Go-Go Goats

Does that conjure a picture for you readers who remember the 60s and 70s?  I can picture goats in go-go boots quite easily but my mind willingly goes where others fear to tread. Back to the subject of today's post...Around the 9th century in Ethiopia a goat herder named Kaldi noticed his goats became more active when they ate the red berries and leaves of a certain tree so he decided to try some and he also began dancing and frolicking with his goats. Eventually a monk noticed Kaldi and his goat's energy,he asked what brought about all the activity and Kaldi showed him the berries. The monk thought the berries might be the answer to his prayers as he was always falling asleep before completing his prayers. He brewed the berries into a hot drink and coffee was born!

Evil Genius or Comedian?

I don't know about everyone else but I find the spork to be a worthless utensil since it is neither a spoon nor a fork it doesn't perform either function well. I also thought it was a fairly recent invention but it has been around for centuries and was first patented in 1874 by a physician,novelist,philanthropist and general all around guy. Not only was he responsible for the spork patent he also invented many other oddities such as a literary piano which was a typewriter that looked like a piano,but my favorite of his inventions was self opening coffin. The idea for the coffin was if someone were buried alive they could release a catch that would open the lid...not sure how well that would work if you had 6 feet of soil on top of you but I thought it would be a great gag item for funerals of known pranksters!

Old Goat

OK,today is an exception to my no political posts,plus when it all comes together it isn't really about politics. A goat named Clay Henry was mayor of a small town (Lajitas,TX). He was voted into office in the 1980's by an overwhelming landslide against a Houstonian interloper. Clay Henry doesn't do the normal mayoral duties,what he does is attract tourists. How? you might ask. Clay Henry's claim to fame is his beer drinking prowess. Clay Henry Sr. was known to drink 35-40 beers a day,after someone opened to long-necked Lone Star Bottles he would take the bottle in his mouth and tip back his head until the bottle was drained. At first I thought this sounded like goat abuse then I checked the average life span for a goat (15-18 years) and found the Clay Henry Sr. lived to be 22 and may have lived longer but his son killed him over the affections of a nanny goat. The son,Clay Henry II  did not have near his father's capacity for drinking and was often found passed out in his pen.

Beating Around the Bush

Not to worry it isn't about those Bushes,I generally avoid posts of the political nature as there is plenty of that elsewhere. Today's post is about a man who came to be known as The Bushman who made his living (in a good year he claimed $60,000) hiding behind eucalyptus branches and scaring people on Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco. He started his strange job in 1980 and at one point had a bodyguard working with him to protect him from the unamused,distract his targets and warn him when elderly people were approaching to avoid scaring them. He remained active with his performance art until his death in 2014. What a fun job!

Couch Bound?

For those of you in the US who may have overindulged on your Thanksgiving feast and are now becoming one with the couch today's post is dedicated to you! It will also work for people in other countries who find themselves spending excessive time with the sofa. The answer to your dilemma is the World's Fastest Couch! In 2011 a brown leather couch along with the companion coffee table broke the land speed record for upholstered household furniture (previously 91 MPH) setting the new record of 101 MPH. I'm thinking you might want to be alert enough to make sure you are capable of not falling off the speeding sofa at that rate of speed,but as ever use your own judgement! Happy Thanksgiving.

Bloody Mess

I hadn't really thought too much about blood types until I recently read about Rh-null. It was discovered in 1961 and is the world's rarest blood type,only 43 people on the planet have been determined to have it. Rh-null is kind of like the type O of rare blood types in the Rh system. Enough about that,I seem to have drifted off my intended subject,if you want to know more about Rh-null there is plenty of info out there. After reading about Rh-null I started to wonder why blood types were named A,AB,B and O. What happened to C and the other letters in between B and O? When blood was first recognized as having differences they were named A,B and C,but then they figured out that type A had A antigens on their surfaces,and B had B antigens,and the rare AB had both. The type they had called C up until then had a smooth surface so they changed it to O. The reason O was chosen for the name isn't 100% known but it is thought either because of the smooth surface of the blood cells,or because there were zer0 antigens.

Holiday Magic

The magic I'm referring to is how having a holiday in the week makes me get the days mixed up,I may have made a reference to this in a past post as it is annoying,plus I figured once I was retired it would no longer be an issue...wrong! With that said I wanted to mention St. Nicholas since it is getting to be that time of year. Mostly he is associated with children and  giving gifts but he is also patron saint to some unsavory sorts as well. This is only a partial list as many lay claim to Nicholas: prostitutes,thieves,murderers,(also bankers and lawyers),brewers, brides and grooms,prisoners,pirates,pharmacists,the three gold balls that are a symbol of pawnbrokers also connect to St. Nicholas, and there are many more!  Not to mention Nicholas was known for getting into fistfights,not exactly the warm and fuzzy guy we think of today at this time of year.
 

Speaking of the Dead

Famous last words are often funny but since they are last words a person never gets to know if they were meant to be funny, so for the sake of amusement let's assume they were. Voltaire was asked to renounce Satan on his deathbed to which he replied,"Now,now dear sir,this is not the time to be making enemies." Funnyman W.C. Fields spent most of his last months in bed and was once caught reading the bible,when questioned about it he said," I'm looking for loopholes." His last words were,"Goddamn the whole friggin' world but you,Carlotta."  Fields died on Christmas day of a stomach hemorrhage at age 66,I guess the pineapple juice he always claimed was in his flask finally got to him.

Flygirl

I wanted to follow yesterday's post with another extraordinary woman with a different kind of vision. Lilian Bland was ahead of her time (born 1878) in many ways,she was a marks-woman,martial artist,sports journalist,photographer,wearer of dungarees and a smoker. Her most notable achievement was the first woman in Ireland to and fly an aircraft,and probably the first woman to build an aircraft. She built her first glider out of mainly spruce,bamboo and canvas and dubbed it the Mayfly. She was not satisfied with just gliding so she then added a 20 hp engine to the Mayfly and earned a place in aviation history,but her father insisted she quit flying before she met her end so she went into building biplanes and gliders for other people. She died in 1971 at age 92. I wonder why most people think of Amelia Earhart as the first woman of note in aviation? Amelia was around 13 years old when Lilian took her first flight.

Almost Perfect Dentist

I've never actually chosen a dentist for either their eyesight or the size of their hands but it seems like those are important factors to consider. This German woman has eyesight that would qualify as a super power. Most people consider 20/20 to be good vision but when she enrolled in college it was discovered that her vision was 20/2. She can see people in detail a mile away and also judge their distance from her,for most people the distance they can make out detail is around 20 feet. Regardless of the potential her eyesight offered she only wanted to fulfill her dream of becoming a dentist and didn't want to be seen as anything other than normal,I can't say I blame her for that. It makes me wonder what I would choose if I could have a super power,or rather an enhanced ability. I would probably opt for eyesight unless the choice was broader then I would want to be able to fly!

Mollycoddled

Nothing is better than a feel good story to wrap up the work week so today I present Molly the cow. In 2006 Molly found herself in a slaughterhouse yard about to meet her maker,apparently she had no intention of becoming human fodder because she jumped the 5 foot fence and made off. Police and animal control officers were in pursuit when Molly dodged both a German Shepard and a SUV before running in front of an oncoming train,still the humans pursued her. They thought they had her trapped when she came to the Missouri River and were surrounding her when she cast her fate to the wind and jumped in the river. That should have been the end for Molly but she came to a sandbar that allowed her to walk out unscathed,but still they pursued her. Three tranquilizer darts later they finally managed to return her the the slaughterhouse,but her would be executioners decided that her with her incredible will to live she should go to Montana Large Animal Sanctuary and live out her days,which she did until 2011 when they became overcrowded and found neglectful of their charges,but not to worry Molly was taken in by another sanctuary and is doing well.

Paul's Prognostications

Paul was an octopus who was hatched from an egg at the Sea Life Centre in England and was later moved to another Sea Life Centre in Germany. Here is where the weirdness comes into play...someone decided to task Paul with choosing the winners for Germany's football matches. Weirder still he did so with 85% accuracy,his choices were made by selecting an identical meal from two glass boxes with a flag representing each team marking the otherwise identical boxes. In 2010 he upped his average by correctly predicting the entire outcome of Germany's performance in the World Cup,including some unexpected losses. As much as I would like to believe that Paul knew what he was doing,I still find myself skeptical. Sadly Paul died later in 2010 but is remembered with a monument in his name and likeness at the aquarium.

Paul's Memorial

An Omen?

I was sitting at the computer (imagine that!) around 8:30 this morning when I heard tapping on my kitchen window,I told myself it had to be something else as my kitchen window is 8 feet if not more off the ground. A few seconds passed and there was the tapping again so I went into the kitchen and a stellar jay was looking right at me. This is odd on two counts,first I rarely see stellar jays around here and secondly a dark colored bird tapping on your window is supposed to mean death is coming. I'm not terribly superstitious but there are some things a person just doesn't want to test out,like walking under a ladder seems like asking for trouble. I was kind of hoping a bird would poop on me when I went for my walk today as that is supposed to bring good luck and I figured that would balance out the earlier tap of death. If you don't hear anything from me after this you will know the bird was right and this is my last post!

Immortality Made Easy

Would you give up your eyes to be immortal? What about your nose,heart,ears and bones? The creature called immortal by researchers has none of those physical attributes since it is a jellyfish. Still it is pretty exciting to think what can be learned from studying this invertebrate who can reverse the aging process and start life over if circumstances call for that procedure. In normal conditions it reproduces the regular way for a jellyfish (free floating sperm and eggs) but if there is starvation or physical damage it does the reverse aging trick. Unfortunately not many people are devoted to studying how the reversal works. Seems odd that something with an amazing capacity for life would not be higher on the grant/researcher ladder,then again not much surprises me anymore.
 

'Tis Almost the Season

I am a little surprised to come across something holiday appropriate as usually if I find something about Christmas I find it in the middle of the summer and don't feel like the time is right,and forget about trying to remember it months later when it is closer to the holiday. Enough babbling,on with the post! Gingerbread has been around for eons starting with the ancient Greeks and Egyptians. It made its way into Europe in the 11th century when the crusaders returned from the Middle East. Fast forward to the 16th century when Queen Elizabeth I decided to have gingerbread cookies made into the likeness of her visitors. It seems somewhat amusing to present someone with their likeness and expect them to bite their own heads off in those days when superstitions were still taken seriously,of course most likely the people who visited the Queen were much better educated than the masses. To sum up it wasn't Hansel and Gretel who introduced gingerbread men/houses,that honor would belong to Queen Elizabeth I.

Soup's On

Considered by many to be a mainstay comfort food Campbell's Chicken Noodle,in my opinion, borders on disgusting,though to be fair I was raised on homemade noodles and chicken so the soggy noodles,overcooked chicken and high sodium canned soup in no way compares. I found out an amusing fact about the soup in question,when it was first introduced as Campbell's Chicken with Noodles soup sales were poor until the name of the soup was misread on an episode of Amos 'n' Andy radio show as Chicken Noodle Soup. This mistake captured the interest of listeners and sales took off with people wanting to try this new soup. Needless to say Campbell's quickly changed the product's name and the rest is history!

Scratching That Itch

I was browsing through weird collections and came across one that seemed like a brilliant item for a dermatologist to collect and display in his office,backscratchers! He has over 675 scratching implements from 71 countries on display. I am a little surprised that there are that many different types but I have never paid much attention. His patients bring back new ones when they travel which adds to the variety. Along with the more common plastic and bamboo scratchers he also has ones made of jade,leather,corn cob,blown glass and buffalo ribs.