Franz Joseph Haydn was a prolific composer and musical prankster. If you know just one of his more than 100 symphonies, it's likely to be No. 94, the "Surprise" symphony, with soothing music punctuated by loud bursts to wake drowsy audiences. His quartet in E-flat major, Op. 33 No. 2, the "Joke," is filled with extended pauses intended to trick the audience into applauding before the end. And then there's his Symphony No. 47 in G major, known as the "Palindrome" because the music of the third movement is the same played forward or backward.
No athlete has dabbled in fashion design more memorably than three-time Olympic gold medalist Florence Griffith Joyner, as renowned for her glamorous style as she was for her achievements on the track. (What other sprinter would crush her competition to dust while wearing a one-legged bodysuit?) When she designed uniforms for the NBA Indiana Pacers, there was no doubt they'd make a statement. The team wore her V-neck jersey and long shorts with stacked triangles design from 1990 to 1997. Some fans still hope the "Flo-Jo" uniforms will make a comeback.
As you can guess from their name, sea snakes live in saltwater environments. Yet they need fresh water to drink if they hope to survive. So, they wait for rainy days, when rainwater pools on the surface of the sea, and they drink their fill. Then they slowly dehydrate and remain that way until the rain falls again.
The puckery sensation you have when drinking tea or red wine is caused by tannins — natural chemicals that act as preservatives and pesticides in growing plants. They bind with proteins in your saliva to make your mouth go dry. Grapes are loaded with tannins, as are pomegranates and some nuts and spices. Oak contains tannins as well, which is one reason wine is stored in oak barrels.
Guam's Apra Harbor is the only place in the world where shipwrecks from World War I and World War II lie side by side on the sea floor. The first is the SMS Cormoran II, a German cruiser that had been in Guam for more than two years before the United States officially entered World War I. Rather than surrender his ship to the Americans, as circumstances demanded, the German captain chose to scuttle it on April 7, 1917. A little more than 25 years later, on August 27, 1943, the Japanese freighter Tokai Maru was torpedoed and sunk by the U.S. submarine Snapper, so close to the wreck of the Cormoran that the two are touching.
The big, beautiful, fragrant peony flowers in your garden likely have roots that reach all the way back to the ancient imperial city of Luoyang in China's Henan Province. Luoyang has been known for its peonies since the days of the powerful empress Wu Zetian, who ruled from A.D. 690 to 705. Today, it's home to the Luoyang National Peony Garden, with more than a million peony trees of some 1,200 varieties, including one that's estimated to be 1,600 years old.
TRIVIA
1. Qaanaaq (a geographical palindrome) is the northernmost town in what place?
A) Alaska
B) Canada
C) Greenland
D) Russia
2. Menswear designer Alexander Julian incorporated what pattern into the University of North Carolina men's basketball uniforms in the 1990s?
A) Argyle
B) Chevron
C) Houndstooth
D) Zebra stripes
3. What did poet Carl Sandburg say "comes on little cat feet"?
A) Dew
B) Fog
C) Rain
D) Snow
4. The Charter Oak is depicted on the reverse side of which U.S. state quarter, issued in 1999?
A) Alabama
B) Connecticut
C) Delaware
D) Massachusetts
5. NUMA, the National Underwater and Marine Agency, is a nonprofit maritime heritage preservation organization founded by what author?
A) Rick Campbell
B) Tom Clancy
C) Clive Cussler
D) Frederick Forsyth
6. Last month, the government of China's Sichuan province announced plans for a national park twice the size of Yellowstone devoted to protecting what?
A) Buddhist temples and sacred sites
B) Dolphins
C) Giant pandas
D) Xishuangbanna tropical rainforest
ANSWERS
1) Qaanaaq is the northernmost town in Greenland.
2) Menswear designer Alexander Julian incorporated argyle into the University of North Carolina men's basketball uniforms in the 1990s.
3) Poet Carl Sandburg said the fog "comes on little cat feet" in his poem "Fog."
4) The Charter Oak is depicted on the reverse side of the Connecticut U.S. state quarter, issued in 1999.
5) NUMA, the National Underwater and Marine Agency, is a nonprofit maritime heritage preservation organization founded by Clive Cussler.
6) The government of China's Sichuan province announced plans for the Giant Panda National Park, expected to be twice the size of Yellowstone.
WEEK OF APRIL 9
The word subaru in Japanese means "to unite" or "to cluster." It's also the Japanese name for the constellation we know as the Pleiades, or the "Seven Sisters." That's the meaning behind the famous six-star logo of Subaru, the automobile manufacturer. Why six stars instead of seven? Because only six of the stars in the constellation are readily visible to the naked eye. Most sky watchers, if they're patient, will eventually detect seven. Trained observers have counted dozens of stars in the cluster.
Back in 1906, when Tom Kelly decided to build himself a home in the gold mining town of Rhyolite, Nevada, building materials were hard to come by, but whiskey and beer bottles were readily available. So Kelly mortared tens of thousands of them together with adobe to make his house. By 1916, Rhyolite's gold boom was over, the town was abandoned and the "bottle house" left to languish. Paramount Pictures restored it in the 1920s during the filming of "The Air Mail." Billie Dove, the movie's star, lived in it during filming.
The Gillingham-Stillman Method, devised in the 1930s, is still used to teach kids to read — especially kids with dyslexia. The multisensory approach, which is particularly effective for new readers who have trouble recognizing words by sight alone, was developed by Anna Gillingham, an educational psychologist, and Bessie Stillman, a teacher whose own dyslexia had made it hard for her to learn to read. Because their work was influenced by that of neurologist Samuel Orton, it's sometimes called the Orton-Gillingham-Stillman Method.
Tyrian purple, named for the ancient city of Tyre, has been a "royal" color since it was used to dye the robes of Phoenician rulers in the 13th century B.C. Producing it was labor-intensive and anything but glamorous. It came from the mucus of murex snails, who were poked until they spewed it out. Or, to save time, the snails simply were crushed to a smelly ooze. Thousands of snails were required to produce enough dye for a single garment.
ChristChurch Transitional Cathedral in Christchurch, New Zealand, is affectionately known as the "cardboard cathedral" because it is, in part, built from cardboard. Designed by Japanese architect Shigeru Ban, it's a temporary replacement for the city's 19th-century cathedral, which was destroyed by an earthquake in 2011. Eight shipping containers form the building's base, massive cardboard tubes support its peaked roof and inside there's seating for 700 parishioners. It's built to last for 50 years; time enough for the old cathedral to be restored.
The National Coffee Association's annual coffee drinking trends report for 2017 says that 62 percent of Americans drink coffee on a daily basis. That includes 37 percent of people aged 13 to 18, who seem to be especially fond of espresso, cold-brew and blended coffee drinks.
TRIVIA
1. In Greek mythology, the Pleiades were the seven daughters of what titan?
A) Atlas
B) Helios
C) Prometheus
D) Selene
2. The 1999 single "Genie in a Bottle" was the first No. 1 hit for what artist?
A) Christina Aguilera
B) Bruno Mars
C) Rihanna
D) Britney Spears
3. Which of these was not a real-life railroad?
A) B&O
B) Pennsylvania
C) Reading
D) Short Line
4. Digitalis, made from the purple foxglove plant, is a medication mainly used to treat conditions related to what?
A) Eyes
B) Heart
C) Liver
D) Skin
5. From 1880 to 1884, the world's tallest building was the cathedral in what city?
A) Chartres, France
B) Cologne, Germany
C) Salzburg, Austria
D) Siena, Italy
6. Napoleon's Continental Blockade made it nearly impossible to buy coffee in France, so people drank a beverage made from what root instead?
A) Cassava
B) Celery
C) Chicory
D) Jicama
ANSWERS
1) In Greek mythology, the Pleiades were the seven daughters of Atlas.
2) The 1999 single "Genie in a Bottle" was the first No. 1 hit for Christina Aguilera.
3) The Short Line railroad from Monopoly wasn't a real railroad. B&O, Pennsylvania and Reading were railroads that served the mid-Atlantic states and beyond.
4) Digitalis, made from the purple foxglove plant, is a medication mainly used to treat conditions related to the heart.
5) At its completion in 1880, the cathedral in Cologne, Germany, was the world's tallest building. It was surpassed in 1884 by the Washington Monument.
6) Chicory coffee became a popular substitute for coffee during Napoleon's Continental Blockade of the early 1800s.
WEEK OF APRIL 16
The German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer didn't much care for people in general and women in particular. He was, however, a great fan of poodles and owned several of them throughout his adult life — all males, all named Atma (from the Sanskrit word for soul).
There are no species of bear native to Africa or Antarctica, lots that are native to North America, Europe and Asia, and just one surviving species native to South America. That would be the endangered spectacled bear (Tremarctos ornatus), also known as the Andean bear. Recognizable by patches of light colored facial fur, which make them look like they're wearing eyeglasses, these bears live in high forests and grasslands around the Andes Mountains, including the protected land around the ancient sacred site of Machu Picchu in Peru.
On Oct. 1, 1962, the first episode of "The Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson" featured Tony Bennett performing his new hit song, "I Left My Heart in San Francisco." The song has been Bennett's signature tune ever since. It was added to the National Recording Registry of "sound heritage" at the Library of Congress in 2017. That collection ranges from spoken-word recordings of Booker T. Washington and Vin Scully to music by Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys, Lovey's Trinidad String Band, and Gloria Estefan and the Miami Sound Machine.
Borneo is the third-largest island by area on earth, after Greenland and New Guinea. It's big enough to be part of three different countries. The southern portion of the island is part of Indonesia. Most of the north — about one-third of the island — is part of Malaysia, except for the 2,200 square miles that comprise the independent monarchy of Brunei Darussalam, "the abode of peace."
Georgia O'Keeffe is known for her paintings of the American southwest and she spent the last 40-plus years of her life at her home and studio in Abiquiu, New Mexico. Before that, she lived in New York City and traveled extensively, including a nine-week visit to Hawaii in 1939 to produce two paintings to be used in ads for Dole pineapple. Those two paintings: "Crab's Claw Ginger, Hawaii" and "Pineapple Bud" are now in private collections.
Louise Bennett-Coverley (1919-2006) holds a special place among the leading lights of Jamaica's literary heritage. A highly regarded poet with an international reputation, she wrote in patois: colloquial spoken language rarely put into written form, let alone into formal poetry. Her work is all the more moving and evocative because of its authenticity. While the many honors she received during her lifetime mean she would have been properly addressed as the Right Honorable Dr. Louise Bennett-Coverley, she'll always be known to Jamaicans as Miss Lou.
TRIVIA
1. The "Bruces' Philosophers Song" was the work of what comedy troupe?
A) Firesign Theatre
B) The Kids in the Hall
C) Monty Python
D) SCTV
2. Peru's Yanacocha mine is among the world's top-10 producers of what ore?
A) Copper
B) Gold
C) Nickel
D) Uranium
3. In the 1940s, Duke of Iron, Lord Invader and Macbeth the Great were men with what occupation?
A) Calypso singers
B) Circus performers
C) Professional wrestlers
D) Spies
4. The eastern half of New Guinea is the independent nation of Papua New Guinea; the western half is a province of what country?
A) Australia
B) China
C) Indonesia
D) Malaysia
5. In 1934, Georgia O'Keeffe was commissioned to paint (but did not complete) a mural for the ladies' room in what prominent building?
A) Art Institute of Chicago
B) Ford's Theatre
C) New Mexico State Capitol
D) Radio City Music Hall
6. The Rastafarian observance of Grounation Day on April 21, celebrates what man's visit to Jamaica in 1966?
A) Steve Biko
B) Marcus Garvey
C) Martin Luther King Jr.
D) Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia
ANSWERS
1) The "Bruces' Philosophers Song" was the work of Monty Python.
2) Peru's Yanacocha mine is among the world's top producing gold mines.
3) Cecil Anderson, Rupert Grant and Patrick MacDonald, aka Duke of Iron, Lord Invader and Macbeth the Great, were calypso singers of the 1940s.
4) The eastern half of New Guinea is the independent nation of Papua New Guinea; the western half is a province of Indonesia.
5) In 1934, Georgia O'Keeffe was commissioned to paint (but did not complete) a mural for the ladies' room of Radio City Music Hall in New York City.
6) The Rastafarian observance of Grounation Day on April 21, celebrates Emperor Haile Selassie's visit to Jamaica in 1966.
WEEK OF APRIL 23
When she wasn't drawing Peter Rabbit, Jemima Puddle-Duck and her other beloved storybook characters, Beatrix Potter was drawing fungi and beetles. Her lifelong devotion to nature studies (she was a great fan of mushrooms) is one reason that her illustrations, while inevitably charming, are also quite accurate. True, ducks don't wear bonnets and shawls in the wild. On the other hand, it's said that when her publisher balked at the colors in her drawing of a frog, Potter brought the real thing to his office to prove her depiction was correct.
Few people have packed as much into one brief lifetime as John S. Rock. Born in 1825, he became a dentist after he was denied admission to medical school because of his race. Eventually, he graduated from medical school as well, and practiced both medicine and dentistry. Then he studied law, passed the bar in 1861 and worked for abolitionist causes throughout the Civil War. On Feb. 1, 1865, the day after Congress passed the 13th Amendment, John S. Rock became the first African-American admitted to argue a case before the U.S. Supreme Court. He died the following year, at age 41.
Definitely not for the faint-hearted: The world's longest pedestrian suspension bridge is the Europaweg Skywalk, spanning 1,621 feet across the Grabengufer ravine in the Pennine Alps of Switzerland. Situated at 7,218 feet above sea level, at its highest point, the bridge is 282 feet above the ground — about the same height as a 28-story building. Should you decide to traverse it, as many hikers have done since it opened in July 2017, you'll be walking single-file and, because the bridge is just 25.6 inches wide, you'll have to turn sideways to make way for oncoming pedestrians.
Oysters aren't the only mollusks that produce pearls. Clams and mussels make them, too. The queen conch produces natural pearls in shades of pink and yellow. Abalone produces turquoise, green, rose and cream pearls. Cracking open an oyster to eat and finding a pearl within is a happy fantasy, but it's not likely to happen. Pearl oysters are not the same as the oysters we eat.
Competitive bridge players strive to accumulate masterpoints, the markers of success earned by playing and winning at sanctioned tournaments. If a player racks up enough, he or she can attain the ranking of Life Master from the American Contract Bridge League. It's a goal that has been achieved by quite a few men and women — and by one comic strip dog. In 1997, the ACBL named Snoopy an honorary Life Master. He played a lot of bridge in the funny pages, and his creator, Charles M. Schulz, played a lot of bridge in real life.
A vug is a cavity that forms naturally inside a rock as the result of geological activity such as gasses being trapped when lava cools. Crystals will grow inside that space — quartz, beryl, topaz and agate among them — creating spectacular formations within the rock. Gemologists and amateur rockhounds are always on the lookout for vuggy rock.
TRIVIA
1. In Egyptian mythology, frog-headed Heqet was the goddess of what?
A) Fertility and childbirth
B) Fire
C) Music
D) Night
2. Which of these was a segment of "Schoolhouse Rock"?
A) "One Is the Loneliest Number"
B) "Two of Hearts"
C) "Five, Six, Pick-up Sticks"
D) "Naughty Number Nine"
3. Arthur Conan Doyle's story "The Final Problem" involves a fight to the death at what location?
A) Barengraben in Bern
B) Lake Geneva
C) Reichenbach Falls
D) Wildegg Castle
4. In which location would you use an Oyster Card to pay fares on trains and buses?
A) Hong Kong
B) London
C) Paris
D) Zagreb
5. A bridge across the St. Lawrence River between Montreal and Longueuil, Quebec, is named for what explorer who charted the St. Lawrence?
A) Jacques Cartier
B) Samuel de Champlain
C) James Cook
D) Henry Hudson
6. Which athlete has appeared on the cover of American "Vogue" magazine three times, most recently in February 2018?
A) Aly Raisman
B) Gabrielle Reece
C) Lindsey Vonn
D) Serena Williams
ANSWERS
1) In Egyptian mythology, frog-headed Heqet was the goddess of fertility and childbirth.
2) "Naughty Number Nine" was a segment of "Schoolhouse Rock."
3) Arthur Conan Doyle's story "The Final Problem" involves a fight to the death at Reichenbach Falls.
4) You'd use an Oyster Card to pay fares on trains and buses in London.
5) Serena Williams has appeared on the cover of American "Vogue" magazine three times, most recently in February 2018.
WEEK OF APRIL 30
You probably don't give much thought to chicken manure, but some chemists and engineers are up to their elbows in the stuff working on ways to repurpose it. It can be fine fertilizer, but its runoff is loaded with phosphorus, which can throw off the chemical balance of adjacent waterways. So the goal is to extract the phosphorus from manure, use the refined manure for fertilizer and use the phosphorus for other purposes. We're talking about millions of pounds of poop each year, with a commercial value of hundreds of millions of dollars. That's not chicken feed!
Happy 100th year of nationhood to Latvia! Among the many cultural treasures that Latvians hold dear, knitted mittens incorporating symbols from Latvian folklore might be the most charming. Traditionally, a Latvian bride's dowry would have included dozens of pairs of mittens to be given to her new family. Today, mittens still are given as tokens of affection and respect on important occasions. That's why, when NATO held a summit in Riga in 2006, Latvians knitted 4,500 pairs of mittens as gifts for the delegates.
The tale of J.K. Rowling's 12 rejections for the first book in her Harry Potter series is widely told, but Rowling's tally seems minimal compared with other writers' collections of rejections. Sylvia Plath, the esteemed poet and author, received nearly 50 rejections from "Seventeen" magazine alone before her first short story, "And Summer Will Not Come Again," was published there in 1950. Jack London collected some 600 rejection letters, which he saved for the rest of his life. They're now in the museum collection at Jack London State Historic Park in Glen Ellen, California.
Ever visited an IDSP? That's an International Dark Sky Park, a designation given by the International Dark-Sky Association, to natural areas that are blissfully free of light pollution. Stargazers know these places well. They're some of the best places on earth for unobstructed, unadulterated views of the night sky — from Albanya in Northern Spain to Zselic National Landscape Protection Area in Hungary. Ansa-Borrego State Park in California and Steinaker State Park in Utah made the list earlier this year. They're worth staying up past your bedtime to see.
The landlocked West African country of Mali takes its name from the Bambara word for hippopotamus. That might sound odd until you consider that even though hippos look placid and sort of slow, they're strong and can be fast and fierce if threatened. Historically, the Mali Empire was among the more influential kingdoms in Africa with major centers of business and scholarship in Djenne and Timbuktu.
Porcupines are excellent tree climbers. With their waddling gait, they might not look agile, but they can shinny up a tree trunk, strip it of its bark and continue on to the upper branches where they will feed on leaves or evergreen needles. Often, porcupines will nest in trees to be close to their food source and safe from predators, but their chubby bodies pose a functional dilemma: Not only do porcupines live in trees, also they tend to fall out of them.
TRIVIA
1. In 1669, Hennig Brand discovered phosphorus by distilling what liquid?
A) Beer
B) Milk
C) Urine
D) Water
2. Emmy-winning actor Donald Glover has a rap career performing under what name?
A) Chance the Rapper
B) Childish Gambino
C) Fetty Wap
D) Xzibit
3. "Six of One," "Across the Hall" and "Insomnia Cafe" were rejected titles for what long-running sitcom?
A) "Frasier"
B) "Friends"
C) "Girls"
D) "Will and Grace"
4. Who played Bruce Wayne/Batman in "The Dark Knight" and "The Dark Knight Rises"?
A) Ben Affleck
B) Christian Bale
C) George Clooney
D) Adam West
5. The nation formerly called Upper Volta is now known by what name, which translates to "land of honest men"?
A) Algeria
B) Burkina Faso
C) Namibia
D) Zimbabwe
6. The porcupine is used as a symbol for what organization?
A) AFL-CIO
B) Greenpeace
C) Libertarian Party
D) Phi Beta Kappa
ANSWERS
1) In 1669, Hennig Brand discovered phosphorus by distilling urine.
2) Emmy-winning actor Donald Glover has a rap career performing as Childish Gambino.
3) "Six of One," "Across the Hall" and "Insomnia Cafe" were rejected titles for "Friends."
4) Christian Bale played Bruce Wayne/Batman in "The Dark Knight" and "The Dark Knight Rises."
5) The nation formerly called Upper Volta is now called Burkina Faso, which translates to "land of honest men."
6)The porcupine is used as a symbol for the Libertarian Party.
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