Genetically engineered foods

OK, I was visiting the Whole Foods website and read their stand on genetically engineered foods. You can read it here: wholefoodsmarket

I felt like I had to respond because things are getting out of hand, so this is what I sent them.

I LOVE your stores and your products. I have to feed not only myself but a number of different animals that are even more sensitive to pesticides, etc. than we are. However, I have one concern about your statement on genetically engineered foods. I think that you are in a position to education people with true scientific information rather than jumping on the mass media band wagon and lumping all "genetically engineered foods" in to one scarey basket.

Please remember that even hybridization is a form of genetic engineering. That Ice Berg lettuce did not occur in nature. And that many crops we enjoy today would have been wiped out at some point in history if farmers and botonists had not figured out how to share the hardiness or resistance of one plant with that of another.

I think there are absolutley risks with some genetic engineering and as always we need to be watchful about how far things go, but I encourage you to temper your position on the subject with some common sense and expanded understanding of the broader subject of possible benefits as well as risks.

I feel that your position right now just encourages ignorance in favor of a great marketing angle. I would hate to have Whole Foods become just another manipulator of public hysteria.

why do babies count in carpool lanes?

I'm sure someone will be annoyed at me, well would be if anyone outside of my 3 friends read my blog, but why exactly is it okay to use the carpool lane if you have a kid in your car? I thought the whole reason we got carpool lanes was to reduce the number of cars on the road. So am I to understand that if mom wasn't driving little 2 yr old Johnny around with her to the store etc, he'd be out in his own car adding to the pollution? I fail to see how anyone under the legal driving age should qualify for carpool privileges. Seriously, even if you are hauling other peoples kids around with your own, their parents are still on the road in their own car going somewhere else. Having kids in cars does nothing to reduce the number of cars on the road and I do not think it should be a free pass to use the carpool lane. If they get to, then my dogs should qualify. They are unable to transport themsleves around but are still taking up a seat in my car, breathing air unlike the carpool dummies. Just my opinion but I'm sticking with it.

character studies

OK, this one brings us up to date. We had to pick from a few options. I chose the one where one character was silent but described and the other had dialogue. Here it is:

Mae was a short, round woman, 4’11” tops and 180lbs, that brought to mind images of a cartoon banty hen; all round, wearing an apron and clucking perpetually about everything and nothing while running in endless circles. In sharp contrast James was tall, 5’11”, slightly built and soft spoken. He went through life with Mae trying not to make a ripple in the fabric of their marriage. Mae did not like ripples, and James would never hear the end of it if one arose.

James sat quietly, reading the papers as he did every Sunday, trying to stay out of the way and pretty much out of sight. It never really worked, but he was persistent. Mae flew in the house from the garage, clacking away before she was even through the door “… is the box that has all of the papers about the appliances that I gave you to put away in a safe place so I could find them easily if I had a question about something because you know you aren’t the one that reads directions I am and if I can’t find the box with all of the booklets I am not going to be able to fix anything that has to work in the house to keep us warm and fed and bathed because…” and she was back through another door and fading from earshot before he could even put the paper down to look at her, let alone answer her. He just shook his head from behind his paper and turned the page.

“…if they don’t start thinking about how it affects other people they are never going to make it in that complex because other people aren’t going to put up with it you know they don’t have to because they aren’t family and family is the only one that has to accept what you are anyway so I told them they better start learning how to act like civilized human being cause it isn’t like I didn’t raise them with manners but it’s also not my fault…” James could hear her coming back around from the other end of the house, her volume increasing with proximity.

He shifted in his seat and readied himself for the arrival. “….did you figure out where you think you put that box so I can look through those books I asked you about because I want to get that taken care of this morning to put my mind at ease about it all…” he lowered his paper and got as far as opening his mouth,“…never mind by the time you spit it out I will have found it myself and read them all since I am at least up and looking at this hour who is sitting around still reading the paper anyway…” and she was again through the door to the garage.

James put down the Chronicle, picked up the Times, and smiled to himself through a sip of black coffee. Far be it for him to cause any ripples in the fabric of their marriage.

A Villanelle

We are learning poetry. We're learning the different forms. Our first real poetry assignment was to write a villanelle - this link isn't from class but it explains it well. This was my attempt. The class actually liked it.

A Second Term

My life continues as if on a dragon's flight,
And as my foot slips from the stirrup, cold,
I tumble head first into the darkest night.

Is my fall from the mounting or the fight?
Or is it from the faint words I hear, so bold?
My life continues as if on a dragon's flight.

I struggle through the challenge with all my might.
Straining against the outcome, foretold.
Still I tumble head first into the darkest night.

My soul, feeling the meaning, is frozen with fright
as the mother falters under the red mold.
Yet my life continues as if on a dragon's flight.

Why must the mother endure such a slight?
Where are her champions of old?
I tumble head first into the darkest night.

Have they all converted to the conservative right?
Is there no champion left to remove the blindfold?
My life continues as if on a dragon's flight.
Still, I tumble head first into the darkest night.

Kate Humphrey

from the perspective of a non-human

That was the assignment.

8 Weeks Old


I don't understand. When I'm quiet you're all
concerned, when I'm playing you get angry with me for
making too much noise. You toss all sorts of things at
me that I can't stand, and this makes you happy but
when I find something laying around that makes ME
happy, this makes you angry.

I try to stick close by cause I think you're the boss,
but you keep telling me to GET OUT OF THE WAY, so I go
as far away as I can and you call me back. I come back
over, follow you everywhere, and you step on me
OUCH, OUCH, OUCH, OUCH I scream and you yell WELL GET
OUT OF THE WAY! I slink away and lick my wounded
feelings.I do not understand.

It was so much easier with my mom and siblings. Let's
play meant let's play. A good growl meant get out of
the way. Everything was a toy. It was impossible to
get TOO CLOSE to each other. It was so simple. The
rules were easy to understand.

What is the right signal for play? How do I know when
to stay away? When is the right time to come near?
Which objects are mine? Where is it ok to lay? Why do
you bark so loud? Who is the boss? I want to make you
happy, make you like me, fit in with this new pack,
but can't you see, I don't understand your rules.

Kate Humphrey