What I Learned in June

Most months I try to link up with Emily Freeman at Chatting at the Sky for the what I learned this month post... but she is taking a break for the summer. However, I have really become cognizant of things that I'm learning, and thought I'd go ahead and share.  It amazes me how I have started seeking out learning opportunities. So, here you go... what I learned in June.

1. The first video to play on MTV was Video Killed the Radio Star. Kind of ironic, don't you think? Rod Stewart was the first artist to have two videos played in one day.  And Michael Jackson's Thriller Video was 14 minutes long. 
And is it just me, but does that singer sound just a little like a souped up Kermit the Frog in the beginning of that song?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8h5OEivJdA

And just so you know, I researched this after an extensive conversation between Wallace and I on the way home from Louisville.  I'm not sure how the topic came up, but Iphones are awesome.  And if I learned it on the internet, it has to be true, right?

2. The Cheesecake Factory doesn't open until 1130 during the week.  I may have cried, just a little.

3. Thanksgiving truly was not recognized as a national holiday with the Pilgrims.  In fact, it wasn't until the Civil War and Abraham Lincoln that Thanksgiving became a day set aside for national thanks.  And because that probably seems totally crazy for me to be thinking about Thanksgiving... I was reading Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker and it talked about the holiday, and then I looked it up to learn more, because I knew I'd be writing about what I learned this month... and also, pie is in season anytime, even if pumpkins aren't.

4.My Grandpa used to call us kaddidlehopper all of the time when I was little.  To my amazement, this wasn't just a term he made up.  There was a character, Clem Kadiddlehopper, on Red Skeleton.  Chances are, my Grandpa was familiar with that character.  Check out this clip of Kadiddlehopper.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4F-jeIdQwKY

I learned this when reading about Red Skeleton in The Ones Who Hit the Hardest, about the Pittsburgh Steelers. Again, I don't remember how the two went together, but when I read kaddidlehopper I had to keep looking, because that word has been so much a part of my childhood.

5. The terrible towel is a legend in Pittsburgh.  I have one hanging in my office at work.  The terrible towel was created as a marketing scheme by Myron Cope, who initially informed his boss that he didn't do marketing, and then changed his tune when his boss suggested that he might be fired otherwise.  The line Myron Cope used to encourage Steelers fans to bring a terrible towel to a game... get a yellow dish towel. "If you don't own one, buy one. If you don't want to buy one, dye one."  The terrible towel I have now has printed on it "The Official Myron Cope Terrible Towel." I've seen pictures of babies in Pittsburgh swaddled in these in the hospital.  Sometimes I wish Caleb was born in Pittsburgh for just that reason.

6. Electronic Monopoly- yes, there is such a thing, where players use an ATM card instead of paper money.  That seems Un-American to me, yet is completely a sign of our times.  I was amazed when Caleb enlightened me.

7.  Kentucky law about bathing once a year- yes, we really have a law that says this.  I am appalled. 

8. The Wright Brothers are buried in Dayton, Ohio, in Woodland Cemetery, as is my Great-Aunt Virginia and Great-Uncle Paul.  A truly beautiful cemetery with some fabulous looking grave markers.  And no, I'm not strange, I promise.  I've just always loved to visit old cemeteries, look at the tombstones, and reflect on what those lives might have been.  OK, maybe just a LITTLE weird.

9. I may have known this, but I forgot it.  Casey Kasem was the voice of Shaggy on Scooby Doo. 

10. An octopus doesn't have eight legs- it has eight appendages, and six of those are now classified by marine biologists as "arms". What?  (See, buzzfeed is good for something!)

11. Sometimes, it really is nice to just rest.  I've enjoyed this month of family, reading, relaxing, swimming.  Wallace and I said this was going to be our best summer ever... and a month into it, I'm pretty sure that so far it is.

Be blessed!