Friday Fun Fact July 31

Kaleidoscopes and Glockenspiels

I love these two words!  They are unusual, colorful words that can trip you up on a spelling test, lol! So, what are they?  Here you go:

image from Amazon.com

image from Wikipedia

Kaleidoscope 

Sir David Brewster created the kaleidoscope in 1815 when he was studying light polarization.  His creation was a tube with pairs of mirrors at one end, pairs of translucent (allowing light to pass through but not detailed shapes) disks at the other end, and beads between the two. His invention was intended to be a scientific tool; it soon became a toy with two hundred thousand kaleidoscopes sold in London and Paris in three months! 

Glockenspiel

"Glockenspiel" means "to play the bells" in the German language.

The glockenspiel looks like a small xylophone, but it is made of steel bars.

You play a glockenspiel with wooden mallets, producing a unique, high tuned sound.  Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart composed The Magic Flute in 1791, and he used a glockenspiel for the bird catcher's character.

Have a wonderful weekend!  See you on Monday!

 

Monday Fun Fact July 27

Lovely Pearls

image from Studio GRFX

  Pearls are the only gemstone to come from a living creature. 

 Most pearls are produced by oysters that live in saltwater or freshwater environments. When a piece of sand or bit of floating food gets inside an oyster's protective shell, the oyster starts to cover it in layers of nacre - the mineral substance that creates the inner shell of the oyster.  Nacre is also called "mother of pearl".  Layers and layers of nacre coat the bit of sand or food until a beautiful pearl is formed.  

Other gemstones, like diamonds and rubies are minerals.  Diamonds were created by intense heat and pressure on carbon atoms that eventually crystallized. Rubies are created with heat and pressure as well on oxygen and aluminum atoms. 

image from Freepik

My personal view of the oyster and its pearl is this:  something new and beautiful can come from something that started off as wrong or unwelcome.  It takes layers of care to turn it into something wonderful. A nice life lesson from nature :)

 

Have a wonderful week.  See you on Friday!

Friday Fun Fact July 24

Do Si Do!!

image from Free Clipart

Bow to your partner, bow to your corner.

All join hands, and circle to the left....

Do those words sound familiar?  If so, then you know about square dancing!

Europeans who settled in the 13 original colonies of North America brought with them folk dances from their country.  French dancing styles were quite popular in the years following the American Revolution.  In fact, several terms now used in modern square dancing come from France, such as "allemande", "promenade", and "do-si-do".   Do-si-do is actually a form of the French phrase "dos-a-dos" which means "back-to-back".

Twelve of the basic square dance "calls" are:

Circle Left

Allemande Left

Do Si Do

Right and Left Grand

Promendade

Swing

Roll Away to a Half Sashay

Ladies In, Men Sashay

Pass Thru, Separate and Go Home

Weave the Ring

Box the Gnat

Wrong Way Grand

Now circle to the right...

Square your sets, you're lookin' out of sight!

That's all for today.  Have a wonderful weekend!

Monday Fun Fact July 20

Comets!

image from NASA/MSFC/Aaron Kingery

Comets are objects in the sky that are made of frozen gas, dust, and rock that orbit the sun.  Some comets can be as big as a small town!  When a comet gets close to the sun, it heats up and starts releasing its gas and dust, causing it to glow and have a tail that can stretch for millions of miles behind it.

The word "comet" comes from the Greek word "kometes" which means "long hair".  A comet's long tail can look like long hair :)

Comets are named after the person who discovered it or the spacecraft used to discover it.  Halley's comet is named after its discoverer, English astronomer Edmond Halley, and is visible once every 75 or 76 years.  The last time that it was seen was 1986.

Our newest comet, discovered in March of 2020, is called Comet NEOWISE.  It is named after the NASA space telescope that discovered it:  NEOWISE.

NEOWISE stands for Near Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer.

You can look for Comet NEOWISE just after sunset in the northwest sky near the Big Dipper.

Happy hunting!

Friday Fun Fact July 17

Beauty of Chihuly

image from The Ramaz School

Dale Chihuly is an American glass sculptor who has created many amazing creations like the one pictured above. 

 Dale Chihuly was born in 1941 in Tacoma, Washington, and suffered losing his older brother at an early age.  Two years after his brother died, his father also passed away.  Dale's mother supported his decision to attend college, but after a few years he decided to go to Florence, Italy, to study art.  This time abroad encouraged him to continue his studies, and in 1965 he graduated college and started learning the art of glass blowing.

Glass blowing is a technique of inflating molten glass into a bubble and creating various artwork. Dale Chihuly has created glass sculptures at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art, Seattle's Chilhuly Garden and Glass, and right here in Missouri!  At the St Louis Botanical Garden, you can see works of Dale Chihuly on display:

The St Louis Botanical Garden was where I was first introduced to Dale Chihuly, and I was fascinated by the color and design.

That's all for today.  See you on Monday!

  

Monday Fun Fact July 13

Do You Know This Man?

image from Film Daily

His name is John Williams. 

John Williams is a composer of music.

John Williams composed music that is very famous.

Still not sure of who John Williams is?  

I'll bet you would recognize his work!

Here are some of the movies that he wrote the music for:

image from Segerstrom Center

Yes, John Williams composed the music for movies that many of us have seen. Anytime you hear the Star Wars theme song or hum a Harry Potter tune, you have John Williams to thank!  His glorious music can bring out so many emotions:  joy, excitement, bravery, fear, sadness, courage, to name a few.

John was born in New York City on February 8, 1932.  He loves playing the piano; his brother reports that John would often miss dinner when they were growing up because John was working so hard on learning the piano.

"I developed from very early on a habit of writing something every day, good or bad."

John worked as a jazz pianist and then as a studio musician.  In the 1970's he began scoring music for Steven Spielberg and George Lucas movies. 

"I have to say, without question, John Williams has been the single most significant contributor to my success as a filmmaker." - Steven Spielberg

John Williams has won 5 Academy Awards and conducted the Boston Pops Orchestra.  He has written theme music for the Olympic Games and received the National Medal of Arts.

John Williams loves what he does and works hard at it. His brother Don Williams said of John:

" He just doesn’t want to stop. He’s having such a good time, why should he? I think maybe that’s his forte, is the fact that he doesn’t want to stop learning.”

I love that!

Here are the sources for my report:

https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/la-et-cm-john-williams-early-life-20180718-story.html

https://www.biography.com/musician/john-williams

See you on Friday!  

Friday Fun Fact July 10

Gateway to the West

image from Wikipedia

The Gateway Arch in St. Louis is the tallest man-made national monument in the United States.  It was built in 1965 as a celebration of the westward expansion of the United States.  The Gateway Arch is exactly as wide (630 feet) as it is tall (630 feet).  It has foundations sunk 60 feet into the ground.

image from Freerange Stock

The arch was built to withstand earthquakes and high winds.

The arch is hollow and has a tram system that takes visitors to the top for a wonderful view of St. Louis.

The great thing about the St. Louis arch is that you can enjoy it for free!  There is a cost to ride to the top, but you can also just walk up and touch the stainless steel legs and marvel at the construction of this beautiful arch.

Oh, the St. Louis Zoo is free too! ;)  

Have a great weekend!  See you on Monday :)

Monday Fun Fact July 6

Fireworks!

image from Wikipedia

Schoolhouse Rock came out in 1973.  It was a series of educational shorts that ran between Saturday morning cartoons.  In 1973, television had about 3 channels to watch, and programming started early in the morning and ended late at night.  Saturday mornings were made for cartoons!  Bugs Bunny, Road Runner, Wacky Races, all morning long!  In between the cartoons, the Schoolhouse Rock videos would teach us educational topics all in a fun, musical way.  We learned about parts of speech, multiplication, science facts, and American history.  Many of my friends were able to remember the words to the Preamble because of the song :)  
If you were one of many households who got Disney + to watch the musical Hamilton, you can now watch episodes of Schoolhouse Rock!  Some of my favorites:  I'm Just a Bill, Interjections!, Adjectives, and of course, There's Gonna Be Fireworks!


Fun Fact #2

The Channel Tunnel, or Chunnel, is an underground train track that connects England and France.  It is 31 miles long, and 23 of those miles are underwater!  It is considered by many to be one of the modern day Wonders of the World.

image from Daniel Terdiman/CNET

The Chunnel was started in 1988 and completed in 1994.  The English workers competed with the French workers to see who would get to the middle first :) (The English side won!)
The Chunnel actually consists of two train tracks and a third service track. This service track is an escape route in case of fire.
The rock and dirt removed to create the Chunnel was deposited in Southeastern England and turned into a nature reserve park.


That's all for today!  See you again on Friday!

Friday Fun Fact July 3

Happy Birthday USA!

image from Clipart Library

We are 244 years old!

On July 4, 1776, the Continental Congress formally adopted the Declaration of Independence, a document written by Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Richard Sherman, and Benjamin Franklin.  John Adams wrote to his wife Abigail that this action will be celebrated by "succeeding Generations" with "Pomp and Parade...Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other."

What a wonderful prediction!  And John Adams was exactly right!  We celebrate the Fourth of July with fireworks and parades and picnics.

Another interesting fact:  John Adams and Thomas Jefferson would both pass away on July 4, 1826 - on the day of the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

You can find many fascinating facts about the history of the Fourth of July by going to History.com website:

 https://www.history.com/topics/holidays/july-4th#:~:text=On%20July%204th%2C%20the%20Continental,the%20birth%20of%20American%20independence.

So put up your American flag, listen to the music of The Star Spangled Banner, spend time with family, and enjoy some fireworks!  We are together in this!

See you on Monday!