Never too old to learn

Karen, Carolyn and Deanna--
Hemingway-Pfeiffer Museum
at Ruth Hawkins' book signing, June, 2012

 

             Things I didn’t know until lately: That a colt is male, a filly is female and a foal is genderless. That an elevator is not a cubicle, but a car. That many “experts” say not to begin a sentence with a gerund.

              Oh, I learn new stuff every day—if not from people, from the newspaper. Did you know a car is the worst place to be in during a tornado? And Ernest Dumas’ Arkansas Times column told me this bit: Carbon molecules stay in the atmosphere for 50-200 years.

              Do you know what Silver Gray Dorkings, Jersey Black Giants, Buff Orpingtons and Silver Laced Wyandottes are? If I added some others, you’d know: Barred Plymouth Rocks, Bantams and Brown Leghorns.Yep, chickens.

             “The sweep of time” in Arkansas began in 11,500 B.C., according to G. Sabo III, the new director of Arkansas Archeological Survey, and continues through the moment in 1541 when Hernando DeSoto crossed the Mississippi River into what is now Arkansas. Tracy Dungan, AD-G cited this info.

              Arkansas has about 1500 dentists, 60% of whom practice in only eight out of our 75 counties.

              And speaking of carbon, from the Business section of the state paper last week, this: A carbon footprint is the amount of carbon dioxide or other carbon compounds emitted by an activity or entity.

              Would you have spelled correctly the winning word in the National Spelling Bee? It was “knaidel”—the German-derived Yiddish word for a matzo ball! A 13-year-old New Yorker spelled it for the win.

              Have you read astronaut Buzz Aldrin’s sci-fi novel, Encounter with Tiber? No? Stay tuned for the TV series soon to be available.

             Added in 1963 (I was a young mother of little boys; who had time to read the paper??), the ZIP code—Zone Improvement Program—was put in place. It was meant to speed up mail handling and delivery. I presume it has done that since post office people seem to need the zip code before deciding the cost of a package.

              Here’s one I’ll bet you didn’t know: The rapper Snoop Dogg is now Snoop Lion. (You’re welcome.)

              Puzzles sometimes teach us new things: For instance, LOEW began MGM. Who Loew? I wondered and Googled it.

              In 1924, Marcus Loew, an “entertainment entrepreneur,” who owned Loew’s Theaters chain of 150 theaters, bought Metro Pictures (founded in 1916), Goldwyn Pictures Corporation (founded in 1917) and Louis B. Mayer Pictures in 1924. Louis B. Mayer became vice-president of Loew’s and head of studio operations in California.

            I think my dad helped build some Loew theaters in Little Rock during the 1940s, but try as I might, I couldn’t find any supporting data from the Arkansas Online Encyclopedia of History and Culture.

           Another puzzle clue that I didn’t know at the time--but found out later was this: “___ talks …” Twice in one day I saw the answer: TED – Technology, Entertainment, Design, a global set of conferences owned by … Sapling Foundation. TED talks. Hmm. Is this a TV thing? If so, that's why I missed it.

           Never too old or too busy to learn new stuff.  Are we?