Sunday, December 7, 2008



NEOTONY:
The retention of juvenile somatic and psychic traits into adulthood. Neotony is the mechanism, one form of heterochrony, that allows Axalotl salamanders to reproduce as tadpoles. This "procrastination" of maturation isn't a rare phenomena in nature.
Changes in developmental timing can and do trigger whole suites of changes in individuals and species and it is widely believed that neotony is a major factor in what makes us human. For further reading......Stephen Jay Gould's book, Ontogeny and Phylogeny

Saturday, December 6, 2008

Saint Expeditus--- April 19
PATRON OF EMERGENCIES; INVOKED AGAINST PROCRASTINATION

Although Expeditus’s cult is venerable and he has answered many a plea for speediness in the execution of errands, this Saint may or may not have existed. According to one theory, he was an Armenian martyr. But a persistent rumor concerns a packing case once shipped from Rome to a convent of Parisian nuns. It contained the skeleton of an authentic but anonymous Saint, and was labeled in Italian SPEDITO, that is (as we would say) SPECIAL DELIVERY. But the good sisters assumed QUICKLY (in Latin, EXPEDITUS) to be the name of the Saint within. This tale has an envious-Protestant or malevolent-agnostic ring to it.