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Reflections
Got your life? Then you have everything, even junk mail : Reflections : Oswego Ledger-Sentinel : Hometown Newspaper for Oswego and Montgomery, IllinoisGot your life? Then you have everything, even junk mail
| by Roger Matile
| 12/20/2012
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Just the other day, or so it seemed anyway, we were perspiring heavily here in the old Village of Troy. Then this morning when I wandered up to my office, I couldn't open the bottom file drawer because it was drifted shut.
At first, especially given the temperature at that time of day, I thought it unlikely that snow had sifted inside during the night, but when I looked closely, I discovered that a blizzard of junk mail had struck during the past month, leaving, if not exactly death and destruction, at least a big mess in its wake.
So we are working hard to recover from this disaster. We have urged each other not to travel unless we absolutely have to. We're only making emergency calls to keep the lines open. And we're congratulating ourselves on our innate American toughness and vowing not to allow this unforeseen natural disaster to force us to leave. After all, no one was killed, and if you've got your life, you've got everything, right?
In an effort to clear the floor and desk surfaces of the blizzard's accumulation, we began putting all of the junk mail in appropriate containers. But it's hard to ignore such interesting stuff, which is making our recovery difficult. In an effort to keep the cleanup going, I'm going to write down all the things I never would have found out if I hadn't been shoveling junk mail all morning:
Doctors tell us that prolonged exposure to noises over 90 decibels can lead to hearing loss. How loud is, like, really loud? A typical rock concert is about 100 db., while your average jet engine heard from a distance of 800 feet is about 110 db.
We can thank our lucky stars that the threat of general nuclear war has receded so far. It wasn't all that long ago that we were debating the throw-weight and megatonage of ICMBs. Speaking of megatonage, a one megaton hydrogen bomb is equivalent to the explosive power of one million tons of TNT. ICMB warheads can be hugely destructive, with yields in the 10 megaton range. But just how powerful is that? Here's a comparison: During World War II, all of the explosives detonated by all the armies, navies, and air forces combined totaled just three million tons. That means one 10 megaton warhead is equivalent to three times all the explosives used during six years of the entire world at war.
Lichens, those sickly green and gray plants that cower on rocks, are, it turns out, pretty tough customers. Lichens produce an acid that actually dissolves rocks. Bits of the rocks that break off during the dissolving process mix with decayed vegetable and animal matter to form soil. Like black dirt? Thank a lichen.
New health advisory! A bunch of doctors over in Europe have discovered (and I am telling the truth here; at least the Discovery Fitness & Health site insists it's true and you have to respect a place with "Discovery" and "Health" in its title) that low cholesterol can lead to...suicide! That's right, healthy eaters. Studies have found that very low levels of cholesterol cause depression which can (and in more than 30 cases in one study, did) lead to suicide. So snarf down those cheese fries; gnosh a brat or two; and put plenty of mozzarella cheese on that pizza. It's either eat fat and be happy or don't and feel like killing yourself. Either way, have a nice day.
Speaking of things circulating in your body, William Harvey, an English doctor, showed in 1628 how blood circulates continuously through the human body.
Mayor Richie Daley liked trees (a lot), but those folks out on the Left Coast have the king tree of all time. The world's tallest known tree is a redwood that measures 368 feet tall that is growing in northern California.
The oldest known written astronomical record of a total solar eclipse was found inscribed on a clay tablet that was made in the city of Ugarit-now in Syria-and describes an eclipse that took place on March 4, 1223 B.C. How long ago was that? It was before John McCain was even born!
You can park 100 cars in one acre.
The Barbizon School was the name given to a group of French painters who infected the village of Barbizon during the 1830s and 1840s. Wonder what their cholesterol levels were.
Don't know nothin' 'bout birthin' no babies? Says here the most expensive TV rights ever were paid by CBS in 1991 for Scarlett, the sequel to Margaret Mitchell's classic Gone With the Wind and written in torrid style by Alexandra Ripley. CBS paid $8 million for the potboiler. Is anyone still unclear on why so many U.S. media companies have fallen on hard times?
Wyoming comes from a Delaware Indian word meaning "Upon the Great Plain." It is suspicious a western state has a Delaware name. Suppose Bill Clinton's behind it?
Do you like rice, spaghetti, French fries, and ice cream? Give a round of applause to Tom Jefferson, then. Jefferson, who was a real 18th century party animal, introduced all of those foods to his guests and to the nation. Of course he died $40,000 in debt, but isn't living well the best revenge?
An American, Thomas Sullivan, invented the tea bag. Sullivan, a tea merchant, sent his best customers samples of various teas in small, individual silk bags. When his customers learned the tea would brew right through the bag, they wanted more and the rest is tea history.
Finally, from my family to yours, make sure you have a very Merry Christmas and a happy holiday season.
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