Quick Stuff.. Raising Cain, Raising Hands, Initiation, Deer Urine

(Hurricane Ian just made landfall in Florida, with winds of 150 mph!  So, no time to be original.  Here is an old blog entry I thought you might like.)

I just got back from the 2017 awards ceremony for the Maryland Senior Citizens Hall of Fame.  I had nominated Ruth Milligan, and she received her certificate and had her picture taken for the newspaper.

I am now on the Honorary Board for MSCHF and will be meeting with some board members to discuss my "vision" paper.  The main thing left to do is to get County chapters going.  Should be fun.

I just finished my course about Giuseppi Verdi and started on my course about Saint Augustine.  Two professors with strong New York accents share the lectures... one kind of makes me sleepy, but I'll get used to it.  I've now heard 4 lectures and they still have not gone into any kind of detail about Augustine's life... but there are lots of more lectures to go.

Speaking of religion, here is a little story that Peggy Johnson wrote to Readers Digest a few months ago:

"During Bible studies, I asked my fifth-grade students to name the first couple.  they correctly answered Adam and Eve.  But when I asked about the first children, they were silent.  So I said, 'One son's name started with C, for Cain.  the second son's name started with A, for...'  One student shouted 'Adam Junior!'"

Smart kid.

And speaking of kids.... how about this report that was in The Week for October 28, 2011:

"...Evergreen Park High School in Illinois announced that students would be allowed to leave class to go to the bathroom only three times per semester.  Students who need to pee more often will have to make up class time after school."

This reminds me of when I was in grammar school class and was called on to read in front of the class.  I was so shy and had such bad stage-fright that I would do, or say, anything to get out of it. One excuse was...  I have to go the little boy's room.... or, I'm having a nosebleed... or, I don't feel good.   (Perhaps this was why that teacher slugged me in second grade.)

That also reminds me of something my Grandfather Vaughan told me once.  He said that he made up an exclusive club when he was in grammar school.   To get into the club, one had to be subjected to an initiation procedure called "pee more yet."

The initiate was blindfolded and each member of the club would take turns peeing into the initiate's pockets.  Yuk!

Well, that was before the Internet, TV, radio, record players, video games, and the like... therefore they had to improvise their fun.

Speaking of pee: Adam Davidson in The New Yorker magazine for September 25, 2017 mentions  that an Amish gentleman named Elam Lapp, Jr., is one of "America's premier producers of deer urine."  Hunters squirt the urine around to disguise their scent and also to attract bucks, if the urine comes from does.

There apparently is a "nearly undetectable" amount of prions in deer urine. (Prions may be one cause of C.W.D.  or Mad Cow Disease) Even so, fearing prions, some states have banned deer urine, and Mr. Lapp and other deer urine gatherers like him are not politically poised to be able to fight the ban.  This all gets into something called "regulatory capture,"  which I don't want to get into here.

Speaking of deer... here is a picture of a "family" scene that Elaine took through our back porch window.  At one time there were at least 11 members of our neighboring deer family, and once, Elaine saw a doe give birth to three (count 'em!) little Bambis.

....................................................................