The Bruce Palma Report

“You can always learn something new,” as the saying goes. Well, I made the mistake this morning in Googling “are frogs dissected in schools.”  I’ve always wondered why kids in school have to be subjected to cutting open random dead things floating in formaldehyde. I also wanted to find out if kids were still cutting into dead animals in the pursuit of knowledge. What came up in my search was not a recipe for sauteed frog’s legs in butter sauce but this from the online Encyclopedia Brittanica:  About 75-80% of North American students will have dissected an animal by the time they graduate high school. An estimated 6 million – 12 million animals are dissected in American schools each year. While frogs are the most common animals for K-12 students to dissect, students also encounter fetal pigs, cats, rabbits, guinea pigs, rats, minks, birds, turtles, snakes, crayfish, perch, sea stars and earthworms as well as grasshoppers and other insects. Sometimes students dissect parts of an...

I recently saw an episode of the 80’s sitcom Alf . I didn’t know much about Alf, the show or the character, until seeing this episode. And to tell the truth, I fell asleep before the episode ended. I still don’t know much about Alf , the show or the character. If you can call Alf a character. He’s more like a used sock or talking wind scarf.  Or maybe a tiny caramel-colored elephant, baked and melted into a talking furry sock thing. I asked my wife, “What is this?” “It’s Alf ,” she said. “I know who Alf is,” I told her. “I just don’t understand the concept.” “He’s an alien,” my wife said.  “Didn’t you ever watch Alf ?” She was getting testy. It was late. I let it slide. “No,” I said calmly. “I know who Alf is. I’ve seen pictures. But what’s he doing eating dinner with some random family?” “I don’t know,” she said. “It’s just a show, relax…” She always tells me to relax when I get worked up over the smallest of things. And this was one of those moments. “I just don’t—” “Don’t,”...