THE NEXT WOMAN PRESIDENT...?

The Week Magazine quoted a Boston Herald reporter who said, "Why not  Oprah for President?" The Chicago Times thought it was joke, saying that Trump's first weeks remind us that a president with no experience is like choosing a surgeon who has scant medical knowledge.

Oprah said, "Oh gee, I don't have the experience." Same day on a talk show she  said "Oh?"  and indicated with another softer, smiling "Oh..." that she was thinking about it.

I've thought about it. The heroine of my novel, Somebody, Woman of the Century -- Cordelia -- was born day one of 1900, the events in her life coinciding with life-changing events, inventions, wars, and trivia -- movies, music in the air -- everything from bustles to bikinis -- all the things that affected a woman's sense of herself, as women back then, were trying to achieve status with men.

On her 98th birthday, as the last of the party guests were leaving, Cordelia settled herself on the couch next to her granddaughter.

     As the elevator closed, someone called, "Put it on your schedule,  Cordy -- see you at our 'Keep the Environment Green' meeting Friday!"

     Miranda murmured, "What a laugh, you retiring from congress two years  ago, because you were too busy. You've got how many projects now, on  the front burner?"

     "Six. On a four-burner  stove." Like a teletype, Cordelia's mind ticked away on her last year  in congress. "I'm still still doing a jig over the Social Security legislation we rammed through in '96 so that old folks could earn a little extra money -- thanks goodness there are jobs for them."

     "Scary jobs -- they cloned that sheep 'Dolly.' It's scary, Cordy, and I don't like the idea of interfering with Mother Nature's  domain!" 

     Cordelia nodded, thinking of the three men she loved. "Richard would have agreed with you. Jackson wouldn't. Ray would have reacted the same way as Richard." ...was it two years ago that he left the world... memories of one man blending,became memories of the other.... "He'd have worried about terrorism, blamed it on our foreign policy, and chuckled over the fuss, hated the hullabaloo over Clinton's love life. Wouldn't be thrilled about more lady commanders, the military announcing more lady bosses by two thousand and ten." Still musing out loud to herself, Cordelia  hummed a few names. "Oprah, Hillary, Madeline Albright? Who'll be the  queen pin, king pin, the president in two thousand and ten? Some new  person we never heard of?

When I finished that novel in the mid-nineties, woman president made a great deal of sense. Today, it makes more sense than ever.   

It could be Elizabeth  Warren, Kamala Harris, the Attorney  General and Senator-elect from California, or Illinois' Tammy Duckworth, combat veteran who lost both her legs. Or ...what about...

...Michele...?

In a sit down discussion with Oprah, Michelle made it clear she will not be running for office -- she said she would not put her family through more time in the spotlight. "I don't make stuff up, I'm not coy. I'm pretty direct. If I was interested in it, I would say." Ms Obama said again, that eight years in the White House had been long enough and she did not want to force her children to be faced with more sacrifices.

But a year from now... Wouldn't it be something if Michele Obama would consider it?

She's  a name -- a gleaming gold name, a powerful vision -- a queen-pin-king-pin to hold in mind as we start talking now, not next year, talking now -- talking, talking and planning now, for the next election.

Yes.

SAY "Hi" TO YOUR PET FISH

I read that fish can recognize faces.

Bubble bubble, toil and trouble thinks motherly Em, recalling many mornings when I fed the fish in our fish tank -- yes indeed -- the fish gathered at the top and seemed to be waiting for me. Did they recognize me or were they just very hungry?

Well, researchers say they recognized me. Nature Magazine, CNN, The Washington Post,  National Geographic, and Scientific Reports say YES, based on the study that was done by scientists at University of Oxford in the U.K. and the University of Queensland in Australia.

Furthermore, these experts say that Archerfish can be trained to pick people out of a  lineup. They can differentiate  between one human and another.

Various articles explained: "Though Archerfish lack a 'neocortex,'  or any other brain structure involved in visual processing, they are not like dogs or horses, not domesticated, and haven't faced evolutionary pressure to recognize people. Even  so, Archerfish have keen vision and a unique capacity to spit powerfully jets of water that can shoot down prey, such as flying insects or small lizards perched on foliage. They can do this with pinpoint precision."

That ability is how the researchers trained archerfish. They used food rewards to get them to direct their fire at images of specific people on a computer screen -- did it over and over again so that finally, when a familiar face was placed among 44 strangers, the fish spat at the face they knew with 81 percent accuracy.  (You can check this out on Vice.com.)

 

Author of the study, Cait Newport, said: "I think it's really fascinating that they have these supposedly simple brains, but they are still able to use them for really complicated tasks, and we probably just don't give them enough credit."



Wow! What a Queen, Mother Nature is -- more than a queen, a genius, a magical evolutionary evolver Mother Nature is ... 

“In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous.”  Aristotle

Gee, I'm glad I talked to my pet fish, the way I talk to my plants.