1. The Summer Olympics used to feature ice hockey…or as it was known back then, melted ice hockey.
2. The 1920 Presidential Election was between two people who made their mark as newspaper publishers. Seems absurd in today’s world where the newspaper industry is dying. I like my elections between reality TV stars and subjects of FBI investigations, thank you very much.
3. The Statue of Liberty’s nose is 4 1/2 feet (1.4 meters) long. All she has to do is look in Southwest Airlines magazine to find a good New York surgeon who can trim that down to 3 feet.
4. The average person will spend almost 6 months talking about the weather in his or her life. Seems high until I think about how much time I spend looking at the weather app on my phone.
5. In Alaska, it is legal to shoot bears, but waking a sleeping bear for the purpose of taking a photograph is prohibited. Sounds like a law created by a grumpy dad at Thanksgiving.
6. Franklin D. Roosevelt defeated Alf Landon in the 1936 Presidential Election. Apparently the public didn’t get behind Alf’s “Eat Cats” slogan.
7. The author of Madeline, Ludwig Bemelmans, wrote the first draft of the children’s book on the back of a menu at a bar. Two questions: how big was the menu? and how long was he at the bar?
8. The word awful used to mean “worthy of awe.”
9. The word nice used to mean “silly, foolish, simple.”
10. The word silly use to refer to things worthy or blessed.
Let me be the first to say that my new book, Maury C. Moose and the Ninja Worrier, is not nice, but boy is it silly and awful.
#4 is horrible. As an introvert I hate small talk.