Who’s under the Mistletoe?

Mourns Over Severed Head of Mate With Intensity That Seems Almost Human.

Almost every public park in the United Sates has its lively and half-domesticated colony of squirrels, and there is no other creature of the woods and fields with which city children may—and do—become so familiar. An interesting story which shows the depth of feeling which these little animals are capable, comes to the companion from Waterloo, Ia.:

A physician who lives near one of the parks in that city had long had an especial interest in a pair of squirrels which made their home in a tree within sight of his house. One day he noticed that one of this pair was running up and down a certain tree in the park, meanwhile chattering in the greatest excitement. Finally the little fellow appeared on a branch, holding between his paws the severed head of his mate, over which he was moaning and whining pitifully. On investigation, it appeared that the dead squirrel had been caught an actually decapitated by a limb split off from the tree by a storm of the night before. The grief-stricken mate would not abandon the body all that day, and mourned over the severed head with an intensity and absorption which seemed almost human, with a depth of emotion indeed, of which some human beings are hardly capable.

Minnetonka Record, January 19, 1912

A few hours ago, it was put to me that superglue was developed for the express purpose of providing surgical sutures. He assured me that that is what he had heard, although he couldn’t tell me anything more authoritative than that. So I got curious, did some research, and offer now for your edification, the following:

Superglue was discovered by accident — twice!

Superglue is used for just about anything, including surgery.

Here are the facts. (According to Popular Science, February 1989 article by A. J. Hand)

Superglue (cyanoacrylate) was discovered by accident! During WW II Dr. Harry Coover (president of Loctite Corp’s new Business Development Group as of February 1989) was working for Kodak Research Laboratories to develop an optically clear plastic for gun sights. To quote him, according to Hand, “I was working with some acrylate monomers that showed promise. But everything they touched stuck to everything else. It was a severe pain.”

Well, in 1951 Coover was supervising research at the Tennessee Eastman Co. to find a “tougher, more heat-resistant acrylate polymer for jet canopies” according to Hand. There was a fellow named Dr Fred Joyner (!) who spread a film of ethyl cyanoacrylate between a couple of prisms of a refractometer. Of course, he discovered that he couldn’t pry the prisms apart again. So Coover realized that he was onto something. A good thing, too, since those prisms were a pricey thing to ruin…

The stuff hit the market in 1958 as Eastman #910. That year, according to Sterling, Dr Coover appeared on TV’s “I’ve Got a Secret,” where he hoisted host Gary Moore off the floor with a drop of the stuff.

a year ago – old english rudolph, looking at the sky, 9 of wands, aunt jemima creepy, sealab 2021.

two years ago – not french-canadian, angry beavers, a deal link I can’t remember, cookie mah jongg, and an oliveresque welcome .

Random Scotto factoid: I sometimes like to have my text to speech program read me my friends page and web news sources while I’m getting ready for the day, or playing with newt.

It’s strange to hear that tech-voice assigned to all the writers…I hear different vocal styles when I read than when it reads to me… (Plus, the tts reader is a masculine voice, which is weird, considering a healthy percentage of the folks I read are not.)

I do find myself returning later to skim for photos / lj cuts / and to make my replies.

Abbreviations are odd, especially lotr, <3, any series of dots more than 3 in a row “…..” and some user names.