Whistling AND Hand-Clapping a Happy Imagine Dragons Tune

Yesterday my friend Rob introduced me to a new band.  I’m a big music fan and I love to learn about new groups, and Rob said that something told him I would really like this one.  They are called Imagine Dragons and are originally from Utah.  They are now living and making music in Las Vegas and they are starting to blow up.

When I heard the song “On Top of the World” from their Continued Silence EP I instantly liked them.  It might be because they use both hand claps and whistling in that song.  If some musician asked me how to write a song that I would love I would say that a nearly sure-fire way would be to include hand claps and whistling.

I think it comes, in part, from the participatory feel both whistling and hand claps afford a listener like me.  I’m not a great singer (unless I’m driving in my car) and I don’t play guitar, bass, or drums (unless you count me occasionally using my steering wheel as a bongo while I’m singing.  What?  It’s totally safe).  I can, however, clap my hands, and doing so along with a song like “On Top of the World" takes me from a mere listener to an active participant.  For a whistler like me, whistling kicks that participation up a notch because there’s now a tune.  

Several years ago I was in Memphis for a long weekend.  My friends and I went to a club to hear some local musicians.  One of the old blues guys playing that night started up “Dock of the Bay” which is one of my favorite songs.  I was singing along and enjoying his rendition.  The only problem was the guys could not whistle - possibly because he only had a handful of teeth.  He saw me whistling along and called me up on stage so that I could whistle in his stead.

I’ll admit that I felt like a rock star, especially at the end when he said, “give it up for Trish.  She just whistled her ass off!”  My name is not Trish, or anything even close to Trish.  I have no idea why he called me that since he never asked my name, but at that moment I was Trish and I was in a band.  It was awesome!

Whistling and hand capping create a connection between the music and listener without requiring any musical training.  They also tend to be found in upbeat songs, like Imagine Dragons’ “On Top of the World” which make me want to whistle that happy tune.

Don’t believe me?  Check out Imagine Dragons for yourself.

A Two LeBron Shoe Difference, That's All

I was watching men’s basketball on the Olympics yesterday and the announcers kept making a big deal about the fact that the court in International play is smaller than the NBA court.  It doesn’t really look that much smaller, but Dan Patrick brought it up several times, so I wanted to find out just how big the difference really is.

Well, if you consider 2 feet, 2 inches a big difference that you might be on the same page as Dan Patrick.  To help put this into perspective LeBron James’s feet are size 16.  A size 16 shoe, in US Men’s sizing, is approximately 13 inches.  Therefore, the shortened court only saves LeBron two steps.  Not really a big difference to me, though I’ll admit that I haven’t played basketball since the 7^th grade.  

The three point line is also a little closer to the basket on an International court, 21 inches closer.  I guess that could take a little getting used to, if you’re accustomed to putting a certain amount of pressure and spin on a shot depending on where you are on the court.  To me, though, doesn’t seem like a big enough difference to materially change the game.  It’s not like they are playing on the St. Joseph Middle School basketball court.  

So now that I know that the size difference should really have no impact on the game, I can go back to watching the match-ups while ignoring Dan Patrick.  Yep, all’s right with the world.

My Musktake

A cantaloupe is a cantaloupe...at least I thought it was, until yesterday, when I learned that for years I’ve been enjoying a musk in cantaloupe’s clothing.  That’s because the cantaloupe commonly available in the United States is actually a muskmelon with reticulated, or net-like rind.  True cantaloupes are native to Italy and only available in Europe.  

Despite not being a true cantaloupe, the American Cantaloupe is still the most popular melon in the United States.  Not bad for a muskmelon.

The Olympic Spectrum

What does a 71 year old man from Japan have in common with three 15 year old girl from the United States and Great Britian?  They are all competing in the 2012 Olympics in London.   

With yesterday marking the start of the 2012 Summer Olympics I learned that equestrian rider Hiroshi Hoketsu is the oldest competitor at this year's games.  As if being a 71 year old Olympian isn't enough, he is also a returning Olympian, having made his debut in the 1964 Olympics and then competed again in 2008.  Interestingly Mr. Hoketsu also qualified for the 1988 Olympics but could not compete since his horse was quarantined.  This year he will compete in individual dressage.

On the other end of the spectrum are Katie Ledecky (an American swimmer),  Kyla Ross (an American gymnast) and Rebecca Tunney (a British gymnast).  All three are 15, the earliest age at which a competitor can qualify for the Olympics, and will make their debut in London.

With 56 more years of experience, maybe these girls could get a few tips from Mr. Hoketsu.

 Good Luck to all four of you!

A King-Sized Surprise from Q

I am so super excited about what I learned yesterday.  Actually I learned several cool things on the path to the pinnacle of my daily learning, but before I get to sharing this awesomeness, I need to share a little background.

I have a terrible memory...sometimes.  People regularly say to me, “remember that time when we...” and I’ll have absolutely no recollection.  If they explain the details or show me a picture it will often jog my memory, but sometimes it’s just gone.  Similarly I have meet several people in the course of my young life with whom I am no longer in contact that I don’t quite remember.  I can sort of picture them, and usually associate them with something specific, but can’t remember much beyond that.
  

For example, I vaguely remember a guy that I was friends with, maybe in high school or early in college.  What I do remember is that he made me a mix tape with some great music, mostly from bands I had never heard before.  I have no idea what his name was, or really how I knew him, but I specifically remember the mix tape with all of the songs and artists carefully printed on the white insert in light black ballpoint pen.  I couldn’t tell you one song that was on that tape, but I remember listening to it over and over, and loving several songs.

On the other hand, I remember all sorts of random fun facts, movie quotes, and lyrics from songs that I haven’t heard in years.  I have no explanation for this odd memory capacity, but I’ve always been like this so I figure it’s just the way I am.  

Today I missed listening to Q on NPR, so I pulled it up the audio on my iPhone, since I really wanted to hear Jian Ghomeshi’s interview with Questlove.  Before interviewing Questlove, though, Jian first talked to The Narcicyst, aka Yassin Alsalman, an Iraqi-Canadian Hip Hop artist who recently moved from Montreal back to Abu Dhabi to start The Medium.  The Medium is a new arts label and culture brand designed to bring together artists in the Middle East to create, collaborate, and share with the world their art, which is uniquely influenced by their different cultures.  As a tribute to Montreal, which he considers home, The Narcicyst released the song "#Montreal (Beautiful)" along with a video that highlights his Montreal.  It’s definitely worth checking out at:

http://www.thewordisbond.com/66330/the-narcicyst-montreal-beautiful/

Next up with Jian’s interview with Questlove who has decided to add to his busy musical schedule (he’s the drummer of the Roots who are currently the house band on the Jimmy Fallon Show) the culinary endeavor ?uest Loves Food.  This catering company will focus on soul food, and Questlove hopes to launch a food truck as well.  If the reviews continue to be favorable, I may need to find an excuse to head to New York and check it out.  He is also planning to team up with Graham Elliott, giving me a small amount of hope that this endeavor might find its way to Chicago at some point.  

Now learning about either The Narcicyst or Questlove’s new foodie focus would have been fascinating enough to check the box on yesterday’s new information.  But they are just the appetizer to the really tasty dish that was to follow.

As previously disclosed on this blog, love public radio.  Q is one of my favorite programs, largely because I love to listen to Jian Ghomeshi (truth be told I dream of having dinner with him, Kai Ryssdal, Peter Sagal and Carl Kasell).  After listening to yesterday's interview I wondered how Jian Ghomeshi got such a super cool job.  So, of course,  I Googled him and there I saw that he had belonged to the Canadian band Moxy Früvous.  Moxy Früvous...and then the lightbulb went on.   Remember that mix tape I was telling you about?  Those songs that I listened to over and over were by Moxy Früvous!  

I immediately played "King of Spain" and was instantly transported back 20 years.  I  could picture myself driving around in my parent's Dodge Van, wearing an oversized flannel shirt and singing along to this, and Green Eggs and Ham at the top of my lungs.  I remembered nearly all of the lyrics (that's my crazy memory for you) and once again happily sung along.   The only thing cooler than rediscovering Moxy Früvous was finding out that this was where Jian Ghomeshi got his start!

If you've never heard Moxy Früvous then take a listen...

The 5 Commonalities of the James Gaffigans

Yesterday I went to hear the Grant Park Symphony Orchestra perform at Millennium Park in Chicago.  We arrived late, but still managed to get seats fairly close to the stage, probably owing to the fact that it was nearly 100 degrees.  The first thing I noticed was that the orchestra was wearing shorts and polos.  It gave it a very casual feel, which was fun.  And then I noticed was the conductor.  

He was wearing all black, and danced around the podium like he was a Jet in West Side Story.  He would crouch a little and sway side to side and then he would jump up with a sweeping arm motion to signal a big dramatic moment in the music.  He was great fun to watch, but did not look familiar.  I checked the program to find that he was guest conductor James Gaffigan.  

I looked back up at the stage and evaluated:  short, dark hair, conducting the Grant Park Symphony.  Nope, definitely not the comedian.  But I got to thinking about how interesting it would be to be a famous person who shared a name with another famous person.  I wondered if they had anything in common.  So I did a little research.

Aside from their names, I was able to uncover very little that the James Gaffigans have in common.  To keep these two same-named individuals straight, let’s call the comedian Jim and the conductor James.  The similarities between the two include the following:

1. They are both exceptionally successful in their chosen professions
2. They are both married
3. They both have kids (but Jim has 5 while James has 1)
4. They both were “born” in New York (James literally, Jim’s comedic career was birthed in the Big Apple)
5. They both have jobs that begin with the letter C

And there is where the similarities end, at least as far as I was able to determine.  Who knows, maybe Jim dances like a Jet sometimes.  Maybe James comments on his own conducting in a high-pitched voice.  Maybe they are both Cancers (Jim is).   Who knows...

But for now those are the 5 commonalities of the James Gaffigans.

Pop - Lock - Drop - Spirit Fingers

Yesterday was a very learned day for me.  Among other things I learned that golfer Payne Stewart once signed a deal with Reebok to wear NFL apparel at PGA events, there is no longer a Gap at the Pittsburgh Airport Air Mall, you should not try rebooking a  United flight before the original fight is actually cancelled, and decathlete Bryan Clay is working with scientists from BMW to analyze and improve his form in hopes of becoming the first American to win three Olympic gold medals in the decathlon.

By far the coolest thing I learned yesterday, however, was a new twist on the fist bump.  I was at a volunteer event where a watched Mike, one of the volunteers, fist bump a teenage girl.  Mike employed the “Firework” technique - exploding your hand following the fist bump.  This girl shook her head in disapproval.  Mike then countered with the “Fireworks plus Rain” technique which took the firework technique and added the hand mimicking rain coming down following the firework.  This still did not meet the girl’s approval.  Slightly dejected Mike said, “I thought I was cool.”  The girl smiled and replied, “you are cool” and walked away.  

When I saw her later I asked her, “so, what is the cool way to fist bump?” and she taught me the Pop, Lock, Drop plus Spirit Fingers Technique.  I will try to explain.

First, with your hand in a fist and the knuckles pointing up you gently bump the other person’s fist which is in the same position (Pop).  

With the fists still touching, both individuals turn their fists to the right so the knuckles are pointed to the right and the thumb is on top (Lock). 

From here both individuals release, unfolding the hand to a flat, open position with the palm facing to the left and then drop the hand straight down (Drop).  

Finally, keeping the palm facing left you raise the hand back up while wiggling the fingers (Spirit Fingers).  

Pop - Lock - Drop - Spirit Fingers

I practiced it a few times with her and we decided that she should teach Mike as well.  I went and found Mike, who was excited to learn the new move, and our new friend taught it to him as well, allowing him to step up his fist bump game.  

So the next time you fist bump a friend, utilize the Pop, Lock, Drop with Spirit Fingers Technique.  Trust me, I have it on good authority that it really is cool!

I Have a Question

Yesterday I was writing about spiral hot dogs and I used serendipity to describe the happy coincidence of writing about hot dogs on National Hot Dog Day.  While I was proofreading my post I got that feeling that I regularly get when using big words – what if I’m using this word incorrectly? When I get this feeling, I usually try to find definitions and examples on the web to help guide me in using a term properly.  Nine times out of ten the web is less than helpful (I know, so hard to imagine) so I completely rewrite the sentence avoiding the questionable word all together.

When I got that feeling about serendipity, I did my usual next step of turning to the internet.  There I learned that according to the British company Today Translations, who in 2004 surveyed 1000 linguists to determine the most difficult words to translate, serendipity is one of the top 10 most difficult to translate English words. 

At least I thought I had learned that.  After doing more research, the website Global Oneness (http://www.experiencefestival.com/) refuted this claim, noting that “Serendipity has originated equivalents in some other languages (e.g., Portuguese serendipicidade and French serendipicité).”  So I didn’t learn that serendipity was one of the top 10 English words most difficult to translate after all.  

Well, then what did I learn yesterday, you might ask?  In following the serendipity trail I learned that in Russia I could be considered a Pochemuchka.  In Russian that’s a person who asks a lot of questions.  It is also considered one of the hardest words in the world to translate by Today Translations, though whether that claim is true could be questionable based on their previously unreliable list of tough to translate words.  Pochemuchka is usually reserved for describing kids who ask to many questions, but I am a true kid at heart so I’d say it fits.

I’d also say that today’s learning was pure serendipity.

Twirly Weenies

Yesterday I learned what I am sure will prove to be a life skill – how to make spiral hot dogs.  And given that today is National Hot Dog Day, it is serendipity to have learned this new skill yesterday.  (More on serendipity tomorrow, by the way).

To make a spiral hot dog, or a twirly weenie as you might choose to call them, you need a hot dog, a skewer, a knife, and a love of hot dogs.  If you’re only in like with hot dogs, the whimsy and added caramelized char achieved by spiraling the dog will likely be lost on you.  Though, one could argue that it might push you over the line from like to love, so if that seems like a likely outcome, by all means spiral away.

With your fondness of hot dogs now established, it’s time to get down to business.  Simply slide the skewer down the center of the hot dog (the long way) and using a paring knife carefully slice the hot dog partially through on an angle all the way around.  Remove the skewer and grill.  As the hot dog expands the spiral becomes more pronounced, and the inside of the dog gets that extra caramelized char I mentioned which really kicks up the flavor that much more.  

Here’s a picture of the twirly weenies that my friend Carrie made:

She cut them in half to make cocktail sized spiral dogs for our book club on Sunday and they were a hit!

So Happy National Hot Dog Day to everyone who is currently salivating over that picture!

Under Construction

Yesterday I went to drop something off at a friend’s house only to find that Van Buren Street was closed due to construction on Wacker Drive.  I had seen the construction around the city but hadn’t paid too much attention to it since it had yet to impede my travel (before yesterday that is).  It turns out that this construction is all part of the second phase of Revive Wacker, a massive repair project to fix the North-South section of both Upper and Lower Wacker drive.  The East-West section was repaired during phase one of Revive Wacker, which was completed in 2002.

What I didn’t know was that Wacker drive is the only street in Chicago with addresses on all four directions.  It is also the only street in the city to cross Madison Street, which is the north-south center line of the city, and State Street, which is the east-west center of the city.  This double decker roadway crosses through three of the four quadrants in the city.  It’s been around since 1926 and has been added to and updated several times.  This latest update will repair deteriorating viaducts, lifting the vertical clearance by more than a foot.  Other modifications will also be made and by the end of the year, this unique roadway should be fully open to traffic once again. 

Did You Say You Went to DeVry, Doctor?

Yesterday on my flight home from Miami I was sitting next to a guy from St. Maarten.  He is a medical student at American University of the Caribbean (AUC) there and he told me something I didn’t know.  DeVry recently purchased AUC for $235 Million.  I thought DeVry was just a Chicago school, but it turns out that it is a for-profit company that has a wealth of different educational institutions.  

In just the healthcare division, Devry Inc. owns a chain of nursing schools, a school offering physician assistant courses, and Ross, another medical school in the Caribbean.  In addition they have a business school, veterinary school, and degree programs in graphic design, business communications, and computer forensics among others.  According to their website,  “DeVry Inc. is one of the largest publicly held, international, higher educational organizations in North America.”

They have come a long way since this commercial:

http://youtu.be/T93W2U_lsBc

Dinner and an Umbrella

Last night was my last night in Miami.  One of my friends made dinner reservations at a new Miami hot spot called Juvia.  We were waiting for a cab outside the hotel and the door man asked where we were headed.  I said that we were going to Juvia.  

“You’re going to need an umbrella,” he said in return.  

I must have looked at him funny because he repeated himself.  

“You’re going to need an umbrella.”  

I looked up and saw only blue sky.  But I was in Miami after all, and several times during the week black clouds had blown through in minutes, turing a picture perfect day into a torrential downpour.  

“Really?” I responded.  “Is it supposed to rain?”

He laughed, finally understanding my confusion and said, “no, Juvia means rain in Spanish.”

If only all downpours were as delicious as Miami’s Juvia!

Unlucky Number 4

First of all, I must note that since I have yet to go to bed, it is still technically Thursday, so I'm counting this as my post for July 19th.  Phrew, now that I've gotten that out of the way I can get down to business.

I was in the elevator in the hotel that I'm staying at here in Miami when I noticed that there was neither a 4th or a 13th floor.  Most hotels don't have a 13th floor since many people equate the number 13 with bad luck, but what happened to the 4th floor?

Luckily one of the hotel employees was in the elevator with me and I asked him. He told me that in Chinese culture the number 4 is considered bad luck.  Since the hotel is part of a chain from Asia they skipped both 13 and 4.

I was curious as to why the number 4 was considered unlucky so I did a little research.  In the Chinese language there are a large number of homophones, words that sound remarkably similar but have different meanings.  The number 4 is a homophone, sounding like the word for death.  Therefore, the link to death makes the number 4 unlucky.

And being very customer focused, this hotel is accomodating superstitious guests from multiple cultures.

Whales, You Might Want to Cover Your Ears

Yesterday, I developed a pretty bad ear infection.  I used to get them a lot when I was younger (I was a swimmer) but it’s been years since I have had one.  I managed to get in to see the doctor who checked me out and prescribed antibiotics and special ear drops.  By the time I got home I was unable to hear out of my infected ear, so I was eager to get some drops in there to start treating the infection.  While I waited for the drops to kick in, I was flipping through the New York Times where an article about hearing loss in whales caught my eye.

Sound can travel for hundreds of miles underwater before diminishing, which is amazing in and of itself (and something I never knew).  Sea mammals have extraordinary hearing which they use to make up for poor visibility in the water.   Using echolocation- emitting sounds and listening for the echo- sea mammals are able to convert those sounds into data which helps them find food, detect objects, and court mates.  However, according to the article by William J. Broad, loud noises underwater generated by ship engines, sonars, and other undersea activities are being linked to “deafness, tissue damage, mass strandings and disorientation in creatures that rely on hearing to navigate, find food and care for their young.”

There may be hope for these sea inhabitants, as researchers in Hawaii are discovering.  Based on their studies with a false killer whale named Kina, they believe that whales can effectively close up their ears internally achieving much the same result as people who plug their ears using their index fingers (just without the fingers since obviously whales don’t have them) .  This helps the whales to protect their ears from the noise.  The team led by Dr. Paul Nachtigall has been able to teach Kina to close her ears when she hears a signal, much like Pavlov taught his dogs to salivate when they heard a bell.  While they plan to test additional species before trying to apply their findings to the wild, they hope to be able to condition sea mammals to learn to avoid hearing loss and all of the dangers associated with it by covering their ears. 

And trust me, hearing loss, even temporarily, is no fun!

Tomatoes or Shoes? What to Throw, What to Throw

Yesterday when I landed in Miami I headed to baggage claim to get my bag.  While waiting there I saw a headline on CNN about protester throwing tomatoes and shoes at Secretary of State Hillary Clinton while she was in Egypt.  Wait, shoes?  What’s the significance of shoes?

I remember a few years back when a protestor threw a pair of shoes at then President George Bush, but I thought it was because that was all he had to throw.  He was in a press conference, after all.  Not a lot of tomatoes at press conferences, usually.  And tomatoes I understand.  Throwing tomatoes has been a staple in protests for years, dating back to medieval times when criminals in the stocks were pelted with rotten fruits and vegetables to further humiliate them.  But shoes?

Now, truth be told I don’t have much experience protesting (I’m more of a letter writer).  And personally, I love shoes.  They are one of my favorite accessories, and I would be hard-pressed to find a pair of shoes in my closed that I would be willing to throw away in protest, especially when there is probably some produce just ripe for throwing in the back of my refrigerator.  So to figure out why someone would throw shoes in protest, I first asked my friend with whom I was traveling.  She thought that someone might throw shoes to signify that the intended target stinks because, as she put it “shoes stink.”  

Well, it turns out she wasn’t that far off.  According to a 2011 LA Times article throwing shoes is seen as a serious insult in Arab cultures.  This is because streets are considered unclean, and therefore the bottoms of shoes are also considered unclean.  And it’s not just throwing shoes either.  Simply facing the soles of shoes towards someone is considered an insult as well.  

So if you are planning on throwing your shoes at anyone, be aware that they just might be offended.  And if you are wearing super cute shoes, well maybe consider tomatoes instead.

Have You Ever Heard Of... A Musical Twofer

This weekend was all about music for me so it's not surprising that I have a second day of music-related learnings.  Yesterday's new facts, and yes it's a twofer, come courtesy of the Pitchfork Music Festival that took place over the weekend here in Chicago. 

I was walking through the vendor tent at Pitchfork when a very enthusiastic guy named Bobby asked me if I had ever heard of CHIRP radio. I confessed that I had not so he filled me in. CHIRP (www.chirpradio.org) is an Internet radio station in Chicago that largely plays indi rock. CHIRP stands for The Chicago Independent Radio Project and according to their website they are “dedicated to providing Chicago residents with a community radio station focused on the representation of local people, events, and issues alongside a wide array of local and independent music.” CHIRP was voted the best radio station in Chicago in the Reader’s 2011 annual best of Chicago poll. Their music is varied; while listening today I heard among other songs “Keep on Pushing” by The Impressions, “Deep Blue Day” by Brian Eno, and “Tico Tico” by Esquivel. It's a great was to stay connected to Chicago and the indi music scene no matter where you are in the world (which for me today is in Miami).

After talking with Bobby I made it as far as the next table where once again I was asked, “have you every heard of…” but this time it was the Chicago Mixtape.  Once again I confessed that I had not, so Casey Meehan explained.  Casey is all about supporting local Chicago musicians and has come up with an awesomely cool way of doing it – through a weekly mixtape (www.chicagomixtape.com). 

There might be a few of you out there who aren’t familiar with mixtapes (probably the same people who aren’t familiar with the Kool-Aid Man, oh yeah).  Let me explain.  Back when cassette tapes were super rad (that should give you a clue as to when that was) if you had a duel cassette deck stereo you could play a song on the first deck and record it on a tape in the second deck, effectively making your own Best of Your Music Compilation.   It was a great way to share music with friends.  But then came along CDs which relegated mixtapes to an old Pepsi crate under the bed. 

Well, Casey Meehan has brought back the mixtape with a twist.  Once a week he sends out an email to his mailing list with a collection of MP3s from local Chicago bands, most of whom are playing somewhere in the city in the coming week.  All Casey asks is that if you like the music you support the bands.  This week’s mixtape includes songs from Unicycle Loves You, Anthony and the Tramps and Panoramic and True among others.  You just open your email and you’re introduced to a bunch of new bands.  It’s that easy.

I think it’s awesome that Bobby and the folks at CHIRP Radio and Casey Meehan are working so hard to share their passion for music with the world, and if you haven’t listened in a while, trust me, Chicago has some great indi music that’s worth checking out.

So, what are you waiting for?

Capotastic!

Last night I had the chance to hear singer/songwriter Ed Smaron perform.  About halfway through his set he said, “it’s time to capo up.”  As Ed said this he fumbled around in his pocket and pulled out one of those small clamp things that gets, well clamped to the neck of the guitar to shorten the strings and raise the pitch.

“Rockstars don’t have capos in their pockets.  They have another guitar that some big guys with giant rolex hands to them,” Ed joked as he adjusted his capo for the next song.

I have seen these things hundreds of times on the end of various musicians’ guitars, but I never knew what they were called.  According to Wikipedia (my favorite source of nearly accurate information), capo is short for capotasto, which is Italian for “head of fretboard.”  This name was coined by Giovanni Battista Doni, an Italian musicologist from the 17th century.  

A bonus fun fact about G.B. Doni - he renamed the C note (the actual note not the $100 dollar bill) from Ut to Do (after his last name) in the solfege system.  Without Doni, the Von Trapp kids might have been singing “Ute a tribe, an Indian tribe”, rather than “Doe a deer”, and I would still be calling a capo that clamp thing.

If you want to hear a capo in action you can check out Ed Smaron on Facebook at Ed Smaron music or here at his ReverbNation page:

https://www.reverbnation.com/edsmaron

Just in the Nick of Time

I have a love/hate/really hate relationship with public transportation. I love the idea of someone else getting me to where I need to be but I hate being tied to a schedule. I really hate trying to time when I need to leave my house to catch the bus, subway, or train. I know, I know, that is why they publish schedules. But as any frequenter of public trans has discovered, schedules, like rules, are made to be broken.

 Now, anyone who knows me knows that I have a habit of running late. Maybe it's because I think it takes only 10 minutes to get anywhere in the city (20 minutes to get anywhere else in the world). Maybe it's because I sometimes get sidetracked (like when I decided caulk my tub 10 minutes before leaving for the airport).  Whatever the reason, I tend to cut it close. A couple of years ago the CTA created bus and train trackers that lets me estimate down to the minute when my bus or train will be arriving.  This allows me to minimize the time waiting for said bus or train and maximize the time I have to do things that invariably take way more time than I have.  Perfect! The only problem? I take Metra a whole lot more than I take the CTA.

Metra, for those of you who aren't from the Chicagoland area is the commuter train, and I live minutes from one of the stations. You might think living so close would mean that I never miss the train, but alas you would be wrong. I miss trains all the time. On more than one occasion I have actually missed consecutive trains. Sometimes this happens because of my afore mentioned habit of running late. Sometimes, however, it happens because I am waiting and waiting for the train, not knowing that it is delayed, and I give up only to have the train arrive when I am just far enough away to not be able to run and catch it.

Today, as I waited for a delayed train, a friend, who was meeting me on the train sent me the following series of texts:

A Metra train tracker?!? Awesome! The train tracker estimate was spot on with my train arriving exactly at 3:15. Thanks to this great new tool I will never miss a train again! Well...I'll never need to run for a train I have absolutely no hope of catching again. Hey that's still pretty good, Metra!

So now I have a love/ mostly love especially when I remember to consult the tracker times relationship with public transportation!

The Magic of Etch-a-Sketch

Fifty-two years ago yesterday the Ohio Art Company launched the Etch-a-Sketch.  Though I am a card-carrying member of the Official Etch-A-Sketch Club (that’s my actual membership patch) I’ll admit that I had no idea how turning those knobs created the pictures on the screen that you can magically erase with a few shakes.  When I was little I just thought it was magic.  To celebrate Etch-a-Sketch’s birthday I wanted to find out.
I considered taking apart my mini Etch-a-Sketch to solve this riddle, but I decided to check the internet first.  Well, let me tell you that it was a good thing I did.  It turns out that Etch-a-Sketches are filled with aluminum powder and aluminum powder sticks to pretty much everything.  Had I tried to open mine up, I would probably be sitting here still covered head to toe in it.  I likely also would have sent small plastic balls flying all over my living room since Etch-a-Sketches are filled with them too.  Their job is to keep the aluminum powder from clumping together and distribute it evenly over the inside of the glass plate.  A small stylus is attached to some very tightly strung wires which in turn are connected to the two knobs.  Turning the knobs moves the stylus across the glass scraping away some of the aluminum powder to leave a design. When you’re done drawing and turn it over, the plastic balls land on the glass and shake the aluminum powder back up so you can start again!  And I learned all of this without losing one speck of aluminum powder!  

The Etch-a-Sketch was invented by Arthur Granjean and sold to the Ohio Art company, who launched it in 1960. They promoted it though television commercials like this one:




There are hundreds of videos of people creating amazing works of art on Etch-a-Sketches, but personally I’m still happy just drawing uneven boxes.  It’s still one of the coolest toys around.  

Happy Birthday, Etch-a-Sketch!

Cook County is #1

Cook County, IL is #1…when it comes to bars, that is.  According to data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s County Business Patterns (CBP) program and the 2010 Census, Cook County, IL, where I currently reside, has the largest number of bars.  The U.S. Census Bureau defines bars as Drinking Places (Alcoholic Beverages) (their parens not mine – these are mine) and Cook County has a whopping 962 of them! A distant second is Los Angeles County, CA with 752 bars, and New York County, NY comes in third with 620 bars.   

I stumbled on this bit of fantastic trivia yesterday when I was looking around the Census Bureau website to see where my street ranked on the list of most popular street names in America.  In true government fashion, I was not able to find the street name census report, but I quickly forgot to be disappointed when I saw the interactive CBP map:

County Business and Demographics Interactive Map - US Census Bureau

We may not have the most convenience stores, electronic stores or auto repair shops, but here in Cook County we’re number one where it counts!

Nice work, Cook County!  I raise my glass to you!

Mart Cart vs. Jazzy: Which is the Better Getaway Car?

This weekend a woman in Evanston, IL decided to steal a Mart Cart from the local grocery store and take it for a joy ride.  Not surprisingly she was arrested.  But it made me wonder how hard was it to catch her?  Mart Carts can’t be that fast, can they? 

First I needed to find out what exactly Mart Carts are.  Well, it turns out they are like a cross between a scooter and a Jazzy, with a basket for collecting groceries.  These rechargeable beauties are available for shoppers to use to ride around the store. 

According to the Mart Cart website, these motorized vehicles can go 2.1 miles per hour.  In Chicago there are 8 blocks to a mile, so since Evanston borders Chicago this seemed like a good estimate to use.  Driving a Mart Cart at top speed it would take nearly four minutes to make it down the block.  Pretty catchable even if the police officer is on foot and has a severely sprained ankle.  Definitely not a great choice for a getaway vehicle.

The Jazzy is not much better.   While twice as fast as the Mart Cart at 4 miles per hour, the Jazzy would still be a weak choice for a getaway vehicle since it would still take almost 2 minutes to make it down the block. 

So aside from the obvious cars, motorcycles, and bicycles the next time I need a getaway vehicle I think I'll skip the Mart Cart and the Jazzy and go with the Bundle-47 Electric Cruzin' Cooler (available at Amazon.com).  This motorized cooler is built for function, comfort (check out that padded seat) and speed. Not only does it have top speed of 13 miles per hour, significantly improving my chances of alluding police, but it will be even harder for the police to catch me since they will likely be doubled over laughing as I zip past them on a cooler.  And if that's not enough, it will also keep my groceries fresh during my flee from the authorities.

Sorry Mart Cart.

It All Started with a Derecho

Unless you’re Tom Skilling or a huge fan of the Weather Channel, you might be thinking to yourself, “what the heck is a derecho?”  This is what I was thinking last week when I happened to catch a conversation on NPR about the derecho that caused damage in the Chicagoland area on July 1.  Derecho, which means straight in Spanish, is a severe windstorm that accompanies a long band of thunderstorms.  Rather than swirling in a circle like a tornado, a derecho travels in a straight line with wind gusts up to 100 mph.  Think of it as the Rockettes of thunderstorms.

This is not the first time that a derecho high-kicked its way through Chicago.  In fact, there was one as recently as June of 2011.  However this was the first time that I had ever heard the term derecho and I’ll admit that I was pretty excited about this new bit of knowledge.  I am a self-proclaimed lover of learning.  (I am also a self-proclaimed kick-ass parallel parker, by the way.)  I have always been interested in fun facts and obscure information, so a derecho was right up my alley and I readily shared this information with family and friends that night.

The next day I was on NPR.org (I’m a big fan of public radio) when I saw this headline from a blog by Linda Holms: “A Nerd is Not a Geek: Two Spins on Spider-Man.”  Wait, there’s a difference between nerd and geek?  Rather than reading the blog by Ms. Holms (which I did go back to read later and enjoyed) I headed to Merriam-Webster to investigate.  While I did find out the difference, I was much more excited to learn that the primary definition for a geek is “a carnival performer often billed as a wild man whose act usually includes biting the head off a live chicken or snake.”  Whoa, that’s a far cry from either “a person often of an intellectual bent who is disliked” or “an enthusiast or expert especially in a technological field or activity.”  In fact, I think it means that the Prince of Darkness, the Godfather of Heavy Metal himself, Ozzy Osbourne is a geek. Possibly the King of Geeks based on that description!  Another awesome bit of information for my mental collection.

The trifecta came the following day while I was watching Sports Center (sorry NPR, but sometimes I need to mix it up a little).  Sports Center was reporting on Joey Chestnut’s repeat victory at the annual Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest.  I don’t know if you’ve ever watched competitive eating, but it’s a little disturbing.  In fact, I was pretty sure that Joey Chestnut was going to hurl hotdog chunks all over the crowd since he appeared to be gagging every few seconds.  And really, who could blame him?  68 hotdogs in 10 minutes makes me gag a little just thinking about it.  But, thanks to the Sports Science clip I was watching I learned that he wasn’t gagging at all.  Well, not exactly anyway.  Joey Chestnut was employing the Valsalva Maneuver which increases thoracic pressure to move the food faster through the esophagus.  You know how you hold your nose and blow out your cheeks to pop your ears after a particularly pressure-filled plane ride?  We’ll you are executing the Valsalva Maneuver, and it’s named for a 17^th century Italian physician who used the maneuver to expel pus from the middle ear! 

As I relayed these facts to one of my friends, he rather disinterestedly said, “huh!  You learn something new everyday.”   While his lack of enthusiasm did little to dampen mine, his words did strike a chord.  If I learned three pretty cool, albeit random facts over the course of three days could I really learn something new everyday?

So I’m giving it a try.  Each day I am going to attempt to record something new that I learn the day before and then post my learnings here.  I should note that I am notoriously bad about doing anything on a regular basis.  It’s a miracle that I manage to brush my teeth each day, so recording a new learning every day for a year is going to be a monumental challenge.  But I hope when the 191^st day of 2013 rolls around I will have 365 new and likely useless bits of information in my fun fact repertoire.  

Here goes something…