{"id":87947,"date":"2020-09-07T19:51:14","date_gmt":"2020-09-08T01:51:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=87947"},"modified":"2020-09-07T22:57:39","modified_gmt":"2020-09-08T04:57:39","slug":"regarding-the-young-dumb-at-byu-and-watermelons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2020\/09\/regarding-the-young-dumb-at-byu-and-watermelons.html","title":{"rendered":"Regarding the Young\/Dumb at BYU, and Watermelons"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"B\u00fchler<\/a>
\u201cNarrenschiff\u201d (\u201cShip of Fools\u201d), by Thomas B\u00fchler
(Wikimedia Commons public domain image)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

If you are one of these selfish and irresponsible idiots, please stop it.\u00a0 If you know<\/em> one of these selfish and irresponsible idiots, please tell<\/em> him or her to stop it:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cLarge parties held in Provo as COVID-19 on the rise at BYU\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

There may be light at the end of the novel coronavirus tunnel, but we still have some considerable distance to travel:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cPharmaceutical Companies Ruin Prospects for COVID-19 Vaccine \u201cOctober Surprise\u201d. That\u2019s a Good Thing.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s get real. No vaccine will work as if by magic, returning us to \u2018normal\u2019: To dream of imminent solutions is only human. But progress will come from controlled expectations\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Curiously, the foolish and self-absorbed young people mentioned in the first link above may actually be the among the earliest to be offered a potential COVID-19 vaccine, and precisely because<\/em> of their solipsistic misbehavior \u2014 at least, that will be the case if this recommendation, from researchers at the University of Southern California and at The Johns Hopkins University, finds acceptance with the proper authorities:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cCOVID-19 Vaccines Should Prioritize Young Superspreaders\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the meanwhile, while thoughtless people effectively continue to try to spread COVID-19 and, thus, to endanger themselves and the rest of us \u2014 including their parents, their grandparents, their teachers, and their Church leaders \u2014 here\u2019s something simple and inexpensive that we can all do, along with masking and distancing and scrubbing hands, that might just help at least a little bit:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis vitamin could help lower your risk of COVID-19: Your experience with COVID-19 might be less severe because of vitamin D\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

***<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

On a quite separate and much more pleasant note:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

One of the great things about the summer \u2014 even this wretched summer of pandemic-damaged 2020 \u2014 is fresh produce.\u00a0 And one of the best pieces of fresh produce is watermelon.\u00a0 It\u2019s on my mind right now because, in view of my wife\u2019s reduced mobility following a recent surgery, a friend unexpectedly but very kindly brought dinner over tonight, including, yes, fresh watermelon.\u00a0 Now, I\u2019m very odd in this respect: My favorite melon is actually cantaloupe.\u00a0 But I\u2019m not unaware of the pleasures of watermelon.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Nor were ancient people in West Africa, where the watermelon as we know it seems to have originated.\u00a0 It appears to have been cultivated in the Nile Valley from at least sometime early in the second millennium BC, and watermelon seeds have been recovered from the Eighteenth Dynasty tomb of Tutankhamun as well as from various earlier sites all the way back to the Twelfth Dynasty.\u00a0 They have also been found at the ancient sites of Bab edh-Dhra and Tel Arad, near the Dead Sea.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

By the seventh century after Christ, watermelon was being cultivated on the Indian subcontinent.\u00a0 By the tenth century, it had reached China.\u00a0 By AD 961, as a result of the Arab conquest of the Iberian Peninsula, it was being grown in C\u00f3rdoba, and there is solid evidence of its presence in Seville by AD 1158.\u00a0 It spread northwards into southern Europe and, after 1492, was brought by the Conquistadores and later colonists (and, subsequently, by West African slaves) to the New World.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Something to think about, perhaps, when you\u2019re contentedly eating a tasty watermelon on a warm late-summer evening.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 If you are one of these selfish and irresponsible idiots, please stop it.\u00a0 If you know one of these selfish and irresponsible idiots, please tell him or her to stop it: \u00a0 \u201cLarge parties held in Provo as COVID-19 on the rise at BYU\u201d \u00a0 There may be light at the end of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1152,1149,11830,9264,8031,13514,9108,5421,16109,9101,8501,5826,9104,16115,4937,16121,16122,16125,16118,2454,782,8471,7701,16112],"class_list":["post-87947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-brigham-young-university","tag-byu","tag-college","tag-contagion","tag-coronavirus","tag-covid","tag-covid-19","tag-disease","tag-dumb","tag-epidemic","tag-infection","tag-orem","tag-pandemic","tag-party","tag-provo","tag-spread","tag-student","tag-students","tag-transmission","tag-university","tag-utah","tag-virus","tag-young","tag-young-dumb"],"yoast_head":"\nRegarding the Young\/Dumb at BYU, and Watermelons<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"    If you are one of these selfish and irresponsible idiots, please stop 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