Where is the Aral Sea?

Search: aral sea



Why: On reddit, TIL That the disappearing of the Aral Sea has left behind a desert filled with shipwrecks:

Muynak is a city in northern Karakalpakstan in western Uzbekistan. Home to only a few thousand residents at most, Muynak's population has been declining precipitously since the 1980s due to the recession of the Aral Sea.

But I am American and t.f. haven't looked at a world map since AP History in 12th grade.



Answer: Over here!

Source: Google Maps



The More You Know: From that page:

The Aral Sea was once the world's fourth-largest saline body of water, it has been steadily shrinking since the 1960s, after the rivers that fed it were diverted by Soviet Union irrigation projects. By 2004, the sea had shrunk to 25% of its original surface area, and a nearly fivefold increase in salinity had killed most of its natural flora and fauna. By 2007 it had declined to 10% of its original size, splitting into three separate lakes, two of which are too salty to support fish. The once prosperous fishing industry has been virtually destroyed, and former fishing towns along the original shores have become ship graveyards. With this collapse has come unemployment and economic hardship.

Did Elizabeth and Philip marry before or after she became Queen?

Search: queen elizabeth



Why: I just saw this darling thing on reddit, After all these years, they still look at each other the same way:

Answer: They were married first! In sequence:

• 1921 (June 10th) - Philip is born in Corfu, Greece (he is 90)
• 1926 (April 21) - Elizabeth is born (she is 85)
• 1934 - They meet for the first time
• 1937 - They meet for the second time
• 1939 (July) - They meet for the third time and begin to exchange letters (she is 13)
• 1947 (Nov. 20) - They marry

• 1952 (Feb. 6) - Elizabeth's father George VI dies; Elizabeth (25) is proclaimed queen regnant throughout her realms
• 1953 (June 2) - Elizabeth is crowned Queen of the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Ceylon, and Pakistan, and Head of the Commonwealth.

Elizabeth wore a gown commissioned from Norman Hartnell, which was embroidered with floral emblems for countries of the Commonwealth: English Tudor rose, Scots thistle, Welsh leek, Irish shamrock, Australian wattle, Canadian maple leaf, New Zealand silver fern, South African protea, lotus flowers for India and Ceylon, and Pakistan's wheat, cotton, and jute.

Source: Wikipedia



The More You Know: Here is what Wikipedia says about the day George VI died:

In early 1952, Elizabeth and Philip set out for a tour of Australia and New Zealand by way of Kenya. On 6 February 1952, they had just returned to their Kenyan home, Sagana Lodge, after a night spent at Treetops Hotel, when word arrived of the death of Elizabeth's father.

The thing is that I'm 99% sure I stayed in that hotel at some point in 2000. There was a watering hole right outside where elephants came, and they put hot water bottles in the beds at night. There is a picture somewhere in the universe of a monkey reaching in through our window (it was kind of slatted) and taking a Tic Tac out of my hand. I will hunt it down when I go home in a few weeks. Stay tuned.

Anyway, also, this is interesting, I think:

With Elizabeth's accession, it seemed likely that the royal house would bear her husband's name. Lord Mountbatten thought it would be the House of Mountbatten, as Elizabeth would typically have taken Philip's last name on marriage; however, Queen Mary and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill favoured the retention of the House of Windsor, and so Windsor it remained. The Duke complained, "I am the only man in the country not allowed to give his name to his own children." In 1960, after the death of Queen Mary and the resignation of Churchill, the surname Mountbatten-Windsor was adopted for Philip and Elizabeth's male-line descendants who do not carry royal titles.

Who was Belle (the Disney Princess) modeled after?

Search: disney character modeled

Why: I am reading "6 Beloved Characters That Had Undiagnosed Mental Illnesses" on Cracked. Nevermind that I have never seen Beauty and the Beast (but, in fact, recorded it this past weekend and sat down to watch it for the first time ever just last night [but did not make it past the opening credits because Chandler wouldn't shut up about Angela Lansbury]), but I just noticed that she sort of looks like a Kardashian.

Answer: Oho, jackpot! There's a whole list of Disney Characters and Who They Were Modeled After. Get ready to learn, everyone (even though many of these are just bodies, not face). First of all:

Belle (Beauty & the Beast) - Audrey Hepburn and Vivien Leigh

(also pictured: what those 2 would look like if they mated)

but also!

Aurora (Sleeping Beauty) - Audrey Hepburn

Esmerelda (The Hunchback of Notre Dame) - Demi Moore (who also voiced her)

Ariel (The Little Mermaid) - Alyssa Milano

Ursula (The Little Mermaid) - Divine

Tinkerbell (Peter Pan) - dancer and mime Margaret Kerry

The Evil Queen (Snow White) - Helen Gahagan in the film She (1935)

Snow White (Snow White and the Seven Dwarves) - dancer Marge Champion (also the model for the Blue Fairy in Pinocchio and the Dancing Hippo in Fantasia)

and some boring ones:

Alice (Alice In Wonderland) - Kathryn Beaumont (her voice, and also Wendy in Peter Pan)
Captain Hook (Peter Pan) - Hans Conried (who also voiced him) & a Spanish King
Pocahontas (Pocahontas) – Irene Bedard (who also voiced her)
Jasmine (Aladdin) - Beth Henn, animator Mark Henn sister

Source: Screen Team Show

The More You Know: And also:

Peter Pan (Peter Pan) - Bobby Driscoll

who also played the little dandy kid in Song of the South!!

and is therefore tied up in 2 of my favorite things at Disneyland, Splash Mountain and this sign.

Who sings the song in that Payless commercial?

Search: i am a paleontologist payless

Why: I know a Future Paleontologist of America who might just need that to be her official theme song.

Answer: They Might Be Giants!!! YEEESSSS!!! (and it says "w/ Danny Weinkauf," who is always in the band anyway... so I don't know).

This is one of the only bands anyone at my camp ever listened to in 1995-7. (The other one was REM.)

Oh my god, do you guys remember Dial-a-Song?

Lyrics go like:

I love diggin' in the dirt
With just a pick and brush
Finding fossils is my aim
So I'm never in a rush
'Cause the treasures that I seek
Are rare and ancient things
Like Velociraptor's jaw
Or Archaeopteryx's wings

Now all the kids
Who wanna see 'em
Are lining up
At our museum

I am a paleontologist
That's who I am

Could it be an herbivore
Crushing plants with rounded teeth
Or ferocious carnivore
Who moves so quickly on its feet
It's like pieces of a puzzle
That I love to try and solve
It's so fun to think about
How a species has evolved

Is it a T-rex? (I keep digging, digging, digging, digging)
Maybe a Triceratops? (digging)
Or a Carnotaur? (digging)
Pachycephalosaurus?

Source: YouTube

The More You Know: Speaking of sequins, sometimes I think about how there were actual flying dinosaurs, like dinosaurs who could fucking FLY, and they were huge and wanted to - and could - gobble you up in a single snap o' the jaw. Can you imagine that today? Look out your window right now and imagine a dinosaur flying around.

(Oatmeal)

BUT it turns out that the fearsome pterodactyl was not a dinosaur at all, just a regular ol' "prehistoric winged lizard." Boring!

Pterosaurs are sometimes referred to in the popular media as dinosaurs, but this is incorrect. The term "dinosaur" is properly restricted to a certain group of reptiles with a unique upright stance (superorder Dinosauria, which includes birds), and therefore excludes the pterosaurs, as well as the various groups of extinct marine reptiles, such as ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs, and mosasaurs.

Oh, it's also not called a pterodactyl - it's a pterosaur. At least 60 genera of pterosaurs have been found to date, ranging from the size of a small bird to wingspans in excess of 10 meters (33 ft).

Who was Chuck Taylor?

Search: chuck taylor

Why: It kind of bugs me when people my age or older call Converse All Stars "Chucks." I had never heard the term "Chucks" before about 2005, but now, it seems like no one remembers the days of just plain ol' Converse. Erin, if you would:

Anyway, I am wearing navy ones today because I have a blister on the back of my heel.

Answer: He was a basketball player! He was born Charles Hollis Taylor in Brown County, IN, in 1901. He played his first professional game in March 1919 while still a high school student.

In the early-1920s, Taylor played for the Akron Firestone Non-Skids "industrial league" team. This team were charter members of the National Basketball League in 1937. They folded during WWII, but in 1949, the NBL merged with the Basketball Association of America to form the NBA.

Meanwhile, the Converse Rubber Shoe Company was founded by Marquis Mills Converse in 1908 to manufacture winterized rubber-soled footwear for men, women, and children. By 1910, Converse was producing 4,000 shoes daily, but it was not until 1915 that the company began making athletic shoes for tennis. The company's main turning point came in 1917 when the Converse All-Star basketball shoe was introduced. Then in 1921, Chuck Taylor walked into Converse complaining of sore feet. Converse gave him a job as a salesman and ambassador, promoting the shoes around the United States.

By the mid-20s, Taylor played and managed a group of cagers who played for the traveling Converse All-Stars barnstorming team. The team hosted basketball clinics in high school and college gyms across the country. Taylor "almost single-handedly taught Americans the fundamentals of basketball," making his name into a brand. In 1932, his signature was added to the Converse All-Star.

During WWII, he worked as a physical fitness instructor and coach for the Army and Navy. In 1944-45, he trained the Wright Field Air Tecs in a Navy pre-flight program at Marquette University.

He was also popular for his All-American picks. He only selected players he had personally seen play, many from small rural colleges where big-city sportswriters never went. His picks always were highlighted in the popular Converse Basketball Yearbook.

Source: Chuck Taylor Biography (by Abraham Aamidor), Wikipedia

The More You Know: And who was Jack Purcell? Not the guy from "30 Rock" (that's Jack McBrayer / Kenneth Parcell). He was the 1933 world champion of badminton!

He designed a canvas and rubber badminton sneaker for B.F. Goodrich in 1935. In the 1970s, Converse purchased the trademark rights to Jack Purcell sneakers - which it still produces and sells today.

What's the rest of the song "I love you, a bushel and a peck"?

Search: bushel and a peck

Why: This morning, (this might make you throw up; sorry) Chandler sang the first lines thusly:

I love you, a bushel and a peck
A bushel and a peck and a hug around the neck

And then he stopped. So I continued:

A hug around the neck and a barrel and a heap
A barrel and a heap, and I'm talkin in my sleep
About yooou

And he said, "There's more to that song? My mom only knew the first 2 lines."

And I think maybe my mom only knew the first 5 lines.

Answer: Oh my goodness, it's a whole song. My world just got upended. And it's from Guys and Dolls, which I've seen several times (on stage; it's not in the movie). It was written for Guys and Dolls in 1950, and a recording by Perry Como and Betty Hutton was on the charts for 18 weeks that year.

More recently, here's Jane Krakowski singing it / stripping:

Hoo! Lyrics go like:

My heart is leapin'!
I'm having trouble sleepin'!
'Cause I love you, a bushel and a peck
You bet your pretty neck I do!
Doodle oodle oodle oo.

I love you, a bushel and a peck
A bushel and a peck, go and beats me all to heck!
Beats me all to heck how I'll ever tend the farm
Ever tend the farm when I want to keep my
Arms - about you

The cows and chickens
are goin' to the dickens!
'Cause I love you a bushel and a peck
You bet your pretty neck I do

Source: All Musicals,

The More You Know: Look how darling Google is:

A bushel is a unit of dry volume = 8 dry / "corn" gallons. A peck is 2 dry gallons, 8 dry quarts, or 16 dry pints.

Why does Chicago have so many Polish people?

Search: chicago polish

Why: I am listening to "Casimir Pulaski Day" by Sufjan Stevens on his album Illinois (which also features a song called "Chicago"). I don't know who that guy is, but he sounds Polish (like Sharon Cherski and Brian Krakow [who are not from Chicago]).

Answer: They started with a small community that got bigger! The first Polish emigrants to Chicago were noblemen who had fled Poland after the Polish-Russian War (1830–31). They arrived with plans of establishing a “New Poland” in Illinois. Why Illinois? I have no idea. I mean, why not? Among these early settlers was John Napieralski, believed to have been the first Pole in Chicago.

By the time of the Civil War, 500-ish Poles had created a small community on the Northwest Side; carpenter / grocer Anthony Smarzewski-Schermann and Union Captain Peter Kiolbassa served as local leaders. They built a church and took on roles in the city and state government.

Then, Polish Chicago ("Polonia") was shaped by at least 3 distinct immigration waves:

1. 1850s to early-1920s - Za Chłebem ("For Bread") was driven primarily by economic and structural change in Poland. This wave was mostly peasants, and they went until restrictions during WWI cut off this immigration. By 1930, Polish immigrants and their children had replaced Germans as the largest ethnic group in Chicago.
2. Post-WWII - Hundreds of thousands of Poles were displaced by WWII and then by the Communist takeover of Poland.
3. 1980s - The "Solidarity" immigration began as a result of the imposition of martial law in Poland (1981) and the decade-long struggle to bring democracy to the Polish Republic. These new immigrants were mainly professionals, artists, and intellectuals that ultimately influenced the cultural and institutional life of Chicago's Polish community.

They had conflicts, of course, about ethnic identity, Catholicism, and land ownership, but now they are living large as heroes and Sausage Kings.

Na zdrowie!

Source: Encyclopedia of Chicago

The More You Know: Incidentally, have you heard this song "Single Again" by Shytown (who is also from Chicago, natch)? It's a pretty catchy jam:

What do 1 Corinthians 12 and 14 say?

Search: 1 corinthians

Why: In this article "What Does the Bible Actually Say About Marriage" on the Huffington Post:

Someone invariably mentions 1 Corinthians 13, the famous "Love Chapter." Love is patient, love is kind, love never insists on its own way and so forth. Wonderful advice for marriage, but Paul was not talking about marriage. He was addressing a church fight: the believers in Corinth had split into factions and were competing for prestige and influence. We see echoes of this conflict throughout the letter, but especially in chapters 12 and 14, which surround this passage.

I never knew such a thing. That passage just always makes me think of Wedding Crashers.

Answer: Oh, that's damning:

1 Corinthians 12

1. Now about the gifts of the Spirit, brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be uninformed.
2. You know that when you were pagans, somehow or other you were influenced and led astray to mute idols.
3. Therefore I want you to know that no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, “Jesus be cursed,” and no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit.
4. There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them.
5. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord.
6. There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work.
7. Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.
8. To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit,
9. to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit,
10. to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues.
11. All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines.
12. Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ.
13. For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.
14. Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.
15. Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body.
16. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body.
17. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be?
18. But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be.
19. If they were all one part, where would the body be?
20. As it is, there are many parts, but one body.
21. The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!”
22. On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable,
23. and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty,
24. while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it,
25. so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other.
26. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.
27. Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.
28. And God has placed in the church first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, of helping, of guidance, and of different kinds of tongues.
29. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles?
30. Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret?
31. Now eagerly desire the greater gifts.

1 Corinthians 14

1. Follow the way of love and eagerly desire gifts of the Spirit, especially prophecy.
2. For anyone who speaks in a tongue does not speak to people but to God. Indeed, no one understands them; they utter mysteries by the Spirit.
3. But the one who prophesies speaks to people for their strengthening, encouraging and comfort.
4. Anyone who speaks in a tongue edifies themselves, but the one who prophesies edifies the church.
5. I would like every one of you to speak in tongues, but I would rather have you prophesy. The one who prophesies is greater than the one who speaks in tongues, unless someone interprets, so that the church may be edified.
6. Now, brothers and sisters, if I come to you and speak in tongues, what good will I be to you, unless I bring you some revelation or knowledge or prophecy or word of instruction?
7. Even in the case of lifeless things that make sounds, such as the pipe or harp, how will anyone know what tune is being played unless there is a distinction in the notes?
8. Again, if the trumpet does not sound a clear call, who will get ready for battle?
9. So it is with you. Unless you speak intelligible words with your tongue, how will anyone know what you are saying? You will just be speaking into the air.
10. Undoubtedly there are all sorts of languages in the world, yet none of them is without meaning.
11. If then I do not grasp the meaning of what someone is saying, I am a foreigner to the speaker, and the speaker is a foreigner to me.
12. So it is with you. Since you are eager for gifts of the Spirit, try to excel in those that build up the church.
13. For this reason the one who speaks in a tongue should pray that they may interpret what they say.
14. For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful.
15. So what shall I do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will also pray with my understanding; I will sing with my spirit, but I will also sing with my understanding.
16. Otherwise when you are praising God in the Spirit, how can someone else, who is now put in the position of an inquirer, say “Amen” to your thanksgiving, since they do not know what you are saying?
17. You are giving thanks well enough, but no one else is edified.
18. I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you.
19. But in the church I would rather speak five intelligible words to instruct others than ten thousand words in a tongue.
20. Brothers and sisters, stop thinking like children. In regard to evil be infants, but in your thinking be adults.
21. In the Law it is written:
    “With other tongues
    and through the lips of foreigners
    I will speak to this people,
    but even then they will not listen to me,
    says the Lord.”
22. Tongues, then, are a sign, not for believers but for unbelievers; prophecy, however, is not for unbelievers but for believers.
23. So if the whole church comes together and everyone speaks in tongues, and inquirers or unbelievers come in, will they not say that you are out of your mind?
24. But if an unbeliever or an inquirer comes in while everyone is prophesying, they are convicted of sin and are brought under judgment by all,
25. as the secrets of their hearts are laid bare. So they will fall down and worship God, exclaiming, “God is really among you!”
26. What then shall we say, brothers and sisters? When you come together, each of you has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. Everything must be done so that the church may be built up.
27. If anyone speaks in a tongue, two—or at the most three—should speak, one at a time, and someone must interpret.
28. If there is no interpreter, the speaker should keep quiet in the church and speak to himself and to God.
29. Two or three prophets should speak, and the others should weigh carefully what is said.
30. And if a revelation comes to someone who is sitting down, the first speaker should stop.
31. For you can all prophesy in turn so that everyone may be instructed and encouraged.
32. The spirits of prophets are subject to the control of prophets.
33. For God is not a God of disorder but of peace—as in all the congregations of the Lord’s people.
34. Women should remain silent in the churches. They are not allowed to speak, but must be in submission, as the law says.
35. If they want to inquire about something, they should ask their own husbands at home; for it is disgraceful for a woman to speak in the church.
36. Or did the word of God originate with you? Or are you the only people it has reached?
37. If anyone thinks they are a prophet or otherwise gifted by the Spirit, let them acknowledge that what I am writing to you is the Lord’s command.
    
38. But if anyone ignores this, they will themselves be ignored.
39. Therefore, my brothers and sisters, be eager to prophesy, and do not forbid speaking in tongues.
40. But everything should be done in a fitting and orderly way.

Zzzzzzzzz

Source: Bible Gateway,

The More You Know: In the original Greek, the word αγαπη agape is used throughout 1 Cor. 13. This is translated into English as "charity" in the King James version; but the word "love" is preferred by most other translations, both earlier and more recent.

At other points in that letter, Paul argues that unmarried people must please God - just like married people must please their spouses - and also discusses role of women in churches, i.e. that they must remain silent (1 Cor. 11:2-16, 14:34-35). He also says: "Art thou loosed from a wife? seek not a wife" (1 Cor. 7:25). That would be good wedding material.

What Shakespeare movie was Anne Hathaway in?

Search: anne hathaway shakespeare

Why: In Juliet, Naked by Nick Hornby:

"If someone had had a chance to break into Shakespeare's house, he should have taken it, shouldn't he? Because then we'd know more. It would have been perfectly legitimate to... to rummage around in Shakespeare's sock drawer. In the interests of history and literature."

"So according to your logic Julie Beatty is Shakespeare."

"Anne Hathaway."

"Jesus Christ." Tucker shook his head bitterly.

Wha.

Answer: Haha omg, you guys won't believe this, but she wasn't! (Though she has played Jane Austen.) This isn't even the same Anne Hathaway! It's the one who was Shakespeare's wife. Everyone knows this but me:

Very little is known about her beyond a few references in legal documents, but her personality and relationship to Shakespeare have been the subject of much speculation by historians and creative writers.

Hathaway married Shakespeare in November 1582 while pregnant with the couple's first child, to whom she gave birth six months later. Hathaway was 26 years of age; Shakespeare was only 18.

Made for each other.

There's a whole debate about whether this was a shotgun wedding. Apparently, there was a wedding license issued to "Wm Shaxpere and Annam Whateley," and then a different one issued to "William Shagspere and Anne Hathwey" the very next day. Some people think Anne Whateley was his true lady-love - and that Hathaway's family forced him to marry their pregnant daughter, leaving him a shell of a man henceforth - but others think the name was a clerical error and that Anne Whateley never existed. Who knows? Wills and Hathaway had 3 kids, either way.

Source: Wikipedia,

The More You Know: They named one of their kids Hamnet. Hamnet. They named him after their friend Hamnet the Baker. Hamnet also had a twin sister named Judith. (And they had another sister, Susanna.)

This is Hamnet we're talking about. HAMNET!

What happens in "The Bell Jar"?

Search: bell jar

Why: In Ryan O'Connell's essay "How to See a Shrink" on Thought Catalog:

Experience a kind of depression you’ve never felt before. Live in the bell jar, cry during commercials in the middle of the afternoon when the sun is still shining and people are outside living their lives. Or just have lots of money and like to talk about yourself. Decide to call a therapist.

I never read that book, and I don't think I want to.

Answer: Oh, it has much more narrative than I suspected. Here is a summary of the summary:

Esther Greenwood, a girl from Boston, gets a summer internship at a magazine in NYC. She is not as excited as she feels like she's supposed to be, just kind of meh about the whole thing. She has a bitchy friend Doreen, and knows a baby-machine idiot named Dodo, but she respects Betsy from Kansas who is always good and nice.

Esther goes to her job and things happen. She has a beau back home who she expects to marry. She thinks a lot about Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, those communists who are scheduled for execution. She applies for a writing course by a famous author, but when she goes home, her seaward of a mom tells her she was rejected. She wants to write a novel, but she doesn't think she knows anything. After school, she doesn't want to pop out babies like Dodo or be a stenographer like all the other women of America, and the idea of not being able to do anything else bums her out.

Esther's depression makes her unable to asleep. Her mother sends her to a hot psychiatrist who Ester does not trust. He hastily diagnoses her and has her put in a hospital, where she receives electroconvulsive therapy that's is improperly administered. When she tells her mom she doesn't want to go back, her mom is all, "I knew you'd decide to be all right."



Esther gets more and more blue. She feels like she's trapped under a bell jar, struggling for breath. She half-asses some suicide attempts, and after a particularly elaborate one, she is sent to a different hospital. She is given a lady therapy, Dr. Nolan, who gives her psychotherapy and ECT done the right way.

Esther confides in Dr. Nolan that she envies the freedom men have, and that she worries about getting pregnant. Dr. Nolan hooks her up with a diaphragm, which makes Esther feel less scared about sex and having to marry the wrong man. She improves a lot, and the novel ends with her entering the room for an interview that will decide whether she can leave the hospital.

Esther.

Source: Wikipedia

The More You Know: The real reason I am posting this is because I just read a ton about Sylvia Plath (b. 1932) who kilt herself at age 30. Points of interest:

• Almost all of the major plot points in The Bell Jar really happened to her.
• She married English poet Ted Hughes on 6/16/56.

• They had 2 kids, Frieda (b. 1960) and Nicholas (b. 1962).
• In Aug. 1961, she finished The Bell Jar.
• In July 1962, she discovered her husband having an affair with Assia Wevill, who was renting their flat in London with her [third] husband David. The couple separated.
  
• In Oct. 1962, Plath wrote most of the poems in Ariel (published posthumously).
  
• In Dec. 1962, she rented a flat in William Butler Yeats's old house with her two kids. It was cold and miserable; the kids were sick all the time, and she didn't have a phone.
• In Jan. 1963, The Bell Jar came out, published under the pen name Victoria Lucas, and was met with critical indifference.
• Plath's friend Dr. Horder saw that she was not doing well, and he prescribed her anti-depressants and arranged for her to have a live-in nurse.
• On Feb. 11, 1963, Plath put wet towels under the doors of her children's rooms and stuck her head in the oven. She died of carbon monoxide poisoning.
• At the time of Plath's suicide, Assia Wevill was pregnant with Hughes's child, but she terminated the pregnancy soon after. She helped Hughes care for Plath's children.
• In March 1965, Wevill gave birth to a daughter nicknamed Shura while still married to David Wevill. Though Hughes never publicly claimed Shura was his daughter, he believed she was his.

• On March 23, 1969, Wevill gassed herself and 4 year-old Shura in their London home using a gas stove. The two were found lying on a mattress.
• In Oct. 1998, Ted Hughes died of a heart attack.
• On March 16, 2009, Nicholas Hughes hanged himself at age 47.

#dark

Plath in photos: Cape Cod 1952, in Paris

What's a Flip Flap?

Search: flip flap

Why: This was one person's answer to a survey question:

2. do you have pets or plants, details please? if not, do you want pets or plants?
2 cats and a Flip Flap.

Answer: A solar-powered Japanese toy plant thing! They really have thought of everything. Check out what these bad boys can do!

Source: YouTube

The More You Know: But wait, that's not all!

Actually, I guess it does more than a real plant. I want one.

What are pigeon houses?

Search: pigeon houses

Why: In this collection of aerial photography by Yann Arthus-Bertrand:

Pigeon Houses Mit Gahmr Delta, Egypt

Answer: Well, they are houses for pigeons! But why? Because:

Pigeon is a part of the daily diet in many parts of Egypt

Horf! Also, they use the droppings as fertilizer. The houses, called dovecotes, are made of natural mud brick.

Source: EarthArchitecture.org

The More You Know: Other interesting images from that collection:

Sha Kibbutz, Israel

Copenhagen, Denmark

Denver, Colorado

What's the origin of the word "chauvinist"?

Search: chauvinist etymology

Why: I can't remember exactly, but Jessica Fletcher used that word last night, but not in a mean way. That makes me think it has a more complicated definition than the way Jessie Spano always spat it out.

Answer: It comes from a guy named Nicolas Chauvin! He was a soldier in Napoleon's Grande Armée, legendary for his loyalty even after being wounded 17 times, maimed and disfigured. He was eventually ridiculed during the Restoration because people hated Napoleon. He also might not have really even existed.

Anyway, in the 1840s, the word "chauvinism" came to mean "a exaggerated, bellicose patriotism" or "a belief in national superiority and glory" - kind of like jingoism. It wasn't used in conjunction with "male" to mean "thinks boys are better than girls" until the 1960s, when wimmens were all in an uproar about how they were being treated.

Source: EtymOnline, Wikipedia

The More You Know: There are female chauvinist pigs, too, though. They are probably at cardio pole dancing class right now.