Also, things that I would have thought would need to be said to people protesting Mitch McConnell, but apparently they do: Don't hug the Aryan Brotherhood guy. Like, seriously. That is not "reaching across the aisle," and it's not heartwarming. That's an actual Nazi.

billytea, I'm sorry to inform you of the death of a fellow Australian.

Tragedy! I've just completed a MOOC on early vertebrate evolution (called "Early Vertebrate Evolution"), in which lungfish make an appearance (in the Module "Learning to Walk", covering the evolution of tetrapods from the sarcopterygian branch of the bony fish. There are only two kinds of sarcopterygian fish left in the world, the lungfish and coelacanths. Lungfish, of course, have lungs. Even though coelacanths swell in deeper water, they still have a vestigial lung too. It doesn't work, but they've got 'em. (And of course all tetrapods have lungs.)

So, lungs seem to be a feature of sarcopterygians. Interesting thing I learned from this course - it's not just them. In fact, when bony fish first split off from other fish 420 million years ago, one of their distinguishing feature was that they all had lungs and other fish didn't. Every bony fish alive today had an air-breathing ancestor.

I saw your pix, Hil. What is wrong with people?

A local reporter tweeted a photo of people hugging the Aryan Brotherhood guy, with the comment, "Awwwww." I tweeted back with a photo that showed the Aryan Brotherhood logo more clearly, because really, that is not an "Awwwww" moment.

But I think I'll be staying in Cincinnati for a while

Yay!!!

Went to a protest against Mitch McConnell this morning

I'm so glad you were there. Thanks for going!

Don't hug the Aryan Brotherhood guy.

I saw your pictures, too, and -- what the shit, man? Punch Nazis, not hug!

I'm really not good with crowds, so at protests or marches, I usually end up hanging around on the fringes of the crowd and taking photos. I met someone there who was really excited to meet me at first -- she works on health care policy stuff, and her group has been looking for someone who can say, "I'm a person who could end up in a high-risk pool without the ACA, and here are the reasons why that would be terrible," and I apparently had all the right stuff to say, but then she found out that I live in Ohio, and she needed someone who lives in Kentucky. I also talked a bit with a father whose son needs a heart transplant, and a grandmother who was very frustrated that she has to yet again protest to protect her health care, because she feels like she's been doing that forever.

And one very irritating woman who was surprised that I could leave the house by myself and drive (I was sitting on my walker, and I think she thought it was a wheelchair), and she thanked me several times for being at the protest, like it was some huge incredible thing that I had done. Ugh.

But Hil, you must be so brave! And you're, you know, overcoming stuff! All by yourself, like a big girl!

Went to trivia for the first time in a month or so, and apparently word is out--it was a madhouse! 38 teams!!!!! There was nowhere near enough room for that many people. When it was an hour in and we'd only hit the first scoring break, and my friend still hadn't gotten the burger she ordered, we bailed. We are going to try a new place, next time. Trivia is not fun if you can't sit down and order food and hear!

Protesting yesterday may have been too much for my ankle. Not walking too well now. And I have no painkillers -- I called my doctor on Tuesday to get a refill, but I just called again, and she hasn't signed the prescription yet. The person I talked to said that she'd put the request in again and label it urgent.

Well, the Australian expat lungfish died, but the National Zoo now has a brand new porcupette. Gender will be determined later ... assumingly by someone wearing thick gloves.