Sara sans "h"

1. Graduation robes were originally designed to keep people warm in the cold halls where commencement usually commenced. They are now a fashion statement meant to separate new graduates based on how well they can stand sitting in 100 degree weather while wearing stifling black clothing in the sun. *
2. It is possible  for me to wine 1st place in a race on Mario Kart if no one can see the screen and I am riding a bike that looks like an adorable ducky.
3. Snapple fact #480: You can tell which day a loaf of bread was baked by the color of its plastic twist tag.
4. This day in history: Helen Keller was named a communist by the FBI 1949. 
5. Knox has an award simply called "Outstanding Senior Award." **
6. Knox College has only had 19 presidents since its founding in 1837.
7. Some buffets have started to say they are "All You Care To Eat" buffets rather than "All You Can Eat." I think this is a very positive, if minuscule, step in the right direction.

If you can't tell, it was a very Knox-y weekend.

* I learned this while attending Knox College's 166 graduation ceremony from both the program (origin of the robes) and some of the graduates (they were very uncomfortable with the heat).
**One of my friends got it this year, because he really is outstanding.

1. When sending resumes and cover letters via e-mail it is best to send them both as an attachment with a short and sweet message in the e-mail itself.  (applying for jobs is hard)
2. I can make up my own recipes rather than just using someone else's. I made tequila-jalapeno baked tilapia for fish tacos. It turned out pretty well. I am a culinary genius.
3. Google Chrome's spell check doesn't recognize tilapia as being properly spelled. I actually second-guessed myself and googled it to make sure it was correct (it is.)
4. Before a new doge of Venice could be selected he had to be presented to the public accompanying the phrase "This is your doge, if it pleases you" despite the fact that the new doge was selected by an exclusive group mostly comprised of noble families. The things you learn from Assassin's Creed 2.
5. Snapple Fact #21: Almonds are part of the peach family.
6. Cardigan Welsh Corgis have tales, whereas Pembroke Welsh Corgis do not. 
7. Stanford had a list of classes recommended for athletes to "accommodate their demanding schedules." Translation: they actually distributed a list of easy classes to boost athletes' GPAs. Respect points lost: 50. 

1. Katzenjammer is the technical term for the "discomfort and illness experienced as the aftereffects of excessive drinking." (hint: that is a hangover)
2. Monmouth College's slogan is "what college was meant to be." 
3. The boiling point of mercury is 629.88 K, 356.73 °C, or 674.11 °F.
4. I learned how to make eggs in a basket. After one terribly failed attempt that Andrew ate, the second one was quite nice.
5. 30% of employers give MLK day off.
6. Snapple fact #673: turtles can't reproduce until they are 25 years old.
7. My sorority got four awesome new girls in recruitment. Go AlphaSig! 
Bonus learny thing: being in a sorority is just as much fun when you don't have to do the work for recruitment and can just be proud of the sisters and their accomplishments. 

I don't have consistent internet access, as Knox has let out for winter break and that is normally where I go for internet. But between that, holidays, moving/not really moving yet (but will be soon!), visiting the boy (and meeting his parents in Washington DC), and lots and lots of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, it is safe to say that I haven't exactly been a reliable blogger. Though, when have I ever really been that consistent with stuff like this? You should see the diaries I have started, the knitting projects left un-knitted, and the NaNoWriMo novel I got 400 words into before I realized that I had to study for the GRE for the first week-and-a-half of November. 


Anyway, without further adieu: 
Seven Things I Learned This Week:
1. Philadelphia is the fourth largest city in the United States. 
2. Jon Stewart was born Jonathan Stuart Leibowitz.
3. Don Henley was inspired to write the song Witchy Woman while he had a high fever and was reading a book about Zelda Fitzgerald.
4. Snapple fact #658: New York City is made up of 50 islands.
5. Joe Louis used to drink cow blood fresh from slaughterhouses right before big boxing matches.
6. Zorillas are the smelliest animals in the world.
7. George Washington University has a "J" street in their student union, thus making up for the fact that Washington D.C. does not have a "J" Street. Sesame Street would be proud. 


Bonus Fact: Otters are very sensitive about their fluff bedding and where it goes. I personally saw some of them fight over where to put it in their habitat at the National Zoo. 


Tada! Learny things! Isn't it wonderful?

1. Rod Stewart had a daughter (more, his girlfriend at the time did) he (and she) put up for adoption when he was 18. 
2. Rod Stewart is now preparing for another child at age 65.
3. There has never been a panda born in the United States. The Atlanta Zoo is preparing for the first.
4. Myanmar has adopted a new flag. 
5. 85% of women who received the birds and the bees talk from their mother or grandmother wishes they had received said talk from their father.
6. Related: Over half of the women in a study that had the same talk with their fathers were likely to have had less sexual partners, have waited longer to lose their virginity, and were significantly less likely to have a marriage end in divorce.
7. The most common name in the world is Mohammed.


#9 (#9...#9...Yes, I have waited to do that Beatles joke for nine weeks.)
8/1. The 57 on Heinz ketchup bottles represents the number of varieties of pickles the company once had.
9/2.The first known contraceptive was crocodile dung, used by Egyptians in 2000 B.C.
10/3. Snapple fact #35: Elephants only sleep two hours a day.
11/4. Snapple fact #300 Pennsylvania is misspelled on the Liberty Bell.
12/5. The fist product to have a bar code was Wrigleys gum.
13/6. Lip impressions are like fingerprints: no two are the same.
14/7. The unofficial mascot of George Washington University is the hippo. I kind of sort of really want to be a hippo.

1. You are more likely to hit a deer while driving in West Virginia than in any other state.
2. It took Germany a full 92 years to pay off the reparations from World War I, which they just paid off last week.
3. Snapple Fact #855: Vultures can fly for six hours without flapping their wings.
4. Canada celebrates their Thanksgiving Day on Columbus Day.
5. Jackie Kennedy did her Under-grad at George Washington University.
6. Harry Reid, the Senate Majority leader and senior Senator from Nevada, went to George Washington University for law school (can you tell I'm researching grad school?)
7. Norway is ranked as the most developed country in the world by the United Nations.

1. Apparently, if female frogs are pregnant, you can squeeze the eggs out of them if you want to. (there was more to this one, but Sam was explaining it really late last night and there was a train going by so I couldn't really hear him. But what I did hear was very interesting (read: gross))
2. Snapple Fact #772: Male moose shed their antlers every winter and grow a new pair the next year.
3. Today is the 20 year anniversary of Germany becoming a fully united state for the first time since World War 2. I knew this one before, but I think it is super cool.
4. There is contention regarding which river is the world's shortest: the D River in Oregon or the Roe River in Montana. Apparently the D River changes with the tide and can be measured at different lengths throughout the year, but at its shortest it is 120 feet long. The Roe River is consistently 200 feet long.
5. The woman that currently holds the record for the world's largest breasts (cup size M) might lose her title because her last breast implant surgery gave her a staff infection and she had to have the implants removed. She's getting them put back in ASAP, though, so she can keep her title.
6. The cartoon show Inspector Gadget only ran for 2 seasons. It felt like way more.
7. Ginko trees are on the endangered species list.
BONUS! Frontierville is a very addictive facebook game. I can't stop playing.

1. 1 in 4 senior citizens use social networking sites specifically to hook up with other senior citizens. I didn't realize that 1 in 4 seniors knew how to use social networking sites.
2. You will spend 6 months of your life stopped at red lights.
3. Only one cast member from Gilligan's island gets residual payments for every episode aired. Dawn Wells (Mary Ann) had the only agent that actually read the section of the contract saying that actors were to receive compensation for only the first four airing of any episode.
4. Snapple fact #867: Franklin Roosevelt was related to 5 U.S. presidents by blood and 6 by marriage.
5. The average bagel actually has 50-100% more calories than a standard glazed donut.
6. Locusts are actually a species of grasshopper.
7. No one crossed the Atlantic in an open-air, wicker-basket hot air balloon until 2003.

1. Darth Vader needs to switch to Gmail, if only for the spam control. (hint: click the link. It doesn't work if you don't click the link)
2. If you play the game Diplomacy and France decides to just let you take over her territories so she can go play Zelda, make sure she doesn't write "France does whatever Germany says" as her military orders. it's a good way to turn Russia, Great Britain (your boyfriend with whom you were going to share France with anyway), and Austria-Hungary against you.
3. There are two Bronze Turkeys (the travelling trophy up for grabs in the Turkey Bowl between Knox College and Monmouth College every year): the original one from the late 1800s and a replica because the old one has not aged gracefully over the years.
4. If there is radiation or a nuclear attack, I can go to my friendly neighboorhood post office for access to a fallout shelter.
5. Snapple fact #855: Oregon has more ghost towns than any other state.
6. September 11 is an actual national holiday called "Patriot Day." There is a designated moment of silence at 8:46 A.M. to commemorate the victims who lost their lives in the terrorist attacks.
7. There is also a holiday in the spring called "Patriots' Day" to commemorate the first anniversary of the Revolutionary War. It was on this holiday that the Oklahoma City Bombing happened.