Introducing mer-dog
Meet mer-dog, who appeared in my dream. In the dream, I was fishing and after a second cast of the line, I got a bite and I jerked the rod to get a strike.. it was a big turquoise and red fish… but lo and behold, as I reeled it up, I noticed that the head resembled my mum’s schnauzer - Emily. I quickly released the hook from its mouth and pet its head…. then the dream ended. Was it because I had, in that evening been to my mum’s place and while my dad, shaved my head, I was stroking Emily and staring at her.
Yesterday at the RICE talk, I whipped out this picture and related it to Biophilia, man’s innate urge to affliaite with other creatures. This was a talk I gave as part of a mini-symposium on “The open laboratory”. Siva and Cheng Puay were part of the team to give their own presentations on biology field-trips. Cheng Puay had finished way early but could have stretched a bit more as he was presenting those interesting fieldwork he had carried out over 3 year periods with students. Our rapport with the crowed wasn’t as we had liked it. Siva was the good boy, surprising us with a clear and well thought out paper.. I knew our rapport hung by a thread so when it came to my turn.. I whipped out the picture and spoke about how dream metaphors of animals were some expression of biophilia…
It was great to catch up with Thomas and Ivan Chew, my band-mate and intellectual and mega-blogger and secondary school classmate.
