May 09, 2008
Varroa jacobsoni
It is May so my car is covered with pollen. Driving around, I think this is what it would feel like to be a varroa jacobsoni, a relatively benign honeybee parasite, if varroa jacobsoni drove the bee and found it irritating to have to drive bees in the first place, because bees got cracks in their windshields all the time, no sooner did you replace the windshield, it got a new crack, maybe bees shouldn't tailgate trucks, or even cars, and the price of whatever ran the bees was going up to the point that, sheesh. And on the varroa jacobsoni's way to work, alongside the freeway offramp, there was a line of stuffed toys and dolls, two or three stuffed animals and a doll or two, and seeing that made the varroa jacobsoni sad every morning. And the mite remembered this one afternoon when it was seventeen, it went to the library with a friend to listen to a lecture on Transcendental Meditation, and got there early so they read Rolling Stones in the library, and saw an article about clothes designed by Eldridge Cleaver including pants with a built-in codpiece, which Mr. Cleaver modeled in the article, and laughed about it and later, during the lecture remembered it and giggled through the lecture, and eventually took up TM until the organization started getting into the levitation and the "His Holiness" business, whereupon the varroa jacobsoni got busy with other things; and the mite wonders why it remembers this and not, for example, what it had for breakfast that day, which upon reflection it figures was probably toast or cereal, since pancakes were the only other thing it usually ate back then for breakfast, and they were probably too much trouble except on special occasions.
Hey, I remember that Eldridge Cleaver article! I too was reading Rolling Stones in the library to kill time.
Posted by: KayO at May 9, 2008 01:33 PM Maybe the toys are waiting for the varroa jacobsoni to pick them up and take them to the TM lecture?
Oh and here is what the eldridge pants looked like apparently
http://bp0.blogger.com/_c8LNGp0k9_c/RvrZ39dpiFI/AAAAAAAABE0/mOE2WWSlE6o/s1600-h/cleaver.jpg
Yep, those are the pants.
That's neat how you had the picture handy like that.
all the credit for the picture goes to google ...
Posted by: zeynep at May 9, 2008 06:06 PMWow, those are some ridiculous pants!
The things I missed by not being alive for that particular decade....
But much like the varroa jacobsoni, I also remember obscure things I did when I was eight or nine years old, but not what I had for breakfast (or indeed if I even HAD breakfast, a question to which the answer is usually "no").
Posted by: Meagan at May 10, 2008 06:56 AMWhen I was eight or nine it was Cheerios or Rice Chex every day, and a glass of orange juice. No sugar; I don't like sweet cereal. When I was seventeen I didn't eat breakfast; my friends and I were always on crazy diets.
Oh, and, Happy Birthday!!! Forty-nine is not so bad.
Posted by: Jann at May 10, 2008 06:37 PMthanks, jann. we celebrated by riding bikes and going on a picnic and rowing a rowboat around. i think 49 might be better than 48. at least, i hope it is.
Posted by: mig at May 10, 2008 07:41 PMHow was 26? I'm operating under the theory that it can't possibly be any worse than 23, 24 or 25 have been, but I keep getting proven wrong when I formulate such theories. The good news is I've got a few more months in which to try to improve 25.
Happy birthday! May seems to be a popular month for those. Birthdays, I mean.
Posted by: Meagan at May 10, 2008 11:01 PMHow was 26? I'm operating under the theory that it can't possibly be any worse than 23, 24 or 25 have been, but I keep getting proven wrong when I formulate such theories. The good news is I've got a few more months in which to try to improve 25.
Happy birthday! May seems to be a popular month for those. Birthdays, I mean. My mom turned 50 on the 7th.
Posted by: Meagan at May 10, 2008 11:01 PMHow was 26? I'm operating under the theory that it can't possibly be any worse than 23, 24 or 25 have been, but I keep getting proven wrong when I formulate such theories. The good news is I've got a few more months in which to try to improve 25.
Happy birthday! May seems to be a popular month for those. Birthdays, I mean. My mom turned 50 on the 7th.
Posted by: Meagan at May 10, 2008 11:01 PMArgh, sorry for the triple post! Silly button got stuck or something....
Posted by: Meagan at May 10, 2008 11:03 PMHappy Birthday, VJ! I assume that you'd have given TM a pass if you hadn't been giggling at E de P's alluring pantaloons...
Posted by: R J Keefe at May 12, 2008 02:20 AMI wonder ... does varroa jacobsoni have a point of view about Colony Collapse Disorder?
Posted by: Jann at May 14, 2008 08:22 PMVJ blames colony collapse disorder on those pants.
Posted by: mig at May 14, 2008 08:32 PMAs good a theory as any at this point!
Posted by: Jann at May 14, 2008 08:53 PM