When Males Give Birth

 

No, no, no, Sir, that's impossible, men can't give birth, and it's no use trying to do so. Not even the well-known male "womb envy" gives you any rights to claim that ability as a right!

A precarious situation

However, some males of certain species, which are not human, do give birth. That goes for e.g. the fish family Syngnathidae which contains c. 300 different species. The best known one of these is the seahorse, but there are more.

"Caught me something ...."

As some of these species don't even have what's called a "brood pouch". When that's the case, the female just lays her eggs on their tail or trunk. If, on the other hand, they possess a "brood pouch" then that will be where she lays them and that's where her "maternal duties" end, and the paternal ones of the male start. 

It goes without saying, but still, I'll say it: This system is part of Nature and can't be explained away by religious fanatics claiming that it's not "Halal" or something like that.

However, it's in religion we do find some accounts of men giving birth, but they go far back in time to ancient Greek and Roman mythology. Also, there are some legends of a king getting pregnant in Hindu religious texts.

Dionysus 

One well-known instance of a male god giving birth is when Zeus had baby Dionysus sewn into him and bore him from one of his thighs. The original mother of the baby was Semele who was killed by the jealous wife of Zeus, namely Hera, and he had to do something to save the poor, motherless fetus. 

Athene

Zeus also turned into the "mother" of another deity: Athene. Her natural mother was Metis, the first wife of Zeus, but he was advised to do "something" about this very potent and thus threatening offspring of his, so he swallowed up her pregnant mother, Metis, and gave birth himself. And, of course, that event happened in a very spectacular manner: Athene sprang from his forehead, fully armed!!!

There has been some attempts in e.g. Japan to find ways to make male animals as well as men get pregnant and bear children, but up till now in vain. One of the methods was uterus transplantations.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0277539511000252

 

https://www.britishmuseum.org/blog/gods-and-goddesses-greek-and-roman-pantheon

 

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Semele

 

Wikipedia

Becoming A Mom At An Old Age?

 

Grandma attending to her newborn grandchild? Naaahhh, this is first time Mom, 72 years old Daljinder Kaur Gill, with her very first "bundle of joy", namely a son. Presumably she is not even the oldest woman to have that happening to her, but who knows, some day there may be someone even older than a woman in her seventies. Right now, several politicians and "concerned citizens" are clamoring for more babies, so I wonder why the usual "baby-claimers" like e.g. Elon Musk haven't saluted this female bravery. Most probably, it's because these women give birth to brown or black-skinned babies, and most of those usual "baby-claimers" want them white, blue-eyed and male ....

Up through history, the mortality of both the mother and the child in childbirth was considerable. Getting pregnant and giving birth was tempting The Grim Reaper to strike down on both the mother and the baby. 

Even though those women in good social circumstances, who were well-fed and taken care of by a good midwife, might end up suffering a premature death. Some, like e.g. Queen Anne of England (1665-1714), presumably gave birth to 18 children, many of which were still-born or died within a few months after birth: Actually, not a single one survived for a longer period than 11 years which must have been an unbearable situation for her, being the last Stuart on the English throne. 

Queen Anne with her son who died at 11 years of age

Dangerous as it is to get pregnant and give birth, it's quite surprising that women, much older than what's considered the natural age for not having that possibility anymore, get fertility treatments in order to have a baby. I suppose that some/most of them (???) want to prove that they are what's called "real women" in the Patriarchy, i.e. those who want to and do get pregnant. Being subjected to the many myths of "true femininity" they want to fulfill what they see as "their role in society", and one of the ways to do so is to get pregnant, even at an age where pregnancy may pose a grave danger to them. For instance, the risk of diabetes and hypertension are much worse than when the pregnancy happens at a lower age. And, what's more, the child risks an extremely low weight, premature birth and certain defects. However, with IVF and caesarian births, women find new ways of becoming moms, although the female biological clock can vary greatly from woman to woman.

Safina Namukwaya was 70 years old when she had twins, a boy and a girl, using IVF and a caesarean. Presumably she isn't even the oldest woman to give birth because that's supposed to be 73 (74?) years old Erramatti Mangamma.   

Erramatti Mangamma

 

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-67577038 

https://www.today.com/parents/moms/66-year-old-woman-has-baby-rcna198144

 

Wikipedia

When Bad Grows Worse

 

Yup, there they are, those bad, evil and extremely threatening hackers, catfish, spies and whatever who target our online life and make it unsafe. We may not see them or hear them, but the FEELING of their presence stay with those of us who have had the experience of being targeted by some internet creeps. It happened to me some years ago, and it was a very weird feeling to find out that my Facebook friend, whom I trusted and liked, although he had/has some very weird Nazi-like ideas, wasn't always the person I knew, but someone else, pretending to be him. This incident wasn't about either "candid photos" or money, but simply (???) an attempt to get under my skin, so to speak. However, I doubt not that the next step would be getting access to my non-existing fortune as that seems to be the ultimate goal for most of these shady guys.

Gosh, should we be in awe at some devious weapons like this one, or should we file a complaint "to someone" even though most of us take for granted that we have 99.9% chance of wasting our time doing so? Being a confirmed "complainer" I would find it hard not to go for the latter option, but I have to admit that most often, when I do complain, it ends up in a sad confirmation of the 99.9% wasting time-system. That being the case, turns most of us into "sitting ducks" for the, in some way, weaponized individuals of this world.

The political situation being what it is, I'm sorry to admit that the feeling of a general security for most of us in this mutual world of ours has been sabotaged by vague and mysterious, but at the same time not at all unsubstantial feelings of insecurity. It may not be the hacker, the evil gangster, the CIA-agents or even those trigger-happy young folks out to "have fun" the way they like best, but bad things may happen, one way or another. I feel that, and so do a lot of other people also ....

From A Scene to A Mansion And Then Into A Dumpster - Part II

Irene Silverman was a charming and popular widow of a millionaire. She had many friends and took part in much of what was going on in New York, so of course people noticed when she disappeared all of a sudden. Those who knew her well must have pointed to a fact that proved crucial for the investigation: She had come to feel that a young man who rented one of the luxury apartments she had had built in her New York mansion was somewhat shady and probably not who he said he was.

After having had the house turned into some sort of a high class bed-and-breakfast, maybe firstly in order to fend off loneliness, she only accepted people whom she liked and felt were trustworthy. However, there was something about this special lodger, even though polite and well-dressed as he was, which seems to have given her the creeps or just made her feel very uneasy.

She made several notes and drawings of this shady lodger and his just as shady female visitor, which proves that she didn't trust either of them. Unfortunately, she didn't follow through on her suspicions, which would have saved her life. The main reason she felt that way may have been the special and rather flashy female visitor who, after a very short time, seemed to have moved in with him without her, the landlord, giving leave to do so. It was obvious that this visitor was his senior, but at the same time someone whom Irene may have thought was his lover. Anyway, she felt that there was "something wrong" with the couple, and she didn't want him to stay in the house or get to renew his lease of the apartment.  

However, she proved too slow in doing something to get him out which is the main reason why she herself, and not the "weird couple", "left for good" in 1998, presumably to end up in a dumpster in New Jersey. Anyway, she was never found again, although the police did whatever they could to find her body. 

The "weird couple" at Irene's mansion really was something quite special, yes, even more so than she might have imagined. They were not lovers, but mother and son, bonded in many kinds of crimes, one of them being murder. The nickname of the mother was "The Dragon Lady", but she certainly also made a very famous name for herself as herself, namely Sante Kimes (she was born Sante Singhrs: 1934-2014). Her Daddy was Prama Mahendra "Dock" Singhrs from India. He was a herbalist who married an American girl and fathered several children, one of them Sante, who was a handful, even as a kid. 

  

When Sante was caught with her son, Kenneth Kimes, she was dubbed "the most evil woman, I've met" by her own lawyers. Actually, she started out with her cruel and criminal games as a child by torturing animals. Also, she just loved arson and shoplifting. It has been said that she stole something each day of the week, which may very well be true. It was very obvious that she didn't have any empathy with anyone but herself and her youngest son, Kenneth. As to the eldest one, Kent, then he didn't take part in her crimes and thus didn't become her favorite. He had a much more normal relationship with her that the youngest, Kenneth Jr..

Kent Walker 

Her first husband, Edward Walker, was a high-school pal, but the marriage didn't last for long, as they were separated after her conviction for one of her favorite sports: Shoplifting. Their divorce was finalized eigth years later, and her second husband was the millionaire Kenneth Kimes Sr., who was seventeen years her senior. 

Sante, Kenneth Kimes Jr. and Kenneth Kimes Sr.

When she was with Edward Walker, who was a general contractor and who built homes, she excelled in arsons and insurance fraud as well as in theft of all kinds. With Kenneth Kimes Sr. her cruelty trait took on new forms, this time targeting servants or other people who worked for or were dependent on her and her husband. In 1985, she was sentenced to five years of prison for slavery, whereas Kenneth Kimes Sr. agreed to a plea bargain to complete an alcohol treatment program. When he died in 1994 she didn't tell Kenneth Jr. of the death of his father until several months later.

As a young woman, Sante was quite beautiful. She was considered a kind of look-alike of Elizabeth Taylor which is something I fail to see, but she had charisma and charm. One of the men who must have been completely infatuated with her was her own son, Kenneth Kimes Jr.. In my opinion she ruined his life by luring him into her world of crimes and chaos, but I have to admit that he didn't seem very reluctant to do what she wanted: They became partners in crime, and maybe he was the only one she ever loved, that is, as far as she could love which isn't much.

Over the years, many have discussed what exactly happened to Irene Silverman. When the mother/son-murder-duo was arrested, Kenneth Jr. told the police how Sante had used a stun gun when the couple got hold of and dragged her into the apartment of Kenneth, where he strangled her. 

Yes, that they did, and they had a plan to get hold of what they set out to grab as their ill deserved loot. When the couple was arrested, the police found a forged deed with Kenneth which approved the transfer of Irene's multi-million dollar townhouse to Sante as well as other valuables. They were definitely out to fleece the 82 year old millionaire, but the murder of her proved not to be the only grave crime of the duo. On the contrary, as there were at least three previous murders that she had committed, either alone or with his help. The verdict for 118 charges, including murder, fraud, robbery, theft, assault, etc. was more than 100 years of prison for each of them. 

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/-sante-kimes-murder-conviction-disappearance-elmer-holmgren-rcna189733

https://unknownmisandry.blogspot.com/2014/04/sante-kimes-son-serial-killer-team-usa.html

https://www.nytimes.com/topic/person/irene-silverman

 

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2004-jul-08-me-kimes8-story.html 

 

Wikipedia

From A Scene to A Mansion And Then Into A Dumpster - Part I

 Irene as a young dancer at The Radio City Music Hall stage

She was born April 17, 1916, in Louisiana, and she died on July 5, 1998 in New York. Her birth name was Irene Zambelli, but her nick name was "Zambi" by her fellow dancers because it rhymed with "Bambi". After eight years as a ballet dancer she "struck gold", so to speak, as the real estate mogul Samuel Silverman, who was more than a decade older than her, wanted to marry her. Later on she has called the marriage one of "convenience for both of us". He had many connections in high places, and he earned a lot of money which Irene came to like as a useful "tool" to obtain what she wanted out of life, especially after he died from cancer in 1973.

The couple owned apartments, also in excotic places like e.g. Honolulu. One of their houses was a large gray stone five-story mansion on East 65th Street in New York. This magnificent mansion, which was where she herself lived, she changed into what might be called a "luxurious bed-and-breakfast", not for the money, but for the company, now that she had become a widow without any kids or relatives. However she had a dog, the boxer, George, and she went into prize dog breeding which was a grand interest of hers.

At one point she started to take classes at Columbia University, and it was obvious that she liked being with younger people, to have fun and to be fun. People saw her as a charming eccentric who liked lavishing people she liked with champagne and rides with her in her limo. Once she "did a Mae West-entrance", so to speak, by showing up at a party with 10 young, muscular men as her personal backdrop.

In 1998 when she was 82 years old, she was still sprightly and fun to be with. She lived life to the full, enjoying herself as best she could with her arthritis and back pain. That being so, it's very sad to think of how all of this was ended when she accepted a new lodger in her so very special bed-and-breakfast-mansion. Somehow this tall and quite handsome guy, using an alias and not his real name of Kenneth Kimes, made her believe that he was a friend of one of her old friends. Some notes she made after accepting him indicates that she had her suspicions, which may have been aroused when a very eccentric looking, somewhat older woman, started to visit him and more or less moved in with him. Unfortunately, she didn't act upon that suspicion which meant that she fell victim to an intricate murder plan of Kenneth Kimes and his mother, Sante Kimes. 

When Kenneth was arrested he had Irene's keys, cassettes of her tape-recorded calls, several wigs, masks, handcuffs, $30,000, date rape drugs and some loaded firearms. As to Irene, then the body of this sprightly, charming and fun-loving woman had ended up in a dumpster in New Jersey, and she was never found again .... 

https://mail.murderpedia.org/male.K/k/kimes-kenneth-photos.htm

 

https://gb.readly.com/magazines/crime-monthly/2025-04-03/67e73d3ddc3d31c3af4e7dfa 

 

Wikipedia

Ingratitude Is The Way Of SOME

Marina Mary Calabro (1917 – 2001)

 

She was a sprightly as well as kind and very generous woman who had made a career as a hairdresser. Never been married or having had any kids, she lived by herself in her pretty large house, and she had money in the bank, so to speak.

When her 19 years old great-grandnephew, Anthony, had family problems, she was happy to let him live with her, and she treated him as the grandson she never had. Not only was she extremely generous and kind to him, but she also let some of his friends, Jim Morel, Jason Weir, and Thomas (Tom) Lally, visit and stay with him. She may not have understood or liked the music of these young men who had formed a band, "The Electronic Kill Machine", but she loved Anthony and made out her will in his favor.

 

Thomas (Tom) Lally 

That being a fact may be what gave his friends - and especially Tom Lally - the idea to kill her so that Anthony might inherit her house and bank account as soon as possible. Day by day, they watched forensics programs on television for hours, and that cemented their belief that they would be able to stage a murder to look like an accident.

The fact that this 84 years old woman had been very kind and generous to all of them didn't furnish any empathy or even gratitude in them: They wanted to have everything which she had earned in her hair-dressing career, and obviously didn't respect her as a fellow human being, only as some kind of money-machine to be exploited.

When she was found dead at the foot of her staircase, Tom Lally had broken her neck, hitting her with her own frying pan, while Anthony kept guard outside the house. It's heartbreaking that while she was being hit, she was screaming for Anthony to help her.

Quite a heavy murder weapon

 

One of the other young men had hit her with her tea kettle, and still she didn't die. Tom Lally strangled her, and then they dragged her to the steps of the staircase and positioned her with a bag of trash so that it looked like she had had a fatal accident when carrying that one down. A lie which was believed for some time, namely until Jason admitted the murder to Jim Morel, and he told the police.

 

Being proud of what they had accomplished without being found out, Jason may have taken for granted that Jim Morel was for their "deed", and he obviously bragged about it. However, all three murderers were sentenced to jail which, I suppose, is some kind of consolation for what they did to the kind and generous Mariana. To me, the main point in a case like this one is the total lack of empathy that signals a just as total lack of respect of her and her life. 

Anthony Calabro

 

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/92623874/marina-mary-calabro 

 

https://thecinemaholic.com/marina-calabro-murder-where-are-anthony-calabro-thomas-lally-and-jason-weir-now/ 

 

https://eu.patriotledger.com/story/news/2021/12/31/parole-granted-man-who-participated-quincy-great-aunts-murder-calabro-lally-bedford-street/9056127002/ 

 

http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/criminal_mind/psychology/csi_effect/1_index.html

"Luck Do My Bidding!!!!"

 

Of course, that figures! Not only is the guy stranded on a desert island, but the magic spirit that might help him is a bigoted pedant, and I bet he wouldn't even accept the requested password if this poor man got his hands on a computer. 

That may - or may not - be a solution to the eternal problem of luck ctr. the lack of luck, but somehow I suspect it takes more. Also, what's lucky for the one may not be lucky for someone else. In some contexts, the term "lucky" attains quite another meaning.

I remember a Danish classic that gives a vivid picture of what "luck" is, but - embarrassing enough - I neither remember the name of the author nor of the book. Well, anyway, the scenery is of a man who always - as in ALWAYS - is out of luck. No matter what, something awful happens to him all the time and, when it does, he is hit more severely than anybody else has been hit before him. Being down on his heels, he for once feels lucky when some kind soul gives him what in Danish is called a "sukkermad", namely a slice of bread with a topping of strewn sugar. For once, feeling lucky at receiving this very unhealthy meal, he gets cack-handed and drops it on the ground! At first, he is devastated, but not surprised as that's how it always is when he encounters a bit of luck. However, this time luck really is with him, as "The sukkermad" doesn't fall on the topping, ruining it, but on the backside of the slice of bread. That means that it may still be eaten. At once this poor man is filled with joy, yes, even gratitude towards those otherwise so evil spirits that seem to have taken hold of his life, steering him as a doll on a string.

Yes, luck - and the concept of it - sure is special, and one may easily come to feel that one's life is bewitched ....