1. Some things in my life just make me tired. Some I understand, others I don't. Among them are shoveling snow, driving in snow, medical appointments, and dental appointments -- even when the doctors' or the dental hygienist/dentist's news is good. I don't fight the fatigue. I rest.
So, I realized this morning, after having a fun breakfast at Sam's with the guys, that, once I got the sidewalks cleared of snow and ice, I was going to stay home today, hope no more snow would fall in the Silver Valley, and take it easy.
I had all the essentials for such a day: coffee, containers of leftover soup I'd made, crackers and cheese, hot chocolate mix, Lucy Cooke's book I haven't finished yet, and late afternoon/early evening Big 10 basketball, telecast on FS1.
2. Returning to Lucy Cooke's book, The Truth About Animals, was a pleasure. She writes about different animals like moose, hippos, penguins, pandas, and others with intelligence, deep research, and wit. Consistently, she examines the impact upon animal life of both human thought (found in assumptions and in different writings) and actions. It's almost always destructive. I suppose, even though she never comes right out and says it, that the human assumption and the ensuing activity that most disrupts the animal world (and the larger world of nature) is the idea that humans can manage nature. Often these management projects, like creating eel farms, artificially inseminating pandas, or trying to bring rogue hippos in Colombia under control are attempts to solve problems brought about by the human pursuit of profit or pleasure -- or both.
Eels are tasty. A pleasure. Overfishing them has caused a serious depletion of their numbers. The result? Eel farms and the "production" of inferior eels; and, in the wild, a continued depletion of the eel population and interruption of their spawning habits.
Humans, through the expansion of cities, have seriously encroached upon panda habitat. In addition, because pandas are popular in zoos, humans have tried to manage the reproduction of pandas in captivity -- but pandas mate in conditions that can't be replicated in captivity and so, in order to produce more of the profitable pandas, the pandas are inseminated artificially.
Why is there a rogue hippo problem in Colombia? The drug lord Pablo Escobar populated his lavish property with animals imported from around the world, including the hippo. The hippo is an invasive species. In Colombia, the hippos live outside their natural habitat and their natural ways of mating and it drives the male hippos bonkers. No hippo enemies (except humans) reside in Colombia and so humans intervene, try to castrate the hippos, a very difficult task, and take other measures to try to bring the hippos under control -- to manage them.
So, for me, Lucy Cooke's book is both delightful and disturbing. It's a study of human hubris. I'm disturbed by this -- and I'm complicit. I know that. But, she's also a wildly funny writer, especially when she write about the crazy misconceptions naturalists and theologically-minded writers have had of certain animals over the centuries and when she writes about the the reproductive anatomy and mating habits of these different animals.
3. In keeping with our habit of talking about sports, especially college basketball, by using song titles, Byrdman today referred to Big 10 teams playing on the road as "Highway to Hell". I guess I could add that it's a real problem for road teams who start out games "Cold as Ice" and that was the case for the Wisconsin Badgers today in their game with the Michigan State Spartans. The Spartans answered the Badgers' cold shooting with some cold blooded sharp shooting of their own and skated to a 67-55 victory.
The "Highway to Hell" for the Michigan Wolverines led them to Iowa City and a tilt with the Iowa Hawkeyes. Michigan fared a little better than Wisconsin, but, in the end they couldn't overcome the Iowa's nearly unstoppable beast in the pivot, Luka Garza, nor the great disparity between the two teams at the free throw line. I mean, get this: Iowa put up 30 charity tosses and made 27 of them; Michigan only hoisted 5 freebies, making 4 of them. That helps anyone wondering why playing on the road is a "Highway to Hell". Nothing like home cookin'!
Actually, the Beatles recorded a song on what's known as the White Album to describe the Iowa/Michigan game. It was "Helter Skelter". Both teams played at a fast tempo. Shots flew up in a hurry. It was a frantic and very entertaining game, hard fought, physical, stocked with steals, hustle plays, finesse, and brute force. Iowa prevailed, 90-83, thanks in large part to Luka Garza's 33 points, supported by the deadeye shooting of CJ Fredrick and Joe Wieskamp who combined to pop in 41 points.
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