New Hope for Parent-less Cows

Adoption as a Mother’s Day gift? Well, maybe, could be. Stonyfield Farm in Londonerry, N.H., has a program under which you can “adopt” one of its cows. You get a signed cow adoption certificate, a personal biography of the cow (with photo) and twice a year a “moos-letter” with letters “from” the cow.

This is obviously not the perfect gift for every mother, but it might be for the one who collects cow figurines, cow oven mitts, cow toaster cozies and so on. The price is right: $2.95. Call Adopt-A-Cow at (800) 776-2697.

Big Fish in a Big Pond

The largest freshwater fish catch in the world is the Lake Victoria perch, a spectacularly fast-growing species--three feet long by the time it’s 9 months old. Between them, Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania land about 320,000 tons of the fish a year, and they could easily take 500,000 tons (a billion pounds) without endangering the species.

Of course, there are those who might like to endanger it. The fish was introduced to Lake Victoria only in 1962, and when it was, it gobbled up most of the local algae-eating fish. It turns out to be a ferocious predator, which is precisely how it’s able to grow so fast. Now the perch has to be fished aggressively or uneaten algae will take over the lake. Fortunately, it’s said to be tasty, something like freshwater bass.

I’ll Hire Them, by Gum! I Like the Cut of Their Jibs!

In this country, the faces of missing children appear on milk cartons. In France, 1,000 young people under 25 had their faces appear on 1 million wine labels in April.

They weren’t missing. They were just unemployed and trying to enter the job market. “The idea is to help people find jobs, and to incite other professionals to put in place similar initiatives,” said Veronique Bourgeois, a spokeswoman for the project.

The wines, all reds and roses, were from 53 producers in the departement of Tarn-et-Garonne in southwestern France (not one of the famous premium-wine regions). The project was inspired by a program in Paris where young people’s resumes were printed on place mats in restaurants.

A Handy Little Enzyme

In his book “Alcohol and Alcohol Problems,” Mark Keller of the Rutgers University Center for Alcohol Studies describes alcohol dehydrogenase, an enzyme produced by the human digestion that sets in motion the body’s process of ridding itself of alcohol. He remarks that that seems to be about all the enzyme does, which suggests that alcohol has been finding its way into our digestions for a long, long time.