I have not done a blog in a while because of health issues and also because I could not find a subject that I thought was interesting. Recently, however, I realized that there are many subjects that catch my attention.

There is a columnist in the local paper who occasionally writes a column entitled “Nobody Asked Me But…”. and then proceeds to comment on multiple issues. So here is my version of “Nobody Asked Me But ….”.

Humpty Dumpty

It might seem odd that the children’s nursery rhyme applies to a present day political situation which, if it were not so serious, would be laughable. So, consider the present reality that our House of Representatives has no leader and then consider the centuries old plight of Humpty Dumpty.

Speaker Kevin McCarthy, like Humpty Dumpty, had a great fall. It was engineered by 8 Republican wing nuts, who were ably assisted by 212 Democratic congressmen and women and together they voted McCarthy out. 217 votes were needed, and they got 220 (the 8 wing nuts plus 212 Democrats).

Would be Kevin McCarthys cannot assemble the necessary votes to become Speaker and, again, the Democrats are quite happy with the Republican dysfunction. They will now have talking points in the 2024 election to show that they, not them, should run the show. Meanwhile, necessary legislation related to the Ukraine, Israel, the budget and to meet the fast-approaching deadline for government default are all ignored.

Current commentary blames the fractious Republicans on the mess and that is correct. However, commentary also suggests that the Democrats are the only adults in the room and that is absolutely incorrect. Adults are those who find solutions and a way forward. Neither party seems capable of that and their absolute tribal allegiance guarantees failure.

Pox on both parties. Neither of the Republicans nor the Democrats have any rightful claim to our support.

Hopkins Hypocrisy

In Baltimore, Hopkins is the 800-pound gorilla. There is the medical school, including the hospital, which is regularly in contention to be the number #1 hospital in the world. And then there is the University (entirely separate, both legally and geographically, from the sprawling medical campus) which is one of the most selective schools in the nation. Criticizing Hopkins in Baltimore may not be a mortal sin but it’s pretty close.

Which brings us to the case of Caroline Donovan. Caroline, in 1899, gave the University $100,000 to endow the Caroline Donovan Professorship in English literature. All went well for almost 125 years until the “Name Review Committee” of the University decided that Caroline’s name must be stricken because Caroline’s money had been derived from the slave trade .

There were, however, complications. Caroline’s gift had specified that her name must remain on the endowed professorship. So, the only way to remove her name is to petition a court and, of course, that’s what the Name Review Committee plans to do. If the court agrees, the Name Review Committee will rename the professorship to remediate “the harm associated with the original funding“ and “to reflect the core values” of the University.

So that seems all well and good. The Name Review Committee took about 18 months to make this decision. Around the time it was beginning deliberations, it was announced that the University’s founder, Johns Hopkins, had owned slaves. This was completely contrary to the century-old belief that Hopkins was from a Quaker family which opposed slavery.

However, don’t expect the Name Review Committee to be asking any court to rename Johns Hopkins University. Why? Because Hopkins is a national “brand” which is far too valuable to give up while Caroline Donovan is somebody that nobody knows or cares about. After all, the faculty members of the Name Review Committee have an elevated reputation because they teach at Johns Hopkins. They surely do not want to lose that distinction. Meanwhile, they can prove their “bona fides” as enlightened faculty by making sure that Caroline Donovan’s name is erased.

The Name Review Committee wants to have its cake and eat it too. Apparently, it’s alright to be hypocritical as long as you are “enlightened.”

Your Call Is Important To Us

I’m really not sure whether the same female voice is heard on every customer service line. If so, that lady should be very well compensated. When you call the typical 800 number, she speaks to you, on average, perhaps 25 times before an actual person answers. Usually, it takes about a half an hour before a person comes on the line.

The other day I called an 800 number to cancel a service, and when I finally got through the gentleman said: “Cancellation Department.,” I then asked for the address so I could mail the required cancellation notice . He then said:“ I’ll have to transfer you to customer service for that:” You would’ve thought that since he was in the Cancellation Department that he would know the mailing address of his workstation. It’s almost like they really don’t want you to cancel but, no, that cannot be the case because my call and my issue was very “important.”

When I was listening to the lady 25 times, the obvious thought occurred that – if our calls were so “important” – why didn’t the company employ enough people to answer them.

Birds Of A Feather

The last time that an ivory billed woodpecker was seen was 1944. It is a handsome bird (see below)

but has been on the possible “extinction list” of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, but so far has been not declared “extinct.” The principal reason is that various individuals have insisted that they have seen the bird over the years since1944, although grainy photos are not really conclusive. Indeed, detractors say that the bird being seen is not an ivory billed woodpecker, but rather a pileated woodpecker which is remarkably similar in appearance.

So who cares? An awful lot of people are invested in this particular controversy. I became aware of it only because I had purchased “forever stamps” which featured animals that could become extinct. Since the mid-1970s, when the Federal Endangered Species Act was passed, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has been tasked with declaring extinct species. One of the stamps showed a desert bighorn sheep, a handsome animal, (see below)

that I would not like to see extinct. On the other hand, I did not have similar feelings for the San Francisco garter snake, the Nashville crayfish, the long-eared bat or the prairie chicken.

The whole point of evolutionary biology is that certain species make it and certain don’t. The Endangered Species Act tries to identify species that are not making it because of human development. I’m not sure what to think of this since the human species needs to evolve in order to survive, which can mean that other species might not make it. The idea behind the Endangered Species Act is noble but, perhaps, unrealistic.

That being said, I am all in favor of saving the desert bighorn sheep and the ivory billed woodpecker if that fellow is still around.

Nobody asked me, but the award for the most remarkable bird might go to the Bar-tailed Godwit (see below).

The Godwit summers in Alaska and winters in New Zealand. What is remarkable is that the Godwit flies that 7,000 miles in a week without stopping. For those of you who are having trouble making 10,000 steps a day, just think about the Godwit.