Monthly Archives: October 2013

A Great Weekend

I’m a little late with this post, but other matters occupied me this weekend, chief among them the wedding of our daughter Alyssa to Chris Brown at Silverlake Farm in Loudoun County near Purcellville. Here are a couple of pictures taken at the event. My love and all the best to the couple!

Alyssa and Chris

Sisters

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Little-Known Facts

Who Knew

 

In case you’re looking for something to amuse yourself with while you’re
furloughed…bless you!

 

Rubber bands last longer when refrigerated.

Peanuts are one of the ingredients of dynamite.

No one in Greece has memorized all 158 verses of the national anthem of Greece.

There are 293 ways to make change for a dollar.

The average person’s left hand does 56% of the typing.

A shark is the only fish that can blink with both eyes.

There are more chickens than people in the world.

Two-thirds of the world’s eggplant is grown in New Jersey.

The longest one-syllable word in the English language is “screeched.”

All of the clocks in the movie “Pulp Fiction” are stuck on 4:20.

No word in the English language rhymes with month, orange, silver or purple.

“Dreamt” is the only English word that ends in the letters “mt.”

All 50 states are listed across the top of the Lincoln Memorial on the back of the $5 bill.

Almonds are a member of the peach family.

Winston Churchill was born in a ladies’ room during a dance.

Maine is the only state whose name is just one syllable.

There are only four words in the English language which end in “-dous”: tremendous, horrendous, stupendous, and hazardous.

Los Angeles’s full name is “El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de los Angeles de orciuncula” -and can be abbreviated to 3.63% of its size: “L.A.”

A cat has 32 muscles in each ear.

An ostrich’s eye is bigger than its brain.

Tigers have striped skin, not just striped fur.

In most advertisements, including newspapers, the time displayed on a watch is 10:10.

Al Capone’s business card said he was a used furniture dealer.

The only real person to be a Pez head was Betsy Ross.

When the University of Nebraska Cornhuskers play football at home, the stadium becomes the state’s third largest city.

The characters Bert and Ernie on Sesame Street were named after Bert the cop and Ernie the taxi driver in Frank Capra’s “It’s A Wonderful Life.”

A dragonfly has a life span of 24 hours.

A goldfish has a memory span of three seconds.

An American dime has 118 ridges around the edge.

On an American one-dollar bill, there is an owl in the upper left-hand corner of the “1” encased in the “shield” and a spider hidden in the front upper right-hand corner.

It’s impossible to sneeze with your eyes open. (DON’T try this at home!)

The giant squid has the largest eyes in the world.

In England, the Speaker of the House is not allowed to speak.

Frank Baum, the creator of The “Wizard of Oz” thought up the name for Oz when he looked at his filing cabinet and saw A-N, and O-Z, hence “Oz.”

The microwave was invented after a researcher walked by a radar tube and a chocolate bar melted in his pocket.

Mr. Rogers was an ordained minister.

Thelma Pickles was John Lennon’s first girlfriend.

The average person falls asleep in seven minutes.

There are 336 dimples on a regulation golf ball.

“Stewardesses” is the longest word that is typed with only the left hand.

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Do You Hear the People Sing?

Barricade

The government shutdown in D.C. closed all the monuments on the Mall. That included the Lincoln Memorial, the Jefferson Memorial, the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial, and all the other iconic places in Washington. (The Washington Monument is closed for repairs from the August, 2011 earthquake, so no harm, no foul in that case.)

Tourists and visitors who had come to the city could look at the monuments from a distance, but not go very close to them. Visitors included a group of World War II veterans here courtesy of Freedom Flight, a group which flies vets in to visit the World War II Memorial. Barricades stood in the way of anyone who would want to actually walk the monument grounds. Then something wonderful happened. The barricades were moved aside. Some Congressmen who were there said they didn’t know how it happened: someone did it, and the vets could visit this incredibly meaningful and poignant place. They had earned it, after all.

I have an idea that the men and women who stormed the beaches at Normandy and Iwo Jima were not going to be deterred by a few metal stands. I have tremendous admiration for these men and women who served actively and those who kept the home fires burning. My novel (due out October 22), On Wings of the Morning, is a tribute to this generation. And I’m glad to see that they still have the right stuff. You rock my world, World War II vets!

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