Sassistas! Our dish on the social soup.

Bye-Bye, Butterstick

This Thursday, after four years, six months and four weeks as the National Zoo's reigning prince of bears, Tai Shan, Washington's beloved giant panda will leave the place of his birth and head to China to enter a breeding program, according to a prior agreement with that country.

Frances Nguyen, founder of the local Tai Shan fan club said, in the Washington Post, "There has been a lot of emotion.  It's like sending your own child to college."  On the one hand, she said, devotees want him to grow and have offspring of his own. "Nobody wants to see him here by himself, and pacing." At the same time, she added, "a lot of us never thought he would leave."

Tai Shan's leaving will be particularly difficult for his principal keeper, Nicole Meese. According to the Washington Post:

She was present the morning he was born, held him a few weeks later, trained him, played with him, fed him and cleaned up after him.  She has watched him grow from a tiny, nearly hairless newborn into the lanky, precocious bear to whom she now must say goodbye.

She's been present for all four birthdays, for his first time outdoors -- "really neat to watch," she said -- and for his first time eating bamboo.

He knows her voice,she said, and her face, and responds to the hand signals she devised to help school him. She talks to him, calls him "cutie," and he bleats in reply.  Every day he makes me smile," she said.

Meese will accompany Tai Shan on his long flight to China, and it will be First Class all the way.  He will fly in a huge new airplane with his own logo on the side, only eight people on board, including his doctor, a member of the opposite sex right beside him and more than 50 pounds of his favorite food available "on demand" during the 14.5-hour flight.

The Sassistas! think Tai Shan and his beloved keeper ought to fly with our sentiments and thank you's.  Please share them today.  Fly high, Butterstick!

 

Brain Exercises

Many of us mark a new year with resolutions: eating and drinking less, saving money, reading all the books we own . . . and for most of us -- exercising more.

A fascinating article in yesterday's New York Times revealed that in addition to exercising our bodies, we also ought to exercise our brains.  In her article, "How to Train the Aging Brain," author Barbara Strauch offers compelling evidence that one way to keep a middle-aged mind sharp is by shaking up what you already know.  Here are some of Strauch's key points:

• Brains in middle age (the 40s to late 60s) get more easily distracted.
• Contrary to popular thought, brains continue to develop through and beyond middle age.
• "What is stuffed into your head may not have vanished but has simply been squirreled away in the folds of your neurons."
• The brain in middle age, gets better at recognizing the central idea, the big picture.  "If kept in good shape, the brain can continue to build pathways that help its owner recognize patterns and, as a consequence, see significance and even solutions much faster than a young person can."

But how does one keep brain connections in good condition and grow more of them? The answer will surprise you:  "Educators say that, for adults, one way to nudge neurons in the right direction is to challenge the very assumptions they have worked hard to accumulate while young."  The point is not to learn new facts, but to challenge your perceptions of the old ones; to challenge how you view the world. For example, "get out of the comfort zone to push and nourish your brain.  Do anything from learning a foreign language to taking a different route to work."  Adults learn best with a "disorienting dilemma" or something that "helps you critically reflect on the assumptions you've acquired."

What disorienting dilemma do you need to embrace to exercise your brain?  For example, Flannista may have to read some William F. Buckley or more of Winston Churchill.  Richard Dawkins could really push her out of her comfort zone.  Or perhaps Flann ought to look up beet casserole recipes.

What do you need to do to challenge your perceptions of the world?

Here Comes the Sun

Ever wonder what the Sassistas! do when they decide to play hooky?

This past Columbus Day morning, Matissta called Flannista and shared that the last thing she wanted to do was go to work.  Flann told Matiss that she sounded like she wasn't feeling very well and weren't you running a temperature just last night and also wasn't your tongue a pukey shade of green?  Matiss called in sick, and in an hour we were on the subway to where we normally head when we play hooky -- the National Mall.  Today we share PART ONE of what we learned while playing hooky.

As soon as we emerged from the Smithsonian subway stop, the Sassistas! were greeted by the sign you see above:  the entrance to the 2009 Solar Decathlon sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy.  Started in 2002, the competition challenges 20 college teams from around the world to design, build, and operate the most attractive and efficient solar-powered house.

What are the rules of the competition? The houses must be able to provide enough energy to power proper lighting, run appliances and even to charge the Gemcar, an electric car made by Global Electric Motorcars. To generate the power, the teams are allowed to use photovoltaic systems (PVs), solar thermal systems, and solar hot water systems (whatever these are). They can also use their own initiatives as long as the energy source comes from the sun. Because the energy available through the PVs is limited, teams have to install energy efficient appliances and create an efficient lighting design. The houses also need proper insulation in order to maintain a stable temperature and reduce the need for heating and cooling.

Whoa!  Bet these houses look like crap, thought the Sassistas! after reading these rules.  Of course we were wrong.  The houses were creative inside and out, like the solar house from Rice University (left). Click here for a gallery featuring more photos from the competition. 

We'll let you know the winning team when it is announced tomorrow morning. If that wasn't enough of a reason to return to Sassistas! tomorrow, we also plan to post PART TWO of what we learned playing hooky on Columbus Day.

Until then, we're wondering: would you live in a small solar house?  What do you do when you play hooky? Will you come back and visit the Sassistas! tomorrow?

Rats!

"Stress is an ignorant state.  It believes that everything is an emergency."
  -- from Wild Mind by Natalie Goldberg

STRESS.  We all experience it.  What can we do about it?

The Sassistas! first began to draft this post more than a month ago, after reading a fascinating New York Times article entitled, "Brain Is a Co-Conspirator in a Vicious Stress Loop."  Seems that laboratory stress tests on rats proved that "the sensation of being highly stressed can rewire the brain in ways that promote its sinister persistence."  According to a neurobiologist quoted in the article, the test results provide "a great model for understanding why we end up in a rut, and then dig ourselves deeper and deeper into that rut."  In other words, stress is a vicious cycle.

Like we said, we were going to post about when this article first came out on August 18, then Flannista got the news that she needed an MRI to rule out a brain tumor.  She became too stressed to complete the post, so she decided to delay publishing the post until today.

Today is the day of Flann's annual gynecology and mammography appointments followed by a semi-annual dental check-up (to see if her overnight mouth guard that prevents teeth grinding due to stress is working). Three important appointments.  Three understandable reasons she is stressed at the time of this writing, though it often takes much less than this.  Sometimes it takes only a strange smell.  Rats in the attic?  Stove on fire?  Carbon dioxide?  CANCER???!!!

In Flann's defense, there is much scientific proof that menopause in general increases stress for women.  In her book, The Wisdom of Menopause Christiane Northrup suggests that the avoidance mechanisms women used in the past as a defense against unpleasant memories and emotions no longer work during menopause: 

. . . when the hormonal shift of focus and accompanying changes in brain activity conspire to call buried traumas and unresolved issues into the light . . . . The midlife investigation and release of the painful patterns from the past is necessary if you are to truly heal.

Yes, midlife investigation is necessary, and yes, it causes stress.  Seldom, however, is it an emergency. 

What causes stress in your life?  How do you cope with it?  Let us know.

One last thing, we're curious if any of those laboratory rats were in the throes of menopause at the time of testing.  Talk about a vicious cycle!

Bird Brain

Don't read ANY further until you watch the above video.

While driving home from work Tuesday evening, Matissta heard an NPR story called Birds on Wires (click on the story title to listen) that nearly made her stop the car.  She wanted to stop not only as a way to pay homage to a fascinating story, but also because she felt the need to pause and look.  To look and see what music, what poetry was right beyond her car windshield.

What does this bird song inspire in you?  Look out a window . . . think like a bird.  What do you hear?  What do you see? What do you feel?

Cosmic Beauty

Hubbie, Hubbie, Hubbie!

Thanks to upgrades and repairs made last May, the Hubble telescope last week revealed stunning new images of the universe.  Apparently, the refurbished 19-year-old telescope is more powerful than it's ever been.  

Click here to see these breathtaking images and more details about what they reveal. What words and or phrases come to you?   Write a haiku!  As you can see, the images have left the Sassistas! a bit sassless.

Lost Souls

Pictured above is the hidden warren of sheds and makeshift tents in the backyard of Phillip and Nancy Garrido, who 18 years ago, abducted Jaycee Lee Dugard.  By now all of us know most of the sickening details:

• Jaycee was kept in almost complete isolation in these sheds and tents, one entirely soundproofed and locked.
• She was living under another name, "Allissa".
• She had two daughters, 11 and 15, allegedly the result of rapes by Phillip Garrido, the registered sex offender now charged with kidnapping and holding her.
• A parole officer visited the home several times and never noticed that a woman and two children were being held captive in the backyard.

Why didn't Jaycee ever try to escape?  Jerseysista forwarded a couple of articles that provide some clues. Benedict Carey writes in "For Longtime Captives, a Complex Road Home":

 . . . perpetrators work hard to win the trust of their victims.  "It's a common element," Dr. Wolfe [professor of psychology and psychiatry at the University of Toronto] said. "The child is frightened, and the perpetrator works to gain or regain the child's confidence, to come across as a really good person: 'I'm not going to hurt you, everything's going to be O.K.' and so on.

"So the child never knows when to fight or run," he continued.  "Do I wait and it'll get worse?  Or do I believe him and I won't be hurt?"

Humans are wired to form social bonds, and such scraps of kindness can deepen even a relationship built on manipulation and abuse.

In "Bonding with a Captor: Why Jaycee Dugard Didn't Flee," Clara Moskowitz links Jaycee to Stockholm syndrome, where a kidnap victim develops sympathy toward her or his kidnapper:

Many people like to think they would be more objective in such a situation, and would have tried harder than Dugard to escape, but those kind of accusations are part of a persistent problem of blaming the victim, said New York trauma psychologist and author Elizabeth Carll. In truth, Stockholm syndrome appears to be relatively common among the few cases of long-term kidnapping that have been publicized.

"Whenever an abuser shows acts of kindness toward you, it shows you some hope that you will survive," Carll told LiveScience. "That combined with the terror of what could happen sets the stage for wanting to please the abductor, and eventually feeling positive toward the abuser as a way of coping."

Although most of us have never experienced the persistent horror that Jaycee experienced, we all tend to orient our thinking to what makes sense.  For example, you may not like your new cell phone, but you paid big bucks for it, therefore you adapt your thinking and convince yourself it's great.  Or, you're stuck in a dead-end relationship, but you don't want to be alone.  You alter your thinking to become less conflicted. To cope.  "At least I won't be alone when I grow old," you tell yourself.

What ways have you lost your objectivity to the point of losing, for a time, even your soul?

Sparks of Love

Remember why you needed mason jars in the summer when you were a kid? 

That's right -- for catching fireflies.  Summer is the season for fireflies and this summer, the Sassistas! have seen more than usual.  There's a reason for that.  According to an article in the Washington Post, scientists believe a wet spring has made a lightning-bug-friendly region even more so."  The article also explains how chemical reactions "produce a glowstick light" from the abdomens of fireflies.  What's more, it reveals what those abdomens are really saying.

Seems like it's sex talk.

Firefly flashes are part of a complex system of insect seduction -- male fireflies in the air use distinctive patterns of flashing and flying to signal to females of their species on the ground.  Females then respond with a flash, after a set interval that signals they are of the same species.  Apparently, 2,000 species exist worldwide, so one would want to be sure.  Click here for a graphic on the flash patterns of North American fireflies.

Communicating about love, as we all know, isn't always easy.  In fact, it can kill ya.  According to the Post article, "the come-hither responses are a deadly ruse, from a larger species that has cracked its prey's code.  When the male flies down to investigate, this femme fatale firefly will eat it, extracting chemicals it needs to ward off the things that might eat it."

But just when we think this sad and dangerous love story is over, we learn this: "Fireflies spend years as larvae underground and then emerge to fly only for a week or two.  Their only mission is to reproduce before they die, and more than half of males will fail."

Someone hand the Sassistas! some tissues, please.  While we dab at our eyes, why don't you share your memories of fireflies.  Why do they so fascinate us?

Float for Me

The Sassistas!^TM would like to acknowledge and thank Jerseysista who dished today's sass.

Isn’t it remarkable how self-recrimination, or the lack of it, can make such a difference in our ability to cope and succeed in life? Think of Disney’s Dumbo buying into the recrimination of his peers who saw his ears as freakish. And think again of his soaring accomplishments once he discarded those views and perceived himself as capriciously capable.

What if, rather than having huge ears, Dumbo was subject to hearing voices?  Would he have had any hope of freeing himself from the recriminations that convinced him that he was crazy? What magic feather could he have grasped that would have allowed him to accept the voices and even use them to his advantage?

Years ago, a friend of mine -- a highly intelligent vice president in a global corporation -- confessed to me that she was under constant pressure to ignore the never-ending chatter in her head making it hard for her to hear the voices of flesh-and-blood people around her. I came upon her once in a walkway between the train station and the office. She was facing a window, going through her brief case. I said "hi" and got a very vague response that left me thinking as I walked away that she really hadn’t recognized me.

I was convinced that she was so distracted as to not be able to switch from her voices to our present situation.  I believe she was able to succeed in life because she came to accept the voices as something that “were there” and she moved on. Had she had less strength of character, I am sure she would have dissolved in helplessness, convinced that she was crazy. I am sure, too, that had she sought professional help she would have been diagnosed as schizophrenic and herculean attempts would have been made to rid her of her voices, driving her even further into helplessness.

Recent studies have begun to show that a significant number of persons hear voices who are not “crazy.” Further, that a significant number of schizophrenics could benefit by being taught to live with their voices while treating more debilitating symptoms. Perhaps if we gave such feathers to these voice-hearers we would find that they are muses and poets and oracles with a place in our society.

In her book Visits from the Seventh, the poet Sarah Arvio, in a dialogue with her voices, writes:

’We’ve got you to stand for us.’ And I have you, I said, to float for me.

Car Sass

We all know that the American automobile industry is in trouble. Deep trouble. With a capital "T". 

Here's another way of looking at it: the title of this post, "Car Sass" kind of sounds like "carcass," no?

To make matters worse -- or better -- today President Obama, seeking to end a stand-off between states and the auto industry, plans to issue new national emission limits and mileage requirements for cars and trucks.  That's right, he plans to announce that he will couple pollution reduction with vehicle efficiency on the road.  This is the first time that limits on greenhouse gases will be linked with federal standards for passenger cars and light trucks.

Hearing this news, the Sassistas!^TM conducted some research on what cars in the future might look like.  Pictured here are cars of the future we found (painstakingly laid out by Matissta).  We don't see many tail pipes here . . . they kinda look like they would reduce pollution, etc.  However, as you know, in America, marketing is EVERYTHING!  Yesterday, Jerseysista pointed out how the auto industry likes to remind us of "horse power."  That's why it has named cars, Mustangs, Colts, Pintos, Pacers and Chargers, etc.  So pick a car featured here:  come up with a name AND a slogan for it!  We'll send it to Detroit and we will SAVE THE AMERICAN AUTO INDUSTRY!

To sasspire you, the Sassistas!^TM have developed their own CAR OF THE FUTURE!!!  Its name is, "The Tortoise" and its slogan is: Slowly, but Surely (and don't call me Shirley). 

Click here for its world premiere!  About the future of the car industry, the Sassistas!^TM have just one word:  Plastics!