Ten Butterflies

 

It began with a suggestion from a local newspaper: the children of Salt Lake could pool their money and buy an elephant from a passing circus for the small zoo inside Liberty Park. At the time, the most exotic exhibit in the park was the monkey enclosure. $3,250 in donations were gathered, and Princess Alice – along with her longtime handler – left the circus life. Her enclosure was rather small, but she was occasionally let out to help with landscaping or road work, and from time to time she took “field trips” to local schools. Princess Alice, not content with her sanctioned outings, frequently went on walkabout on her own, helping herself to produce from neighboring gardens and pilfering laundry that was hung out to dry. It was these excursions that prompted the zoo to move from Liberty Park to its current location on land donated by the Hogle family. Princess Alice died in 1953 at the presumed age of sixty-nine. 

Dutchman's Puzzle

 

When Judith Love Cohen was in school, she showed an affinity for math and science. Her high school guidance counselor advised her to go to a nice finishing school, but she continued studying math in college – while dancing with the New York Metropolitan Opera Ballet Company. At 21, Judith moved to California to work as a junior engineer with North American Aviation. She took night classes to complete a master's degree at USC Viterbi School of Engineering. Later, she worked for NASA. Judith was there August 28, 1969, when she went into labor. She left for the hospital with a computer printout of the problem she was trouble-shooting – the key to the Abort-Guidance System which would enable the Apollo 13 crew to return safely the following April. Later, Judith called her boss to say she’d sorted the problem, and had given birth to a baby boy. Judith named the baby Thomas Jacob, but you know him as Jack Black.

Half Dozen Milky Ways

 

I met a traveler from an antique land,

Who said - “Two vast and trunkless legs of stone

Stand in the desert . . . Near them, on the sand,

Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,

And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,

Tell that its sculptor well those passions read

Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,

The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;

And on the pedestal, these words appear:

My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;

Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!

Nothing beside remains. Round the decay

Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare

The lone and level sands stretch far away.” – Percy Bysshe Shelley

Propeller

 

“President Russell M. Nelson pled with us in these words: ‘None of us can control nations or the actions of others or even members of our own families. But we can control ourselves. My call today, dear brothers and sisters, is to end conflicts that are raging in your heart, your home, and your life. Bury any and all inclinations to hurt others—whether those inclinations be a temper, a sharp tongue, or a resentment for someone who has hurt you. The Savior commanded us to turn the other cheek, to love our enemies, and to pray for those who despitefully use us.’ I say again that it is only in and through our individual loyalty to and love of Jesus Christ that we can hope to be one—one within, one at home, one in the Church, eventually one in Zion, and above all, one with the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost.” – Elder D. Todd Christofferson

Alabama

 

At the Y-intersection between Nevada state routes 86 and 85, a small town sprang up. The residents chose the name “Y,” but state law required a minimum of three letters. So, the town is “Why.” Residents of a community in North Carolina couldn’t agree on a name. One frustrated man said, “Why not name the place ‘Whynot’ and go home?” And they did. There’s a town in Oregon called “Boring,” but not because it’s tedious. It’s named for an early settler: William Harrison Boring. No one’s sure how Nameless, Tennessee got its name, but some people think it’s because when residents applied for a post office, the name on the form was accidentally left blank. In 1950, Hot Springs, New Mexico changed its name to “Truth or Consequences” to win a radio show contest. Rough and Ready, California was given President Zachary Taylor’s nickname. At one time, California had three communities called “Rough and Ready.”

Churn Dash

 

It’s amazing what stuff can keep you awake at night. Here’s my current list:

All mammals have the same number of neck bones. Consider this next time you’re watching giraffes at the zoo.

Most clouds look soft, fluffy and LIGHT as they casually drift by over your head. But the average cloud weighs over a million pounds.

Those “dashed” white lines separating highway lanes are about ten feet long. The spaces between them are thirty feet. I wouldn’t recommend taking out a measuring tape to check this.

Mosquitoes can smell your blood type. They're twice as likely to go for Type O than, say, Type A.

Peaches and nectarines are actually the same fruit. The gene keeping nectarines from getting fuzzy is recessive.

You’re ten times more likely to be bitten by a New Yorker than by a shark. I’m not sure if this is because you’re more likely to find yourself in New York than in the ocean.

Four Milky Way Blocks

 

Everything I knew about goldfish came from Tom and Jerry, Figaro and Cleo, Sylvester the Cat, and a 1961 children’s book called “A Fish Out of Water.” I shouldn’t have been surprised to learn nearly everything I knew was wrong. Cartoons always show goldfish in simple glass bowls scarcely larger than themselves; without filtration, aeration, or temperature controls. In real life, goldfish should be kept in the largest habitat available – at least 10 to 20 gallons PER FISH. Improving the environment can let goldfish to grow to 8 or 10 inches and live 10 to 20 years. (The largest goldfish on record weighed 67 pounds, and the oldest was 100!) The children’s book held the only correct information: you should never feed your goldfish too much. They always seem eager to eat, but it’s easy to overfeed them. Give them a tiny bit at the same time every day. You’ll find (here’s another shocker) fish actually do remember.