Lesson #25

Today I learned a lot of Oscar facts (found here), including my favorite: John Williams has been nominated 47 times throughout his career, is nominated twice this year, and he was nominated for THREE Oscars in BOTH 1974 and 1976. Love him!

Lesson #24

Tim Gun, wealthy, well-loved and a perfectly wonderful man, hasn't had sex in 29 years. For a guy who's usually so stoic, he's beautifully vulnerable but still quite confident in talking about it.

Lesson #23

This guy on the radio said a study found that only one-half of one percent (or. 05%) of Americans are considered attractive. Not just "beautiful" but plain "attractive." I'm not buying it!!

News: Subway Horror

This (link here) sounds more like the plot of a Final Destination movie than actually real life, but there were four deaths in one day on the NY Subway system. One of them took place just a few stops up from mine on the R, and the most horrific by far was the severed head that was found stuck between the train and the platform on the L. I cannot even imagine such a sight.

Fellow New Yorkers, please be careful!!!

Lesson #22

Tom Sawyer was the first novel ever written on a typewriter. Interesting.

Lesson #21

In "The Muppet Movie," Kermit's bike gets run over and he jumps off just in time. His next line in the movie is, "If frogs couldn't hop, I'd be gone with the Schwinn."

Tonight I learned that Schwinn was a brand of bicycle. I've probably seen that movie 10,000 times since I was 4 and the joke just now makes sense.

Lesson #20

Hippo milk is pink.

Lesson #19

The Delta Sky Club isn't all that great. Comfier chairs but that's basically it.

Lesson #18

Mark Wahlberg was originally scheduled to be on one of the hijacked flights on 9/11. He also believes (or is joking?) that he could have stopped the terrorists. "Say hello to your motha for me."

BONUS LESSON: Elbows can be chapped enough to bleed. Thanks, SL,UT.

Lesson #17

Paula Deen has diabetes. The lesson here is that if you eat a diet mostly made of fried food, including fried butter, chances are you will get diabetes.

Lesson #16

Utah is an incredibly dry state, so much so that I woke up with a nose bleed.

BONUS FACT! They sell Salt Lake t-shirts in the gift store that say "SL,UT." Nice.

Lesson #15

JFK has installed iPads in the Delta terminal so you can play games, Google and order food to your terminal seat all while being a lazy S.O.B.!

Lesson #14

I learned how to say hello in Chinese. "Ni hao!"

This is a lame post, but it's a Saturday night, so suck it! I'm drinking with friends. ;)

Lesson #13

Today I learned some facts about Friday the 13th (thanks to Mary for this link). For instance:

• We will have three Friday the 13ths this year, the most you can have in any calendar year
• Friday the 13th superstitions date all the way back to Biblical times when Judas (the 13th Apostle to arrive at the Last Supper) betrayed Jesus, who then died on a Friday
• My favorite one: fear of Friday the 13th is called friggatriskaidekaphopia. Try saying that three times fast (...or thirteen times fast?)

Anyway, superstitions or not, I hope everyone had a wonderful Friday the 13th!

Lesson #12

Sometimes an apology isn't asked for or even needed, but still good to say. If they didn't need it, maybe you did.

Lesson #11

During the American Revolution, Americans and Brits had the same accent... however that accent was NOT the British accent we know today ("The Queen's English" or "BBC British"). Nope, instead, our friends across the pond spoke similarly to the generic American accent we all have today! 

Apparently, it became posh (Brit-speak for fancy for those of you who've never heard of the Spice Girls) for the wealthy to drop their R's. It caught on quickly and spread, kinda like the word "wicked" in Boston. Britain ain't that big, you know. That also makes sense why some of the lower class never caught on to dropping their R's, and why the Irish and Scottish don't either. 

The more you know! 

Lesson #10

Okay, this one's a doozy.

The youngest mother ever in recorded history is a girl named Lina Medina, who, in 1939, had a healthy baby boy at the age of FIVE YEARS OLD. Five. Years. Old. Her first period happened when she was eight months. It's called "precocious puberty."

Seriously. Just when you think you might understand the world. Read more about Lina here.

Lesson #9

My bedroom door locks. I can lock my door without know it. Thankfully, my landlady has a key. All new information to me.

Lesson #8

I've always said that I'm not a phone person. Well (very early) today I learned that's simply not true. I'm a phone person when the right person's on the other side of the line! I also think I set a personal phone record: 5 hours and 14 minutes.

Also, Happy Birthday to my Auntie Carol!!!!

Lesson #7

So... today I learned that I'm a bit of a hypocrite.

At my laundromat, there are two ladies who work there and I see them both about equally. When I drop off my laundry, they have to fill out a little form and put my name on it. Lady 1 has known my name for months, writes it without asking, and says hello to me by name whenever I walk in. Lady 2 always asks my name. Today as I handed my laundry over to Lady 2, I wondered why she didn't remember my name by now.

But then I realized that I don't know either of their names. And that makes me a bit of a hypocrite. Gotta work on that.

Lesson #6

I never knew that you say "sherr-bet" not "sherr-bert" for the word "sherbet." I also will probably never say it correctly in my life.

SHERBET

• Incorrect pronunciation: sherr – berrt
• Correct pronunciation: sherr – bet

This is one of those words that ultimately had to abandon its crusade for righteousness and now has been corrupted to the point where dictionaries may list the incorrect pronunciation as acceptable because of just how rampant the ignorance grew to be. But there’s only one ‘R’ in “sherbet,” America… no matter how awesome the rainbow flavor is, there’s still only one ‘R’.

This comes from a great article posted by my friend Richie on Facebook, linked here. Also, to anyone who pronounces awry as "aww-ree" ...you're an idiot.

Bonus Pop Culture Lesson: Taye Diggs was born with 12 fingers.

Lesson #5

The actor who plays Dean on PanAm (and also Johnny in The Help) was on Nickelodeon GUTS in 1993 when he was a kid. Crazy!!! He is also quite good looking. But I already knew that.

Bonus Lesson: Stop & Shop is selling Easter candy on January 5. Jesus was just BORN, let him LIVE before resurrecting!!!

Lesson #4

The abbreviation for Missouri is MO, not MI, which is the abbreviation for Michigan. Now I know. There does happen to be a St. Louis, MI although, in the words of the designer I work with, it looks "suspiciously tiny" on a map.

Bonus Personal Lesson: In my grand old age of 26, the cold now makes me do crazy things, like pay another $150 for a rental car so I don't have to walk outside or order delivery food so that I, likewise, do not have to step outside. Basically at 26 I no longer mind spending extra money to avoid the cold.

News: "The Hoff" Crabs

A new species of crab has been found off the coast of South Georgia. The crew nicknamed it "The Hoff" Crab because it has a hairy underbelly (lol). They basically live on top of one another, and I'll wait while you make up your own joke here.

...Dude. That's totally racist. Uncool.

Check out the BBC article here.

Lesson #3

You can get very full off of fried rice alone.

Lesson #2

You can drive from Waltham, MA to Astoria, NY in only 3 hours the day after New Year's.

Bonus Geek Lesson: Doctor Who Christmas specials are not Stephen Moffat's strong suit.

Lesson #1

Baby chicks can take up to one day to break out of their egg. They peck a half circle/C-shape before getting their head out.

Related lesson: The Boston Museum of Science will not give me a chick so I can live like Chandler and Joey, even if I say please. Furthermore, the museum worker does not think that's funny. I mean, the show's been off the air for almost a decade, she should really appreciate a Friends reference.