Today I learned...

[CatrionaGrace]

Slightly risque joke on myself, so stop here if you blush easily.

When I was hugely pregnant with a ten and a half pound baby, my husband and I went to dinner with some members of the engineering department at the local medical center. The subject turned to birds and I mentioned a joke someone had told me that didn't make any sense. Someone asked me to tell the joke.

Question: What bird brings babies?
Answer: Stork
Question: What bird prevents babies?
Answer: Swallow.

Just as I uttered the last word, its significance struck me.

Pandemonium ensued.

 

[Louanne Learning]

Today I learned that there's a national holiday being celebrated in Ireland today - Imbolc
In my inbox this morning from the National Leprechaun Museum -

This festival honours the returning light, the promise of renewal, and the goddess Brigid. Imbolc rituals have long been associated with purification, healing, fire, and the first signs of nature’s stirring after the darkest months of the year.

 

[JLT]

And hedgehogs, at least in England. Here in North America, the groundhog was substituted for his cousin, for reasons I can't explain. And the groundhog has been a piss-poor predictor of weather.

About the only good thing about this holiday is that it gives me leave to watch one of my favorite movies.

 

[Homer Potvin]

Given the sun is in the south in the winter, if the dipshit groundhog looks north he'll see his shadow but won't if he looks south, cloud cover aside.

 

[CatrionaGrace]

Imbolc is what my family celebrates. Last night was the full moon, making this Imbolc extra cool.

We don't have groundhogs here. Wyoming's version of Puxtawhatsis Phil is Lander Lil the prairie dog. Doesn't matter whether she sees her shadow or not because this year, especially, the weather is cock-eyed. It has been in the fifties and dry as a bone- in FEBRUARY. Rest of the state is in good shape for snowfall, but central Wyoming- we got bupkes.

 

[Iain Aschendale]

Today I learned that Ozempic is gila monster spit*.

*Well, it's not just Ozempic, and it's not that simple, but at some point researchers wondered how gila monsters could slow their metabolisms and thus require less food during lean months. They thought it was the venom at first, but then determined there was a component of the saliva that took care of it. Isolated that, and through intense workouts and oral instruction** taught e. coli bacteria*** to reproduce it in a nice pure form that diabetics could use to slow glucose uptake****, then somebody thought of injecting it into heavier folk*****, and the rest is history.

**genetic modification

***I think it was e. coli. Go watch Chubbyemu on youtube for my source

****probably. I learned this earlier this week and not today, and I was folding laundry at the time

*****of whom a subset, but not all, have type 2 diabetes

So anyway, if you want to lose weight but can't afford the jab, consider****** obtaining a gila monster and french kissing it on the regular. Should help with your appetite one way or another.

****** I am so not a doctor, never listen to me

 

[CatrionaGrace]

Gila Monster Kisses. Sounds like the title of a murder mystery or a new chocolate concoction from Hersheys.

 

[Rath Darkblade]

Gila Monster Kisses. Sounds like the title of a murder mystery or a new chocolate concoction from Hersheys.

Better than getting a kiss from a Xenomorph ...

 

[defaux]

I

Today I learned that Ozempic is gila monster spit*.

*Well, it's not just Ozempic, and it's not that simple, but at some point researchers wondered how gila monsters could slow their metabolisms and thus require less food during lean months. They thought it was the venom at first, but then determined there was a component of the saliva that took care of it. Isolated that, and through intense workouts and oral instruction** taught e. coli bacteria*** to reproduce it in a nice pure form that diabetics could use to slow glucose uptake****, then somebody thought of injecting it into heavier folk*****, and the rest is history.

**genetic modification

***I think it was e. coli. Go watch Chubbyemu on youtube for my source

****probably. I learned this earlier this week and not today, and I was folding laundry at the time

*****of whom a subset, but not all, have type 2 diabetes

So anyway, if you want to lose weight but can't afford the jab, consider****** obtaining a gila monster and french kissing it on the regular. Should help with your appetite one way or another.

****** I am so not a doctor, never listen to me

Had to google what Gila Monster is, so I learned that.

Also ozempic was the top search recommendation on the auto fill. So I guess you're not alone there.

 

[Schism]

There are many things already lost to the old world that I want to write about. Actually this helped me redefine a short story.

 

[Louanne Learning]

There are many things already lost to the old world that I want to write about

I get so fascinated reading about people and societies that have gone on before. I feel some kind of connection to them.

For example, today I learned that it was on this day in 1632 that Roger Williams arrived to the Massachusetts Bay colony. He fought the Puritans over their treatment of the Native Americans. As a result, he was banished, and left to go found the colony of Rhode Island.

 

[Schism]

I get so fascinated reading about people and societies that have gone on before. I feel some kind of connection to them.

For example, today I learned that it was on this day in 1632 that Roger Williams arrived to the Massachusetts Bay colony. He fought the Puritans over their treatment of the Native Americans. As a result, he was banished, and left to go found the colony of Rhode Island.

I did think about a colonial setting for a story once upon. Though should've specified, I meant certain cultural values which don't seem to exist very much today vs, say, twenty years ago.

It is interesting how values change from one era to the next, or how quickly they can change sometimes. And how some can be blind to the nature of shifting changes.

 

[Louanne Learning]

I wonder how much the internet has to do with the changes we have seem in the last 20 years.

And I do wonder if we have changed at all?

 

[Homer Potvin]

the colony of Rhode Island.

Overrated.

 

[Schism]

I wonder how much the internet has to do with the changes we have seem in the last 20 years.

And I do wonder if we have changed at all?

The rate at which technology improves, the rate at society changes. Two sides, same coin?

It could be we've stayed the same. In some ways.

 

[Louanne Learning]

It could be we've stayed the same. In some ways.

We gotta keep reaching for the best of us....

 

[DLC]

That Williams guy got kicked out over some religious tussle but that a nice story

 

[JLT]

Gila Monster Kisses. Sounds like the title of a murder mystery or a new chocolate concoction from Hersheys.

Or a rock band.

 

[JLT]

Overrated.

That Williams guy got kicked out over some religious tussle but that a nice story

Your sources, please?

The story of Roger William's relationship with the Massachusetts Bay Colony was told at some length by Jil Lepore in one of her books on pre-Revolutionary War America. The story of his banishment, by getting afoul of the wrong people in the community, is accurate in most respects, although the specifics are a bit different. I don't think anybody can fault Dr. Lepore's qualifications on the subject. She holds a history chair at Harvard University (as well as a law degree).

 

[Schism]

Your sources, please?

That old bag?