Random Facts

[LaLaLa Laura]

I wonder "how" they used it!


The first known contraceptive was crocodile
dung, used by Egyptians in 2000 B.C.

[Ƹ̴Ӂ̴Ʒ Jenn Ƹ̴Ӂ̴Ʒ]

LaLaLa Laura wrote: "I wonder "how" they used it!


The first known contraceptive was crocodile
dung, used by Egyptians in 2000 B.C."

ewww

[LaLaLa Laura]

haha I know Jen!

[LaLaLa Laura]

There have been over 20,000 books written about the game of Chess.

[Ƹ̴Ӂ̴Ʒ Jenn Ƹ̴Ӂ̴Ʒ]

Pirates have been around since we built the first boats. The Roman general Julius Caesar was twice captured by a group of Mediterranean pirates.

[Ƹ̴Ӂ̴Ʒ Jenn Ƹ̴Ӂ̴Ʒ]

LaLaLa Laura wrote: "There have been over 20,000 books written about the game of Chess."

I need a nap...

[LaLaLa Laura]

" Wrigley's gum was the first product with a bar code to be scanned at a supermarket.

[LaLaLa Laura]

In the book, Les Miserables by Victor Hugo is one sentence that is 823 words long. When Vic wrote to his editor inquiring about their opinion of the manuscript, he wrote, “?” They answered, “!”

[LaLaLa Laura]

"The Pet Shop Boys’ song ‘West End Girls’ was partly inspired by T. S. Eliot’s poem The Waste Land."

[Ƹ̴Ӂ̴Ʒ Jenn Ƹ̴Ӂ̴Ʒ]

LaLaLa Laura wrote: ""The Pet Shop Boys’ song ‘West End Girls’ was partly inspired by T. S. Eliot’s poem The Waste Land.""

Love that song!

[LaLaLa Laura]

so do I Jen. now I have it in my head too :)

[LaLaLa Laura]

I love '80s music!

[Ƹ̴Ӂ̴Ʒ Jenn Ƹ̴Ӂ̴Ʒ]

LaLaLa Laura wrote: "I love '80s music!"

Me too :)

[LaLaLa Laura]

" When it was published in 1846, the Bronte sisters' first volume of poems sold just two copies."

[Ƹ̴Ӂ̴Ʒ Jenn Ƹ̴Ӂ̴Ʒ]

LaLaLa Laura wrote: "" When it was published in 1846, the Bronte sisters' first volume of poems sold just two copies.""

Did they publish as women?

[LaLaLa Laura]

no idea Jen. :s

"Actors who have played the role of Richard III include Laurence Olivier, Al Pacino, and John Wilkes Booth, the man who shot Abraham Lincoln."

[Ƹ̴Ӂ̴Ʒ Jenn Ƹ̴Ӂ̴Ʒ]

LaLaLa Laura wrote: "no idea Jen. :s

"Actors who have played the role of Richard III include Laurence Olivier, Al Pacino, and John Wilkes Booth, the man who shot Abraham Lincoln.""

Al Pacino? Have a hard time picturing...

[LaLaLa Laura]

hahaaa I know right!

[LaLaLa Laura]

Today is National Poetry Day in the UK! This year's theme is 'water'

[LaLaLa Laura]

Beatrix Potter's first name was Helen.

[LaLaLa Laura]

There is no agreed upon term to refer to someone who comes from the United States

[Ƹ̴Ӂ̴Ʒ Jenn Ƹ̴Ӂ̴Ʒ]

LaLaLa Laura wrote: "There is no agreed upon term to refer to someone who comes from the United States"

American? Yank? United Stateser?

[LaLaLa Laura]

haha. all good solutions Jen!

[Kristi]

It is Hispanic Heritage Month

[LaLaLa Laura]

I did not know that Kristi! good to know!

[LaLaLa Laura]

Stephen King threw away the manuscript of his first novel, Carrie. His wife retrieved it, encouraged him, and it was later published.

[LaLaLa Laura]

The phrase 'gild the lily' derives from a misquotation of a line from Shakespeare's King John: 'To gild refined gold, to paint the lily'.

[Ƹ̴Ӂ̴Ʒ Jenn Ƹ̴Ӂ̴Ʒ]

LaLaLa Laura wrote: "The phrase 'gild the lily' derives from a misquotation of a line from Shakespeare's King John: 'To gild refined gold, to paint the lily'."

That is interesting!

[LaLaLa Laura]

thank you Jen!! :)

[LaLaLa Laura]

" Before his success with The Da Vinci Code and other novels, Dan Brown was a pop singer. One of his albums was called 'Angels and Demons'.

[Kristi]

GET OUT!!!!! Are you serious?????? Wait, didn't Angels and Demons come before Da Vinci code?

[Kristi]

Congratulations to Alice Munro for winning the Nobel Prize for Literature!

[Jayme]

We should read one of Munroe's books for a monthly read along.

[LaLaLa Laura]

sure we can do a side read. u can set up a thread under books books books! or if u need help let me know

[Ƹ̴Ӂ̴Ʒ Jenn Ƹ̴Ӂ̴Ʒ]

We could do a tab that is set up for Nobel Prize literature from all stages of the history of the award.

[LaLaLa Laura]

Jen. funny you say that. I was thinking if setting up a category on our bookshelf of Award Winning books

[Ƹ̴Ӂ̴Ʒ Jenn Ƹ̴Ӂ̴Ʒ]

LaLaLa Laura wrote: "Jen. funny you say that. I was thinking if setting up a category on our bookshelf of Award Winning books"

Good idea :)

[LaLaLa Laura]

you know what they say about great minds!

[LaLaLa Laura]

"More than two and a half billion Bibles have been made. If you put them on a long bookshelf and started driving along the shelf at 55 mph, you would have to drive 40 hours per week for over four months to get to the end. All these Bibles would fill the New York public library 467 and one-half times."

[LaLaLa Laura]

"The man who wrote the Sherlock Holmes stories, A. Conan Doyle, was a professional ophthalmologist, an eye doctor. Because in his time specialty medical practices were hard to build and didn’t pay well, he had to take up writing to make ends meet"

[LaLaLa Laura]

"In 1878, Joseph Conrad attempted suicide by shooting himself in the chest. The bullet missed his heart and he lived for the next 46 years."

[LaLaLa Laura]

The word "Poltergeist" is a German word which may be translated as "boisterous ghost"

[Ƹ̴Ӂ̴Ʒ Jenn Ƹ̴Ӂ̴Ʒ]

The largest known primes are ones of the form (2m - 1). The reason is that there exist efficient ways to test whether such numbers are prime. Primes of this type are called a Mersenne primes.

[Ƹ̴Ӂ̴Ʒ Jenn Ƹ̴Ӂ̴Ʒ]

Hundreds of hysterical persons must confuse these phenomena with messages from the beyond and take their glory to the bishop rather than the eye doctor. -James Thurber, writer and cartoonist (1894-1961)

[LaLaLa Laura]

" Dickens’s house had a secret door in the form of a fake bookcase. The fake books included titles such as ‘The Life of a Cat’ in 9 volumes.

[Julia]

"Three of the moons of Uranus are named after characters from Pope’s 1712 poem The Rape of the Lock. The other 24 are named after Shakespeare characters." http://interestingliterature.wordpres...

The Rape of the Lock (a poem by Alexander Pope): Ariel, Umbriel, Belinda

Plays by William Shakespeare:
A Midsummer Night's Dream: Titania, Oberon, Puck
The Tempest: (Ariel), Miranda, Caliban, Sycorax, Prospero, Setebos, Stephano, Trinculo, Francisco, Ferdinand
King Lear: Cordelia
Hamlet: Ophelia
The Taming of the Shrew: Bianca
Troilus and Cressida: Cressida
Othello: Desdemona
Romeo and Juliet: Juliet, Mab
The Merchant of Venice: Portia
As You Like It: Rosalind
Much Ado About Nothing: Margaret
The Winter's Tale: Perdita
Timon of Athens: Cupid

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moons_of...

[LaLaLa Laura]

Julia wrote: ""Three of the moons of Uranus are named after characters from Pope’s 1712 poem The Rape of the Lock. The other 24 are named after Shakespeare characters." http://interestingliterature.wordpres......"

how fascinating. That is definitely more unique than using names contained in Greek Mythology!

[Ƹ̴Ӂ̴Ʒ Jenn Ƹ̴Ӂ̴Ʒ]

The next few weeks are Mercury Retrograde. :(

http://www.almanac.com/content/mercur...

[LaLaLa Laura]

OMG Jen! . I didn't know what Mercury Retrograde was until now. I normally don't follow astrology or anything like that but I do believe that Farmer's Almanac is pretty accurate. wow!

[Ƹ̴Ӂ̴Ʒ Jenn Ƹ̴Ӂ̴Ʒ]

LaLaLa Laura wrote: "OMG Jen! . I didn't know what Mercury Retrograde was until now. I normally don't follow astrology or anything like that but I do believe that Farmer's Almanac is pretty accurate. wow!"

This is pretty spot on for me each time it occurs. GRRRR!