"Found in a bag of soil"

Explained in a post at the often-interesting What Is It? subreddit.

A college reading list from 1966

I've encountered a number of articles about how college students in the United States are unwilling (or unable) to read full books.  One relevant longread was in the November 2024 issue of The Atlantic, entitled "The Elite College Students Who Can’t Read Books."  Here are some extended excerpts:

Nicholas Dames has taught Literature Humanities, Columbia University’s required great-books course, since 1998. He loves the job, but it has changed. Over the past decade, students have become overwhelmed by the reading. College kids have never read everything they’re assigned, of course, but this feels different. Dames’s students now seem bewildered by the thought of finishing multiple books a semester. His colleagues have noticed the same problem. Many students no longer arrive at college—even at highly selective, elite colleges—prepared to read books.

This development puzzled Dames until one day during the fall 2022 semester, when a first-year student came to his office hours to share how challenging she had found the early assignments. Lit Hum often requires students to read a book, sometimes a very long and dense one, in just a week or two. But the student told Dames that, at her public high school, she had never been required to read an entire book. She had been assigned excerpts, poetry, and news articles, but not a single book cover to cover...

Twenty years ago, Dames’s classes had no problem engaging in sophisticated discussions of Pride and Prejudice one week and Crime and Punishment the next. Now his students tell him up front that the reading load feels impossible. It’s not just the frenetic pace; they struggle to attend to small details while keeping track of the overall plot...

In 1976, about 40 percent of high-school seniors said they had read at least six books for fun in the previous year, compared with 11.5 percent who hadn’t read any. By 2022, those percentages had flipped...

Carol Jago, a literacy expert who crisscrosses the country helping teachers design curricula, says that educators tell her they’ve stopped teaching the novels they’ve long revered, such as My Ántonia and Great Expectations. The pandemic, which scrambled syllabi and moved coursework online, accelerated the shift away from teaching complete works... At the prep school that I graduated from five years ago, I took a Jane Austen course my senior year. I read only a single Austen novel...

Some experts I spoke with attributed the decline of book reading to a shift in values rather than in skill sets. Students can still read books, they argue—they’re just choosing not to. Students today are far more concerned about their job prospects than they were in the past. Every year, they tell Howley that, despite enjoying what they learned in Lit Hum, they plan to instead get a degree in something more useful for their career...

For years, Dames has asked his first-years [university] about their favorite book. In the past, they cited books such as Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre. Now, he says, almost half of them cite young-adult books. Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson series seems to be a particular favorite...

Intrigued by those observations, I dug into my "memorabilia" files and retrieved the reading list I had for one of my courses in college in 1966-67.  Embedded at the top is a copy of the course syllabus.  I was in my junior year of college; the course was a standard undergraduate-level course for one semester (not a full year).  I was thoroughly enjoying the course, and for some reason I annotated the reading list with the number of pages in each book.  The total came to 4300 pages in 16 books in 12 weeks = 350 pages per week.  Not an onerous load by any stretch of the imagination - just one (usually interesting) average-sized book per week.  

English 273 was a refreshing change from my other course work (physics and biology as pre-med requirements).  And it was a course that introduced me to a world of writing that I had previously been unfamiliar with (Faulkner and Wolfe were the only authors in the group that I had read in high school).

About six weeks ago I listened online to a Sunday sermon about the parable of the vineyard owner (Matthew 20:1-16); the rector quoted extensively from a Flannery O'Connor short story about a sanctimonious southern lady who is physically assaulted by a Wellesley student in the waiting room of a doctor's office:

The staff [leaps] to Mrs. Turpin’s aid and [pulls] Mary Grace away.  The girl, “held down on one side by the nurse and on the other by her mother, [wrenches and turns]. The doctor [kneels] astride her, trying to hold her arm down[, before finally managing to] sink a long needle into it.”

“The girls’ eyes [focus on Mrs. Turpin].  [Those eyes seem now] a much lighter blue than before, as if a door that had been tightly closed behind them [is] now open to admit light and air.

“Mrs. Turpin’s head [clears, as well,] and her power of motion [returns].  She [leans] forward until she [looks] directly into [those] fierce brilliant eyes.  There [is] no doubt in her mind that the girl [knows] her, [knows] her in some intense and personal way, beyond time and place and condition. ‘What you got to say to me?’ [Mrs. Turpin asks] hoarsely and [holding] her breath [and] waiting, as for a revelation.

“The girl [raises] her head.  Her gaze [locks] with Mrs. Turpin’s.  ‘Go back to hell where you came from, you old wart hog,’ she [whispers].  Her voice [is] low but clear … [and] Mrs. Turpin [sinks] back in her chair.”

Hearing that sermon immediately prompted me to get from the library the relevant short-story collection (Everything That Rises Must Converge) that I had passed over in college.  To be quite honest, I don't really enjoy reading Flannery O'Connor because the characters in her writing have so many unpleasant characteristics, but my god that woman sure knew how to capture the thought processes and language idioms of rural people in Georgia in the 1950s.

Enough for now.  I'm wandering away from the subject because I can't understand why modern college students can't read a book a week.  I'll let readers ponder that reading list, and perhaps in a couple days (after I finish celebrating America's retreat from neo-Fascism back to democracy), I'll dig out and post the final exam questions.

"Audio, video, disco"

The unofficial "motto" of TYWKIWDBI is "you learn something every day."  The phrase is not incorporated into the template title page, but I use it often as a closing statement when posting interesting stuff that's new to me.  

Earlier this week I encountered somewhere on Facebook the observation that the phrase "I hear, I see, I learn" is properly translated into Latin as "Audio, video, disco."  

I'm 60+ years away from my last Latin class, but I suspect there are some scholarly readers out there who can confirm or clarify this quite interesting discovery.  

A remarkably clever and incisive parody

A jumping spider (with pollen)

This image won second place in the Nikon Small World photomicrography contest.  Image credit John Oliver Dum/Nikon Small World, via a gallery of images in The Guardian.

Animation of NASA's Perseverance Rover path on Mars

28 miles (so far).  The animation is silent - refreshingly free of irrelevant music and unnecessary voiceover.

How to win at Monopoly

A tip of the hat to Jason Kottke, who found and posted excerpts of a strategy to markedly improve one's chances of winning the Monopoly board game:

With a second monopoly completed, your next task is to improve those properties to three houses each, then all of your properties to four houses each. Six properties with three houses will give you more than half of the houses in the game, and four houses each will give you 75% of the total supply. This will make it nearly impossible for your opponents to improve their own property in a meaningful way. Keep the rulebook nearby once the supply gets low, as you will undoubtedly be questioned on it. At this point, you will be asked repeatedly to build some friggin’ hotels already so that other people can build houses. Don’t.

At this point, you more or less have the game sewn up. If losing a normal game of monopoly is frustrating, losing to this strategy is excruciating, as a losing opponent essentially has no path to victory, even with lucky rolls. Your goal is to play conservatively, lock up more resources, and let the other players lose by attrition.

Most board games are intrinsically competitive, but Monopoly does tend to bring out some of the baser instincts, and as Jason notes, it can also provide uncomfortable reminders of income inequality and business malfeasance in the real world.

Silver Linings Playbook (2013)

I first saw Silver Linings Playbook when it was released back in 2013, but I seem not to have blogged it at the time.  I'm doing so now for two reasons, one of which is to save and share the "Girl from the North Country" song by Bob Dylan, which was featured in the movie (some listeners will recognize the second voice in the harmony as that of Johnny Cash).  The subtitles are intermittently inaccurate; for lyrics see the link).

But I'd also like to recommend the movie, which to be honest is not easy to enjoy at first.  Even on a rewatch knowing how much I enjoyed it the first time, it was still difficult for me to tolerate either of the main characters for the first half hour or so of the movie.  Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence portray characters whose behavior varies from annoying to repellant, but by the end of the movie one finds oneself cheering for their success in overcoming their anxieties and obsessions.

For those curious about the movie I'll also embed the standard trailer below; the image quality is poor, but it offers a better presentation of the storyline than the musical version at the top.

 

Famous poliomyelitis survivors

Wikipedia has an extensive list, from which I've extracted some of the names I recognize:

Alan Alda born 1936 An actor most famous for his role as Hawkeye Pierce in the television series M*A*S*H. Alda contracted polio at age seven, during an epidemic. His parents administered a painful treatment, developed by Sister Elizabeth Kenny, in which hot woolen blankets were applied to the limbs and the muscles were stretched by massage

Mia Farrow born 1945 An actress who was appointed a UNICEF goodwill ambassador in 2000, and campaigns in the fight against polio. Farrow collapsed on her ninth birthday and was diagnosed with polio two days later. She was in the hospital for eight months, where an iron lung maintained her breathing.

Gwen Verdon 1925–2000 An actress and dancer on Broadway and in films. Verdon was encouraged to dance by her mother, a dance teacher, as therapy for her polio-afflicted legs.

Johnny Weissmuller 1904–1984 At age nine, Weissmüller contracted polio. At the suggestion of his doctor, he took up swimming to help battle the disease, and he went on to win five Olympic gold medals in the sport during the 1920s.

Arthur C. Clarke 1917–2008 A science-fiction author and inventor. He contracted polio in February 1962, which confined him to bed for months. In 1984, he was diagnosed with post-polio syndrome, and he spent the last years of his life in a wheelchair.

Judy Collins born 1939 As a child, singer-songwriter Judy Collins spent several months in the hospital recovering from bout with polio. Collins later became a representative for UNICEF and has worked to promote polio vaccination programmes.

Donovan born 1946 Folk singer-songwriter and guitarist Donovan contracted polio... This left him with a limp and feeling excluded. However, he says "I kind of look back on it and think it was positive for me because it made me withdraw from my pals and realise I was different."

Michael Flanders 1922–1975 An actor, broadcaster, and writer and performer of comic songs, often in partnership with Donald Swann. He contracted polio in 1943 while serving in the Royal Navy, and required a wheelchair for the rest of his life.

Joni Mitchell born 1943 A musician, songwriter and painter. Mitchell started singing at age nine while in the hospital recovering from polio. Her distinctive sound featured dozens of non-standard guitar tunings, which she developed partly to compensate for a weakened arm.

Itzhak Perlman born 1945 A virtuoso violinist. He contracted polio at the age of four. Perlman requires braces and crutches to walk, and plays the violin seated.

Dinah Shore 1916–1994 A big band singer, actress and talk show host. Shore contracted polio, aged 18 months, which left her right leg crippled. She recovered strength through massage, swimming and tennis.

Neil Young born 1945 A singer-songwriter and guitarist. He caught polio at age five, during the epidemic of 1951.

Mitch McConnell born 1942 A Republican member of the United States Senate from Kentucky and current Senate Minority Leader. He contracted polio at age two resulting in a paralyzed left leg, but eventually recovered with physical therapy.

Robert McNamara 1916–2009 A business executive and former United States Secretary of Defense. Both McNamara and his wife contracted polio in August 1945. He was in the hospital for a couple of months but his wife was badly affected and remained there for nine months. His career change from Harvard professor to the Ford Motor Company was made to pay her hospital bills.

Franklin D. Roosevelt 1882–1945 U.S. President 1933-1945. FDR founded the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, now called the March of Dimes. He spent as much time as he could recuperating from Poliomyelitis in the waters of Warm Springs, Georgia where he founded one of the first rehabilitation facilities for Polio survivors.

Bud Grant born 1927 The long-time former American football head coach of the Minnesota Vikings of the National Football League for eighteen seasons. He caught polio as a child, leaving one leg shortened. He was advised to take up sport as therapy.

Jack Nicklaus born 1940 A professional golfer who has won many major golf championships. He caught polio, aged 13. Nicklaus was affected with stiffness, pain and weight loss over two weeks. He recovered without any paralysis but believes he may have post-polio syndrome, which makes his joints sore.

Wilma Rudolph 1940–1994 A track and field athlete, Rudolph was the first American woman to win three gold medals at the Olympic Games. At age four, she contracted polio and lost the use of her left leg. After five years of massage and exercises, she managed to walk again without her leg braces. By the time she was a teenager, Rudolph was faster than the boys in her neighbourhood were. Rudolph won a bronze medal, aged 16, at the 1956 Summer Olympics and three gold medals in the 1960 Summer Olympics.

Frida Kahlo 1907–1954 A painter who was the subject of a 2002 movie starring Salma Hayek. She caught polio, aged six, and spent several months in bed. Kahlo was left with a deformed and shortened right leg.

Dorothea Lange 1895–1965 A photographer and photojournalist most noted for her picture Migrant Mother. She caught polio, aged seven, and was left with a withered right lower leg and a limp. Lang said, "It was perhaps the most important thing that happened to me. It formed me, guided, instructed me, helped me, and humiliated me. All those things at once. I've never gotten over it and am aware of the force and power of it."

Henriette Wyeth 1907–1997 A portrait artist. She caught polio as a child, which crippled her right hand. She compensated by holding the paint brush between her first and second fingers.

Reposted from 2018.

Sheltering Arms Hospital in Minneapolis

October is Polio Awareness Month (because it used to be a seasonal illness peaking in late summer and early autumn), so this is a good time for me to share some memories of my experience with the illness.

In the summer of 1952 I was a normal 6-year-old kid playing outdoors with friends in a suburb of Minneapolis, Minnesota.  One day I contracted a febrile illness and spent a night moaning in pain from muscle cramps.  The next morning when I tried to get out of bed I fell to the floor because both legs were limp and wouldn't support me.  My mom was an R.N. who knew what was happening, so she and dad drove me to "The Sheltering Arms" institute over on the west bank of the Mississippi River in Minneapolis.  I was admitted to the ward indicated by the yellow arrow on the postcard image embedded above.  The ward had I'm guessing 25-40 beds with maybe some privacy curtains in between, staffed by nurses who had been trained in the Sister Kenny method.

There was no cure for this viral illness, but what she discovered in her early work in Australia was that patients were able to recover some function if the affected muscles were kept active during the illness.  At Sheltering Arms, pairs of nurses would go around the ward pushing a cart with near-boiling water into which they dipped woolen towels which were then applied to children's legs.  The initial application would be painful, then comforting as the heat subsided into warmth, but then they returned over and over again to reapply maximally-hot towels.  When some measure of stability of the illness occurred, there followed intensive physical therapy with bags and socks filled with ball bearings draped over ankles and leg lifts repeated until exhaustion.  

I spent much of my summer in that ward.  As an adult I later learned from my parents that my sister had also come down with polio (in the bulbar form that affected her speech and swallowing), and even my mother was affllicted.  She remembers seeing my father peering through a window on her hospital room door, his face in tears as he coped with three family members simultaneously afflicted.  I eventually wound up with an atrophic right quadriceps but adequate ambulatory function, and a variety of contractures that needed release and even an attempt at tendon transplant at the Mayo in later summers, but I eventually had enough recovery to permit a reasonably normal adult life - unlike so many of my schoolmates who wound up on respirators or in wheelchairs or dead.  This is enough for now; I'll probably add more info in future years updates, in an effort to counteract the horribly medieval mindset of some modern politicians who feel that vaccination is too risky.

Re the postcard above, I should clarify that the window to my ward is open in the photo, because polio was spread by fecal-oral contact, not via aerosolization of the pathogen via cough.  The photo also shows a small ladder leaning against the wall, which parents could use to step up enough to wave hello to their children inside.

For those interested, there are about 15 other posts in TYWKIWDBI in the poliomyelitis category.

Polio was the "autumn ghost"

So named because of its seasonality, poliomyelitis was the cause of worldwide epidemics in the 1950s.  This new book presents a detailed look at the 1952 epidemic (in which I was an unwilling participant) with a focus on its effects in Denmark.

"... until quite recently in medical history, there was no intensive care.  Seventy years ago anyone who struggled to breathe, whose heart gave out, or whose kidneys shut down would be kept comfortable and left to die.  There were no ventilators, no monitors keeping track of vital signs minute to minute, no expertise of nurses and physicians to keep critically ill patients alive, and no dedicated units in hospitals for the care of such patients... This is the story of how we got from 1952 to now."

The story in Denmark begins at Blegdam ["Blei-dahm"] Hospital in Copenhagen, created in the 1860s as a "fever hospital" for quarantine purposes in a busy port city.  Cases of cholera and various febrile illnesses arriving by ship would be sequestered here for isolation until resolution or death.  Polio patients came here for "care," but not for "treatment" - which was nonexistent.  

By 1952, some iron lungs were in use, especially in the United States, but those devices were immense, expensive, and difficult to use.  In response to a massive epidemic which was killing their children, the Danes discovered the utility of "bagging" via an endotracheal tube.  But no automated ventilators existed, so medical students were recruited to bag patients continuously, 24/7.  Chapter 13 "Student Ventilators" details the development and implementation of this policy.

Nursing care in that era "was rooted in the tradition of a life given over to the work - long shifts, residence at the hospital for life, and no marriage."  That also had to change.  Analysis of blood gases and arterial pH - never before attempted (or considered) - was also invented, as was the concept of an "intensive care unit," (a term first used in 1958).

This book will not be of interest to everyone.  It will have special meaning to current polio survivors, and should be a must-read for respiratory therapy students who want to learn about the invention of their profession and its tools.

Reposted from 2023 because today is World Polio Day (and because some U.S. states are using medieval thought processes to roll back polio immunization requirements).  If any readers of TYWKIWDBI have a post-polio syndrome (as I do), please check out the information at Post-Polio Health.

Reposted from 2025 to accompany an adjacent post about Sheltering Arms Hospital in Minneapolis.

Fun fact

There seems to be an endless number of political signs trolling Trump.  I found this one on Imgur.

Addendum:   Because some readers disagree or don't know, I'll start adding on some brief examples of his pronouncements that either represent abysmal ignorance or intentional lying.  Wikipedia has a page devoted to Trump's "false or misleading statements" (over 30,000 of them during his first presidential term), but I'll try to confine the addenda to displays of ignorance rather than lies.

The Taihang No. 1 Tourist Road in rural China

An aerial view of colorful autumn foliage and the Taihang No. 1 Tourist Road winding through a forest in Jinzhong, Shanxi province, China, on October 19, 2026,  Photo credit: Xue Jun / VCG / Getty

One of the Photos of the Week in The Atlantic.

A drive through rural China

This is truly a "longwatch" (one and a half hours), so I just browsed it.  I continue to be impressed by the investment China is making in its infrastructure. 

"It is a transportation corridor created to promote rural economic development... This section of the route officially opened in the second half of 2024. The most famous section of the route is the “72 Curves of Tongqiangou Valley ”, the highway looks like a giant dragon circling between the lofty mountains. Road started to turn in bends and switchbacks, the altitude climbs rapidly, and the rolling hills in the distance will continue to unfold in front of your eyes.

Related: Driving in Shangri-La (another hour-long video)

"Stairway to Heaven" - Heart at the Kennedy Center (2012)

Just realized that I've never previously blogged this absolutely classic performance.  As one commenter said "Imagine playing Led Zeppelin FOR Led Zeppelin, and getting a standing ovation from Led Zeppelin."

BTW, this is what the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts was created for.  And this is an example of why the fullscreen icon exists on videos.  Also sound up to eleven...

Related:  There was a seven-minute extended tribute to Led Zeppelin that preceded the finale embedded at the top.

Addendum:  Most listeners don't know (or don't care about) the lyrics, but I'll leave them as a reminder that one phrase is "And as we wind on down the road" -  NOT "And there's a wino on the road."