Where Did My Brain Go?

National Public Radio has a new contest for everyone who likes to write. Can you write a story about this photo (shown) that can be read in three minutes?

Stories will be judged by Alan Cheuse, who reviews books for All Things Considered. Winner receives an autographed copy of Cheuse’s novel, To Catch the Lightning: A Novel of American Dreaming. Entries must be received by February 28 – in three days, but monthly contests will continue. Read the rules for more info.

How I Wrote My Story

I installed the photo as desktop wallpaper, to see it as often as possible, until I wrote “Flight”. I copied/pasted into entry form and submitted it. I found Previous Three-Minute Stories later!

Bear Grylls, has never filmed an episode of Man vs. Wild in New Zealand. Fiordland, a mostly uninhabitated region, on the South Western tip of New Zealand, would be an ideal location for a future episode.

I think he should visit Fiordland National Park, the largest national park in New Zealand, and home to some of the world’s largest waterfalls. I would like to visit Doubtful Sound, which contains two separate layers of water: several feet of fresh water above saltwater.

Fiordland is also the home of the kiwi bird. The Kiwi is the national symbol of New Zealand, and its currency is sometimes called a “kiwi dollar.”

10,000 People for Man vs. Wild Fiordland 2010

The only group I ever joined on Facebook is 10,000 People for Man vs. Wild Fiordland 2010. They reached their goal of 10,000 members, trying to convince Bear Grylls to film an episode of Man vs. Wild in Fiordland.

Unfortunately, Bear Grylls will not film Man vs. Wild in New Zealand in 2010. Liz Healy, Director of Global Communications for Discovery Channel said:

We are considering your part of the world for upcoming seasons

Bear Grylls is currently filming Worst Case Scenario in Los Angeles.

Birth. Education. Career. Cancer.

Summarizing a life should not be that simple.

Remembering Ellen is my favorite non-fiction writing assignment.

I hope you enjoy reading it.

Lexington Kentucky, known as the Horse Capital of the World, is also the tenth most educated city in United States.

So, in addition to tourist attractions, like Kentucky Horse Park and Keeneland, Lexington has a fantastic public library system.

Central Library

I recommend the main branch, or Central Library, on Main Street, where you can query my favorite reference librarians, and watch a Foucalt pendulum powering the world’s largest ceiling clock.

Central Library was built in 1987, and designed to permit expansion for 20-30 years. It replaced a 1904 building (shown), which was leased to The Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning for ten dollars a year.

Lexington Kentucky Writers Meet at The Carnegie Center

The Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning offers many courses for writers. See their schedule (PDF) for more information.

I take a two mile walk to The Carnegie Center, twice a week. I attend a non-fiction writing class led by writer-in-residence, Neil Chethik, on Tuesday afternoons. I return on Friday at noon, for Gail Koehler’s Writing Practice.

Writing Practice

From Carnegie’s Course Catalog:

Designed as an opportunity to practice creative expression without judgment. Develop your natural story-telling instinct or refresh writing skills from word prompts or personal experiences. Recommended reading: Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg (not required). Class may be entered on any day it is held; it is not necessary to commit to the full duration of the course.

In Writing Down the Bones, Ms. Goldberg exhorts readers to keep their pen moving, which is the essence of this course.

After Ms. Koehler selects three random words or phrases to use, we keep our pens moving for 20-40 minutes, depending on the size of the class. My writing is simply stream of consciousness, but some students write actual stories. I transcribed my output from our last two classes, about 500 words each, so you can read examples.

Our teacher begins the next segment by reading what she has written about her random subjects. The rest of the class follows. Classmates often laugh while I am reading, but I am really not trying to be funny. I write in a relaxed setting, with familiar classmates, and enjoy this opportunity to express myself.

If there is enough time, a ”call around” follows each reading, when writers recite their favorite quotes to the reader.

Do Not Attend Afternoon Writing Practice!

Seriously, we have a nice group; let’s keep it that way. Try the evening class, on Monday at 5:30 — visit The Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning on the Web for more information on their programs and activities.

The Carnegie Center almost closed in June 2003, after former Mayor Teresa Isaac removed it from her budget. Please send a tax-deductible contribution to keep this vital institution open.

Bear Grylls will star in six episodes of Worst Case Scenario, on Discovery Channel, in Spring 2010.

Bear Grylls will be placed in life-threatening situations, including a high-rise apartment fire, and a sinking car, to show viewers how to escape. Grylls will also fend off a shark attack — less likely, but probably very exciting to watch!

History of Worst Case Scenario

This television series is based on The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook, by Joshua Piven and David Borgenicht, published in 1999. Among other things, Piven and Borgenicht explain how to fight bears, alligators, and sharks. The original book evolved into a series of 30 books, on subjects which include, Life, Dating and Sex and Work. The Worst-Case Secenario books have sold over ten million copies.

Mike Rowe, who hosts Dirtiest Jobs, and narrates American Chopper, American Hot Rod, Deadliest Catch, Ghost Lab and Wild Pacific for Discovery Channel, hosted a similar show on TBS in 2002.

However, on earlier series, stunt men performed the escapes, not the host. Rowe explained in a CNN interview:

“we hire the best stunt people in the world to show you out to get out of quicksand, how to jump off of a building and live, how to get out from a car that is sinking in a lake, how to deliver a baby in a taxicab, how to fend off a shark.”

Bear Grylls replaced Mike Rowe, as well as the “stunt people” in 2010 version.

What Is Next for Bear Grylls?

Bear Grylls described this project in a 2008 interview, saying:

“We’re hoping to do an urban survival Man vs. Wild at the end of this year”

Done! Now we can wait for Man vs. Wild: The Movie. Bear Grylls said:

“I hope to do a film next year for Disney that’s gonna incorporate loads of different stuff. The idea is to kind of base it around Man vs. Wild, so we would be filming in a jungle and then everything starts going wrong. You see a plane crash, and there’s a family on-board, and then a whole cat-and-mouse game in the jungle and me getting the family out of there, and then it ends up in London with fight scenes off the rooftops. Again, it would be fun for me.”

How Do You Fight A Shark?

Watch Worst Case Scenario’s 10th Anniversary for answer. At 1:43 of this 3:44 video, coauthor David Borgenicht, asks this multiple choice question to people on street:

What would you do if a shark attacked you? Hold mouse over correct answer to find out now

1. punch in nose
2. repeated jabs in gills
3. punch in eyes
4. grab fin

Bear Grylls leaves tomorrow to start filming a new season of Born Survivor in the Canadian Arctic. Before subjecting himself to the harsh Arctic weather, he took his family on their annual vacation. Instead of visiting their townhouse in Phuket, Thailand, the Grylls family flew 12 hours each way, to stay at Four Seasons Resort Mauritius at Anahita in Africa.

Bear Grylls discussed his vacation in yesterday’s Daily Mail Online. Grylls said:

“As a family, we try to go abroad on holiday once a year. The other break we take is to our small Welsh island each summer. Friends joke that facilities on the island, which sits miles offshore, are a bit on the 15th Century side, with no mains electricity or running water. But I adore it. In return, though, I owe it to Shara to make sure we occasionally have a holiday to a place where everything works and she doesn’t have to flush the loo with rainwater.”

Grylls said they stayed in:

“an immaculate three-bedroom detached villa, sumptuously furnished and with its own veranda, garden and small pool. We tended to breakfast there as a family, then eat in one of the three restaurants, each of which had its own cuisine.”

This sounded like the hotel’s “Bed and Breakfast Plan,” so naturally I looked up the rates. I did not find anything that matched Bear Grylls’s description, but a “Presidential Two Bedroom Suite” costs €10,300 or about $7400 a night. Bear Grylls defended his extravagance, saying:

“I know that in these recessionary times we are somehow meant to feel guilty about any indulgences, but I don’t buy into that. I work super-hard in some true hell-holes for most of the year and I have no reservation about heading off with my family to get a little pampering for a few days. As we used to say in the military: work hard, play hard. It is a great ethic to live by and I do so unashamedly.”

However, this “article,” which praised the hotel, seemed more like an “infomercial,” so the hotel might have been free.

About Mauritius

Mauritius is an island off the south east coast of Africa, about 560 miles (900 km) from Madagascar. Mauritians speak English, have no Army, and live in a tropical climate. It was chosen as best governed nation in Africa, on the Ibrahim Index. E.g. it scored 80.71 on “Participation and Human Rights.” For comparison, Libya scored 20.36 in that category.

It sounds like paradise.

Historically, Mauritius is best known as the home of the Dodo bird which became extinct about 1700. Dodo birds, were basically 50 pound pigeons; too heavy to fly. They had no natural predators until humans arrived on the island. Although the dodo was not hunted, because it supposedly tasted bad — humans also brought dogs, cats, pigs, monkeys, and rats, which plundered their nests, while humans destroyed the forests where they lived.

Dodo birds are often used as an example by environmentalists, to remind us to treat animals better. The image above was taken from Extinct Birds published by Baron Lionel Walter Rothschild in 1907.