Grab Bag Scattagory:

The opening line of Thrillist.com‘s review of this product had me laughing so hard I thought this might be a Funny Stuff entry. But if it is well made, there is surely a place for this product.

Aside from the couch potato visual that first comes to mind, I’m thinkin’ seniors, handicapped, and really anyone with limited capabilities, might truly benefit from the possibilities of this concept.

Adding in the fact that this is in the vein of my guru Joseph Pilates, a man who invented “furniture” which he envisioned in people’s home that would convert to exercise equipment, and I am sold on the “useful idea” category, Thrillist’s opening line notwithstanding:

This is what you’d get if an exercise bike banged a La-Z-Boy….

….the ChairMaster’s not only a crazy comfortable recliner “great for watching TV”… …. but its undercarriage actually slides out to reveal a set of stationary adjustable-resistance pedals, providing little excuse for you to not get fit while you sit. What’s more … there’re seven accessories including resistance bands, a “mini-stepper”, and velcro ankle straps that, when added to specific parts on the rig, enable a full-body workout comprising 50 different exercises to keep you entertained while watching Wicked Tuna: Hooked Up.

Grab Bag Soap Dope:

I have mentioned my recipe for hand soap in a prior post, but it’s time to come clean and share my delight. It is the best hand soap I’ve ever used… does not dry out your hands, no chemicals, no artificial fragrance, feels great, smalls great, inexpensive, no gross slimy soap bar… I could go on and on.

BUT…. perhaps the BEST PART is that I have now used this as my FACE WASH for over a year and it is fantastic.

So here it is:

Find foam pumper bottles. Since I use this soap for all my hand soap, face soap, bath and shower, I order the bottles from SpecialtyBottle.com. I use the bigger ones at sink, tub and shower, and the smaller one for travel:

I also like this Cuisipro foam pump that I found at Sur La Table, as it has a suction cup on the bottom which keeps the bottle in place:

Then you will need Dr. Bronner’s 18-in-1 Castille Soap in the (natural) scent of your choice. It rates a beautiful 1 on EWG’s SKin Deep Cosmetics Database. They offer many sizes in 8 scents: Rose, Eucalyptus, Tea Tree, Citrus, Almond, Lavender, Peppermint, and Baby Mild (unscented). I like the lemon, rose and unscented.

You can get these Whole Foods and at most health food stores… Trader Joe’s usually offers at least one scent. Or order online at a bazillion sites.

Fill the bottle only about one-seventh to one-eighth with the Bronner’s liquid soap, then fill the rest of the way with water. Swirl a bit and your soap is made! It should feel velvety and lather well. If it feels too watery, add more soap.

As I said, in addition to hand soap, I no longer buy special face or body cleanser. This leaves my skin really clean and never dry. Love, love, love.

Grab Bag EEeeeeewwww Review:

In answer to the burning question I am sure you have all been asking, “What are the most interesting parasites”?, this list was offered up on Quora.com by some dude named Hung Lee… there’s a joke there somewhere, but I digress…

So…without further ado, here is a list of Hung’s “most interesting parasites” (I’m thinking Hung doesn’t get out much….):

1. Cymothoa exigua  or “tongue eating louse”. This little nightmare crustacean gains access to its fishy host be crawling in the gills. It attaches itself to the base of the fish’s tongue, using claws to draw blood for food. Wow. So far, so good, right?

Oh but THEN, then the tongue eventually atrophies from lack of blood, FALLS OFF, and the little parasitic prawn thingy ATTACHES ITSELF IN PLACE OF THE TONGUE, and it stays there as a little living tongue until the fish dies a natural death.

LOOK AT THIS THING!!

It is the only known case of a parasite functionally replacing a host organ, and the fish continues to live on, with a crustacean for a tongue, apparently to little ill effect.

2.  Symbion Pandora- A tiny half millimeter long parasite that lives on the lips of the Norwegian Lobster. Probably has the most complicated reproduction cycle on earth, including both sexual and asexual reproduction, multiple larval / feeding stages, male / dwarf males, 3 different types of larvae from the same ‘mother’. No one knows its evolutionary history, or why it reproduces in this way. It’s so weird, that when it was discovered in 2010, it was given a phylum all of its own.

3. Sacculina carcini- Type of barnacle which is a parasitic castrator of crabs. The larval form of the female Sacculina carcini attaches itself to a crab, finds a joint in the carapace and injects itself into the host. The parasite grows inside until it is large enough to force its way out as an external sac below the  abdomen where the crabs eggs would normally be incubating. A male Sacculina carcini finds the now visible female, injects himself into her and begins fertilising her eggs. The host is now no more than a living automata, controlled by hormones manipulated by the female Sacculini, and will care for the parasitic eggs as if it were her own…Infestations of male crabs by female Sacculina carcini result in body & behavioural modifications of the host, in order for the host to ‘act female’, which is essential for the dispersal of the fertilised eggs. The guy crabs start behaving like mommy crabs. Amazing.

And here are three submissions from Marc Srour, invertebrate paleontologist:

The Jewel Wasp: It parasitises cockroaches. The female adult delivers a sting at a very precise spot in the cockroach’s brain (with truly surgical precision, it’s always the same spot). This makes the cockroach not quite paralysed – it can still move its legs, but it loses conscious control of them (its all done with a specific chemical cocktail in the sting). The wasp then bites on the roach’s antennae and slowly guides it back to a special nest where the larva is. The cockroach – still alive and breathing, mind you – serves as the food source for the larva. It can’t attack back or run away since its lost control of all its limbs.

Another Parasitoid wasp parasitises Plesiometa spiders. The adult stings it much like it stings the roach, lays the egg on the spider’s back, and the larva slowly feeds on it – again, the spider can’t/doesn’t react. And right before it dies from having been fed on too much, the spider will build a very special web it doesn’t build otherwise, and this web serves as the pupation coccoon of the wasp.

Cordyceps: This is a fungus that infects insects and spiders. It takes root inside the insect and its hyphae slowly spread inside, feeding on the internal organs. Unimportant organs fo first, slowly going to the important ones. As it progresses further, the host starts acting weirder and weirder (obviously). The last thing to go is the nervous system, but not before it does something spectacular. The host will go to a position that is humid and windy, and stick itself there by any means it can (ants will bite down on a big leaf vein, for example). Then the host dies, and over the next 2-3 weeks, the mushroom bursts out of the head and grows on a stalk and the spores get dispersed. The intersting part is how Cordyceps makes the host go to that specific place advantageous to its own reproduction.

Grab Bag Good Start:

As of January 1, 2013, the town of Concord, Massachusetts has banned the sale of disposable plastic water bottles.

Bravo.

We all need to be thinking about how to voluntarily replace this habit so that similar legislation will not be such a difficult concept to pass in our own burbs.

So while you’re buying your foam pump bottles at SpecialtyBottle.com, check out these 12 oz. bottles I use as my water bottles:

They have white caps instead of black available (call them). I suggest buying at least a couple of dozen (depending on how many thirsty mouths you have) at a time. At 86¢ a pop you won’t be sorry. 

Then find the best way to get the purest water to fill them. I have amazing water straight out of the tap where I live most of the time, but I also have terrible water at our second home. I have not installed an under-sink filtration system there, but I’m thinking about it. Right now I take the filtered water from my fridge door and poor it into a filtration jug, so it’s double -filtered. My 2 year old grandson calls this “making water”, and it’s a favorite chore we do together 🙂

However you “make” your water, the point is we HAVE to stop using so many disposable plastic water bottles, for the good of our environment. It’s that simple.

Grab Bag Brain Game:

AARP happens to have a really good collection of free online games to play. They have instituted a registration process, but once done you don’t have to bother again. 

Crosswords, backgammon, sudoku and a lot more are offered 24/7. 

Here is their version of an old favorite, Yahtzee!!

Grab Bag Funny Stuff:

Gotta smile, cause getting older is better than the alternative 😳

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