Sylvia Shults's Blog, page 52
June 27, 2019
Book Review: The Murderer’s Maid, by Erika Mailman
Four and a half stars. I’m a sucker for anything related to Lizzie Borden, just because her case is SO strange and the family relationships SO dysfunctional. Mailman does an amazing job of describing the atmosphere leading up to the Borden murders, casting LOADS of suspicion on Lizzie while never quite coming out and saying she’s the one whodunnit. (And I could tell Mailman had done her research. I’ve been to the Borden home, and I was able to mentally follow the characters through the house — it was almost as fun as going back for a return visit!)
The modern story was well-done too, and had me guessing up ’til the end. There were parts of the modern story I did NOT see coming, which is always super fun.
Mailman took a certain liberty with Lizzie’s story, in order to link it to the present day, but I’ll allow that for the sake of the storytelling. 
June 24, 2019
Today I Learned …
In World War II, US heavy bomber pilots would make ice cream by strapping buckets of ice cream mix to their planes before missions. The cold and turbulence of the flight would churn the mix into ice cream, and by the time they landed, it would be done.
Here’s the rest of the story. During World War II on the island of Peleliu, a Marine squadron was getting really, really bored waiting for the Japanese to come out and fight. So what do you do when you’re bored and there’s no enemy action? You make chocolate ice cream. Naturally. According to Air and Space Magazine, “(Squadron commander) Reinburg, determined to raise morale on a humid tropical island with no fresh food and no refrigeration, had a plan. His maintenance crew cut the ends off an old belly-mounted drop tank, strung wire at both ends, and mounted an access panel to the side. Into this panel, secured by the wires, went a waterproof can that ordinarily stored .50-caliber bullets. And into that, the mess sergeant poured a mixture of canned milk and cocoa powder. Reinburg planned to ascend to high altitudes, where temperatures are well below freezing, and return with a gift for his men: five gallons of homemade chocolate ice cream.”
On the first flight, the ice cream didn’t freeze properly, as it was too close to the hot engine of the Corsair. For the second flight, they mounted two cans in a different place (which also, happily, doubled the amount of ice cream to ten gallons). This ice cream froze nicely, but it just wasn’t as smooth as the commander would have liked. (The men ate it anyway.)
On the third flight, the maintenance crew stuck a propeller in each of the ammo cans, to churn the ice cream. This time, it came out perfectly. Many B-17s used this setup on combat missions, and P-47s were also used in various theaters.
Base Commander Colonel Caleb Bailey called the squadron and told them he knew exactly what they were up to. “Listen, goddamnit, you guys aren’t fooling me. I’ve got spies. You tell [Reinburg] I’m coming over there tomorrow and get my ration.”
June 17, 2019
Today I Learned …
And you thought your cat was lazy … desert snails can sleep for literally years. A staff member at the British Museum glued an Egyptian desert snail to an identification card, assuming (naturally) that the specimen was, you know, dead. Four years later, someone noticed a bit of slime on the card. When the staff pried the shell off of the card, the snail crawled out.
June 11, 2019
When Life Gives You Lemons …
We’ve been having an awful lot of rain here in recent weeks. Many farmers’ fields are flooded, including one that I pass on my way to work every morning. But the owner of this particular field has a sense of humor about the situation, at least.
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June 10, 2019
Today I Learned …
In the Middle Ages, the scions of old families wanted a way to keep their family histories straight. Prominent families hired artists to create visual propaganda of these unbroken lines of hereditary descent. The artists decided that the easiest way to depict a family’s history would be to paint a simple tree. They put the founder of a lineage at the base of the tree, and painted his descendants on the branches. The French gave these pictures a name that reflected their forking shape: pe de grue, or “crane’s foot”. In English, the word became pedigree.
June 3, 2019
Today I Learned …
The Egyptians loved cats, but they always referred to them as “miu” (the Egyptian word for “cat”). Dog’s names were recorded in tomb inscriptions, but not those of cats … until one cat owner decided to give his cat a name and inscribe it for posterity. The lucky kitty was called Nadjem, which means “pleasant one”.
May 27, 2019
Today I Learned …
The White House is called that because after it was set on fire by British troops in the War of 1812, the original gray walls of Virginia stone had to be painted to cover the scorch marks.
May 20, 2019
Today I Learned …
Blue whales grow to weigh between 130 and 150 tons. That’s roughly equivalent to the weight of 33 African elephants — or 65 million pygmy white-footed shrews (the smallest known mammal).
May 17, 2019
The Boy in the Basement, Part 2
It’s time for another episode of Lights Out! Return to the basement of the Pollak Hospital with me and my psychic medium friend, Diane Lash Lockhart, as we have another conversation with Chris, the young spirit there. Learn how Chris and his family celebrated the Fourth of July before the turn of the century, and enjoy the mental image of me stumbling through the steps of a ragtime dance. https://youtu.be/PIeFOq6_DZI
May 13, 2019
Today I Learned …
The lighter was invented before the match. In 1823, a German chemist created the world’s first lighter, Dobereiner’s lamp, which was used in industrial settings. It wasn’t until three years later that an English chemist made the first friction match. (From Reader’s Digest, February 2019, “Strange But Impossibly True”)
