Scratching an Itch

Thought for the day:  The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity.  [Dorothy Parker]

photo by Oren Jack Tume [wikipedia]

No offense to Ms. Parker, but of course there's a cure for curiosity. A temporary one, anyway, and that's research. Whenever that wondering itch pops up, we can scratch it to our heart's content by looking for and finding the answers, and thanks to the wonders of the Internet, it's never ever been easier.

You know, it sure was reassuring to learn I have something in common with the amazing Albert Einstein. I mean, except for the hair, we're practically kindred spirits! See, he was an extremely curious dude, and championed the merits of the inquisitive mind. He said cool stuff like, I have no special talents. I am passionately curious. and The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.

YES! So now we have it on good authority that curiosity does have a reason for existing, and a darned good one. Life is kinda like a crazy quilt, and the more things we explore, the more things we learn, the more people we meet, the more beautiful and colorful our quilts become. And for right now, curiosity... and good ol' Google... served to provide some interesting (to me!) fodder for this post. So three cheers for curiosity! (Which by the way, is not the same thing as nosiness...) You know how, when a mother is chilly, her kid has to put on a sweater? Well, in this case, I was curious, so you guys are gonna learn some interesting (to me!)  stuff you probably don't give a crap about. Ready? Okay, put your sweater on, and let's go...

[wikipedia]

***  An article titled Cancer by the Carton, published in Reader's Digest in 1952 , alerted consumers to the dangers of smoking unfiltered cigarettes, so naturally, manufacturers sought to allay consumer concerns by developing filtered cigarettes. At least, they started out with good intentions, but from 1952 until 1956, Kent's micronite filters, marketed as the greatest health protector in cigarette history, were made with... blue asbestos. (Oopsie.)

[wikipedia]

***  Would you believe the state of Kentucky has more barrels of bourbon than it has people? The most recent accounting shows 4.9 million barrels of bourbon, and 4.4 million people. Upon birth, every new baby in Kentucky is awarded a barrel of bourbon. Typically,  by the time that child is seven or eight, they've drank their barrel of bourbon and have begun to show signs of kicking ass. By the age of twelve, they've become full-on kick ass Kentuckians. [from www.KentuckyforKentucky.com]

[wikipedia- credit: Sgt. James Harbour]

*** Many people are aware of  American Sniper Chris Kyle. Fewer are aware of the Vietnam War's most famous sniper, Carlos Hathcock. That's him in the picture at left, which was taken in 1996, just a few years before he died. Whatever you think about war in general, or about snipers in particular, I can't imagine anyone not being astounded by this story of one of his missions. He had to crawl for three days across 2000 meters of an open field, which contained an enemy headquarters. To avoid detection, he could only move the tiniest bit at a time, and only when the wind moved the grass around him. He stayed motionless for such long periods of time, he actually developed bed sores. Enemy patrols came so close, they stepped on his knuckles, and they stood around smoking cigarettes mere feet from his position. After he accomplished his mission, he then had to backtrack the same way across the field... while enemy soldiers were actively looking for him. He could only move inches at a time... but he made it back to safety without being spotted. Talk about nerves of steel.

[wikipedia]

*** In 1628, Swedish warship Vasa traveled less than a mile, and sank just twenty minutes into its maiden voyage. Its largely intact hull, shown at right, was recovered in 1961, and is now in the Vasa Museum in Stockholm. Wanta know what sunk this magnificent ship? It was assymetrical, and the reason for that? Archeologist discovered two kinds of rulers in the wreckage: the Swedish ruler, which has twelve inches to the foot, and the Amsterdam, which only has eleven. (BIG oopsie.)

[wikipedia]

***  Everybody's heard of black holes, but did you know we kinda have black holes inside us? Okay, so that's an exaggeration. What we actually have is biological black matter, which is located in our GI tracts. From forty to fifty percent of the DNA information is made of this stuff, which doesn't match anything scientists have classified to date. It isn't plant... it isn't animal... it isn't fungus... or virus... or bacteria. What it is is a mystery.

Millions saw the apple fall, but Newton asked why.  [Bernard Baruch]

[wikipedia]

***  In 1929, by a vote of eight to one, the United States Supreme Court upheld the legality of existing eugenics programs, which required the forced sterilization of citizens deemed not smart enough to reproduce. A total of thirty-three states had a program, but North Carolina alone sterilized approximately 7600 people between 1929 and 1974. In 2013, it also became the first state to offer monetary compensation to survivors of this heinous program.

Curiosity kills prejudice.  [Bruce Frederick Cummings]

[circa 1937]

***  It's hard to believe now, but when Emma Read invented the baby cage in 1922, it served a need for city folks who lived in high rise buildings, where living space was cramped, and parents didn't know where to put their pesky kid. But of course! Why not take advantage of all that open space and fresh air free for the taking right outside their windows? Oh, and lest you be concerned about the little tykes, the deluxe models had a sloped roof... to protect the little angels from rain and snow.  (One can only assume they were allowed inside during thunderstorms.)

*** As you can see, the cages weren't only used in high rise situations. But, ya know, the baby looks perfectly happy out there, doesn't he? Maybe it wasn't much worse than... a play pen?

[circa 1922]

*** I've heard guys smart mouth about how they'd like to have the job of bikini inspector. Well, there actually used to be such a thing... only it wasn't exactly bikinis that were being inspected. In the '20s, there were some very strict laws regarding women's bathing suits. For one thing, they couldn't be more than six inches above the knee, so police officers, or inspectors, regularly visited the beach with their tape measures in hand. Violators (the floozies!) got hauled off to jail.

Okay, so that's enough random stuff you didn't give a crap about. At least for now. Because, as you know, curiosity is a lifetime condition. If we're very very lucky.

                      They say curiosity killed the cat. I say at least the cat died knowing.

                                                           Smile! Things are looking up.

                                         Until next time, take care of yourselves. And each other.