[Taxacom] some verses not quite in time for Darwin Day

[Frederick W. Schueler]

Taxacomers,

In these latter days of online publishing you just give the wife a 
scrappy proposal for the overthrow of the existing order, and after a 
few hours of hard labour on her part it's published -

"Feasting on Conolophus to the conclusion of consanguinity: A collection 
of Darwinian verses" - 
http://www.lulu.com/shop/frederick-w-schueler/feasting-on-conolophus-to-the-conclusion-of-consanguinity-a-collection-of-darwinian-verses/paperback/product-23517445.html 


Her characterization of it is: "Fred Schueler has been writing poetry 
since his teens, when he was told by a classmate that he was already an 
'old man.' This little book of poetry distills forty years of his 
reflection on the paradox of "nature red in tooth and claw," producing 
evolution as a free gift of ecological processes - and parallels with 
the hypothesis-sacrificing scientific method, and the religious ethic of 
"love thy neighbour as thyself." Here you will find humour, whimsy, 
surprising metaphors, and a depth of knowledge that will challenge you 
to look a few things up, to enter more fully into the beauty and 
complexity of the world of the scientific poet."

If you're interested you can read the preface and a few poems in the 
preview, and further along there's this one -

Taxonomy

If it wasn't for the namers what would we do,
We wouldn't have names both short and true,
We couldn't specify a creature in a word or two,
If it wasn't for the work of the namers.

If it wasn't for the namers you'd just shrug
and call every crawling thing a bug.
Nothing makes a person a more perfect mug
than to disregard the work of the namers.*

If it wasn't for the namers where would we be,
We wouldn't have synonymy,
Each would use his favourite name and all would disagree,
If it wasn't for the work of the namers.

If it wasn't for the namers we wouldn't know,
To regard Sorex as a Shrew,
We wouldn't know cinereus from fumeus and you,
Would simply scream "A shrewmouse there, step on it!"

If it wasn't for the namers where'd we begin
to know who was kith and kin?
There would be no way to know which clade we're in
if it wasn't for the work of the namers.*

If it wasn't for the namers what would we do,
We wouldn't have names both short and true,
We couldn't specify a creature in a word or two,
If it wasn't for the work of the namers.

(on the Transcanada Highway going past Wawa, Ontario, 6 October 2000 - 
the day we drove for 20 hrs - to the tune of the British 'industrial 
ballad' "If it was na'for the wark o' the weavers.:" - *'d verses, June 
2013, New Brunswick Museum's Gagetown bioblitz).

fred.
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p.s. for those who may be in eastern Ontario, we're celebrating Darwin's 
birthday on the provincially-sanctioned Phylogeny Day this year (19 
Feb), with an open house - Ontario: Grenville County: Oxford-on-Rideau: 
Bishops Mills: 4&6 St Lawrence St.(Schuelers) / 44.87156N 75.70095W - 
from noon to night, with an ongoing-snack potluck Phylum Feast, and 
sorting of various collections of Mollusc shells from the Sydenham 
River. (the Phylum Feast is explained at http://pinicola.ca/darwind2.htm ).
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          Frederick W. Schueler & Aleta Karstad
          Fragile Inheritance Natural History
Mudpuppy Night in Oxford Mills - http://pinicola.ca/mudpup1.htm
'Daily' Paintings - http://karstaddailypaintings.blogspot.com/
4 St-Lawrence Street Bishops Mills, RR#2 Oxford Station, Ontario K0G 1T0
   on the Smiths Falls Limestone Plain 44* 52'N 75* 42'W
(613)258-3107 <bckcdb at istar.ca> http://pinicola.ca/
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