This is intended for everyone to wear their Mickey or Minnie Ears and share your happiness on social media.

I don’t usually wear Mickey ears on headbands because I’ve never found one that didn’t give me a headache. However, I do love the look. The best part is that a lot of people are making their own ears, so you can model them after any character you want.

Some of the ears are fun, and some of them are elegant. Some don’t even require a sewing machine. There truly are ears for everyone.

I think I’ll make a pair to wear on National Wear Your Ears Day. We can never have too much Disney.

I was listening to the Shortwave podcast and they talked about an online program called Skype a Scientist. It was originally designed for classrooms but they have added a way for families to participate.

Is your daughter dinosaur crazy, or does your son want to know everything about caterpillars? Through this website, you can talk to an expert in whatever field interests your family. This is not a lecture. The scientist you skype will answer your questions in real-time. How cool is that?

This is also a great way for kids today to see possibilities. When I was a kid, the only scientists I saw were Mr. Wizard or in the movies (I’m sure Christopher Lloyd’s character in Back to the Future was a role model for budding scientists.) Nowadays scientists come in all shapes and sizes and really want to share their work.

I hope you will try out Skype a Scientist. It can turn staying-at-home into a virtual field trip.

Covidnearyou.org is a way for everyone to help map the disease. It is run by the Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School. All you have to do is click whether you feel good or bad. It is just as vital for you to report that you feel healthy as well as sick, so everyone should go to the site.

I feel fine, so I don’t know what questions are asked if you don’t feel good, but I hope this collection of data can help people make the best policy decisions possible. Please take a moment and go to covidnearyou.org.

Thanks.

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 a talent for bringing history to life.) Right now, he is rebroadcasting his plague episodes. Fascinating.

The podcast is Tides of History, and I recommend every episode. He does deep dives into the history you probably didn’t learn in school. I don’t know if your world history class was anything like mine, but after learning about the ancient Egyptians, the ancient Romans, and the ancient Greeks, the school year was over. We never got to the Fall of the Roman Empire, the Ottoman Empire, the Middle ages, or even the Black Death. For shame!

But now, thanks to Tides of History, I get to learn cool history, and there isn’t even a test at the end. Perfect.

So check out the Black Death episode on Tides of History and be glad we don’t live in the 1300s.

I’m running 5 miles today, but if I had planned it better, I’d run 3.14 miles. Darn, training plan. However, I’ll celebrate in other ways, like making Irish soda bread (it has a circumference!)

If you listened to the Footle and Grok podcast yesterday (I’d love for you to subscribe), you learned all sorts of fun pi facts. Have you ever wanted to learn more digits of pi? Me neither. But that doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy a song about it.

Check out this video by ASAP Science, where they sing one hundred digits of pi. I have this song on my phone, and no matter how often I listen to it, I can’t sing it. However, it’s a catchy and fun song. Today is the perfect day to share it with your friends.

Eat some pie, sing a pi song, and learn a few more digits of this infinitely interesting number. And remember pi are square, not round.

I’m going to keep this short because I have to pet my black kitties and walk under a few ladders in honor of this superstitious day.

You’ve probably heard from a lot of people that you should wash your hands often for 20 seconds. Well, if you are curious about how to do a GOOD job that takes no time at all, check out this video put out by Big Picture Science. They got their information from the CDC, so I’m all over it. Plus, it’s a lot more fun to do more than just move your hands back and forth, trying to remember which song you are supposed to sing.

Happy Friday the 13th from Hela and Alfred, who wash their paws all the time.

My hubby used to be a dog person, like an “all cats should die” dog person. Now he is a cat person! So when he heard about a podcast discussing cat behavior, he sent it to me.

Short Wave is a ten-minute, daily, scienced-based, NPR podcast, not much different than my podcast (except sponsored by NPR, so the podcasters get paid.) Both podcasts encourage people to feed their curiosity, and each episode is on a different topic.

If you think cats are the best, take a listen to this episode of Short Wave. If you believe dogs rule and cats drool, you still might like this episode because some of the hosts are dog people.

And of course, if you like Short Wave, you should try the Footle and Grok Podcast. I’ll have to do a cat episode someday.

That probably makes me weird, but growing up in Southern California gave me several opportunities to experience some rocking and rolling, which I loved. Of course, none of them were the Big One.

Now, I don’t want millions of dollars of property damage to happen and people to die, but the San Andreas fault is eventually going to shift, and Los Angeles will never be the same. It might be better in the long run, but it won’t be the same.

If you have an interest in earthquakes or you live in southern California, I highly recommend the Big One: Your Survival Guide.  This podcast covers the personal, scientific, economic, and long term effects of a big earthquake.

Lucy Jones, a USGS seismologist, was on my TV whenever there was a seismic event in the 1990s. She wrote a book called The Big Ones: How Natural Disasters Have Shaped Us (and What We Can Do About Them)*, which is about large earthquakes throughout history and how they affected the communities hit. Dr. Jones and her team have developed plans to help southern California survive the Big One when it hits. She also contributed to the Big One podcast.

I thoroughly enjoyed this podcast and recommend it to anyone who lives in a seismically active area. I don’t get as many earthquakes here in Washington as I did growing up (mores the pity), but we have our own Big One on the horizon. This podcast has helpful advice for everyone.

*Amazon affiliate link

I’ve been writing the Footle and Grok blog every day since August 2017, and last December, I started the Footle and Grok podcast. For the last 2 1/2 years, the tagline for all things Footle and Grok as been “Messing about with empathy.”

This tagline is taken from the definitions of the words footle and grok. It’s not bad, but it’s also not great, so I am hunting for a new tagline. I want something commanding with a positive message.

I’m setting up a shop on Cafepress, and this new tagline will be found on stickers, magnets, and tote bags, so it needs to be right. That’s why I need your help.

Below I have a numbered list of taglines I’ve come up with. Let me know which ones you like. If you hate them all, I’d love to know that too. If you have other ideas, I’d love to hear it. The right tagline should be pithy, memorable, and appropriate for the medium. A tough assignment and any comment is helpful.

Possible Footle & Grok taglines

1. Be curious
2. Embrace curiosity
3. Embrace the why
4. Support daily curiosity
5. Encourage curiosity
6. Embrace wonder
7. Spread curiosity
8. Never lose your curiosity

Thank you for your help.

Yesterday, I wrote about the history of Christmas tree lights, and on my second podcast episode, I talked about the science of Christmas trees. (Have you heard the Footle and Grok podcast? You can listen and subscribe here. Thanks!) So today, I want to give you instructions to make a fun, easy, and festive Scandinavian Fabric Stars. (Click here for instructions.)

If you’re having a Christmas party, these ornaments would make a lovely party favor. Or you could cut the strips ahead of time and have everyone make their own. They look complicated but are simple and fast. Below are the ones I made with leftover Christmas fabric. You could use any fabric you have in your stash, and it would look great.

If you want to combine this idea with today’s activity, make the ornaments with your family before dinner and then place them on the tree with all the house lights off. As you eat, you can admire your new and old ornaments.