Long weekend humour?

It is alleged Albert Einstein said that “If the bee disappears from the surface of the Earth, man would have no more than four years left to live.” He says nothing of woman who generally has a longer life span than man.

Keith S. Delaplane, On Einstein, Bees, and Survival of the Human Race. Honey Bee Project, Univ. of Georgia takes up the challenge. He concludes

I suggest that what’s at stake here is not something so melodramatic as Einstein’s fictitious and dire warning about the collapse of Homo sapiens. I think bee advocates do their cause a disservice when they stoke the flames of hyperbole and sensationalism. Much better to pose the question as a quality of life issue. To the extent that we value a diverse food supply with minimized trauma to the environments where it is produced, we will place a high value indeed on honey bees and other pollinators.

Which brings us to Almond Alliance of California v. Fish and Game Commission, __ Cal. App. 4th __ (C093542 May 21, 2022), courtesy of Stephanie R. Williams at Appellate Advocacy (one of our favorite) blogs. The point of Ms. Williams's piece is how the court combed through and used, or rejected or, dare-say, manipulated the rules of statutory construction to conclude that a bee is a fish--according to the statute being reviewed. She concludes "the case certainly provides an interesting discussion of [legal not bee] canons of construction."

While you are buzzing around, you might be interested in Richard Grennell's suggestion  that references in literature to how bees live and work are mere metaphors for the organization of human society. Shakespeare's Keeping of Bees, 23 Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment 835 (2016). For example, the Lord of Canterbury's chat with the King in Henry V, Act 1, Scene 2.

"Therefore doth heaven divide
The state of man in divers functions,
Etc., etc., etc.