Obesity and Autopsy
Year of the Rat
08/01/01
The remarkable influence of Chinese culture on Japan is evident not only
in the thousands of Chinese characters used in the written Japanese language.
It is also seen in many Japanese traditions, including the recognition of
lucky and unlucky times and customs. According to Chinese tradition, which is
also recognized in Japan, both years and days are related to twelve
lucky/unlucky signs of the zodiac, and this year of 2008, in the Gregorian calendar, is
the Year of the Rat. According to one source, people born in the Year of
the Rat may be seductive, energetic, charming, meticulous, sociable, persistent,
humorous and generous, but they may also be profiteering, manipulative,
suspicious, tiresome, destructive, greedy and petty. If you ask my wife her
thoughts about rats, she will relate the story of our experience in the Japanese
house we occupied after leaving Tokyo. Meetings we held in that country house
were frequently interrupted by the noise of rodents running above the wooden
ceiling, so she hit the ceiling with a broom handle to quiet them down. In
Japan, at that time, a cage with bait in it was used to catch rodents. When we
caught one, our landlady took the cage out to the road in front of our house,
called her cat and opened the cage to let the rodent out, which the cat
immediately caught. In this way, neither the landlady nor we became “killers.”
(Personally, I called those rodents “mice” in English instead of “rats;” the
same Chinese character with the same pronunciation is used for both “rats”
and “mice.”) This final word from the British statesman and orator, Edmund
Burke, emphasizes the need for perseverance: “By gnawing through a dyke, even a
rat may drown a nation.” (1115)
Butterflies
08/01/06
My wife and I recently visited the Florida city of Gainesville, about an hour’s drive from our residence in the town of Penney Farms. The reason for the visit was to take our son and granddaughter, who were visiting us, to see the “Butterfly Rainforest,” a unique exhibition in the Florida Museum of Natural History on the campus of the University of Florida. In this “Butterfly Rainforest,” there are more than 2000 plants representing more than 300 plant species and hundreds of free-flying butterflies of over 50 different species. The butterflies came from Belize, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Malaysia, the Philippines, Surinam and Florida. Butterflies in that predator-free exhibit typically live for two to three weeks. It was a very enjoyable experience to see the great variety of beautiful, colorful wings of different sizes and designs of these remarkable insects as they flew around or landed on us. Naturally, I wondered why this insect is called a “butterfly.” My investigation revealed that the reason for this combination of two words is not known, even though the great British literary scholar, Samuel Johnson, wrote that this beautiful insect was “so named because it first appears at the beginning of the season for butter.” Another theory is that it is rooted in medieval folklore tales that witches and fairies in the form of butterflies stole butter in the dark of the night. Some presume that it was because their wings were the color of butter, but others assert that it is the color of their excrement that resembles the color of butter. Finally, it has been suggested that it would be more reasonable to call them “flutterbys” instead of “butterflies.” (1116)
Chinese Characters in Japanese
08/01/10
While investigating the etymology of the English word “butterfly” in the previous message, I also considered the Japanese term for that beautiful insect and increased my understanding of the Japanese language and the Chinese characters included in it. I discovered that not only the repeated term, “chou-chou,” but a single “chou” has the same meaning: “butterfly.” The Chinese character for this “chou” is composed of two parts, one of which is the radical meaning “insect,” which is found in the Japanese names of many insects. I had not realized that this radical was originally a complicated character composed of three identical characters. I knew that the Chinese characters with three “mouths” indicated something very popular; three “suns” signified something very bright; three “trees” signified a forest and three “women” meant “noisy,” but I did not know that the original character for “insect” was composed of three identical characters. Also, I was surprised to learn that there is a Japanese word made up of the Chinese characters meaning “insect” (chou) followed by the character (sama) used for polite reference to a respected person and translated “Mr.” or “Mrs.” When this character follows the character for “insect,” their pronunciations change to “chuu-you.” The English translation of that word is “vermiform,” a word I had never seen before. In my dictionary, I found its meaning: “resembling or having the shape of a worm.” I apologize for the peculiar character of this message, but it is meant to illustrate how preparing these messages can be very interesting and informative for me, as I continue to mature, and to let my friends in Japan know that I am continuing to make progress in my understanding of Japanese. (1117)
Observances/M.L.King Day
08/01/15
The basic meaning of “observe” is to “perceive,” “notice,” “watch,” “watch attentively,” but it may also mean to “keep” or “celebrate.” Just as the weather is very different, depending on the area, so are the “observances,” which are related to the traditions and customs in each area. A recent message from our daughter, who lives in Thailand, informed us that a time of mourning was being observed there because of the recent death of a princess, the king’s eldest sister. In Japan, this period at the beginning of a New Year is observed as a very happy time and the second Monday of January is now observed as Seijin no Hi, “Adults Day” or “Coming-of-Age Day.” On that day, all the “young people” who reached the age of 20 during the past year are officially welcomed into adult society as new members with all the rights and duties of citizens. In the United States of America, January 15th is observed as the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr., who was the Afro-American minister of a Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama. During the civil rights movement when the nation’s attention was focused on the traditional deep-rooted prejudice of many “white” people against “blacks,” he became the outstanding leader who inspired many people of whatever color, to engage in nonviolent protests against the undemocratic, immoral actions of race-prejudiced citizens and was assassinated. In 1986, the U. S. Congress declared the third Monday of January as Martin Luther King Day, a time “to reflect on the principles of racial equality and nonviolent social change” that Dr. King had advocated. Observing American history from an ethical viewpoint, there are two great black marks that are immediately recognized: the treatment of the Native Americans and of the slaves imported from Africa. (1118)
DNA
08/01/18
Over the past months, there have been numerous articles in newspapers and magazines regarding the use of DNA both to accurately establish the identity of individuals who had committed crimes and to effect the release of those who had been falsely incarcerated. A recent article noted how DNA is now being used also to connect relatives and to trace ancestors, but what is “DNA”? To find the answer to that question, I first looked in the “Abbreviations” section of my dictionary, but did not find it there. I was surprised to find it in the regular section in capital letters. I was also surprised at the length of the definition--the longest I have seen in that dictionary--and to see so many words in the definition that I not only did not understand, but which I did not know how to pronounce. Thus, I used the dictionary to find both the meaning and pronunciations of many words. I will now let you read the definition and see how much you understand. After reading it, think about how much of that definition you could share with a person who asked you the meaning of “DNA.” The definition in The American Heritage Dictionary, published in 1985, is: “A polymeric chromosomal constituent of living cell nuclei, consisting of two long chains of alternating phosphate and deoxyribose units twisting into a double helix and joined by hydrogen bonds between the complementary bases adenine and thymine or cytosine and guanine, each of which projects toward the axis of the helix from one of the strands where it is bonded in a sequence that determines individual hereditary characteristics.” “DNA” is derived from the term, “Deoxyribo Nucleic Acid.” (1119)
Plurals
08/01/22
Many native speakers of English do not recognize the many irregularities in that language until they try to teach it to people of a different language background. Not only are there many irregularities in the pronunciation of certain letters and the meaning of certain words depending on the particular contexts in which they are used, there are also irregularities in the way some singular words become plural. Generally speaking, the plural form of a noun is formed by adding an “s” or an “es” to its singular form. However, plurals of some words are irregular. For example, although the plural of “house” is “houses” and the plural of “blouse” is “blouses,” the plural of “mouse“ is not “mouses” but “mice,” and the plural of “louse” is not “louses” but “lice.” “Dice” is also the plural form of a noun, which many native speakers of English do not know. In this case, “die” is not related to death. Rather, it signifies the small cubes marked on each side with from one to six dots which are used in various games. On the other hand, there are some English nouns that do not change from singular to plural, for the same word is used for both. For example, there are no plural forms for “deer” and “sheep.” Even though there may be many “stags,” “does” and “fawns” in a herd of deer and many “rams,” “ewes” and “lambs” in a flock of sheep, the words “deer” and “sheep” are used for one or many of them. In the ancient Jewish poetry that is recorded in the Old Testament book of Psalms, the writer used the figures of both deer and sheep when he expressed his feeling toward God (in Psalms 41 & 23). (1120)
Belching Methane
08/01/27
Expelling gas from one’s stomach noisily through the mouth is called a “belch.” In a sophisticated social setting, belching should be avoided. For those animals called “ruminants,” however, belching is a natural part of life and occurs whenever they chew cud. “Ruminants,” which include cows, sheep, goats, deer and giraffes, have stomachs divided into four compartments and they continue to chew the partially digested food regurgitated from their first stomach, called “cud.” A recent article in the Yomiuri Shimbun, a Japanese newspaper, reported the results of research conducted by Japanese scientists, which revealed that an odorless, colorless gas that makes the atmosphere warmer, is emitted by cows when they chew their cuds. According to that article, this gas, called “methane,” is about 20 times more effective than carbon dioxide in trapping heat in the atmosphere and of the 23.8 million tons of methane emitted in Japan in 2006, 6.78 million tons was apparently produced by cows. The research also discovered that adding a certain acid to the diet of the cows results in a great reduction of the methane emitted when they belch. Consequently, if livestock feed manufacturers and dairy farmers work together to change the diet of cows, it can be a definite benefit in the fight against global warming. In the Old Testament book of Leviticus, many rules are written for God’s chosen people to follow. In the first part of chapter 11, one of the conditions for the kind of meat to be eaten is that it be of an animal that chews the cud.(1121)
Obesity and Autopsy
08/01/31
From the Japanese perspective, Caucasians are characterized as people with big noses and big feet, but actually their whole bodies are bigger. For the past several years, my wife and I have been amazed at the many obese people we see in this country. This is not so surprising, considering the huge meals provided in many restaurants. It has been reported that the percentage of obese Americans has jumped from 15 percent about 30 years ago to about 33 percent at the present time. My wife and I are especially aware of the problem when we are on an airplane or in a theater or auditorium with regular seats, which are too small for obese persons. A recent news article noted how obesity causes problems even after death, when autopsies are performed. An “autopsy” is an examination of a dead body to determine the cause of death. In many morgues, where dead bodies are kept, the traditional equipment used for moving, keeping or working on dead bodies is not suitable for the huge, heavy bodies, which are common today. The cart on which the body is moved from one place to another and the table on which it is placed must be enlarged. The legs underneath such equipment must be strengthened; larger cranes to lift the bodies and larger drawers and refrigerators in which to keep them are also needed. As we think about the physical problems our death may cause, we should be more concerned about the spiritual or social implications of our death, and since we do not know when we will die, we should always “be prepared.” (1122)