# 14 WORD SERIES: HAREBRAINED

HAIRBRAINED

You’ve heard the word, maybe even used it. The fact is, the original word isn’t Hair-brained but Harebrained, a word used since the 1500s, back when people thought the hare to be nervous, skittish, prone to sudden erratic movements. A harebrained person was considered flighty, reckless, or lacking good judgement.

Contemporarily, the phrase is often spelled hairbrained when connected to crazy ideas that even bright, sensible people sometimes suggest. You know, a poorly planned scheme or idea. Like the one voiced by my husband the day after he summited Angel’s Landing in Zion National Park.

Maybe it was the altitude that cause him to say, “I want us to get a Tesla.” When he said that, he was riding as passenger in the Much-Loved-New-To-Me Silver 2024 Subaru Outback mentioned back in #92 A Woman’s Briefs blog.

“That’s a hairbrained idea if I’ve ever heard one,” I said, gripping the steering wheel a bit tighter than usually I do. We are not Elon Musk people, I said.

But I’m impressed with the Tesla, said he.

I don’t know about buying a Musk product.”

You don’t admire Jeff Bezos, but you shop Amazon. Your books are for sale on Amazon. He didn’t let up.

You find Mark Zuckerberg –what’s your word- ‘disgusting’? But for a long time, you used Facebook. Google is guilty of surveillance concerns, of maintaining a monopoly, but you use Google.

“I get it,” I said.

You have Apple laptop, iPad, phone, watch, but there are questions about labor abuses of the Uyghur people in China’s Xinjiang region where much of that stuff is made.

He had to have looked up some of this stuff!

You are very aware of the dreadful working conditions and severe abuses against shrimp workers in Thailand and Indonesia. You saw a documentary on that. You even thought about no longer eating shrimp but that hasn’t happened. And how about the horrible abuses of people and land where bananas grow?

He was on a role. He went on about clothing, cocoa, and coffee. “Still drinking that stuff, Barb?”

We own a Tesla now. It wasn’t a harebrained idea for a 91-year-old hiker who is still an excellent driver but sees the handwriting on the wall. I’ve begun studying the 310-page Owner’s Manual, learning how to be friends with an infotainment computer, an Autopilot/SFD computer, the Hardware 4, 8 cameras, and a car that will pull over and park if it sees (literally) I’m not paying attention. But back to hare brains. I want to introduce two.

 This is the famous Young Hare by the master, Albrecht Durer in 1502, around the time of the word, Harebrained, came into vogue.

Wild hares have very specialized brains with rapid predator detection; larger brains, more white matter, than our domestic rabbits allowing for split-second reactions. Scientific studies suggest that because wild hares don’t have underground burrows (who knew!), they are more prone than domesticated rabbits to extreme vigilance, paranoia, and explosive responses. Their fear center, the amygdala, is huge.

Albrecht Dürer’s incredible watercolor and gouache work captured the animal’s individual hairs, the whiskers, and precise anatomy. Except, his hare is mature, not young. The only problem with this exquisite work is in the title. “Young.” The German translation for the work is “Field Hare.”

My husband’s translation for Tesla is “Car.”

 The title wasn’t the only problem associated with Dürer’s work. In fact, this peaceful drawing created quite a stir in the 16th century. Until this painting, animals in art were kept small, part of the background, hidden in large religious paintings, primarily as symbols. Dürer’s hare as subject, as a personality in its own right, was shocking to the art world. As was the word, Tesla (in its own right) was to me.

Here’s a wholly different hare.

Aristophbunnies - Philosopher

 This is Aristophbunnies. He’s a philosopher. I know that much about him. This floral-coated hare has lived with us for at least twenty years. Surely, he should belong to some child, but he belongs to me and will stay mine until finally he reveals the stories he holds in his harebrain.

You know Scooter. Scooter Sublime is doing his best to coax stories from Aristophbunnies, but Aristophbunnies has held his tongue. As I do, about buying a Tesla.

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