Issue Three

When Elephants Weep

When Elephants Weep by Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson and Susan McCarthy is a book about the emotional lives of animals. It discusses the idea that animals do have feelings and emotions. It has stories of Koko the singing gorilla, Alex the parrot that talks and an elephant that was seen weeping. The authors conclude that just because animals can’t speak it doesn’t mean they can’t feel.

As I read the book I wondered–what would the animals think if they studied us and we couldn’t speak to them? How would we humans like it if just because we couldn’t command the spoken language it was assumed that we couldn’t feel?

After reading this book, I was able to come up with a rebuttal to the person who claims we are superior to animals by saying, “we humans are superior because an animal can’t build a building.” Now I can say with confidence, “neither can you so does that mean you should be experimented upon?” And if they come back and say, “but my species can,” I will say, “you are correct but can a human sniff out a felon on the run after he’s been gone for two hours? Can you fly? Swim under water for any length of time? Can you crush a tree with one foot? Can you even carry a tree by yourself? Can you survive alone?”

We are not superior beings and the book makes a good point to showing how there is no such thing as a superior species–there are only differences. Each species has strengths and weaknesses.

The book cited many stories about mothers who pine for their lost young or risk their own life to save another, fathers who protect their families, and friends who try to help each other. Sound human? It does but this book was about animals. It gave stories of fear of death, outraged behavior, abuse to one another, love and hate. Sound human? It does but this book was about animals.

If they can display the same behaviors as humans from rape to courtship to tears, why do we as a species on this planet insist they can’t feel or have emotions? The authors say that if we admit it, it would mean we might have to consider them, which in turn would make us treat them better.

Real Pumpkin Pie

My Dad said he likes all the pies that begin with the letter P. Peach, pecan, peanut butter and pumpkin. When I presented him with my homemade version of pumpkin pie he said, “Did I really say that I liked all the P pies?”

The thing about homemade pumpkin is that many people don’t like the texture. If you don’t have a food processor it can come out well…lumpy. Just like the pilgrims ate it. I’m sure they didn’t have food processors at Plymouth Rock and with that spirit in mind, I hand mash, hand drain and hand mash again. Sometimes I stuff it all in a blender but it still comes out like the pilgrims version: lumpy. And my Dad said it’s now the letter C pies that he likes.

PUMPKIN PIE FROM SCRATCH

Clean the inside of the pumpkin. Take out all of the seeds and strings. Peel the skin like a potato. I cut it first in small pieces and peel. It is wrist weary but think of the pilgrims. A more modern way is to cut the pumpkin in half and bake it to soften the meat.

If you’ve peeled it, put all of the meat into a pot that has about 1-2 inches of water at the bottom. Cover it and boil until the meat is soft-about 25 minutes.

Drain. Mash. Drain again. To dry it thoroughly place it in the oven for about one half hour. Or, drain, mash and drain again.

FOR EACH 1 3/4 cup of pumpkin:
3/4 cup of Brown sugar
3/4 tsp. Salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. Ginger
1/2 tsp. Nutmeg
2 eggs
1 cup evaporated milk
1/2 cup water

Combine first five ingredients. Set aside. In another bowl, beat eggs, stir in milk and water. Add rest of ingredients. Place in pie shell. Bake at 450 for the first 15 minutes then reduce heat to 350 for 45 minutes. Until knife comes up clean.

TIPS:

Place foil around the crust to prevent burning.
A small pie pumpkin yields about 2 pies.
You can use bigger pumpkins (not carved!) but they have more water in their meat than in the pie pumpkins.
Warn your dessert guests that the texture and color is different than the canned version.

Happy Holidays

SIGHTINGS on the WEB

Shortly after the tragedy of September 11th, not many of us were in the mood to laugh. Comedians were walking on eggshells; Jay Leno reverted to his mocking Clinton jokes and Letterman was somber. About two weeks later as we were wearing down from the initial shock the humor started coming through, like warm air slowly seeping into the room through an open screen, we were gently prodded, encouraged to laugh–a little something we sorely needed to do.

America’s finest news source–theonion.com, came through with some hilarious headlines that reflected how most of us felt. One of the articles was an interview with God and the headlines were, God Angrily Denies Ordering Anyone to Kill. The reporter wrote, “Sources close to God say…”and “God does admit some confusion in Leviticus…”

The headlines: Hijackers Surprised to Find Themselves in Hell seemed to hit the nail on the head and sources used for the article were described as ‘those close to hell.’ How many times had we heard throughout the ordeal, ‘do the terrorists really think there will be virgins waiting for them in heaven?’ And finally, the headlines President Urges Restraint to Nations Ballad Singers, said it all. In that article, the President urged Bette and Neil and Whitney to please not start singing ballads. Remember Bette Midler singing the song, From a Distance that eventually became the anthem for Desert Storm? We don’t want that to happen again do we? All we need now and forever is Ray Charles singing God Bless America. If that doesn’t bring a tear to your eye-then nothing Bette belts out will.

And we usually don’t give individual businesses a plug but because this is such a happy site and useful as well, check out happy.com. There you will find Happy’s drugstore-what pleasant people to receive beauty tips from as well as getting your prescriptions fill. And besides, anybody bright enough to grab the word happy and own it for his or her domain is all right in our book. Especially in times like these.

God bless, be strong and see you in cyber-space.