Fish on Friday, but not for me

Date:                                          Friday, November 5th, 2010
Word of the Day:                       saccade(sa\KAYD); the movement of the eye when it makes a sudden change, as in reading

Weight:                                     209 pounds
Goal:                                         lose 100 pounds in one year duration
Pounds to Lose:                        77 pounds
Waist Size:                               45 inches
Rowing Duration:                     86 minutes, five seconds

Well people, we made it to Friday again, congratulate yourselves.  Wasn't yesterday mild?, Judy and I took Winter for an extra long walk, it really was pleasurable.  Whilst on our walk, we came upon another resident of the community that we live in, and she was walking a month old puppy.  I was a little apprehensive when the pup approached Winter because Winter sometimes gets nervous around other dogs and will snap at them, unfortunately, this is much like Winter's parent, me!!  Winter has got a lot better at her behaviour, but all the same, I do get a little nervous, as I previously mentioned.  Fortunately, Winter behaved herself really well and even played with the pup, as much as two dogs can play while on their leads.Image via Wikipedia

Forty-nine (49) days to Christmas, and Santa's elves are very busy making toys, writing out directions, and exercising as they need to be in good shape to make the trip around the world in one night.

Did you know that it is Will Roger's birthday?, or would have been.   Yup, Rogers was an American humourist and actor.  A cowboy in his youth, Rogers traveled the world before returning to the United States to perform in vaudeville and Wild West shows as a rider and trick roper.   The "cowboy philosopher's" homespun wit and salty commentary on current political and social events soon earned him a following through movies, books, radio, abnd a syndicated newspaper column.  A champion of airplane travel, which I am not, Rogers made several long plane trips, but died in a crash with aviator Wiley Post.  "I never met a man that I didn't like"  (I did and have,) became Rogers' signature line, often repeated.  

It may be difficult, with the passage of time, to fully comprehend the extraordinary place Rogers held in the minds and hearts of the American people at the time of his death.  Will Rogers was the nation's most widely read newspaper columnist, in the form of his daily "Will Rogers Says" telegrams and in his weekly column; his Sunday night half-hour radio show was the nation's most-listened-to weekly broadcast; and he had been the nation's #2 movie box office draw in 1933 (behind Marie Dressler) and #1 in 1934, ranking 2nd at the time of his death in 1935 only to Shirley Temple.   Good old Shirley Temple, I must rewatch her movies again.   Cover of Will Rogers

My brother Biff and his family are on their way to St. Augustine Beach this weekend, my brother's beautiful, and talented wife, Louise, suggested that we, Zac and I, buy a house there, but Zac and I feel that that is too far away from the children.

Lily, this morning, I rewatched the movie "Charade" which stars Miss Audrey Hepburn, one of my absolute favourites, and one of your absolute favourites, Mr. Cary Grant, to me he doesn't seem like much, but that's me.

Okay Marta and Mable, here it comes, SEX, but only in brevity as my coffee is getting cold and I can't drink it properly and write at the same time.  Anyway, as always when I broach a subject, (and I shall try not to be rude, but rely on fact instead of cuteness and sarcasm,) it is always best to start at the beginning, and our beginning today is, What is Sex?

In biology, which I always did well in when I was in High School, but as far as sex is concerned, in biology sex is a process of combining and mixing genetic traits, often resulting in the specialization of organisms into a male or female variety (known as a sex).   Did I mention that most people find sex pleasurable, I would rather go to the mall,  and it always messes up your hair, but that's me folks. Anyway, back to the biology of sex.  

Sexual reproduction involves combining specialized cells (gametes) to form offspring that inherit traits from both parents, except me, my mother had beautiful blue eyes, and most of my siblings inherited blue yes, but no, not me, I had to get baby shit green-brown, and I'd really like to know who I inherited those eyes from, don't get me wrong people, I'm still very attractive.   Back to the combination of specialized cells, gametes can be identical in form and function (known as isogametes), but in many cases an asymmetry has evolved such that two sex-specific types of gametes (heterogametes) exist: male gametes are small, motile, and optimized to transport their genetic information over a distance, while female gametes are large, non-motile and contain the nutrients necessary for the early development of the young organism. 

An organism's sex is defined by the gametes it produces: males produce male gametes (spermatozoa, or sperm) while females produce female gametes (ova, or egg cells); individual organisms which produce both male and female gametes are termed hermaphroditic.   (Do any of you feel that you're back in the Health class at your High School, hehe!) Frequently, physical differences are associated with the different sexes of an organism; these sexual dimorphisms can reflect the different reproductive pressures the sexes experience, oh, that explains my eyes, I wish it weren't that simple. 

Sexual reproduction is a process where organisms form offspring that combine genetic traits from both parents.   Chromosomes, which would make a fascinating name for a child if you were a miserable human being, Chromosones are passed on from one parent to another in this process, I hope I'm not insulting any of your intellengcia.   Each cell has half the chromosomes of the mother and half of the father. Genetic traits are contained within the deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) of chromosomes, by combining one of each type of chromosomes from each parent, an organism is formed containing a doubled set of chromosomes. This double-chromosome stage is called "diploid", while the single-chromosome stage is "haploid". Diploid organisms can, in turn, form haploid cells (gametes) that randomly contain one of each of the chromosome pairs, via a process called meiosis. Meiosis also involves a stage of chromosomal crossover, in which regions of DNA are exchanged between matched types of chromosomes, to form a new pair of mixed chromosomes.   Crossing over and fertilization (the recombining of single sets of chromosomes to make a new diploid) result in the new organism containing a different set of genetic traits from either parent.

In many organisms, the haploid stage has been reduced to just gametes specialized to recombine and form a new diploid organism; in others, the gametes are capable of undergoing cell division to produce multicellular haploid organisms. In either case, gametes may be externally similar, particularly in size (isogamy), or may have evolved an asymmetry such that the gametes are different in size and other aspects (anisogamy.) By convention, the larger gamete (called an ovum, or egg cell) is considered female, while the smaller gamete (called a spermatozoon, or sperm cell) is considered male.   An individual that produces exclusively large gametes is female, and one that produces exclusively small gametes is male. An individual that produces both types of gametes is a hermaphrodite; in some cases hermaphrodites are able to self-fertilize and produce offspring on their own, without a second organism. And that folks is the basics, or most of them, for human beings.   Actually, I could lay a lot more fact on you, but I think you would prefer me not to do this.  But one thing that I would like to mention before we leave this subject, and there are so many interesting sub-sets of Sex is Intersex.  When I was in High School, we never discussed this subject, kids today are so more educated, in a way, than we ever were, but we had the Russians to worry about. Where was I? Oh yeah, Intersex.

Sometimes an organism's development is intermediate between male and female, a condition called intersex. Sometimes intersex individuals are called "hermaphrodite"; but, unlike biological hermaphrodites, intersex individuals are unusual cases and are not typically fertile in both male and female aspects. That's all I wanted to say about Intersex, see Mickey, it wasn't that painful.

Well folks, there is alot more that I could write about sex, but it is more important that all of us get on with the business of life,  I know I have to go swimming, I'm up to five lengths, by the way, and you probably have to work, if you don't have to work, you should go Christmas shopping, that is, if you celebrate Christmas.  Let me know if you find any good bargains.

Have a great weekend people and do drop me a line sometime.

Topics coming soon:

Anorexia
Art
Politics