While I have been jotting a few things in my "Word" journal, I haven't posted anything since before Thanksgiving. I have finally caught up and have a hodgepodge of things I've learned. Some are really interesting (to me!), others maybe only mildly so, read on if you're so inclined!! (ok I did the Thesaurus "thing" on smorgasbord to get hodgepod!!... guilty!)
#114 November 17th: In today’s paper they highlighted the
Lance, now Campbell Snack Co. (as in Campbell Soup bought them out). Not being a big baker, I never knew what the
pin pricks were for on top of the Chez-it Crackers. They are added to let steam escape to keep
the crackers crisp. They can make 16,000
crackers a minute at the plant at the end of the Blue Line! They didn’t say anything about the cookies
you can smell near Hawthorne and Piedmont Middle School. Something to research. I always thought that was part of Lance too…
but its obviously a shortbread company.
11/25
#115 November 18th:
This summer O’Seas Conservation Foundation tested a shark barrier near
an island off of Cape Cod. Instead of
netting which was eco-Unfriendly and caused the lethal extinctions of several shark
species and killed dolphins, whales, sea turtles, and other species; this
technology which uses pipes with electromagnetic stimuli proved eco-FRIENDLY
and 100% effective in keeping sharks off the beaches. I applaud the company for testing
eco-friendly solutions, but I’m not sure we should mess with Mother
Nature. When will they find an “unintended
consequence”? 11/25
#116 November 19th:
There was a great article about the Gay Dolphin at Myrtle Beach in
today’s Extra section. Shopping there
was always paired with going to Myrtle Beach as a kid. And I DO remember that you could buy baby alligators
and turtles there before we became ecologically enlightened and scared of
salmonella. (you could also buy dyed baby chicks, bunnies, and turtles at my
Aunt Ellen’s dime store too!!). But what
I didn’t know about the Gay Dolphin are two things. The 10 levels (quarter and half stories) are
because the owners didn’t want to dig into the rocks and hill between Ocean
Blvd. and the beach when they were rebuilding after Hurricane Hazel in 1954.
They designed a multi-level building that hugged the incline. These short stairs make it easier for the
shoppers to explore the whole building.
I also didn’t know that there is a penthouse apartment with great views
for the owners. 11/25
#117 November 20th:
The world’s largest iceberg is drifting toward the South Atlantic. Designated A23a it has broken free of the
seabed after decades of shrinkage. It
used to be the 2nd largest iceberg, but A68 broke up. It is the size of NYC and as thick as the
Empire State Building. Another example
of climate change and what happens when you “mess with Mother Nature!” 11/25
#118
November 21st:
I
heard this listening to the BBC early this morning as I was waking up. I tracked down the article to make sure I
heard it right. The French sure do have
their own way of doing things. Their
Department of Commerce Alliance and the minister for ecological transition are at
odds of the latter’s campaign to NOT buy electronics and fast fashion on Black
Friday weekend. (First I didn’t know France and Europe had Black Friday
too!). The ecological transition
minister was successful in getting the government to subsidize (to the tune of €145,000!)
repair bonuses for folks to repair clothing and shoes rather than buy new ones. He put out an ad prior to Black
Friday urging people to repair rather than buy new clothes for the holidays. Another ad asked folks to repair electronics
or buy refurbished ones. You can imagine
this made the Dept. of Commerce livid.
But they aren’t backing down, though they did say the Ecological
Transition minister did say he should have targeted online sales versus
physical businesses. Can you imagine if
this were happening in the US government?
The papers and political silos would be on fire, rather than it being a
rather obscure radio message!! 11/25
#119 November 22:
Marilyn Monroe’s first job was in a drone factory! She inspected the unmanned aircraft used to
drop explosives during WWII. I didn’t
know they had drones in WWII! Marilyn
also parlayed the job into a modeling career when a photographer came and took
her picture for a photo shoot inspired by Rosie the Riveter. It went “viral” and she became a pin-up
girl. This led to a screen test for 20th
Century Fox. 11/27/2023
#120 November 21:
Picasso was accused of stealing the Mona Lisa. In fact, he did receive stolen artwork from
his former secretary, Pieret. One piece,
a statue was his inspiration for the face in his painting “Les Demoiselles
d’Avignon”. When they were accused of
stealing the Mona Lisa in 1911, they decided to throw their other stolen loot
in the Seine but couldn’t bring themselves to destroy the art. A handyman named Vincenzon Peruggia later was
convicted of stealing the Mona Lisa when he tried to sell it. 11/27
#121 November 22: A new study in a bilingual journal
shows that folks who are bilingual can efficiently ignore extraneous
information and can concentrate on things more easily without being
distracted. I’ve often thought that
speaking multiple languages would be a gift, but now I know it improves
concentration! 12/4
#122 November 23:
1000 folks still die from Covid every week! 12/4
#123 November 24:
One of the top reasons folks don’t get vaccinated for Covid is their
health providers don’t bring it up. Dr.
Cohen is working on that! 12/4
#124 November 25: A recently launched satellite can
detect methane leaks. It spotted a leak
in a pipe in Argentina and was able to alert operators to fix it. Good for the planet! However I wonder how much gas the satellite
generated on the launch? It’s going to
have to fine a lot!! 12/4
#125 November 26:
In the future, our generation may be defined as the plastics generation
as our fossils will contain plastic. Recently 175 countries signed onto a pact
to end plastic pollution by 2040. It
will take a combination of 9 policies including banning single-use plastics,
but it is feasible to reduce plastic waste by 87%! Most of the policies, however, will use
considerable political capital to enact against a powerful petroleum lobby.
12/4
#126
November 27: According to an editorial in Thursday’s
paper, NC was 13th in the nation and led the South in limiting
deaths during Covid. By issuing a
stay-at-home order and urging folks to follow public health and safety guidelines,
Governor Cooper’s policies saved lives.
Wake County (which saw protests about the policies) had the lowest
per-capita rate of Covid deaths among the nation’s 88 largest counties. NC’s death rates were half of Georgia,
Tennessee, and South Carolina. As we get
out from under the pandemic, it is important to look at statistics and policies
and generate “lessons learned.” 12/4
#127
November 28: Here’s a list of brand names that became
generic words. A few are obvious but
several I never thought about. Google
now means to search, Velcro, and Xerox is copying, but did you know that Zipper was
a brand name along with band-aid? I never
thought about it. Escalator started as a brand for moving stairs as did Frisbie
for flying discs. I did know that Frisbie
was from the Frisbie Pie Company. Yo-yo
was a brand first. They left Kleenex off the list!! And of course in the South Coke means any
type of pop or soda!! Lol 12/4
#128 November 29:
In an article about Queen Elizabeth I learned some details about something I “sort
of” knew. I knew that she used her purse
to signal her staff, but the actual signals are sort of interesting. If she switched hands she wished to be
ushered away from a conversation; if she put the purse on the floor, it meant
she needed saving from an uncomfortable situation and if it ended on the dinner
table, she wanted to be whisked away in the next 5 minutes! If I just had a staff, I might start carrying
a purse! 12/4
#129 November 30:
Queen Elizabeth probably met more people than anyone else in
history. Since her reign was so long she traveled more than any other monarch to weddings, foreign tours, and other
public events. I wonder if she
remembered any of their names. 12/4
#130 December 1: Do you know what an enclave country
is? It is completely surrounded by
another country. When I heard this I
immediately thought of the Vatican, surrounded by Italy and Rome. But I didn’t know there were 2 more. San Marino in the Apennine Mountains of
(again!) Italy is another one as is Lesotho, a country surrounded by South
Africa. Its incredibly mountainous terrain
has kept it from being conquered. 12/4
#131
December 2: What popular song was inspired by a
vaccine? A Spoonful of Sugar in Mary
Poppins! Folks my age will remember
the polio pandemic. When Jonas Salk
invented the vaccine, he refused to patent it.
Albert Sabin developed the method of distributing it on a sugar
cube. I remember several things about
this: not being able to go swimming for
fear of getting the disease, friends who limped or were crippled, or who became
disabled from the “rebound” as adults, and going to school on a Sunday
afternoon to get my sugar cube placed on my tongue. It was truly a miracle. I didn’t connect the song from Mary Poppins,
but it makes sense both in content and time.
Here’s one more polio fact:
Countries where polio was endemic in 1968: 125…. In 2023: 2. 12/5
#132
December 3: What was the first commercial product
made of nylon, the first entirely synthetic fiber? I would guess nylon stockings which replaced
silk stockings during the war. But the
nylon toothbrush debuted in 1938. Nylon
stockings were introduced the next year at the 1939 World’s Fair in NYC. 800,000 pairs flew off the shelves the first
day they were available to the public! I
wonder if they sold that many bottles of nail polish to stop the “runs”? LOL… I
do NOT miss wearing stockings in my retirement!!
#133 December 4:
Is it milk? My son introduced me
to oat milk a few months ago and I regularly stock almond milk because it has a
long expiration date and we only use milk for cooking. Dairy producers have tried suing alternative
milk companies for “product deception”. Is
it milk? As it turns out history isn’t
on the dairy industry’s side. Coconut
milk dates back to 3000 BCE and the Romans and medieval cookbooks reference almond
milk. There are references to soy milk
in China dating back to the 3rd century CE. And I assume Mother’s milk dates back to
Eve!! I guess milk is in the “mouth” of
the beholder!
#134 December 5:
Next time you are in a full elevator, think of this. If folks were crammed, elevator-style, all at
once and in the same place, they would fit inside Los Angeles. I found this fact amazing and
disturbing! LA is about 1.2 billion
square meters and you can fit 10 people elevator style in a square meter, so
all 7.8 billion of us could fit easily in LA… but who would want to? I remember when we would take our RV across the country, we would marvel at the open spaces in the “fly-over” country of the
mid and far West. The earth really does
have room for more, if we can figure out how to sustain them – NOT in
elevators! 12/5
#135 December 6: With the “final” Republican debate scheduled
for tonight before the Iowa Caucuses this piece of trivia about presidential
debates is fun! The Kennedy-Nixon debate
was NOT the first televised presidential debate. There was an Eisenhower –
Stevenson debate televised. However, they
sent surrogates: two women! Margaret Chase Smith spoke for Eisenhower and
Eleanor Roosevelt spoke for Stevenson, it was aired on CBS’ Face the
Nation. 12/6
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