Science, Sex & Steppes
There are two fascinating scientific developments highlighted today at nypost.com. Scientists say they have used the gene-editing tool CRISPR inside a living body for the first time. They targeted a form of inherited blindness. The procedure differs from the standard therapy, where a gene is sort of spliced into place. This involves two cuts on either side. The hope is that the ends of the DNA will reconnect… The second article includes a photo of a hole in Mars that some scientists speculate may house alien life. Here’s a pic:
From an article at foxnews.com, edited by yours truly: Molly was diagnosed with Stage 4 terminal breast cancer at 41. Unlike the chemo and radiation she endured in a previous bout, her meds sent her libido into overdrive. She left her husband and catapulted herself into the dating scene. Her adventures are captured on a six-part podcast, Dying for Sex. “Sex,” she says, “makes me feel alive — and it’s a great distraction from being sick.” Life never ceases to fascinate.
I’m not a believer, but I love this picture, which was posted to Twitter by Vegas Golden Knights goalie Robin Lehner, who was struck in the chest by a puck during a game Tuesday night:
It had been a while since I’d read a literary novel, so I gave Dreams of My Russian Summers by Andrei Makine a shot. I’m glad I did. Published in 1995, it is the first person account of a male from the age of 15 until his late 30’s, told in non-linear style. His parents die young. Each summer he visits his French-born grandmother, who lives at the edge of the famous Steppes, a very cold climate nine months of the year. She is elegant though modest, a beautiful soul. Although she has suffered much, as revealed throughout the narrative, she still greatly appreciates the beauty of life. She tells her grandson of her days in Paris, and he eats it up to the point that he feels French, a language he learns to speak well. I found the woman’s history fascinating, as I always do life in the Soviet Union. The government’s tentacles reached even to the furthest points of that vast, forlorn country where everyone feared being whisked away in the wee hours, never to be seen or heard from again. Although I share much of the protagonist’s confusion about life, its mixed messages and enormity, I was a bit impatient with his sensitivity and, in the latter stages once he becomes a successful author, the angst of the artiste, although I realize it is a general angst about life and not just about the woes of a writer. I did not like that his sister, older by two years, is not mentioned after the early stages. A line or two would have sufficed. I was very happy that the identity of a woman in an old photograph is revealed in the closing pages. Here are excerpts: “… What a cosmic blunder is the disappearance of a beautiful woman! Disappearance forever. Complete annihilation…” “This country is monstrous! Evil, torture, suffering, self-mutilations are the favorite pastimes of its inhabitants. And still I love it. I love it for its absurdities. For its monstrosities. I see in it a higher meaning that no logical reasoning can penetrate…” “… Living very mundanely on the edge of the abyss. Yes, that’s what Russia is.” “… Time, endowed with a grinding irony, by means of its tricks and inconsistencies, is forever reminding us of its indifferent power.” Although the author was born in Russia, the novel was written in French. He emigrated in 1987. The novel won two French literary awards. The translation by Geoffrey Strachan is smooth as can be. He has won two awards for his specialty, also interpreting German. Unfortunately, I was unable to find any personal info on him, not even his nationality. Dreams… was Makine’s fourth of 21 books, four of which are under a pseudonym. 90 users at Amazon have rated it, forging to a consensus of 3.8 on a scale of five, which is spot on by me.
It was a beautiful day to sell books curbside. My thanks to Crazy Joe, who purchased Atkins for Life: The Complete Controlled Carb Program for Permanent Weight Loss and Good Health by Dr. Robert C. Atkins M.D.: and to the bus driver who bought Up Country by Nelson DeMille and Icon by Frederick Forsyth; and to The Quiet Man, who wiped out all the Murder She Wrote DVDs, which may have been the entire series; and to the woman who chose a book in Russian; and to the young woman who donated an impressive cache of history; and to Tanya, who donated about ten works of fiction; and to the gentleman who dropped off three books.
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