The Cataclysmic Delusion of Self Control

This drawing is NOT in focus, but I am trying to correct that.

My First Book

Donald A. Windsor

As my eighth book rolls off the press, I fondly remember my first book.

Windsor, Donald A.  From the Green Shingle to the Romine Ailanthus.
New York, NY: Vantage Press.  1969. 125 pages.

This book of poetry was published so that I would go into a mean lawsuit absolutely broke.  My reasoning was based on an old admonition that "you cannot get blood out of a turnip".  If I had no money, no one would be able to take any from me.

All through grad school (1959-1966) I would end most days by writing free verse poetry.  After spending long days in classes, or seminars, or out in the field, or in a lab, I would finally relax by writing down whatever rambled through my overworked mind.  I love to play with words by mixing them up in different ways just to enjoy the arrangements.

When my first wife was suing me after our divorce, her lawyer stood up, pointed an accusatory finger at me, and bellowed, "I will get every penny you have!"

The solution was obvious to me -- have no money.  I took all my money and contacted a vanity press to have my poems published.  I even borrowed $300.00 from the bank to go into debt.  Poorer than poor, I became.  I then threatened the lawyer by indicating I would quit my job and return to school.  The lawyer dropped the case and I was off that hook, only to then possess several hundred books and a loan to pay back.  Alas, the bitter price I had to pay for escaping.

The title of this book derives from two memorable places I lived near the University of Illinois campus.  The first was an old house with shingles painted a dark green.  The elderly landlady lived on the first floor and three of us lived on the second floor.  We were all veterans on the GI Bill and serious students.  We enjoyed arguing religion and politics.  My halcyon days were spent in what we fondly called the Green Shingle.

When my GI Bill expired, I ran out of money.  I could no longer pay the rent.  Fortunately, I had to spend a summer at the Friday Harbor marine station in Puget Sound to fulfill our department's requirement.  When I returned at the end of summer, the Green Shingle was vacant.  My roommate had moved my meager belongings to another apartment. 

When he graduated, I moved to an upstairs apartment on Romine Avenue.  By then I had obtained a research fellowship and had more money.  This was a beautiful apartment, with plenty of windows.  This was the most elegant and comfortable apartment I ever had.  Outside of every window was an Ailanthus, also called Tree of Heaven.  Thus the name in my book title, Romine Ailanthus. 

Unfortunately, I got married and had to move out of the Romine Avenue apartment.  The end of bachelorhood brought the end of an era of concentrated dedication to intellectual pursuits.  I would not be able to return for the ensuing three decades.   

So, my first book stands as a printed record of my poems during a period in my life as a grad student.  The publisher's editing and marketing of the book were woefully inadequate.  My original purpose of evading a hostile lawyer was a triumph.  The book was not.  Nevertheless, I am stuck with it. 

As a scientist, I strive to describe reality.  As a poet, I strive to describe my reaction to reality.  
From the Green Shingle to the Romine Ailanthus does exactly that.

Blog # 4

My Favorite Scientific Article

My Favorite Scientific Article
Donald A. Windsor, Norwich NY

Of all my scientific publications, my favorite is:

Windsor, Donald A.   Most of the species on Earth are parasites.   International Journal for Parasitology 1998 December; 28(12): 1939-1941.

Here is the story behind it.  My first publication on parasites was in 1960, while I was a grad student at the University of Illinois.

Windsor, Donald A.  Morphological changes exhibited by Tetrahymena limacis upon isolation from three newly discovered hosts.  Journal of Protozoology 1960; 7(Supplement): 111.

I worked with parasites, lung flukes in cat and rat hosts and then leeches, until I left school in 1966 to work for the Norwich Pharmacal Company.  After I retired from Procter & Gamble in 1994, I wondered what had been happening in parasitology during the past 28 years.  So I started speed-reading all the parasitology journals that were available in our local university libraries.

Upon completion, about a year and a half later, I was astonished by what I had learned.  It could all be summed up in two words:  Parasites Rule!

My fast-forward approach gave me a vast overview of an entire field.  I had acquired a vision that other parasitologists apparently missed, because they lived it day-by-day, with their noses to the grindstone, each in his/her own tiny niche.  The field of parasitology is characterized by tedious labor and narrow focus.  Parasitologists can easily miss the big picture.

But not I.  I grasped the big picture because of my fast-forward approach.  Parasites rule the Earth because they outnumber all other species.  Moreover, because parasites, by definition, harm their hosts, they inflict mortality and morbidity upon all other species in an ecosystem.  When competition, or predator-prey interactions, or environmental forces cannot regulate free-living species, then parasites step in and take over the management of ecosystems. 

Nature not only abhors a vacuum, it also abhors a monoculture.  Whenever a monoculture gets too large, diseases, caused by parasites, move in and curtail it.

Had I not been absent from the field of parasitology for three decades, I would never have seen this vision.  It was truly a Eureka moment!

Blog 3

"Chenango" is an old Indian name meaning "Land of the Bullthistle"

"Chenango" is an old Indian name meaning "Land of the Bullthistle". 

Or so the traditional story has it.  The Bullthistle is not native to North America; it was probably brought over from Europe. 

Nevertheless, we in Chenango County, New York, use it as our county logo.  I am a Bullthistle Birder, a Bullthistle Botanizer, and a Bullthistle Hiker.  With this blogging site I am now a Bullthistle Blogger!