- In 1960 a seven-year-old boy named Roger Woodward went over Niagara Falls and survived. Years later he said, “It wasn’t the hand of fate, it wasn’t the hand of luck, it wasn’t the spirit of Lelawala, it was the spirit of the living God that saved my life that day and saved my sister and gave us hope that one day we would come to know him.”
2. The oldest railway tunnel in Canada is in Brockville, Ontario; it was built between 1854 and 1860 and measures approximately 525 meters.
3. Drusilla, the wife of governor Felix mentioned in Acts 24, died at Pompeii when Vesuvius erupted.
4. Parícutin is a volcano that was born suddenly in a Mexican cornfield in 1943. This book (complete text available online) gives a vivid description.
5. South Korea has the highest rate of plastic surgery in the world with something like 30 to 50% of women aged 19 to 29 having undergone a procedure.
6. The Scandinavian countries are Sweden, Norway, and Denmark, while Nordic countries (and territories) include Scandinavia plus Finland, Iceland, Greenland, the Faroe Islands, and the Åland Islands.
7. I learned some Irish vocabulary from this 2026 novel: a boreen is a narrow unpaved lane and a haggard is an enclosed farmyard for storing hay or grain.
8. It has become painfully clear that I need to vet books more carefully before I add them to my TBR list for the year. I plan to order a stack from the library and skim them before I finalize my list for 2027.
9. “How far back in time can you understand English?” is a clever way to show how the English language changed over the centuries. (At 1200 it becomes nearly impossible to decipher due to changes in both vocabulary and grammar.)
Wonderful information this month as usual! I learned that for less sweet muffins the best ratio of flour to sugar is 2 to 1 by weight. (Use when adapting a too-sweet American muffin recipe.)
I really appreciate this tip! I need to compare it to my recipes since I don’t usually use the scale for muffins (but I love to use it as often as possible!).