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Our Daily Thread 5-13-15

Good Morning!

No music from me today. You folks are gonna pick it and post it instead.

So what’s it gonna be? 🙂

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On this day in 1607 Jamestown, Virginia, was settled as a colony of England.

In 1846 the U.S. declared that war existed with Mexico.

In 1911 the New York Giants set a major league baseball record. Ten runners crossed home plate before the first out of the game against St. Louis.

In 1940 Winston Churchill made his first speech as the prime minister of Britain.

And in 1975 hailstones the size of tennis balls hit Wenerville, TN. 😯

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Quote of the Day

“For myself, I can only say that I am astonished and somewhat terrified at the results of this evening’s experiments. Astonished at the wonderful power you have developed, and terrified at the thought that so much hideous and bad music may be put on record forever.”

Sir Arthur Sullivan

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Anyone have a QoD?

51 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 5-13-15”

  2. I can’t definitively identify the butterfly, since there are several similar species (Eastern comma, gray comma, and one other I can’t remember, some other punctuation other than a comma, though). What I’m about to say is for sure true of the Eastern comma, and I am pretty sure it’s true of all of them . . . if you look at this butterfly, it is quite worn, with one wing quite visibly torn, not like a butterfly you usually see in early spring when it’s fresh and new. (I’m assuming this is a new photo from this spring.) But this isn’t a young butterfly. It hatched last fall as a caterpillar, ate and grew and became a chrysalis and then a butterfly. And then it hibernated overwinter. Yes, this fragile-looking insect hibernated and came out to find a mate and (if female) lay eggs.

    On the underside of its wings (you can’t see it in this photo) is a tiny little white mark that looks like a comma, thence its name, or a comma and a dot (which would make it a question mark and not a comma–there, I remembered). It’s a tiny little insect, less than two inches long, but God gave it the ability to survive winter.

    In doing research about butterflies last year, I discovered to my amazement that they can overwinter in any of their four life forms: as eggs, as caterpillars (the woolly bear or woolly worm moth caterpillar), in the chrysalis, or as an adult (either migrating into a warmer climate like the Monarch or hibernating like this one; the red Admiral also hibernates).

    Whatever form it overwinters (other than migration), it is called “diapause,” since its life functions are put on hold over winter. The youngsters that hatch as this one’s offspring will not live to see winter, and their wings will be darker, but they will lay eggs that will grow into youngsters that hibernate next year.

    That’s your science lesson for today.

    PS Evolution didn’t do this.

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  3. Good morning for a science lesson! Thank you, Cheryl. You would really enjoy the Butterfly House at Calloway Gardens. Maybe you can find info about it on the web.

    I got my Mother’s Day call from son last night, late. I was having to fight sleep to talk with him. Still it was good to have conversation to touch base. I think he will be home sometime in the near future for a visit and because of distance between us he is use to celebrating birthdays, etc., after the fact.

    I saw on Twitter that Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary is offering “free” online classes if you do a registration that costs $40.00 to submit. That sounds quite interesting to me. It is at your own pace.

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  5. Chas was at the Y, working out.
    That’s why he is so strong and handsome.
    😆

    Middle GD got a masters in nursing from Duke. She went to Durham twice.
    My present SS teacher is a retired seminary professor. He still teaches on-line.
    I have never taken an on-line course.

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  6. BTW, when I said the butterfly is worn, I wasn’t talking about the irregular, scalloped edges; that is part of the design. But the color is a bit faded and at least one left wing is torn–looks like a bird might have taken a bite.

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  8. Mumsee was outside doing her chores and is now inside, avoiding her chores. That is why she is so strong and …….

    Another busy day. Two of the older boys are off to the city for an orchestra event all day. We will have thirteen year old daughter go to her science class and then off to Moscow to visit parents and daughter.

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  9. Kim, may today be a day that you really know the love of God and of your husband, can leave other people in God’s hands, and have some hint that you are loved and/or appreciated by others, too.

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  12. I see what that does. It takes you to google where you press the first one of the pics. Played at all of our weddings in honor of my brother, who is strange.

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  16. Amen, Kim, Karen, and Cheryl!

    It’s the first day lately that house has been cool enough so that Miss Bosley has wanted some cuddle time.

    I am “reading” the audiobook of The Advocate by Randy Singer for review. Another excellent book I hope to finish today as I do chores. It is Randy Singer’s first historical novel and he does a great job with it using his legal background portraying Theophilus.

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  19. I went out to the garage to get milk from the second refrigerator and heard Snowball meowing to come out. I told him he did not want to come out. When I opened the door, he came out. I told him to look around, he did, he saw the other cat and was back in before I was ready to close the door. His box is cleaned out, his food refilled, water bucket supplied, comfy chairs available, two mice in the traps, and he does not get mauled by the other cat. I soo spoil that cat.

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  20. Janice, Callaway Gardens looks interesting, but not close enough to anyone I know to be likely to get a visit. There is a decent butterfly garden at the Chattanooga Aquarium, and I may get a chance to visit that later this summer.

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  21. My cat pestered and pestered and pestered me this morning until I finally got out of bed. Honestly. She was hungry. She was licking and purring in my ear, clawing my ear — only pausing when our neighborhood hawk, who appears this time of year, flew back and forth squawking & visible from the open bedroom window.

    “Too big for you,” I told her, but I could tell she didn’t believe me.

    Yesterday was a much better day for me. The editor even said “Thanks, Donna” as I walked out an hour later than usual as I had to finish up another homeless story. Couldn’t believe my ears.

    We’re expecting a nice cold rain storm in the next day or two, maybe with hail. 🙂

    Kim, NCIS-NO was renewed for another season. I’m sure you’ll be thrilled to know that starting next fall you can listen to yet another year of over-the-top TV southern accents.

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  22. Annie is really so over-confident.

    Lately she’s been affectionately rubbing up against Tess’ hind quarters as Tess is eating, causing Tess to make this creepy guttural noise of displeasure (but lucky for Annie she won’t stop eating).

    Annie’s pressing her luck with that one.

    Now that Annie’s fed, she’s gone outdoors to find the hawk.

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  23. Mumsee,

    Since I’m no longer anon, I’ll tell you.

    Go to YouTube. Play the video you want. While it’s playing, right click on the video. Select the first option- copy video url. Then right click again in the comment section, paste it in, and hit post. Done.

    🙂

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  25. Donna- I just saw your comment about Gibbs. All I can say is- Remember the 70s and “Who shot JR?” Yeah. Gibbs will be back. He was shot in the lower chest, probably below any major organs, so he’ll most likely survive.

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  26. I think so, too, Peter. But not a bad way to insure a ratings spike when the show returns in the fall. 🙂

    (They did this a few years ago with Ducky and he survived — besides, I figure Harmon is actually the show’s producer so it would be like firing himself … )

    Still, anything’s possible, maybe he wants to produce and not be bothered acting (though I doubt it, he’s still too cute & popular).

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  27. Griping (nicely, I hope) on FB regarding the mental illness issue.

    All I kept hearing from people was it was all Reagan’s doing when he closed mental hospitals as governor.

    So I did a bit of research and found a couple articles, including a 1984 piece from the NY Times, that outline what really happened — that the closure of mental hospitals (which didn’t happen just in California but essentially worldwide) began as a movement in the 1950s when meds started coming online that everyone hoped would allow the mentally ill to be more functional in regular society.

    The meds have helped many to do that, of course, though not all (and it depends on whether they take their meds). (Thus, so many mentally ill now are homeless on our city streets.)

    There was also an important civil liberties issue that played a role as locking people away in asylums was often being abused, not surprisingly.

    Still, it’s all Reagan’s fault. ??

    He was governor perhaps when the final closures came down, but this started long before him & was implemented widely across the nation (and in other countries). On board were politicians, the medical community & academia (along with civil libertarians).

    Good intentions, unintended consequences …

    It just irks me when people insist on making it a superficial exercise in political finger pointing, just to boost their own political side. SO annoying ….

    (And yet, my sparring partner just posted that the NY Times article was “superficial;” that it’s still all Reagan’s fault. Sheesh, people. Wake up and listen to yourselves!)

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  28. Thanks, Donna. My dad was one of those who blamed Reagan. He also worked in the state’s mental hospitals as a doctor and then as a psychiatrist. It is good to hear what your research turned up.

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  29. I remember my journalism teacher in college in the mid 1970s saying the same thing about Reagan … I’ll have to do more research, but it’s sounding to me like one of those things that, if repeated often enough, it becomes “truth” somehow …

    How could the governor of one state essentially change the entire nation’s (world’s?) accepted paradigm for treating mental illness?

    I know Reagan was hated, and he may have been complicit in some of the decisions on a state level, but it really sounds to me that it was much bigger than a single political decision (by one politician, no less); that it was really part of a sea change in the views, across the board, of how to treat mental illness based on new drugs and civil liberty concerns.

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  30. Incidentally, Donna, your research shows something else – that mental health meds did not create a mental illness explosion. It just made it more visible to the average person. And that is a good thing. The other day I linked to an article which talked about how Christianity had raised the dignity and value of children. Another section of the population which Christian influence has also raised the dignity and value of is those, whether by birth or later illness or injury, who are mentally disabled (surely, schizophrenia is every bit as debilitating as something like Down’s syndrome, in its way).

    Two British productions I have seen emphasized that to me. One was a TV film, ‘The Lost Prince’ about George IV’s mentally disabled son, Prince John. Prince John was mentally retarded in some way (the film hints that he may have been autistic – this was the early 1900s), and so he was raised in seclusion to avoid being an embarrassment to the family. The other was a documentary of the life of Jane Austen, which quoted a statement by one of Austen’s family talking about a younger brother of hers who did not thrive and so was given to a villager to be raised. In other words, there was something wrong with him and so he was quietly put out of the family to become another village idiot.

    Asylums were part of that effort to erase the disgrace of madness or imbecility in the family – after all it might be hereditary, making one a less eligible marriage partner. Modern medicine has demonstrated that many of these conditions are not hereditary, and given hope for their treatment. Yes, tragedies happen – but they happened before, only it was not visible to most people. California probably has a higher population of such people simply because it is warmer. The mentally ill of Ontario, for example, have to find some kind of shelter for our bitter winters. I remember my teacher saying that many check themselves into the hospital when it gets cold.

    I toured the largest mental health institution in the province as part of my education, and it is a great place. There is a locked unit for those who have been ruled dangerous; but the hospitals are now regarded as places for those in crisis, with community programs attached to help people reintegrate. I observed some of those programs, run by experienced medical and social workers who keenly observe their clients. No, it is better this way, a part of the pain of the human experience is no longer walled up. As Christians are told, we bear one another’s burdens and mental illness is one of those burdens.

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  31. Lee & I enjoy NCIS. Since he goes to bed so early, I record any shows we watch, & then we try to get to them sometime that week, but often not until the next week.

    Thanks, Donna, for letting me know how the episode we haven’t seen yet ends. 😉

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  32. Oops. Sorry Karen! I’m a spoiler!

    roscuro, thank you for the comments on mental illness

    my friend Carol was diagnosed with schizophrenia — she’s on (and has been on) a number of meds, they change them from time to time. For the most part, they’ve been pretty effective at making her mostly functional. She no longer works but otherwise is extremely aware and cognizant, is a voracious reader (she has a very high IQ), independent but reliable … The new place where she lives at first were very reticent to let her “out” on her own, but now they’re OK with that — she told me that they didn’t know her well yet (which is what I suspected). She does have to wear a bracelet, but that’s probably good.

    There have been a couple times when she’s stopped taking the meds and it’s very evident 🙂 But generally she’s been very dependable about about staying on her schedule.

    Tough issue; apparently in the U.S. this has been passed from what used to be largely a state responsibility to a federal responsibility through SSI, etc.

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  34. She’s much more likely to be a victim of wrongdoing, by the way, as many of the mentally ill are (as opposed to perpetrators of violence or crime)

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  35. But I do suspect in my friend’s case that it was somewhat hereditary — from what she’s told me of her family, her mom & a brother, now deceased, both spent time in mental hospitals

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  36. And like with so many things, one size doesn’t fit all … But I do think there were valid (at the time) reasons to reassess the model that had been used for so long.

    In retrospect, there have clearly been downsides for many. It’s probably one of those moving-target societal issues that changes with science and medicine and experience. And there will always, also, be huge $$ issues that need to be addressed somehow.

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  37. Back to TV trivia:

    http://deadline.com/2015/05/ncis-ratings-finale-low-undateable-finale-marvel-agents-of-shield-falls-izombie-american-idol-nbc-cbs-1201426013/

    “With the title of “Neverland,” the Season 12 ender of the special agents procedural went out with a bang on Tuesday to set everything up for its 13th cycle in the fall. Unfortunately for the Mark Harmon-led NCIS, while slipping just 5% from last week, that bang was also indicative of a ratings hit. While the series low of the fast nationals could see an adjustment later, there is no way of getting around that NCIS fell to a series finale low last night. In fact, compared to its Season 11 ender of May 13, 2014, Tuesday’s S12 finale fell a hard 26% among adults 18-49. …”

    Ouch.

    But:

    ” … The season finale of NCIS: New Orleans (1.7/5) saw the freshman spinoff bopping up 6% from last week … “

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  38. Mental illness: several of mine have issues. At least three will probably never be independent. At least two will probably need medication, but not necessarily of the first three. We do not expect to live as long as they do (I am fifty years older than youngest). The bio children will probably help, the capable adopted children will probably help. But it would be nice to have the safety net, in case it does not work out. I know abuses occurred and occur, but a lot happens on the streets as well. It is a tough tough thing.

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  39. Donna, I met a person who developed schizophrenia after a severe head injury. The best theory for mental illnesses like schizophrenia is that it is a combination of hereditary tendencies and environmental triggers. In other words, a tendency to mental illness may run in the family, but it is your environmental triggers which will start the illness and shape its course. My aunt with chronic depression has a family history of mental illnesses, but the diagnoses range from schizophrenia to bipolar (manic-depressive).

    Michelle, permanent institutionalization may be necessary in some severe cases – and yes, some are still permanently institutionalized – but the goal with treating mental illness has simply caught up with the rest of medicine. The object is either to cure the disease, or if it is chronic, help the person function to their optimal level. I read “The Centre Cannot Hold” written by a schizophrenic who is a lawyer and law professor. The mathematician behind the film ‘A Beautiful Mind’ was able to bring his schizophrenia under control. Bipolar people abound in the world of artistic pursuits. Those with mental illness have given the world much to appreciate and enjoy.

    We do not see some of the mental illnesses that existed in previous centuries, because those illnesses were due to curable causes. The fight to recognize pellagra (niacin deficiency which causes mental as well as physical symptoms) is an infamous example of how the insistence on regarding the mentally deficient as a lower level of existence blocked the cure of that very curable disease. When Joseph Goldberger found it could be cured by diet, he was ignored by the establishment who were persuaded it was hereditary among the low classes. Over 3 million Americans suffered from the disease in the early 1900s and over 100,000 died.

    Now we are seeing well meaning people question the value of medicine for mental illness suggesting that institutions were shut down and medicines pushed by the plotting of Big Pharma. They fail to recognize how much progress has been made. For example, in the early 1900s, asylums were for the wealthier, the lower classes had their village idiots and their drifters – read some of O Henry’s stories or research hobo culture to see that homelessness for the mentally unstable is nothing new. Now, at least here, treatment for mental illness is pretty much equally available for all. Yes, some slip out of sight of the system, but everyone is much more aware of the needs of such people and how to help them. As the preacher said, “Do not ask, What is the cause that the former days were better than these? for you do not inquire wisely concerning this.” (Ecclesiastes 7:10).

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  40. Roscuro – I saw a Masterpiece presentation, a two- or three-parter, about Prince John, & I’m pretty sure it was called The Lost Prince.

    On Facebook today, I shared this piece about the historical inaccuracy of the recent Masterpiece presentation of Wolf Hall. I enjoyed the program, but I recognized it wasn’t exactly accurate …

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2015/04/05/how-wolf-hall-will-entertain-millions-and-threaten-to-distort-history-in-the-process/?postshare=3821431533880549

    One of the things I like about historical fiction is that it prompts me to do reading on the subject or person, which often leads to more reading about peripheral subjects or people.

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  41. Karen, most historical fiction drives me crazy, because many people go on to quote it as historical fact. However, some manages to convey something of the truth. Generally, those pieces are like looking at an artist’s depiction of a historical event – you know perfectly well that the painter who painted Washington crossing the Delaware was not there painting the event. What you are seeing is an artist’s statement of what an actual historical event means to the artist. The Lost Prince was like that, directed by a British director known for his artistic skill, and depicting his thoughts on what actually happened (we have an old (c. 1930’s) non-fiction book on the Windsors, as the royal family was called then, which mentions John’s seclusion, love of gardening, and early death).

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  44. Speaking as an historical fiction writer, I go to great lengths to make sure the history aspect of my stories is dead on. Google finally begged me to visit something else by the time I finished A Poppy in Remembrance (joke). I must have googled a dozen pages for every one I wrote and it’s 400+ pages long.

    I’ll look for The Lost Prince. Sounds interesting.

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  45. Thirteen year old daughter, who goes to public school for science told us they learned about 9-11 yesterday. Apparently, some planes flew into the two towers but we have no idea what happened. It was probably an accident.

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  46. Mumsee, I have a dear relative who got into some conspiracy theories related to 9-11. Up here, we aren’t much for truthers – the national broadcasting network, which tends to be liberal and never had much use for Bush, did some investigative journalism on the truthers’ claims and concluded there was no real evidence for their claims. However, my relative got some info on the internet and thought it sounded legitimate. It was all too complicated for me, and I pointed out that Ockam’s Razor said that the simplest explanation was probably the correct one. Haven’t heard much lately about that particular theory, but this is the same person who got some ‘information’ about the Holocaust being exaggerated. The internet can be dangerous if you don’t know how to take it. Are thirteen-year-old’s teachers in their early thirties/late twenties? As I’ve said before, millenials are very skeptical of their elders explanations.

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  49. It is highly possible. Teacher is in our church, I will ask him next time I see him. He is probably mid thirties. Nice guy and daughter is learning a lot in his class. Because he encourages her to come home and research things in which she is interested. She has made lots of posters about lots of things, which means she has looked them up, read about them, and wrote about them.

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  50. A very long/late day today, lots of crime to cover — a shooting in one of our favorite parks & car thieves being chased through town on foot after abandoning the stolen car in the middle of the freeway just before rush hour & causing a massive traffic jam-up.

    Tomorrow should be fun, too: I have to cover an 8 a.m. (yikes!) news conference announcing that LA was the #1 city last year for the most dogs bites on postal carriers. Victims will be available for interviews and some nice (good) dogs will be there, too, to show us how good dogs should behave, even around the evil mailman.

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