Year of the Hog

I read recently that this is the year of the hog in the Chinese system. Each year is apparently associated with a beast in a rotating 12 year cycle. The beasts are:

• Rooster
• Dog
• Boar/Pig/Hog
• Rat
• Ox
• Tiger
• Hare/Rabbit
• Dragon
• Serpent/Snake
• Horse
• Ram
• Monkey

Of course it begs the question: which came first, the Chicken or the Egg — er — the Chicken or the Dog (or Boar or Rat or ...)?

Speaking of chickens and eggs, did you know that some genius in England (I think) has claimed to have decisively answered the question of which came first? His answer is the egg and his reasoning goes like this: What comes out of the egg is what was in the egg, genetically speaking. But what goes into the egg isn't necessarily what was in the mother.

In other words, he opines that the chicken is a chicken because it came from a chicken egg — it couldn't come from any other kind of egg. But sometimes things go wrong when eggs are created or fertilized and the result is a new set of DNA. Some new sets of DNA are not successful and the egg never hatches, but other new sets of DNA work out okay and you end up with a new critter inside the shell. Maybe that explains the Easter Bunny!



Sounds okay, but my retort is "what about cancer?" And no, I'm not shifting my calendar focus to the zodiac on my way back to the Chinese calendar (though I'll get back there). What I'm asking about is the disease called cancer. If I understand what I've read (though you must consider the source), cancer cells are mutations of normal cells. The DNA has been changed during replication. What if this happened after the egg was laid/fertilized/whatever? My point is that what started out as one thing turns into another, and why can't it happen in the egg and result in a chicken? It didn't start out as a chicken egg, but a chicken came out of it! So can you really call it a chicken egg? If that's how it happened then the chicken came before the chicken egg.

But what do I know? I'm just a Rabbit.

So back to the Chinese calendar. This is the year of the Pig or Hog or Boar. Different calendars call it different things, but those things are rather different from one another, don't you think? And some calendars have a Rabbit while others have Hares, and we're rather different from each other, too. But I don't want to split hairs! ;-) ;-)

According to the placemat (the Chinese calendar has been handed down through the centuries on restaurant placemats) anyone born this year will be "Shy but short tempered. Affectionate and kind to loved ones. Impulsive and honest. Most compatible with Sheep and Rabbits. Steer clear of other Pigs."

I was born in 2005, which was the year of the Chicken (uh-oh, hare we go again!). According to the placemat, those born under the sign of the Chicken should avoid Rabbits. Of course, I'm a rabbit. So I have to avoid — myself.



That picture has absolutely nothing to do with me, but I found it while I was looking for rabbit pictures and I thought it was cute.