No. 181 - Jimmy

This morning we went fishing for blue crabs. It was the first time we ever went crabbing. We learned how by watching another family do it yesterday.

We fished using a simple crab line, which consisted of a piece of string with bait attached to a weight on the end. We used chicken necks for bait. The technique we used was simply to throw the baited line into the water from a pier and wait for a crab to bite on to it. Then we slowly raised the crab from the bottom and scooped it up with a net.

It was a lot of fun. The kids were able to work as a team and catch a crab all by themselves.

While researching blue crabs, I learned that it is so named because of its sapphire-tinted claws and a male blue crab is called a "Jimmy." I also learned that the blue crab was the subject of a story titled "Jimmy the Crab" by James Michener in his novel, Chesapeake.

I then learned that James Michener has become known for his long historical novels about places such as Alaska, Hawaii, Mexico and Texas. In Chesapeake, the story follows several families living in the Chesapeake Bay area from 1583 to 1978. It includes extensive history starting with the American Indians, and continuing through slavery, the American Revolution and the Civil War.

No. 180 - Schnitzelbank

Today while reading the book I mentioned in Post No. 175, I came across another unusual word. On page 170 the author wrote:

On the surface our relationship was easy and usually pleasant. Our place was the little German one we'd found that first night. It was patronized mostly by townspeople not students. We would drink beer and talk and sing along with the Schnitzelbank.

I learned that Schnitzelbank is the name of a popular song that was written by Germans in the 1800s. It was originally designed to teach children German, but today is commonly used as a drinking song at bars and parties. It is also considered the International Friendship Song. The song itself is made up of 16 different items that are sung about.

The word Schnitzelbank translates literally as "a cutter's bench," but the musical form takes its name from a play on this word. The slang usage of the word "schnitzel" refers to a joke or to a person who is a jokester, and "bank" as the bench, podium or stage on which the jokester performs.

The song appears to have a repetitive nature to it, similar to The Twelve Days of Christmas, where each previous word is repeated as the song progresses and new words are added.

No. 179 - Sandwich

Today we took a trip to a place where the road ends and the beach begins. You can drive your car for many miles on the sand, park wherever you want, and have a private section of the beach all to yourself. We like to make this day trip whenever we are in the area.

Two years ago we drove several miles on the sand and then got stuck when we went to leave. I did not appreciate the trouble we were in until a guy on the beach - I've since dubbed him the "old-timer" - told me that several years earlier he lost a Denali - as in Yukon Denali - when he got it stuck in the sand. I asked what exactly he meant by "lost" and he proceeded to tell me the surf ended up taking it away. I don't know if his tale was real, or not, but it was enough to panic me some. We eventually got ourselves unstuck with the help of a few Good Samaritans.

Today we only drove about a half-mile on the beach, but still had a fantastic day. And we didn't get stuck!

When we went to leave we had some sandwiches prepared for the trip back. We told the kids to wipe their hands really good so that they didn't get any sand on their sandwiches. My daughter asked why they were called "sandwiches" if they didn't have "sand" in them.

I learned that the origin of the word sandwich can be traced back to John Montagu, the Fourth Earl of Sandwich, an 18th-century English aristocrat. The town of Sandwich is located in southeast England. It is said that he ordered his servant to bring him meat tucked between two pieces of bread, and others began to order "the same as Sandwich!" It is also said that Lord Sandwich was fond of this form of food because it allowed him to continue playing cards, while eating without getting his cards greasy from eating meat with his bare hands.

No. 178 - Sand Dollar

While scouring the beach this morning for sea shells, my son would occasionally exclaim, "Hey, there's a sand dollar!" For the record, we have never found a sand dollar. I was thinking that we'd be more likely to find a federal reserve note than a sand dollar and then wondered what the value of a sand dollar is.

I learned that a sand dollar is a name used for many species of flattened, burrowing sea urchins. The name "sand dollar" comes from the shape and color of the skeleton, or test, after it washes up on the beach. At that point the test is usually missing its velvety covering of minute spines and is often bleached white by the sun. The test is generally similar in shape and size to a large silver coin.

A review of a website specializing in the sale of sea shells, showed that a sand dollar the size of a quarter cost about twenty-five cents. A sand dollar needs to reach about three inches in diameter in order to be traded for a U.S. dollar.

No. 177 - Scuppernong

While traveling in the car today, my son really had to use a restroom. A few miles later we saw banners advertising a farm market, and they highlighted that there were restrooms available. So we stopped.

This was certainly one of the nicest farm markets I've ever been to with all sorts of really fresh-looking fruits and vegetables, even wines and ciders. After using the restroom, we headed back to check out the ciders. There was peach and blackberry and scuppernong. 

Scuppernong? 

I had never heard of that one. In front of each cider, there was a thermos with some chilled product to sample. My son and I tasted the scuppernong. It was really good. I asked him if he liked it. He said yes. I asked if we should get the small or large jug. He chose the large one. We also picked up some really plump and juicy green grapes and a sack of salted peanuts.

I asked a lady at the checkout what scuppernong was. She said it was a grape with a really tough skin that you would typically not eat, but instead squeeze out and eat the inside of the grape and discard the skin.

I later learned that scuppernong is native to the southeastern United States and is a very unusual grape. It grows in clusters, rather than in bunches, and its fruit resemble small plums, more so than grapes.  The name comes from the Scuppernong River in North Carolina where it's also the state fruit.

No. 176 - Wiffleball

I was very busy today. Half the day slipped by quickly and I knew the second half was going to pass just as fast. So I phoned my dad and asked him to teach me something new. He did me one better. He gave me a great idea!

Across the street from the house I grew up in was a playground. Every night in the summer after dinner (and after homework!) we played wiffleball. My dad was always the designated pitcher. All the neighborhood kids played. They were fairly competitive and really fun.

My dad suggested that I learn something new about wiffleball.

For anyone not familiar, wiffleball is a variation of baseball played on a much smaller field. The game is played using a light-weight, rubbery, plastic ball and a long, plastic (typically yellow) bat.

I learned that the wiffleball was invented in 1953 by a down-on-his luck shoe polish salesman and his 13-year-old son using spare perfume packaging. David Mullany of Fairfield, Connecticut designed the ball so that it would curve easily for his son. Because of the way the ball is constructed, it allows pitchers to throw a tremendous variety of curve-balls. It was named when his son and his friends would refer to a strikeout as a "whiff." It was a popular game in the backyard and at picnics in the 1960s and 1970s. A few websites say that starting in the 1980s, the game exploded into an organized sport, with many successful sports leagues and tournaments now played across the United States.

I don't recall seeing a wiffleball game being played anywhere in many, many years...perhaps dating back to the 1980s.

No. 175 - Interurban

I'm currently reading a book titled Hanging On: Or How to Get Through a Depression and Enjoy Life by Edmund G. Love. The author graduated from high school in June 1929, just before the stock market crashed in October 1929, which many consider to be the starting point of our country's First Great Depression.

If, as some believe, we are currently in the Second Great Depression and it just hasn't been announced yet, I thought this would be an interesting read to get some perspective on what it was like back then. Our collective memory of that era now consists of men with fedora hats standing in soup-kitchen lines, or perhaps of Franklin D. Roosevelt declaring: “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” As the parents of the Baby Boomers pass on, firsthand knowledge of 1930s America is vanishing.

Edmund Love was quite a storyteller - he passed on in 1990. The book is quite interesting.

I enjoy when I come across a word that was used in the past but has disappeared from our current vocabulary. Recall that I learned the definition of "drawing room" back in Post No. 82. That word was also used around this same time period.

Last night I stumbled on another such word. On page 88 it was written:

In the spring of 1930 while I was still in Kemper, their car had been struck by an interurban during an evening drive. Mr. Berry was killed and Mrs. Berry was paralyzed from the waist down. The old lady had spent more than a year in the hospital and had finally been brought home in that summer of 1931. She was helpless and needed the services of a full-time nurse, but in the months since the accident the interurban company had gone bankrupt and there had been no financial settlement.

Did you find the unique word? Interurban? I made a mental note to look up the meaning of it today.

I learned that an interurban is a type of electric passenger railroad that enjoyed widespread popularity in the first three decades of the twentieth century in North America. It was basically a high-speed trolley between cities. At present, what once was called an interurban is now categorized as either commuter rail or light rail depending on operation and may include urban streetcar lines.

No. 174 - Sufism

All day today I kept my eyes and ears open in order to learn something new. After dinner I still had nothing. I thought to myself: How hard can it be to learn something new? I should be able to pick up this fortune cookie and learn something from it. Yes, I had Chinese for dinner.

So I cracked open the cookie. Have you ever added the words "in bed" to the end of your fortune? Someone told me that one time and now I can't read a fortune without adding the words. It works almost all the time. So my fortune read: Pray for what you want, but work for the things you need. In bed.

So I Googled it.

And learned that it is a Sufi quote. Great! But what the heck is that?

So then I learned that a Sufi is someone who practices Sufism. And?

And Wikipedia says that Sufism is the mystic path of Islam. It goes one to say that "the underlying theme of Sufism is that an individual can achieve God consciousness during his life on Earth."

Allaboutreligion.org had this to say:

Sufism may be best described as a mystical practice that emphasizes certain unique rituals for guiding spiritual seekers into a direct encounter with God. Many consider Sufism to be a mystical brand of Islam. Sufis teach that Sufism may be practiced with any religion -- it is the “heart” of religion. No one faith or belief is questioned; each can follow his own church, religion, or creed.  Sufis believe that God is responsible for everything they do. If not, then they would be equal to God, doing whatever they wanted. Thus God is responsible for every thought and deed. God can do with his servants whatever he wills, whether it is to the servant’s advantage, or not.

I wonder if the Sufis would find the "in bed" comment funny, or not.

No. 173 - Chatter

Anyone who works in an office environment knows that it is fairly difficult at times - actually most of the time - to focus solely on one thing. As soon as you start working on something, the phone rings, or someone stops by, and every five minutes a new e-mail arrives - ding! - in your in-box and the person who sent it is expecting a "timely" response.

Today I heard about Salesforce Chatter. Imagine Facebook and Twitter for the office.

The Salesforce website says that Chatter is "a brand-new way to collaborate with people at work. Where the status of important projects and deals are automatically pushed to you — so you're always in the loop. With Chatter, it’s easy to work together and know everything that's happening in your company. Updates on people, groups, documents, and your application data come straight to you in your real-time feeds."

So now you'll have to monitor a real-time stream from your co-workers to be notified that Gordon arrived safely in Japan for a sales meeting with such and such bank. And Bud will be sharing a new presentation that he would like your feedback on in 30 minutes. New status update for Bud: The presentation will now be ready in 15 minutes. And Gordon is having vegetable tempura and udon noodles for lunch. Oy vey!

No. 172 - Toothfish

For lunch today I had Chilean sea bass with a soy ginger onion sauce, a spicy tuna roll, and a side salad. It was yummy.

I wondered if Chilean sea bass was from Chile. I mean, if you call yourself a "Chilean" sea bass, shouldn't you be from Chile? I previously learned about Chile in Post No. 58 and Chinchillas who live in Chile in Post No. 15.

I learned that Chilean sea bass is not from Chile. And it is not really a bass at all. Well that makes sense.

Chilean sea bass, also called Patagonian toothfish, is a fish species which became very popular for human consumption in the 1990s. It is caught in the cold, deep waters off the coast of Antarctica, and earned the name Chilean sea bass because Chile was the first country to bring it to the popular market and "sea bass" was deemed more commercially viable than "toothfish."

The Chilean sea bass is a pretty ugly fish, with a somewhat prehistoric appearance. The Chilean sea bass has large eyes, an thrusting jaw, and a muddy skin color. Unfortunately for the fish, the athletic deep sea lifestyle it lives results in a delicious white meat which has minimal oils and a firm texture, standing up well to grilling, baking, sauteing, and other such cooking applications.

No. 171 - Great Pacific Garbage Patch

In a conversation with a cousin of mine this morning, the topic came up as to where the oil from the Gulf Oil Gusher would go after it made its way around the southern tip of Florida. My cousin said that maybe the currents would eventually take it to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. I never heard of that before.

I learned that the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a gyre - a system of rotating ocean currents - of marine litter in the central North Pacific Ocean. Its size is unknown with estimates ranging from an area the size of the state of Texas to one larger than the continental United States. The Patch is characterized by exceptionally high concentrations of plastics, chemical sludge, and other debris. It is estimated that 80% of the garbage comes from land-based sources, and 20% from ships.

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch was discovered in 1997. A similar patch of floating plastic debris was found in the Atlantic Ocean in early 2010.

No. 170 - Red Rock Cola

After dropping off our car this morning to have it serviced we took advantage of the beautiful weather and walked back to our house. On the way we stopped at a cafe for some breakfast. I noticed a retro-looking advertisement on the wall for Red Rock Cola with a picture of Babe Ruth and a caption which read, "It's the finest cola drink I ever tasted".

I learned that Red Rock was a popular brand of ginger ale (introduced in 1885) and cola (introduced in 1938) that can still be found for sale in certain markets. The Red Rock Company was among the oldest producers of carbonated beverages in the United States.

Red Rock was the only soft drink beverage personally endorsed by Babe Ruth and posters were made of the endorsement in 1939. It is believed that there is only one, perhaps two, original posters in existence today, and one is framed and mounted on the wall of its owner in Medina, Ohio.

No. 169 - Supernumerary Nipple

My Facebook friends have been teaching me a lot lately, which is refreshing. It's much better than those status updates from someone looking for a gold-plated cow bell for their fictitious farm animals, or reminding me that it's brother-in-law week.

Today a friend posted: Raise a glass and toast the unsung hero of the day -- the supernumerary nipple.

I learned that a supernumerary nipple is, quite simply, an extra nipple. In humans it takes the form of a third nipple. As a general rule, supernumerary nipples are entirely harmless, and no medical action needs to be taken to deal with them. Some people have their extra nipples removed for aesthetic reasons. They usually occur in a line below the existing nipple and are often not recognized as extra nipples, because they are usually small and not well formed. They are often mistaken for moles. Around 1 in 18 humans has an extra nipple, making the condition not at all unusual.

In some cultures, having a third nipple was supposed to be lucky, while in other instances it was viewed as a sign of witchcraft or heresy.

No. 168 - Evelyn McHale

This morning a Facebook friend posted: hey rockers Gleasons Drifts new cd gets two thumbs up from this critic its a must buy.

I was curious as to who Gleasons Drift was and found this recent article about them. It turns out that they are from the region where I grew up and I know a few of the band members. In the article, one of the band members talked about a song he wrote called Evelyn. From the article: 

"(The song) 'Evelyn' is partly inspired by this photo I saw of a woman named Evelyn McHale who took her life by jumping off of the Empire State building. There was a photographer right there when it happened and he was able to snap some pictures," he said. "It's not a gory photo like you think it would be, it's actually bizarrely beautiful. Check it out." 

I learned that on May 1, 1947, Evelyn McHale leapt to her death from the observation deck of the Empire State Building. Photographer Robert Wiles took a photo of McHale a few minutes after her death.

The photo ran a couple of weeks later in Life magazine accompanied by the following caption:

On May Day, just after leaving her fiancé, 23-year-old Evelyn McHale wrote a note. 'He is much better off without me ... I wouldn't make a good wife for anybody,' ... Then she crossed it out. She went to the observation platform of the Empire State Building. Through the mist she gazed at the street, 86 floors below. Then she jumped. In her desperate determination she leaped clear of the setbacks and hit a United Nations limousine parked at the curb. Across the street photography student Robert Wiles heard an explosive crash. Just four minutes after Evelyn McHale's death Wiles got this picture of death's violence and its composure.

What are the odds that someone, jumping from 1,000 feet above, could land so perfectly atop a parked limousine, and look so beautiful in death?

No. 167 - Atlas Shrugged

As the current economic depression worsens, a novel written in 1957 is sharply increasing in popularity. It currently ranks #13 on Amazon. It's the story of how the world, particularly the United States, slowly collapses as governments seize more and more power over the private sector. Sound familiar? The collapse is accentuated by the disappearance of the most productive members of society as they join a strike led by John Galt, a mysterious engineering genius.

The book's opening line is Who is John Galt? This phrase is repeated throughout the book. It sarcastically means, "Don't ask important questions, because we don't have answers," or more broadly, "What's the point?" or "Why bother?"

Galt describes the strike as "stopping the motor of the world" by withdrawing the "minds" that drive society's growth and productivity; with their strike these creative minds hope to demonstrate that the economy and society would collapse without the profit motive and the efforts of the rational and productive.

The book is called Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand.

I own several versions of it but have read none of them yet. I feel like I need to be in the right frame of mind to read it and I don't think I'm there yet. I have been training though. I've read The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand after writing about it back in Post No. 47. It has since become one of my favorite books. The character of Howard Roark will not easily be forgotten.

Today I learned that Atlas Shrugged is being made into a movie.

No. 166 - Vuvuzela

I don't like soccer. I don't watch soccer. I once attended a soccer game and left at the first opportunity. For those who say that baseball or golf is a slow sport, they have never been to a soccer game. As one of my FB friends posted today: Sorry all you soccer fans - but watching soccer is like watching the grass grow.

I had heard news reports about the sound level at the games from this past weekend. Today I learned the reason why: the vuvuzela.

The vuvuzela is a plastic horn commonly blown by fans at South African soccer matches. The sound level of the instrument has been measured at 127 decibels contributing to soccer matches with dangerously high sound pressure levels for unprotected ears. The instrument has been associated with permanent noise-induced hearing loss.

The noise has been compared to a swarm of angry bees, or a stampede of noisy elephants.

No. 165 - Olive Garden

My youngest finished up his last day of Pre-K today. To celebrate we went to dinner at one of his - and my - favorite restaurants, Olive Garden. We all love the bread sticks!

I learned that the first Olive Garden opened in Orlando, Florida in 1982. I also learned that newer restaurants are styled after an actual farmhouse in the town of Castellina in Chianti, Tuscany, on the grounds of the Rocca delle Macie winery.

The quote of the evening went to our daughter who described the salad by saying, "This is the best lettuce I ever had!"

No. 164 - DEWmocracy

I'm a Mountain Dew drinker. I typically have at least one can a day with lunch. I never got into Code Red when it came out and haven't paid much attention apparently when new flavors appeared in recent years.

The last time I was at the grocery store there was a large stack of 12-pack Pepsi products. As I went to grab some Dew, I noticed that there were lots of different flavors. So I picked some up. I opened a can of Mountain Dew White Out for the first time today. It's OK. Nothing special.

I learned that this flavor and two others are part of a marketing campaign called DEWmocracy, which allows people to decide the next new flavor of Mountain Dew. This is the second DEWmocracy campaign. The first one resulted in a raspberry-citrus flavor called Voltage being released in 2008.

The three new candidate flavors are Mountain Dew Typhoon (red-orange), which is a tropical flavor described by drinkers as pineapple-strawberry, Mountain Dew White Out (white), which is a citrus flavor described as lemon-lime with grapefruit, and Mountain Dew Distortion (green), which is a lime flavor.

The winning flavor will be released in October 2010.

No. 163 - Justice Bell

I spent the morning touring some of Valley Forge National Historic Park or, as it was known back when it was used as the winter encampment of the Continental Army, the Valley of the Forge.

At the Washington Memorial Chapel there was a bell on display but it was not the Liberty Bell, which is located in Philadelphia.

It was called the Justice Bell and I learned that it was used in the campaign for women's suffrage. The name "Justice Bell" came from the fact that the suffrage movement looked upon a woman's right to vote as a matter of justice. It's a duplicate of the Liberty Bell, except this one has "Establish Justice" in the inscription.

In June of 1915 the Bell began a tour of Pennsylvania which lasted more than three months and covered over 5,000 miles. At the time of the Bell tour, the suffrage movement was working on passage of voting rights for women by all state legislatures. An amendment to the Pennsylvania State Constitution was proposed which would give women the right to vote. The Justice Bell and its tour were planned to support the passage of that amendment, Amendment #1.

"Father, brother, husband, son, vote for Amendment #1" was the slogan heard throughout the summer and fall as male voters were encouraged to support the amendment for women's suffrage. Finally in November, the Bell ended its tour. Amendment #1 did not pass.

After the state amendment failed to pass, attention was turned to the introduction of an Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, and the bell was used to support the cause of women's suffrage at the national level.

The 19th Amendment, which granted women the right to vote, was proposed on June 5, 1919 and ratified on August 26, 1920.

No. 162 - Bree Tanner

It was just a few posts ago, in Post No. 159, that I mentioned the Twilight Series by Stephanie Meyer and how she should have stopped after the first book. The story, for me, seemed to drag in books two, three and four. So today when I saw a new Twilight book at #3 on Amazon, I had to chuckle.

This one is called The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner: An Eclipse Novella. From my point of view there are four good things about this book:

One -- It's short so the story can't drag on too much.

Two -- It will be read by lots of kids and fans of the series.

Three -- It's the back story of a character who briefly appeared in the third book of the tetralogy. I like back stories.

Four -- Stephanie Meyer is allowing her fans to read it free on-line from June 7th to July 5th at Breetanner.com.

No. 161 - Apple's Newton

I first learned about the iPad back in Post No. 27. Today it arrived in the mail. I debated back and forth for quite a bit. 

Do I need it? 

Do I like it? 

Yeah, but do I need it? 

My rational and logical side lost the battle. Hey, you gotta splurge once in a while, right?

I learned today that the iPad is Apple's second tablet computer. You might asking yourself: What was its first? It was called the Apple Newton MessagePad and it came out in 1993.

The Newton ran on a 20 MHz processor, used AAA batteries and sold for $699. The device included a pen-based stylus and a variety of personal-organization applications, such as an address book, a calendar, and notes. Its built-in handwriting recognition was the device's most unique and interesting ability, being able to interpret the user's handwriting into computer-readable text.

The Newton was never a great success for Apple, who terminated the entire Newton line five years later in 1998.

No. 160 - Pittsburgh Rare

How would you like your steak cooked? Well done? Medium? Rare? How about Pittsburgh Rare?

I heard a radio talk show host ask another member of this crew this morning if they ever order their steak Pittsburgh Rare.

I asked my wife if she ever heard of Pittsburgh Rare and she told me that she had heard of it because I told her about it years ago. I asked her how that could possibly be true since I just learned about it today. She claims I did. I would give her a 23.42% chance of being right. It's possible, though I don't remember telling her. And I certainly have never ordered my steak that way. But I may soon.

A Pittsburgh Rare steak is one whereby the meat is flash seared and charred on the outside but still rare or raw on the inside.

The name may have originated from the Pittsburgh region's steel mills, and the supposed practice of workers cooking steak on a cooling piece of steel. But that may just be good folklore. Apparently in Pittsburgh this style of steak is actually referred to as "black and blue." This terminology comes from the fact that the outside is charred (black) and the inside is cold (blue).

No. 159 - The Passage

I really like to learn about new authors. Not necessarily brand-new authors, but new to me. In the last post I mentioned that I'm reading a book by a new author, Emily St. John Mandel, a Canadian. I like Canadians. I find Canadians - the half dozen or so that I actually know - to be fun people. I like fun. So I like Canadians.

The same independent book store owner who introduced me to Emily Mandel made me aware today of another author I had not previously heard of. He posted this today on Facebook:

The Passage by Justin Cronin in stock (signed copies, too). Our suggestion: put down what you are reading, come pick up a copy, and be captivated for 750 pages!

I learned that The Passage is a vampire book but the author never read Stephenie Meyer's Twilight Series. I did. She should have stopped with the first one, which I found to be a great read. A page turner. It was also my first vampire book ever. The other three books could have (should have) been condensed into maybe one more novel. But teens loved them, and read them, so that's a plus. But I digress.

The author was on Good Morning America this morning and said that his nine-year-old daughter convinced him to write the story while they were out jogging. I like that. Kids have such great imaginations. I'm going to have to get my kids to tell me what story to write before they get too old...and lose their creativity.

The Huffington Post thinks that The Passage may be "the biggest book of the summer."

No. 158 - The Flight of Icarus

I began reading Last Night in Montreal by Emily St. John Mandel. I met her over the weekend at a summer reading series. She has published two novels. I have read neither. She was a delight to meet. I am excited to read her works as both novels employ a flashback technique.

This morning the main character talked about why she comes into a particular coffee shop. From Last Night in Montreal:

"I like Greek mythology," she said. "I like that Matisse print over the bar. It's the reason why I come here, actually." She gestured at the opposite wall, and he twisted around to look. The Flight of Icarus, 1947: one of Matisse's final works, from the time when he'd subsided from paint into paper cutouts and was moving closer and closer to the end of the line, unable to walk, his body slipping away from him. Icarus is a black silhouette falling through blue, his arms still outstretched with the memory of wings, bright starbursts exploding yellow around him in the deep blue air. He's wingless, and already close above the surface of the water; Matisse would be dead in seven years. Icarus, plummeting fast into the Aegean Sea, and there's a red spot on him, a symbol, to mark the last few heartbeats held in his chest.

I also learned that Icarus is a character in Greek mythology. He is the son of Daedalus and is commonly known for his attempt to escape Crete by flight, which ended in a fall to his death.

No. 157 - Miracle Cars

If someone offered to sell you a car from the estate of someone who recently died for just the taxes owed on the car, about $1,000, would you give them cash up-front for it? What if the deal was offered to you by a good friend, or your pastor?

I learned that over 4,000 people bought about 7,000 cars that did not exist in a scam called Miracle Cars, which ran from 1997 to 2002. It was one of the largest advance fee frauds in world history, as well as the largest automobile fraud in American history.

I learned about this while listening to a radio rebroadcast of a show on CNBC called American Greed. This story, titled Driven By Greed, aired during its second season. Apparently there have been 4 seasons.

In 2006 a book, God Wants You to Roll, was published that chronicled the scam and trial.

No. 156 - Fels-Naptha

I'm allergic to poison ivy. My kids are allergic to poison ivy. We are not alone. About 85% of people also have an allergic reaction to poison ivy. My wife is one of the lucky ones and is immune.

My kids' legs are covered in it. And it's itchy. Today while I was helping apply some anti-itch cream on one of them, my uncle told me about a soap that is really good at taking the itch away. He said that you can take a bar of Fels-Naptha soap and create a little paste from it to rub on the infected area.

Wikipedia has this to say about Fels-Naptha:

Fels-Naptha is a brand of bar laundry soap used for pre-treating stains on clothing and as a home remedy for exposure to poison ivy and other skin irritants. Fels-Naptha is manufactured by and is a trademark of the Dial Corporation.

It later said that in its own caution use sheet, Dial Corp. states that Fels-Naptha is a skin irritant and should not be used directly on skin.

Well since poison ivy is a skin irritant too, I suppose it's worth a try.

No. 155 - Occam's Razor

I heard someone on the radio this morning use the term "Occam's razor." I've heard it before but, even in the context of the discussion, I could not quite determine its meaning.

I learned that Occam's (or Ockham's) razor is a principle attributed to the 14th century logician and Franciscan friar, William of Ockham. Ockham was the village in the English county of Surrey where he was born.

The principle states that "entities should not be multiplied unnecessarily" and the conclusion is that the simplest solution is usually the correct one.

Other common interpretations are:

If you have two equally likely solutions to a problem, choose the simplest.

The simplest explanation for some phenomenon is more likely to be accurate than more complicated explanations.

Occam's razor was likely the origin to the KISS principle. You remember that one, right? Keep It Short and Simple or Keep It Simple, Stupid. The KISS principle states that simplicity should be a key goal in design, and that unnecessary complexity should be avoided.

No. 154 - Irn Bru

There was an interesting article on the front page of the WSJ today. It was about a highly popular soft drink in Scotland called Irn-Bru (pronounced Iron Brew).

The drink has been around since 1901 and has grown into a phenomenon in Scotland, where it competes with Coca-Cola to be the No. 1 soft drink.

It's known for its bright orange color. Someone in the article who had the Irn-Bru logo tattooed on his chest described the color as "radioactive orange." Another person said that Irn-Bru is "part of our heritage. It's as Scottish as kilts."

The ingredients in the beverage are a closely guarded secret with only two or three people in the world that know the special recipe.

No. 153 - Pit Bull

I don't know why in the last week or so I am learning more about animals. Being outdoors more? The beginning of the summer months?

Today I asked another person that I met for the first time last week to tell me something I don't know.

She told me that she volunteers for an animal shelter and is involved specifically in a program to educate the community about the misunderstanding of the Pit Bull breed, which often leads to cruelty, neglect, abuse and problematic behavior.

I learned that in the 1940s and 1950s the breed was once affectionately known as “America's Nanny Dog" because they were loyal, caring companions for children.

I also learned that Jack, the dog from Little House on the Prairie, the subject of Post No. 68, Petey, the dog from The Little Rascals, and the RCA dog were all pit bulls.

No. 152 - Firesteel

I like to be prepared. A few weeks ago the power went out in our house. Within a few minutes we had the hand-crank radio and LED light combo on and extra flashlights by our side.

This morning an article on my WSJ Mobile Reader app caught my attention. The article from LewRockwell.com was titled How To Make Waterproof Matches. It talked about the importance of being able to start a fire and mentioned the word "firesteel." I jotted down the word to research later. It sounded like something I needed to know more about.

I learned that firesteel is a fire starting tool that sells for under 20 bucks. It is intended to supplement matches and lighters providing a 5,400-degree Fahrenheit spark that makes it easy to build fires in any weather, at any altitude, even if it gets wet.

Firesteel.com's website says:

Experts agree: The most important item in your survival kit is the means to make a fire.

In a disaster emergency or other survival situation being able to start a fire could very well save your life.

But there is a problem:
Matches become wet and useless.
Lighters run out of fuel or break.
Old fashioned flint and steel can be difficult to use.

Fortunately there is a solution:

FireSteel. The best way to ensure you can start a fire when you need one. FireSteel is compact, lightweight and easy to use. And it always works - even when wet!