Category Archives: Blogs' Archive

Every day, when I take Isabel to school, we get a copy of the Metro newspaper.  It’s free.  At Jiřiho z Poděbrad, there is a lady who hands them out, which seems a bit redundant, but there are a couple of positive aspects to it.  She is always polite and enthusiastic and she always calls Isabel ‘princezna’ (so do I), so it’s a nice ritual to start the day.  Also, I’d like it if Isabel were a little more open to speaking to people, and acknowledging greetings, and saying thank you and stuff like that.  (she’s not rude.  just a bit shy.)  So, this woman is part of my training program, whether she realizes it or not.

The only reason I bother getting the newspaper at all is the Sudoku puzzle.  If I can finish it during the train ride home, I feel smart.

Today was a special day because there were people giving out the paper, along with a free sample of Bebe Sušenky, a popular and delicious Czech cookie.  So, we each got a paper and a cookie when we got on, and again when we got off at JZP.

Here’s the thing, though, the point of my story, the topic of my blog tonight.  When I picked up Isabel from school, she had the paper with her, open to the Sudoku.  “I got the sixes,” she said.  Well, number by number is not a very good strategy, I don’t think, but it is a strategy, and one I used to use when I first started doing them.  So, I asked her if she was sure she was right, and then checked them, and sure enough, she was right.

So, we looked at the puzzle on the way home.   Occasionally, I made suggestions as to where to look, or what to try and find, but I didn’t give her any answers, I gave her free reign.  It took her until well after we got home to finish it, but she finished it and finished it correctly.

Isabel is 9.  I think that’s pretty darned good.  I’m proud.

Well, I was just watching a thing  on Neanderthals and humans and their theory for why  Homo Sapiens survived and Neanderthals didn’t, so much, we don’t think, although  there’s some mixture of DNA, is that H. Sapiens managed to  make it across the caucusus mountains (hence, caucasians) and Neanderthals didn’t.  I guess they  just weren’t  the  adventurous types.

History is  written by the winners, which would  be us, so I entertained an alternative theory.  What if nobody really intended to leave?  Sure,it was getting colder every year, but you throw on a few furs, you hunker down around a fire in the old cave, and you  deal.
But, the big  game were leaving, and we and the Neanderthals were in competition for the dwindling food stocks.

So, there was a war, of sorts.  The Neanderthals won, and we were chased  away to the south.  But,the climate kept getting colder and they died, but  our exile became our survival.

Now I am watching “Amish  Mafia.”  This is ridiculous.  ‘OMG, Levi has a secret maple syrup  business!”  It  is  ridiculous.  There are people who are entertained by this on a regular  basis.  We are doomed.

It was quite distressing to read this morning that AP, followed by the rest of the mainstream media, have called the race for Hillary Clinton, despite the clear and evident fact that the race is not over.

Today is a big day.  It’s midnight in Prague and I’m not staying up.  My fingers are crossed for a miracle.  What I’m hearing, from many people in California, is that independents are being handed provisional ballots, and that poll workers are pretending to not be able to find people’s names, and other bullshit like that.  A lot of them (those I’ve been hearing from) have stayed and argued it out until they got to vote, but undoubtedly the forces of evil have succeeded in other cases.

If Hillary wins, I will assume she would have lost (No Sanders poll workers have denied Hillary people their right to vote.  Ever. Throughout this whole campaign, that possibility has not even been raised.)  If Sanders wins with 52%, I will assume it should have been 64%. If he wins by 62%, I will assume it should have been 74%.

After June 14th (the DC primary), we will enter into the lawsuits and final arguments of the campaign.  This isn’t over.  This is far from over.  The media has crossed the line, and tried to create the reality they want by reporting on it in advance.  We cannot accept that.

There has been a lot of talk about what Sanders supporters should do after this is all over, and most of the people I’m in contact with agree that Sanders supporters should stick together and continue to function as a movement.  I agree with that.
Today highlights the fact that one of the things that movement will need is a medium  of it’s own.  A newspaper, an online newspaper, maybe a TV station.  Air America may have flopped, but the experiment could be tried again.

Because we know now, with absolute clarity, that the media we have now is against us.

I just came back from my monthly poetry reading, the Alchemy Sessions, and it was good.  It was also, unfortunately, the last one before breaking for the summer.  That’s been the case for  many years.

I used to find that quite irritating, because it’s been my main poetry outlet and I don’t see any reason people can’t continue to write, and appreciate poetry.  But, people go on vacation, and have lots of other activities, and it’s hard to keep the numbers up, so I get it.

Now, my main poetry outlet is the internet.  Still, I’ll miss Alchemy for the next couple of months.

It went out with style.  The  featured act was a kid, maybe 17 or 18, who played guitar and wrote songs, some very sweet songs, sort of like Jason Mraz or George Ezra or somebody like that.

Lots of good poets in the  open  mike section, a bit of classical guitar, a rapper, the usual mix.

One thing that struck me, and I talked with the Host about this, it was almost all new people.  Only 3 of us present were regulars.  This could be good.  If they  continue to come, it’s a new wave, and  that could make things very  interesting.

The exploration of DNA is like the exploration of space.  For one thing, both are very recent things.  Up until the 1930s, we thought this galaxy  was the universe.  Watson and Crick’s work on DNA was in 1953.  For another, we’ve still got a lot to learn.  In space, it’s literally infinite and  no, I am not misusing the word literally.  With DNA, scientists are getting pretty good at reading it – the next step will be writing it and that will open up a fine, big kettle of worms, no doubt about it.

Here, though, is a lovely little video about one of the applications of DNA.  Volunteers from many different countries were tested, and surprised to find out what  mongrels they (and probably almost all of us) are.  It was their reactions that were beautiful.  Nobody reacted with disappointment or rage.  The English skinhead was a bit surprised that he was part German and the Kurdish girl a bit put out to find she was part Turkish, but they took it with good humor.  They all had had a bit of an eye opener about race and what it means (and what it doesn’t) and their prejudices evaporated – simply evaporated – with the revelation.

It reminded me of a person I knew long ago, a British guy named Steve, who was a volunteer on an Israeli kibbutz at the same  time as me.  He was quite dark skinned, but since he’d been raised as an orphan and had no idea who his parents were, he did not know his ethnic origin.  He could have been anything from Italian to Arabic, and  he  had a real complex about it.  I hope he  sees this.
There was another story I saw in the news today, that not only had humans had sex with Neanderthals, but also Denisovans, and now there’s some other group who the Denisovan’s were, no doubt, shagging on a regular basis.

Scientist say we had sex with these other species but, to me, that doesn’t sound right.  If you can have sex and breed babies (as must have  happened, or the DNA would  not have been passed down)then you may well be of different races, but different species is a stretch.  Or maybe I’ve just got the definition wrong.  After all, there are ligers, and geeps, and grolar bears.

Yup, DNA is amazing stuff.