No. 31 - MDCCLXXVI

My dad sent me an e-mail with a link to an article called "15 Things You Never Noticed on a Dollar." I liked that the article started off with a question about what a dollar is worth. On August 15, 1971, Richard Nixon ended any remaining link that the dollar had to gold. Since then the dollar has been backed by nothing. Nada. Zip. Zero. It's merely a piece of paper. It works as a medium of exchange currently because people agree it has value. They have faith that it will have value tomorrow. This, of course, is nothing new to me. I think when a full sifting-through-the-rubble analysis is done after this economic crisis and depression run its course, this date in 1971 will be viewed as a major event which set the stage for the events transpiring today.

I did learn that on a dollar bill, under the pyramid on the back are the letters MDCCLXXVI, which are the Roman numerals for 1776, the year the Declaration of Independence was signed. M is 1,000. D is 500. CC is 200. L is 50. XX is 20. And VI is 6.

No. 30 - Ugli Fruit

Last evening we were enjoying a delicious meal and some adult beverages with friends. At one point I asked M what kind of fruit was in the bowl on the counter behind him. It sure looked like nothing I ever saw before. It was green and yellow and a little bit bigger than a softball and was, quite frankly, pretty ugly. He picked it up and read the tag: Uniq Fruit. We googled it and learned that this fruit was first discovered in Brown's Town, Jamaica in 1914. It goes by the name Uniq Fruit, Unique Fruit and Ugli Fruit. It's a cross between an orange and a grapefruit. They have a very short season from December to April and, because the crop isn't large, its limited supply makes it expensive. We looked at each other both wondering how much this piece of fruit could have cost. M asked his wife K. We were told $2. Not too bad. Next up...cracking that baby open to see what was inside. The skin was very thick but peeled easily like an orange. It also looked and tasted very much like an orange and was incredibly juicy. I said to M too bad I already posted on my blog for the day because that was pretty interesting, and one of my rules was that I wasn't allowed to carry things I learned forward to the next day. He asked me if I knew what a jackfruit was. I did not and I saved looking that one up until today.

I learned that a jackfruit is the largest tree borne fruit in the world. But it's not nearly as interesting as the Ugli Fruit.

No. 29 - The Raven

What do poets and politicians have in common? The things they say aren't necessarily what they mean.

In high school English class we would spend time dissecting poems. It would drive me crazy. Someone would raise their hand and say, "I think the apple represents hope." Someone else would say, "I feel the apple is a symbol of man's inherent lack of understanding of blah, blah, blah." It was like I was on another planet. I felt like saying "It's an apple everyone, just an apple. Two plus two equals four, not six and a half."

I haven't exactly changed much. I still like things to make logical sense. I like when someone tells me something and mean exactly what they say. I can, however, appreciate the skills it takes to say something and mean another. But I still don't like poetry. Or politicians.

I heard on the radio this morning that today is the 165th anniversary of the first printing of The Raven by Edgar Allen Poe. Some say this is one of the most famous poems ever written.

I just downloaded a copy to my Kindle. I'm going to give it another try. Maybe I'll read it to my kids. Perhaps they will understand it. And then they can explain it to me.

No. 28 - Fear the Boom and Bust

I consider myself a student of the Austrian school of economics. Like most business majors in college, I was required to take the necessary economics courses, micro and macro. They didn't interest me much back then. As the current economic crisis began to unfold in early 2008, my interest was peaked and I began to dive into learning all I could about the condition of the economy, which led me to the Austrian school, which is in direct contradiction to the conventional economic thinking called Keynesian economics.

Many people don't understand the difference between these two schools of economic thought. Nor do people generally care. I don't blame them. I was one of them a few years ago. In order to make any meaningful recovery from the current economic crisis, I think it is very important to understand the differences. Most of our traditional schooling and mainstream media indoctrinates the Keynesian point of view. My interest has been in questioning what if the Keynesian view is wrong, and if the Austrian view is right. What would that mean for our country's future?

Simply stated, Keynesian economists believe that if decisions were left to the private sector (i.e. anything not controlled by the government), it would lead to economic havoc. Therefore, they believe that monetary policy (i.e. controlling the supply, availability and cost of money) should be managed, primarily through the setting of interest rates, as determined by the Federal Reserve. They further believe that government intervention (i.e. stimulus, bailouts, policy setting) is necessary and that deficit spending (borrowing and spending money we don't have) is acceptable and sometimes necessary. It is the belief of Keynesians that this intervention helps to smooth the business, or economic, cycles. The theory gets its name from John Maynard Keynes who wrote a book published in 1936 called The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money.

Austrian economists, on the other hand, believe that the major booms, and associated busts, of the business cycle are caused by the manipulation of interest rates. They believe that interest rates provide business owners the necessary signals as to whether they should be expanding their business, or not. A low interest rate would signal that people are saving, not spending. When people are saving, there's lots of available money to lend, which creates competition and drives the interest rate down. On the other hand, a high borrowing rate of interest would signal that people are spending, not saving. If people are spending, it takes a much higher interest rate to encourage them to not spend their money. So if an interest rate is artificially set too low, businesses perceive that consumers are saving, not spending. Therefore, they embark on expanding their businesses in order to meet a perceived future demand. That is, if consumers are not spending today (because they are saving) they will be spending in the future. So in order to meet the future demand, they build more factories. They higher more people. This creates an artificial growth or "boom" period. Eventually, when it is exposed that consumers really didn't need all those extra products or services, a correction or "bust" period needs to occur in order to cleanse the malinvestments made during the boom period. The Austrian school gets its name from some of the early Austrian founders, most notably Ludwig von Mises.

Keynesian economics, therefore, tries to manage the business cycle with the assumption that the free market could not determine how to set an appropriate interest rate. This, of course, is completely ridiculous. As a quick example, suppose there was a remote island with just three people living on it. Two of them had money to lend and one wanted to borrow money. You could easily imagine how competition between the two lenders would establish an appropriate interest rate to charge the borrower. The same thing would happen in the real world, probably even more efficiently since you'd have millions of lenders competing against each other on a daily basis.

Austrian economists recognize that the complexity of human behavior makes mathematical modeling nearly impossible and recommends a "hands-off" or non-intervention approach. They believe that the intervention in the markets is what causes the business cycle in the first place.

Have I lost you yet? No? Good. The above is obviously a very simplistic overview as volumes of literature have been written on these economic theories. However, to enjoy this really cool Rap Video called "Fear the Boom and Bust" which came out a few days ago, the above context will be helpful. John Maynard Keynes (Keynesian) battles F.A. Hayek (Austrian) on the merits of their economic theories. Pretty geeky, yeah. But still cool.

In the video, rapper Keynes says "C, I, G altogether gets to Y". And still being a student of economics (does anyone ever graduate?) I scratched my head. That's not a formula that I use on a daily basis, or even remember. So I learned that GDP, or Gross Domestic Product, is sometimes referred to as "Y". GDP is a basic measure of the country's overall economic output. It is the value of all the goods and services made within the country in a year.

And the formula refers to the components of GDP. The "C" is for consumption or things that we buy and consume such as food, clothes, gas and medical care. The "I" is for investment in plant, equipment, inventory and structures, including houses. And the "G" is for government spending including paying all government employees and military spending.

No. 27 - iPad

First came the iPod. Then the iPhone. Today Apple announced the iPad. It seems to be a cross between a laptop and a smart phone. Apple claims it will be the best way to experience the web, email, photos and videos. WiFi models are expected to be available in March and wireless models in April. Neat.

No. 26 - Aldo Nova

While driving to work this morning, XM's Rock@Random channel kicked out one of my favorite rock tunes from the 80s, Fantasy by Aldo Nova. Whenever this song comes on, it immediately transports me back in time to the summer of '84 or '85. There I was schlepping around buckets of dirty water at my parish grade school, helping to clean it for the upcoming school year, and earning a few extra bucks to boot. The guy supervising us had a boom box with Aldo Nova's self-titled 1982 album playing in repeat mode. We probably listening to it 100 times. I'm probably exaggerating, but for several weeks, all day long, it's the only thing that I heard.

Some consider Aldo Nova a one-hit wonder although he did produce a few other lesser known hits. I learned today that Aldo was the guy who could be heard playing guitar on another one of my favorite tunes from the 80s, Runaway by Bon Jovi. Richie Sambora had just joined Bon Jovi at the time and was shown in the music video playing the guitar solo. The sound, however, came from Aldo Nova's guitar.

No. 25 - Pimentos

What is a pimento? This is the question my wife posed to me after I asked her to tell me something I don't know. She was preparing a tuna noodle casserole and pimentos were one of the ingredients. My initial reaction was that they had something to do with olives, which I don't like and don't eat, although I love olive oil. Strange. Anyway the pimento is the red blotch stuffed into some olives. The pimento is a large, red, heart-shaped pepper. Pimiento is the Spanish word for pepper. Pimentos come in different varieties, from sweet to hot. The hottest pimentos are dried, ground finely and become paprika. Pimentos are also used to make pimento cheese and pimento loaf.

No. 24 - Old Yeller

For Christmas my kids got me a beautiful leather-bound edition of Old Yeller by Fred Gipson. Today my son walked into the living room and asked if I was reading Old Yeller, which I was not, but it reminded me that I need to pull that book off the shelf and start reading it aloud to them.

Almost everyone knows the story of Old Yeller from the 1957 Walt Disney movie. The novel was released in 1956. The story ends on a happy note when Travis, the older boy, befriends Yeller's puppy after he steals some cornbread. What I did not know is that there was a sequel to Old Yeller called Savage Sam, starring none other than Yeller's son.

No. 23 - 2012

After watching a recent episode of Jesse Ventura's Conspiracy Theory, I realized that there might be much more to "2012" than I originally had thought. I have dismissed the notion that the world will come to an end when the Mayan calendar ends on December 21, 2012. Crazy talk, right? If anything I may have been viewing this date, not as a physical event, but perhaps a spiritual re-awakening or a shift in the human conscientiousness. Perhaps even unlocking those special parts of the brain that some people tap from time-to-time.

It would appear that scientists are forecasting some very strong solar flare activity to occur in 2012. These blast of electromagnetic radiation could be powerful enough to cause some severe problems with the electrical grid in the U.S. and may be strong enough to shut the whole system down.

It also appears that many private citizens, as well as government agencies, have been preparing underground condos and facilities in the event of serious disaster. Some even believe that an underground city has been constructed beneath the Denver Airport.

Vivid imaginations, a lot of unnecessary hype (remember Y2K), or something else entirely?

No. 22 - Ski Poles

I spent the day skiing with my son. He is still a preschooler so we ski without poles for safety reasons. During the day he said he wanted ski poles. I explained to him that at his age they weren't needed and then I thought to myself that at my age they weren't really needed either. Unless I was training for the Olympics, perhaps. Ski poles help with balance and timing. But ... way back ... they had another purpose. While hunting the poles were used to reach higher speeds on skis. The poles then served the dual purpose of being used as a spears. Archeologists have discovered cave drawings depicting men on skis using a single pole. The pole is believed to have evolved from a walking stick.

No. 21 - The White House

The White House (shown here in its original design) was completed in 1800. Its first resident, John Adams, moved in on November 1, 1800. He was only there a short while before Thomas Jefferson moved into the home in 1801. Today, the White House and its grounds cover about 18 acres. It has six floors, including a two-story basement, and contains 132 rooms, 35 bathrooms and 28 fireplaces. The White House only ranks as the 8th largest historic home in the U.S. Its 55,000 sq. ft. are less than one-third the size of the 175,000 sq. ft. Biltmore House near Asheville, North Carolina.

No. 20 - Wildfire

She comes down from Yellow Mountain

On a dark, flat land she rides
On a pony she named Wildfire
With a whirlwind by her side
On a cold Nebraska night

Every time Wildfire by Michael Martin Murphey comes on the radio I get chills. Last night while driving home from work, I thought I figured out what the song means. When I researched it today, I'm not so sure I do. And Murphey says he's not sure he fully understands it either. He says "I can't tell you that I understand what the song means, but I think it's about getting above the hard times. I've had people tell me they wish they could ride that mystical horse and get away from their hard times, whatever they are."  

The song was released in 1975. Murphey said that the song came to him during a dream one night from deep in his subconsciousness. 

And he has a horse named Wildfire.

No. 19 - Little Walter

In the novel I'm currently reading a young woman has an infant named Little Walter. First name "Little." Middle name "Walter." She said he was named after a famous blues player.

Marion "Little Walter" Jacobs (1930-1968) was born in Louisiana and taught himself to play harmonica at age 8. His wildly innovative style has drawn comparisons to Jimi Hendrix. He became famous for using the microphone to amplify the sound of his harmonica. His song Juke is still the only harmonica instrumental ever to hit #1 on the R&B charts. Little Walter's life was tragically cut short at age 37 after he was involved in a fight during a break from a performance in a night club in Chicago. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2008.

No. 18 - MLK

Today is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. It is one of only four U.S. holidays that exists to honor an individual. The other three are Washington's Birthday (a.k.a. President's Day), Columbus Day, and Christmas. 

Of these four individuals, three had a history of arrest: Christopher Columbus (arrested once), Jesus (arrested once), and King (arrested about 30 times). George Washington was, along with the rest of the Continental Army, declared a traitor by King George III and was therefore wanted for arrest during the Revolutionary War. He was never captured.

No. 17 - Jumpman (a.k.a. Mario)

My kids love to play Super Mario Bros. Remember the video game where Mario and his brother, Luigi, collect coins while avoiding enemies and obstacles in order to save the princess? The game was originally released in 1985 as a sequel to the 1983 game, Mario Bros. The main protagonist of the series, Mario, actually debuted in the 1981 game, Donkey Kong.

In Donkey Kong, a character named Jumpman must rescue a damsel in distress who was taken by a giant ape. The name Jumpman was supposedly chosen for its similarities to the names Pac-Man and Walkman, which were popular during that time. Jumpman who was a carpenter in Donkey Kong became a plumber and had his name changed to Mario when he debuted in Mario Bros.

No. 16 - Bull Goose

While enjoying a quiet afternoon with some folks trapped under a dome in Chester's Mill, Maine today, I overheard someone asking another person if he was the "bull goose." This other person replied that he "was not even going to try and be the bull goose" unless he absolutely had to. I later learned that a bull goose is another term for an alpha male, or the dominant leader in a group.

No. 15 - Chinchillas

Before bed last night, I was reading a book with my daughter about how to care for small animals as pets. Like most kids, she wants one of each - rabbit, hamster, guinea pig. In the middle of reading she stopped and said "Dad, they have the cutest chinchilla at PETCO!" I asked what a chinchilla was and she responded "I don't know but it's so furry and cute and since you don't know what it is, you should blog about it tomorrow." I thought that was pretty darn cute.

Chinchillas are rodents and are slightly bigger than a squirrel. They are native to the Andes Mountains of South America and were named after the Chincha Indians. Chinchilla means "little Chincha." Their fur is extremely soft and, as a result of its use in fur trade, they were hunted to near extinction in the 1800s. Today the little critters are bred for use as pets and for their continued use in the fur industry for clothing and other accessories. Wild chinchillas are listed as an endangered species. As pets they have been described as intelligent, charming, and highly inquisitive bundles of mischief. They are supposedly a delight to watch and even more fun to touch and stroke their soft fur.

No. 14 - Where is Haiti?

Geography has never been one of my strong points. With the recent news of the death and destruction caused by the earthquake in Haiti, I figured it was time to look up Haiti's exact location on a map. If you live in the U.S. you can get there using the following directions:

1. Start at the southern tip of Florida.
2. Swim due south until you run into Cuba.
3. Walk east until you run out of island.
4. Swim east-south-east (this is a much shorter swim than the one from Florida) until you hit the island of Hispaniola, on which Haiti is located.

Hispaniola is the second largest island in the Caribbean behind Cuba. Haiti makes up the western one-third of the island of Hispaniola; the Dominican Republic makes up the eastern two-thirds of the island.

No. 13 - Lemonade

I had lunch today with a good friend. As I was telling him about this blog the waitress came to take our drink order. I ordered a Coke. M ordered Lemonade. I changed my order to Lemonade (just because it sounded better). I told M that before we left the restaurant I needed for him to tell me something I didn't already know. For this blog, of course. M said: Lemonade. I said: What? M said: There must be a reason you changed your order to lemonade, so find out what's so interesting about it.

I found nothing new about lemonade, the drink. Just water, lemons, sugar, mix. I did come across a new documentary called "Lemonade," which tells the tale of 16 advertising professionals who lost their jobs, but found their calling. It was a project by, and for, those who have been affected by unemployment. I also learned that all the resources to make the documentary were donated - there was no mention of any government subsidies. Imagine that. With more than 15 million Americans currently unemployed, it seems to have been released at a good time. This is likely going to be a very difficult period in our country's history. For many, it will be devastating. For some, it will be an opportunity to start over, perhaps in a whole new career. And for a few, it will be a time to reflect on what would really make them happy, and a time to passionately pursue their true calling.

Link to movie trailer here.

No. 12 - Post-it Notes

I needed a Post-it note this morning to jot a quick note to someone and attach it to the document I was sending them. The little yellow square pad that sits on my desk next to the keyboard wasn't there this morning. I must have run out. No problem. Open desk drawer. Nope. Out there too. Walk to supply room. Out. Now what do I do? Improvise. And order more Post-it notes.

What did people do before Post-it notes came on to the scene in the early 1980s? I don't know, but I did find out how 3M Corporation marketed the product so that today they are common place. It appears that the initial test marketing in 1977 didn't go so well. However, 3M discovered that if you gave the product to the customer to play with - bingo - they loved it! In 1978, 3M had a marketing campaign called the "Boise Blitz" in which Boise, Idaho businesses were blanketed with free product. The result: 90% of the users said that they would buy the product themselves. And the rest is history.

No. 11 - Smiley

If you've ever been to a Wal-Mart you've probably seen the smiling face on the left. But do you know where the smiling one on the right comes from? If you guessed Eat'n Park, give yourself a sticker. Eat'n Park is a family restaurant chain with about 100 locations in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia. The franchise began in Pittsburgh in 1949 and is well-known for its Smiley Cookies, which are frosted sugar cookies with smiley faces drawn on them in icing. What I did not know is that Smiley Cookie has an actual federal trademark registration -- U.S. Trademark No. 1,809,410. It was registered in 1993 by Eat'n Park for "baked goods; namely, cookies." I came across this little nugget of information when I read today that Eat'n Park is suing Texas-based Crumb Corps who also sells smiley-faced cookies as part of its mail-order "cookie bouquets." The company has been in business since 1983 and began franchising in 1987. Crumb Corps refuses to stop drawing smiling faces on its cookies. Game on! Let's waste resources arguing about who has the right to sell happy cookies.

No. 10 - The Little Red Book

I was reading Under the Dome by Stephen King this morning and came across the following passage:

"When I was in Iraq, someone gave me a copy of Chairman Mao's Little Red Book. I carried it around in my pocket, read it cover to cover. Most of it makes more sense than our politicians do on their sanest days. One thing that stuck with me is this: Wish for sunshine, but build dykes."

I thought about that last sentence for more than a moment. Something doesn't feel right for me concerning the supposed economic recovery. It just doesn't. So although I hope for the best (who really knows, right?) I am preparing for the worst and trying to inform and educate my friends and family so that they might be able to protect themselves for what could amount to many years of economic hardship for many Americans. But I digress.

I learned that The Little Red Book was also referred to as Quotations from Chairman Mao and was published by the Government of the People's Republic of China from 1964 to 1976. It is a collection of quotations from Mao Zedong's past speeches and publications. It was the most printed book of the 20th century (with an estimated 5 to 6.5 billion copies printed) and ranks second to the Bible as the most printed book of all times. It explained to the people of China the ideology of the Chinese Communist Party and Chinese citizens were unofficially required to own it, read it and carrying a copy with them at all times during the latter half of Mao's rule.

No. 9 - Girl Scout Cookies

This is the time of the year when Girl Scout cookies begin making their way from the bakeries to girl scout homes in anticipation of the upcoming year's cookie sale.

Today we picked up 828 boxes of cookies that will be distributed to our local daisy troop. Annually the Girl Scouts sell about 200 million boxes. The first recorded sale of cookies by a scout unit was in 1917. In 1933 the Girl Scouts in Philadelphia organized the first official sale of homemade cookies. In 1937 commercial bakeries began making the cookies.

The most popular varieties of cookies are Thin Mints (25% of total sales), Caramel deLites (19%), and Peanut Butter Patties (13%). About 10-15% of the price of a cookie box stays with the local troop to be used for local activities. So on a $4 box, the local troop will keep about 40-60 cents per box. Enjoy this national tradition and help your local troop by supporting this year's sale.

No. 8 - Benda Masks

Last evening I finished reading one of my favorite books, Appointment in Samarra by John O'Hara. The story is set in the fictional town of Gibbsville, PA which anyone from the Coal Region knows is based on Pottsville, PA. In the last few pages of the novel I read the following:

"The girl stood waiting while the man checked his hat and coat. She was tall and fair and had been told so many times she looked like a Benda mask that she finally found out what it was."

I made a mental note to myself to find out what it was.

W. T. Benda (1873 – 1948) was an artist and illustrator. In 1914 he attended a masquerade ball and made his own mask for the party. As the story goes, he came home from the party and tossed the mask in the garbage only to retrieve it later to tinker with the design. Soon thereafter he became passionate about creating masks. He engrossed himself in the subject matter researching the history of masks and even authored the entry on "masks" in the Encyclopedia Brittanica. He became so well known for making masks that his name became synonymous with any life-like mask.

No. 7 - PURE Sensia Internet Radio

The WSJ Personal Journal section had an article today titled "Ten for '10: New Gadgets for Home and Away." My eyes were immediately drawn to an internet radio called "PURE Sensia." I love internet radio and have had a couple of them for several years now with one on my night stand and another in the kitchen. Internet radio allows you to listen to any internet radio station just as you would from your computer but on a separate radio device. Typically internet radios are wireless, so you'd need WiFi in your house for best results. Once you have an internet radio, any radio station in the world (that broadcasts over the internet) is yours for the listening. So if you live in Miami, Florida and want to listen to KDKA in your hometown of Pittsburgh, PA you can. I have heard estimates of over 5,000 stations being available. Any station I have ever searched for, whether it be a specific talk radio station or Christmas music, was immediately available. You can also listen to podcasts as well as any digital audio stored on your home network. One the best things about internet radio is that there is no monthly subscription, like with satellite radio. Once you purchase the device, the listening is free.

OK. So none of the above is really new to me. Except for this new PURE Sensia product. The current models of internet radio are quite boring, basically a box with some buttons. As shown here in this YouTube product review, this radio is going to take internet radio to a whole new level with touchscreen controls, widgets for weather updates and news feeds, and access to Facebook, Picasa and Twitter. It appears that the product has been released in the U.K. and will arrive in the U.S. about mid-year. I can't wait!

No. 6 - Twist Tie Colors

My blackberry buzzed this morning with a message from my brother who resides in a much warmer climate than the one currently being felt in Pennsylvania. In the e-mail he writes: "What is the meaning of the colored twist ties on loaves of bread, buns, etc.?  Not the general meaning, but the specific meaning, because only that can help you."

A couple quick Google searches later I learned that there are generally five different colored twist ties used to secure a loaf of bread: Blue, Green, Red, White and Yellow. Each color corresponds to a day of the week that bread is delivered: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday, respectively. A few search results indicated that different bakeries may use different color schemes so the consumer might not benefit from this knowledge. Heck, I've always just looked at the date stamped on the package to make sure I'm getting the freshest loaf. The color codes do seem to serve a purpose, though, for the bread delivery guy so that he can quickly rotate the stock, older bread to the front, newer to the back.

This got me thinking that the way I view bread on a shelf is a bit different from the way the guy delivering the bread views it. I look it from one angle; he from another. He sees something slightly different than me. He has knowledge that I don't have. Will I look at bread differently now that I have this "secret" knowledge the next time I am in the grocery store? Perhaps.

I wonder, though, if I was missing the alternative meaning of something as simple as twist ties, what else am I missing? There is no possible way for all people to have all knowledge on all subjects...to be omniscient. We shouldn't take for granted that the way we view or understand something is the way others will view or understand it.

No. 5 - Dry Cleaning Tags

As I was getting ready for work this morning, I removed the little dry cleaning tag from my freshly-laundered shirt and threw it in the garbage can.

My four-year old son: Dad, what's that?

Me: I don't know but the dry cleaner always puts them on my shirts and I always have to remove them.

My wife gave me the funny eyes like I'm a wee bit crazy.

She: You don't know what they're for?

Me: No. What?

She: They're used to identify your shirts from everyone else's when the shirts get thrown all together in the washing machine.

Me (after digging the little itty bitty tag out of the garbage can and seeing a four-digit number printed on the tag): Oh. That makes sense.

While the above was not a shocking surprise to me - it seemed all very logical - I wonder if I already knew what dry cleaning tags were used for and forgot it many years ago since it's a very insignificant matter in my grand scheme of things. I drop the clothes off. I pick them up. It works. I don't question how it works. Unless it stops working someday.

How many things in life do we not pay attention to because they seem insignificant? They work. Until they don't work. And then we question why.

No. 4 - The Rules

I discovered today that it's going to be more challenging than I originally thought to learn, and post, one new thing every day. I have set two general rules for my 365 Things in 365 Days blog. The first rule is that it has to be something new that I learned during that particular day, not from a previous day. So learning that I need to be a better listener doesn't count since I learned that a long time ago :) There's no doubt that some days I will learn lots and lots of new things. However, I don't think it would be fair to carry those new things forward to another day. The second rule is that what I learned needs to be something that I encountered throughout my normal day. So going to a This Day In History Wikipedia entry just doesn't seem fair either. I also have no doubt that I may learn a few new things throughout the course of a day, but keeping track of, and remembering, them may also be challenging.

So there you have it. I learned today that it may be hard to learn, and remember, and post a new thing every day.

I enjoy learning the most from others. If you have any ideas or thoughts that you might want to share, please e-mail your comments to 365thingsin365days@gmail.com. You might be responsible for me learning something new one day. And I thank you in advance.

No. 3 - Rolling Rock 33

Bottles of Rolling Rock beer have a number "33" printed on them. There is no definitive conclusion as to what the mysterious number represents although some of the most popular reasons are:

1. The year that prohibition was repealed - 1933.

2. The highest rank of the Freemason society - the 33rd degree.

3. The brewery workers were members of local union #33.

4. The number of words (33) in the pledge of quality printed on the bottle: "Rolling Rock from the glass lined tanks of Old Latrobe. We tender this premium beer for your enjoyment as a tribute to your good taste. It comes from the mountain springs to you."

No. 2 - Blue Moon

The popular definition of a "blue moon" is the second full moon in a calendar month. Since a full moon occurs every 29 1/2 days, if there is a full moon on the 1st or 2nd day of a month, there is a good chance there will be a second full moon, or blue moon, that month.

The more traditional definition is when an extra full moon occurs in a season. Each season - winter, spring, summer and fall - would typically have three full moons. However, if a season had four full moons, then the third, not the fourth, full moon is called the blue moon.

Blue moons occur about once every two and a half years, which is the origin of the saying "once in a blue moon."

The last blue moon (popular definition) occurred on December 31, 2009 and the next will not appear until August 2012.

And a blue moon is not blue in color.

No. 1 - Georgia Guidestones

In Elbert County, Georgia there sits a monument some refer to as the "American Stonehenge." The structure consists of six granite slabs, almost 20 feet high and weighing more than 100 tons. The creator of the monument is unknown. Inscribed in the monument in eight different languages (English, Spanish, Swahili, Hindi, Arabic, Chinese and Russian) are the following set of ten guidelines:

1. Maintain humanity under 500,000,000 in perpetual balance with nature.
2. Guide reproduction wisely - improving fitness and diversity.
3. Unite humanity with a living new language.
4. Rule passion - faith - tradition - and all things with tempered reason.
5. Protect people and nations with fair laws and just courts.
6. Let all nations rule internally resolving external disputes in a world court.
7. Avoid petty laws and useless officials.
8. Balance personal rights with social duties.
9. Prize truth - beauty - love - seeking harmony with the infinite.
10. Be not a cancer on the earth - Leave room for nature - Leave room for nature.