ON THE DISABLED LIST . . .

Me.

Strained adductor magnus muscle in left leg. OK, bluntly, one of the groin muscles.

Anyway, I can't play softball well enough to make a difference on the Knights team, because I simply can't sprint down the line or to the ball, and (surprisingly) this groin strain affects my throwing and my ability to bend over as well. My previous injuries in this area didn't, likely because they were different adductor muscles.

So, no running and no playing softball for two weeks, or until the season is almost over. I'll give it a go again on Tuesday, August 5th, which is just three days before my 46th birthday (gulp). If I can't at least play a little bit better, I may have to reevaluate whether or not I can continue to play at all. I'm still overweight, so I need some exercise, but I'm going to have to see what I can do. At least (with a little coaching) I was able to drive the ball a little today in BP, but I was absolutely drained afterwards, probably because my back leg was having to do all the work supporting me if I took a healthy cut at the ball. It's....discouraging.

IS THE WHOLE WORLD CRACKERS?

The world has truly gone mad when people will threaten somebody over a symbol.
For you Catholics out there, let me point out that if someone doesn't literally believe that the Host becomes the Body of Christ, then they can't really be guilty of a mortal sin, right? It becomes mortal only to those who are invested in the whole bit.

A GRAND TRADITION?

Evolutionary psychology (or, as it used to be called, human sociobiology) is one of those fields within biology that approaches the fantastic. While you always have to be on guard against untested (or even untestable) speculation, it is an endless source of fascination.

On this July 4th, therefore, I submit the following for your consideration as I get ready to burn various kinds of sausages. Meredith Small (a Cornell anthropologist featured in PBS's 'Evolution' series) has a timely piece here on the possible antiquity of barbecue as a human social activity. Drawing upon the work of anthropologists Katharine Milton (UC Berkeley) and Richard Wrangham, (Harvard), she argues that the move to cooked meat may have facilitated the growth of the brain in ancestral human populations.

Well, I don't know about that. There are lots of reasons why cultures have come to prefer cooked meat over steak tartare, not the least of which is that it prevents disease. I kind of doubt that what I do today is going to promote any personal brain growth. * The best I can hope it doesn't grow the rest of me, either. But, ya know, it is a holiday and it's kind of charming to think that our rituals might go back farther than we think....

* Remember: Individuals don't evolve, populations do!