Messing about with empathy
Seriously, life back then was the pits, and not just because of the plague. However, if you want to learn more about the Black Death, I have the perfect podcast for you. This is one of my top five, and I save it for my runs so I can savor Patrick Wyman’s storytelling (he has…
Everyone should watch A Short History of Ships Cats – Floating Felines, Maritime Moggies and Kleptomaniac Kittens. This video is 27 minutes long and worth every minute. I knew cats lived on ships to take care of the rat problem, but I had no idea about all the other reasons they were needed. Most of the…
We live in a remarkable time. The Moon is moving away from the Earth at a rate of 1.5 inches per year. That means that in 600 million years, there won’t be any more solar eclipses. What a bummer. This may seem unimportant since humans won’t probably be around in 600 million years. But it…
Today is George Washington’s Birthday. There are a ton of quotes from our first president, but it was hard to find universal thoughts. Most of his words were about war, government, foreign powers, and God. This makes sense, but those quotes belong in other blogs. I did find a few that were useful in our…
Happy President’s Day! Today used to celebrate just George Washington. Now it honors all our presidents. On my podcast today, I talk about the history of this holiday. I thought it would be fun on the blog to list some campaign slogans from various presidential campaigns. Everyone knows “Make America Great Again,” but do you…
Are you giving or receiving a box of chocolates today? Oh, I hope you remembered that today is Valentine’s Day. If you have shopped at Walmart in the past two months, you couldn’t forget. I was in my local Walmart two days after Christmas, and they were putting out Valentine’s Day cards and stuffed animals.…
Have you ever read Gilgamesh? I always wanted to, and finally listened to a translation on Audible. It was amazing, and like nothing I expected. Anyone who studies writing learns about Gilgamesh. However, hearing the story itself was so much more. I highly recommend the version I heard. The narrator was excellent. You can get…
Did you hear that a mummy talked? No, this isn’t from one of the great Brendan Fraser Mummy* movies. Thanks to science, a 3,000-year-old mummy spoke for the first time since his death (one assumes.) It’s not easy to get a mummy to talk. Vocal cords are made up of soft tissue and don’t preserve…
Benjamin Franklin’s birthday was last Friday. I talked about some of his fun inventions on Friday’s podcast, and I won’t repeat that here. Instead, I want to expand one of his quotes. On Facebook, I saw several memes of the following quote. That is only the back half of that quote. I think the entire…
Day 19 – Tonight, take a walk through a neighborhood and admire the Christmas lights. Come back home and have hot chocolate with mini marshmallows in it. I love putting lights on my house, and I love seeing other decorated homes. It’s such a happy sight. I also love learning cool history, and the history…