Reading: Margaret George, Mary Queen of Scotland and the Isles and The God of Small Things

Viewing: "Celebrity"

Moving: Walking

Learning: The sperm of fruit flies is toxic, though whether just to the sperm of other fruit flies or to other substances I know not.

22 January 2000: Reading and 'rithmetic

Occasionally when I produce some odd snippet of fact, I will be asked how I know that, or as the question is more usually couched, know "so much."

The only true and satisfying answer I can give is "I read."

What do people expect?

At work recently a coworker told me about a local news item she'd seen about a shelter for dog-wolf hybrids. I wondered about their behavior. I think it's remarkable that despite the vast differences among domestic dog breeds, they're all the same species; and they're cousin to the modern wolf; so I wondered aloud if the hybrids are sterile, and if so whether anyone bothers to neuter the males, since with hormones but absent sperm a wolf-dog would be that much more aggressive than a dog-dog. She asked why they'd be sterile. "Because hybrids are sterile if the parent species' genes don't have the same number of chromosomes, or something. Mules are sterile, and I think plants that produce seedless fruit are sterile." And it's a convenient way of keeping separate species separate. I don't know anything about any of that. But she had never known that mules aren't their own species. I told her they're the offspring of a male donkey and a mare. "How do you know all that?" she asked, implying all my past snippets of this and that in her question.

"I read." Clearly not enough, because otherwise I'd know exactly why hybrids are sterile.

How else?

And the pair in my college lit class Comedy who had never heard of the Old Boys Club (we were reading Wodehouse). They assumed I had heard of it because I belonged to it (am I a boy?). "Why do you know anything about it?" asked one, in a tone resenting anyone who sought knowledge. "Belongs to it," answered the other, gripingly, as I responded, "I read."

How else?

It happened in my Renaissance history class, when the professor professed about the wool trade and wool's many invaluable attributes. He intimated something or other about the damp northern European climate and asked why wool would be a nifty thing to wear there. Ah yes, I knew what he was leading up to.
I raised my hand: "Because wool keeps you warm even when it's wet."
"Exactly." He raised his eyebrows. "How do you know that, do you knit?"
"No, I read."

And then there're my mother's husband's two daughters, who before they met my sister and me already hated us. Our mother, whom they don't like, had been shoving us down their throats, which is annoying but not our fault. They thought we'd be snooty because we have B.A.s (and they haven't). Does this make any sense? Yes, I consider myself a better person for my education, but I wouldn't disdain them for not having the same--I'd maybe disdain myself for not putting my three majors to use, but that's my own issue). I would disdain anyone (and I do these two) for not recognizing that education is desirable, however.

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And obviously I don't read enough. The query I've had up since 24 December has been answered. Long-time heckler Andrew submitted "scungilli." Which even looks familiar, but I simply could not place it. It's like that old joke about three guys renting a room. The proprietor charges them $30, so each pays $10. Then the proprietor realizes he overcharged them $5 and sent a bellhop to the room with the difference. The bellhop figures they can't split $5.00 evenly, so he gives the three $3.00. So each man has paid $27 and the bellhop has $2 so where's the 30th dollar? It's all in how you look at it, and once I, for one, see the problem from the angle the joke's delivered, I can't see it from any other. I don't like to think that I have a spelling block as I have with math, but there it is.