Origins, Six Impossible Things, Being Thankful

Origins is a somewhat reoccurring post in which I delve into the history of a word or phrase.

Today's word is: gung ho, which means to be enthusiastic, zealous, or eager

I chose this word because I'm feeling rather gung ho about about my up-coming book, despite the load of corrections which are now in the good hands of one Diane Wolfe.

That said, gung ho actually means something different. It's Anglicized from the Chinese words kung, meaning work, and ho, meaning together. Gung ho was adopted during World War II by the United States Marines under General Evans Carlson. In 1942 The New York Times Magazine reported: "Borrowing an idea from China, Carlson frequently has what he calls 'kung-hou' meetings... Problems are threshed out and orders explained."

The following year Life magazine reported:
"He [Carlson] told them [the Marines] of the motto of the Chinese Co-operatives, Gung Ho. It means Work Together... My motto caught on and they began to call themselves the Gung Ho Battalion."

And there you have it. I'm feeling enthused by all of those who are working together with me on The Bowl and the Stone: A Haunting Tale from the Virgin Islands. There's no way I could have done it alone.

***

It was the White Queen, from Through the Looking Glass, who said to Alice: "When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast." 

When life gets you down, think of or believe, six impossible things before breakfast. Take a deep breath and close your eyes. If you are aren't smiling by the sixth thing, think of six more. Keep thinking of impossible things until you smile, or until you understand that life itself is impossible. Yet here we are.

Here, for your entertainment are Six Impossible Things. You can believe them or not as you wish.

Discovering the Lost Continent of Mu
Hearing the Sermon on the Mount live, up close, and personal
Inventing a safe non-polluting, totally biodegradable, reusable plastic
Having tea with the Buddha
Being a bolt of lightening 
Being a giant sequoia 

***

These lovely people are giving my book cover space on their blog this week. Thank you for helping spread the word about The Bowl and the Stone: A Haunting Tale from the Virgin Islands. Another example of being GUNG HO!

Monday
Shannon Lawrence at the Warrior Muse
Yolanda Renee at Defending the Pen
Pat Garcia at Everything Must Change

Wednesday
Meradeth Houston at Write Stuff

Being Thankful

Today I'm thankful for

lizards!

I do love lizards.

The most abundant lizard in the Virgin Islands is this little cutie, the leaf lizard.

A typical Virgin Island male anolis posing on a papaya leaf.

A Virgin Island ground lizard which can grow to be a couple of feet long. They never leave the ground and are very fast.

A Texas brown lizard. What, but this one's green! They are chameleons, changing from brown to green depending on their background.

A baby iguana chillaxing on my hand.

A adult iguana chillaxing on some rocks by the sea. They are very good swimmers.

A Texas spiny lizard.

What are you thankful for? Did you know the origin of gung ho? What's your impossible thing to believe today? Do you like lizards?

Of Lizards and Ducks

I've always had a fondness for lizards, both large and small.

The most common lizard in the Virgin Islands is hard to find  because it's quite small and lives amid the leaf litter that covers just about everything. Appropriately it's called a leaf lizard. Isn't it a lovely little creature? Those two white spots on it's back look like eyes.

Then there is a larger ground lizard which, as far as I know, never climbs trees. They are very fast and difficult to get a picture of. This guy is about as long as the flamboyant seedpod which is a good 22 inches.

Some years ago I rescued a baby iguana from the sea. He stayed on my hand until he had warmed up at which time I hid him away among the trees and bushes on the shoreline.

I hope that he will grow up to become an old man, like this guy, who had little fear of me as I got to within about a foot and half of his head-bobbing self. He was probably three and half feet long. Maybe more.



Then there was the duck. I was down at Lindquist Beach one morning and this lovely little duck showed up. It's a White Cheeked Pintail.



They are also known as Bahama Pintails or Summer Ducks and are native to the islands. They're considered a threatened species because of habitat destruction and over hunting. Because they nest on the ground they're also susceptible to non-native predators like cats and mongooses.

I feel kind of special to have had this wild duck eat out of my hand.

Ever have a wild critter eat out of your hand?

It's All About Lizards - Part V - Iguanas

Who knows how many live in the trees around the house on St. Thomas. Erva thinks as many as two dozen. They range in size from bright green young ones 10 to 12 inches long, to grand oldsters up to five feet. The older ones, with distinguished chin waddles and soft spines on their backs, have an air of wisdom about them. If not wisdom, then a look that says they know something the rest of us don't.

We like to think all the iguanas in the trees around the house are descended from a pet we had. Ignatius Iguana lived in a large cage we had on the end of the porch. He was young, less than a foot long. I thought I would be able to train him, as one can do, to walk on a leash and hang out on my shoulder. One day while I was feeding him Ignatius escaped. Fast on his heels was our cat. Iguana and cat raced down the length of the 40 foot porch. Ignatius was, unafraid? unaware? that the porch is a good 12 feet above the ground and went flying off the end. He landed without injury and disappeared into the bush and trees. As for the cat, like a cartoon character, he came to a screeching halt, tail lashing back and forth in angry frustration that such a large lizard had escaped him.

Iguanas are by nature, arboreal. It seems odd that such large lizards are at home among the branches. Yet they move about with ease and grace, eating tender new leaves and flowers. They are vegetarian. If they want to go to a lower level or get to the ground, they simply fall. That’s right, they let go and fall. We often hear crashing in the trees and know that an iguana is making a controlled fall through the branches.

Although they prefer hanging out in trees iguanas are comfortable on the ground. They are surprisingly fast when they run. When an iguana gets up to full speed, it is actually running on its hind legs. It holds its front feet up just off the ground as if lifting long skirts and can book across the ground at a pretty good clip.

Except for its tail, which it can use like a whip, the large lizard is harmless. They are not too difficult to catch. And all one has to do to sooth it is turn it on its back and scratch its belly, at which point, like a frog, it becomes completely docile.

Perhaps this noble creature is descended from Ignatius.


Here’s one relaxed and asleep on an over cast morning. That’s his waddle hanging down below his right leg. And you can just see a tinge of pink in his face. This fellow, and the one above, are somewhere between four and five feet long.


Here’s a picture of an oldster moving from one branch to another.


And here's me at the beach, enticing a young one with some lettuce.

Here endth the lesson on lizards.

It's All About Lizards - Part IV - They come in many sizes and colors

Besides the standard anoles like those pictured in previous posts, there are many other kinds of lizards in the Virgin Islands.

There are large ground lizards, up to a foot and half to two feel long. The older males have beautiful turquoise blue bellies. These lizards live out their lives on the ground. They are very fast, even though they move in a jerky sort of stop-action manner. It took me quite a while to get a decent picture of one. By the time you hear the rustle of their movement in the leaf litter, they are already somewhere else.

Here’s the first picture I got of a large fellow disappearing into the sansevieria.


But finally I got these pictures.



You can see his turquoise coloring. He is between 16 and 18 inches long, because that’s how long the seed pod of the flamboyant tree is, which he is next too. He is on the move, his left foot is raised. The orange petals are from the flamboyant as well.

Here’s a picture of a pretty little green lizard with dark spots. I’m sure it has a name, but I don’t know what it is.


Another lizard is the gecko. They are the only lizards that have a voice and sing at night. Their song sounds like their name, “Geck-geck-geck-geck-geck-go.”It is a sort of high peeping sound that blends in nicely with song of the little tree frogs, the coquis, and crickets which also sing at night.

When we were growing up many people were afraid of geckos. They believed that if a gecko fell on you it would suck your blood. This belief may be because of their “sticky” toes which gives them the ability to move around on just about any surface, even upside down on glass. They were called woodslaves probably because they are often found in dark places like inside dead trees. They are pale and anemic looking and almost transparent. You can sometimes see the blood vessels just under the skin, and even the eggs inside a female.

Here’s a picture of a youngster, barely two inches long, with eyes on a meal.

He hung out around my bedside lamp during the evening.

Coming up next: Part V, the last in my series. Can you guess what kind of lizard it will be about?

It's All About Lizards - Part III - My Bedrooom Lizards

As a teenager there were three lizards who lived in my bedroom, two males and female. One male was very dark brown, almost black, the other was a deep olive green. They each had their own wall and window which they patrolled. I named the dark brown one Sauron and the green one Frodo. (Can you tell I was into The Lord of the Rings?) They showed up at different times and seemed to co-exist quite nicely.

Here's a Frodo-like male throwing out his throat pouch looking very bold and brave.

But it is the little female that I was most fond of. I named her Celeste, after a favorite Donavan song of the same name. What made her so unique is that I only saw her when I played my guitar and sang. From out of nowhere, it seemed, Celeste would appear. Wherever I happened to be in my room, she would be a foot or so away. She would be on the wall near my head, or on my bedside table, or my pillow. She would cock her little head from side to side as if carefully listening to each note, each song. As soon as I stopped playing and singing Celeste would disappear. She was my first devoted fan.

Here’s a picture of a little female that looks very similar to my dear Celeste.
While I was in the islands I had one of these little cuties hanging around my bed and night table, a good place for catching small moths and bugs. She was bold, so bold she sometimes hung out on the outside of my mosquito net because it was a very good place for catching mosquitoes.

Part IV will explore (HA! a rhyme!) a variety of other kinds of lizards.

It's All About Lizards - Part II - Lizard Games

One time everything came together, the way the Universe is want to do. My sister, Erva, found a lizard egg. It was dark gray rather than pearly white, a sign that it would soon hatch. We thought we’d put it in a box and keep an eye on it, hoping to see a baby lizard break free. But we didn’t get that far. As she was holding it the egg began to move. We watched fascinated as it broke apart and a tiny lizard emerged from its shell. It had hatched in my sister’s hand. It is one the few things for which I am jealous.

We kids used to play a game with lizards. We would each catch one, not easy, but not difficult either. Then, by butting their little mouths up against our noses, we would get them to open their little jaws and get them to bite down on the tips of our noses. Leaning over, face towards the ground, we would see whose lizard would dangle in mid-air the longest. It wasn’t long before the lizard figured out all it had to do was stop biting down and it would drop to the ground and be able to scurry away.

One time I caught a large male. There we were, four or five of us kids with lizards dangling from our noses. One by one lizards dropped to the ground and mine was still biting down on the tip of my nose. There was no doubt who the winner was. The problem arose when it became obvious “my” lizard had no intension of letting go. I gently tugged on him but that only caused him to bite down harder. Who knows how long I would have stood there with a lizard dangling from my nose.

Now a lizard doesn’t have teeth, as such, but rather a kind of rough boney plate. And a lizard’s bite isn’t all that hard, though its jaws are strong enough to crush beetle carapaces.

This lizard would not let go of my nose. The harder I tugged, the harder he bit down. The harder he bit down, the harder I tugged until finally (no I didn’t tug so hard that I pulled his little head from his little body, I would have been horrified!) a small piece of skin was separated from my nose and the lizard was no longer attached. Yup…that lizard had taken off a bit skin.

He won hands, err, nose down.

Here’s a picture of typical male. He has fine ridge on his tail. He was on a papaya leaf outside the kitchen window. It was raining that morning, you can see drops of water on the leaf. A few days later, during the night, we saw him sleeping on the leaf.

Stay tuned for Part III.

It's All About Lizards - Part I - The Lizard Behind the Painting

Well, I'm back home after spending two months in the islands. While I was there I wrote up a series of blogs, which I will now inflict on you, the gentle reader. So, for the next five posts it’s all about lizards.

I have always liked lizards. I think I was about six when I first became aware of them. At least that’s about the time of my first memory of a specific lizard.

We lived in a house in Cruz Bay on St. John called The Shell. On one wall was a painting. If one faced the painting to its left was a chaise lounge then an open doorway which led to the kitchen, bedrooms and bath. Over the doorway was a light.

A lizard lived behind the painting.

When Dad came home from work he would often spend the time before dinner stretched out the chaise reading or doing a cross word puzzle. There is no long twilight in the tropics, it gets dark very quickly once the sun goes down, so the light would be turned on.

It wasn’t long before the light had attracted a number of moths. It was then that the lizard, who lived behind the painting, would appear. Now he could have gone directly to the light from the painting, but he rarely did. He would walk down the wall, jump on the chaise and go across my father’s chest, then go up to the light to have a meal. When he was through, he would go back the way he came, crossing Dad’s chest to return to his home behind the painting. The lizard usually only went to the light when someone was in the chaise. He would cross anyone’s chest, but he seemed to prefer Dad.

Who can know what was going on in his lizard brain. Sometimes my sister and I would catch flies for him. He would eat them out of our fingers.