Let’s share what we learned in June! As usual I’m linking up with Emily P. Freeman.
- If you’re considering doing some home canning this summer, you’ll be glad to know that food-borne botulism is extremely rare. “Botulism is a low-incidence/high-consequence risk, which places it with other such risks, including plane crashes and shark attacks, that occupy a near-mythic status in the public imagination and cause widespread fear despite their infrequent occurrence.” (from Saving the Season by Kevin West)
2. Passion fruit was named by Christian missionaries to South America, who used the flower to illustrate the death of Christ (e.g. the corona representing the crown of thorns).
3. Calgary will likely bid to host the 2026 Winter Olympics.
4. “October Sky” is an anagram of “Rocket Boys.” Since I love word play, I don’t know why I never knew this before!
5. Dubstep is a genre of electronic dance music that emerged in the 1990s. On the Writer Unboxed blog Barbara O’Neal explains her serendipitous discovery that listening to dubstep helps her write much faster than usual. Maybe I should try it?
6. When I stayed in a hospital for the first time this past weekend (see this post), I learned that hospitals have some wonderful staff, but I don’t know which is more frustrating, the repetitious paperwork or the interminable waiting!