Music for your Monday: Sprinkle of Spektor

A little toast. 

To all the friends 

that we have lost. 

A parade through town

that leaves a mess - 

but oh, 

so fun.

Respite and a Patron

To the library patron behind me -
You shouldn't be eating Chinese.
Please put your shoes back on -
How will I get my homework done??

There are no grounds
For those slurping sounds -
They won't even be drowned out
By this Mr. AZ listening bout.

Disgruntled - should I not be?
And now you're eating a croissant... Really?
There are other spots I could sit...
But not really. Everyone else has the tables and windows.

And I sit ahead of the patron
With no grounds to stand on -
Who's most likely enjoying respite
From people like me.

Rhizobium, Rhizobium: Bioetry?

Of all things, one of my intensive Bio classes asked for a poem about a 'good bacterium.' Well, demanded, rather, it wasn't an option.

Most of my classmates were very annoyed at this assignment. Probably because they would rather calculate percentages of exponential growth versus actually think about word construction. Really.

They will never know how much I liked this assignment - and how I could not understand their dislike for it - at all. So I'm back, friends, for a moment, but only to share this bio poem. If you're curious about succinate or Nod-f (factors), look it up. It's worth it.

Photo Credit//Article Link 

Rhizobium, Rhizobium,

You wonderful bacterium:

Fixer of Nitrogen like no other,

To leguminous roots providing cover.

Like no other.

Rhizobium, Rhizobium,

Fair proteobacterium,

Such intimate association

Causes nitrogen fixation -

Through root nodules.

Legumes do require nutrients grand ,

Soil can’t always provide this demand –

But thanks to a factor dubbed ‘Nod’,

Rhizobium twines round plant roots.

Proximity.

Roots low in nitrogen once cried

“Absence of nutrients? We’ll die!”

Rhizobium heard this sad lament,

It release Nod factors (to roots detriment).

New beginning.

Nod-f now released, Rhizo could grow,

Inside legume roots, outside; below.

The plant sighed with joy; its need were met

As for Rhizobacterium?

Good as it gets.

Fixing Nitrogen in forms plants can use,

Now even growing can be put on cruise.

Rhizo gains malate, succinate, too,

And leguminous roots? Fixed N2.

Symbiotic.

nunc ad dei nostrum gratias erit;

This symbiosis; we cherish it.

These tales shall good men will teach his son,

And April’s earth day ne’er go by,

From today to the ending of this world,

For those bacterium will be remembered,

Those few, those happy few,

May we call them band of brothers?

For they hold their manhoods not cheap,

Doing good and never evil. 

**Note: the last ten lines taken and inspired by Shakespeare's

St. Crispin's Day speech by Shakespeare; Henry V.