Glimmer

Posted on by curioussteph

As soon as I read today’s prompt of glimmer, the glow-worm ear worm began.

There’s a Mills Brothers song that starts “Shine little glow-worm, glimmer, glimmer”. I learned it as a child. Later, Dr. Pepper soda co-opted the melody for an ad: “Not a cola or a root beer, but a delightful drink that you’ll cheer”.

These two different verses have amalgamated in my mind today and snippets of the melody recur frequently. It was quite the accompaniment to my swim this morning.

And then there are the actual glow worms, none of which are actually worms. In the US, glow worm is another name for what are more commonly known as fireflies. They are magical flying about, glowing on warm summer evening.

Next are the New Zealand glow-worms. These glow worms are the larvae of a species of fly. They are often found in moist caves. We visited a glow worm cave when in New Zealand, and it was a somewhat eerie experience, seeing these iridescent larvae, glowing in darkened caves. Todays photo is from one of those caves (not mine, from a tourist ad).

Both fireflies and the New Zealand glow worms are examples of bioluminescence, where a chemical reaction occurring within a living organism releases energy as light–the glow! There is something magical to me about an organism that can glow–a glimmer of possibilities arises–if that can happen, what else is out there?

Glimmer“>Glimmer

Luminescent“>Luminescent

9 thoughts on “Glimmer”

    1. Wow, that’s pretty fun. Thought about you last week. Julia and Bridget from America’s Test Kitchen did a little event for PBS groupies. It was at Johnson and Wales University, which now has a satellite Denver campus, on the site of the former CWC/Temple Buell. Its a really nice campus, I’d been down there once for something as a kid, but not since then. Still a nice corner of the city.

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      1. It’s a beautiful campus. What building was this in? Do you know? I actually had an ESL teaching job when I first got back from China and at the time I was hired, the school was in my old dorm at CWC. After my interview I wandered around the building. There was a janitor. I told him I’d been a student there 10 years before and asked if I could see my old room. He opened it for me. It was sweet to sit on the bed, look out my window and remember life before my dad died and I was thrown out etc. I’d put one of the cedar fenceposts — the one I saved from the wreckage of my ill-fated earth sculpture project — in the closet. It was still there. ❤

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      2. That’s amazing that the cedar fence post was still there–did you reclaim it? The event was in a newish building called the academic center, just east of the Chapel, at 18th and olive. A pretty nice lecture hall/amphitheatre with a kitchen as focus. Not surprising, given that culinary arts and hospitality are a major focus.

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Published by curioussteph

June 2017: I started writing Curioussteph.com with this: By day, I'm a retired family physician turned body-oriented psychotherapist. I garden, travel, am owned by 2 elderly cats, figure skate and am training for my first triathlon. April 2020: Three years later, the two elderly cats have crossed the rainbow bridge, and we now have an 11 year old adoptee, Ziggy. I'm done with triathlon and skating for the time being, and I am still physically active, running, biking and walking. It's now the time of the coronavirus, which is affecting us all.