Help from a Professor

One of my loyal readers, and good friend, Dr. Joe Conrad, decided to give me assistance with those mystifying terms I mentioned towards the end of yesterday’s blog post. Joseph, a retired professor of physical chemistry, frequently comes up with helpful tidbits of information. He outdid himself today. When I opened my e-mail this morning the definitions of those baffling words were waiting for me. Here is Joe’s e-mail to me and others:

Good morning all,

I greatly enjoy this blog by one of my finest Yellowstone friends. She and her husband, Dale, live in Oregon. They spend much of their time in outdoor places, observing, photographing, sketching, noting, observing, learning and enjoying.

This morning (among other sights in rainy Oregon) she mentioned lichens.

“I make an effort to look up the lichens I photographed today. Here are descriptive words from just one page; Gametophytically … quadrate above … lanceolate-acuminate … tristichous … crisped leaves … pleurocarpous plants .. rhombic, papillose cells .. paraphyllia. Oh my gosh! I’ve got a long way to go if I’m going to sort out the local lichens.”

Joe adds:


With great license, here are Joe's definitions of the biological descriptors she found....

... Gametophytically --- how your toddler niece becomes when you try to play patty-cake with her

…quadrate above -- the appearance of a young man with large "pecs" and shoulders

… lanceolate-acuminate -- a knight after a successful bout of gambling

… tristichous -- the appearance of a Christmas tree left out on the curb for 6 months

… crisped leaves --- like wok fried spinach

… pleurocarpous plants -- old weeds griping about respiratory pain

... rhombic -- blowing about rhythmically in the manner of a So. American dance

...papillose cells -- play pens for small orphans

.. paraphyllia -- the opposite of paraphobia, which is the fear of losing single socks at the laundromat.

Back to Elva’s blog:

“Oh my gosh! I’ve got a long way to go if I’m going to sort out the local lichens...
All I learned for sure tonight is that what I thought are British solders, really aren’t. That species grows much farther east and we’ve got something different here.”

Joe's response? i>( ? Turncoat Redcoats ? )

One last comment from me: I want you all to know the pondering frog is a sketch of me thinking about all these heavy duty words, not of Joe working on his definitions. Joe is much thinner than I am.

Thank you, Joe, for a good chuckle!