her absolute best to help me.

High School Creative Writing – Pat Wismer. Outstanding. Actually a class that I enjoyed. She encouraged my writing.

 

Sadly, by the time I was stable enough to look back and appreciate these teachers, they had passed on and I never got to thank them. If you had a special teacher or two and they are still around, THANK THEM!