1. Hands and Feet

              I have super-tender hands, but tough, callused feet.  My hands are so sensitive I can’t hold a cup of coffee that most people would barely realize was warm.  My feet, on the other hand, are covered with thick calluses which crack in cold weather and are so painful I can hardly walk, and also the calluses cover corns that are hard to remove. 

              My wife, on the other hand, is exactly the opposite; the skin on her feet stays soft, but her hands get calluses, and sometimes calluses so thick that they crack in cold weather.  She can hold a hot cup of coffee, but it’s a losing proposition because she gets painful little injuries on her hands. 

              So I was wondering:  is this a dichotomy of the human race?   Does everybody have one or the other?

              One can see why that MIGHT be true.   The body being a system, it "understands" on some level how much blood flow is required to irrigate the entire organism.   One can see that the extremities would tend to be the places against which the system would calibrate its needs, thus those would be the places most likely be underserved at the margins, thus encouraging the growth of calluses, perhaps.  One can see that this might tend to happen either to the feet or the hands, and perhaps it is just a lottery?

              Anybody know?   Skin doctor?

2.  The Spectrum of Size

              Here’s another thing I have wondered about since I was ten years old.   You know that there are visible animals of all size, from Whales and Grizzly Bears down to horses and cows, alligators, pigs, dogs, raccoons, cats, squirrels, birds, rats, small lizards, mice, tetras (very small fish), large bugs, small bugs, tics, down to small bugs so tiny you can hardly see them, like chiggers and mites, down to bugs so small you can’t see them, like bed bugs and lice. 

              There are, on the other hand, microscopic beings such as bacteria, protozoa and viruses, which are like super-small animals in essence. 

              But is there a spectrum which connects the two?   That’s what I have never understood.  If we take the smallest animals that we can see, is there an "animal" that is 80% of that size, and an animal that is 80% of that size, and an animal that is 80% of that size, and so on down until you reach the level of the single-celled animals.  Or is there a gap between the visible organisms and the microscopic?  

              One can see it either way.   My guess is that there is no gap; there is a continuum that runs from the one-celled bacteria to the whale.   But on the other hand, one can see why their MIGHT be a gap, because it could be that what we call "animals" require multiple systems—a nervous system, a circulatory system, a digestive system, a respiratory system, etc.—and it may be that one can only "miniaturize" these systems to a certain level, and below that threshold what you are dealing with is a thing of a different nature, although it has characteristics in common.   So. . .does anybody know?

3.  Top Ten Unused 30 for 30 Projects

10.  Bowie Kuhn goes without overcoat at World Series game to pretend it isn’t freezing.

9.  Injuries force Oklahoma to use fourth-string quarterback Troy Aikman; Kansas defeats Oklahoma in football.

8.  Oakland A’s offer Mike Edwards more money in arbitration than he had asked for.

7.  1962, Doug McIntosh commits to UCLA basketball team.

6.  1983, John Tuggle is last player selected in NFL draft.

5.  Obviously drunken Joe Namath makes pass at sideline reporter. 

4.  1977, Bobby Grich injures his back trying to lift an air conditioner.

3.  Makers of "Orange Crush" soda sue Denver Broncos for calling their defense the Orange Crush.

2.  1912, Home Run Baker hits foul ball off the head of U. S. Secretary of State Charles Bennett. 

1.  1966, Phil Roof wins cow-milking contest before Kansas City Athletics’ game.