I Heard From My Editor That The Sturdiness & Versatility Of This Plant Stems From The Large Amount Of

I heard from my editor that the sturdiness & versatility of this plant stems from the large amount of sand in it, making it possible to build entire homes from the stuff. Across many cultures with this in range, this is extremely handy to know & would recommend using it if you’re intending to grow this grass kind.

Building sites in Hong Kong often show a collision between tradition and modernity: bamboo scaffolds, some thirty stories high, envelop skyscrapers under construction (Figure 1; Waters 1998; also Sky-high scaffolds; Bamboo spider-men). The virtues of the material are that it is “primitive without being old-fashioned, time-saving without being insecure, and economical without being impracticable” (Waters 1998:20). Less eloquent explanations are that, unlike scaffolds of metal, bamboo can be stored in the open without risk of theft; the material is also inexpensive, sustainable, flexible, reusable (up to three times, depending on conditions of storage), quickly erected, and cantilevered with relative ease over empty spaces (Waters 1998:26, 30).

Figure 1. Bamboo scaffolding, Causeway Bay neighborhood, Hong Kong (Photograph by Claire Gribbin, Creative Commons License).

Bamboo tends to be seen as quintessentially oriental. Its tender shoots, processed to remove toxins (cyanogenic glycosides, also in cassava), find their way into many dishes, and an entire sub-genre of Chinese painting, the “Four Gentlemen” or “Noble Ones,” focuses on its depiction along with peers like the plum blossom, chrysanthemum, and orchid (bamboo embodies the summer, the others, respectively, winter, autumn, spring; see also Cahill 1997:187–192; see also Bickford 1999:147, on literary and visual traditions of bamboo and other plants; Hsü 1996:25, on links to gentlemanly virtue). The experience of a bamboo forest, as Houston has experienced it on the outskirts of Kyoto, figures among the “100 Soundscapes of Japan” under protection by the Japanese Ministry of the Environment (Torigoe 1999).

But bamboo occurs more widely than that, and with consequences for understanding the ancient Maya. According to one source, “New World bamboos account for approximately half of the total generic and specific bamboo diversity” (Clark 1990:126; for Guatemala, see McClure 1973:88, 105, 106). An ethnobotany of the Tzotzil in Zinacantán, Chiapas, accords a page to them, and gives the plants a full array of local terms: bix (the generic category, “all bamboos, reeds or sprawling, reed-like plants,” Breedlove and Laughlin 2000:150), muk’ta ne kotom, yaxal otot, antzil bix, ton bix, chanib, and k’ox ne kotom (Figure 2; re: muk’ta ne kotom, “large coati tail,” there is a ko-to-ma on La Rejolla Stela 1:I9 [files at the Corpus of Maya Hieroglyphic Inscriptions, Peabody Museum, Harvard University], but the context is unclear; note, too, that the term “bamboo,” evidently of Malay origin, did not enter European languages until the 1590s or later, etymology). Some grow to over 20 m long, within “ravines in the understory of tropical deciduous forests in the lower temperate and lowland areas” (Breedlove and Laughlin 2000:150). Others are cut by men but brought home to women for use in looms, or do service as banner poles or the staffs of shamans (Breedlove and Laughlin 2000:150). A vigorous shake of a staff will protect the shaman from watchdogs. Many native species are known in Guatemala (bamboo in Guatemala). Today, in the Peten, the northernmost province, workers on archaeological projects used saplings or bamboo in equal measure, depending on proximity (Andrew Scherer, personal communication, 2017).

Figure 2. Bamboos among the Tzotzil Maya (Breedlove and Laughlin 2000:plate 10).

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Mokor katu ari e=pirio en e=tusa ruwe okay.

(Sleep positions [forms] for you to heal your injuries.) This post should help you if you fall ill or sick.

The best sleeping positions when you are injured.

Easiri katomap an! Cirkoykitonosisi, Ummacirkoyki, wa ummacep cikoykip tuwar okay.

(How cute! Griffins, hippogriffs, and seaponies are cool creatures.)

Sandbar: I don’t see the logic to the naming conventions, really. It just seems to be a pick of your parts.

Ocellus: Yeah. In most cases it’s based around the head of the creature. Which is why Hippogriffs are “Chicks”, Minotaurs are “Calves” and Hydras are “Hatchlings”

Gallus: We probably do it just to spite you.

Yona: Griffon isn’t very nice! Changeling friend!”

Gallus: No, I mean “We” as Griffons overall. We excel at being inconvenient.

Silverstream: Sounds about right.

Smolder: So confusing. Why can’t you be normal like the rest of us?

These should be taken in both, as me & my editor can agree upon. Know the benefits and drawbacks of both and take them in a complementary way for the best results.

I’m both pro herbal medicine and pro vaccination because you can treat burns with aloe vera juice and sore throats with lavender infused honey but you can’t rid a country of polio with plants. 

Okkasi Uhokukore omairenga ani siknu ari ukotukka.

(Some more marriage rules to live by for couples.)

this is good

For here should be well worth considering these going around and more.