Interns!

On this, the last day of the month of May, and, on the heels of the Memorial Day weekend, spring is drawing to a close and summer is getting underway.  This also represents the start of  summer internships for many students.  Here is a humorous demotivator (courtesy of http://www.despair.com) that accurately pokes fun at interns.  Enjoy!

Amazing Adjectives, Number Seventeen!

Here is another word that I have never actually run across in any book I have read to date, but you just never know when you will encounter a new word or two.  As exemplified in The Highly Selective Dictionary of Golden Adjectives for the Extraordinarily Literate,

“The eagle has a falcate beak which enables the bird to pull apart its prey while sailing high in the sky.”

falcate

\ fal-keyt or fal-key-tid \, adjective;

 1. curved like a scythe or sickle; hooked; falciform.

Source: The Highly Selective Dictionary of Golden Adjectives for the Extraordinarily Literate by Eugene Ehrlich.

Happy Memorial Day, 2017!

Today we honor those who have died in active military service!  And, what better way to thank them than with Toby Keith’s “American Soldier.”  Enjoy!

Forgive Me Father . . . !

. . . for I have sinned.  This is the phrase that I was taught in grade school as the standard opening petition to a Catholic priest when going to confession or the rite of reconciliation.  Here is a joke I heard recently that I will definitely “beg for forgiveness” in advance.

One Saturday morning, a Catholic priest was hearing confessions when a young boy (let’s call him Tom) entered the confessional to confess his sins.

Tom mentioned that he had been “loose with a girl.”

The priest then asked the boy “was it Cindy?”

Tom said “no.”

The priest then asked, “was it Jennifer?”

Tom again said “no.”

Th priest then asked, “was it Rachel?”

Once again Tom said “no.”

The priest then replied that for penance, the boy could not be an altar boy for the next four months.

So, Tom thanked the priest and left the confessional.

Tom then went outside, where his friends had gathered and were interested in the outcome.

Tom replied “well, I got a four-month vacation, and three new leads.”

How About Some Shakespeare?!

Do you ever get that hankering to attend a Shakespeare play?  While there are numerous places throughout the country that offer the occasional play, the three best venues to do so in the United States include: the Oregon Shakespeare Festival (Ashland, OR), the Illinois Shakespeare Festival  (Bloomington/Normal, IL), and the Utah Shakespeare Festival (Cedar City, UT).

If you can’t make it to one of these, there are several other festivals around . . . then check out this list of Shakespearean Theatre Companies to find a company near you.

My college offers a week-long trip to Ashland to attend the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in late summer every year (hosted by our resident Shakespeare Scholar, Dr. John Mercer).  I’ve been dying to go along on this trip, but the timing for me just hasn’t worked out yet (it has recently conflicted with my regularly scheduled vacation to Michigan to visit family) . . . one of these years the timing and the stars will align to allow me to attend.

Fun Fact Friday, Number Twenty-Five!

This week’s fact comes under the category of “Literature.”  Do you happen to know what the “wherefore,” from “wherefore art thou, Romeo?” means? Hint: it doesn’t mean where.

The short answer: it means why?

The longer answer: spoken by Juliet whilst on the balcony, she is lamenting the antagonism between their two families (Juliet’s Capulets and Romeo’s Montagues).  Juliet is basically asking Romeo “why did you have to be a Montague?

Source: Sorry, Wrong Answer: Trivia Questions That Even Know-It-Alls Get Wrong, by Dr. Rod L. Evans.

The Child’s Bath!

On this the birthday of Mary Cassatt (American painter), here is one of her oil paintings, “The Child’s Bath” (from the late Nineteenth Century) that is currently on display at the Art Institute of Chicago.    Cassatt spent most of her adult life in France and was eventually invited to join “the group of independent artists known as the impressionists.”  (from The Art Story Biography).  She was connected to both impressionism as well as realism during the course of her career and was influenced by Edouard Manet, Thomas Couture, Gustave Courbet, and Pierre-Auguste Renoir; among her friends: Edgar Degas, Camille Pissarro, and Berthe Morisot.  Cassatt herself influenced fellow painters Degas and Morisot as well as Lucy Bacon and also had an impact on the Post-Impressionism and Feminist Art movements.

Grand Expedition!

Did you know that on this day, May 24th (in 1869), was the beginning of the first exploration of the Grand Canyon of the Colorado by a man other than a Native American?  Major John Wesley Powell left Green River City (above the head of the Colorado River) with nine men and proceeded through the canyon and emerged from the lower end on August 29, 1869.  Only five of the nine men who started the trip completed the trip.

Some other “firsts” for today throughout history include:

• Commercial telegraph service (1844)
• State adoption law to consider the interests of the child (1851)
• Civil War combat action that earned the Medal of Honor (1861)
• Union Officer killed in the Civil War (1861)
• Artillery fire to be directed from the air (1862)
• Army field telegraph used in warfare (1862)
• Steel arch bridge (1874)
• National banking association (1875)
• Anti-saloon organization (1893)
• Public garage (1899)
• Oil journal (1902)
• Strike settlement mediated by the federal Department of Labor (1913)
• Air combat arm of the Army (1918)
• Croix de Guerre awarded to an American (1918)
• Air-conditioned train (1931)
• Baseball game at night by major league teams (1935)
• Food-O-Mat (1945)
• House with a built-in nuclear bomb shelter (1959)
• Spy satellite (1960)
• Transatlantic supersonic jet service (1976)
• Senator to change political control of the Senate by switching parties (2001)

Source: Famous First Facts (6th ed.) by Joseph Nathan Kane, Steven Anzovin, and Janet Podell.

Let’s Dam It!

 

A collection of small sticks and/or branches strategically placed in the stream is all that is required to create a weir to catch fish without a rod or reel.

weir

\ weer \, noun;

1.  a small dam in a river or stream.

2.  a fence, as of brush or narrow boards, or a net set in a stream,channel, etc., for catching fish.

 

Let’s Not Be Idle!

Physical activity has been shown to be beneficial for a variety of reasons . . .

• Control Your Weight.
• Reduce Your Risk of Cardiovascular Disease.
• Reduce your risk of Type 2 Diabetes and Metabolic Syndrome.
• Reduce Your Risk of Some Cancers.
• Strengthen Your Bones and Muscles.
• Improve Your Mental Health and Mood.

So, how active are you?  Here are the best and the worst states by the percentage of people who are over 50 years of age who engage in NO physical activity whatsoever . . .

States with the lowest percentage of non-active seniors:
1. Colorado (18%)
2. Oregon (20%)
2. Washington (20%)
4. Idaho (21%)
5. Vermont (22%)

States with the highest percentage of non-active seniors:
1. Arkansas (39%)
2. Mississippi (36%)
3. Oklahoma (35%)
3. Kentucky (35%)
4. Louisiana (34%)
4. West Virginia (34%)

Source: May 2017 AARP Bulletin; 2014 survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; numbers are rounded; respondents reported activity level over the previous month.