Friday, March 09, 2007

5 questions meme

The five questions came to me courtesy of Propter Doc.

1. Living in Walla Walla, do you have any great onion containing recipes?
No, but I know someone who does! Check out this recipe for very yummy Swedish meatballs. They aren't really Swedish anymore because Mr. Sleyed has put his own spin on them, making them much spicier. My Norwegian grandma made them for family holiday gatherings. There are also a few recipes here, but I can't personally vouch for them. If you ever find your way to Walla Walla, the "Sweet Onion King" makes some great sausages. Last summer I grew some sweets in my front yard. They made excellent accoutrements to sandwiches!

2. Which development/study in evolutionary psychology has excited you the most?
My own, naturally :-) I love it for many reasons. No one has ever published a paper on it before; it cuts across primatology, nonverbal behavior, and evolutionary psychology; and everyone at one point or another has done it. Other than my own little piece of EP, I have been very excited by a concept called "strategic pluralism" that explains the within sex differences observed in mating behavior. EPs, and especially the media representations of EP research and theories, tend to focus almost uniformly on between sex differences in promiscuity while ignoring the substantial overlap between men and women. The strategic pluralism theory proposes that humans have adopted a range of sexual strategies and have tended to selectively adopt them in response to their individual physical condition, the operational sex ratio of their community, and their individual developmental history. Thus, what really makes an individual adopt a more promiscuous or more monogamous approach to sex is not whether the person has an X or Y chromosome but other, often environmental, factors.

3. Why Newfoundlands?
I have always wanted a big but gentle, intelligent, loyal dog and I'm a sucker for black dogs with white "love stripes" down the chest. They look tough and intimidating but they're really just big softies. And, they are great with kids. They are the gorillas of the canine world.

4. Where in the world would you most like to go and why?
I would go to the Parc National des Volcans in Rwanda to spend time with wild mountain gorillas. I'd like to walk in the footsteps of Dian Fossey, get to know the place where she worked, smell the air ripe with gorilla musk, and meet the park guards who protect the area.

5. What does the perfect bouquet of flowers look like?
I don't think any one flower bouquet is the perfect one. Any arrangment of flowers can be perfect in its own way. A single flower of unusual shape, hue, or provinance can be perfect. A uniform bundle of garden variety tulips can be perfect. All flowers can be considered perfect in some way, I think. Even dandelions.

Anyone who wants to play along can let me know by leaving a comment. You'll get five questions to answer too!

6 comments:

SquirrelGurl said...

I'm Game! Send some questions my way!

Field Notes said...

Squirrelgurl - I posted them in a comment on your blog ... can't wait to read your answers!

Anonymous said...

I'm game too . . . Post some Q's on my blog

SquirrelGurl said...

Challenge accepted and answered! Enjoy!

Am I a woman scientist? said...

Newfies are awesome, but how do you manage the drool and the smell from their oils? Ten years ago, I was leaning towards a newfie, but then ran into a Polish Tatra Sheepdog and have lavished attention on one ever since. Tatras aren't nearly as friendly with strangers as newfies, so always I wonder about crossing the two... My mind dreams up a zebra dog who doesn't drool, loves water and is friendly and smart, but somehow I don't think the zebra thing would happen... :-D

Field Notes said...

We have a "dry mouth" variety so she doesn't drool. But, when she tanks up at her water dish she does collect a ton of water in her jowls which spills out, sometimes in foot long fangs. We just keep a lot of towels around to dry her face, the floors, walls, etc. We use a comb to remove her dead undercoat; that keeps the smell down a lot. Newfs vary a lot in temperament. We happened to get a skittish one, so she steers clear of strangers. You'd think she's not really a Newf, but she really loves water. We have to keep her on the leash around water otherwise she'll dive right in.