Brianne Blogs?

Here are some of the good ones from our random info calendar as of late:

1. In the 1700’s in London, you could purchase insurance against going to hell.

2. The earliest recorded case of a man giving up smoking was on April 5, 1679, when Johan Katsu, sheriff of Turki, Finland, wrote in his diary, “I quit smoking tobacco.” He died one month later.

3. The phrase “son of a gun” derives from the days when women were allowed to live on naval ships. The son of the gun was one born on the ship, oftern near the midship gun, behind a canvas screen. If the paternity was uncertain, the child was entered in the log as “son of a gun”.

So many things to ponder with this bit on info. For example, while I’m sure most of us wouldn’t buy insurance against hell, would our 1700’s counterpart feel the same way?

Also, I think it’s funny that the first guy to quit smoking died. Hardly an advertisement for the gums and patches of now. Also, while he wrote that he gave up smoking tobacco, he could certainly have still been chewing his tobacco.

The last one is so great. It’s one of those great phrases that we use that we had no idea where it came from. I mean, son of a gun means bastard and I’m afraid that most of us aren’t using it correctly. Nowadays, it seems to mean, that you are frustrated or don’t want to say son of a something else. This is good information to have.

While we were on our trip, Meghan, Maren and I went to this little bookstore where I bought three new books. When we got the cash register and the owner was checking me out, she said “you are a fabulous reader” based on my book choices. A sincere thanks to that lady for calling me a fabulous reader. The Monsters of Templeton is one of those book that elicited that comment. Here are some of the quotes I liked:

 (and, look how great the cover is.)

1. I looked like some little chick, starving, molting, kicked out of the nest for late-discovered freakishness.

2. And then there was the eentsy little promiscuity problem, the months I’d swear off boys, entirely, and then in one night have such a frenzy of flirtation that I would take one into the bathroom at the party and then take another home with me. I was not promiscuous, I think; just sexually bipolar.

3. Returning to books was coming home.

4. I will accept no bourgeios striver, no paycheck whore, no infernal attorney, editor bachelor they’re so intent on introducing me to, I will have an artist, I will be the wife of a genius, or I will be a fierce spinster, dedicated to intellect.

5. Why, I always wonder, do scientists believe that unintelligibility equals intelligence?

I loved this book. I read it in about a day and it was a great combination of things. It was a comedy, a family drama, a geneology search, a sci-fi novel, and there was more than one actual monster and more than one human monster. Good stuff!