Silent Stowaway

I bet you're expecting today's offering to be about the teenager that stowed away in the wheel compartment of a Hawaiian bound airplane and actually survived the trip...nope! Today's post is about a different incident. A groom from Minnesota embarked on a rolling bachelor party with several friends in a rented RV,destination the Kentucky Derby. Sounds like a fun plan,but when they stopped to pick up more friends for the trip they smelled an odor coming from an exterior compartment. They decided to ignore the RV's owners warning that the compartments didn't work and opened them to discover the body of a 22 year old father of two who had been missing since November. The bachelor party returned home to watch the Derby on TV,and an autopsy is being performed on the body to determine cause of death. Seems like a blighted start to the marriage,but dead bodies have that affect on me.

Say What?

Hearing idioms expressed in different languages not only gives a brief glimpse into the culture of other countries it can also be good for a laugh. Here are some examples with their English equivalents,use at your own risk: Chinese,breathing through the same nostril= English,singing from the same hymn sheet (sounds a lot like being on the same page). Dutch,I sweat carrots=I'm sweating like a * pig. Esperanto,He sits in the forest and doesn't see the trees= he can't see the wood (forest) for the trees. Estonian,to make an elephant out of a gnat,Finnish,to make a bull out of a fly= to make a mountain out of a molehill. French,to have long teeth= to be ambitious (I always understood being long in the tooth to mean old!) German,I'll squeeze my thumbs for you=I'll keep my fingers crossed. Italian,that kid's got liver=that kid's got heart. I thought this would be a fun little diversion for the day,I hope you enjoyed.
Pigs actually have very few sweat glands which is the reason the wallow in mud or water to keep cool.

Taking Your Medicine

I was recently reading about medical practices of the past and wondered how many years it will take for our "modern" procedures to become obsolete,if not downright dangerous. I am only going to touch on a couple of the more outlandish treatments today as to not take up too much of your time. One popular treatment was the tobacco smoke enema ,it was used on drowning victims,cholera,people on their death beads,and as a general health tonic. The smoke enema is also thought to be the origin of the phrase "blowing smoke up your ass". Are you a migraine sufferer? Count yourself lucky to be living in this century then,because from ancient Greece until the early 20th century doctors would simply drill a hole in your head,a process called trepanation. Trepanation was also used for epileptic seizures,mental disorders and head injuries (talk about adding insult to injury!). Trepanation was eventually replaced with lobotomies where a piece of the brain was removed after drilling a hole,this method was "improved" with the quicker ice pick through the eye socket method and was still used up until the 1960s. Yikes! I don't know about the rest of you,but reading about these treatments of the not so distant past is enough to make a person avoid doctors!

Tongue In Cheek

Cat got your tongue? There are many saying that refer to the tongue and why not? it is an unique body part. The tongue is one of the strongest muscles in the body (makes me think of tongues wagging),like fingerprints each tongue print is different,with that thought in mind maybe sticking out your tongue at someone isn't a good idea. So far it hasn't been used for identification purposes and considering the logistics involved I don't see it becoming a popular ID method. The tongue is also the only muscle that is attached at only one end. Even people that don't talk much still get plenty of use out of their tongues,it helps mix the foods you eat,helps filter germs and even while you sleep it stays hard at work pushing the saliva down your throat. Next time you are tempted to bit your tongue,maybe you'll think twice!

A Special Request

Today's post is dedicated to Terri and her granddaughter Emily. Emily has questions about the nursery rhyme/song "London Bridge" aka "My Fair Lady",hopefully those questions will be answered here. There are several theories about the meaning of the rhyme,one relates to the possible destruction of London Bridge by Olaf of Norway in 1014 (or 1009) though this theory is not supported by historians. The more popular theory is the age and damage owing to the combination of age and the Great Fire of London,also in that same time period several of the arches were removed to make river navigation easier. That leaves the macabre child sacrifice theory referring to the burying of children (perhaps alive) in the foundations of the bridge to prevents its collapse,however archaeological evidence does not support this theory. The bridge was eventually replaced in the early 19th century and the remains reconstructed in Lake Havasu City,AZ.
The "Fair Lady" referred to is mostly thought to be Matilda of Scotland,Henry I's consort who was responsible for building a series of bridges. Eleanor of Provence,consort of Henry III who had custody of bridge revenues is another possible "Fair (fare) Lady".
I hope this was helpful for answering Emily's questions!

Tap Three Times

Today's title sounds somewhat like the start to a song and I hope it served to get your attention for a minute or however long it takes you to read this post. The UNICEF Tap Project has been around for awhile,but since I only recently heard about it I thought there might be more people like me out there that live under rocks and often miss current news. Here is how it works,if you download the app to your phone from the UNICEF site and don't use your phone for as little as 10 minutes corporate sponsors donate money to be used toward water,sanitation and hygiene programs for countries in need. 768 million people don't have access to safe,clean drinking water,imagine what that must be like,now imagine your life without using your cell phone for 10 minutes...I think you get the picture. The longer you set your phone down the more donations will be made,I don't use my cell phone much so I hope to supply water to many children through my non usage.
Are you wearing pants today? Just curious if anyone is honoring the No Pants Day that was posted yesterday,feel free to let me know!

May...Really!

May is Get Caught Reading Month,try to do your part!
5/1 Global Love Day
5/2 No Pants Day (do I detect a theme?)
5/3 Hug Your Cat Day
5/4 World Laughter Day (close to no pants day...)
5/5 Cartoonists Day
5/6 No Diet Day (for those of you who diet)
5/7 Great American Grump Out
5/8 No Socks Day
5/9 National Special-abled Pets Day
5/10 World Belly Dance Day
5/11 Eat What You Want Day (see 5/6)
5/12 Limerick Day (I will try to remember to write one for the blog)
5/13 Frog Jumping Day
5/14 National Chicken Dance Day
5/15 National Chocolate Chip Day (with or without cookies)
5/16 O. Henry Pun-off Day
5/17 Do Dah Day
5/18 Visit Your Relatives Day
5/19 May Ray Day
5/20 Eliza Doolittle Day
5/21 End of the World or Rapture Party Day
5/22 National Maritime Day
5/23 World Turtle Day
5/24 Morse Code Day
5/25 Nerd/Geek Pride Day
5/26 World Lindy Hop Day
5/27 Cellophane Tape Day
5/28 Slugs Return From Capistrano Day
5/29 Put A Pillow On Your Fridge Day
5/30 Mint Julep Day
5/31 What you Think Upon Grows Day