The Fixx was an English rock band whose l982 hit song, “One Thing leads to Another” is easily forgotten. It had a catchy beat and the message was clear, “do what they say, say what you mean” in describing a personal relationship. The notion of following the string of connected dots from a bobcat, to a kindle, to crepuscular creatures and walking patterns does prove that one thing does lead to another.
The picture is the neighborhood bobcat in the tree outside my daughter’s home. We see the cat periodically as well as her kitten. The animals, also known as the red lynx, have black bars on the forelegs and a black tipped stubby “bobbed tail.” In doing some research the bobcat is crepuscular – they are active only at dawn and dusk. The animals, like most felines are solitary. The bobcat may reach 50 pounds and stretch up to four feet in length. A group of bobcats is called a clowder, clutter or pounce. Young bobcats in their family group are a kindle or an embarrassment. The female is called a queen and the adult males are toms. You can tell their tracks as they are considered a perfect walker, zig zag tracks are created by a gait that conserves energy as the rear paw will land in the spot where the front paw previously fell. The claws are retractable so no nail marks. Don’t be mistaken, a fox and coyote can produce a similar track. The bobcat is an efficient hunter and our dog seems to know it best to pursue them only for a few jumping steps.
It was not a surprise that an elephant is a crepuscular animal. Owls are nocturnal, humans are generally diurnal, and there are animals with no real pattern of waking and sleeping, they are cathemeral. Besides the perfect walkers, the other three distinct patterns or tracks include waddles, blunders and hoppers. I will leave that list for the trivia game with the grandchildren.
Where to go from here on the trail of one thing… I learned that after his clay pipe was destroyed in the battle of Sevastopol, Zouave rolled his tobacco up with a piece of paper torn from a bag of gunpowder. The papers were dispensed in a Z shape – Maurice and Jacques Braunstein from Paris patented the name Zig Zag in l855 and it carries on to this day.
Back to Fiona, the original internal name for the now ubiquitous e-reader created by Amazon and first launched in November 2007. Kindle means to set alight or start to burn, to make or become bright. The word’s roots are in Old Norse, kyndill, meaning candle. Voltair said it well, “the instruction we find in books is like fire.”
There is an amazing and ever changing world to understand, limiting educators ability to teach critical thinking to our future generations is very misguided. Please join me in support for early learning in Idaho and educational equity and excellence.
Wonder when it will dawn on everyone that the climate is changing? Stay cool. Mike