The Panther Prints

What do you think of when you hear the word April? Do you think of spring and newly blooming flowers or do you think about April Fool's Day and the pranks? April originally used to be the second month of the year, still following March, of the Roman calendar year. But it became the fourth month around 450 BCE with only 29 days. But when Pope Gregory created the Gregorian calendar in 1582, he changed it to 30 days of April. There are several theories about the etymology of April, the first is that April, came from aperire which means ‘to open’ in Latin. A second theory is that April was named after the Greek goddess of love and beauty, “Aphrodite”. Or another theory that Jacob Grimm, a famous linguist, though was that there was a god or hero named Aper or Aprus April is actually National Humor Month as well as Mathematics Awareness Month and National Poetry Month. April is a wonderful month, we get the chance to fully appreciate spring.

The History of Spring Cleaning When I hear those words butterflies of excitement rise in my stomach. It time for “Spring Cleaning.” Spring cleaning has been a tradition in my house for as long as I can remember. Going through my desks and all the random boxes in my house feels as though I’m starting from scratch. It gives me the ability to reorganize my room and make space for brand new things. Spring cleaning is one of my favorite times of the year and going through it this year I started to wonder about the history of the tradition.  It all started as a Jewish tradition in which families would go through their home and perform a “deep cleaning” in preparation for Passover. Jewish families were supposed to rid their houses of any remnants of chametz for the duration of the holiday. This resulted in a complete cleaning of their homes. Since Passover is in spring the tradition of hunting for chametz took place the week before, hence the name “Spring Cleaning.” As time went on spring

Designer babies, perfect genetics, no genetic diseases, doesn’t this sound like some utopian turned dystopian novel. Can you imagine being designed by scientists? But CRISPR could transform the way we face genetic diseases. This lifesaving technique was developed at UC Berkeley in 2012 just 45 minutes from Mill Valley by Jennifer Doudna. Doudna is a professor of chemistry and of molecular and cell biology at Berkeley “CRISPER?” you’re probably thinking. Well, I’ll break it down for you. CRISPR which is Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats is a technique that edits DNA inexpensively, efficiently and accurately. DNA or Deoxyribonucleic is a nucleic acid that carries your genetic information. It is found in the nucleus of nearly all cells. CRISPR uses an enzyme called Cas9, the bacteria edits the main genes of viruses and then stores them. The immune system then sees the virus and battles it off. CRISPR does this and can also reinstate another gene and then stitc

  You are sitting in the backseat of your car as your mom drives you to school on a foggy morning. You peer out the car window and you see a sign, “Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary.” You ask, “Hey mom, do you know what that sign is for?” She replies, “Oh, just a sign for the seminary. That is it’s full name.” “Ew, cemetery, creepy,” you reply. “Not cemetery dear, Sss-em-i- nar -y--like for Seminary Drive.” As the sign disappears behind you, you might wonder what goes on at the seminary on the hill above Strawberry Point.                                         What is GGBTS?    Since 1959, Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary (GGBTS) has sat in the middle of Strawberry in Marin County, CA. Most of the residents on the other side of the freeway from MVMS know of this peaceful neighbor community, who resides along Seminary Drive. Did you ever know there was actually a Seminary there?     GGBTS is a Southern Baptist residential graduate school training ministers an

SweetHearts - Candy Hearts Most Americans have heard of NECCO Wafers, the first candy in America. In 1847, NECCO wafers were created by Oliver Chase, also known as the starter of the American Candy industry. Oliver Chase is pretty famous, but did you know that he had a brother?  Daniel Chase Created the first SweetHearts ® candy hearts in 1866. To make them he used a new machine of his that could press food dye letters onto heart shaped NECCO wafers. Thanks to him, every year around and on Feb 14, we get to read and taste the little colorful candy hearts, one of the idols of modern Valentine’s Day.

Valentine’s day is a bit of mystery you could say. A holiday with hints of ancient Christian and Roman tradition mixed with the commercial cards, chocolate and flowers. Why do we celebrate this holiday of love in the middle of February? Well, there are a two stories about different saints named Valentine, they both became martyrs according to the Catholic Church. The first story is about a priest during Claudius II’s rule of Rome in the 3rd century. Claudius decreed that single men made better soldiers, so no soldier was allowed to marry. Priest Valentine thought this law unjust and went against Claudius and married young couples in secret. Valentine was put to death when Claudius found out. The second story is that Valentine was killed for attempting to help Christians break out of the cruel Roman prisons. There is a legend that when Valentine was imprisoned, he fell in love with the jailer's daughter. On death row he sent her a letter signed, “From your Valentine.” Doesn’t t

* * * * * I loved reading this murder mystery by Agatha Christie. She is personally one of my favorite authors, she always keeps you on your tippy toes. Murder on the Orient Express is about a detective named Hercule Poirot. M. Poirot is taking the orient express from Istanbul back to England. During the night the train is stopped in a snowdrift, and in the morning Mr. Ratchet (one of the passengers) is found dead. The ending of the novel is so unexpected that you should seen it all along. I absolutely recommend this fabulously written book.