Random things Thursday:

* I really, really like the new Discovery Channel promo spot - the one with all the various folks singing about what they love (best line: the Egyptologist singing, "I love Egyptian kings." I mean - when was the last time you contemplated that, that someone might love Egyptian kings. [other than Egyptian queens, I mean.].) There's an online version of it (on the Discovery Channel website) that's a little different than the one they're showing on tv - it's longer, and it also has Stephen Hawking contributing a (electronically generated, but still) "Boom-de-ya-dah" for the song.

(I love the fact that Stephen Hawking does "voice overs" for things; he was on a couple of Simpsons episodes.)

(Edited to add: here it is, so you can watch it - though probably most have seen it:



It makes me SO HAPPY. That is how I feel on one of my good days - that the world is so full of amazing cool wonderful stuff that a person could happily spent their entire lives roaming around and studying it. Also: "I love the whole world, in all its craziness." Yes. )

The one thing that kind of gets me about the song, though, is I feel like it's a tune I should know. It sounds a BIT like the old piano evergreen "Heart and Soul" but it's not EXACTLY the same.

The other thing that makes me happy about the ad is that it's all these people, with these different passionate interests - stuff they care about, stuff that moves them and makes them enthusiastic. Whether it's "try[ing] things" (as Adam Savage sings in the tv spot) or the aforementioned Egyptian kings, enthusiasm - caring about something enough to want to learn about it or try it, not necessarily because there's money or fame attached to it - makes me happy. Some days I think it's the enthusiastic people who will ultimately save society and save the world, because they're the ones who care about it. Or at least some little bit of it, and if you get enough people caring deeply about enough different little bits...well, then you have a mass of people who sum to caring about the whole.

And the final line: "The world is just awesome."

Yes, I know, "awesome" has been debased in recent years - taken down from its original meaning (where it was frequently applied to the Deity, as there were few objectives that were not banal-sounding when applied that way) of "awe-inspiring." It has metamorphosed (and I admit with some shame to using it in this way myself) into sort of a general statement of approval, sort of a surfer-dude-inspired place-holder.

But, the world IS awesome, in the old good sense of the world, and I'm glad that Discovery is making a point of that.

The fact that some of my favorite television shows are on Discovery is probably not coincidental.

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* I think, inspired by that spot, I should sit down and make a list of the things I love. (Leaving off the usual and expected suspects like quilting and yarn). It would have to include lichens, and WWII era British history, and historical recipes, and herbs, and allelopathy, and soil invertebrates, and tardigrades, and the search for the roots of Indo-European languages....

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* I started a new "critter" last night - using a Knitting at Knoon pattern and some Paton's Classic Merino I had in-stash. It's an elephant pattern. And it got me to thinking - an interesting survey could be done examining the frequency of representation of different animal species as toy patterns. (and perhaps it could even be worked up into some kind of a research paper in psychology, examining people's perceptions of different species or something). Probably to make it easier you'd have to limit it to something like "free online patterns" or perhaps just either knitting or crocheting patterns. (Or, alternately, go through the available books of sewn toy patterns and work from there). While I think the typical childhood-toy animals (bears, rabbits, dogs, cats) would probably be most highly represented, it seems that there are a great many patterns for elephants out there. I'm not sure whether it's because people tend to view elephants as generally benign and friendly animals, or if they're just easy to make a pattern of.

Surprisingly, though - one group of species you might not expect to have high representation among online patterns, but that does, are octopi and squid. There are cartoonish octopi (such as the Octopode pandemonium to the more-realistic (such as the patterns offered for sale on Etsy by Hansi Singh

I am not sure why octopi inspire such fondness - whether it's the fact that a lot of people (self included) who grew up in the 70s (and probably earlier) have childhood memories of those octopus toys you could make out of yarn - the ones with the braided legs? Or if it's more a fact that octopi are just unusual - they are (supposedly) the smartest of the invertebrates (I have read that some scientists claim they are as "smart" as dogs, for whatever that's worth), and they have those creepy mammal-like eyes, and they have sort of an unusual body shape (all those arms...)

I will say there are some under-represented animals out there - I'd love to see patterns for anteaters and pangolins (two of my personal favorite animals). And tapirs, which are exceptionally cute, don't seem to have many (any?) patterns out there for them (though you could probably fairly easily alter a pig pattern to become a tapir - longer snout, different coloration, five toes on each foot rather than a hoof). Nor do otters, though the problem may be that it's hard to render the shape of an otter face in crochet, knitting, or sewing, and part of the charm of otters is their expression.

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* The new Piecework came the other day. If (as Michelle of Mimoknits fears) Interweave Knits is slowly sliding towards becoming a clone of Knitters', at least Piecework seems to be keeping its own idiosyncratic identity. And there were at least two patterns in this one I want to make - Ann Budd's lace and cabled socks (for which I plan to use the "Butter Peeps" color of the Smooshy sock yarn - I think it is an appropriately feminine pattern for a girly-colored yarn). And then there's an incredibly beautiful crocheted doily based on one Laura Ingalls Wilder made.

Except, that doily is done out of size 30 crochet cotton. With an appropriately small hook. (For those unfamiliar with lace crochet - the higher the number of the crochet cotton, the thinner it is. What I mainly work with is size 3 or size 5. Size 3 is smaller than fingering weight yarn - probably .75 mm in diameter. So size 30 - it must be about the weight of sewing thread, I suppose.) I think if I decide to make it, I will use a more manageable size of crochet cotton, and rather than use it as a doily, I will have it blocked and mounted and hang it on my wall. (I have seen such a thing done before; I know someone with a very large filet-crochet representation of The Last Supper that is framed and hung on the wall).

I do like Piecework - again with the enthusiasm - here are authors who care about historical needlework. Not that it will make them rich or (especially) famous - but they care about it because it's pretty, or it's interesting, or it's a link with the past. And I appreciate that and enjoy it. Even if it's a craft like tatting, that I don't currently do and don't have a particular yearning to learn.