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

[re father's nearsightedness]
AH>  ... but then if it weren't for problems like that I might
AH>  not be alive today.  ;-)

JB>  Like the theory that suggests overweight people were the
JB>  only members of a society to survive a famine,


           Makes sense to me.  People grumble about putting on weight during
the Christmas season... but in times & places where human beings were or are
less well fed this could improve one's chances of surviving the winter.  :-)



JB>  there may be a study done, in why there are so many myopic
JB>  offspring from the mid-Twentieth century.


           Interesting idea!  Were near-sighted people rejected for military
service, in many cases?  Did they often go unnoticed earlier because glasses
were less readily available... and do they go unnoticed now because of laser
surgery and/or contact lenses?  My first optometrist believed that if people
did too much close work their eyes would become less able to adapt to longer
distances, and during the last century the average level of formal education
has risen.  However, our present optometrist... i.e. the son of the first...
has a rather different theory.  I attach more credibility to his explanation
because (unlike his father) he wears glasses although he's not old enough to
have presbyopia, the "far-sightedness" which often affects people
as they're
approaching middle age.  He says people tend to prefer activities which they
find relatively easy & comfortable.  Maybe I enjoy reading because I'm near-
sighted... not the other way round.  And maybe a young friend of ours enjoys
sports because her focal distance, without corrective lenses, is miles away.

           It seems to me there is a use for both near-sighted & far-sighted
people whenever human beings live together in a group.  You want somebody to
make moccasins or pick foreign objects out of your oatmeal or tell you which
berries are edible, ask me.  You want somebody to tell you whether there's a
cougar or a coyote on the hill over yonder, ask our friend.  Luckily both of
us live in a time & place where we can see (more or less) normally too.  :-)



JB>  BTW, did you know fighter pilots have more male offspring
JB>  than bomber pilots?


           No, I didn't.  That's another interesting research topic....  ;-)




--- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+