The Convivial Gist

I distinctly recalled what I was doing when Lady Diana had the fatal accident in Paris, it was one sweaty August afternoon and I was trying to balance my measly paycheck against my insurmountable pile of bills. Like any female besotted by a Princess, I was inconsolable.  9/11 tragedy - I associate it with women's shoes. You might wonder what twisted situation I was in at  that time.  I was figuratively burning the midnight oil doing a term paper for a lady friend (taking up fashion designing course)  of  the Executive who happens to be my superior on the evolution of ladies shoes.  The Executive, lugging tomes of hardbound books with glossy illustrations of  ladies footwear, non chalantly informed me that I need to do a 12 page paper on history of  women's shoes complete with bibliographies,references, photos etc. He needs it the next day.  I am an accoun...

                Have you ever thought about  how ants feel when they have sore feet from walking constantly  in search of food ? Do they ever scowl, grouse or go to their mothers, husbands or friends for solace? I have a nagging pain my my left ear from cold infection and I am reduced to a contemplative state of analyzing the physical pain of these social insects that belong to the species of Formicidae .  Are there any studies made  to measure the threshold of pain this animal can endure? How do ants  manage pain? I bet there are multitudes of dissertation made on these topics but I am making these as simple as the pain of an ant.   Humans being a more complex creature had to endure aggregation of suffering ; from physical to psychological to phantom pain.  If we can duplicate how the animals endure pain maybe life would...

Yesterday I had an interesting discourse with my TB (talk buddy).  A talk buddy is someone who I engaged in conversation by a telephone regularly, come tornado warning or the call of a child wanting to practice his newly acquired efficiency on using a toilet.  She told me that the opposite of love is not hate but apathy.  And she's right. The feeling of  hate  evokes strong emotions, it can still stir up feelings. But when you are dispassionate to someone, you just don't freakin' care if that someone was  trampled over by 27 elephants or suffered the most virulent  diarrhea on his/her wedding day.  Total indifference, that is painful , of course being under the elephant and having the runs are exhausting too.  Which would you choose? There is so much indifference in this world, it seems we just stopped caring or maybe we are suffering from the I Me and Myself  syndrome often. So in parting,  I would rather you hate me if I did you wrong  rather than be detached to my existe...

Two weekends ago me and my husband got 2 bird feeders, a tubular kind and touted to be squirrel free.  From his home office ( alternating as our formal dining table when he decides to stop working) he has the view of the bird feeders and he thinks its time for us to enjoy and explore the science of ornithology. We did not expect that we would  also be  reeled  in the science of Sciuridae. Those rodents have more fun eating the seeds than for whom it was originally intended for i.e the birds. This outraged my husband. Squirrels are very patient, intelligent, conniving and insulting animals ( according to my bitter half - relative to the squirrel issue).  My husband tried bells, moving the locations of  the feeders about 18 times a day, slathering the cords and poles with motor oil and cooking oil, clearing the deck of my spider hanging plants (the rodents use these as their launching pads); and spiking strategic parts of our trellis with nails.  Sad to say, if  squirrels can give humans...