“CURIOSITY, n. An objectionable quality of the female mind. The desire to know whether or not a woman is cursed with curiosity is one of the most active and insatiable passions of the masculine soul.”

Seems like everyone gots some. Curiosity, I mean. Or, you could say everyone gots some. Depends on where you put your puncture nations. Well, maybe not rocks, but who knows. Rocks, Ben Hur so long they turned to stone, some of ‘em. Are they curious? Hard to test. And you can’t lump ‘em all together. Lots of different kinds. You don’t think of rocks running, but they run hot and cold. Hot ones are magma-nonymous – generous to a fault, fluid and warm, working the room with their curious questions: “Wherefore art thou?” Cold ones? Inflexible, set in their ways, hard on everybody, they really rock. If coldie-rocks is curious, why just sit there eating porridge? Does the stock-still, porridge eating stone think gathering moss is the cat’s pajamas? Are the cat’s pajamas made of moss? I digress.

How about positrons and electrons, not to leave out neutrons, photons, protons and deuteronomy?

A positron walks into a hotel and asks for a room. “How much will you charge me?” he asked the clerk. “It depends on the room,” was the answer, “but I will charge you, and you can be positive about that.” The positron said, “Very funny! Did you hear the one about the photon who walked into a hotel and asked for a room?” The clerk says, “No, never heard that one.” “Well, it goes like this: The receptionist asks the photon, ‘Do you have any bags?’ The photon says, ‘No, I’m traveling light.’ ‘That’s curious,’ replied the receptionist. ‘Generally don’t take guests without bags, but if you’re a photon, no matter.”’

See there? Even the hotel clerk is curious. Or, maybe it’s the situation that’s curious and the clerk isn’t, or it’s a curious joke. Yea, even jokes can be curious, which itself is curious.

Maybe it’s only organic things have curiosity. Molecules and dandelions. Dandelions and sunflowers. Always asking, “Which way’s the sun?” You get past the lower beasts of the vegetable kingdom and on up into the big boy broccoli class oak trees and they’re curious plus! Find out something important? They tell the oaks in the neighborhood with lightning speed. And twice the speed, if it’s an old oaks’ ohm.

Then, you go over to the animal kingdom (and I’m skipping lots of these new kingdoms that didn’t exist when I was in school — things that are alive but don’t answer to animal or vegetable calls) and start talking curiosity with a mouse or the three bears. Very curious folks indeed. The more curiosity they got, the more it gets complicated. It seems like having some is good. I’m still talking curiosity here, even if my thread is a bit bear, or unraveling, or more like a yarn than a thread. Don’t tangle with a bit bear ….way too angry, dangerous, out to bite back. Watch out for back-biters. And, you don’t want to tangle with thread or a yarn, either, unless it’s really short, but that’s another story.

In the long run, and I’m not talking stockings here. I’ve lost the thread. What killed the cat? And, think who’s going to survive longer: us or the cockroach? Who’s more curious? I wouldn’t know how to test a cockroach for curiosity, but I’m guessing its got some. Enough to get the job done. Meaning of Life? Not on its menu! Doesn’t head to the library these days. (No more horse-hoof glue.) I’d be curious, though, how to run such a test.

Maybe, if I went to a library, I could learn how to test a cockroach’s curiosity. A box with a maze? Or, maybe they’ve lasted so long by having none. Think about car dealers.

I’d say it’s a pretty sure bet, looking at species’ survival rates, the highly curious human’s not going to be around for the roach’s last song. Blame it on libraries.

Is there a gene for curiosity? I don’t think one’s been isolated. Might not work in isolation. But, if there’s genes for colors, like blue genes, maybe there are some for curiosity. Could be nurture more than nature. Parents saying “Don’t ask so many questions!” That would be the nurture side. Where did the kid’s question come from? That would be the nature side. If the gene for curiosity’s found, now what? Could we breed for it? What if people started having super curious kids, I mean they’re already generally curious enough, but I mean steroidal curious. You’d have to cross breed it in with a hungry gene or before they could say, “Where’s my food?” and have a bite, they’d be wondering how a spoon’s made.

Rocks have it all over us. They don’t waste time on circular arguments, unless they’re all washed up and well rounded. Then, they go round and aground. Well, Rome wasn’t built in a day. It took a lot of unquestioning stones plus people who put them where they were told to.

I guess there’s a reason that not everyone has the same amount of curiosity. Kind of spreads out the work. Some folks ask questions, some look for answers. Developers would never of built Rome if those stones were asking questions all day, getting workers and managers so bollixed up they couldn’t get the job done. And, you can’t whip a rock to make it shut up. Just imagine, if the Talking Heads and the Rolling Stones merged? Heads would roll and stones would speak. Makes my eyes roll just thinking about it. Seems like one question just leads to another, and if you start going all the way back to Rome, the questions are going to pile up taller than Colossus and his museum. At least questions don’t contain matter, and the weightiest questions don’t weigh anything, though they do matter. How could that be?

Here’s a question: What about water? Bet you never asked yourself if water’s curious. Me neither. I’ve just limited myself to thinking about the solids. Liquids and gases are a whole ‘nother thing. Or are they? Maybe we’re back to the rocks running hot and cold, same old story. Hot enough and we’re talking liquids and gases again. Hot stuff, but has its limits.

So, where does that leave us with regard to curiosity? Answered all our questions? Or, are we more curiouser the more we know about curiosity? Wouldn’t be worth getting up in the morning if we knew all the answers, I’m guessing. Of course, I don’t know that, and I don’t know how to test the idea. But, …. guess what? I’m curious.

Of course, some questions don’t really require answers. They’re worthwhile just as questions, no research required. Don’t break an arm getting down your Britannica. No lab work’s going to discover life’s meaning. Good to ask the question, though, every hour or so. Don’t answer that question by saying there is none because, the next thing you know, you’re gonna ask, “Well, why not?”