10-Spot Ramble

This morning I had a dream about a large family reunion, mobile home with a fish-filled pond in the kitchen a Forest Service ranger station in the outdoor courtyard and a desperate need to cook sourdough pancakes for about 50 people without any flour. I searched every cabinet in that dream house for flour before I finally woke up and started the day.

Although I’m not sure I’ve ever really woken up to deal with today.

Since my head is still caught up in trying to find flour and that doesn’t make for scintillating reading I’m going to start a new monthly tradition today and share 10 random facts with you so you can do even better at Trivial Pursuit and be a WINNER!

Here we go:

1. The cigarette lighter was invented before the match. That’s like putting the cart before the horse. But you shouldn’t be using a cigarette lighter anyway. Only a match. Because cigarettes are yucky. Just ask the girls. (Did you know I was in college before I realized people who smoked cigarettes weren’t automatically spawn of Satan? I feel really bad about that in retrospect.)

2. To escape the grip of crocodile jaws push your thumbs into its eyeballs. It will let you go instantly. This is a true life-saving bit of knowledge. There are actually stories of mothers wrestling with alligators and crocodiles to save their children. I bet they smashed their eyeballs. That’s also a compelling reason I never want to live in Florida.

3. Donald Duck’s middle name is Fauntleroy. That’s quite odd and it seems a little flaming to me. But I’m also still wondering where he put his pants so “odd duck” works for him.

4. A giraffe has a 20-inch tongue. I’ve seen a giraffe take a carrot from someone’s hand and that tongue was huge, skinny, and fully-wrappable. It was like a blackish slimy pipe cleaner and thoroughly creepy.

5. No word in the English language rhymes with “month.” I also know there are only three words in the English language that end in “-gry”. I’ll give you a gold star if you can tell me what they are.

6. The number of left-handed men is double the number of left-handed women. My sister and my dad are both left-handed. I wonder if that’s a genetic deal. Regardless, it has made their handwriting a chore from day one.

7. A snail can sleep for three years. No wonder we eat them. Must be jealousy.

8. The main library at Indiana University sinks over an inch every year because when it was built the engineers failed to take into account the weight of the books that would occupy the building. Indiana University is my alma mater. That library is HUGE. And, if you’re into libraries their School of Library and Information Sciences is top notch. But you’d better go soon because if you wait the building will be underground.

9. Apples, not caffeine, are more efficient at waking you up in the morning. Sacrilege.

10. The first product to have a bar code was Wrigley’s gum. Does anyone else miss the DoubleMint twins? They’ve been replaced by the strange Orbit gum lady with bright white teeth and personally I liked the twins better.

Hope you have an excellent night. Don’t forget there’s a gold star available for the answer to #5. Stay away from the giraffe tongues, cigarettes and Donald Duck’s pants. After considering the importance of this advice don’t say I never gave you anything.