No. 365 - St. Swithin's Day

Wow! The last post! I had not anticipated how hard it would be to learn and post something new for 365 consecutive days. In all, it was really fun. I particularly loved when my kids would ask me what I learned during the day, when they had special requests for me to learn something they were interested in, and especially when they taught me something new. I would also like to thank some special friends and family (you know who you are) who taught me cool stuff throughout the year.

And so, without further ado, the last thing I learned in 2010 came from a novel aptly titled One Day, as in one day at a time, which is the attitude I had to take in order to complete this blog (and personal goal).

I recently began reading One Day by David Nicholls, a British author. The story starts with a young couple on their last day as undergraduates on July 15, 1988, and then revisits the couple on that same day for the next two decades, to show us what has become of their lives and their relationship.

I learned that July 15 is St. Swithin's Day, which is sort of like a British Groundhog Day, a day on which people watch the weather because tradition says that whatever the weather is like on St. Swithin's Day, it will continue so for the next forty days.

There is even a well-known weather rhyme throughout the British Isles:

St. Swithin's day if thou dost rain
For forty days it will remain
St. Swithin's day if thou be fair
For forty days 'twill rain nae mair.

(For us non-Britons "dost" means "does" and "nae mair" means "no more.")

The legend originally only concerned rain, but later related to 40 days of similar weather. There is very little truth behind these sayings, and since 1861 there has neither been 40 dry nor 40 wet days following a dry or wet St. Swithin's Day. In fact, on average, about 20 days with some rain and 20 rain free days can be expected between July 15th and August 24th.

No. 364 - Peameal Bacon

We are visiting friends and this morning one of them was running out to get some bagels. I asked if he could pick me up a large coffee. He said he doesn't drink coffee but most people order a "double-double." I asked what that was and he said it was two cream and two sugar. That sounded mighty fine to me. He said he was going to make eggs when he got home and that he was going to get some Peameal Bacon. I thought maybe he was talking about Canadian Bacon.

I learned that Peameal Bacon is similar to Canadian Bacon. It is cured but not smoked. Canadian Bacon is basically smoked ham. Peameal Bacon is made from pork loins. They are trimmed of all the fat and the bones are removed. The term peameal comes from the ground yellow peas with which the bacon was originally coated. This ensured better curing and shelf life and avoided bacterial problems. Over the years this tradition was changed to cornmeal, due to the availability of corn.

It was some of the most delicious bacon I have ever eaten.

No. 363 - Boxing Day

We were driving in the truck today and my wife asked me if I knew what Boxing Day was. I said that I did not but that I didn't think it had anything to do with the sport of boxing.

I learned that Boxing Day is a bank or public holiday that occurs on December 26, or the first or second weekday after Christmas Day, depending on national or regional laws. It is observed in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom.

The exact etymology of the term "boxing" is unclear and there are several competing theories, none of which are definitive. The tradition has long included giving money and other gifts to those who were needy and in service positions.

Some claim that it goes back to the early Christian era when metal boxes placed outside churches were used to collect special offerings tied to the Feast of Saint Stephen.

In the UK, it became a custom of the nineteenth-century Victorians for tradesmen to collect their "Christmas boxes" or gifts on the day after Christmas in return for good and reliable service throughout the year.

Another possibility is that the name derives from an old English tradition: in exchange for ensuring that wealthy landowners' Christmases ran smoothly, their servants were allowed to take the 26th off to visit their families. The employers gave each servant a box containing gifts and bonuses (and sometimes leftover food).

No. 362 - Tuesday Night Football

This evening the Philadelphia Eagles are playing the Minnesota Vikings. The game was moved to tonight after the Sunday scheduled game was postponed after a blizzard was expected in the Philadelphia area. It is the first Tuesday night NFL game since 1946.

I learned that the 1946 game was played on Tuesday for the same reason -- bad weather. The New York Giants and Boston Yanks were set to open their 1946 regular season on Monday, September 30 at Braves Field in Boston, but a torrential downpour forced the teams to move the game to Tuesday.

In that game, the Giants beat the Yanks 17-0.

No. 361 - Duran Duran

I read somewhere today that Duran Duran, the pop sensation from the 1980s released a new album last week called All You Need Is Now. It is their thirteen studio album but is being heralded as the follow-up to Rio, their 1982 hit album. I haven't heard any songs from it yet, but will be keeping an ear out for them.

No. 360 - DSi

It was getting late in the day and I turned to my wife and said I needed to learn something new today. My son immediately responded by asking me to learn about the DSi, his favorite Christmas present. My wife asked what "DSi" stood for. I thought the "i" stood for "internet," which this version of the hand-held game console can connect to.

I did not know that DS stood for "dual screen," which seems obvious now that I know since it has two screens. It also stands for "Developers' System," in reference to developers of new game designs the system was meant to inspire.

The lower-case "i" in "DSi" supposedly symbolizes both an individual person ("I") and the hand-held's cameras ("eyes"). The first camera is placed on the internal hinge, and points toward the user. The second is on the outer casing, and faces away from the user.

No. 359 - PF Flyers

This morning while opening Christmas presents, I overheard my dad and father-in-law talking about sneakers. Apparently it was a follow-up conversation to one yesterday about Chuck Taylors. Specifically they were talking about PF Flyers. I cannot recall ever hearing about them before so I asked what PF Flyers were.

I learned that PF Flyers are similar to Chuck Taylors.

They were first produced by BF Goodrich in 1937, so Chucks came first. They had popularity in the 1950s and 1960s, but lost steam during the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s.

The style most commonly associated with the shoe is the common canvas-duck sneaker, with cloth reaching above the ankle, and a patch that reads "PF Flyers." This common style is called "Center Hi."

I also learned that the PF stands for Posture Foundation. Developed in 1933, this patented insole technology set a new standard in sneaker comfort. The insole technology was first used in BF Goodrich shoes. It involves a wedge-like insert (promoted as the "magic wedge") that moves weight to the outside of the foor, evenly distributing weight, reducing leg strain. As the success of the sneakers with the Posture Foundation insole technology grew in 1937 it became the basis for the brand name, "PF Flyers."

No. 358 - Chuck Taylors

I was standing in my driveway today with my dad who commented to my son that his sneakers were cool. I said that they were Chuck Taylors. My dad asked what they were. I said, you know, the Converse All-Stars sneaker. My dad asked why I called them Chuck Taylors. I said because that's whose name is written on the patch on the ankle. My dad asked who Chuck Taylor was. I didn't know. So I grabbed my droid and googled it.

We learned that Charles "Chuck" Taylor (1901 – 1969), was an American basketball player and shoe salesman. He is best known for his association with the Converse All-Stars sneaker, the most successful selling basketball shoe in history.

We also learned that the Converse All-Stars shoe, one of the first specially designed for playing basketball, was introduced in the 1910s. Taylor started wearing them in 1917 as a high school basketball player. In 1921, Taylor went to the Chicago Converse Shoes sales offices in search of a job, and was hired. Within a year, Taylor's suggestions of changing the design of the shoe to provide enhanced flexibility and support, and also including a patch to protect the ankle, were adopted. The All-Stars star logo was then immediately included on the patch. By 1923 Chuck Taylor's name was added to the patch, and the shoe became the Chuck Taylor All-Stars.

My son has a black pair of Chucks. I liked them so much, I got myself a matching pair :)

No. 357 - Pierogi Pocket

I read an article in the Wall Street Journal this morning about Google's holiday doodle -- the fancy illustration that shows up on Google's homepage.

This year's holiday doodle debuted this morning. It showed 17 interactive portraits of holiday scenes from around the world. One of the scenes was a table of food. When you clicked on it, it took you to a page showing the search results for "pierogi."

Where I grew up in Pennsylvania, we ate pierogis regularly. In fact, one of the best known pierogi maker, Mrs. T's, was headquartered less than 15 miles away.

I learned that pierogi consumption in the United States is largely concentrated in a geographical region dubbed the "Pierogi Pocket", an area including New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Chicago, parts of the northern Midwest and southern New England. This region accounts for 68 percent of annual U.S. pierogi consumption. Every July, in Indiana, there is Pierogi Fest and each year Mrs. T's names an annual pierogi capital of this region. The 2009 capital was Binghamton, NY.

No. 356 - Fudge

I called my wife today to double-check which Fudge books by Judy Blume we had. My son asked me several weeks ago to get another one from the series and I forgot until this morning when something triggered me to remember.

The first one we read together was Fudge-a-mania, which happened to be the third book in the series. The kids liked it a lot so we read the first one, Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing.

Before calling my wife, I typed "Fudge series" or something like that into Google and learned that Fudge was turned into a television series. The series ran for two seasons (1995-1997), with 24 episodes following a television movie adaptation of Fudge-a-mania, which aired on January 7, 1995 in prime time.

No. 355 - Wawa

My wife called me today with a question from my son. They were at a Wawa convenience store and my son asked why there was a picture of a goose on the building (a goose is used as the company's logo).

I once heard a local radio personality define the first "Wa" as "sacred" and the second "wa" as "place," describing Wawa as a "sacred place." It was a joke, but that's all I ever recalled about the name. I knew that the company's headquarters are in Wawa, Pennsylvania.

I learned that the town was named for the Chippewa Indian word for "wild goose." Wawa was supposedly defined as wild goose in The Song of Hiawatha, the 1855 poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

I also learned that there is a Wawa in Ontario, Canada. The community is known for its 28-foot-tall metal statue of a Canada goose, which was built in 1960.

No. 354 - Threadless

I was listening to NPR Now Marketplace on XM Radio and heard about a t-shirt company called Threadless. Their business model is something called crowd sourcing, in which artists submit designs and then a community of people vote on them. On average, around 1,500 designs compete in any given week. Each week, the staff selects about ten designs. Each designer selected receives $2,000 in cash and a $500 gift certificate.

Threadless has over a million users on its website. In October 2010, a book of the same name was published providing a ten-year retrospective of Threadless t-shirt designs and the company's history.

No. 353 - Change Ringing

Today I posted as my Facebook status: This is the time of year that I read one of my favorite books -- Appointment in Samarra by John O'Hara. It's set during the Great Depression between Christmas and New Year's Day in Gibbsville, the fictionalized town of Pottsville, PA.

I own an original first edition (unfortunately without a dust jacket) as well as a reproduction of the first edition, with exact details copied including the original dust jacket. Today I read the back cover and a book called The Nine Tailors by Dorothy L. Sawyers was noted as The Best Mystery of 1934.

The description on the cover read: "Not only an admirable mystery, but also a novel of unique color and feeling ... beautifully written. Through the whole story the ancient art of bell-ringing is woven like a mysterious melody."

A Wikipedia entry said that for this novel the author had to learn about change ringing.

I learned that change ringing is a way of ringing bells that produces a rich cascade of sound. Change ringing bells are hung in special frames that allow the bell to swing through an arc of 360 degrees.  A team of people are needed to ring them because each bell requires the full attention of one person.

Change ringing is described as a team sport, a highly coordinated musical performance, an antique art, and a demanding exercise that involves a group of people ringing rhythmically a set of tuned bells through a series of changing sequences that are determined by mathematical principles and executed according to learned patterns.

No. 352 - Lilli

My wife was making cookies and listening to Christmas music on the television in the kitchen. Every few minutes the channel would display some interesting fact about the holidays.

One such message read: The classic Christmas gift Barbie was inspired by the German doll Lilli.

I learned that the Bild Lilli Doll was a German fashion doll produced from 1955 to 1964, based on the comic-strip character Lilli. She was the predecessor of the most famous doll in the world: Barbie.

Lilli was available in the sizes 12 inches and 7 and a half inches. She held three patents absolutely new in doll-making: The head wasn't connected to the neck but ended at the chin; the hair wasn't rooted but a cut-out scalp that was attached by a hidden metal screw; the legs didn't sprawl open when she was sitting. The doll was made of plastic and had molded eyelashes, pale skin and a painted face with side glancing eyes, high narrow eyebrows and red lips. Her fingernails were painted red too. She wore her hair in a ponytail with one curl kissing the forehead. Her shoes and earrings were molded on. Her limbs were attached inside by coated rubber bands.

When Mattel acquired the rights to Lilli in 1964, the German production stopped.

No. 351 - KA-BAR

I have been corresponding on e-mail with a friend from high school recently about knives. He seemed to know a lot about them and I had an interest in learning about them for general use, hunting, fishing, and the collapse of civilization as we know it. You know, the usual stuff.

Today he wrote: The KA-BAR knives that were U.S. issue in WWII up to the late 80's are made out of 1095 steel and have a powder coat finish to prevent corrosion.

I went to the KA-BAR website to learn a bit about the company and came across this entry on how KA-BAR Got Its Name:

Soon after its introduction in the mid-1920's, the KA-BAR trademark became widely known and respected. There have been many versions of how the KA-BAR name came to be, but all evidence points to a letter received from a fur trapper. This particular fur trapper's testimonial turned out to be the most significant ever received by the company.

He wrote, in very rough English, that his gun had jammed and that he had therefore relied on his knife to kill a wounded bear that was attacking him. In thanking the company for their quality product the trapper described using his knife to kill the bear. All that was legible of his scrawled writing was "k a bar". The company was so honored by this testimonial that they adopted this phrase and used it as their trademark, KA-BAR.

No. 350 - Vatican Twins

I received an e-mail from my aunt this morning which read: I was watching a documentary tonight and heard the term Irish twins and thought of you. First time I ever heard this. Was wondering if you are aware of Vatican twins and Irish twins????

I have heard the term Irish twins because I am one. I understood the term to mean two siblings born in the same calendar year. In my case, I was born in January and my brother was born in December of the same year.

However, every definition I found expanded that definition to include children born within twelve months of each other. About.com says this about Irish twins:

The term is used to describe two children born to the same mother in the same calendar year or within twelve months of each other. The phrase originated as a derogatory term associated with Irish immigration to the United States and England in the 1800s. The implication was that large groups of close-in-age siblings were the result of uneducated, poor Irish Catholic families' lack of birth control as well as self-control. In modern use, the term is not intended as an insult, but rather a description of siblings born close together.

I learned that the term Vatican twins is synonymous with Irish twins.

I also learned that Irish triplets are when three children are born to the same mother within three years, which makes me one of those as well.

No. 349 - Dreidel

We attended my daughter's school holiday concert this evening. During the second song, I turned to my wife and asked why they were singing "spin the cradle" and wasn't that a bit disrespectful? Why would someone spin the baby Jesus in his cradle?

She laughed and told me they weren't saying "cradle" but rather "dreidel." I asked what a dreidel was and she said it was a Jewish thing, a top of some sort.

I later learned that the dreidel is a four-sided spinning top with a Hebrew letter on each side. It is used during Hanukkah to play a popular children's game that involves spinning the dreidel and betting on which Hebrew letter will be showing when the dreidel stops spinning. Children usually play for a pot of gelt, which are chocolate coins covered in gold colored tin foil, but they can also play for candy, nuts, raisins, etc.

The letters on the dreidel, Nun, Gimmel, Hey and Shin, stand for the Nes Gadol Haya Sham, which means A Great Miracle Happened There.

The miracle referred to is the miracle of the Hanukkah oil, which lasted for eight days instead of one.

No. 348 - Prune People

Two weeks ago when the calendar flipped to December, I knew that the completion of my 365 Things Blog was in sight. Over 90% done -- less than 10% to go. Back in the spring and summer, there was no end in sight. Just a daily ritual to learn something new and post about it.

Today I realized how close I am to finishing, and posted as my Facebook status this morning: 19 posts to go. What can you teach me today?

The sole response as of Noon:  Prune People (a Christmas Tradition in Nuremburg)

I learned that Prune People are strange little figures made of dried fruit and nuts that are among the top sellers at the Nuremburg Christmas Market. The arms and legs are made of prunes threaded on a wire. The body is composed of dried figs and the head is a painted walnut. They are dressed as men and women in a wide variety of costumes. A sign over one of the stalls in the market selling prune people offers this advice: You will never be without gold and happiness, if you have a prune person in your house.

It is said that these figures were created in the 17th century when a poor man had a tough time bringing his family through a harsh winter. The idea came to him to produce plum figures in the way that his grandmother had taught him, and he sold these figures at the Nuremberg Christmas Market with incredible success!

No. 347 - Taro

A guy I work with handed me a pastry box today and said that he bought a half dozen "taros" this morning and offered me the last one. He said they are one of his favorite foods and always buys them when he can find them. I was hungry so I accepted it and thanked him. I also asked what a taro was and he told me that it was a root vegetable.

It was quite delicious. The stuff - the taro - was ground up in the center of a buttery pastry and had a sweet taste.

I learned that taro is native to southeast Asia. It is a perennial, tropical plant primarily grown as a root vegetable for its edible starchy root, and as a leaf vegetable and is considered a staple in African, Oceanic, and Asian cultures. It is believed to have been one of the earliest cultivated plants. It is known by many local names and often referred to as 'elephant ears' when grown as an ornamental plant.

No. 346 - Dufflepuds

My daughter and I went to see The Voyage of the Dawn Treader today. Back-to-back movie days for me is unusual since I rarely go the movies.

In one scene there was some type of creature called Dufflepuds. They resembled a dwarf but with only one leg. I didn't recall such a creature in the novels. I read all of them in grade school and again about 10 years ago, but I may have only re-read a few of them.

After we got home, I grabbed my 50th anniversary hardcover edition to see if these Dufflepuds were actually in the story, or if someone created them for the movie version. They were indeed in the original book. Chapter Eleven is titled The Dufflepuds Made Happy. In the chapter I read:

Of course these little one-footed men couldn't walk or run as we do. They got about by jumping, like fleas or frogs. And what jumps they made!-as if each big foot were a mass of springs.

Wikipedia said that Dufflepuds looked liked other Narnian dwarves, aside from their monopodality; their one leg was usually about three feet long, and ended in a large foot, clad in a boat-shaped shoe. When they slept, each dwarf lay on their back with their foot in the air, acting as a kind of umbrella over them; creating a mushroom-like appearance, when viewed from a distance.

So I presume at some point in the past I may have known what a Dufflepud was. At the beginning of this day, I did not, but by the end I did.

No. 345 - My Summer Story

My son and I went to see A Christmas Story at our local historic theatre today. He got to pick our seats and choose to sit in the balcony in the farthest seat from the big screen. They were the best seats in the house.

After the movie, we came home and I taught him how shoot my Red Ryder BB gun, which was given to me by my dad for Christmas several years ago.

I did not not know that there was a sequel to this classic holiday hit. I learned that It Runs in the Family (released on DVD as My Summer Story) is a 1994 film that follows the further adventures of Ralphie Parker and his family. Like the previous film, it is based on semi-autobiographical stories by Jean Shepherd, primarily from his book In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash.

No. 344 - Red Tape

I wore a pair of black boots yesterday that I hadn't worn in quite some time. I liked them so much I wore them again today. I wondered who made them so I took one off to check. On the inside was written the words Red Tape.

I learned that the brand Red Tape was developed in India by a footwear manufacturer named Mirza Worldwide. In eight years, it has become the No. 1 fashion men’s line in India. Red Tape's spokesperson and brand representative is Bollywood movie star Salman Kahn (not the Salman Khan from Khan Academy in Post No. 236), who appears in commercials and advertisements featuring the footwear. Red Tape made its way to Europe five years ago and is now featured in more than 500 stores throughout England, Germany and Holland. The U.S. launch began in spring 2006. Red Tape's target customer is a young fashion-oriented male between the ages of 18 and 30.

I suppose I have become somewhat fashion-oriented over the last few years, although I now fall slightly outside the targeted age range. I bought the boots in 2007 and they have spent most of their time in the closet. They look brand-new. I thought to myself that they could very well become my new favorite boots this winter.

No. 343 - Honeysuckle

Splashed on the front page of the Personal Journal section of the Wall Street Journal today was a story titled, The New Hue for 2011.

I read that a company called Pantone plans to announce today that its color of the year for 2011 is an intense pink it calls "honeysuckle."

The article says, "Pantone predicts that we're about to see a lot of this color, appearing on everything from designer dresses to pillows, water bottles, nail polish, sofas and appliances. A sherbety shade of pink, with a hint of red and orange zest, honeysuckle is seen by designers as a pick-me-up at a time when many people have had their fill of misfortune."

Apparently this year's color is a vivid turquoise, but that wasn't enough enough of a pick-me-up in this down economy. Probably by sometime in 2011 it will be announced that we are indeed in a depression, perhaps the greatest depression, and I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that honeysuckle pink isn't going to make folks feel much better about that.

No. 342 - Pygg

On Sunday evening before bed, my daughter came downstairs and handed me a book she was reading called Why Money Was Invented by Neale S. Godfrey. She said, "Look, Daddy!" while directing me to read a certain section.

I read aloud: The first piggy banks were made from a clay called pygg. Later the banks were made to look like pigs and were called piggy banks.

I told her that I didn't know that, and she said I could use it for my blog. I told her that I already learned and posted something for the day. She said I could use it the next day. But I explained that my rules were that I had to learn it that day, not the previous day. I think she was disappointed. I don't blame her.

Well, since Sunday I haven't stopped thinking about it. She taught me. SHE taught ME! If nothing else, this blog has been worth the time and effort for that moment alone. I am so proud of her. So without breaking my own rules, I knew there had to be a way to incorporate "pygg" into my blog.

So I researched piggy banks today and learned that there is a famous bronze cast piggy bank that weighs nearly 600 pounds named Rachel. She is the official mascot of Pike Place Market in Seattle, Washington. The Market opened on August 17, 1907 and is one of the oldest continually operated public farmers' markets in the United States.

Rachel receives $6,000-$9,000 annually in just about every type of world currency, which is collected by the Market Foundation to fund the Market's social services. Now that's the way social services ought to be funded -- with donations that are given freely and not coerced through taxation.

No. 341 - Rose Bowl

On the sports page of the Wall Street Journal today there was a big red "35" with a caption that read: The number of students named the 'worst people on campus' by the University of Wisconsin's student newspaper for allegedly trying to sell their student Rose Bowl tickets online for a profit.

I actually thought to myself that these 35 students were the smartest student at the University of Wisconsin.

I learned that the Rose Bowl was first played on January 1, 1902. Because the game was so lopsided, with Michigan beating Stanford 49-0, for the next fifteen years the Tournament of Roses officials ran chariot races, ostrich races, and other various events instead of football. But on New Year's Day in 1916 football returned to stay as The State College of Washington defeated Brown University in the first annual Rose Bowl.

No. 340 - The Beaver

Today I was reading the LewRockwell.com blog and came across a posting on December 5 simply titled Mel Gibson and Jodie Foster in ‘The Beaver’. No other explanation. It included this YouTube trailer for the film.

I don't watch many movies but thought this one looked pretty interesting.

I learned that The Beaver is an upcoming drama movie based on an original script by screenwriter Kyle Killen. The film is directed by Jodie Foster and stars Mel Gibson and Foster. The Beaver follows a depressed CEO of a toy company (Gibson) who dons a beaver handpuppet to better communicate with his wife (Foster) and his two sons. The script by Killen topped the 2008 Blacklist, a ranking of the best unproduced screenplays. Brendon Connelly of SlashFilm called the screenplay "one of the few very best screenplays [he has] ever read."

No. 339 - Charlie the Unicorn

This morning my daughter asked me to type "Charlie the Unicorn" into YouTube. I did and then watched with her as three unicorns talked to each other in some type of low budget animated video. I saw my son recently watching this as well and asked where they heard about it. They said that their cousin showed it to them "about a year ago." They were not sure why they recently became interested in it.

I learned that Charlie the Unicorn is a Flash animated short film and viral video directed, produced, animated, and written by Jason Steele of independent film company FilmCow. Wikipedia says that the film follows the life of Charlie, a lethargic unicorn, and two other unicorns who bring him on an allegedly magical adventure to the mythical "Candy Mountain." Although Charlie is eternally skeptical throughout the majority of the trip, he is nevertheless surprised when the mountain turns out to be real once they arrive. After a musical number from the mountain's marquee letters, he is forced to enter the Candy Mountain Candy Cave, where his kidney is stolen, much to his chagrin.

Where his kidney is stolen much to his chagrin? Huh?

Time Magazine wrote in 2009 that:

Charlie the Unicorn proves that something doesn't have to make any sense at all to earn a cultlike following. The animated adventure centers on a group of unicorns venturing to Candy Mountain — "the land of sweets and joy, and joyness" — through the guide of a liopleurodon.

The video was a viral hit, accumulating 50 million views and gaining worldwide praise. A merchandising line was also produced featuring the video's characters and famed quotations, as well as two sequels, Charlie the Unicorn 2 and Charlie the Unicorn 3, released in 2008 and 2009, respectively,

No. 338 - Flowers for Algernon

I am currently reading House Rules by Jodi Picoult. I enjoy reading her novels because each chapter is written from a different perspective from one of the main characters, and they are always chock full of interesting facts and stuff I don't know.

To put this post in context, the novel is about a teenage boy, Jacob, who has Asperger's Syndrome.

Today I read the following, from Jacob's perspective:

The aide who staffs the room, Ms. Agworth, is also the Quiz Bowl teacher. Every day at 11:45 she leaves to make photocopies of whatever it is she's using in Quiz Bowl later that day. For this very reason, I've made it a point to use my COP pass [cool-off pass] at 11:30 for the past two days. It gets me out of English, which is a blessing in disguise, since we are reading Flowers for Algernon and just last week a girl asked (not in a mean way but truly curious) whether there were any experiments under way that might cure people like me.

I learned that Flowers for Algernon is a science fiction short story (published in 1959) and subsequent novel (published in 1966) written by Daniel Keyes.

Algernon is a laboratory mouse who has undergone surgery to increase his intelligence by artificial means. The story is told in the epistolary style, one of my favorite literary styles, as a series of progress reports written by Charlie, the first human test subject for the surgery, and touches upon many different ethical and moral themes such as the treatment of the mentally disabled.

Since its original publication, the novel has never been out of print and has sold more than five million copies.

After learning this I did two things. First, I realized that two days in a row I have learned something involving a mouse, although my wife told me that The Nutcracker did not have a seven-headed mouse in it, although she did say there were mice in it. And second, I immediately went to my PaperbackSwap.com account and ordered a copy of Flowers for Algernon.

No. 337 - The Nutcracker

My wife and daughter went to see The Nutcracker this evening while my son and me went into town to see the annual Christmas parade. The parade ended with the man himself, Santa Claus, riding on a huge wagon and sitting on a gigantic chair. We couldn't tell if it was the real Santa or one of his helpers. I guessed it was the real Santa because his boots looked real, not like some of the fake ones his helpers sometimes wear.

I have never seen The Nutcracker so my wife suggested it might be something for me to learn about today.

I learned that The Nutcracker ballet is based on the story The Nutcracker and the King of Mice written by E.T.A. Hoffman. Apparently what is seen on the stage today is different in detail from the original story, but the basic plot remains the same. It is the story of a young German girl who dreams of a Nutcracker Prince and a fierce battle against a Mouse King with seven heads.

If I had known that there was a mouse with seven seven heads in it, I would have gone to see it long ago. That would be worth the admission price alone.

No. 336 - Poor Richard's Almanack

I began reading 39 Clues, mentioned in Post No. 298, to my kids before bed. Tonight in Chapter 5 of The Maze of Bones, the first book in the series, we read:

She got to the Fs and found it immediately: a tiny book, so tattered it was falling apart. The cover was decorated with a red-and-white woodblock print of Colonial farmers. The title was faded, but she could still make it out: POOR RICHARD'S ALMANACK, For the Year 1739, by Richard Saunders.

A few sentences later we read:

"Wait a second," Dan said."If this was written by Richard Saunders what's it doing under F?"

We then read that Richard Saunders was a pseudonym for Benjamin Franklin.

Wikipedia says that the Almanack appeared continually from 1732 to 1758. It was a best seller for a pamphlet published in the American colonies with about 10,000 copies printed per year.

The Almanack contained the calendar, weather, poems, sayings and astronomical and astrological information. Franklin also included the occasional mathematical exercise. It is chiefly remembered for being a repository of Franklin's aphorisms and proverbs, many of which live on in American English. These maxims typically counsel thrift and courtesy, with a dash of cynicism.

No. 335 - Google Editions

There is little doubt that Google is a dominant force on the Internet. I regularly use the free products and services offered by Google: Mail, Reader, Docs and Calendar. I use iGoogle as my home page, sort my photos using Picasa, and watch videos on YouTube. My smartphone's Android operating system is a Google product, as is this blog.

Today in the Wall Street Journal I read that Google is set to launch a new e-book retailing venture this month called Google Editions. The article says:

Google Editions hopes to upend the existing e-book market by offering an open, "read anywhere" model that is different from many competitors. Users will be able to buy books directly from Google or from multiple online retailers—including independent bookstores—and add them to an online library tied to a Google account. They will be able to access their Google accounts on most devices with a Web browser, including personal computers, smartphones and tablets.

This could be a game changer. I have a Kindle 2 and love it. Even though I still read nine out of ten books in paper form, when I do read a book on the Kindle it is an enjoyable experience. The device is lightweight so you can easily hold it in one hand to read and you can't beat the built-in dictionary. The recent edition of the Kindle now sells for $139. I saw a commercial for the new Color Nook which is a bit more expensive, but uses touchscreen technology like the iPad.

I think all of this is a huge win for readers. Many choices and now much more to come!