The Ancient Chinese mounted polished brass on the outside of their doors, in the hope that evil spirits would frighten themselves away.
Source: Reader’s Digest Everyday Life Through the Ages
Dead Giveaway
For most of history, false teeth were a luxury afforded only by the wealthy. In the decade after 1815, implanted teeth recovered from dead soldiers on the battlefield were called “Waterloo teeth.”
Source: Terrors of the table by Walter Gratzer
I’ll Just Pick
Seventeenth century French Cardinal Richelieu was so annoyed by dinner guests picking their teeth with their knives while sitting at the table that he ordered all his household’s knives to be ground to rounded ends.
Source: Reader’s Digest Everyday Life Through the Ages
New Books Coming Soon!
I just signed a contract for a new non-fiction book and have four middle grade series fiction books to be published in 2012. Will let you know when I am able to say more!
Let Sleeping Cats Lie
According to legend, the prophet Muhammad was so fond of his cat that once when the cat fell asleep on his robe, the prophet cut away his own sleeve so as not to disturb the sleeping cat.
Thanksgiving Bugs and Ballin’
Asian Dead-leaf Mantis
I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We were in DC, visiting my brother’s family. On Wednesday afternoon I snuck away to the Natural History Museum and made a beeline (sorry) for the Orkin Insect Zoo.
They have an amazing collection of live insects and other arthropods, as well as some beautiful preserved specimens. One of the highlights, for me, was seeing the colonies of honeypot ants (Myrmecocystus mimicus), who send out workers to forage for nectar. The foragers then barf what they collected into the mouths of other workers, called “repletes.” The globularly-shaped repletes have to hang there, engorged with honey, acting as honey dispensers for any colony member that happens to be hungry later on.
Not a great shot--but honeypot ants in action.
I also happened to get there just in time for the tarantula feeding. The front row was mostly fascinated little kids and me, with their parents chatting in the back row. Being three times bigger than most of the spectators, I got myself a good spot in front with one or two well-placed elbows.
Even though she has eight pairs of eyes, the tarantula doesn’t see all that well. She senses the live cricket by motion and air current. She grabs it in her pincers, called palps, and regurgitates stomach acid onto it. Once it’s nicely liquefied, she slurps up her cricket smoothie.
Another highlight of our trip was a big basketball game at George Washington University, organized by Senator Mark Warner (my brother is his Chief of Staff). My husband and son played with the senator, as well as a bunch of other DC luminaries and former NBA players. I didn’t want to be too obvious, but I managed to snap a few pictures.
Secretary of Education Arne Duncan
Former NBA player Tom McMillan chatting with a secret service guy
My son, on the right, getting D'd up by Senator Warner.
Wasn’t that a Dainty Thing
Sing a Song of Sixpence may have originated in the early 1700s as a coded message, used by pirates to recruit new crew members. Blackbeard’s ship promised crewmembers sixpence a day (good money back then) and a daily ration of a pocket (leather bag) full of rye whiskey, which held about a liter.
Source: Snopes.com
Clean and Somber
Queen Elizabeth I declared that she took a bath once a month, whether she needed to or not.
Signs of the Times
photo by Richard Croft www.creativecommons.org
From as early as the fourteenth century, laws were passed forbidding shopkeepers in many European cities (notably Paris and London) to call out their wares. So to attract customers (many of whom could not read), shopkeepers put up huge shop signs. A tooth puller was represented by a tooth the size of an armchair; a glove maker a glove the size of a full-grown man.
These shop signs persisted for many more centuries. Even today, barber shops are still represented by the red and white striped poles, which hearkens back to barber-surgeons, who could provide services from shaving to pulling teeth to removing kidney stones to amputating arms and legs. The red and white stripes represent the blood and bandages from surgery.
Series: National Child Labor Committee Photographs taken by Lewis Hine, ca. 1912 National Archives
Stop and Go
The first traffic light was installed at a busy London intersection in 1868. It was a revolving lantern with green and red lights, illuminated by gas and operated by a hand-held lever at its base. In 1869 it exploded, injuring the officer that was operating it.