> Ardith Hinton wrote James Bradley <=

 AH> Hi, James!  Recently you wrote in a message to Ardith Hinton:

 AH>  robots who ate "chicken embryos"....  :-))
 JB>  Robot mimicry... "Chicken embryos"?  YIKES!

 AH>           I enjoy using humour in the classroom.  Unfortunately I often
 AH> find, as you do, that my idea of humour goes over like a lead

You're telling me! Either I was told that I am on par with a kite, or
 equal to a bag of rocks in the LINUX echo. 

It's all good fun, but I do find I have to prepare people for how
 bombastic I can be. Sometimes I hurt their feelings, as I thrust that
 dagger in the chink of their armor, but there's a lesson to be
 learned. All I can do, is put it out there. Then it's it up to the
 targets' (Sorry, I'm still not sure about that 'possessive' stuff, and
 how apostrophes fit into the mix.) impetus to take it from
 there. (Maybe *I* lack momentum? :-)

 AH> balloon.  That's why it was so satisfying to me that I had
 AH> made these kids sit up & pay attention!  My point was
 AH> similar to one which is under discussion in ABLED at
 AH> present.  I'd mentioned that the Australian aborigines
 AH> consider certain moths to be a delicacy, and they thought
 AH> the idea was gross & disgusting.  I wanted to show them
 AH> that other folks might consider what *we* eat to be gross &
 AH> disgusting too.  I don't know anybody who eats the European
 AH> brown snails they could get free for the taking from their
 AH> garden, for example.  I wouldn't... but only because they
 AH> may have been poisoned by a neighbour who regards them as a
 AH> nuisance.  OTOH, some people will pay a lot of money to eat
 AH> them in restaurants where they are known as "escargots"....
 AH>  ;-)

L!!! I think I mentioned escargot there, too. We only have slugs
here, so I don't think they make quite as tasty eating. (READ: They
might even be toxic.) But my wonder is true, in why we all aren't
becoming used to grasshopper stew. All this cafuffle over Methane
generating, ozone depleting, (whatever!) cattle industry; maybe we
should start eating reptiles. 

 JB>  weren't firing on those cylinders.

 AH>           I saw a poster in a school hallway recently with a quote
 AH> attributed to Plutarch... something along the lines of "A student is
 AH> not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled".

Oh, I LIKE that one! It seems to me I've heard something like it
before. The intent was identical, but I took from it, "Don't be full
of it, just lite a match under... A... the Cauldron." 

Gees, I seem to be in a 'natural' gas frame of mind today. Besides, I
likely heard that quote from you, here, and I likely came up with the
same red-neck analogy.

 AH> Fortunately, I had an English teacher who sparked my latent
 AH> interest in grammar.  I didn't do too well at memorizing
 AH> valences & using them in mathematical formulas... but I can
 AH> make baking powder biscuits & get red wine stains off the
 AH> carpet, so something must have stuck.  And some time later

...Or, not, as the case may be. 

 AH> I realized the differences between protein & carbohydrate
 AH> are almost certainly due to the presence or absence of
 AH> nitrogen.  I didn't get the info. from a chemistry textbook
 AH> or a home ec. textbook, but from the GAGE CANADIAN
 AH> DICTIONARY....  :-))

Oh ya, well I've *seen* a good dictionary once! O-8*

Nitrogen and carbs... Never looked at it that way. The only
association I have with that, regards composting. (Here I am,
looking at the South end of a cow again!) I seem to recall we want 20
parts carbon, to one part nitrogen, if memory serves. (And all the
other stuff, H2o, and microbes...) If it's green, it has nitrogen,
brown+dry - carbon. Now, they tell us never to compost meats, but
that's never stopped me. 

On the dictionary front, I found a New Webster's for cheep, that
 includes a Roget's Thesaurus, plus a brief medical dictionary
 (Little did I know how much I'd need *that!*) and secretary's
 guide.... 

(I'll bet I should have gone to "secretarys'" there right? OPPS! I
just noticed the section on grammar, and punctuation. "Let me get back
to you on that." |-)

"What's this? Carbon was discovered as an element in the time BC, but
Nitrogen didn't make it to the table until 1776!" (Ya, it's got a
lookup sheet of the elements, and when they made their debut. |-)

 AH>  I never expected to fit in with a sports-minded crowd.
 AH>  I'm currently gaining further insight into their
 AH>  reasoning style, however....  ;-)

 JB>  And is that a good thing, or a bad thing? 

 AH>           On the whole, I think it's a good thing.  There
 AH> are some personalities I wouldn't care to know more about,
 AH> except perhaps in an academic sort of way... but I don't
 AH> see them here.  I'm developing a greater appreciation of a
 AH> reasoning style which until lately wasn't familiar to me.
 AH> Although I am trying not to use "psychobabble", certain
 AH> technical terms might help to clarify the issue....  :-)

OK, if you "Don't see them here." spill the beans! 

I have a brief medical dictionary beside me, I can look up the
words. Besides, I've likely been on excursions with some of them, or
else their identical twin lives on this side of the water-shed. Out
with it, girl! 


 JB>  the cold  stuff. <-; I liked the atmosphere better
 JB>  than any smelly locker-room. I found the people more
 JB>  amicable than any sport coach, or 'team player' that

 AH>           Yes, yes, and yes!  That's been my experience as well.  With
 AH> regard to "team players"... for years I interpreted the term to
 AH> mean doing what the leader said one should do & keeping
 AH> one's own opinions to oneself, since that's the way it's
 AH> apparently used in politics.  But I see kayakers doing what
 AH> we do in music, i.e. bringing various people's skills
 AH> together in a co-operative effort....  :-)

That's pretty sweet music, isn't it? I never quite equated the two,
but that's hugely successful at bringing in the image! There has to be
a conductor/leader, and as in politics, that's often up to
competition. (sic.) But it is what it is.

As with a combo situation, I often find it's the lowly drummer that
sets the tome of the bunch. She/He isn't always the most accomplished
player, but if (s)he can only hit hard, you have to make it a rock band.


 
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