Tag: Bertha Morris Parker

Books of Knowledge… by Herbert S. Zim (Among Others)

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Golden Guide - Wikipedia

Here are a few I still have

How about a little break from the nooze, for something more wholesome?

When I was a wee child, one of the first authors whose name I could cite was Herbert S. Zim, author of almost 100 books on nature and other scientific subjects (https://www.paperbackswap.com/Herbert-S-Zim/author/)–you name it, he wrote about it. Golden Guides, assorted field guides for older children and adults, on everything from insects to dinosaurs, and even a book or two on cars: he must have been a terribly busy man.

He wasn’t the only one. Bertha Morris Parker could give him a run for his money. She wrote the whole Golden Encyclopedia for children and wound up with more than 80 titles in print.

The Golden Book Encyclopedia 16 Volume Set

16 volumes! I wish I still had them.

My parents saw to it that my brother and sister and I had plenty (!) of books to read–our house was full of them. We picked up a habit of reading that’s still with me today. And it wasn’t all science: novels, histories, collections of Bible stories (some of those illustrations by Gustave Dore kind of freaked me out), and stacks of comics. My father had a Life of Kit Carson that’s probably worth its weight in gold today. I read it several times. He also had Knute Rockne; I read that, too.

Are kids still reading books like these? I wish I could say yes, but I don’t know. I suspect not. It’s a kind of poverty. And that makes me sad.

How I Fell in Love with Dinosaurs

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Love in the Time of Chasmosaurs: Vintage Dinosaur Art: Life Through The Ages

Y’know what’s funny? Technically speaking, this animal isn’t even a dinosaur. It’s a plesiosaur, a contemporary of the dinosaurs. But this painting of a plesiosaur–now reposing, I’m told, in the Milwaukee Museum–totally haunted my early childhood and gave me an unquenchable, lifelong desire to explore the prehistoric world.

(I just noticed I’m sitting here in a Jurassic Park T-shirt.)

This illustration can be found in The Golden Treasury of Natural History by Bertha Morris Parker, who will always be one of my heroes. Another one of my heroes, my Uncle Bernie, sat me on his lap and read to me out of that wonderful book. That he butchered the dinosaurs’ names, I didn’t care in the least.

Here’s another funny thing: for some time after first seeing it in the book (a full-page illustration), I was convinced this animal still lived. Somewhere out there in the ocean, it was still swimming.

Here’s another one of those illustrations, this one depicting Dimetrodon–again, not a dinosaur; but always lumped in with them.

The Golden Treasury of Natural History – Looky

Now I know the pictures are only pictures imagined by an artist, not real–but oh yes they are! I’ve seen these creatures in my dreams.

I wonder where the LORD is keeping them.

Sanity Break: Old-Fashioned Natural History

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The Golden Treasury of Natural History by Bertha Morris Parker: Very Good Hardcover w/ Jacket (1952) | JDBFamily

One of the glories of my childhood was The Golden Treasury of National History by Bertha Morris Parker, copyright 1952. That painting of the plesiosaur (above) is one of my all-time favorite pictures. Hours and hours and hours I spent in that book! And it left me with a lifelong fascination for animals past and present.

Patty got me a used copy for my birthday last year, and I resort to it sometimes when I’m feeling stressed, tired, or just hung out to dry. I did that today.

Okay, a lot of the science in the book–especially with regard to life in the distant prehistoric past–is hooey. Even as our science today will be tomorrow’s hooey. I don’t blame Bertha Morris Parker, whose work I admire very much. She had to go with the science that she had. But really, I doubt the giant ground sloths went extinct because they never found a comfortable place to rest their claws. Or that dinosaurs vanished because they just didn’t have enough sense to adapt to changing conditions. It was 1952 settled science.

What I love here is the vastness and the intricacy of God’s creation, the enduring mysteries of life on earth, and the overwhelming “Wow!” factor I find in giant prehistoric animals. And happy childhood memories are a plus–my Uncle Bernie reading to me from the book and having the devil’s own time trying to pronounce the dinosaurs’ name: and me not correcting him because I loved him and knew that he was reading to me because he loved his brother’s children.

And now I’m getting a little teary-eyed, so I guess I’d better stop.

A Good Day, After All

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The Golden Treasury of Natural History by Bertha Morris Parker ...

I’m running late today, but I’ve just got to tell you–we have alcohol! Calloo, callay, O frabjous day! Our neighbor, Josh, gave us a bottle. I love you, man!

And then my birthday present showed up a week early–The Golden Treasury of Natural History, by Bertha Morris Parker. O, wonderful!

This was my favorite book, as a boy. As I was very young, I loved some of its pictures so much (especially the dinosaurs) that I cut them out of the book for use as toys. *Sigh* I won’t do that again! I’ve just spent a whole hour going through it, page by page, to revisit all those pictures that I loved so much and remember so well. Ah, that glorious illustration of the plesiosaur (see above)! Long live Bertha Morris Parker–she ignited my mind.

And now I’ve got to put away the computer so we can watch a nice relaxing mystery or horror movie.

Screaming Fish–Really?

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Mr. Nature here–and today our safari takes us to tropical shores around the world.

These small fish, mudskippers, have intrigued me ever since I first encountered them, as a little boy, in Bertha Morris Parker’s Natural History–and in the Sunday color comics, Mark Trail.

But I never knew, until I found this video today, that they could, well, scream.

Mudskippers live in intertidal zones and when the tide goes out, they emerge from their burrows and wander around on the mud, feed, mate, court, and fight over territory. They can breathe air through their skin, like frogs: which means they don’t dare dry out or they can’t breathe; but as long as they can stay moist, they can live out of water. And roll their eyes independently of one another. Like chameleons.

As for the screaming, suffice it to say I have doubts as to the reliability of this assertion. But even without the screaming–they can make other sounds as well–it makes for pretty cool video.

God’s stuff–just when you think you’ve figured it out, you run into mudskippers.