Things I didn’t know I didn’t know

 

 

                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 5^th 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.