Sometimes Chris likes me (not often)

religion

 

One day here in Arizona there was rejoicing in our home as there was in heaven when the prodigal son returned. No prodigal returned. But we got news that the law office I do a little work for had deposited as significant cheque (by our lowly standards) into our account. As a semi-retired lawyer who gets paid for specific consulting services I get paid only for the work I actually do.  Since that is usually not much, I am not paid much. Seems fair. I am not complaining; that is the deal I made. Lawyers put such an arrangement in crude terms. I eat only what I kill. Well today I got paid for a significant file. This caused Chris to remark, “Hans you are so much more attractive with money in your account.”

Am I a hypocrite?

basketball, Sport

Today I realized what it feels like to be a Donald Trump supporter! For months I have been trying to figure our how Trump’s supporters can continue to support him. I have been particularly harsh on evangelical Christians. How can they continuing to support him after more than a year of when it has become obvious, if it was not earlier, that he is an ignorant, racist, narcissistic blowhard who does not even have a passing acquaitenc with truth or morality?

He said when he was running for office that he could stand in Times Square in New York City and kill a person and people would still support him. He turned out to be right, for everything Trump has done is about equivalent to that.

Now I am ashamed to confess that I may be just as bad as Trumps supporters.  The National Collegiate Athletic Association (‘NCAA’) college basketball tournament started yesterday. I have often said that this is the best sporting event in the world. It has all the excitement of the NHL playoffs in 3 consecutive weekends of sudden death basketball. 68 teams play and each game is sudden death If a team loses it is out.

The winner will be the one college team that wins 6 straight games. Only one team can do it. It is a thrilling event. Every year there are major upsets as favored teams are eliminated by upstarts. Nearly every year what the experts predict, fails to materialize.

The game is played by magnificent young student athletes cheered on by rabid college fans. Many of the games are astonishingly exciting. The student athletes are not paid a salary. Nothing at all. In theory at least. This is where things start to get a little murky.

The deal is this: college athletes are not paid a salary, but they get a college scholarship that allows them to get a very valuable and expensive education from elite American universities. That is worth a lot of money. At least in theory it is worth a lot of money.

College basketball is of course awash with money. Television companies together pay more than a billion dollars for TV rights to the games. More than a billion every year!

Then of course there are apparel companies. 2 years ago one University, UCLA and Under Armour signed the richest apparel deal in college sports worth $280 million over 15 years! The University of Oregon is commonly called University of Nike because that company has poured millions into its coffers. Every team has contracts with a shoe company for their team to display shoes. These contracts are very lucrative.

Who gets that money? Not the players. There are strict rules about what can be paid to them. They get almost nothing. That is because they are expected to be pure athletes. Driven only by a love of the game.

That of course does not apply to the coaches and administrators. Money is lavished on them. Especially coaches. Most of them, of course are white. So money is heaped on the white men and a few lucky African Americans while the young, mainly black, athletes get almost nothing. Does that sound fair? Its hardly surprising that Sports Illustrated magazine, hardly a leftist organization called the NCAA “profitable if grossly exploitative.”[1]

This past year my favorite team, the University of North Carolina Tar Heels were investigated because of allegations that some of their basketball athletes were enrolled in courses where a pass was virtually guaranteed. Little work had to be done. The pass was pretty automatic. No player in these course failed no matter how little effort was given by the student athlete. I was later told that the university resisted the charges against them on the basis essentially that in essence this was no different from many other courses! Many of their courses are like that.

If that is true, the students are getting no education at all. It is a fraud. The students get nothing. Nothing at all. It is a fact that very few college athletes get careers in professional basketball. They can’t count on that. If they don’t get a good education they get nothing. So the athletes, who are mainly black, get almost nothing. Only a few get very lucrative professional basketball contracts.

Recently the FBI investigated cases of coaches getting paid money from shoe companies to direct prospective players to certain agents who would then direct the players to certain teams. Reportedly, one of the best players this year received $100,000 under the table.

To begin with I wondered why would the FBI investigate such an allegation? Where is the fraud? Such payments may violate NCAA rules designed to ensure the players are pure, but how is this a crime worthy of an FBI investigation?

The University of Louisville Cardinals found another route to corruption–hookers. They were charged and found guilty by the NCAA of hiring prostitutes for potential recruits, resulting in the firing of its Hall of Fame Coach Rick Pitino. Incredibly, Louisville argued that their fine should be small because they hired cheap hookers! Morality in the NCAA has reached below rock bottom.

I don’t blame the players. Many of them come from underprivileged families, often with single moms. Who can blame them for accepting cash? Everyone in the industry is paid, and many of them extravagantly, while the players who produce the magic, get zilch.

The coaches are loaded with cash for their efforts. According to USA Today, the 4 highest paid NCAA coaches were paid a high of $7,300,000 to a low of $4,779, 000 in 2018. My favorite coach of my favorite team, the University of North Carolina Tar Heels was way down the list at a paltry $2, 182,000. Is that all he is worth? Nonetheless it is clear, coaches are very well paid off the backs of student athletes who get a pretty thin gruel.

A couple of years ago a class action law suit was filled by the players against the NCAA demanding the players be paid the minimum wage for their efforts. According to Sports Illustrated magazine the NCAA responded by citing a precedent case where an inmate in a penitentiary unsuccessfully sued the State for a minimum wage for all of his work while in prison.[2] In the earlier case the court held in a 1992 case that the 13th Amendment applied. That amendment erased the legality of slavery, but also allowed “involuntary servitude as punishment for a crime whereof the party shall have been convicted.” That is the basis of cheap prison labor to this day. The NCAA used the same argument against its student athletes–equating them to prisoners! Well that is what they are! But should such a draconian law apply to student athletes? On what basis?

NCAA president Mark Emmert who is paid about $2million per year, responded, with breath-taking hypocrisy,

 

“With these latest allegations, it’s clear this work is more important now than ever. The Board and I are completely committed to making transformational changes to the game and ensuring all involved in college basketball do so with integrity. We also will continue to cooperate with the efforts of federal prosecutors to identify and punish the unscrupulous parties seeking to exploit the system through criminal acts.”[3]

So everyone but the players can be paid stupendously. The players get to suck socks. Capitalism at its finest?

So what have I done in the midst of all this corruption? Absolutely nothing, except for a few rants. How corrupt does it have to get before I stop supporting the NCAA? I am still intending to watch the tournament. I can’t seem to resist. Like Trump supporters never lose their devotion, so I watch the games no matter how corrupt the league. Am I any better than Trump’s resolute supporters?

[1] Charles P. Pierce, “Law and Disorder,” Sports Illustrated, (March 12, 2018) p. 16

[2] Charles P. Pierce, “Law and Disorder,” Sports Illustrated, (March 12, 2018) p.17

[3] Charles P. Pierce, “Law and Disorder,” Sports Illustrated, (March 12, 2018) p.16

Cities of the Plain

Books, religion

 

Cities of the Plain, by Cormac McCarthy is the concluding book in a trilogy of books (you might say trinity) that follows All the Pretty Horses and The Crossing. It has taken me about 15 years to complete the trilogy. That is because the books are so intense. They contain scenes of excruciating violence. I could not abide the thought that I should quickly go from one to another. The books are dark and skewer all  facile optimism. These are books that make you think and make you feel at the same time. Like Saul Bellow, I do not believe  thinking and feeling are severed from each other. I have the feeling/thought that it is the same with McCarthy. They are one.

The first book, made into a film, was about 2 boys going to Mexico from New Mexico in a search of stolen horse taken after their father died. The boys grow and meander though the 3 novels. Each of the 3 books are powerful. They are not easy reads. McCarthy makes it difficult. But the books are worth the trip. Like Steinbach claims (with much less justification). Read them all.

The books straddle the old and the new like the plains and the cities of the title. They also straddle the border between the US and Mexico–the blood meridian. They also straddle the time of the old west and the new west. The people are tough–incredibly tough.

At the end of the trilogy (I won’t tell you who so as not to ruin the surprise) the one character who has meandered (I love that word again) through the series, is sitting next to a woman whose children have been regaled by his stories of “horses and cattle and the old days” is watched by her. They look at his old weathered (experienced) hands: “ropy veins that bound them to his heart. There was map enough for men to read. There God’s plenty of signs and wonders to make a landscape. To make a world.”

Each book in the trilogy is dark in its own way, yet each has a vision of light that pokes through the darkness as well. John Grady, the young protagonist, learns a very hard lesson. He learns what Eduardo says, “The world may be many different ways for them but there is one world that will never be and that is the world they dream of.”  Dreams are important in the book yet they are also not entirely real. Yet at the end we also learn, “This life of yours is not a picture of the world. It is the world itself and it is composed not of bone or dream or time but of worship. Nothing else can contain it. Nothing else be by it contained.” Is that really dark?

Read the series. You will be well rewarded.

Scorpions

insects

 


An univited visitor to our backyard

One evening we went to Usery Park to hear Ranger B, our favorite ranger, give another talk. This time the subject was scorpions. Scorpions are very interesting creatures. They are not insects. Insects have 6 legs. Scorpions are arachnids that have 8 legs. Since I knew nothing about them I was scared of them. Now I have learned a little about them so I am terrified of them. Not really. But sometimes ignorance is bliss.

There are about 1,400 scorpion species in the world. 80 can be found in the US. Of those 55 can be found in Arizona. In fact Arizona has more scorpions, rattlesnakes, bees, and tarantulas than any other state. Why are we here again? Ranger B says he mentions that enthusiastically to unwelcome relatives who threaten to visit him. I think he was joking.  In Arizona scientists are looking so thoroughly that a new species or even 2 are discovered each year on average. Some have said, “Its time to stop looking!”

Scorpions have hairs on their body parts that act like ears. Through these hairs scorpions can “hear” an approaching organism. If it is big and makes the ground rumble, like a human for example, it knows what to do. It hides. I wanted to hear that.  Scorpions are ambush hunters. They wait for prey to pass then by and then launch onto them. Scorpions are often very well camouflaged in their surroundings. Like our backyard!

Scorpions are extremely tough. That is part of the problem; if you consider them a problem. They can live up to 12,000 ft. in elevation. They can live in all kinds of habitats–deserts, forests, and even beachfront property.

Scorpions are among the toughest animals in the world. They can live an entire year without food. Scorpions have ben found under water where they appeared to be doing just fine.

Basically scorpions are nearly indestructible. They can’t even be killed by nuclear explosions. Scorpions can live for at least 2-4 weeks in a frozen state. That is why it might be surprising to some that none are found on Antarctica (at least so far). They can be killed with the human foot squashing them. That will do it. But be careful and avoid that stinger.

They are adaptable. That is why they have survived so long. They can be found on every continent except Antarctica and they might be found there if they could find food there.

As I found out scorpions can be detected with a black light.  Our friend (at least he used to be our friend) Rick Molinski showed up at our home with a black light and then we learned we have scorpions in our back yard. I am not sure I wanted to know that.

Part of what interests me is their long and slow evolution. As Steven J. Prchal said,

Scorpions have changed little in the 350 to 400 million years since they first climbed from the primal seas and took their place among earth’s first terrestrial arthropods. [1]

Ancient scorpions were much larger than their modern descendants. A scorpion could reach 96 inches (8 ft.). I don’t know about you, but if scorpions were 8 ft. long I would not venture into my backyard at night. I would not go looking for them with a black light. I would stay in Manitoba!

Today the largest scorpion is the Emperor scorpion. They are not found in Arizona. They grow to 7.9 inches (20 cm) in length and weigh up to 30 grams. That is plenty big enough for my taste. Some people keep these as pets. I cannot understand why they would do that.

After gestation that they give live birth to their young. Typically, a mother scorpion can give birth to 8 live young. After they are born they often stick close to mom, often climbing on the mother’s back. When they are on the back they must cling tenaciously, for if they fall the mother is likely to eat them. These mothers are not likely to win the Mother of the year award.

The deadliest scorpion in of the 3 common ones in Arizona is the Bark scorpion (Centruroides exilcauda). It is the only one of the three whose sting is truly life threatening. It has a slender shape with long delicate pincers and tail. The others are larger and stouter, but actually less threatening. Sometimes size is not everything.

The bark scorpion prefers to climb and may as result be found many feet above ground on rock faces or trees. Bark scorpions display negative geotaxis, which means that they orient themselves upside down. People often get stung by picking up something and then getting stung by a scorpion clinging to the underside. After I heard this I decided I was not going to climb into our orange tree for oranges again.

Bark scorpions are so small that they can enter homes. If they do, be careful, very careful. Their venom is 150 times as dangerous as that of the Giant Hairy scorpion. This is what we did not like hearing.

Because the bark scorpion likes to climb and find cool places with airflows it can find its way into homes. Sometimes they are trapped in sinks or bathtubs or hiding in dark areas of the closet.

We should remember that scorpions don’t want to sting us. We are not prey for scorpions. They will only sting humans if they feel threatened by them. I don’t intend to frighten them on purpose. But it can happen accidentally. For example, some people pick up a piece of wood on which a scorpion is latched and it stings them when that happens. In such cases it sees us as a predators and stings us for defence.

The sting of the scorpion is usually not fatal, but it is extremely uncomfortable. 8,000 people are stung by scorpions in Arizona each year. Yet there has been only 1 known fatality caused by a scorpion.

As a result if you are stung by a scorpion don’t panic. You probably won’t die. You are 440,000 times more likely to die from heart disease than a scorpion sting, even if you live in Arizona. The only ones likely to be adversely affected are the very old or young. Don’t I fit  into one of those categories?

If you get stung don’t go to the hospital unless you absolutely must. Hospital stays and anti-venom serums are very expensive. The stay and treatment could easily cost $40,000. Rather stay home, remain cool and collected (though in pain) and apply a cold compress. Only go the hospital if you end up in a state of shock. Then you must go to the hospital. Of course how will you get there if you are in a state of shock?

After all of this information I wondered was it worth it? Was it worth it to know what scorpions can do to you? Now I am worried. When we got home I looked on the ceiling, in my shoes, everywhere. Was I not better off when I was ignorant? I suppose that knowledge is always preferable to ignorance, but I wonder if that was really the case.

[1] Steven J. Prchal, “Scorpions,” in A Natural History of the Sonoran Desert, edited by Steven Philips and Patricia Wentworth Comus (2000) p. 262

Miracle Spring Water

Birds, Nature

Ring-necked Duck in “Reclaimed water”

Watching television I was stunned by a TV ad. The ad was from  television evangelist Peter Popoff  who did not ask for money. In fact he offered to give something away for free. There was a miracle right there. The product was “Miracle Spring Water.” “God’s plan for us has always been to be in health and prosper. He’s using the Miracle Spring Water to do just that.” A woman on the ad claimed, 2 days after she tried it she received $2,500 and then 2 days later $30,000! One young man said it changed his whole life. Another person said right after drinking it he got a new car! Another said that her relationship with her mother remarkably changed after imbibing the elixir. He asked people to call for a free bottle with absolutely no obligation. “You are next in line for a miracle.”

I didn’t call. Of course, I suspect that callers will be contacted eventually to buy something. After all people who believe in miracle spring water will believe anything. It is like wearing a sign “Gullible” on your forehead.

Canadian Singer/Songwriter Roy Forbes (formerly Bim) said if you don’t believe in miracles you may be taking bad advice.” Do you believe in miracles? Then I remembered I had seen miracle spring water that day–at Veterans Oasis Park in Chandler Arizona where spoiled wastewater has been recharged into creeks and a lake that lures birds from all across the state while providing a recreational for many people . Birders (Chris says we are bird brains)  like me. Fathers fishing with their children. Families enjoying a picnic beside the pond. That is miraculous spring water.

Lovebirds

Birds, Nature

 

Chris and I went to Usery Park to look at birds. The highlight was the Rosy-faced lovebird (Agapornis roseicollis) [formerly the rosy-faced lovebird (Agapornis roseicollis), also known as the rosy-collared or peach-faced lovebird. This is a species of lovebird native to arid regions in southwestern Africa such as the Namib Desert.

They had beautiful green, rose, and orange plumage. They are common in the pet industry. These birds are descendants of escapees from someone who owned them. They are not native to Arizona but this group has been here for years and seem to be enjoying life in the Sonoran desert. Most exotic birds are not able to survive in the US, but these found congenial conditions in the Phoenix area. Many people welcome them, as does Usery Park where we photographed these.

I love these birds

Today I went dancing with an old woman

Family, Philosophy/Ideas

 

Yesterday (not really today)  I went dancing with an old woman. How could that happen? It seems impossible, but it is true. Chris–my lovely wife–turned 67. I am married to an old woman and she is married to an even older man. How that happens seems mysterious. I once heard it said, that no person ever wanted to be any younger than he or she was. I actually thought I believed that. Now I know that is a ridiculous statement.

Chris turned 67 and instead of me taking her out to a fancy restaurant, which I gallantly offered, she said she wanted to go dancing with friends at the local Golf Course terrace. Believe it or not, we have been doing that about once a week since we got here. I never thought I would do that either. But there it is.

What does it all mean? I don’t know. Perhaps we are just trying to fend off the grim reaper. Perhaps we are just trying to have fun. Perhaps Cyndi Lauper was right. Girls just wanna have fun. And old men too.

Burrowing Owls

Birds,

 

 

I went on an Owl Walk with Desert Rivers Audubon Society at Zanjero Park in Gilbert. This was a lot of fun and we saw 4 Burrowing Owls.

Burrowing owls are small owls that usually inhabit dry, open areas where grasslands, rangelands, agricultural lands, and  deserts and scrublands are found. They are very small owls–not more than 12 inches tall. They also have relatively long legs and short tails. They are mainly brown with many white or tan spots. They also have white “eyebrows” above their yellow eyes.

 

These owls like to build or occupy homes underground. The ones in Florida usually build their own burrows. However most other burrowing owls occupy abandoned homes of others such as ground squirrels prairie dogs, badgers, foxes, or coyotes.

Many of them have found a home in Gilbert, especially in Zanjero Park where volunteers have erected tunnels for them with large plastic pipes. There are about 15 of them in the park, though we only saw 4. I was quite happy to see that number in the wild, but I was disappointed that none of them perched on a branch. Photographs on boards or plastic tunnels are not very pleasing. But you gotta dance with the girl you brung.

The park is rather dull looking right beside a major highway. Someone said the government was thinking of building a major access to the highway right there. This would completely disrupt the owls. On one side is a farm that no doubt provides tasty rodents to the owls. The way things go around here that farm may not last long either. These owls need protection.

The owls are federally protected by treaty and legislation in both Canada and the United States. They are endangered in Canada and listed as threatened in Mexico.

According to our guide from the Audubon Society burrowing owls from Canada leap frog over these owls to Mexico. These owls they believe have migrated from the northern plains in the United States, not Canada.

Even though the setting was poor for photographs I did get some shots. The birds were very cooperative. Although they did not perch on a branch, they did stand in front of or near their burrows and were not very disturbed at people near by. I had a lot of fun. I want to go back and try again for better environmental shots.