Apple #263: Sesame Street, Pinball Number Count

I have a certain song in my head right now. It arrives often. It's an old, old friend.

This one is a medley of several of the skits put together.

And this version highlights Number 7.


One of the things I remember for sure is how the blimp at the very end never makes it to the right edge of the frame. Every time I'd watch and hope, but of course, every time it would stop just short of the frame. Maybe in heaven, that will be one of the things that gets completed and I will sigh and say, "Ah, thank you."


THE SONG

• The song's official name is Pinball Number Count and was released in 1972.

• It was performed by The Pointer Sisters -- all four of them.

• Although the song is meant to teach children to count from 1 to 12, and there are different variations for each number, they never made a version for the number 1.

• Music and lyrics were composed by Walt Kraemer.

• Kraemer worked for a company called Imagination Inc., which was based in San Francisco. He says, "forgive me if I'm a bit hazy as to some of the particulars" about how the song was conceived.
  

• Originally, Mr. Kraemer said, he wanted to write a song in 12-4 or 12-8 time, but that didn't work out.

• He also said he wasn't aware, until the song was completed, that they had used the first five notes from the Woody Woodpecker Song.

THE ANIMATION

• Jeff Hale was the director and main creator of the animation.

• Hale studied at England's Royal Academy of Art before co-founding the San Francisco-based Imagination Inc. animation company with his wife, Margaret.

• Imagination, Inc. produced several animations for Sesame Street, including
• There Are Chickens in the Trees
• Consonant Poem
• Typewriter Guy (at least the R - Rope short)
  
• Harry the Horse
• Edgar Turtle sings "Hey Diddle Diddle"
• Over, Under, Around and Through
• The Ringmaster, #4
• R for Rhinoceros
• S for Snail
• W for Witch
  

• I have to say, while many of these are slightly odd and funny, none of them approach the funkeriffic-ness that is the Pinball Number Count.

• Other animations Hale has directed or helped produce include The Charlie Brown and Snoopy Show (Academy Award nominee), Here Comes Garfield (Academy Award nominee), Thank You Mask Man, and several episodes of Transformers.
  

Family Guy parodied the Pinball Number Count, briefly. I'm surprised to see that they seem to have used the original Pointer Sisters soundtrack.

If you want to own the Pinball Number Count to watch over and over, you can buy it on this collection of gems from the first five seasons of Sesame Street, which is from 1969-1974.

Sesame Street - Old School, Vol. 1 (1969-1974)
is a 3 DVD set and can be yours for $26 from Amazon.


You can also learn how to make a clock that looks like the one at the beginning of the video, from Instructables.com.

What your own Pinball Number Count clock could look like
(Photo from Instructables.com)


Sources
Ninjatune, Solid Steel Presents Sesame Street
Ballofstringtheory, A Letter from Walt Kraemer, September 10, 2003
"ASIFA-SF Co-Founder Margaret Hale Dies," AWN, February 24, 2003
Curious Artist, Walt Kraemer's Pinball Number Count, May 4
IMDB, Jeff Hale (II)
Milk and Cookies, Pointer Sisters: Sesame Street Pinball Number Count
JocTV, Pinball Song #6 - Sesame Street
daddytypes.com, Sesame Street "Jazzy Spies," August 30, 2006
Q Daily News, The Pinball Number Count Lives! April 19, 2006
Webomatica, Deconstructing Sesame Street Animations, December 26, 2006
Moviegrooves, C is for Cookie
Press Release Network, "Rob Coleman, Animation Director for Star Wars Episode I: Phantom Menace Gives Keynote Address," October 16, 1999
Muppet Central Forum, Sesame Street Fairy Alphabet
Muppet Wiki, various episode entries

Apple #262: Chuck Woolery

Let me just get this out of the way: I watch the Game Show Network. Before I had cable, I hooted with disbelief that there was such a channel and that anyone would watch it. Now that I have cable, I watch. That's TV, I guess.

But there's a new game show on that channel, called Lingo. I like word games, and this is a pretty good one. And I have to admit, one of the reasons I like it is that it's hosted by Chuck Woolery. He does look like he's done a bit of hard living. But he still seems to be pretty relaxed up there and when he laughs, it doesn't seem fake. Or at least, most of the time it doesn't. Which is more than I can say for most game show hosts. And I liked that other word game show he did for a while, Scrabble. I liked the sound effects.

His thing is to say, before a commercial, "We'll be back in two and two," and he holds up two fingers, palm facing the camera, then flips his hand around and back again. It refers to the amount of time of one commercial break: two minutes for the commercials plus one second before and one second after.


Chuck, now
(Photo from Game Show Network)


So let's find out a little more about Chuck Woolery. But first, just to get us oriented a bit, I'll list the TV shows he's hosted.


Chuck, then, in his Wheel of Fortune days
(Photo from Gameshow Galaxy)

• Your Hit Parade (1974)
  
• Tattletales (1974)
• Wheel of Fortune, as the original host before Pat Sajak (1975-1981)
• The $1.98 Beauty Show which was a lot like the Gong Show (1978-1980)
• Love Connection (1983-1994)
• Scrabble (1984-1990, 1993)
• Playboy Playmate Playoffs (1986)
• The Dating Game (1998-2000)
• Ultimate Fan Search (1999)
  
• Greed (1999-2000)
• Lingo, co-hosted by Shandi Finnessey, who was Miss America 2004 (2002-present)

He's also appeared on a few episodes of Hollywood Squares.


If you've never seen it, this picture gives you an idea of the format of The Love Connection. It was like letting you be the fly on the wall in a video dating service. You got to watch people's video ads, then hear the couple talk about what their date was like. Sometimes it didn't go well at all, and sometimes, as in this episode, the couple hit it off.
(Photo sourced from Neil Kramer's blog, Citizen of the Month)


Other TV shows where he has appeared include:

• Melrose Place, 2 episodes
• 227, 1 episode
• It's Garry Shandling's Show, 2 episodes
• Late Night with David Letterman, 1 episode
  
• CHiPS, 1 episode
• Love, American Style, 1 episode in 1973
  
• The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, 1 episode in 1972
  
• New Zoo Revue as Mr. Dingle the toothless mailman, 1972
  

Here's a sample of the show Scrabble. I picked this one because you get to hear a lot of the sound effects, and also the guy Rick is a bit of a nut. With his tarantula.

Now here are some facts about Chuck's life outside of TV:

BEFORE THE SHOWS YOU KNOW

• Chuck's full name is Charles Herbert Woolery.

• He was born in Ashland, Kentucky on March 16, 1941.

• He joined the US Navy and afterwards, went to college in Kentucky.

• Post-college jobs included off-shore tuna fishing and working as a sales rep for Pillsbury.

Making use of his long-time love of fishing, Chuck has a DVD on bass fishing techniques.

• He finally decided to be a singer and songwriter and moved to Nashville. With Elkin "Bubba" Fowler in a pop duo called The Avant Garde, he wrote and performed a song called "Naturally Stoned." The song hit #40 on the Billboard charts in 1968.

• In 1972, after leaving Fowler and carrying on with a solo singing act, he appeared on the Johnny Carson show as a singer. Merv Griffin approached him after the show and asked if he'd ever thought about being a game show host. That conversation ultimately led to Woolery being signed as Wheel of Fortune's first host.

• In 1981, shortly after Woolery had been divorced from his second wife, Jo Ann Pflug, he asked Griffin for a raise from $300,000 to $500,000. Griffin gave Woolery the boot and Pat Sajak his job.

• Two years later, Woolery was hosting The Love Connection, the dating show for which he is best known.

I tried to find out what made him look so haggard, like maybe was he a big drinker or something once upon a time. I couldn't find anything that said either way. So maybe the four wives and eight kids and the quadruple bypass is what accounts for it.

AFTER

• In 1996, he had quadruple-bypass heart surgery.
  

• In an interview from about four years ago, he said he reads the Bible every morning.

• He's on his fourth marriage, and he has 8 children, two of them twins and one son adopted.

• 1st wife: Margaret Hayes. One of their three children, Chad, died in a motorcycle accident at age 19, in 1986.

• 2nd wife: Jo Ann Pflug, best-known for The Fall Guy

Jo Ann is on the far right
(Photo from TV Magazine.com)

• 3rd wife: Teri Nelson, step-granddaughter of Ozzie and Harriet Nelson of early TV fame

• 4th wife: Kim Barnes

Wedding photo from Chuck's fourth marriage in July 2006
(Photo from People)


I also found Chuck's MySpace page. On this page, he says he's only been married three times. Since his fourth marriage took place in 2006, he either hasn't updated his profile recently, or . . . something. He also talks a lot about how much he likes his Lingo co-host, Shandi.


Chuck and Shandi in a Lingo promo shot
(Photo from TV.com)


Here are some, er, highlights from his profile:

Combining strong looks with casual wit and unbounded charm, I have since become one of the most respected and liked game show hosts in the business.

[I'd like to meet] more future Lingo contestants so I can secretly ridicule their stupidity on the show.

In the shows I've seen, he's usually pretty complimentary of the players who whip through the puzzles in no time flat. But apparently when the camera isn't rolling, it's another story.

Supposedly, the Guinness Book of World Records says that the biggest Bobble-head doll is of Chuck Woolery. I leave you to draw your own conclusions.


Later addition:
By the way, lots of people have been searching the web to find out who is the politician who appeared on The Dating Game in 1972. Actually, this person is now a governor, and he was on The Dating Game in 1974.

See this You Tube clip.


Sources
Internet Movie Database (IMDB), Biography for Chuck Woolery
TV.com, Chuck Woolery
NNDB, Chuck Woolery
"Chuck Woolery...still making love connections," Askmen.com
Wikipedia, Chuck Woolery
filmreference.com, Chuck Woolery Biography

Apple #261: Wilkes-Barre, PA

The other night, I was out with a few friends, and someone mentioned the city of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. I don't remember why it came up, I just know that it did. And then -- well, I'll give you the details in dialogue form because the pronunciation is important.

ALBERTINA: . . . all the way to Wilkes-Bar.

BRIGID: It's Wilkes-BARRIE, you dolt.

ALBERTINA: ha-ha, (dripping with sarcasm) Wilkes-Barrie. I don't think so. It's Wilkes-BAR.

BRIGID: No, it's not. It's Wilkes-BARRIE. I've known two people from there, one my cousin's friend who was born there and moved away, and another was a friend of my brother's who was also born and lived there until he was five, and they both pronounce it Wilkes-BARRIE.

ALBERTINA: Really?

BRIGID: Yes. Really. It's the same way people from Lancaster pronounce it LANG-kustir.


Wilkes-Barre is in the northeast corner of Pennsylvania, almost directly west from the pointy part on the NE edge of the state.
(Map from the Weekend Guide)


So I had to find out. Is it true what Brigid says? Because I have always thought of it as Wilkes-BAR. And why is the name hyphenated, anyway? Did it get married and choose hyphenation?

• The American Heritage Dictionary says it should be pronounced Wilkes-BARRIE.

• The website called "You know you are from Pennsylvania when" says that Pennsylvanians pronounce it Wilkes-BARRIE.

• And the AP newswire says it should be pronounced Wilkes-BARRIE. That settles it. Wilkes-BARRIE, it is. The AP folks do their research.

Other "mispronunciations" by residents

• Lebanon, Pennsylvania: Leb-a-NON
• Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania: SKOO-kul
• Ghent, West Virginia: JENT
• Talladega, Alabama: Tall-a-DIG-ah
• Louisville, Kentucky: LOU-uhvul
• Des Plaines, Illinois: DEZ PLAINS (as opposed to the French DAY PLAHN)
• Dumas, Arkansas: DOO-mus
  
• El Dorado, Kansas: el dor-AY-doh
  
• Moscow, Idaho: MOSS-koe
• Spokane, Washington: spoh-CAN

Some pronunciations people might think are incorrect, but they are said this way because that's how the British said them to begin with:

• Worcester, Massachusetts: WUH-stir
  
• Reading, Massachusetts: RED-ing
• Stoneham, Massachusetts: STONE-em
• Greenwich, Connecticut: GREN-ich
  

However, the folks in Reading, Pennsylvania, pronounce their town REED-ing.

Here are some other towns with the same name that are pronounced differently depending on what state you're in:

• Monticello (Jefferson's home in Virginia): Mont-ih-CHELL-oh
• Monticello, Minnesota: Mont-ih-SELL-oh

• Lafayette, Louisiana: Lah-fee-ET
• Lafayette, Georgia: Luh-FAY-ette

• Beaufort, South Carolina: BYOO-furt
• Beaufort, Missouri: BOH-furt

• Cairo, Egypt: KYE-roh
• Cairo, Ohio: KAY-roh
  

But, I should say in response to all of this, that in the case of proper nouns, the correct pronunciation is that which the owner of the name wants you to use. So if the town wants to be called Wilkes-Barrie, then so be it. And if Brett Favre wants to be called Brett Farv, that's correct too.


Oh, and I found out the origin of the name Wilkes-Barre (pronounced Wilkes-BARRIE). It's actually kind of interesting: a thumb to the nose of the British king.

• Wilkes-Barre was named after two people, John Wilkes and Isaac Barre.

• Isaac Barre was the son of a French refugee (who probably pronounced his name BAR), and was a lawyer in Dublin, Ireland until he joined the English army in 1746. After various commissions, he was sent to the Colonies (the US, today) in what is now Pennsylvania.
  

• John Wilkes was a politician in England who spoke up for the rights of the Colonists.

• Barre liked what Wilkes stood for and when he went back to England, a Lieutenant-Colonel, he supported Wilkes in a speech to the House of Commons.

• Barre got dismissed from the Army with loss of his rank and Wilkes lost his seat in Parliament for saying things unpopular with the British government.

• Back in the fledgling Pennsylvania, the mayor of a just-forming town started referring to his residence in his letters as Wilkesbarre, in honor of his friend and his friend's sympathizer across the ocean.

• People started writing letters back to England using the name Wilkesbarre, mainly as a way to tick off the English, and the name stuck.

Who knew that Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania was the site of such controversy? Yeah, I know. Wilkes-Barrians.


Sources
American Heritage Dictionary, Wilkes-Barre
Palmyra, PA, You know you are from Pennsylvania when
City Data, General US Forum
AP News Pronunciation Guide, A-E, E-M, N-Z
Wilkes University, History, Naming Wilkes-Barre

Apple #260: Yo-Yos

I was on the phone with a friend of mine the other day, and he mentioned yo-yos. I hadn't thought about yo-yos in years.


Mini glitter yo-yos in Halloween colors.
(Photo from Costume Express)

• The oldest known yo-yos are from 550 BC. According to paintings on Greek vases, Greek boys were given yo-yos, probably at coming-of-age ceremonies.

• In the 1700s, yo-yos were called "quizzes."

• In the 1800s, yo-yos were called "bandalores."

• The first actual yo-yo was manufactured in 1928 by Pedro Flores, who was from the Philippines, where they called quizzes and bandalores "yo-yos." In Tagalog (language of the Philippines), the word means "come come," or "come back."

 

Pedro Flores, with one of his yo-yos that he manufactured in the United States
(Photo from Yo-Yos.Net)

• Four years later, Donald F. Duncan bought Pedro Flores' yo-yo business and started making more yo-yos, and in more styles and of various materials, but primarily wood.

• By 1962, due to Duncan's switch to plastic and with the help of TV commercials, yo-yos skyrocketed in popularity.

• In 1965, a lengthy court battle over whether the word "yo-yo" could be trademarked resulted in Duncan losing the right to trademark the term, and the subsequent bankruptcy of both Duncan and the company that sued it.

• In 1968, a company called Flambeau bought the rights to Duncan-brand yo-yos. They are the ones who make Duncan yo-yos today.

 

Diagram showing how plastic yo-yos are made
(Image from How Products Are Made)

• The longer you can get a yo-yo to "sleep" or spin at the end of its string without winding back up the string, the more tricks you can make the yo-yo do. So people have made lots of innovations to yo-yos over the years, mainly to make them sleep longer and to make it easier for people to perform tricks with them.

• Some of the innovations have included changing the spindle in the middle from wood to metal, thus reducing the friction.

• Another innovation was inverting the two outer halves of the yo-yo so that the bulk of the material was on the outside and less material on the inside (the Butterfly).

 

This is John, and he did some of his own experiments about how to increase a yo-yo's sleeping time.
(Photo from PBSKids)

• More recent innovations have included adding ball bearings, as well as a clutch. Yo-Yos are getting almost as complicated as cars!

• Currently, the favorite type of yo-yo among champion yo-ers is called the freehand. In this model, the yo-er does not loop the end of the string around the finger but instead holds a counterweight (like a six-sided die). This helps keep the string taut but not to the point where the yo-yo wants to snap back up the string. In addition, the yo-er can move or drop or adjust the counterweight as needed while performing a series of tricks.

The Duncan Freehand Zero,
(Photo from Product Wiki)

• A long-time competitive yo-champion is Stephen D. Brown, who worked at Duncan for years and patented several new yo-yos. He has since left Duncan and is pursuing a full-time career in yo-yo performance.

Here is a video of one of Steve Brown's performances. It's pretty entertaining. And, when you realize that with the exception of when he clutches the yo-yo in his fist, the yo-yo is spinning the entire time, it's quite impressive.

But then, this guy, Hiroyuki Suzuki, the 2006 World Yo-Yo Champion, kicks Mr. Brown's ass.

[edit: I'm not sure what video I had originally posted here, but it went away. This may not be the same video, but it is Hiroyuki Suzuki, showing off his unreal yo-yo skills.]

• You can buy a Duncan yo-yos today for anywhere from $3.49 for the Butterfly or the Imperial to $21.49 for the FH (Freehand) Zero.

Sources
Duncan Yo-Yos
Lucky Meisenheimer's Yo-Yos.Net
Tom Harris, Howstuffworks, "How Yo-Yos Work"
Peter Weiss, "Reinventing the Yo-Yo," Science News Online, April 17, 2004

Apple #259: Skull Removal

I know, this one sounds gory and maybe fantastic. And for some readers, it might be too gory. But it comes from a genuine concern and a medical question.

About a month ago I think it is now, a friend of a friend suffered a fairly severe stroke. She was taken to the hospital and despite their efforts to stop or slow the stroke, the pressure in her brain continued to build. To keep anything else from rupturing and causing irreparable damage, the surgeons operated and removed a portion of her skull to relieve the swelling.

She survived the stroke, has regained consciousness, and is able to talk. She still has problems with motor coordination in her right arm, sometimes she can't identify what day it is, and once she was convinced she was in Panama. She will have to go through a pretty long and probably arduous course of physical therapy before she will be able to return home. But the removal of part of her skull seems to have prevented even worse damage and, perhaps, her death.

In asking people about how she is doing, I also burn with curiosity to know about this opening in her skull, and the bit that was removed. These are not the sort of questions you can ask people who are wound tight with worry over her survival and her basic abilities to function. But still, I want to know, does she still have a hole in her skull? Some equally concerned and curious friends have suggested that maybe her skull will mend itself, the way a broken leg can knit itself. I'm skeptical about this, but I really don't know the answer. Other friends said the doctors kept the piece of skull they removed and at some point will put it back in, and that piece will knit to the rest of her skull. But where do you keep a piece of skull? And how long do they wait before putting it back in?


STROKES

• The term "stroke" means that something has happened in the brain to disrupt blood supply. That disruption in turn causes brain cells to suffer damage or die. There can be a lot of different kinds of strokes, occurring due to many different causes.
  

• Because strokes can vary quite a lot from one patient to another, some procedures are more appropriate than others given the type of stroke that has occurred.

• Most strokes are called ischemic strokes. In these, a blockage or a clot occurs in a brain blood vessel, and that obstructs blood flow.
  

Diagram of an ischemic stroke, showing the site of blockage up close and the damage to surrounding cells.
(Diagram from University of California, San Francisco Neurovascular Medical Group)

• In my friend's case, she had the far less common variety, a hemorrhagic stroke. In this type, a blood vessel actually bursts, and blood flows out into the surrounding tissue. This can cause damage to the nearby tissue which is not getting its necessary oxygen and nourishment.
  

Diagram of a hemorrhagic stroke, showing the site of rupture up close and bleeding at the surrounding tissue.
(Diagram from University of California, San Francisco Neurovascular Medical Group)

• In addition, the blood pouring out of the ruptured vessel begins to fill the brain cavity and puts pressure on the surrounding tissue.
  

• Left untreated, the buildup of blood can put so much pressure on the brain that it no longer fits comfortably within its protective coverings of the tough but flexible dura and the far less flexible skull surrounding that. Under such pressure, the brain can shift or re-settle within the dura, seeking more space. That re-positioning can force the all-critical brain stem to move and sometimes twist along with it. If such twisting occurs, blood flow to the brain can be cut off, resulting in extensive and severe neurological damage, and sometimes even death.

TREATMENT OPTIONS

• Methods of treating stroke vary depending on the type of stroke, as well as the extent of the damage at the time the patient arrives for care.

• Medications can be used to reduce the patient's blood pressure and so reduce the bleeding. Other very specific types of drugs can reduce swelling in the brain; and anti-seizure, anti-anxiety, and even more familiar pain relievers can be used to reduce any associated spasms, anxiety, or headaches.

• Many surgical methods of stopping the bleeding are also available. A surgeon can insert a clip (I picture this looking like those black office supply clips, but I'm sure they're far more sophisticated than that) over the site of the bleeding, essentially applying a tourniquet. They can also remove the piece of damaged blood vessel and replace it with healthier tissue. If a blood clot has formed, they can remove the clot itself and thus reduce the swelling that way.

Diagram of a surgical clip being placed at the neck of a ruptured blood vessel in the brain to stop the bleeding. (From the San Diego Neurosurgical Medical Clinic)
I knew it had to be more sophisticated than one of these:

• But in some cases -- apparently very severe cases, and when the patient's age and other factors would help him or her to recover sufficiently -- surgeons decide that the only way to reduce the swelling fast enough is to remove a piece of the skull. This is what the doctors decided to do in my friend's case.

DECOMPRESSIVE CRANIECTOMY

• The medical term for the procedure used in my friend's case is decompressive craniectomy: "cranium" referring to the skull, and "-ectomy" or "-otomy" indicating surgical removal.
  

• Surgeons practiced craniectomies as far back as the 1800s, but the technique became used less and less often when doctors believed that it resulted in too much damage, and that less invasive techniques might be preferable.

• It never fell entirely out of use, though, since emergency surgeons continue to use it as a last-ditch effort to assist victims of severe head injuries. Now some neurosurgeons who treat strokes are beginning to perform more craniectomies again.

• Specifically, here are the steps:

• Surgeon removes a part of the skull to relieve pressure.

• To provide some protection over the opening, the scalp is sewn to the dura, the inner membrane under the scalp. This allows some flexibility to accommodate any additional swelling, but also provides some protection to the exposed area.

• After the crisis of the stroke has passed, it can take about three months for the swelling in the brain to subside. The dura is left sewn to the scalp during those three months, and the patient may also wear a helmet for that time period.

• The piece of skull is kept in one of two environments to ensure that the bone marrow survives so that it can knit with the remainder of the skull later. One option is to keep the piece of skull frozen. Another option is to surgically place the skull in the patient's abdomen, in between the layers of muscle and fat. This keeps the piece of skull alive and healthy and acclimated to the patient's body.

• After the swelling has subsided, the piece of skull is either unfrozen or removed from the patient's abdomen, and re-inserted in its former place.

(Image from the Detroit Medical Center, sourced from Wayne State Medicine)


Bizarre, isn't it? But it's true.

Roy, of Siegfried & Roy, underwent this very surgery, following his near-fatal mauling by a white tiger. Surgeons removed about 1/4 of the right side of his skull to reduce pressure on his brain following lots of internal bleeding. They put the removed part of his skull into a pouch and inserted it into his abdomen. Nearly a year later, and after they had re-inserted the piece of bone into his skull, he had recovered enough to return home. He can now speak and write and walk with a cane.


Roy Horn in February 2005, a year and a half after the tiger attack and decompressive craniectomy.
(Photo from the Las Vegas Review-Journal)


By the way, this friend of mine is a long-time and deeply committed smoker. It is also a fact that smoking seriously increases your risk of getting strokes. Which means that quitting smoking will do a lot to help you avoid going through something like this yourself. The same could be said for not provoking any white tigers.


Sources
Pamela Linton, "Time and Space Heal Head Injuries," Wayne Medicine 1999
Ricker, Polsdorfer MD, Emory Healthcare, Surgical Procedures for Stroke, 2007
Treatment of Hemorrhagic Stroke at Mayo Clinic
Stroke from MayoClinic.com, reprinted at CNN's Health Library, July 5, 2006
"Hemicraniectomy for Subarachnoid Hemorrhage from a Giant Middle Cerebral Artery Aneurysm," Mount Sinai Clinical Program for Cerebrovascular Disorder, 2007
Tazbir et al., Decompressive Hemicraniectomy With Duraplasty: A Treatment for Large-Volume Ischemic Stroke," Medscape abstract, September 27, 2005
Ketter et al., "Outcome of patients after hemicraniectomy in malignant middle cerebral artery infarction after first rehabilitation," DGNC meeting abstract, April 23, 2004
Attia et al., "Decompressive Hemicraniectomy as a Lifesaving Procedure in Severe Acute Ischemic Stroke," Israel Medical Association Journal, September 2003
Stephen M. Silverman, "Report: Part of Roy's Skull Removed," People, October 16, 2003
Joelle Babula, "Roy awaits surgery to restore his skull," Las Vegas Review-Journal, October 16, 2003
IMDB, Roy Horn biography as of July 2004

Apple #258: Hillary's Hair

Hillary Clinton, hoping to secure her party's nomination for the Presidential race in 2008, has been in the news especially this past week. She and Barack Obama have gotten into quite a dust-up over who knows more about foreign policy protocol, and who would play with what unsavory leader, and would they play nice together, or would they really say, "My mommy says I can't play with you," and go home with all the toys.

Putting politics aside, I've been thinking lately about Hillary's hairstyles. I thought I remembered that she's changed her hair style several times since she's been in the national public eye. And I thought I'd document those changes here on your Daily Apple.

But what I discovered when I looked into it is that she's gone back and forth between two basic styles and then, bing! she became Senator and introduced an entirely new, third style.

Her yearbook photo marks the first known appearance of her school-girl look.
Nape-length, curled at the ends.

(Photo from the Hillary Clinton Quarterly)


Here's the serious politician look.
Straighter, pushed back away from her face.
Also note, her hair's not blond.

(Photo from Pop and Politics)


In 1983, standing up and speaking at an Arkansas Educational Standards Committee meeting (of which then-Governor husband Bill made her chair), she's back to the school-girl look again.

(Photo from the Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture)


In this still from a video recording of a speech before the same committee, her hair is going towards that serious political look again. Layered along her face, a little bangs, but swept back.
Still not blond, though.

(Photo from the Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture)


In this, her official First Lady of the United States photo from 1992, she's sporting more of the school-girl look again. Straight on the sides, curled under, definite bangs. Now she's got undeniable blond highlights. She's no threat, she's everybody's favorite wife!

(Photo from the Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture)


In this 1994 photo for the Smithsonian, she's totally got the serious politician look going on. Swept back from her face all over the place and lo and behold, it's short!

(Photo from the Smithsonian Institution)


This rogue hair-do is from 1995, when Hillary participated in a leadership conference at the National Institute of Health. This style is a bit schizophrenic, combining the length and curl-at-ends factor of the school-girl do with the swept-back-itude of the serious politician do. (As I'm sure you've guessed by my technical lingo, I know all about hairstyles)

(Photo from the Children's Circle of Care)


But soon after this, she stepped it down to school-girl again. Here, with Minerva Bernardino, a Dominican politician, she even looks kind of cute. Perky.

(Photo from the Minerva Bernardino Foundation)


At the National Library of Estonia in 1996, she's doing the school-girl thing, complete with under-curl, with the optional headband. She's even posing in a non-threatening manner.

(Photo from the Embassy of the United States to Estonia)


At her husband's second inauguration in 1997. This do is sort of a compromise between the school-girl and the serious politician. A little longer but not curled much; lighter-colored, but with some hard-shell pouf going on.

(AP Photo, sourced from CBC News)


Here she is in 1999, visiting a refugee camp in Macedonia. The transition is becoming more apparent. There's some curl happening here, reminiscent of the school-girl days, but it is swept back from her face. Approachable yet serious, both.

(Photo from the Washington Post's Fact-Checker)


Also in 1999, speaking about the Viking heritage in the US, she's got the serious politician look again: swept back from her face, little shelf of bangs, but with more blond highlights. I'm serious, she's trying to say, but a little bit blond. Except my theory is, the blond is actually a sign of when she's turning on the extra-serious. Because look what happens next.

(Photo from the National Museum of National History)


In 2001, her First Lady-ship over and her term as New York State Senator begun, she's gone all the way to the serious politician look. Swept back off her face, little shelf of bangs, plus those extra blond highlights. But now, it's shorter. All the way around. And this begins her short-hair revolution.

(Photo from the Cornell Chronicle)


On the cover of her 2004 biography, she's going way serious politician-short, but with some of that Florence Henderson thing going on in the back.

(Photo from Amazon.com)


During the Kerry / Edwards campaign in 2004, she's got no more Florence Henderson hanging out back there. It's mostly brown again, though she does have those streaks of highlights. Yet there's also some pouf injected into the style. I read this one as: it's not my campaign so I can relax a little bit, but it still is a campaign and I'm working it nonetheless.

(AP Photo by Richard Drew, posted by Newsweek)


Now here she is in 2007, as we've gotten used to seeing her hair lately: short all the way around, completely off her face (except sometimes her little shelf of bangs drops down toward her eyebrow), going for mainly blond, and really all business. (Plus, in this photo, she's wearing that classic Martha Washington blue. Get the hint?) No school-girl here anymore.

(AP Photo reprinted at Automotive.com)


All right, so that's my completely un-sophisticated, off-the-cuff analysis of the hairstyles of Hillary Clinton -- or is it Hillary Rodham Clinton? -- through the years. You never knew political statements could involve so much hair spray, did you?

If you're interested, I have another entry on a related topic: Women who have run for President.

Apple #257: Cross-Bred Animals

A few months ago, Daily Apple reader Lily Anne wanted to know about mules and donkeys and what was the difference between them, and what combinations of animals yielded which hybrids. In my entry, I provided a list of various animals that are bred with horses or ponies or zebras and the resulting combinations (zedonk being my personal favorite). However, I didn't realize that the true focus of Lily Anne's curiosity was a far more complicated question.

She wanted to know not only about all the varieties of horse-type animals, but a much larger question, which is, why is this possible with horses and horse-type animals? Does cross-breeding happen with other animals? It seems like when you mate two breeds of dogs together, this isn't on the same order of magnitude, but why is that?

Very good questions, all. I had to look into this topic a fair amount before I got a grasp on it myself.

• Mating dogs of different breeds is less dramatic. Most breeds of dogs are very similar genetically since they are all part of the same species (Canis familiaris). So it's relatively easy to get the genes of, say, a cocker spaniel to mix with, say, a poodle (with this, you get cockapoo).

This cockapoo has the markings of a cocker spaniel,
but the fur texture and non-sneeze factor of a poodle.
(Photo from Pet Works)

• Breeding a horse with a donkey, however, is a different thing. This is because the two animals are members of different species (Equus caballus plus Equus asinus, respectively).

• In most cases, you won't be successful if you try to get animals of two different species to breed. Elephant plus wildebeest simply won't work. Catfish plus camel -- well, that's just ridiculous.

• But in the case of two species that aren't obviously ridiculous combinations, even if you took the two animals out of their usual habitats and put them in the same room together, thus overcoming whatever geographic or behavioral barriers that might naturally exist between the two, and then if you artificially inseminated one with the juice of the other, in most cases, it wouldn't take. The genetic differences between the egg of one and the sperm of the other would be too great for the egg to get fertilized and remain viable.

• However. In some cases, among some species, breeding across species lines, or cross-breeding, does happen. It occurs more commonly -- and successfully -- in captivity where people can oversee and assist during all parts of the process, from insemination through weaning and rearing the young. But cross-breeding has also happened in the wild.

• Often, the resulting hybrids have genetic disorders of various kinds, or they may be infertile. They may also be susceptible to diseases that their non-hybrid parents may be able to resist. But sometimes the hybrids do survive -- and not only that, sometimes they flourish and also help the populations of both their parent species thrive.

This is a liger (son of a male lion and female tiger). His name is Hobbs.
He has a mane and roars like a lion. And, like a tiger,
he has stripes and enjoys swimming.
He can't chuff, though, the way a tiger does.
(Photo from Ligers and Tigons)


The table I've created below lists animal hybrids that I've encountered in my brief foray around this-here internet. I'm sure there are more combinations than what I've listed. It's also important to note that I have focused on mammals. There are myriads of combinations among birds, among fish, and even more among plants, and who knows how many among insects.

In this table, I've indicated the name of the resulting hybrid, if one was noted. In most cases, people named the hybrid if it was born in captivity. Also, some animals have been bred in captivity (wolf plus coyote combinations, for example), and scientists have also discovered similar combinations breeding in the wild (a species of wolf mating with coyotes).

Hybrids Born In Captivity
Species One	Species Two	Hybrid
Dog	Wolf	Wolf-dog
Dolphin	"false killer whale" (orca?)	Wholphin
Cattle	Buffalo	Beefalo
Lion	Tiger	Liger / Tigon
Leopard	Lion	Leopon
Grizzly bear	Polar bear	Grolar / Pizzly
Camel	Llama	Cama
Tamworth pig	Wild boar	Iron age pig
Horse, female	Donkey, male (jack)	Mule
Horse, male	Donkey, female (jenny)	Hinny
Zebra	Any equine	Zebra hybrid
Zebra	Horse, male	Zorse
Zebra	Pony	Zony
Zebra	Donkey	Zedonk
Golden Pheasant	Lady Amherst Pheasant
Florida panther (endangered)	Texas cougar
Wolf	Coyote
Cross-Breeding in the Wild
Species One	Species Two	Hybrid
Grizzly bear	Polar bear	Grolar / Pizzly
Wolf	Coyote
Coyote	Dog
White-tail deer	Mule deer
Cattle	Bison
Cattle	Yak

Sources
Mark Derr, "Crossbreeding to Save Species and Create New Ones," July 9, 2002
MadSci Network, Genetics, cross breeding posted by Michael Onken, May 30, 1996
"Cross-species Mating May Be Evolutionarily Important and Lead to Rapid Change, Say Indiana University Researchers," Science Daily, August 8, 2003
"What are the ramifications for wildlife of cross breeding species..." emagazine.com, week of July 24, 2005
Hemmy.Net, Top 10 Hybrid Animals, June 19, 2006
Fact Monster, Hybrid Animals

Apple #256: Lunacy and the Full Moon

At the last full moon, an inquiring Daily Apple reader wanted to know if there is a correlation between the occurrence of a full moon and people acting strangely. We've come back around to a this month's full moon, so I thought now would be a good time to answer this question.

For centuries, people have held onto this theory that the full moon makes people nutty. The word lunacy or lunatic is actually derived from the Latin luna, which means "moon." But is there any actual truth to the theory that people go even slightly crazy during the full moon?


Does this sight make you feel a little wacky?
(Photo by David Heath, who provides details about how he took this picture)


The short answer is no.

Scientists have studied the correlation between the presence of a full moon and upticks in emergency room visits, spikes in aberrant psychiatric behavior, possible increases in drug abuse, etc. The majority of the studies conducted can find no correlation between the full moon and people's behavior. Some studies do show an increase in some activity or other, but sometimes that increase occurs during a different phase, like the new moon or the waxing moon, rather than the full moon And some of those studies suffer from serious flaws in how they were designed or carried out.

Despite the preponderance of evidence weighing against the theory, many people do still believe that there is a correlation. They often present their own "evidence," which is often anecdotal, or the story of what happened to one guy on one night that happened to be a full moon.

Some police departments do staff more officers on the full moon -- not because the moon makes people crazy, but rather because the extra light keeps people out and about longer, so they seem to be more likely to get into car accidents or otherwise have things happen to them. It is worth noting, however, that many research studies did not show an increase in the number of car accidents during any particular phase of the moon.


If people do get wonky during the full moon, how come the wonkiness doesn't seem to start when the full moon is visible during the daytime, but waits until nightfall?
(Photo by cinnamon gurl, posted at her blog Write About Here)


Even so, people have an ongoing fascination with the moon, and some hold on to the theory that the full moon makes people nutty. Well, all right, if you really want to go on believing that, I guess that's fine. But to those of you who persist in this belief, allow me to pose these questions: why should the moon's fullness (which is really a play of light based on the positions of the Earth and the moon relative to the sun) have an effect on the behavior of some individuals? And if it does affect the behavior of some people, why doesn't it affect everybody, and in the same way?


Selection of Studies that Found the Full Moon Does Not Influence Human Behavior

• One 1983 study found that while calls to a poison center about unintentional poisonings increased during the full moon, calls about intentional poisonings showed no correlation.

• Furthermore, that study found that drug abuse and suicide attempts increased -- not during the full moon but during the new moon.

• A study in 1994 found no correlation between the presence of a full moon and admissions to a psychiatric hospital.

Is it the full moon, or is it Beatlemania?
(Photo by Birinci Bölum)

• A 1983 study of calls for police assistance over a three-year period found no relationship between the number of calls and the phases of the moon.

• Multiple studies investigating the relationship between the phases of the moon and the occurrence of suicide have been conducted. Many have found no relationship, including an extensive study of 4,190 suicides over a 58 year-period.

• A study of nearly 151,000 emergency-room admissions over a four-year period found no increase in patient visits to the hospital, the number of calls for ambulances, or admissions to hospitals on the day of a full moon.

You may want to be less aggressive toward animals during the full moon, although this particular dog looks too happy to bite anybody.
(Photo from Dog Chat)

• One study did show that the number of people reporting being bitten by animals increased during the full moon. However, two other similar studies showed no such relationship.

For a longer and more comprehensive list of these and other studies, see Dr. Chudler's list of studies on whether the full moon influences behavior.

And finally, I'll ask you: did you feel a little extra psycho today? Did you notice any inexplicable oddities in your behavior at all? Did you even know that tonight was a full moon?


We'll probably understand the connections between the full moon and human behavior only when we get our hands on a few of those werewolves out there. Like this one!
(You can print out this picture and color it yourself for free)



Sources
Hannah Holmes, The Skinny On Lunacy and the Full Moon, Discovery Online
Eric Chudler, Ph.D., University of Washington, Moonstruck! Does the Full Moon Influence Behavior?
Robert Todd Carroll, The Skeptic's Dictionary, full moon and lunar effects
Astronomical Society of the Pacific, Astronomical Psuedo-Science: A Skeptic's Resource List, 5. The Full Moon and Lunacy
Benjamin Radford, "Strange Things Do Happen at Full Moon," Live Science, June 13, 2007