Hammocking

Apparently "hammock" is now a verb. You can "go hammocking." A student came to my office with a hammock in tow, and told me she had just been hammocking. So this is when you take along a lightweight portable hammock (make of kite material, they fit in a small bag), find a couple trees, and put up your hammock to read or nap or do homework. Thanks Rachel for that one!

Mozart or Starlings?

Apparently Mozart had a pet starling who would sing while Mozart played his Piano Concerto in G Major and, as the bird listened, it would sing along and change the sharps to flats--so Mozart edited it that way--says my friend Emily P as she was reading the Temple Grandin's Animals in Translation. Fascinating stuff.

Skipping the voicemail message!

I found out from a student that if you get someone's voicemail, if you don't want to listen to the voicemail, you simply push the # button on your phone and it skips to the beep. Awesome if the message is long or you've heard it a billion times. Nice trick, eh?

Avada Kadavra

I have always thought this HP curse sounded a lot like "abracadabra," and Ed was curious about the etymology of the two to see if they are related. And they are. Avada Kadavra is from the Arabic Avda Kadvra, which means "that which is said shall be done." JK Rowling said it is also translated "That which is said shall be killed," referring to killing an illness within a person, which is why it was used as a magic spell but associated with good. JK Rowling said she likes to put her own spin on things. Gotta love that woman.

Baby Carrots

Via Amber:
Apparently there is no such thing as baby carrots. Baby carrots are nothing more than cut up regular carrots, shaved down to look like baby carrots. They are more tender because the harder outside of the carrot is shaved off. But baby carrots? Nope. More like old dismembered and polished carrots. Hmm. Never knew.

Subject/verb disagreement

One of my eager students had a question about subject/verb agreement. See if you can name what goes in the blank:

Fred is one of those boys who ________ (like, likes) to play football.

The "Maiden Mist" is one of the boats on the pier that __________ (collapse, collapses) during every storm.

One of the boys down the hall _______ (like, likes) to wear nothing but a towel in the kitchen.

Answer one: like. Answer two: that depends. Answer three: that depends.

The answers are easiest to understand if the sentence is rearranged. Sentence one: There are boys who like to play football. Fred is one of them. So you would say "Fred is one of those boys who like to play football."

However, in the second sentence, things change. We could say "During every storm a pier collapses. The "Maiden Mist" is one of the boats on that pier." If this were the case, then the sentence should read "The Maiden Mist is one of the boats on the pier that collapses during every storm." On the other hand, if we said, "During every storm a boat collapses on the pier. The Maiden Mist is one of those boats." If we meant this--the boat collapsing rather than the pier--then the sentence needs to read, "The Maiden Mist is one of the boats on the pier that collapse during every storm." EEK!

See if you can figure out the last one. Have fun.

Copyright

I knew you could copyright many things, but I did not know you could copyright a dance! My students taught me that one.

Journey

I've been singing the lyrics to "Separate Ways" by Journey wrong my entire life.

Song begins: Here we stand, worlds apart, hearts broken in two.

Me? I've been singing: Here we stand, both of our hearts broken in two.

Never knew the title was actually in the song.

DNA and life

I don't know how I didn't know this, but apparently DNA only exists in living things. Never really thought about it, since I'm not a science person. And according to Ed, life = needs water, has DNA, consumes energy, and reproduces. Viruses, then, are not alive.

Beginnings

"They" say (whoever they are) that you learn something new every day. I believe it, even if it's something as trivial as finding out that hamburger grease is a pain to clean off the stove. But I have five children, grown now, and deal with young people every day. I learn a lot from them. Sometimes I learn things I didn't want to know, like the fact that one third of college kids are on meds. Or the fact that a small town may be a safe place to live but it also means you have really bored policemen who will give you a ticket for having a nick in your windshield or parking your car across the sidewalk. Even worse, my daughter almost got a ticket for jaywalking! I thought that went out with women getting in trouble for their ankles showing. But what do I know? Well I know something new every day. If you learned something new, add your story and new knowledge here to share with us all. And keep in mind: this is something new about the stuff of life. If you are in school, well I hope you learn something new each day like what photosynthesis is or how to figure square roots. But those are things you can look up on Wikipedia. This is beyond wikipedia. This is life.