Just how I can remember the lineups for the 1964 World Series and yet not be able to locate the car keys is one more mystery locked in the grayish, three-pound lump nestled between my ears. Another puzzling part of my brain — one steeped in the world of words, not numbers — is the sheer amount of digits that it can process. To consider that the brain (yours, too) has 100 billion neurons is amazing and the cell number can escalate to perhaps ten times that many with all the additional material involved.
When I was 12 years old, I used to practice often with my (Dad’s) Model 67 single-shot Winchester .22 rifle. I would pace off 25 steps, set up a kitchen match in front of a white piece of paper and try to strike the match with a bullet. I had read that the legendary Annie Oakley could do it and I wanted to equal that feat. Although I hit the match fairly often I was never able to actually strike the top of it and produce a flame.
Now I require a fairly expensive set of eye glasses to do my daily work — including writing this column — and I am forced to admit that without those glasses I would not even be able to see the match from 25 steps away, much less have a chance to hit it. Nevertheless, each of my eyes has approximately 125 million visual receptors. Were you aware that our eyes supposedly “compete” for the brain’s attention when we focus upon an object in our line of sight? My left eye has won the contest. Although I formerly used my right eye to sight in upon that match, it is now the left one with the keenest vision. Just how the brain reacts with the millions of visual aids is still somewhat of a mystery but that interaction determines near-sightedness and far-sightedness, as well. We have all heard of the human genome, the composite of our genes that determine who we are. A full 20 percent of that genetic information is lodged just above our eyes.
As far back as the Book of Genesis, it is given unto Man the ability and right to rule over other creatures. By our great wit we have often outmaneuvered the lower animals (sometime to the point of their extinction) by weapons that overcome fang and claw and through other clever inventions ranging from barbed wire to DDT. We all know of the hunters who brought down great woolly mammoths and the anglers like Steinbeck’s Santiago who can bring home the great fish, longer than the boat he must ride in.
In part, it seems that our impressive brain power is responsible. Even the clever rat, able to dodge our traps and deadly bait, has less than half (77 percent to 31 percent) of the total cerebral cortex material of most humans. It is in the cerebral cortex that the higher functions of brain activity are carried out. One would suppose that means algebra, among other things.
Our diets no doubt affect the brain. Just a year ago, I found that processed foods had caused my cholesterol to accelerate to such an extent that surgery was necessary to “plow the arterial road” back to normal circulation. Although the taste of bologna, salami, sausage, and the myriad amount of who-knows-what that makes up the amazing hot dog was wonderful, those treats nearly brought me and my brain to the brink of extinction on this planet.
To help my arteries and veins, I not only was encouraged to give up the “stuff” from the fast food shelf but to consume more healthy liquids. That makes perfect sense, especially in light of the fact that the human brain is 78 percent water. Fats make up an estimated 12 percent and proteins are eight percent of the brain. The remaining 10 percent is said to be salt and carbohydrates.
For those of you who may be taking night classes or attempting to increase your intelligence by doing homework in the evening, there is good news. Studies have shown (sounds like a commercial, I know) that persons who learn a task at night are 40 percent more likely to be accurate and 20 percent more likely to be quicker if they are tested upon awakening from sleep than those who learn the information during the morning and then are tested on it later in the day.
Now that I know that I wonder if the Advanced Placement English classes I so love to have scheduled before noon might be better off to meet at 7 p.m. this coming school year.
Who knows? Yet I can tell you this, in the first game of the ’64 Series, the Yankees started off with Phil Linz and went down through Clete Bowyer among position players while the Cardinals had Curt Flood leading off with Dal Maxvill batting eighth and although the Yanks opened as 9-5 favorites it was St. Louis winning the opening game 9-5.
You could look it up but my old brain already knows that answer.
Larry Hypes is a teacher at Tazewell High School and a columnist for the Daily Telegraph.
Columns
July 24, 2010
Remembering the 1964 World Series, and other unrelated recollections
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