It’s Element-ary, Number Forty-Six!

This month we move on to the next of the boron elements: gallium. Gallium is a tough, shiny metal, but melts very easily. Unlike the M&M candies, gallium will melt in your hand. A teaspoon made with gallium will disappear if you use it to stir a cup of hot tea. Paired with arsenic though, this is a highly used element in the electronics industry (close to rivaling silicon for the top spot).

gallium – discovered in 1875 A.D.

Symbol: Ga
Atomic number: 31
Atomic weight: 69.723
Density: 5.904 g/cm³
Melting point: 29.76°C (85.57°F)
Boiling point: 2,204°C (3,999°F)
Color: silvery
Standard state: solid at 25°C (77°F)
Classification: metallic

Source: The Complete Periodic Table: Elements with Style, by Adrian Dingle and Dan Green.

I’m Ready to Order!

“The man in the bathing suit recognized him as Leo, his waiter from an earlier dinner, and waved.” Check out some synonyms for “waiter” below.

waiter

\ wey-ter \, noun;

1. a person, especially a man, who waits on tables, as in a restaurant.
2. a tray for carrying dishes, a tea service, etc.; salver.
3. a person who waits or awaits.
4. Obsolete. an attendant.

Other words you may consider using (depending on your context/usage, of course):

• garçon
• mozo
• steward

Source: The Highly Selective Thesaurus for the Extraordinarily Literate by Eugene Ehrlich. Definitions courtesy of https://www.dictionary.com, sentence courtesy of https://sentence.yourdictionary.com/

What Would Einstein Say?!

So, I have found this new treasure trove book of quotations by none other than Albert Einstein. Please enjoy these occasional ramblings . . . this first one will be about Einstein himself.

“A happy man is too satisfied with the present to think too much about the future.”

(Note: written on September 18, 1896, at the age of seventeen, for a school French essay entitled “My Future Plans.” CPAE, Vo.. 1, Doc. 22.)

Source: The New Quotable Einstein collected and edited by Alice Caraprice, p. 3.

Things to Remember!

I ran across a couple of infographics recently that got me thinking. One was about choices, the other was about what people will remember.

Re: choices, life is all about choices and we need to stop blaming our woes on the lack of opportunity. For example:

• Trying to find $1,000 to start a new business is hard to come by, but you’ll drop $1,000 on the newest phone.
• Spending $100 on “healthy food” options at the grocery store is too much, but you’ll spend that easily on eating out (dinner and drinks).
• You don’t have the 2 hours it will take to learn a new skill, but you will easily watch one more 2-hour movie on Netflix in the evening.

Re: what you will be remembered for:

• Nobody will remember . . .
  • Your salary.
  • How busy you were.
  • How many hours you worked.
  • How many [insert your favorite item here] you owned.
    
• You will be remembered for . . .
  • How you made people feel.
  • The time you spent with people.
  • If you kept your word.
  • If you could be counted on.

So, What’ll You Have? Number Five!

This month we will provide another necessary tool for the bartender’s arsenal. And, in honor of my brother Andy’s birthday, the recipe for his all-time favorite drink . . . Happy Birthday Andrew!

Tool: service mats. Like the bar mat, this is just a stable surface where the bartender places the drinks that are ready to be delivered to the customer.

Recipe: Gin and Tonic

Ingredients

• 2 ounces (4 tablespoons) gin (Andy’s favorite gin: Tanqueray)
• 4 ounces (8 tablespoons) tonic water
• Garnish ideas: Lime, lemon, cucumber, mint, orange peel, juniper berries, blood orange slice, rosemary

Instructions

1. Add lots of ice to a large cocktail or wine glass and stir to chill the glass. Drain any melted water.
2. Pour in the gin. Add the garnishes. Pour the tonic water onto a bar spoon into the glass (to increase the bubbles). Stir once and serve.

Note: when Andy makes this drink, he also rubs the rim of the glass with the fleshy portion of a lime wedge before using the lime as the garnish.

Fun Fact Friday, Number 335!

The category for today’s trivial imponderable is “astronomy.”  Do you know . . . although a few moons of Uranus are named after characters in Alexander Pope’s The Rape of Lock,” most are named after what?

Believe it or not, most of Uranus’s moons are named after Shakespearean characters. Did you know that Uranus has more than two dozen moons? Names such as Titania, Oberon, and Puck (all from A Midsummer Night’s Dream); Cordelia (from King Lear); Ophelia (from Hamlet); Portia (from The Merchant of Venice); and Rosalind (from As You Like It).

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

Paper Crown!

Here is an instructional video for making an origami paper crown. Happy folding!

Source: https://youtu.be/KCjAD98Yc7o

Working From Home!

COVID had a significant impact on how (and where) we work. Working from home tripled between 2019 and 2021. Here are some of the statistics surrounding this trend.

The percentage share of home-based workers in the United States sits at 17.9%

The share of home-based workers by age group:

• 16-19 (6%)
• 20-24 (11%)
• 25-44 (19%)
• 45-54 (18%)
• 55-59 (17%)
• 60-64 (17%)
• 65+ (20%)

States with the highest percentage of home-based workers (2021):

• Washington, DC (48.3%)
• Washington (24.2%)
• Maryland (24.0%)
• Massachusetts (23.7%)
• Colorado (23.7%)

States with the lowest percentage of home-based workers (2021):

• Mississippi (6.3%)
• Alabama
• Louisiana
• Arkansas
• North Dakota
• Wyoming

Source: AARP Bulletin, April 2023 issue, p. 36; U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey, 1-Year Estimates, 2021.

Amazing Adjectives, Number 118!

From English qualm, meaning “compunction,” + -ish, meaning “inclined to.” The source of qualm is unknown. As exemplified in The Highly Selective Dictionary of Golden Adjectives for the Extraordinarily Literate:

“No matter what I told the committee chairman about the secret intentions of the minority, he would do nothing to disturb their qualmish plans .”

qualmish

\ kwah-mish, kwaw– \, adjective;

1. tending to have, or having, qualms.
2. nauseous; nauseated.
3. of the nature of a qualm.
4. likely to cause qualms.

Source: The Highly Selective Dictionary of Golden Adjectives for the Extraordinarily Literate by Eugene Ehrlich and http://www.dictionary.com

A Bright Idea!

Here is a wonderful limerick by X.J. Kennedy. Enjoy!

A pretentious old man of the Bosporus
Used to cover his goat cart with phophorus
So that, driving by night
‘He would get the green light
And his goats would consider him prosperous.

Source: A Bundle of Birdbrains…Lots of Limericks (selected by Myra Cohn Livingston)