National Spumoni Day

August 21 is National Spumoni Day in the United States. Go out and eat some great Spumoni ice cream while watching the eclipse. It will make you happy.

Ostrich Facts

Ostriches are the largest flightless bird living today, and also happen to lay the largest eggs of any living bird in existence today. In fact, the Guinness World Record for the largest egg laid by a bird was achieved during 2008 on a farm in Sweden – the egg weighed 5 pounds and 11.36 ounces. A typical ostrich egg is equivalent to about two dozen chicken eggs.

The shells of ostrich eggs are so thick that most people recommend getting into them by boring in with an electric drill. They usually take about two hours to cook, due to the thickness of the shell.

Ostriches sleep standing up. Ostriches are the fastest two-legged creature in the world. An ostrich when pushed or in danger can achieve speeds of up to 43 miles per hour, and can steadily keep up a pace of about 30 miles per hour for 10 miles at a time without needing to slow down or rest.

Ostriches are found naturally in Africa, but many are also found in southern Australia and some are farmed in the US.

Ostriches do not stick their head in sand when startled or threatened. They dig shallow holes in the dirt to use as nests for their eggs. Several times a day, a bird puts her head down and turns the eggs. It just looks like she is burying her head in the sand.

Glue Anything to Anything

There is an interesting web site called thisTothat LINK   It has two boxes and you choose a material to put in each, such wood, glass, leather, or whatever and it offers suggestions of the best glue for the project. Very handy.

Wordology, Peruse

Peruse has a controversial double meaning due to common misuse. Even dictionaries do not all agree on the meaning of the word.

The primary meaning for the word peruse is to read or look at carefully or thoroughly. Its original meaning is synonymous with words like examine or inspect. The new definition addressing the misuse cropped up rather recently, sometime late in the last century.

The new meaning for the word is to skim, to look through in a casual or selective manner. These definitions have one suggesting a thorough examination and the other a few simple glances.

A word with two potential, opposite meanings is called a contronym, an autoantonym, or a Janus word. Others include: “To bolt” can mean “to run away,” but it can also mean “to hold in place.” “Sanction” can mean “to approve” or “to boycott.”

Elsie the Cow

Elsie is the name of the cow used as the symbol on Elmer's products. She is the spouse of Elmer, the bull (male cow) who the company is named after.

Function Keys

Keyboard function keys really do have functions and some are quite handy. Function keys are usually on the top row and have an F followed by a number, such as F1, F2, etc.

The most universal is F1, press it and you get help for almost every program you happen to be using.

F3 is handy for doing searches. For instance, if you are in a document or on a long web page, just press F3 and a search bar appears on the bottom of your screen. (You can also open a search box by holding down the CTRL key and hitting the letter f.)

F6 is handy if you are using a browser. It jumps the cursor to the address bar so you can type a new address in it.

Obviously there are more, but some are used by specific programs, such as F7 while in Microsoft Word checks for spelling. Try them, you may be surprised at how much time you can save.

Nude cartoons

Warner Brothers’ Tweety Bird, was told to put some clothes on. In his first cartoon, Tweety was pink, but censors said he looked naked, so animator Bob Clampett said he was repainted yellow, so he appeared to have feathers.

Happy Friday

Life happens, whether you take advantage of it or not.

Take advantage of celebrating a Happy Friday!

Bacon and Nose Bleeds

According to a study conducted by the Detroit Medical Center, bacon can quickly and effectively treat a nosebleed by serving as a nasal tampon. For this bizarre method to work, one must plug the bleeding nostril with a piece of cured uncooked pork.
The team tested their bacon hypothesis on a girl who had Glanzmann thrombasthenia, a rare hereditary disease that causes prolonged bleeding. After sticking a piece of cured pork inside the girl’s bloody nose, the bleeding stopped immediately.
The results of this scientific research were published in the Annals of Otology, Rhinology, and Laryngology. The researchers acknowledged that doctors had used cured pork to treat nosebleeds in the past. However, the practice was discontinued.

The researchers speculated that the high risk of acquiring parasitic and bacterial complications from stuffing one’s nose with cured pork caused the unconventional treatment to be abandoned.

Wordology, Terrific

John Milton, author of Paradise Lost came up with many new words. One of them is the word terrific, but it had a different meaning for Milton. He used the word terrific to mean something that was terrifying, as in terrif fic.

Tree Growth

In the United States, which contains eight percent of the world's forests, there are more trees than there were a hundred years ago. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization, "Forest growth nationally has exceeded harvest since the 1940s. By 1997, forest growth exceeded harvest by 42 percent and the volume of forest growth was 380 percent greater than it had been in 1920."

The U.S. had 319 million people in 2014 and 228 billion trees. The greatest gains have been seen on the East Coast, with average volumes of wood per acre almost doubling since the 1950s. Over 75 percent of the productive commercial forest land in the United States is privately owned.
In a study released during 2015 in Nature, a team of 38 scientists found that the planet is home to 3.04 trillion trees, far surpassing the previously estimate of 400 billion. The researchers estimated there are 422 trees for every person on Earth.

Incidentally, the US federal government owns 28% of all US land.

Wordology, Wamblecropt

It sounds just like it means. It means overcome with indigestion. You might have observed your stomach was wambling a bit. If the wambles (indigestion) got so bad you could not move, you were wamblecropt. Sad that such a descriptive word has gone out of favor.

Riot, Rout, Unlawful Assembly

Riot, rout, and unlawful assembly are related offenses, but are separate and distinct. A rout differs from a riot in that the persons involved do not actually execute their purpose, but merely move toward it. The degree of execution that converts a rout into a riot is often difficult to determine.
A riot is a form of civil disorder commonly characterized by a group lashing out in a violent public disturbance against authority, property, or people. To be considered a riot in England and Wales it must legally involve a minimum of twelve people. Under US federal law it is only three people, in New York, US ten people, Lynchburg, VA, US, three people, and in Nevada, US only two people can constitute a riot.

An unlawful assembly transpires when persons convene for a purpose, if executed would make them rioters, but who separate without performing any act in furtherance of their purpose.

Sticky Things

When measuring ingredients for cooking, like peanut butter, honey, etc. Spray the measuring cup with cooking spray first. It will make cleanup much easier.