Lifelong learning

One of the things I like about being an editor is always being able to learn new things. I learn about what I'm editing, of course, and sometimes I am asked to write little blurbs, which requires research and learning. I'm continually getting a new perspective.

In addition to direct learning, sometimes I will come across things that make me curious, and I will refer to Wikipedia to get a better grasp. I do this because there have been times when doing so has allowed me to correct things that I wouldn't have otherwise known.

These are some of the things that I learned this week:

• Utah's highest point, Kings Peak, is not as high as Hawaii's highest point, Mauna Kea. This really surprised me, as Hawaii is an island at sea level, while Utah is on a continental craton.
• Cannibalism used to be practiced in Fiji.
• I have heard about the Great Australian Bight, and I thought it was so called because it looks like a bite was taken out of the continent. But the etymologies of bight and bite are completely different, even though a bight looks like a bite.
• There are barracudas in the lakes at Yellowstone, and they can crawl out of the water and chase people. Oh wait, that was just a dream.

The Christmas assault on Thanksgiving continued this week. It didn't help matters that it was cold and snowy, which made people try to justify Christmas stuff. But I don't understand why people think snow equals Christmas, as I have seen it snow before Halloween and after Easter. (Still waiting for Fourth of July snow.)

As I announced on Facebook a few weeks ago, this year I have decided to include "Jingle Bells" in my Thanksgiving playlist, which is currently up to 73 songs. "Jingle Bells," so multiple sources tell me, was originally written for a Thanksgiving program. But then Christmas stole it--as if it didn't have enough songs already! I have kind of been questioning whether I should count "Jingle Bells" for Thanksgiving--after all, nearly every Christmas movie includes it, and the imagery of Thanksgiving usually includes autumn leaves and pumpkins, not snow and sleighs. But it is often snowy at Thanksgiving time. Thus, if we can change the idea of Thanksgiving to be one of a possibility of snow, and not purely harvest symbols, then we can try to curb the idea of snow meaning Christmas.

Yesterday, I figured it would be too muddy for a trail run, so I went back to my preferred running route of three years ago. Part of this was so that I could run past the Bountiful golf course, where I have often seen wild turkeys during the month of November. I wasn't disappointed yesterday. At first I saw some dark objects in some trees, which I guessed were turkeys. After I turned around, I saw some turkeys in a field right near where I had seen the perched objects, so I'm fairly confident they were in fact turkeys. Those were pretty far away. But then I heard some noises, and there was another flock of turkeys, much closer. It wasn't the gobble-gobble sound you hear on commercials, but it nevertheless made me so happy to hear them making noises and see them perched in trees. I had no idea turkeys perched in trees until I saw them flying up there for the night four years ago in Zion National Park.

I used to like winter more. But slipping and breaking my teeth has given me a severe hatred of ice.