As January flew by, I compiled another list of new-to-me facts, information, and experiences to share with you. Treasures, perhaps?

1. People with barking dogs don’t care that their dogs disrupt the peace of any outdoor activity for the neighbors. They just don’t care.
2. Eleven sets of variety pack notecards produced by me since the late 1980s? That was a lot of notes getting written to people. Maybe being in the Esses means one reminisces more about bygone days. (Two more posts about this to come next week.)
3. I took a three mile walk along the length of Main St. in Visalia, beginning in the somewhat industrial east end, awed by the variety of downtown (Did you know there is a little store that sells nothing but succulents?? Neither did I.), admiring the old homes that are now lawyer and dentist offices, reminiscing a tiny bit as I passed my high school, on to the Courthouse area, through the office compounds, and past many beautiful Valley Oak trees. Walking is such a great way to really appreciate a town.
4. Picking Up: On the Streets and Behind the Trucks with the Sanitation Workers of New York City by Robin Nagle was a weirdly intriguing book. Two main facts stuck with me: 1. Sanitation work is the most dangerous job in New York and 2. New York doesn’t use trash cans –instead, people toss bags of garbage on the sidewalks!
5. In a few more generations, the terms “clockwise” and “counterclockwise” won’t mean anything. That’s even worse than not understanding what it means to “dial” a phone or “roll up” a window in a car.
6. Word By Word: The Secret Life of Dictionaries by Kory Stamper is another weirdly intriguing book (not finished yet) with a disturbing fact: dictionaries are descriptive rather than prescriptive. What this means is that they follow the trends of language rather than establishing it, so if a word is used enough in the wrong way, it becomes part of the dictionary. (I’m afraid to look up “irregardless” in case it has become a real word).
7. Our national parks need employees.  The parks are more popular than ever, but some are so short-staffed in the HR departments that they can’t process applications to fill vacancies. What is causing this??
8. Death Valley is weirdly wonderful. I wouldn’t go there if it wasn’t for a dear friend who is a terrific hostess and personal tour guide. Here are a few fun facts about DEVA: over 1000 miles of roads with only about 25% paved, maybe as many as 100 abandoned cabins, water all over the place in hidden canyons, and there are so many old mines that I couldn’t find the number. They were for boron, gold, lead, silver, zinc, clays, talc-soapstone, copper, tungsten, fluorine, pumice, zeolites, iron, manganese, uranium, thorium, antimony, sand and gravel. Probably more things too. But who could stand to be there in a place where temperatures can hit 130°??

 

And thus we conclude another month and another list of random items of interest to this Central California artist. I hope you also find this collection of odd facts fun and intriguing.