Arkansas Democrat-Gazette columnist
Philip Martin long ago had a series of pieces with the headline, “Things I
Didn’t Know.” I don’t think he would be insulted or accuse me of plagiarism if
I used this same title today. Oh, that’s right: titles can’t be copyrighted.
Nor many other things, one of which is a group of words. So, I should be safe.
I DIDN’T KNOW THAT “trig” and
“trigness of the house” as found in Mark Twain’s book, “Life on the
Mississippi” meant smartness, neatness, trim, spruce. Makes sense in that
context, but it’s the first time I’ve seen it without its math meaning.
In the same vein, “texas” with a
small “t” in steamboat lingo refers to the long, narrow cabin known as the
crew’s quarters. Also the “hurricane deck” is above the boiler deck, usually
the uppermost full deck. It’s also called the upward deck or roof.
I DIDN’T KNOW THAT a septic tank
included a distribution box located several yards away from the tank itself. In
this box—a smaller tank by half, I’d say—overflow water from the tank runs into
the box, thence out into the leach or field lines in the yard. After son dug
four or five inches of dirt off the thick concrete lid of the box, he found
that the pipe from the tank to the box was clogged with a log of roots, which
he managed to get out. Then he sawed around the sides of the box, loosening
roots of all sizes and colors. After that, he sprinkled in a two-pound
container of ZEP Root Killer. “Let’s wait two weeks before I replace the dirt
on the lid to see what it looks like,” he said, and stuck an orange cone on the
now replaced lid of the box.
Two-weeks passed; he pried off
the lid, looked around, proclaimed it looking good, replaced the lid and
shoveled the dirt back on to the box. We set a marker in the middle of it, and
returned the orange cone to the trunk of my Taurus.
I DIDN’T KNOW THAT enrollment in
the Affordable Care Act is 16.3 million people. –Heather Cox Richardson citing
DHHS.
I DIDN’T KNOW THAT Walmart
employs 1. 7 Million folks in the U. S. and is raising its minimum wage from
$12 to $14 a hour.
I DIDN’T KNOW THAT Peru has 33
million people and is the 5th most populous in Latin America. –NYT’s
The Morning newsletter.
Or that about 80 percent of New
Zealanders 5.1 million population identifies as Pasifika—a New Zealander of
Pacific islands descent. –Raw Story
I DIDN’T KNOW THAT Africa has
about 30 percent of the world’s reserves of minerals crucial to helping [the
world] transition to green energy. –Heather Cox Richardson.
I DIDN’T KNOW WHAT a “Church
Committee” was in government until I found out it was a Frank Church committee;
a U. S. Senate select committee in 1975 investigating abuses by the CIA, NSA,
FBI and IRS. I was glad to know this wasn’t a ‘church’ as in religion
committee. In 1975, I had four children from 14 to 5, plus teaching, plus work
as a church musician. I was ignorant of governmental affairs then. But I’m
making up for it now.
