Curious History of the Telephone Book

Last spring, the local Border’s bookstore was closing, and all books in the store on the last day cost $1. I loaded up on books for the library, including one by Ammon Shea titled The Phone Book: The Curious History of the Book that Everyone Uses but No One Reads. Yes, I understand that it’s a book about the history of the phone book, but I promise that it’s fascinating. (Plus, it talks about cuttlefish!) Here’s a 10 list of things that I learned.

-Some telephone books insert fake listings so they can tell if other people copy their information. The fake entries are called Mountweazels because of a fake entry for Lillian Mountweazel that was included in an edition of the New Columbia Encyclopedia. (Read John Green’s Paper Towns!)

-According to the Supreme Court, the telephone book is completely lacking in creativity and thus not subject to copyright law.

-In the first part of the twentieth century, the San Francisco Chinatown phone book was organized geography (not alphabetically) and produced by hand over two weeks by resident Sam Wong. He hand painted the letters using a block of ink called mock which was made from the ink sacs of cuttlefish of the Monterey Bay.

-The District Telephone Company of New Hampshire produced the world’s first commercial telephone exchange and telephone book (1882), the world’s first telephone booth (1878), the world’s first coin-operated telephone (1879), and the first school for telephone operators in the United States (1907).

-James Baker was arrested in the 1920s. He admitted to 8-10 murders, and he was known for ripping the phone book over his victims and scattering the scraps over people that he killed. (The New York police department at the time was known for its corruption, so it’s impossible to tell if the story is true.)

-Hello was not widely used as a greeting before the telephone. Thomas Edison recommended that it be used when one answered the phone. His rival Alexander Graham Bell preferred ahoy. Other possibilities were, “Do I get you” and “Are you there?”

-In 1916, Clark University researched the most efficient organization of names and numbers in the telephone book. Researchers ran almost 4000 tests in which they timed subjects while they looked up numbers laid out in a variety of formats. The final decision for optimum efficiency was four columns to a page, 11 numbers to the inch, and staggered indentation.

-The Journal of Analytical Chemistry published an article about the smell of old books. The off-gassing several hundred VOCs is what we associate with the smell, and the authors characterized the scent as “a combination of grassy notes with a tang of acids and a hint of vanilla over an underlying mustiness.” `

-Environmental opponents of the telephone book claim that the industry is responsible for killing 5 million trees each year. The telephone book industry counters that most books are made from paper and sawdust salvaged from paper mills.

-A clause in the 1996 Telecommunications Act gave individuals the power to publish their own versions of the telephone book. Because yellow page advertisements bring in a significant amount of money (14 million per year in the US), people in some communities receive a half dozen telephone books each year because of competing telephone book companies.

I easily could keep going. The whole book is full of tidbits like these. Consider picking it up if you want information to impress people at parties.

Wow! Squid edition.

Speaking as the girl who was given permission to act as "recorder" during Biology dissections in high school, today's squid dissection was really cool! I can't deny that I turned away a few times and inadvertently shrieked at others, but it was a great experience. Perhaps this is because we had a great teacher, a Stanford graduate student who also blogs daily about her love of cephalopods. Check it out at http://www.science20.com/squid_day. Short and fun tidbits for those of us drawn to invertebrates.

We also learned (from her) that our program's cosponsor William Gilly, who's been leading many of our science sessions, and who put up with about a million of my geography/biology questions on our Sunday drive from Hearst Castle, is a blogger for Scientific American. There's no shying away from science here. http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/expeditions/2011/06/20/squid-studies-changing-seas-and-shrinking-squid/ I have a good feeling that Seth and I will be learning a lot more about cephalopods in the coming months. Also, if you're looking for a free Humboldt squid to dissect with your class, here's the link for you. http://gilly.stanford.edu/outreach.html. We talked about uses in Art and English. If you want a squid, I can hlep you come up with a project.

So you probably know what's coming for you. 10 things I've learned about cephalopods, mainly Humboldt squids, in the past few days. Hold on to your hat.

1. Squid are all muscle. This makes them about the best possible animal for a snack. They're pursued by everything from dolphins to albatross. Also, when you eat calamari, you're usually eating the mantle (head), cut into rings with the organs cut out from the center. However, the entire squid is edible.

2. The hardest part of a squid is it's beak, which is comparable to a bird's beak. It's made of chiton, and it's very strong. Gilly told us about being bitten by a squid while trying to place a camera on it (a story in itself, I'm sure). He didn't feel the bite because of possible numbing agents in the squid, but he needed 15 stitches. He realized the severity of what was happening when he saw the squid on his arm and red blood on the boat deck. Squid have blue blood.

(Squid beak in center circle)

3. Humboldt squid are "reproductive machines." They only live a few years, but their reproductive systems are bigger than their circulatory systems. The female's egg mass is the size of a small car! The male lays spermatophore packages around the female's beak, but no one has actually ever observed their mating rituals.

4. You can't tell the sex of a squid until you cut into it's mantle. Another thing you learn from cutting one open is its approximate age. The tiny (breadcrumb-sized) statolith works like a "black box," recording information about the squid's age and the water temperature during its development. It also helps the squid maintain equilibrium in the water.

(Squid heart. I believe that this is the systemic heart, but it could be a brachial heart. Don't quote me on it.)

5. Squid are some of the only animals on earth to move using jet propulsion. They're only methods of defense are their ink and their escape abilities. They can easily adjust the water flow (yes, I'm simplifying this dramatically) to swim in any direction.

6. Squid ink is edible. Squid can also change the patterns of their inking. They can mix it with water to create a general smokescreen effect. Or they can mix it with mucus and create a pseudomorph, a shape that looks like a tasty treat. That way they can escape while the predator goes after their ink.

(Ink pouch)

7. You cannot keep Humboldt squid in captivity. Because they are all muscle and live in the ocean where they'd never run into a hard surface, they bang themselves repeatedly into the glass until their mantles hemorrhage. Researchers are trying to study them in their natural habitats.

8. Squid have both chromatophores and photophores. The photophores on the ends of the tentacles look like little drops of light and draw fish in for the squid to eat. There's still a lot of research being done on chromatophores, but know that the entire squid can change color instantly. In one instance, when a camera was placed on a squid, it varied it's color pattern to match the frequency. To see this camouflage ability in action, you can look here. http://youtu.be/ZbNsMVQzca0

9. Humboldt squid have eight arms and two (longer) tentacles. The tentacles have sharp teeth, and can quickly grasp the food. Arms work to keep food from escaping.

(Measuring Squid)

10. When measuring squid, you should measure just the mantle. If you hear reports of squid lengths that seem impossibly long, see if the person is measuring by stretching out the elastic tentacle. This is what some people do to exaggerate the size of their finds.

I have one more day to ask questions. Anything you want to know? I also have the name of a cuttlefish breeder if you're interested in helping replenish the supply.

(NOAA research boat for the afternoon exhibition. Whales, plankton, and for some, seasickness.)

Tide Pooling

(Look at my fun waterproof boots.)

If you ever are offered the opportunity to muck about in a tide pool, I recommend it. We spent over two hours traipsing around, poking under rocks, and lifting up kelp deposits. Susan was kind enough to loan me a pair of waterproof boots, and I stayed dry and warm even while wading through knee-deep water. I also saw the best side of the other teachers-helping each other find the critters we were searching for, holding out hands as a stabilizing force for people whose feet were less sure, and modeling curiosity about all of the creatures we came across. There was at least one abalone, a few fish, a fair number of crustaceans, an overwhelming number of anemones, and millions of jelly-type animals that we didn't always recognize on our own as alive.

(That large gray object on the right is actually a colonial tunicate. I reached my hand in the water to use it to poke the jelly substance immediately to the left, and it was soft. Just about everything you see here is alive.)

(This octopus shouldn't have been in the intertidal. It's now in Gilly's cephalopod lab.)

Steinbeck and Rickett's used to go collecting in the tide pools around Monterey. Reading my post about writing and Cannery Row, you might also remember the the metaphor of a tide pool is the essential metaphor for Cannery Row throughout the book. At our lecture preparing us for the experience, the scientist discussed the importance of looking slowly at details instead of surveying the vistas. This goes against human inclinations, and he challenged us to spend 5 minutes at two different times staring quietly at the same tide pool. The animals living in the pools can feel our approach, sense our shadows, and taste our presence in the water. They need time to adjust to us, and we notice more as we watch the interactions that unfold under the water.

(Bird rock that's appeared in the distance in many of my photos. 6am was the low-low tide of the day.)

(You can see better here how far out we walked.)

Tidepools are also a metaphor for Steinbeck's writing on a larger scale. He cared about symbiosis in communities, and the ways that different species rely on each other. Both he and Ricketts challenged the status quo of organizing (sterilized preserved) animals by phylum, categorization and instead found value in observing living communities. You can see this theme of community design and survivability in all of his fiction and nonfiction writings. Steinbeck observed communities, human and aquatic, in their natural environments, and he let their actions speak for themselves.

Sea Life of the Monterey Bay

Oh Seth, you had to ask to learn more about sea life in the region. Today started the biology section of the institute. Little did you know that I'm way over my head in marine biology terms at the moment. Things like the differences between "lottia digitalis" and "siphonaria maura," for example. Or looking at the effects of "Pacific Decadal Oscillation" on pelagic communities. We're working with a holistic biologist** from Stanford, the director of Hopkins Research Station, and a senior scientist from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute. Understanding that the majority of teachers aren't science teachers, we got some interesting comparisons such as acrea based on "universality of niche" to Tom Joad's final speech in The Grapes of Wrath, and a line of poetry to the jelly(family) food web.

Here are two creatures from the Monterey Bay that I can almost guarantee will be new to most of you.

The first is the vampyrus (vam-pyro-tooth-us) infernalis. Even though of you without a strong Latin background might notice some similarities to modern English words.



It's a "living fossil." When it's threatened, it assumes a pineapple posture to protect it's mantle by placing its arms in a protective posture. As if that weren't enough, it also squirts bio-luminescent particles from its arm tips that create an enormous and distracting display around itself.



The second was only discovered in 2007, and it was given the name "chetopterus pugaporcinus." You're welcome to translate, but I'll hint that the name is based on the appearance.




In the last 15 years, Humboldt squid have shown up in great numbers from more tropical climates due to rising water temperatures, reduced oxygen in the water, reduced competition, and reduced predation. They're depleting the hake fish population. I don't know if they're considered an invasive species, but the researcher used the word "invasion" to describe what's happened.




It's late, and we need to read The Tragedy of the Commons and several responses for our morning sessions tomorrow. Feel free (except Seth) to skip the next part. It's taken directly from my notes.

When European explorers arrived on the California coast in the 18th century, fish and wildlife were plentiful. Grizzly bears fought on the coast over sea life that washed up on the beaches, and condors ate from the sea as well. Between 1789-1811, 39,173 sea otter pelts were taken. Each pelt could be sold to the Chinese for 30 dollars at a time when 90 dollars bought you a house in San Diego. But, otters play an important role in the ecosystem. They protect sea kelp forests by eating sea urchins and abalone who eat kelp. Because the California waters are cold and sea otters lack blubber, every adult sea otter ate approximately twenty pounds of seafood each day. The kelp forests were devastated. This set a pattern where people hunted animals to extinction, altered the ecosystems, and found new animals to hunt. In order, they hunted otters, whales, seabirds, and abalone. (I'm not including the sardines and canning industry. I could.) Meanwhile, in the early 20th century, Julia Platt, Ph.D., fought against the pollution of the canning industries. She broke glass ceilings all over the world, and she even became mayor of the town of Pacific Grove when she found out she would have the power to create a marine conservation area and wildlife refuge if she did so. Onto the 1930s and sea otters were thought to be extinct. While building the Bixby Bridge on US1, a colony of 30-50 was discovered. Fishermen wanted to shoot them because they ate abalone, but some were moved to Monterey Bay. The otters liked the marine area, and soon the kelp forests began to rebound. With the kelp forests came more fish and with more fish came the seals. The seals brought tourists as well as the interest of Julie Packard (of Hewlett-Packard money) who helped conceive of and fund the Monterey Bay Aquarium. It's one of the best research facilities for aquatics in this country, and it's also increased tourism to the area. (Tourism is now the second largest industry behind agriculture. There's more wildlife viewing than wildlife processing, and maintaining a healthy ocean has become part of the economic model.

*I'm pretty sure this is obvious, but I wanted to make sure people knew that these aren't my photos. :)
**Holistic biology is really interesting. It started for the non-science majors at Stanford because they were overwhelmed by the science focus of the school. It encourages students to examine systems and communities (as Ed Rickett's recommended) as an integrated whole.
***If you want to learn more, the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute has an excellent website at http://www.mbari.org/
****I saw my first two sea otters out in the bay this evening. They're just as cute as I expected. It was even better because it was a chance occurrence that I walked out back during the 5 minute break.

Caption Contest 5-A change of pace

We're taking a short break from the poster-style caption contest.
Although there are many more captions to be had...
Please describe this meal for me.

"Sticking to bacon parching combustion"

Seth and others interested in cuttlefish---did you see the entry 9: fried cuttlefish?

Fish Market

Sometimes it's a little sad when you find what you're looking for.

I went to the fish market this morning at 4:45am. My three cabmates and I practiced how to say, "fish market" in Japanese (only about 1% of taxi drivers speak English), but the employee at the taxi stand laughed and said tourists are only up at that time of the morning if they're going to the fish market. The cab was clean, and the streets were quiet. The fish market is enormous, taking about 10 minutes to walk from one side to the other. Most of the market is a mix of shack-looking stands undercover like a warehouse, but without sides. The tuna auction is the big draw, and I probably heard 15 different languages while crammed in the visitor area watching the men (it was all men working in the market) examine the frozen tuna.

In general, I seemed to be the only one who was a little nausous from the blood; others were taking video of the intricate knife slicings involved in the killing. (Kiba, budding sushi chef, I think from the freshness of the fish and the style of the slicing techniques that this might be your type of place.) I couldn't take the box of giant (2+inch) eyes that had been dismembered from fish.

I didn't know that they import seafood from around the world, including MD blue crabs. It makes the whole endeavor seem less sustainable. The fish isn't necessarily fresh, fossil fuels aplenty are used, and don't even get me started on the walls of styrofoam boxes. It certainly felt like an authentic experience (in a way that Pike Place market doesn't to me), even though I just might not have seen how it's regulated behind the scenes.

Reading the above, it sounds negative, but it's more meant as description. I'm glad I went. It was interesting to learn both about the process of seafood-selling (everything from live eels to shrimp flakes) and my own reactions to it in person.

Now I'm curious. People seemed to fall into one of two categories before catching the cab back to the hotel. Group One: I want the freshest fish breakfast ever, and I want it now! Group Two: I'm never eating fish again. Where do you think you'd fall?

What ramen can teach you

Many people know that I'm fascinated by cuttlefish. They're one of the most intelligent invertebrates and seem like a magic box of evolutionary wonders.

Don't believe me? Check out this site. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/camo/ (Teachers, the library owns the full Nova video if you're curious enough from the video preview to watch a full hour of cuttlefish entertainment.)

So, imagine my surprise when I recently went to an Asian grocery store, picked up a package of green tea-flavored ramen noodles, and saw "cuttlefish powder" as one of the top ingredients. I 'thought' I knew that they were considered a delicacy in Asia, but apparently, they're actually a popular snack food. (Ramen noodles aren't generally known for having 'delicacies' as ingredients.) You learn something new every day. :)

Right now, I'm super excited and almost packed and ready to leave for the airport at 4:30 in the morning!