A new post for the blog was working itself out in my brain during one of Chickie's midnight meals. The post would be brilliant, it would explain the sheep herding documentary John and I watched the other day. I would go into great detail about how the herder dressed a new lamb in what seemed to be a little outfit we both assumed was to keep the baby warm. It was so cute. Then I would go on to recount how the little "outfit" was actually the skin of a still-born lamb and it was placed on this lamb so the mother of the dead baby would think the impostor lamb was hers. My story would conclude with a very real statement that I finally understood the history behind the expression, "a wolf in sheep's clothing". The end.
But then I got distracted thinking about all the fascinating, useless facts I could share. I get these facts mostly from stories on NPR and more times than not, I end up having a "driveway moment" at my destination.
I could include the ultra interesting history of overalls, especially the striped one's worn by rail workers (so as to be seen by the trains, duh).
Everyone would be asking for more about the story I heard about redesigning the toothbrush and the fact that there are about five different grips people use to brush their teeth (the majority of women use the "death grip").
And did you know there's a person whose job it is to engineer the sounds our electronic devices make? You know-- the beep of pushing a button on your phone, the click of your iPod, the turn signal in your car. Getting just the right tone is a rigorous process, believe me.
And did you know the banjo was invented by Southern slaves and that it was based on instruments they knew from West Africa? If you're interested in learning more just ask, I wrote a paper on it.
I also wrote a paper about how various cultures divide color. Some people refer to all colors as either black or white. Then the next color to be distinguished from all the rest is always red. Fascinating! I should be on NPR.
It all sounded good in the middle of the night.
 |
| By the way, Kitty turned 6 last week. |