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Thoughts on the National Spelling Bee

We watched the Scripps National Spelling Bee last night. Sena watched it the night before and we both watched the final for the first time ever. There’s something about watching kids under pressure to spell words that I’ve never even heard of that made it painful for me to watch at times. I think I recognized only a couple of the words.

For the first time in 94 years of the spelling bee, there was a spelling runoff to determine the winner. Harini Logan won and was apparently calm and poised as she rattled off 21 of 26 words correctly. The second-place winter was Akram Vikru, an extremely strong performer.

Nobody fainted. The reason I mention that is that one guy named Akshay Buttiga did faint on stage in the 2004 contest and there’s a YouTube video of it that went viral. He was down but not for the count. In seconds he bounced back up, spelled his word correctly and went on to finish the competition, getting runner-up honors.

Last year’s winner was Zaila Avant-garde (how’s that for a great last name?). She’s the first African American to win the spelling bee. She was on hand last night to make comments on the current competition. She has spectacular goals, among them working for NASA to find another planet for us to live on sometime—which we’ll likely need. Go Zaila!

One thing I saw a lot of spellers do was write in their palms while they were up to the microphone getting ready to spell their words. I guess it helps them visualize the word, or maybe it’s a tactile thing.

Another interesting feature was the bell lady, who never gets mentioned. This was the woman who had the terrible job of ringing the bell when the contestants misspelled their words. Interviews with the kids revealed that the bell was what they dreaded the most. On the other hand, what I noticed about the bell lady were her words of encouragement after she rang the bell. She wasn’t an executioner. She said something different to each kid that basically expressed that he or she was still loved, admired, and sure to be a success in life.

They were under tremendous pressure. How did they do it? Part of their preparation were spelling coaches and something called SpellPundit, a $600 subscription resource that can give those who can afford it a big advantage in competition.

Maybe some of them have prodigious memories and memorize the dictionary, as Nigel Richards did when he won the French-language Scrabble World Championships in 2015. He didn’t speak a word of French. Somehow, I doubt that’s the main strategy.

But the contestants themselves have a lot of drive, enthusiasm, and a superhuman work ethic that often amounted to working on spelling for several hours a day. Grit is a huge trait, as Buttiga demonstrated.

Where are past winners now? It turns out they’re all in jail or on skid row. Just kidding. They are leaders across many professions and society is lucky to have them.

Congratulations to the winners!

Thoughts About Guns

I think there a lot better places to read about viewpoints on mass shootings than my blog. I recommend you check out Dr. George Dawson’s post “Gun Extremism Not Mental Illness,” posted on May 31, 2022, then read the editorial in Scientific American, “The Science is Clear: Gun Control Saves Lives,” posted on May 26, 2022.

I’m going to chime in mainly to show a few graphics I found which I think send a clear and simple message. Before I get to that, I just want to mention a few anecdotes to show how little hands-on experience I have with guns.

My earliest memory of any contact with firearms is in early childhood. My dad and a friend came home from a hunting trip with some rabbits for dinner for the family, which included my younger brother and my mother. I don’t know who cleaned or cooked them. I’m pretty sure my mom would not have had anything to do with them. I got my first taste and didn’t like it and said so to my dad. He introduced me to the word “gamey.” I didn’t know meat could taste gamey. The other thing I got from that meal was a mouthful of buckshot. I silently vowed I would never eat anything like it again while I lived.

My next encounter with guns was a YMCA program for kids to learn how to shoot. I might have been in my early teens, maybe even younger. We were given BB guns and instructed to do some target shooting. The paper bullseye targets were set up several yards away. I took many shots and collected my target to show the instructor.

I thought I hit it once and pointed to the hole. The instructor looked at it critically for a few seconds and then told me kindly that the hole was where the pin was stuck to fix the target to the wall. I never touched another gun.

Fast forward to when I was a third-year medical student getting through my clinical rotations at the University of Iowa. In 1991, a physics graduate student named Gang Lu shot and killed 6 people on campus including himself, wounded another rendering her paralyzed from the neck down, all apparently because he was not chosen to get an award for his dissertation. I remember feeling shocked when I read about it in the newspaper.

Now let’s move to some graphics I found at a website maintained by The University of Sydney, GunPolicydotorg, International firearm injury prevention and policy https://www.gunpolicy.org/. It makes it easy to put together comparison statistical graphics on things like gun violence. I compared the United States to New Zealand, Australia, and Canada. Click the next few links in order to get the message. In my opinion, I think the last one is a consequence of the first few.

I guess now it’s up to Congress. God help us all.

The Waving Man

There’s this guy who waves at every passing motorist as he walks to and from his job moving boxes around at the Coralville Hy-Vee. He’s been doing it for years and age is beginning to take over the deepening creases in his face. But it doesn’t dim his smile as he waves at every car he can.

He has to cross the street to and from the store parking lot. When the light changes to green he hustles across. His work apron flaps a little. That’s the only time he doesn’t wave. After he’s safely on the other side of the street, he starts waving and smiling.

We figure he walks to and from wherever he lives. We never could figure out where home is for him. It’s hard to see how he ever makes his destination as often as he stops to wave at all of us driving by.

When we lived in the neighborhood and as I was driving to work and driving home, I would wave back—as I kept my eyes fixed on the road ahead of me.

Every once in a while, I’ll google various questions framed around the term “waving man.” I’ll find occasional news items about a waving man in some city. Nobody ever complains about the waving man and most find him to be the bright spot in the day. There’s never an explanation for this behavior, scientific or otherwise. It’s just accepted for what it is—a generous greeting, wishing you well.

When times are good, the waving man is out there. And when times are bad; when the pain and sorrow and loss are overwhelming—the waving man is there.

Jumping Worms are Making Iowans Jumpy

Well, the jumping worms are making Iowans jumpy lately, even though the critters have been reported around here since at least 2018 by the Iowa Department of Agriculture & Land Stewardship. All of a sudden, they’re alien invaders, slithering like snakes and jumping into your gardens.

Iowa State University wants us to take pictures of every jumping worm we see, so you have your cameras ready. They’re as popular as aliens from distant galaxies, but said to be far more destructive of the land, gorging themselves on leaf litter, and according to the Iowa Department of Agriculture,“…exposing the land to compaction, increased water runoff, erosion, and clears the way for invasive plants to take root on the newly cleared soil. This results in less diversity of native plants, and thus less diversity of animals.”

They thrash around and look pretty mad. There’s even a YouTube video of them whipping around in a frenzy.

I wonder if we could control them with Canadian Geese. They eat earthworms. I don’t know for sure if they eat jumping worms, but I don’t see why not.

There are a couple of problems with using geese, though. They hiss like snakes when you get too close to their young. Their long necks even remind me of snakes. And they like to spread their poop all over sidewalks and driveways.

Maybe the jumping worms would be great for fishing. They’d whip around in the water so wildly they’d be sure to attract any hungry fish.

Here’s something ironic. Maybe we could use the jumping worms to catch snakehead fish, which is another invasive species. Catch the snakehead with snake worms and serve the snakeheads for dinner. Yum. I’ll have an egg salad sandwich, please.

Bigfoot on Blood Moon May 2022!

For the first time we watched a total lunar eclipse on the night of May 15, 2022. It was a cool night. I used two cameras in an effort to make the most of my first effort in getting pictures of the event. I’m a novice and I’m sure it shows, of course. We had a lot of fun.

I used a point and shoot Canon Powershot SX610 HS, a small camera we’ve had for years. And I used a Nikon D3400 on a tripod. I started taking pictures shortly after 8:30 PM.

I’m not used to the night noises outside and could not make out what sounded likely raspy growling. At first, I thought it was Bigfoot and actually thought I got a shot of it stalking across the moon where it teleported along with its luggage. Bigfoot is actually an interdimensional critter. And they don’t travel light.

On the other hand, Sena thought the noises were made by White Tail deer and she was right. I found a YouTube that showed them making exactly the same noises we heard. Later I heard a Barred Owl hooting.

Blood Moon shot with a Nikon D3400 on a tripod

Blood Moon shot with a Canon PowerShot

Fill a Bag and Help Feed Families Program

We’re filling a bag to help families in the program affiliated with the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC). Letter carriers in Iowa City will be picking up bags of non-perishable food items placed beside mailboxes on the second Saturday in May, which is on May 14, 2022 this month. Edward James Olmos is the food drive’s celebrity spokesperson, which gives the title of the movie he played a role in, “Stand and Deliver,” a special meaning in this context.

NAMIWalks Today and Beyond!

We drove by Terry Trueblood Recreation Area today and were amazed by the big crowd of people. We found out about the NAMIWalks today because of the signage and people everywhere at the park.

The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) has been around since 1979, and you can read more from the top fundraiser for today’s event, Margalea Warner!

Not Ambivalent I’m A Hawkeye

I searched the web for a picture of ambivalence and had a tough time finding one. The featured image comes close. The reason I’m ambivalent is because of a conflict I have about the Iowa Hawkeye football program, which is currently the subject of a lawsuit by former African American players compared to the University of Iowa asking fans to find a new song to accompany the traditional Hawkeye Wave, in which players and fans wave at the kids watching the game from the UI Stead Family Children’s Hospital.

I think it’s a moving gesture. I’d like to formally nominate a new song. But I’m not sure I could call myself a fan, given the conflict between two principles: honoring the families with sick children, and also wanting a just outcome for the former football players suing the Hawkeye football program, alleging that it created a hostile environment.

I dislike bringing this up, mainly because I want to be fair to both sides. On the one hand, the former Hawkeye players and the Hawkeye football program somehow need to find justice. On the other, I really believe families love the Hawkeye Wave, and so do I. I’m very ambivalent.

I even have a song I’d like to formally vote for. It’s “I Lived” by OneRepublic. It was originally dedicated to children with cystic fibrosis and, when the music video was released in 2014, it featured Bryan Warnecke, a 15-year-old showing how he not only lived with, but triumphed over the disease.

I want the best for both sides of this conflict between ideals. I don’t know if I can count myself as a fan of the Hawkeye football program right now.

But speaking as a retired University of Iowa general hospital psychiatric consultant who once served as a colleague to the pulmonology specialists who called me to help care for the emotional and physical health of their patients with cystic fibrosis, a few of whom were living into young adulthood—they are Hawkeyes and so am I.

So, I’m voting informally for “I Lived” because I think it captures the spirit of what the Hawkeye Wave is really all about—kindness, generosity, and hope.

Featured image picture credit Pixabaydotcom.

Update April 24, 2022: I voted formally today for “I Lived” by OneRepublic. You can submit yours here.

The Language of Diplomacy

The other day, I got to thinking about a previous interest in my early youth in learning to speak Esperanto. I couldn’t stick with it. It’s a constructed language, invented out of Russian, Polish, German, French, and English by a Polish ophthalmologist named Zamenhof in the late 19^th century. It was supposed to be a universal second language for international communication. In that sense it was supposed to be the new language of diplomacy, a distinction held for a long time by French, although some would say that English has replaced French as the lingua franca. Don’t ask me why.

Diplomacy is a big thing today, given the recent Russian invasion of Ukraine and other forms of aggression around the world. The art of diplomacy used to include rare skills like respect, restraint, civility and the like, which are in short supply all over the planet.

Esperanto is said to be relatively easy to learn and there’s even a free Google translator available.

I need to give a shout-out to somebody who has given a very even-handed description of the benefits and limitations of Esperanto, Jakub Marian. Although Jakub notes that Esperanto is the most widely spoken constructed language, it’s still spoken by too few people to be recommended as a practical means of communication. Jakub also doubts that it could be the new lingua franca, although there are many who would disagree. Interlingua might be a candidate for that. There’s a Wikipedia article about it, but I can’t read it because it’s in Interlingua.

Moving right along, I might be embarking on one of my famous tangents here, but I noticed from a web search that of my favorite undergraduate college professors, Dr. Jenny Lind Porter-Scott (who died in 2020), was honored in October of 2021 with a poetry reading of her work in Texas.

The Texas Poets’ Corner sponsored A Virtual Evening with Jenny Lind Porter where she was honored by the appearance of Professor Cyrus Cassells, 2021 Poet Laureate of Texas.

Dr. Porter was a benefactor and patron of the Texas Poets’ Corner. In May of 2021, West Texas A&M University (WTAMU) announced a $2.8 million gift from her estate. She was appointed Poet Laureate of Texas, appointed in 1964 by then Governor John Connally. In 1979, she became the only woman to receive the Distinguished Diploma of Honor from Pepperdine University. She’s also in the Texas Women’s Hall of Fame.

She also taught English Literature at an HBCU, Huston-Tillotson University, where I learned a lot from her back in the mid-1970s. She’s a fit person to remember and honor during Women’s History Month.

Why is this relevant to Esperanto? Esperanto translates into “one who hopes.” It suggests hope for a better world, which we all should do if we want the human race to survive. Dr. Porter embodied that.

There has been talk of nuclear weapons and World War III lately, connected with the Russian invasion of Ukraine. A couple of Dr. Porter’s poems in her book, The Lantern of Diogenes and Other Poems, published in 1954, probably speak to this menace, albeit in classical language that might sound a little formal nowadays.

I have an old copy of this volume. A Texas bookseller sold it to me with a handwritten message, which I have kept:

Thanks for your purchase! It’s rare to find a book of this age that when you open the pages it creaks like it is unread. I guess someone liked the way it looked on their bookshelf! Haha. Enjoy the book and Happy New Year.

The two poems in the volume which probably are relevant to the present-day crisis in Ukraine are “Atomic Age 1953″ and ‘Atomic Age 2000.”

The first one sounds like it was written during the early 1950s when there was a lot of anxiety about atomic bombs.

The second one was puzzling to me until I looked at a timeline of the Nuclear Age. It sounds just as full of fear as the first, although it’s set much later in time, in the year 2000, about the time when the dismantling of Russian nuclear weapons was happening. But as time passes, uncertainty grows about the threat of nuclear war.

D-ro Porter skribis ambaŭ pecojn kaj ŝajnas, ke ŝi havis vizion de ĝena estonteco. Ni ne povas lasi ĉi tiun libron sidi nelegita sur la breto. Ni bezonas diplomation, ĉu ĝi estas en la formo de nova lingua franca aŭ simple simpla angla. English translation of Esperanto below:

Dr. Porter wrote both pieces and it seems like she had a vision of a troubling future. We can’t let this book sit unread on the shelf. We need diplomacy, whether it’s in the form of Esperanto, another new lingua franca, or just plain English.

Featured Image picture credit: Pixabaydotcom

Thoughts on the Russian Invasion of Ukraine

I got up at around 3:30 AM this morning, unable to get back to sleep. It was mainly because of the current crisis in Ukraine. Russia has invaded Ukraine. I wonder if many of us will remember where we were and what we were doing when we found out that Russia invaded Ukraine? For us, it was sometime around 9:30 last night. I was listening to the light classical music channel on TV in our living room when Sena came up from downstairs where she had been watching the news and told me about it.

I switched to the TV news and saw two reporters, one based in the U.S. connected as part of the broadcast with another in Kyiv reporting on the shelling of the city. The reporter in Ukraine kept looking back over her shoulder at the city. She seemed distracted and distressed. The other reporter, based in the U.S., asked irritably, “What do the bombs sound like?” as though he were unhappy with her account of what was going on. She replied, just as irritably, “They’re loud!” I think she wanted to also say (as I did in my mind), “They sound like bombs and they’re scary; what do you think bombs sound like?”

I listend to various reporters talk about the attack. One of them commented that President Biden had said there would be no American soldiers actively engaging in combat in Ukraine. If they did, it would be “World War III.”

I thought of the other post I’d written for today. It’s just about a cribbage board in the shape of the state of Iowa that we got from Minnesota the day before yesterday. It came wrapped in a newspaper, probably the whole issue published about a month ago by the Morrison County Record in a town called Little Falls.

We just thought it was unusual that the cribbage board was shipped wrapped in newspaper; usually it’s those Styrofoam packing peanuts or bubble wrap. But this was like getting something from a friend or a family member who used the only thing handy to pack a gift.

I didn’t just toss the newspaper wrapping in the garbage, mainly because I enjoy reading actual printed material including books and newspapers. I was curious about it and so I found the article “In times like these” which I also described in the other post today, which is partly about a cribbage board in the shape of the state of Iowa. The article is a sermon, written by a local clergyman, Tim Sumner.

In it he talks about how difficult things are nowadays, that people are more divisive than he has ever seen. He mentioned the pandemic as a major contributor, but it’s easy to see how it could be applied more broadly now that major world powers seem to be moving toward war to feed what seems to be a hunger for empire-building.

Sumner, in accordance with his role as a clergyman, counsels us to turn to God. In view of the talk of World War III, it’s hard to disagree. Sumner asks, “Can things get worse?” It looks like it can.

I could find a lot of cribbage boards in the shape of single states in America. I could even find one of Middle Earth, believe it or not. But I couldn’t find one in the shape of the whole United States of America. Why?

Sumner writes,

It is “our understanding” that gets in the way. The way we see things is from our perspective. We want things our way. We don’t want to have to go through difficult times. We want life to be easy.

Maybe that’s true. He says trusting God is the way to respond to this. We could do that. And while we’re waiting for God to respond to us, what else could we do?