Wednesday, October 31, 2007

256

Today I learned about shoes tossed over power lines. There is currently a pair hanging over 270 W near the 71ish area. One morning I was thinking to myself, how the hell did those get there? They are RIGHT in the middle of the road. Somebody had to stand smack dab in the middle of 270 and toss those bitches up there till they stuck. Surely said person would get hit by a car. And then a remembered hearing on the news a couple weeks ago that some guy was hit and killed by a car after jumping over the dividing wall right in that area and running out into the road. Could the 2 be connected? Was he running out into the road in order to try and throw a pair of shoes up there? Was he killed for some other reason, and the shoes went up later as a memorial?

So I hit me up some Google, and found out...there is no for-sure answer. Several crime-related theories exist: the shoes signal an area where you can buy drugs; they mark gang territory; they are tossed up to memorialize a fallen homie. A second popular theory is more harmless and, I think, not necessarily exclusive of the other: bullies steal shoes from other kids and fling them up there to be mean. My feeling is that there probably is a sort of accepted meaning in drug/gang culture, but that it's also just a funny and assy thing to do, so kids picked up the habit as well.

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

255

Today I learned about the "missed connections" section on Craigslist. OMG, this is so sad. First of all, most of the postings are stuff like "I saw you across the room at Arby's wiping up curly fries. Did you feel it too?" Sad. Secondly, what are the chances that this random person you saw at the grocery store or library (yes, library) or whatever is freaking reading this Craigslist page and is going to recognize themselves? Jeez. And the absolute saddest thing of all is that, about halfway down the first page, I realized that I was totally addicted to reading them in the hope that one of them might be about me: "You: high school age, librarian look, buying an extra side of cole slaw at KFC. Me: intrigued. Please write back."

Monday, October 29, 2007

250, 251, 252, 253, 254

Thursday I learned that there are different techniques for eating chicken wings. Here's one where you break up the wing and then smash it on the table to get the meat off. Gross. I love the taste of wings but I freaking hate having to tear the nasty meat and vessels and tendons off the bone.

Friday I learned that I could expect to get about $7000 if I sold my car to a private party right now. That is freaking sweet.

Saturday I learned how to do zombie makeup. I found out about a cool technique where you roll up little lines of toilet paper and apply them with liquid latex to make an open wound. I also played around with lipstick and eyeliner to make dead zombie eyes. And I learned that that color hairspray stuff is never, ever worth it. What a mess.

Sunday I learned about sunflowers. 1.) In their bud stage, sunflowers follow the sun; in the morning they face east and turn their faces westward over the course of the day. At night they go back to facing east. That is creepy. 2.) There is like a mathematical model to show the pattern that the seeds grow in the middle of the flower. See here for that.

Today I learned where the Maldives are. I would like to go there on a magical fantasy free vacation.

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

249

Today I learned about garbage disposals. I learned that garbage disposals are illegal in most parts of Europe, and they were illegal in NYC until 1997. There was concern that the excess kitchen waste would be too much of a strain on the water/sewage places. That is crazy. I have always had a garbage disposal, and I will put any freaking thing down there that I don't want to look at. What I really want is to see what the food looks like after it is garbage disposaled. That would be cool.

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

248

Today I learned how to order office supplies for my work. These library ones are never interesting but always practical. Plus, I get paid to shop online now, while I'm at work. Score.

Monday, October 22, 2007

247

Today I learned that Meg Rosoff has a new book (What I Was: A Novel) coming out in January. Oooh, exciting. I really liked How I Live Now. I like the cover of the new one too; you can see it on Amazon. I hope it's good.

Sunday, October 21, 2007

243, 244, 245, 246

Thursday I learned about Jonestown. The settlement for the Peoples Temple led by Jim Jones, Jonestown was founded in 1974 and was the site of the mass murder-suicide in 1978. 909 people died there. I never heard the whole story, it's crazy. I read the article on Wikipedia. Hard to believe.

Friday I learned that they are opening a Panda Express right next door to Larry's on campus. Yay! I will now be much more excited about going to Larry's all the damn time.

Saturday I learned a way to get around all the traffic on the way to the Pumpkin Show and get there in a tiny fraction of the time it would otherwise take. Technically I just sort of lucked into it, but from here on out I won't have to worry about traffic any more. It also helps to go early, if you're wondering.

Today I learned about fat cells. By the time you finish puberty, you have all the fat cells in your body that you will ever have. When you get fat, you don't get more fat cells; the ones you have just get bigger. I wonder how big they can get.

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

242

Today I learned about Teen Read Week. It was started in 1998, and is celebrated during the third week of every October. The goal is to get teens to read despite the bajillion other choices they have when choosing how to spend their free time.

In celebration of Teen Read Week (and also as a holdover from Banned Books Week), I am reading The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things. What are you reading?

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

241

Today I learned about conjoined twins. I had always heard that conjoined twins form when the embryo doesn't separate fully, but apparently there is also a theory that the twins form after the embryo has already separated; the cells seek out like cells to join to, and sometimes instead of finding cells in the same body, they find cells in the other twin and the two become fused. I know this theory is not as accepted as the first, but I don't know if it's like plausible or if anybody halfway intelligent dismisses it entirely. To me, though, it doesn't seem that likely. I mean, why wouldn't you ever have conjoined twins where, say, the head of one twin is growing out the back of the other? Or what prevents non-identical twins from becoming fused in the same way? Maybe the cells that find each other have to be almost identical--they have to come from the same body part or have the same DNA or whatever. I don't know. I'm not a scientist.

Monday, October 15, 2007

240

Today I learned about the history of tuberculosis. The earliest signs of TB show up in bison remains from 17,000 years ago. Prehistoric humans, Egyptian mummies, ancient Greeks...tuberculosis has been found in all of them. Before the industrial revolution, people with TB were sometimes thought to be vampires, or to be communing with fairies at night, or being turned into horses by witches. The advent of antibiotics and increased public health awareness (no spitting in public, y'all) were what really turned TB around, although plenty of people still get it.

More on tuberculosis later, I'm sure, as I continue reading The Air We Breathe.

Sunday, October 14, 2007

237, 238, 239

Friday I learned about defacing money. Apparently it is OK to alter or deface currency as long as you then don't try to use it as currency; so, you can punch a hole in a penny and wear it as a necklace, but you can't try to use it as a spending penny after that. See here. I have been giving people wrong info on this topic for a while now, which sucks. My bad.

Saturday I learned about the Mongolian Barbecue, which is neither Mongolian nor barbecue. Apparently this type of restaurant was invented in Taiwan within the last 50 years or so, which is pretty funny. It comes from a style of Japanese cooking; that makes sense if you've ever been to one of those Japanese steakhouses, although I'm sure those aren't particularly authentic either. I went to BD's Mongolian Barbecue on Saturday. It was pretty good, I would go again. I like picking my own stuff.

Today I learned about a variety of different shock sites, after Goatse and Tubgirl both came up in conversation between Bill and I within like 2 minutes of each other (yeah, interesting conversation). I was familiar with both of those two, unfortunately, but not with any of the other ones mentioned in this article. Man, I am so tempted to go and look at each and every one of those sites but I know better. Once you see those things, you can't un-see them.

Thursday, October 11, 2007

236

Today I learned where the police impound lot is (400 W Whittier) and how much it costs to get your car back if the police tow it ($130).

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

235

Today I learned who Lawrence E. Hughes is. Every single day on my way to work (or numerous other places) I pass a sign indicating that I am driving on the Lawrence E. Hughes Memorial Highway. But the sign does not tell me who this man might be. So I looked him up (after concocting many dramatic stories in my head about why he might have a highway dedicated in his memory) and found out that he served in the Ohio House of Representatives from 1969-1982. It looks like the highway was named in 2004 or thereabouts. Thanks for your service, Larry. I enjoy driving on your roadways.

Tuesday, October 9, 2007

234

Today I learned about the history of condoms. From as early as 1000 B.C. until, um, very recently, people were using things like linen sheaths to protect themselves from diseases and pregnancy during sex. A linen sheath? Yikes. The word "rugburn" comes to mind, but whatever. Other old-fashioned condom materials included tortoise-shell, animal guts, leather, and oiled paper. The first rubber condoms were made in the mid 1800s, and latex condoms were made in the '30s. Latex is pretty much the standard now, except in the few places where condoms are banned. Boo, banning condoms. Boo AIDS and accidental babies. Boooo.

Monday, October 8, 2007

230, 231, 232, 233

This is stupid, but I could never really picture celery growing out of the ground, and I had never seen it. I have seen tons of different vegetables growing in people's gardens, but not celery. So I looked up a picture of it, and yeah...it looks pretty much how you would expect. I hate celery so much.

Coincidentally, at the same time, I learned that Brussels sprouts grown on these crazy tree things that are like 3 or 4 feet tall. What?! I did not know that. I thought they just popped out of the ground like tiny, tiny cabbages. You can go here to see pictures of a bunch of different vegetables, including celery and Brussels sprouts, growing in this dude's garden.

I learned some of the features of the geotagged photos on Flickr, just by playing with them. It's fun to see what pictures other people have taken of stuff right around where you live that you see every day. I spend way too much time on Flickr.

Finally, I learned that the big thrift store down at Cleveland and 161 sells suits and even tuxedo jackets. I don't know why that is surprising to me; I know that most thrift stores sell women's stuff like prom dresses, but I guess I had never seen full suits or thought that anyone would buy a tuxedo and then just donate it to the thrift store.

Thursday, October 4, 2007

229

Today, in true Wikipedia fashion, I started out looking up Korean funeral rituals and ended up learning about the term "going Dutch." I'll not try and recreate that line of thinking lest we all go a little crazy. The term originates from the Dutch custom of paying your own way on a date or outing, but it also came about due to some negative stereotypes about Dutch people being stingy or selfish.

Some other countries refer to going Dutch as "paying Roman style" or "American style." I guess Romans and Americans are also cheap bastards.

There is some interesting info on the Wikipedia page re: the etiquette of going Dutch vs the man paying for a date. Apparently there are some restaurants that have a "ladies' menu" that doesn't have prices on it, so not only does the lady not pay, she doesn't even see how much the meal cost. That is crazy! I wonder if the menu also has pictures instead of words so as not to strain the lady's brain with reading. I mean, I'm all for a free meal, don't get me wrong, but I do think the fairer sex can handle seeing how much our salad (dressing on the side) and cosmo is supposed to cost.

Wednesday, October 3, 2007

228

Today I learned about eyeglasses. The first use of corrective lenses dates (possibly) back to the first century, when Nero used an emerald to watch games that were far away. "Reading stones" were made in the 9th century out of glass. The first proper eyeglasses were invented in the thirteenth or fourteenth century. There are some awesome paintings on Wikipedia of dudes from the olden times wearing some jacked up early glasses. Early nerds!

You know, I feel like, what the hell were people doing before they had glasses? At least two out of the like, five people I talk to on a regular basis (the boyfriend and the roommate) are practically nonfunctional without their glasses. People just had to go about their daily lives not being able to see across a room or read something they were holding in their hands. That seems like a real bitch. So thanks, Salvino D'Armate. Way to be an inventor.

Tuesday, October 2, 2007

227

Today I learned about the weather in Fort Myers, Florida. The average high temperature is 80 in March and 85 in April. That is even warmer than Ft Lauderdale. Hmmm...I may has spring break after all! I also learned that Fort Myers is near Sanibel, where my parents went on vacation recently. Maybe I can ask them for tips.

I am so obsessed with vacation lately, that's probably not a good thing.

Monday, October 1, 2007

224, 225, 226

Saturday I learned what a "ruby slipper" is: it's a shot of whiskey topped off with grenadine and dropped into a glass of 7-Up. It is not a glass of water and a shot of grenadine, which is what they gave me at Larry's. That was hilarious.

Sunday I learned that you can do a Priceline-esque hotel room purchase through Skybus. They have some rooms that you can book like normal, but they also have some that they can't tell you what they are until you've booked. You'll know the cost, hotel amenities and location, but that's it. I am too big of a wuss to book a hotel that way. If I was just going to stay there for one, maybe two nights, I might go for it, but for a longer vacation I don't see it happening.

I had something I wanted to do for today but I could not find anything useful on the topic...bad librarian! Instead I learned about "meat pies." I read this book that takes place in Australia, and characters kept eating "pies" all through the book, though I got the impression that they were not the delicious cherry or pecan pies that you or I might expect. Instead they were these, a sort of Hot Pocket meets pot pie convenience food. I uh...kind of want one. Except for that part in the Wikipedia article that talks about tongue roots and blood vessels.