Crazy Eight

Random things I learned while living my life. Because Vocal created this really cool contest and I can't resist...

I’ve chosen to describe eight random things because eight (Ba in Chinese) has the similar pronunciation with 发 (Fa, meaning wealth or fortune). And I am told that this number is very welcome among Chinese people.

As evidence thereof, I point to its popularity fully on display during the Beijing Olympic Games which commenced at exactly eight o’clock eight minutes on the eighth day of the eighth month in 2008.

So, for those among us who are all about those crazy eights...

One

The rectal temperature of a hummingbird is 105°F (40.5°C).

You’re welcome.

In 1986, I stumbled across several Tom Robbins’ novels. I adored some, puzzled over others. But each gave me something everlasting. His work, Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, found me and imparted such random knowledge I have to share. First bit of wisdom: Skip the movie... IMHO.

In the novel, Robbins shares, among other random tidbits, the rectal temp of a hummingbird. And it stuck. I had never expected to know let alone remember for the rest of my life the exact rectal temperature of any living being, and now here I am unable to forget. Thus, I happily share the knowledge bomb with you.

Seems that the fanciful, eye-catching fluttering and fluffing of the tiny hummingbird’s wings allows him or her to trap warm air around his or her body, which serves to protect the little guy from the cold, cruel air. That’s crucial because these animals are among the smallest of all warm-blooded animals on earth.

Their gorgeous bodies lack the insulating downy feathers typical of most other bird species. As a consequence, hummingbirds rapidly lose body heat to their surroundings, so that ability to warm themselves turns out to save their lives during sudden cold spells.

Even Cowgirls Get the Blues was first published by Houghton Mifflin, and later was released as a mass-market paperback by Bantam Books. First hardcover edition: ISBN 0-395-24305-X, Houghton Mifflin, 1976.

Two

Rats regulate their body temperature with their tails.

Yep. It’s true.

Rats either dilate or constrict blood vessels in their tails to regulate their body temps. Warm blood loses heat through the surface of the tail and returns to the body at a lower temperature, thus cooling the rat.

How cool is that? As cool as you like it, if you’re a rat.

Three

The medical community cannot decide which human body parts heals fastest, but there are two contenders: the corneal or the tongue. Both are miraculous healers. The cornea can repair itself in hours, as can the tongue.

There are a host of theories as to why each is better suited to the task. One prevailing notion pertains to how close each body part is to the heart, and thus, to the rejuvenating powers of blood.

Think of burns to your tongue. Ouch. Hard to heal, right? Fortunately, the tongue repairs itself. You need not take any action, although you probably will find you can't help trying.

Sure comes in handy after you sip a scalding cup of coffee and get that agonizing burn.

We're also sometimes cut our tongues when we eat, and then there's the routine sloughing off taste buds to consider. You might be team tongue, but I'm squarely team cornea.

The cornea rapidly heals itself, too. For me that fact is life-altering. I have severe dry eyes and astigmatisms (my eyes are shaped like little footballs readied to be kicked toward the end goal). I also have issues with my oil glands in my upper lids. I'll bottom line it: That’s a recipe for pain. Excruciating pain.

Fortunately, my corneas --like all human corneas-- get right to work repairing all those “superficial cuts” (m eye doctor's term) that feel like paper cuts scrapping and gouging into my eyes. That’s fun.

Here’s a 'freebie' random fact in celebration of both fast healing body parts (that I know I can't appreciate enough!)... The boneless parts of the human body include the tongue, the outermost ear (ear pinna), and the tip of the nose.

Four

Arrector pili have a job to do: help your all those seemingly useless hairs on your arms to lift up and thus cause friction, which helps to regulate your body temp, when you’re hot or cold. That small action helps to generate heat or allows sweat to rise to the surface of your skin to help cool you. That’s the job.

The arrector pili are muscles (also known as hair erector muscles). These small muscles attach to hair follicles in mammals. Contraction of these muscles causes hairs to stand on end, which is known colloquially as goosebumps (piloerection). So they're also responsible for that weird look your skin takes when you've read something thrilling or you hear a noise that startles or you feel that creepy sensation that someone's watching you.

Seems to me a crafty human could make a fortune off of goosebumps...

The Goosebumps book series, written by R. L. Stine and published by Scholastic, springs to mind. Did you know that more than 400 million Goosebumps books have been sold, making it for several years the best-selling series of all time? At one point, Goosebumps sold four million books *per month*. A movie based on the books came out on October 16, 2015.

The first book, Welcome to Dead House, was published in July 1992 and then Stine wrote numerous spin-off series, including Goosebumps Series 2000 (published from 1998 to 2000), Goosebumps Gold (which was never released), Give Yourself Goosebumps (1995 to 2000), Goosebumps HorrorLand (2008 to 2012), and Goosebumps Most Wanted (2012 to 2016).

Five

In most mammals, the philtrum is a tiny slit near the nose which allows odor molecules collected on the nose to filter either into the mouth or into the vomeronasal organ. Prime example of mammals that might immediately come to mind: dogs and pigs, both known for their tremendous sense of smell.

In humans, however, the philtrum has ceased to play such a role, and now simply remains as the cute indented groove between your nose and mouth.

An abnormal philtrum can signal the presence of autism or fetal alcohol syndrome, but otherwise it serves no use in humans.

Six

You might have heard of “basket cases” but have you heard of “basket cells”? Basket cells are structures that surround the base of hair follicles and serve as pressure sensors.

They are a source of valuable information when assessing overall nerve health and condition.

According to neuroscience sources, basket cells can be found throughout the brain: the cortex, hippocampus, amygdala, basal ganglia, and the cerebellum.

The evidence is thin, but some argue that the source of the phrase “basket case,” a phrase most often used derogatorily to mean a person who has a hard time coping, might have resulted from a conflation of the terms basket “cells” and basket “case”. Inquiring minds... want more proof.

But it's something interesting to ponder (and of course, to do that thinking, you'll be using your brain's basket cells... and thus the world goes round and round).

Seven

"Rule of thumb." Not my favorite phrase. In fact, it gets under my skin, so to speak.

The phrase, in English, refers to this principle: When something is not intended to be strictly accurate or reliable for every situation, one might apply a “rule of thumb.”

The idea refers to an easily learned and easily applied procedure or standard, based on practical experience rather than theory. This usage can be traced back to the seventeenth century and has been associated with various trades where quantities were measured by comparison to the width or length of a thumb.

A modern folk etymology holds that the phrase is derived from the maximum width of a stick allowed for wife-beating under English law, but no such law ever existed.

An alleged statement by eighteenth-century judge Sir Francis Buller portends that “a man may beat his wife with a stick no wider than his thumb.” That rumor produced numerous jokes and satirical cartoons at Buller’s expense, but there is no written record of Buller ever making the statement.

And yet...

An 1824 U.S. court ruling (Mississippi, no case name to cite, unfortunately) stated that a man was entitled to enforce “domestic discipline” by striking his wife “with a whip or stick no wider than the judge’s thumb.”

An 1868 U.S. court ruling (North Carolina, State v. Rhodes), the defendant was found to have struck his wife “with a switch about the size of this fingers.” The judge found the man not guilty due to the switch being smaller than a thumb. That judgement was upheld by the state supreme court, although the later judge stated:

“Nor is it true that a husband has a right to whip his wife. And if he had, it is not easily seen how the thumb is the standard of size for the instrument which he may use, as some of the old authorities have said [...] The standard is the effect produced, and not the manner of producing it, or the instrument used.”

Eight

The great eight. Not to be confused with Alex Ovechkin, captain of my beloved Washington Capitals (hockey team).

This one’s for my Scottish friends.

You probably recognize the traditional hauntingly bittersweet song, “Loch Lomond,” but do you know its history? This heart wrenching song is played at so many Scottish weddings that I had to investigate.

The song’s lyrics are said to tell the story of an imprisoned Scottish soldier speaking to a loved one. It takes the view point of a soldier who soon will be executed.

When he sings, “ye’ll tak’ the high road and I’ll tak’ the low road,” in effect he is saying that you, my loved one, will return home alive, and I will return home in spirit. In returning in spirit, he “arrives” in his place of birth and death, Scotland, “before ye” -- meaning, he’ll be hanged before his love is able to walk the long “low” road home. In short, he in death will arrive to his Scottish homeland before you arrive home alive where he'll never live again.

The lyrics are darkly sad.

The song is said to be connected with the Jacobite Rebellion in Scotland, and their devout desire to return bonnie Prince Charlie as Scottish king. The last serious battle of the war between Scotland and England was fought on the field of Culloden. It happened in a moor. The landscape proved to be flat, an indefensible area, which made their stand a bad idea.

After the Battle of Culloden, the English rounded up those whom they suspected to be "ringleaders" of the Scottish rebellions. Scots referred to these same men as “the young, brave laddie heroes" who were forcibly taken to London for a series of "show trials." Whether “ringleaders” or “heroes,” these lads had family members who traveled from Scotland to London for the "trials". Most if not all visitors had to come on foot. That's a long distance to walk.

All prisoners were found guilty and, according to eye witness accounts, they were all “executed in the vilest means possible.”

And so when we hear the words, “you’ll take the high road, and I’ll take the low road,” with time and perspective we know that the 'high road' meant the better conditioned road by which the bodies of the dead were transported swiftly by coach, which is to say, via the most important road in the country. Meanwhile, the ordinary (poor and defeated) people of Scotland were left to travel the 'high'road where their loved ones’ bodies were hanged and paraded, or else they had to travel the 'low' roads home again, traveling substantial distances not suitable for coach. Heartbreaking.

Loch Lomond Chorus:

O ye’ll tak’ the high road and I’ll tak’ the low road,

And I’ll be in Scotland afore ye.

But me and my true love will never meet again,

On the bonnie, bonnie banks o’ Loch Lomond.