What I'm Reading: The Elephant's Secret Sense

The Elephant's Secret Sense, by Caitlin O'Connell, is a non-fiction book about the author as she visits Namibia several times over the course of 15 years to study elephants. On some trips she's working with the Namibian government to find ways to reduce elephant raids on farms in a region called the Caprivi Strip; other trips are pure research funded by American and European non-profits.

On her earliest trip, just out of graduate school and with her new, South African-born husband, her close observations of elephants leads to a theory that elephants can communicate through the ground, sending out messages with very low-frequency rumbles and picking them up miles away through special soft pads in their feet and specialized ear organs. Over her subsequent visits she devises ways to confirm the various parts of her theory: using seismic equipment to pick up the rumbles, studying elephant anatomy, and finally conducting experiments on elephants in zoos to determine whether they can indeed hear such rumbles and respond to them. Finally, she is able to put the whole theory together and test it out successfully on elephants in the wild.

The book is full of lots of fascinating details about elephants and sometimes the odd lion, rhino, or hyena as well. Caitlin's insights into elephant society show dense webs of relationships, including among males, who were previously thought to be far more solitary than her research shows. Actually, male elephants as she describes them have whole social networks and are even capable of tender interactions with close friends. She also finds that the large female-headed family groups elephants are well-known for are not always headed by the oldest female elephant, as other researchers had assumed; rather the matriarchs seem to be selected by coalition-building within the herd and can sometimes be a younger but especially wise or bold female.

There is not as much in the book about Caitlin's own life in the wild, although we do get scenes with locals or Namibian conservation officials. She also includes a harrowing accident when she was driving a pick-up truck on a wet road, packed with hitch-hiking locals in the truck bed. Despite her slow speed and careful driving, she is unable to avoid a slick patch that slides the truck off the road, sending the riders in the back flying across the asphalt. One rider dies and several are injured, and she has to fight past her own horror and guilt at the accident to get the truck to the nearest town.

The book is written in an easy, vivid style that belies its hard science underpinning. Despite a paucity of human characters, Caitlin describes the personalities of the various elephants so well the book actually feels well-peopled, and we come to welcome a fresh sighting of an elephant we've met earlier. Anyone with an interest in elephants, southern Africa, or real-life adventure would find The Elephant's Secret Sense entertaining and informative.

Place Names in Rock Lyrics: Night Train

In this feature, we've previously done Sweet Little Sixteen and Dancing in the Streets. Now let's add Night Train. It's a very East Coast-centric song, basically consisting of James Brown shouting out the stops the Night Train is taking. (Next week, to make up for that, we'll do a West Coast-centric song.) It was originally done in 1951 by Jimmy Forrest, and has been covered numerous times, but James Brown's cover is by far the most famous version.

All aboard for the night train
Miami, Florida
Atlanta, Georgia
Raleigh, North Carolina
Washington, DC
Oh, and Richmond, Virginia too

Baltimore, Maryland
Philadelphia
New York City
Take it home
and don't forget New Orleans
the home of the blues

Not sure how the train jumps from New York to New Orleans there at the end. Here are the cities in this song:

Atlanta
Baltimore
Miami
New Orleans
New York City
Philadelphia
Raleigh
Richmond
Washington, DC

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And after three songs, here's our master list:

Atlanta
Baltimore x2
Chicago
Detroit
Los Angeles
Miami
New Orleans x3
New York City x2
Philadelphia x3
Pittsburgh
Raleigh
Richmond
San Francisco
St. Louis
(heart of) Texas
Washington, DC x2

Bleak Peanuts

This one, from June 1953, is perhaps not as bleak as some of the other strips I've posted, mainly because Charlie Brown brings this on to himself to a large extent.

That's what you get for being passive-aggressive Charlie Brown!

Place Names in Rock Lyrics: Dancing in the Streets

In this feature, we've previously done Sweet Little Sixteen. Now let's do Dancing in the Streets. Originally by Martha and the Vandellas in 1965 (and co-written by Marvin Gaye), this song also charted in the 1980s in a version by Van Halen.

I might add this song is a personal favorite of mine.

The difference between the verse and chorus is a little vague in this song, but there are at least "A" and "B" sections, with the lyrics in the "A" sections varying slightly each time to incorporate different place names.

Calling out around the world,
Are you ready for a brand new beat?
Summer's here and the time is right
For dancing in the street.
They're dancing in Chicago,
Down in New Orleans,
In New York City.

And the next time it's this:

It's an invitation across the nation,
A chance for folks to meet.
There'll be laughing, singing, and music swinging,
Dancing in the street.
Philadelphia, P.A.
Baltimore and D.C. now.
Can't forget the Motor City.

And then in the final "A" section the only city names is Los Angeles. So the list for this song is
Chicago
New Orleans
New York City
Philadelphia
Baltimore
Washington, DC
Detroit
Los Angeles

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And after two songs, here's our master list:

Baltimore
Chicago
Detroit
Los Angeles
New Orleans x2
New York City
Philadelphia x2
Pittsburgh
San Francisco
St. Louis
(heart of) Texas
Washington, DC

Bleak Peanuts

One from March 1953. This 1953-54 period seems like a rich one for my feature. I suppose Schulz didn't quite have the right modulation down yet for the tone of the strip.

Good Lord, look at Charlie Brown's expression in the second panel. Man, he's taking it hard. And the final panel. That's not just the sound of losing a marble. That's the sound of every date for which he'll ever be turned down, every promotion he'll ever be passed over for, every disappointment reverberating through his entire life. No wonder he can't sleep.

Place Names in Rock Lyrics: Sweet Little Sixteen

Here's something I've been wanting to do for a while. I've always liked it in rock songs when they sing about different places in the chorus. If you don't realize what I mean, I think you'll see in the lyrics below.

My plan for this feature is to count up all the different times various cities are mentioned. Which cities are the rocking-est? Let's start with perhaps the first rock song to do this, Sweet Little Sixteen, by Chuck Berry.

In the first chorus, he sings this:

They're really rockin in Boston
In Pittsburgh, P.A.
deep in the heart of Texas
and round the 'Frisco Bay
All over St. Louis
and down in New Orleans
All the cats wanna dance with
Sweet Little Sixteen

And the next time he sings the chorus, he mixes it up just slightly, like this:

'Cause they'll be rockin' on Bandstand
in Philadelphia, P.A.
deep in the heart of Texas
and round the 'Frisco Bay
All over St. Louis
Way down in New Orleans
All the cats wanna dance with
Sweet Little Sixteen

So the cities and places we have so far are

New Orleans
Philadelphia
Pittsburgh
San Francisco
St. Louis
(heart of) Texas

Ranking the Man-Thing Movie

Okay, I graded the Man-Thing regarding it as a horror movie here, now let's regard it as a comic movie.

By the way, I have previously ranked the Batman movies, the Superman movies, the other DC movies, the Avengers movies, the X-Men movies, the summer 2015 comic movies, the Spider-Man movies, and the non-Marvel and non-DC comic movies.  So let's add the Man-Thing.

As ever, my ranking system is
Green=excellent  Blue=pretty good  Black=Okay  Red=avoid

Unfortunately, the Man-Thing rates even worse as a comic movie than it did as a horror movie. In the comics, he functions mainly as a way to get the story going and to come in and settle accounts at the end. Still, he is somewhat heroic, hating to see fear and mistreatment among humans despite his brainless state. The movie didn't capture any of that heroism at all. Nor, as I mentioned in the horror review, does the movie capture the sheer weirdness of the comic. As guardian of a dimensional nexus in the middle of the swamp, the Man-Thing is always encountering demons of despair, confused Vikings, evil cults, and talking ducks that wander through the portal or are otherwise attached to it. The movie did not make use of that crucial element of the comic at all.

Still, the movie wasn't absolutely terrible. It was lurid enough to be mildly entertaining, and kept the action moving, without the slow parts that so often plague B-movies. Really, it was just good enough to escape the dreaded red "avoid" color.

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Here's the master list of all comics movies I've rated so far, in order from best to worst:

Crumb
American Splendor
Iron Man
Heavy Metal (1981)
Spider-Man 2 (2004)
Avengers
Superman (1978)
Captain America
Batman Begins (2005)
Captain America 2: The Winter Soldier
Spider-Man (2002)
X-Men 2: X-Men United
X-Men: Days of Future Past
Superman II
Batman (1989)
Ant-Man
The Dark Knight (2008)
Iron Man 3
The Wolverine
Sin City (2005)
X-Men: First Class
X-Men
Avengers 2: Age of Ultron
Swamp Thing (1982)
Spider-Man 3
Iron Man 2
Watchmen (2009)
Batman Forever (1995)
Superman Returns (2006)
Thor 2: The Dark World
Incredible Hulk (2008)
Mystery Men
Dark Knight Rises (2012)
Man-Thing (2005)
Superman III
Supergirl (1984)
Thor
X-Men 3: Last Stand
Hulk (2003)
Fritz the Cat (1972)
Batman and Robin (1997)
Batman Returns (1992)
Superman IV

Amazing Spider-Man (2012) (Haven't seen)
Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014) (Haven't seen)
Batman (1966) (Haven't seen)
Catwoman (Haven't seen)
Constantine (Haven't seen)
Green Lantern (Haven't seen)
Hellboy (Haven't seen)
Judge Dredd (Haven't seen)
Man of Steel (Haven't seen)
Sin City: A Dame to Kill For (2014) (Haven't seen)
V for Vendetta (Haven't seen)
X-Men Origins: Wolverine (Haven't seen)

Bleak Peanuts

A little something different this time, with a January 1975 strip focusing on Peppermint Patty rather than Charlie Brown:

This might not immediately strike you as being so bleak as some of the other strips. It ends with a moderately humorous punchline, rather sitcom-esque in its timing. And this strips also sets up one of the all-time funny sequences in Peanuts, when Snoopy stays in Peppermint Patty's guest bedroom as a watchdog (sorry, Watch-Beagle!) but proves unable to defend her house when thieves break in because he's trapped by the extremely wavy waterbed.

But think about all the strips where Peppermint Patty falls asleep in class, and gets poor grades. You might have thought it's just because she's athletic, not academic, and finds school boring and pointless. Maybe she's a little lazy too, and doesn't try very hard in class.

But here we learn differently. She's tired all the time because her dad (we know from earlier strips he's a single parent) has to work nights and doesn't get back until 2AM. She's scared to be home alone at night, and turns on the TV as a distraction. Puts all those strips about falling asleep in class in a different light, doesn't it?

To tell you the truth, for me, it puts her whole character in a different light. All that bravado she presents to the world is a false front. She really feels vulnerable, and opens up here to the single person she can trust with her feelings: Charlie Brown.