Por una Cabeza

What took us so long?

What took us so long to discover books by science journalist/author/Sibert medalist Sy Montgomery?  

– We loved “Condor Comeback” because who doesn’t love a success story?  

1982:  Only 22 California condors (huge, majestic members of the vulture family) remain on planet Earth.  That is it.  22.
2019:  450 California condors and the numbers are growing!

This book introduced us to Dr. Estelle Sandhaus, director of conservation science at the zoo in Santa Barbara, California.  From Dr. Sandhaus we learned why condors were on the endangered list since 1967:
– the ingesting of microtrash
– poisoning from lead bullets found in carrion that condors feast upon 
Sandhaus and Montgomery reveal the work required to phase out lead bullets, educate about microtrash, supervise condor breeding, conduct health checks for every condor, and oversee the  “captivity-to-flying-free” protocol.  

– We loved “Chasing Cheetahs”, another success story!  The book focuses upon Laurie Marker and the Cheetah Conservation Fund in Namibia.  Challenge:  cheetah numbers in Namibia were dwindling fast because farmers were killing the cheetahs who were killing their livestock.  The CCF Solution:  education, Kangal dogs and goats (and the cheetah population has risen dramatically).  (Seriously, my summary is simplistic.  I do a disservice to Laurie Marker and Sy Montgomery.  Apologies.  The point is that Laurie Marker and her team have brilliant, common sense ideas and admirable follow through and Sy Montgomery conveyed this to us in a way my son could understand).  

– We really loved “The Great White Shark Scientist”, introducing us to Greg Skomal, shark biologist with the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries.  A basic theme of the book is that sharks are not as dangerous as portrayed by the media.  Example:
In 1996 – the number of Americans injured by sharks:  13 
In 1996 – the number of Americans injured by toilets:  43,000  
Also, we learned that sharks like to eat seals.  So, question:  is it smart to swim around seals?
Saving the best for last:  Sy Montgomery suggests following sharks who have been fitted with a tracking device at ocearch.org (look for “Shark Tracker”).  My son and I are having more fun checking in on the sharks nightly, watching them cruise up and down the east coast of the US.  The tagged sharks have been named and our favorites are Penny, Frosty, and Maple. 

– But we REALLY  loved “The Book of Turtles”.  Worth the price of the book: 1)  Matt Patterson’s superb life-like illustrations.  WHOA.  and 2)  the section on CELEBRITY TURTLES!   Our favorite entry:  the story of two Galapagos tortoises at the Klagenfurt Zoo (Austria), Poldi and Bibi, who had lived happily together for 115 YEARS until one day Bibi  decided that she had “had it up to here” with Poldi. She hissed at him, she bit off part of his shell.  Dear, me!  Zookeepers tried to bring them back together with romantic dinners, but to no success.  The two are now permanently separated.  It is the stuff of Greek tragedies.

What else we are learning –
1)  how to use a Chinese abacus     2)  state birds (we are puzzled that 7 states need to claim the Northern Cardinal as “their” bird.  Was there not choice enough among the remaining 1,100 bird species in the United States?)     3)  history of the circus

Story Problem:  “Sack Lunch Sides” at The Local Diner!  To celebrate the start of the school year, the diner is offering a “sack lunch sides” workshop. For $15, junior chefs will learn how to make home-made chips, home-made pickles, and home-made brownies. 

– If 20 students signed up for the class and 18 actually attended, what percentage of students forgot to show up?  
a)  2%     b)  10%     c)  20%     d)  22%
– If 9 of the attendees did not like the “home-made pickles” (yikes!  recipe fail!) what percentage of the junior chefs liked the pickles?  
a)  2%     b)  9%     c)  33%     d)  50%
– And finally, if it cost the diner $8 to provide for each of the 18 students, what was the total profit the diner realized?
a)  $36    b)  $126     c)  $180     d)  $270  (answers at bottom of post)

Classical music to enhance the opera-worthy Poldi and Bibi story – 

– Bibi can no longer abide Poldi, and she has a long, long list of things he does that drive her to madness.  We teamed this scenario with Beethoven’s melodramatic “Rage over a Lost Penny” (composed around 1795).  My son and I are glad not to be at the receiving end of this tirade – 

– The Zookeepers set up a dinner of romance to encourage Poldi and Bibi to patch things up.  Music to set the scene?  What better than Carlos Gardel’s très dramatique tango “Por una Cabeza” (composed 1935).  If this doesn’t get things moving in the right direction, nothing will.  Alas, it fails –

– A broken-hearted Poldi slowly trudges away from the love of his life – Nothing less than “Gymnopedie No. 1”, Erik Satie’s slow tempo soul crusher (composed 1888) can capture Poldi’s despair.  Did 115 years of companionship mean nothing?  –

Welcome to the best part of my day!
– Jane BH
(story problem answers:  b)  10%,  d)  50%,  b)  $126)

What We Want

We want a GRAND SLAM – Go Dodgers World Series 2017!

Dodgers

We always want THE GRAND SLAM (our version) – setting the scene:  I am reading to my son, finishing a chapter and am starting to close the book, and out of nowhere his hand comes slamming down on the page, clearly communicating DO NOT EVEN THINK OF CLOSING THIS GREAT BOOK.  KEEP READING.  It happened again last night.

Animal orchestra

Last night we started reading “The Great Animal Orchestra – Finding the Origins of Music in the World’s Wild Places” by musician/naturalist Dr. Bernie Krause.  When we begin a new book, we read only a few paragraphs to get a sense of what awaits us, but I was so pleasantly surprised with this book – the writing, bright and observant – that I was half way through the 8-page prologue before deciding to close the book for the evening.  This was met with a decided difference of opinion from my son – his hand came crashing down onto the page.  It was the GRAND SLAM once again.  YES.

crusoe 3

We didn’t want to cheat on Robinson Crusoe – I hate to admit this, but we just finished an abridged version (A REALLY ABRIDGED VERSION) of Daniel Dafoe’s classic.  We read through the first chapter of the original, and there was so much explaining necessary at the end of every paragraph, I could see that it would take us forever to plow through the book.  But we still wanted to know about the story inspired by pirate Alexander Selkirk, who lived alone on Juan Fernandez Island (off the coast of Chile) for 4 years, so we found a cartoony version “Robinson Crusoe (Graphic Revolve: Common Core Editions)”, which gave us the basics.  I think we are still hungry to read the real story, but ALAS, I cannot face the work of explaining Dafoe’s work just yet.

cousin tree

We wanted to see where we fit in – COUSIN CITY!  Cousin Caitlin is getting married soon!  Did my son understand the concept of cousin (vocab)?  Did he know where she fit into the family tree?  Did he know where HE fit into the family tree?  Out came the big drawing paper and the pastels and we worked together to create a cousin-centric family tree.

paint 3

(Story Problem) Farmer Brown wants to gussy up his roadside stand – Farmer Brown has plans to paint the inside of his roadside produce stand, as soon as his roadside-stand cashiers (vocab) decide on the color.  So far, 4 quarts of sample paints have been tried out to no one’s satisfaction.  If each quart of sample paint costs $6, and there are plans to try out 3 more colors, but – OH NO – they end up purchasing 5 more samples after the 3, how much will have been spent on sample paint?  A)  $30    B)  $42    C)  $60    D)  $72

After a color is finally agreed upon (YAY), 6 gallons (at $30 each) will be required to complete the paint job.  How much will have been spent on the gallons and sample quarts?  A) $180     B) $252     C) $72     D) $600  (story problem answers at bottom of post)

tango poster

We want to be Tango-ologists – My son and I concluded our South America unit this past week, absolutely loving our guide book: “Not for Parents South America – Lonely Planet Kids”.  This past week we read about:
– the importance of the coffee industry to the Brazil economy
– Columbian emeralds
– the navy of land-locked Bolivia
– AND WE READ ABOUT THE TANGO OF ARGENTINA.  We had no idea how much we were going to love the tango music!  Our toes have been tapping non-stop.

  • “Por una Cabeza” – this true Argentine tango, composed in 1935 by Alfredo Le Pera and Carlos Gardel, tells the story of a man comparing his horse race gambling addiction with his attraction to women.  Whoa.  The music: anguished, gorgeous, yearning – the perfect selection for the tango scenes in “The Scent of a Woman” (1992) and “Easy Virtue” (2008) (shown here):

  • “Hernando’s Hideaway” – if I had more friends that were more musically aware, and I asked them to hum a tango, this is the one they would probably come up with – it is from the 1954 musical, “The Pajama Game”. (The Pajama Game centers around labor troubles at a pajama manufacturing plant in Cedar Rapids, Iowa…Hernando’s Hideway is the local dive bar).  Great fun, a most aggressive tango with no pretensions toward subtleties:

  • “Blue Tango” – Leroy Anderson’s contribution to the tango genre, composed in 1951. My son and I have been tapping our toes to “Blue Tango” for a few years. Every time we listen to this we feel sorry for the snare drum player (mind numbing repetition).  Interesting: in searching for a “Blue Tango” video footage I think I came across more terrible filmed versions of this than of any other music I have researched:

  • MORE????? “Doc Martin Theme Song” – my son has heard this melody so often, as I have watched every episode of this favorite British TV series.  The theme was composed by Colin Towns in 2004, and is indeed a tango.  What a metaphor for the on again-off again relationship between the doctor and of the citizens of Portwenn:

Welcome to the best part of my day!
Jane BH
(story problem answers: part 1 -D)  $72 and part 2-B) $252)