Lungs
It is no coincidence that some of my best friends have two lungs.1 Not everyone is so lucky. A certain salamander that inhabits tropical forests doesn’t have any lungs at all, and isn’t he proud. You can’t blame him. Nobody was around to teach him otherwise.
Lungs are essential to life and they know it. They don’t just sit there and take it. You can’t, for instance, kill yourself by holding your breath. But you can, in the middle of a conversation, fill your lungs with air, puff your cheeks out, and stare silently at your companion until he gets up and leaves the room. This will show him.
The Bumble Bee2
Some people call bumblebees “humblebees”, which ought to tell you something. To me a bee is a bee. Anybody who says different is probably an apiarist.
All bumblebees but one collect pollen. The others think he’s crazy and aren’t afraid to say so. Humans refer to him as the “cuckoo bumblebee”, to the cuckoo’s disadvantage. Apiarists use the term Bombus psithyrus but don’t seem any happier for it. Nobody has thought to ask the bee itself.
The United States of America
The United States of America covers a total area of 3.79 million square miles. It was formed on the premise of tax-free tea but now look at it.
Two of its fifty states are not attached to it and it shows. Hawaii is a group of islands in the Pacific Ocean. Barack Obama was born in Hawaii but most people were not.3 Alaska is the largest US state.4 We bought it from the Russians as a joke. Only Alaskans can truly appreciate this joke.
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1 One of them is used for breathing. Same with the other. Don’t ask me which is which.
2 The female bumblebee’s hind leg forms a corbicula, but that’s not what bothers me.
3 Hawaii became a US state in 1959 but didn’t notice it until three years later.
4 You can fit two Texases in the state of Alaska, but not for long.
