The unknown melon in our garden

我們在附近的一個 green house 買了四棵 cucumbers, 看著他們長大也沒發覺其中一棵的葉子看起來有點不同, 等到有一天結果了, 但是越看越不像 cucumber. 再仔細觀察其葉子, 確是不同。目前真的不知道那是什麼瓜 (photo below)。

不過我們自己知道莱園內除了義大利瓜, 葫蘆瓜, 絲瓜, 南瓜, 西瓜, 冬（東？）瓜 （沒有北瓜）小黃瓜, 苦瓜 外還有兩個儍瓜（fools).  只是希望我們是 Shakespearean plays 𥚃那樣的 fools, 小人物 with wits.  They are usually very lovable characters, loved by the theater goers, especially Queen Elizabeth I.

We got four plants of cucumber in the local green house.  Watching them grew up, we didn’t notice one of them having somewhat different appearance of leaves. One day the supposed ‘cucumber’ came, but the more we looked at it, the less it looked like cucumber.  We now has no idea of what kind of melon it is.

In addition to the 義大利瓜, 葫蘆瓜, 絲瓜, 南瓜, 西瓜, 冬（東？）瓜 （沒有北瓜）小黃瓜, 苦瓜, we also have 兩個儍瓜（fools).  I'm hoping we are the kinds of fools seen in Shakespearean plays, little guys with wits.  They are usually very lovable characters, loved by the theater goers, especially Queen Elizabeth I.

No social distancing for our egg plants

We grew egg plants some years ago, it was not too successful.  We tried again this year and it has been a resounding success.  They were planted in two different areas. 

 

We under estimated its potential growth and size and planted them too close together in one area (photo above).  I used to say “not enough living space”.  To say it in line with more contemporary term: “not keeping social distancing”,  consequence of which is that they produce fewer egg plants than those in the area that social distancing was kept (photos below).

President Trump found a new medical adviser for the White House coronavirus task force, a perfect fit

 Trump would like to say to Dr. Anthony Fauci “you are fired”, but he knows better not to do it because of the potential repercussion and backfire.  He found the alternative by hiring Dr. Scott Atlas as a new medical adviser for the White House coronavirus task force, it is a perfect fit.

If one wonders why such an excellent doctor and scholar in academic medicine would embrace views that align with that of President Trump when it comes to the management of this horrendous pandemic. (Dr. Atlas served as the head of the neuroradiology at Stanford University Medical Center from 1998 to 2012, specializing in MRI, currently a senior fellow in health care policy at Hoover Institution, a conservative think tank at Stanford University.  He is the editor of Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the Brain and Spine, a leading textbook in the field.)

Biased thought it may be, I’ll offer my analysis.  I am hoping you will find it fair, reasonable and credible.

1. Like Trump, he has no empathy (I do not know him enough to say whether he is narcissistic or not.) He said for young people to get Covid-19 is a good thing, if fact, he wants about 60% of people in the community to get infected, thus producing antibody.  He lamented the lockdown prevented natural herd immunity from happening.  Without empathy he cannot feel the pain that how many Americans have to die or suffer.

2. Like trump, he belittles the threat of the pandemic, ridiculing the “hysteria” surrounding the coronavirus, such as parents’ concern and worry for kids going to schools.  In a 4/13/2020 article published in The Hill, he wrote, “with a world-wide sense of relief, progress continues containing the COVID-19 pandemic.”  He also wrote that aside from New York, the vast majorities of American hospitals were not overwhelmed beyond capacity.  The summer surge in the sun belt states proves his prediction was wrong and overly optimism unwarranted.

3. Like Trump, he has no respect of the expertise of others’ fields.  Trump once said he knows more about NATO than Marine Corp General Mattis who once served as the NATO Supreme Allied Commander.  Dr. Atlas is an expert in MRI medicine and health care policy, but he has no experience in dealing with infectious disease, let alone pandemic.  Like Trump, he treated Dr. Fauci as an alarmist.

4. Like Trump, Dr. Atlas advocates "safely" reopening the economy and schools in a hurry and wants the college sports back now.  The University of North Carolina was just forced to cancel in-person classes after at least 130 students tested positive in the first week of the semester.

American media can be biased reporting the radical views of Dr. Atlas.  I came across an article in a German newspaper, Frankfurter Allgemeine (8/17/2020), with a title of “Sie simulieren Wissenschaft” (they feign/fake science), the title picture of the article shows a picture of Dr. Scott Atlas, one can see “corona-pseudoexperten” (corona-pseudo experts). Unfortunately this article is not a free access without subscription, I can only read the first few paragraphs, which are about pseudo experts on climate change. I cannot tell you what they said about Dr. Atlas, but based on the title and the picture of the article, they most likely consider him a pseudo expert as Trump’s adviser.  Even his own university (Stanford U) has backed off plans to offer in-person classes this fall.

While talking about President Trump, German media are no less critical than New York Times, Washington Post, CNN and MSNBC.  This article is just an example.

In my view, a doctor of his repute and caliber, Dr. Atlas’ radical approach in dealing with this pandemic is irresponsible (some said "naive"), or even reckless, and could do damage to the society.

Watermelon poem 西瓜聯

(This post about watermelon is for those who read Chinese, as I dare not to translate the Chinese poem, lest it would lose the beauty of Chinese language. This is 對聯, somewhat similar to the poem, comes in pair with opposing or contrast view/style. The upper one contains words og East, West, South and North, as watermelon is called west melon (西瓜), the lower one contains Up, Down, Right and Left.)

看到我們西瓜園的西瓜出現了，想到那個「西瓜聯」——據說來自蘇東坡，我不相信，我 Google 一下, 看來 “put words into someone’s mouth” 是咱們由來已久的傳統文化之一。

上聯是：「坐南朝北吃西瓜，皮向東甩」；
下聯是：「自上而下讀左傳，書往右翻」。

“很顯然，這是後代好事文人的附會。蘇東坡即蘇軾，是北宋文學家，西瓜是他死了四五十年後，才由洪皓帶回南宋的，而蘇東坡生前的北宋國境內並不見種植西瓜的記錄。即便有西瓜，也是從遼金地區「進口」的，屬名貴稀罕瓜果，並不是蘇東坡之輩能隨便吃到的，更別說經常吃了。實際上，「西瓜聯」並非蘇東坡的傑作，而應該是明代才智過人的大文人解縉所撰。”

Basils look different, but smell all the same

These basils have quite a different appearances, but smell all the same.  When I was working around them, I was always reassured that I am OK.  Coronavirus infection can present with the loss of smell and taste as the only or the first symptom.  I recall the American Academy of Otolaryngology sent out a memo to its members in March or April saying many such patients went to ENT doctor, instead of primary care physician, not realizing they have got the coronavirus infection, so the best policy would be treating every patient walking into the office/clinic as the potential case of coronavirus infection.

我們菜園裡的這些 basils 看起來大不相同, 但聞起來完全一樣。每當在其旁邊工作的時候，一聞其特殊氣味我就覺得幸運沒有被確診。得了新冠感染的人失去嗅覺及味覺有時候是第一甚或惟一的症狀。我記得今年三月或四月美國耳鼻喉科醫師學院發信給其會員説很多這樣的病人都直接去看耳鼻喉科醫師而不是他們自己的醫師（primary care physician) 因為沒有其他新冠症狀根本就不懐疑自己中獎了。學院要求會員把每個進門的病人就當做可能的確診, 沒有什麼其他好方法。