Ozark Oddments: Gotta Watch Out for Those Mammies

Saturday, May 13, 2023

Gotta Watch Out for Those Mammies

Richard rolls into the kitchen wearing his serious face and says:

“It bothers me that they are thawing out these mammy wooliths that have been frozen for thousands of years…”

I try very hard to keep a straight face so that he can finish his thought without being distracted by my laughing at him.

“What if in the process they also thaw out some bacteria or virus that has also been frozen inside the mammoth and it gets loose….”

And then he stops.

“I said that wrong, didn’t I?”

And then we both laugh.

There are conflicting opinions about whether ancient bacteria and viruses brought back to life from a frozen mammoth could actually be a problem for us, after all, mammoths and humans were alive at the same time, but I hope we never find out.

2 comments:

Henny Penny said...: That is so funny, I am terrible about saying words backwards and remember mama and daddy laughing at things I said wrong. Took me a minute to figure out wooly mammoths. Are they actually thawing them out??; 8:13 PM
Leilani Schuck Weatherington said...: I know scientists are thinking about using DNA from mammoths to try and resurrect the animal or create a mammoth/elephant hybrid, but I am not sure they are actually thawing them out. The permafrost in some areas is thawing, which could release bacteria and viruses, and animals frozen in it could thaw.; 7:49 AM

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Thoughts to ponder

Most of us go through life so absorbed in the cocoon of ourselves that we rarely stop to consider the other. Of course, we think that we do; indeed, we may pride ourselves on our capacity for empathy; we may be considerate and thoughtful in our dealings with others, but how often do we stand before them. so to speak, and experience what it is to be them?--Domenica Macdonald

The Unbearable Lightness of Scones, by Alexander McCall
Smith

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Living is like tearing through a museum. Not until later do you really start absorbing what you saw, thinking about it, looking it up in a book, and remembering -- because you can't take it in all at once. --Audrey Hepburn

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I like living. I have sometimes been wildly, despairingly, acutely miserable, racked with sorrow, but through it all, I still know quite certainly that just to be alive is a grand thing.--Agatha Christie

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Life can be wildly tragic at times, and I've had my share. But whatever happens to you, you have to keep a slightly comic attitude. In the final analysis, you have got not to forget to laugh.--Katharine Hepburn

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One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and, if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship

"Two people... told me that the word "Christian" would turn people off. I wouldn't mind if to be a Christian were accepted as being the dangerous thing which it is. I wouldn't mind if, when a group of Christians meet for bread and wine, we might well be interrupted and jailed for subversive activities. I wouldn't mind if, once again, we were being thrown to the lions. I do mind, desperately, that the word "Christian" means for so many people smugness, and piosity, and holier-than-thoughness. Who, today, can recognize a Christian because of "how those Christians love one another"?--Madeline L'Engle, "A Circle of Quiet"