Z is for Zoos

We like to visit zoos and try to if we can when we're traveling. Not only do we like seeing the animals, we like the lush landscaping that often accompanies them. Below are a few pictures from the National Zoo in Washington, D.C., the Baltimore Zoo, the Toronto Zoo, the Philadelphia Zoo and the North Carolina Aquarium.

Y is for You All

I grew up in West Virginia where there seemed to be a dividing line between the way people talked. To the north people spoke more with a Midwestern/nothern accent and to the south there was more of a southern accent. I actually saw a map once that showed this dividing line. From my experience, it made a lot of sense.

If you went one county north of me, you would hear a more Midwestern sound. Go one county south of me and you would hear more of a country, southern sound. These variations also happened between towns to the more rural areas. I was a town kid living more to the north, so I didn't have much of an accent. Well, we all have an accent one way or another, but I sounded more like a news anchor than Ellie Mae Clampett. People have often been surprised when I tell them that I'm from WV. They think I should have much more of a southern drawl.

Edgewater Beach Resort. This is where I first learned about my You all.

That was until I spent one summer in northern Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. I had just graduated college and before heading off to grad school, I was doing a summer of field work for the USGS (United States Geological Survey) there. After spending the day in swampy muck with almost unbearable numbers of mosquitoes, we spent the evening at the bar in the local fishing "resort" where we were staying. We made fast friends with the owners and several of the locals that hung out there.

One evening, Gary, one of the owner's sons, said that I had a very southern accent. He said, "You talk like this," with very drawn out twangy words. Very southern. He also said that I said, "You all." Well, I guess I did sound kind of southern to someone who lived much further north than I did. But I had never noticed that I said you all. I learned in English class that you could be both singular and plural and that's the way I wrote it. I thought I talked that way also. I knew I didn't say the southern contraction Y'all, but I hadn't realize that I said a form of it.

That summer, I tried to stop saying you all and use you for both singular and plural like I thought I was already doing. And I couldn't do it. If a group of people were standing around and I said, "Do you want to go to the movies?" I would wait for a minute and then had to add all so my meaning was clear, "Do you all want to go to the movies?" Without the all I was afraid that they wouldn't understand that I was inviting all of them. That's when I figured out that in my world you is singular and you all is plural.

And that's how it's been ever since. Just like it was before. You is singular and you all is plural.

What do you say? You, you all, y'all, youins, ...

X is for X with a tail

Mr. Dimmick

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I had the same math teacher all four years of high school--Mr. Dimmick. He taught math in a very logical and systematic way--just as it should be. He also made it seem like a game. We learned the rules of the game, and then we knew how to play. It seemed as easy as that. And he was very careful to make sure that we knew the rules.

Anyone, who has done much algebra, knows that there can be a lot of steps involved in solving a problem. Mr. Dimmick insisted that we be very systematic with our steps including making the unknown X that we were solving for with a tail. That way it would not be confused with X that was used for multiplication. Now to most, this seemed like an overkill. In fact, I've never run into anyone who had a math teacher who was this strict with the details and steps that needed to be shown in a problem.

However, this attention to detail paid off for me in college. When I was in my first calculus class, there came a point in the middle of the semester where complicated equations had to be broken down algebraically so they could be easily integrated. Most everyone in the class was confused when they were trying to do this. In fact, the teacher handed out worksheets so students could practice algebra again. But I didn't need them. Mr. Dimmick's careful teachings were still with me. Including making a tail on every unknown X in the equations.

I'll have to admit, decades later, I do not remember all of the math that Mr. Dimmick taught me, but I do remember that he taught me well and making my X's with a tail was an important part of that.

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But wait there's more:

I remember a story Mr. Dimmick told one day about his four year old granddaughter. He asked her what zero meant. Her answer was, "That's when you don't hold up any fingers." He had a big grin as he told it and it made me smile too.

W is for Woodchuck

Photri Images

Woodchucks go by several other names. I call them groundhogs, others call them whistlepigs, and some call them varmints. We'll get to reasons for that later. They are a rodent and in the same family as squirrels, prairie dogs, and marmots. Woodchucks are found across Canada and are common in the middle and eastern US. Prairie dogs and marmots are more common in the west.

They are fat with short little legs but run pretty fast considering the body they have to work with. However, they'd never win a race with their cousins, the squirrels. Their average size is 20 inches (50 cm) long and 10 pounds (4.5 kg). However, they can be double that size. They have coarse brown and gray fur. It's so coarse that they have never been hunted for it.

Groundhogs are herbivores and especially like clover and other tender grasses and plants. And every once in a while when they decide they don't want to pigeonholed into only one category (herbivores), they sneak in an insect or grub. They feed in groups and always have a lookout. When danger is sensed like a fox nearby, the guard groundhog gives a very shrill warning whistle. That's why the woodchuck/groundhog is called whistlepig by some.

They have 22 teeth to eat this food with. The front two incisors continuously grow (like rodent's teeth do), so they constantly have to be using them to keep them from becoming 10 feet long. They have molars in the back to grind their food. And as with most herbivores, there is a large gap between their front teeth and their back teeth.

I found this skull in my backyard in the same area where we see the groundhog holes. Notice the herbivore tooth pattern.

Groundhogs live in burrows and they are animals that do a true hibernation. That means when they curl their fat bodies up in their burrows in November, they don't emerge to eat until March. Their body temperatures drop and they can't see or feel things. I think it's amazing that some mammals can do this. I usually think about fish or frogs doing the body temperature drop thing in the winter, but groundhogs do it too.

Fresh digging (in March) at one of the entrances to
the groundhog burrows in the backyard.

Groundhogs breed once a year and usually have litters of 2-6 cubs. They stay with their mother (dad leaves the den as soon as they are born) for about 6 weeks until they are ready to go into the world to seek their fortune.

As forests were cut down, groundhogs were one of the animals that increased in population instead of decreased. When forestland was turned into farmland, the groundhogs found out they really liked what the farmer was growing like tomatoes, lettuce, beans, etc. Talk to almost anyone and they can tell you their frustration with the groundhog and what it has eaten out of their garden. Thus the name varmint that the groundhog is not so fondly called by many.

Who knew I had so much to say about groundhogs/woodchucks/whistlepigs? I didn't even get to my personal anecdotes, but this is getting a little long. Those will have to be on another day. I wonder if I can work them in under X, Y, or Z?

Sources:
Woodchucks by Emilie U. Lepthien, Copyright 1992.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groundhog

V is for Velleity

You know how they say if you are really going to learn a new word, you need to use it. Well, a couple of years ago, I learned, velleity, a new-to-me word that I thought was great. I could see using it on a daily basis. However, that never seemed to happen after the first week, and I forgot it until recently. So I'm going to take a stab at it again.
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Velleity 

Velleity---a noun that means to have a wish or desire to do something, but you are not interested in it enough to act on it.

--My desire to revamp the look of my blog was more of a velleity than a real plan.

--Velleity is what keeps me from cleaning up the pile on the bed in the guest room.

Can you think of a way that you could use velleity in a sentence?

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But wait, there's more.

Here's how you say velleity.