Hayter for April
2, 2023 
Higher isn’t always the same as Taller
A couple of people noticed that I’m smarter than I used to be. A few seconds after I asked them if they noticed how much smarter I was than several months back, one said, “Uh, sure.” The other “Why th—yeah, whatever.”
See? Now, some of you may remember, last year when I had COVID 16? 19? I can’t keep it straight, because I had acquired one of the COVID qualifiers – brain fog. After the third month, I came to the conclusion that I was getting dumber by the week.
My family and friends didn’t notice, because they seldom let me talk. I’d sit in my chair and stare at a wall or a window. I didn’t stare OUT the window, just AT the window. And, when I stood, I couldn’t remember where I intended to go. I had to give up TV because I kept asking Kay the names of actors and news people. I recognized them, but their names were hidden in the fog. I quit watching TV after Kay noticed I was trying to change channels using the remote for the ceiling fan.
But that was last year. A month or so ago, I started noticing I could remember things better. Right now, I’m smart as-- a hammer? Here we are inside the door of April and I’m as smart as I was before COVID, plus some.
What I’ve started doing is reading something every day that I didn’t know the day before. I’m not talking about where I put my reading glasses before I went to bed. I’m still working on things like that.
No, I’m referring to research on topics related to science, history, government, and astronomy. For example, the five planets showing up together last week? I read part of an article about that. Five planets in a cluster? Fascinating. After that, I thought the piece dragged a bit, so I quit reading. No problem. I forgot about it until the day after it occurred.
That being said, I’ve spent some serious time researching today’s topic. I came up with it while looking through dozens of pictures about interesting stuff. One that taunted me was “10 things you don’t know about Mark Twain”. I thought it interesting until I realized that I know more about Mark Twain now than I care to. Another topic was “How snails cross vast oceans”. Fascinating, I’m sure. But, snails?
The one piece that reeled me in was entitled “How Mount Everest got its name.” Back when I was dumb, I thought Mt. Everest was named after the first person to climb it. But his name was Tenzing Norgay, from Nepal. Tenzing was Edmund Hillary’s guide. I thought that since Norgay was Hillary’s guide, perhaps he had already climbed the thing.
The tallest mountain in the world was named Peak XV by a British surveying team in 1852. Apparently, British surveyors used Roman Numerals when numbering mountains.
Eventually, Peak XV was renamed Mount Everest, in honor of George Everest, a British surveyor who lived in India from 1830 to 1843. There is no evidence that Everest had ever seen Peak XV. Yet, 11 years after he left India, the man who replaced him, Andrew Waugh, asked the British Mountain Naming Society to name Peak XV after George Everest.
When George got wind of the idea, he protested. He let it be known that it would be a slap in the face to the people in India and China if Britain renamed the mountain after a British surveyor who lived there for 13 years. So, the Society waited until after George Everest died before changing the name of Peak XV to Mt. Everest.
Here’s the kicker. For over 1000
years, the people of India called the mountain “Sagarmartha” (Peak of Heaven). The
people of Tibet called it “Chomolungma” (Goddess Mother of the World). But the
Brits thought it better to rename the world’s tallest mountain after a British
surveyor. Needless to say, the Asian community was ticked off. I’m ticked off,
too. But only when I think about it.
After all of that, I was shocked to find out that Everest is not the highest place in the world. In Ecuador, Mount Chimborazo is higher than Mt. Everest, but only when it’s measured from the center of the earth. Chimborazo is 20,549 feet high and Everest 29, 035 feet. When measured a sea level.
Measured from the center of the earth, Chimbarazo is taller than Everest. It has to do with the Earth’s bulge at the equator. Chimbarazo is situated along the equator and Mt. Everest is farther north on the Tropic of Cancer, where it’s 6800 feet shorter distance to the center of the earth. I would explain that to you, but I understood it for only about 20 seconds.
Okay, one final tidbit. -- Please stop cheering. -- The only creature tough enough to live on Everest is the Himalayan Jumping Spider.
Begs the question, if the only
creature on Everest is a spider, what could it find to eat? Well, get this. The
wind blows almost constantly up and down and around mountains. When the wind is
coming from the base of Everest, it carries with it all kinds of bugs from areas
less cold. Flies, bees, gnats, doodlebugs, crickets, and other critters. I
assume the bugs do not survive the flight up to the frozen peak, so the jumping
spiders probably don’t have to do all that much jumping. And, no, I didn’t find
out how the spiders stay warm.
That’s it! I can now go to my grave knowing what little I know about Mt. Everest without any regrets… well, I might regret the dying part. What’s important is that I do not intend to teach a lesson next week. At least, not about mountains. Hopefully, I can remember not to do that.
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