The Elders are naturally curious people, and constantly engage in their own science fair projects.
UC#3
UC#3 is engaged in his own personal journey: Corn Through Both Time and Space: Tracking the Digestive Journey of Corn in Humans. We eagerly await the publication of his results in the journal Nature.
Corn: Part of this nutritious breakfast
Semi-Sequitur: UC#3 is the WLBOTT Chef Laureate. He has the superpower of being able to add Old Bay to virtually anything in a very tasty manner.
UC#4-SU and Sally T. Intern
UC#4-SU and Sally T. Intern explore the noon temperature of water coming out of the garden house in CenTex. Today’s high projected to be 101°. [ed. note: we’re not using centigrade here, because we’ve been informed that the metric system is a gateway to socialism.]
The steady state temp (reflecting the average temperature of the water between WLBOTT HQ and Lake Ladybird) was 83.7°.
Olympic hopefuls and future Nobel Laureates: UC#4SU and Sally T. Intern:
It is so hot in CenTex that the sweet potatoes need deep watering every single day.
UC#4SU also encountered this critter in the garden.
This critter came into the house in a bouquet of marigolds. These images are from her release into the wilds.
UC#4SU wasn’t aware that the female praying mantis bites the head off the male after mating. Her response: “You go, girl!”
WLBOTT WONDERS: Q: Should UC#4 be concerned? A: Yes. Very concerned.
[1] (footnote carried over from yesterday’s BLOTT)The effects of gamma rays on Man-on-the-Moon Marigolds is actually the name of a fascinating, touching, disturbing play/movie from the early 70’s.
You can watch the movie on YouTube.
The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds is a play written by Paul Zindel, a playwright and science teacher. Zindel received the 1971 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and a New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award for the work.
The play centers around a science project for the fair and the family life of the protagonist. It was performed throughout the 20th century and made into a film.
Plot The play revolves around a dysfunctional family consisting of single mother Beatrice and her two daughters, Ruth and Tillie, who try to cope with their abysmal status in life….
Shy Matilda Hunsdorfer, nicknamed Tillie, prepares an experiment involving marigolds raised from seeds exposed to radioactivity for her science fair. She is, however, constantly thwarted by her mother Beatrice, who is self-centered and abusive, and by her extroverted and unstable sister Ruth, who submits to her mother’s will. Over the course of the play, Beatrice constantly tries to stamp out any opportunities Tillie has of succeeding, due to her own lack of success in life. As the play progresses, the paths of the three characters diverge: Ruth has a nervous collapse while attempting to stand up to Beatrice, who, driven to the verge of insanity by her deep-seated enmity, impulsively kills the girls’ pet rabbit Peter and wallows in her own perceived insignificance. Tillie meanwhile (much like her project’s deformed yet beautiful, hardy marigolds) wins the science fair through sheer perseverance.
Film adaptation Main article: The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds (film) It was adapted for the screen in 1972, directed by Paul Newman and starring his wife Joanne Woodward, daughter Nell Potts, and Roberta Wallach, daughter of Eli Wallach. Woodward won the award for Best Actress at the 1973 Cannes Film Festival.
One review called the movie “The Edge of Hopelessness”. The movie poster had a different, and pretty funny, tag line.
The collection of films that make up Paul Newman’s directorial oeuvre are extraordinary in a way that other films are not. Each one reflects the way in which he saw the world and the people in it: with sensitivity, complexity and genuine human dignity. These are films that remain important today due to their challenging material and the ways in which they are expressed.
