The Case Agasint Evolution

Whoa!  Don't get your underpants in a knot!  We're not having some big, nasty debate here.  You may recall that Isaac has invertebrate biology this year in school.  He is loving it.  He comes home with new and interesting facts all the time.  He was especially fascinated by tonight's factoid.  He led with, "Hey, Mom! You wanna know something cool about flatworms?"  It was around that time that I stuck my fingers in my ears and started singing loudly to drown out anything he might say.  I like snakes, frogs, lizards, newts, and toads.  I have overcome my early aversion to insects.  I am the resident spider evictor in this house because I can do so without freaking out, unlike Mr. Lime.  Bats do not disturb me.  Though I am not a fan of mice sharing my living space I can deal with them matter-of-factly. Any creature that shares a classification with....shudders.....tapeworms....shudders again....is going to get a sphincter puckering, shrieking reaction that can only be described as complete and visceral revulsion.

I finally pulled my fingers from my ears and Isaac quickly interjected his amazing trivia regarding creatures I'd like eradicated from the earth. "Mom, mom, it's really cool!  They penis fence!"  I shook my head like a punch drunk fighter trying to regain lucid orientation.  "What???"  My boy was speaking in tones of bemused awe as he repeated slowly, "They penis fence.  You know, they use their penises like swords to fight each other."  Clarity of thought had finally returned as that fact wrapped it's way around my mind (in a fashion I imagine not unlike the way pigs utilize their corkscrew shaped penises....that's a bonus factoid courtesy yours truly...you're welcome, by the way).  The powers of speech returned to me and I observed, "Son, that's nothing.  You can find idiotic men today who love nothing more than a good dick duel...and foolish women who are impressed by such unevolved behavior, thus proving that some people function on roughly the same level as flatworms."

A Bit of Irish Fun...or Something

It is often assumed Diana is of Irish stock because she is a fair skinned red head. This irks her no end. She asked me when she was fairly young if she was in fact Irish because so many folks thought she was. I told her to really spin their heads and let them know she is ethnically Greek, which is true since my birth father was a Greek immigrant. (And I wonder why the kid likes to mess with people's mind as much as she does...).

On my dad's side (dad, not birth father) his grandfather was and Irish immigrant who was disowned by his Catholic family for marrying a German Protestant. Dad and his mother are a fearsome mix of German and Irish. Seriously, don't anger either one of them. It's just not worth it. So, since I am adopted that means almost nothing for my own alleged Irish pedigree but hey, I grew up in that stew so for one day a year I'll claim some Irish background. I produced a kid who looks Irish because he father does too. I never inflicted upon her the indignity displayed in this picture of her father though. He's happy enough in this picture but others exist in which he is wearing a very pronounced scowl. Yes, his mother did this to him many years in a row.


Now we'll move on to the trivia portion of our post...

Bagpipes were originally made from the full skin of a sheep. I guess that kind of explains why they look like the bagpiper is giving mouth-to-mouth to an upside down sheep and why the instrument sounds sort of like the sheep is protesting.

The Irish version of bagpipes is called Uillean pipes. Uillean means something akin to playing with the elbow.

The rock group known as the Pogues originally called themselves Pogue Mahone, which translates from Gaelic to mean kiss my ass. (I think I need to go find some Pogues recordings right about now.)

Historians believe St Patrick's real name was Maewyn Succat. Personally, I think the Irish improved upon the poor man's situation.

Ireland is the only nation with a musical instrument (the harp) for its national symbol.


(The last 4 facts are taken from Ireland Fun Fact.com)


To close I'll share my favorite toast from my favorite Irish poet, William Butler Yeats. By the way, poets were at one time esteemed as highly as kings in Ireland. How can you not have affection for a place where the national symbol is an instrument and poets are so well regarded?

A Drinking Song

WINE comes in at the mouth
And love comes in at the eye;
That's all we shall know for truth
Before we grow old and die.
I lift the glass to my mouth,
I look at you, and I sigh.

~W. B. Yeats~



Happy St. Patrick's Day

Friday 55 & Da Count

FRIDAY 55

Horses can't vomit.
Humans and dolphins are the only animals to have sex for pleasure.
An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain.
Elephants are the only animals with 4 knees
and the only animals that can't jump.
Cat urine glows under black light.
Just a few of the trivial tidbits Isaac has shared recently.





DA COUNT

Isaac has recently discovered a love of trivia. In fact, he has been texting a number of people a daily fact. I have long been the only trivia nerd in the house. It serves no real useful purpose but it's fun and I am a little tickled to have someone else around who relishes useless facts. Look out G-man, there's a Mr. Knowitall in training.

Now it's your turn. Add a trivial fact in the comments (and it doesn't have to be animal related).

Presidential Firsts

Much is being made of the history making inauguration of Barack Obama, our first African-American President. It certainly is a momentous occasion. Here are some other, less momentous presidential firsts.

• Ulysses S. Grant was the first to run against a woman. His opponent was Victoria Woodhull, a former prostitute who was the nominee of the Equal Rights Party.
• Abraham Lincoln was the first to receive a patent.
• Millard Filmore was the first to have a stepmother.
• Herbert Hoover was the first millionaire and the first to have a telephone on his desk.
• FDR was the first to appear on TV and made the first Presidential flight.
• Jimmy Carter was the first born in a hospital.
• Benjamin Harrison was the first to attend a baseball game.
• William Harrison was the first to die in office.
• Martin Van Buren was the first who was born as a US citizen. He was also the first president born after the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
  
• Richard Nixon was the first to visit all 50 states.
• Teddy Roosevelt was the first to travel abroad while in office.
• John Quincy Adams was the first to reach the office of President without winning the popular vote. He was also the first son of a former president to ascend to the office.
  
• Warren Harding was the first to ride to his inauguration in an automobile and the first to speak on the radio.

*Information from biography.com, nationalgeographic.com, and enarta.msn.com

Da Count-Little Treats

Friends of ours have a 22 year old son who builds sound systems. He has this crazy set-up in their living room that puts movie theaters to shame. The sub-woofers are bigger than I am. A couple days ago he invited Isaac and Calypso to come up with some of their friends. There was to be watching of action movies so the explosions could be felt as they were watched. There was to be post movie dancing. The kids were beyond thrilled. This young man lives in the middle of nowhere (good thing or the neighbors would be complaining of the noise) and said he'd drive everyone up to his folks' house.

The problem was his car didn't have space for all the kids and I had things I had to do so I couldn't go until later. So we agreed to swap cars. He took my minivan. I took his little manual Impreza. I can't say I was crushed to zip around the back mountain roads in something that handled nicely and had some actual pick-up. Did I mention he has a pretty fine sound system in his car too? Yeah, it broke my heart to have to listen to my tunes on that as well.

When I finally made it up to our friends' house for dinner the mom informed me she was making a double batch of homemade cinnamon rolls so I could take some home for the morning. During dinner we had Jeopardy on. According to house rules, we were all supposed to shout out the answer and the first one correct was expected to do an "in your face" victory dance while gloating. I did reasonably well, and then I blew them all away on Final Jeopardy, and let me tell ya, the dad gave me some very stiff competition until that point.

So to recap...

For one afternoon I got to trade the mom-mobile for a sleek little buggy with a killer sound system. I had the afternoon to myself while the kids were happily entertained. I didn't have to cook or clean up after dinner AND I was given homemade baked goods for the next day. Finally, my trivial prowess was celebrated rather than being seen as either a threat or a waste of brain space.

SWEET!

Weird Wednesday- Questions for God

And now we milk the farm experience for all it's worth in a Weird Wednesday post.

Diana has always been an inquisitive sort and perfectly comfortable with asking whatever question she has whenever it pops into her mind. The trip to the farm when she was just a preschooler led to a few questions. She noticed the cows udders and asked what they were. She had names for every other body part but this one was escaping her. I gave her the word "udders." She asked what udders were for. Conveniently, her baby brother was a nursing infant at that time so an explanation was pretty simple. "Well, just like when your brother drinks milk from me when he is hungry, the calves drink milk from their mothers by sucking on the udders." Diana pondered this for a minute and then exclaimed in a disgusted tone, "Eeeew! Why'd God put the cow's bosoms down by the cow's bottom?! Mommy, I'm glad people bosoms aren't near their bottoms!"

Here we have the calf from yesterday discovering what really goes on in the corn crib.

Yesterday's trivia questions got only the most tepid response from all but G-man and a commenter named Rob who doesn't have a blog I can direct everyone to. So for those interested, here are the answers.

Collective nouns for respective groups of animals are as follows...

A Gaggle of Geese (on the ground)
A Skein of Geese (in the air)...bonus points for knowing
A Warren of Rabbits
A Herd of Cattle
A Flock of Sheep
A Flight of Birds (No, G-man, it's NOT a cooter of birds)
A Kindle of Kittens
A Dray of Squirrels
A Swarm of Bees
A Brood of Pigs
A Muster of Peacocks
A Nide of Pheasants(on the ground)
A Bouquet of Pheasants (in the air) bonus points for knowing

Since Barman wondered about the collective noun for Limelets I will let you all know it can be a howl, mess, herd, or rumpus of Limelets depending upon the situation. Generally, I'd consider them a rumpus of Limelets.

Neutered forms of animals are as follows...(Ok, I figured it was understood that neutering meant castrated males since females are "spayed" when the gonads are removed)

Cattle: Bulls become steer
Horses: Stallions become geldings (Way yo go Suldog)
Swine: Boars become barrows
Chickens: Roosters become capons
Sheep: Rams become wethers
Goats: Bucks also become wethers (And as Rob pointed out, goats look like they have the biggest balls, pound for pound, of any farm animal.)

Rob then went on to detail the various gestation and hatching times of assorted farm critters. He was correct on each one. If you are really interested go look at yesterday's comment. Personally, I was most impressed and as I told him, he either completely proved his farm cred beyond any shadow of a doubt or he is a mastergoogler. (Get your minds out of the gutter, people!)

Regardless, congrats to G-man for knowing his groups and congrats to Rob (who really has that whole reproductive thing down pat) for grabbing the rest of the quiz by the balls and er...um...well, doing really well!

Finally, I threw in a bunch of animal related idioms thinking that was easy enough for everyone to give a try. No bites. Crimony, you all must have had one heck of a weekend and your brains were hurting bad. So without further ado the answers are...

Strong as an...ox
Fat as a...pig
Slow as a...turtle
Gentle as a...lamb
Cuddly as a...kitten
Quiet as a ...mouse
Hungry as a...bear
Faithful as a ...dog
Contented as a...cow
Happy as a ...lark
Quick as a ...bunny
Proud as a...peacock
Graceful as a...swan
Busy as a...beaver
Stubborn as a...mule
Silly as a...goose.

Trinidad to Pennsylvania: Chocolate!

"When I die," I said to my friend, "I'm not going to be embalmed. I'm going to be dipped." Milk chocolate or bittersweet was [the] immediate concern. ~Adrianne Marcus~

How much do you know about chocolate?

Apparently I am a chocolate genius since I got 8 out of 10 questions correct. Anyone out there actually surprised by that?

*image from www.digitalarthawaii.org

Chocolate Trivia: (taken from hersheypa.com and corsinet.com)

-The botanical name of the chocolate plant is Theobramba cacao, which means "Food of the Gods."
-One plain milk chocolate candy bar has more protein than a banana.
-Ten percent of U.S. Recommended Daily Allowance of iron is found in one ounce of baking chocolate or cocoa. Chocolate also contains Vitamins A1, B1, B2, C, D and E as well as calcium, potassium, sodium and iron.
-Cultivation of cacao trees can occur only in tropical climates, 20 degrees north or south of the equator. Principal growing areas include West Africa, Brazil, Ecuador and the Indies. Generally, it takes five years before trees begin bearing fruit in the form of pods that grow from the tree trunk. Each pod contains an average of 20 to 40 cream-colored cocoa beans. Nearly 400 beans are required to make a pound of chocolate liquor, the semi-liquid mass produced by grinding the beans. A non-alcoholic substance, chocolate liquor is the basis of all chocolate and cocoa products.
-The earliest cocoa plantations were established in 600 AD, in the Yucatan, by the Mayans.
-Drinking cocoa became popular in the USA after the Boston Tea Party, partly as a means of protest because it was not taxed in the way tea was.

*image from hersheypa.com

Chocolate in Pennsylvania:

-Pennsylvania is second only to California in its number of chocolate and cocoa processing establishments.
-Hershey, PA is named for Milton Hershey who was the first American to experiment with creating milk chocolate. He came up with his own formula after visiting Swiss chocolatiers who would not share the process they had invented.
-He founded the town as a company town for his employees but felt strongly it should not be a faceless company town with merely utilitarian rows of identical structures. He envisioned and created a family friendly town with parks, recreational opportunities, and good public transportation. The quality of his product and the well-being of his workers were always placed above mere profit.
-Unable to have children, he and his wife established a school for orphan boys which continues today to serve over 1100 financially needy boys and girls today. Three years after his wife's death Hershey endowed the school with is entire fortune. He himself only completed the 4th grade. His philanthropy was motivated by a deep sense of obligation to use his wealth for the good of others.

*image from http://www.flickr.com/photos/sgmccook/57608910/

Chocolate in Trinidad:

-Trinidad is 11 degrees north of the equator so it falls within the 20 degree north/south range where cacao can be grown.
-Hershey uses cacao from Trinidad.
-As strong as the smell of chocolate in Hershey, PA is, the smell of driving through a cacao plantation is 100 times more. It was the most intoxicating aroma I have ever encountered. I wanted to get out of the car and re-enact the poppy field scene from The Wizard of Oz.

Field Trip

Yesterday Mr. Lime took Isaac to Cleveland to see an Indians game. I am told they had terrific seats and got to see an amazing triple play during the game. Since the boys were off having fun I thought the girls and I would go do something together. I suggested Longwood Gardens outside of Philadelphia and got a yawn. I suggested an amusement park and got a blase response. Then Diana suggested the Crayola Factory. I was shocked since it is geared toward kids, not teens. Calypso seconded the idea which shocked me even more since she is also a bit beyond the age AND she and her sister were actually agreeing on something, enthusiastically at that. I said ok, but to really enjoy this place we'd need to see if would could abscond with some little people. A call or two later and we had permission to snatch a set of 8 and 5 year old sisters who were dying of boredom.

There's a big glass corridor with buckets of special glass writing markers at either end. We spent about 45 minutes just drawing all over the walls. What other museum lets you write on the walls?

Next we have a couple of the girls working on their secret treasure map in the watercolor area. There's also a huge dryer over you can put your paintings through to dry them quickly so you don't have to carry around drippy papers, but I forgot to take a picture of that. Too much fun making stuff.

They give you blobs of the model magic clay so you can make things from that too. I made a couple pigs. The clay is all white but you can tint it with markers and make your own colors by kneading it in really well.

The 5 year old made this likeness of Diana.

We also made puppets and some other fun things but again, I was having too much fun making things or else carrying too many arts and crafts to think to take more pictures. We also had a chance to see how crayons and markers are made and learn about the history of Crayola.

The top floors of the building are given over The National Canal Museum. The museum has exhibits about the history of the canal system along the Delaware and Lehigh Rivers which was used to transport coal and other goods between port cities. Canals were dug parallel to the rivers and barges were towed by mules on raised paths. We didn't get to see any more than this room of the canal museum because....we were so busy having fun making crafts that we didn't get to the canal museum until 20 minutes before closing. this room had a really terrific hands on exhibit that showed the kids how locks work to move the boats through different ascents and descents in the canals. There were also experiments on buoyancy and such.

And now, in the spirit of G-man, some Crayola trivia...

• The factory cranks out 12 million crayons a day.
• There are currently 120 colors to choose from.
• In February 1996 Mr. Rogers molded the 1 billionth crayon which was in a special limited run (only a million were made) color called 'blue ribbon.'
• The factory was opened in 1903 in Easton , PA
• All crayons were hand wrapped for the first 40 years.
• The wax used is paraffin.
• The wrappers are still glued together with a mixture of cornstarch and water so all materials used are nontoxic.
• Local farmers often worked wrapping crayons in the winter months for 19 cents an hour.
• During the depression this was an important part of the local economy.
• Three colors have had their names changed. In 1958 Prussian Blue became Midnight Blue because teachers said students could not related to Prussian history. In 1962 Flesh became Peach to reflect the fact that skin colors are not all the same. In 1999 Indian Red became Chestnut to avoid the mistaken understanding that it was a reference to native American skin.
• In 1990 Maize, Orange Yellow, Lemon Yellow, Orange Red, Raw Umber, Green Blue, Violet Blue, and Blue Gray were retired.
• In October 2003 Teal Blue, Magic Mint, Mulberry, and Blizzard Blue were retired.
• Grant Wood, artist of the famous painting American Gothic, entered and won a Crayola coloring contest in the early years of the factory. He later said winning the contest gave him the encouragement to pursue a career in art.
• The Crayola brand name is recognized by 99% of Americans and ranks 51st in recognizability and consumer esteem in world brands.
• According to a Yale study, Crayola crayons are among the 20 most recognizable scents to Americans.

Trini Tuesday-Trivia

Ok, I am kind of at a loss for a Trini Tuesday post that doesn't require at least 15 minutes of extensive research to assemble. I also can't think of any amusing anecdotes from my time there so you shall now be subjected to whatever random Trini related trivia I can come up with off the top of my head*. Aren't you thrilled beyond words? Put on your seat belts kids, this is sure to be an exciting ride!

• Trinidad was 'discovered' by Christopher Columbus during his third voyage to the New World. He had decided whatever chunk of land he bumped into would be called Trinidad in honor of the Holy Trinity. When he saw the 3 peaks of the southern range as he neared the island he was sure this was God's way of confirming his plan and blessing his efforts.
• Trinidad was largely ignored and served mainly as an outpost for the search for El Dorado during Spanish rule. It wasn't until the Dutch, British and French started fighting for it that it got tossed around before settling into British rule and became a sugar and rum producing colony which attracted settlers who brought slaves.
• It's one of the few Caribbean islands that still has a tiny population descended from indigenous peoples.
• It's an island that is only 55 miles by 35 miles but the population centers are not terribly close to the beaches so plan on a long, albeit scenic, drive to get to a beach.
• Trinidad is world famous for its birdwatching and for the variety of butterfly species.
• The population of those descended from Africans and those descended from East Indians is roughly equal, which gives it a distinctive cultural flare that is decidedly different from the other islands, including its sister island of Tobago, which is almost entirely African.
• It has the world's largest natural asphalt deposit called Pitch Lake in the south of the island.
• It also has large oil and natural gas deposits and used to be called the Kuwait of the Caribbean.
• It's national bird, the scarlet ibis, migrates back and forth between Trinidad and Venezuela each day.
• Miss Universe 1998 was Wendy Fitzwilliams of Trinidad & Tobago.
• Recipients of the Noble Prize for Literature, V.S. Naipaul and Derek Williams, (who was born in St. Lucia but spent large portions of his life in Trinidad, founded the Trinidad Theatre Workshop and continues to promote arts on the island, thus is considered a native son) are from Trinidad.
• Kareem Abdul Jabbar's parents are Trinidadian (bonus fact, his given name is Lew Alcindor)
• Alfonso Ribiera, the dweeby kid from Fresh Prince of Bel Air, also has Trinidadian parents.
• Trinidad is the birthplace of steelpans, calypso music, and the limbo.
• Though I've never researched it to confirm it the truth of the claim, Trinis are fond of boasting they have more public holidays than any other nation on Earth.

Happy Trini Tuesday!

*This stuff is accurate as far as I know. The only research I did was to check what year we had Miss Universe. Use of this TriniTuesday may lead to hair loss, halitosis, widening of the ass, sinus infection, smelly feet, and and motor tics. Erections lasting longer than 4 hours require my attention. Do not use if you are pregnant or hoping to make me pregnant. A simple blood test and credit check will determine your suitability.