Writing’s “suboptimal outcome”

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From John Leo, writing in City Journal. A take-down of bad writing. Lots of examples, in case you want more for your scrap book (e.g. from a hospital bill, “disposable mucus recovery unit” instead of “box of Kleenex.”)

On a lighter note, a bit about his own decisions as a writer. When he began his U.S. News & World Report column 18 years ago, for instance, he copied the style of . . . John Madden. And then this:

After a month or so, I realized that readers of columns don’t just follow the words. They listen to the background music too. Readers want to know who you are. Is the writer consistent and fair? Does his take on the world relate to me? Is he humorless or playful? Do I want to spend time with him? Is he in the pocket of some cause or political party?

Good questions for any writer to ask.

Lots more to enjoy in the piece, and look, only a click away ;-)

Asymmetric tail-wagging responses by dogs to different emotive stimuli

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Dontcha love the language academics use to title their papers?

Saweeeeeeeet.

lol

The stuff inside this particular one is even better, though — as reported by the NY Times:

When dogs feel fundamentally positive about something or someone, their tails wag more to the right side of their rumps. When they have negative feelings, their tail wagging is biased to the left.

It happens just today I was thinking about symmetry and the human body — how there is apparent symmetry externally, but the internal organs are not symmetrical.

Which got me thinking specifically about the heart. Why is the heart on the left? Always on the left? Why aren’t there mirror people with right-sided hearts? Would a human with a heart exactly in the middle be . . . different? How? A different species? And I wonder what would it feel like, emotionally, to have a heart smack dab in the middle?

Don’t ask me why I was thinking all this btw. I have no idea. Now if I were a sci fi writer . . .

Anyway, I’m not, so back to the Times article — this biased whole tail wagging thing is because our brains (“our” meaning a whole lotta higher critters) aren’t symmetrical either. And of course the brain’s asymmetry casts a shadow visible on our external bodies, if you know where to look:

Research has shown that in most animals, including birds, fish and frogs, the left brain specializes in behaviors involving what the scientists call approach and energy enrichment. In humans, that means the left brain is associated with positive feelings, like love, a sense of attachment, a feeling of safety and calm. It is also associated with physiological markers, like a slow heart rate.

At a fundamental level, the right brain specializes in behaviors involving withdrawal and energy expenditure. In humans, these behaviors, like fleeing, are associated with feelings like fear and depression. Physiological signals include a rapid heart rate and the shutdown of the digestive system.

Because the left brain controls the right side of the body and the right brain controls the left side of the body, such asymmetries are usually manifest in opposite sides of the body. Thus many birds seek food with their right eye (left brain/nourishment) and watch for predators with their left eye (right brain/danger).

In humans, the muscles on the right side of the face tend to reflect happiness (left brain) whereas muscles on the left side of the face reflect unhappiness (right brain).

But that’s not all. Get this — one researcher speculates that the asymmetry of the brain evolved because of the asymetry of the internal organs:

The asymmetry [of the brain] may also arise from how major nerves in the body connect up to the brain, said Arthur D. Craig, a neuroanatomist at the Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix. Nerves that carry information from the skin, heart, liver, lungs and other internal organs are inherently asymmetrical, he said. Thus information from the body that prompts an animal to slow down, eat, relax and restore itself is biased toward the left brain. Information from the body that tells an animal to run, fight, breathe faster and look out for danger is biased toward the right brain.

My speculation about how a person with a heart in a different spot might feel different doesn’t sound quite so weird now, does it ;-)

(Humor me, please! LOL)

Deer in the street!

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This was taken from my living room window this morning.

suburban deer

Unfortunately I had to run and get the camera so I missed them when they were really close — right in my front yard.

Some years ago I read that the deer population in Monroe County was one of the highest in the entire state. The worst concentrations have typically been in Irondoquoit, a northern suburb where parks like Durand Eastman function as predator-free deer resorts. The consequences aren’t pretty, and include high numbers of deer-car accidents; at such high concentrations, the deer also over-browse the parks which is bad for the native woodland plants that also call them home. And forget growing hostas if you’re a homeowner.

Irondoquoit, to the horror of the pro-deer crowd, responded by culling through a bait-and-shoot program. More recently, they’ve tried contraception, a more politically acceptable alternative. Planned deerhood.

UPDATE: One mama deer in the neighborhood didn’t get the contraception memo, apparently.

Too nice to nap . . . (a possum post)

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Too nice to play dead, either!

possum in rochester new york

Spring weather brings out the critters — my daughter spotted this fella “scurrying” across our yard and around to the back of the garage. He paused here, against a brick bbq chimney, long enough for me to get a great pic!

He doesn’t appear to be sick, so hopefully he’s just out for an early spring stroll :-)

A semi-curmudgeonly Wegmans post

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Wegmans — Rochester’s iconic supermarket chain — has rubbed me the wrong way a couple times in recent months. First, they completely rearranged their Pittsford store, where I do my shopping. I’m sure they have perfectly good business reasons for doing so. But weeks later, I’m still uncertain where various products are shelved. It bugs me that a chore that ought to be fairly routine was — without my being consulted, imagine — made more complicated, albeit only until I’ve finished learning the new arrangement.

My irritation at the whole-store makeover pales, however, in comparison to how I felt when I discovered they’d changed how they display their organic produce. I’ve been buying organic produce from that store for probably twenty years, and it’s always been displayed in a dedicated section of the store’s produce department. Now all of a sudden they’ve dispersed their organic produce throughout the department. So instead of going to one place to shop for produce, I have to go hunting — not just to shop, but to even figure out what organic produce they have in stock.

My solution: buy less produce from them. I simply don’t have the time to figure out where the organic peppers might be this week. Much simpler to just go to the Genesee Co-op [which doesn’t seem to have a website] or Lori’s [which does have a website but don’t click it if you find their theme song unbearable because their home page blasts it at you full volume] and stock up on produce there.

Anyway. The organic produce thing still burns me, but I was pleased yesterday to discover that the store is now selling reusable grocery bags.

wegmans reusable grocery bag

Here’s a pic. I bought two yesterday. Only 99 cents apiece if you’ve got a Wegman’s shoppers club card.

Besides being better for the environment rah rah rah the new bags look like they’re going to behave better than plastic ones. They’re gussetted and have a bit of heft to them. Presumably they won’t be as prone to sliding around in the car and disgorging their contents. They also look like they’ll hold about as much as a paper bag, but have handles like plastic bags, which means it may be easier to lug the groceries from the car to the house. Fewer trips. And less time spent retrieving spilled groceries that have rolled out of reach in the the car. Get back some of the time I wasted learning where the canned olives are now.

It will be interesting to see how things go from a workflow perspective at checkout. Are the grommets on the bags there so clerks can slip them onto the same racks they use to hold plastic bags open while they scan purchases? Will it take longer for the clerks to position the reusable bags, compared to just pulling open a plastic bag from the rack like they do now?

It will be interesting to see how this catches on as well. I expect that at this store, at least, the bags will become hugely popular. I know I didn’t hesitate to switch the first time I saw them.

Our Friday

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Tate Britain exterior More London photos, hooray!

On Friday, we started out at the Tate Britain, which runs a ferry up the Thames between it and the Tate Modern. So after browsing art for awhile we ferried up the river. Didn’t go into the Tate Modern but we did make a stop at the reconstructed Globe Theater. Here’s a pic of it from the boat.

Globe Theater exterior

Globe Theater seats We took the Globe tour, which was fantastic. I’d just finished reading Ackroyd’s biography of Shakespeare, so it was thrilling to see in three dimensions what his theater was like. Here’s a couple of pictures of the exterior. This is where the seats are — wooden benches.

Here’s the stage —\/

Globe Theater stage

My only regret is that they don’t stage productions there in February (the season runs April to October). On the other hand, now I have an excuse to go back ;-)

Knightsbridge at sunsetFrom there we ended up in Knightsbridge. We found a pub for a Guinness, and when we came out the sunset had turned the sky pink. It was gorgeous.

I had one more literary thrill before the day was over, as it turns out. London puts plaques on buildings where famous people have lived, and we happened to notice this one that evening. P.G. Wodehouse, hooray!

P.G. Wodehouse plaque

Here’s the house :-)

P.G. Wodehouse house

From the tour bus

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Oxford circus I had quite a pile of work awaiting me after my trip, so I’ve spent this week churning out Corporate Prose. I’ve got more to write this weekend, but in the meantime here’s a few more pics.

The day after Paris my Gracious Host agreed to my suggestion that we try a tour bus. We set out by foot to Trafalgar Square, passing Cambridge Circus . . .

China Town

and Chinatown.

We began the morning walking through The National Gallery, which faces the square.

British Museum

Big Ben from the tour bus

And then found a bus. We sat on the top — the weather was just warm enough to make it bearable — and were on our way.

We passed many familiar landmarks, and while it wasn’t always easy to get decent shots from a moving vehicle, the tour guide was a font of interesting trivia (my Gracious Host even admitted to picking up a few previously-unknown tidbits, native Londoner though he is) — altogether, a very enjoyable experience and definitely worthwhile if you’re new to the city and need to get a tourist’s bearings.

Here’s the Tower Bridge.

Tower Bridge from the bus

The Tower of London.

London Tower

Christopher Wren’s monument commemorating the Fire of London in 1666.

Fire of London Monument