damn skippy

There was a great story on NPR this morning about an agricultural high school in Chicago - it offers a full courseload as any high school but in addition, it also is a working farm that the kids take care of and help make decisions about with respect to crops, livestock, and finished products.

What I liked was how the reporter pointed out agriculture is much more scientific and advanced than is generally thought, and how the kids had reached the same conclusion, and that they recognized even if everything else goes down the toilet, ag will stick around because ... well, everybody has to eat. Not everybody has to have a plasma TV. Also, one kid pointed out how many other occupations are influenced by agriculture, or created by it. (As I know firsthand. I'm not a farmer and in fact, I have a black thumb - when the New Ag World Order comes where we grow everything again, I'll still have to trade writing or other services for asparagus and everything else I need. But I have learned a lot about finance and economics - and environmentalism - with the ag-related job.)

And now I need to go check on my own livestock, because I hear the distinctive sound of a water dish being dumped on the kitchen floor. (I have one cat who hates water, and another who likes it so much that he daily attempts to go swimming in his water bowl.)

multiple births

I had a weird dream right before I woke up about some woman who was told by her doctor that she had 13 viable fertilized eggs in her uterus - in vitro, I guess. EEP.

Are any of you guys a multiple birth, like a twin or a triplet or whatever? If you're fraternal, how much do you look like your twin(s)? Also, what celebrities do you know are of multiple birth? We all know Elvis's twin died and was never born. But did you know Ashton Kutcher is a twin?