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Thirsty? Let Gravity Do the Trick
One of the pleasures of parenthood—and it must the same for teaching—is the wonderful excuse it provides to dip back into one’s favorite books from childhood. For me, Shel Silverstein’s Where the Sidewalk Ends is one of those books.
I happily rediscovered my copy recently, 30 years after receiving it, while browsing the shelves for something to read to our young son. I quickly alighted on an old favorite, “Lazy Jane.”
If you’ve never read the poem or don’t remember it, Lazy Jane wants a drink of water, so she “waits and waits and waits for it to rain.” In Silverstein’s accompanying drawing, there Jane lies, flat on her back, her mouth open to the sky.
Of course, we can’t be like Jane. Relying on gravity to drop rain in our parched mouths just isn’t practical or feasible.
Instead, it’s much easier to tilt back our heads to take a swig of water. More and more, that water comes from a bottle.
Worldwide, we guzzle more than 175 billion liters (46 billion gallons) of bottled water a year, according to recently published tallies. Since one-liter and half-liter bottles are fairly standard, I have to think all that water comes packaged in a comparable number of bottles.
Recently, I saw first-hand where some of those bottles end up—and no, it wasn’t a clean, well-lighted recycling center. It was a small but fast-flowing river in Eastern Europe. Here’s a picture I took.
Earlier in the day, I’d been to the river’s pristine source, below a medieval monastery just 16 kilometers (10 miles) upstream. From there, the river snaked down a narrow valley, flowing past at least two impromptu garbage dumps and an abandoned trout farm.
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Photo copyright: Sally Ride |
Sally played competitive tennis growing up. She was nationally ranked as a junior, played on the Westlake High School tennis team (photo) and led Stanford’s tennis team in college. |
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Photo copyright: NASA |
Sally’s astronaut training included learning how to fly an airplane and even flying in T-38 jets! |
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Photo copyright: NASA |
Sally served as communications officer (CAPCOM) for STS-2 and STS-3 missions, communicating with shuttle crews from mission control. |
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Photo copyright: NASA |
Sally launched aboard the space shuttle Challenger on June 18, 1983, becoming the first American woman to ever fly in space. Here's how Sally describes the experience...
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Photo copyright: NASA |
Sally and her crewmates in space!
[Front: Sally and Norm Thagard. Back: Bob Crippen (left), Rick Hauck (center), and John Fabian (right)] |
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Photo copyright: NASA |
Sally (top) and Kathy Sullivan eat together on Sally’s second spaceflight. By the way . . . the photo is in the right orientation. Since Sally and Kathy are floating weightless, they can eat upside down, sideways, or any which way they like! |
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Photo copyright: Sally Ride Science |
Sally with some new friends at a |
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© 2007 Rebecca Lawson Photography |
Today, Sally runs Sally Ride Science, the company she started to keep kids’ interests in science alive. |
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