Newspaper Quiz, Recommendations

June 1, 2010

Every Tuesday morning in the Ft. Worth Star Telegram is a column titled “Issac Asimov’s Super Quiz”. One is challenged to determine just how brainy one is. Sometimes I do well, but today I did not. The subject is authors and it is a fill-in-the-blanks exercise. I share this obscure information about these authors because one never knows when it will come in handy on Jeopardy or Who Wants to be a Millionaire. The answers are in red.

1. Edgar Allan Poe is considered the first writer of detective fiction. 2. Mark Twain was born and died during Halley’s Comet events. 3. Ezra Pound spent 1946-1958 in the asylum of St. Elizabeths. 4. Ben Johnson was branded for killing a man in a duel. 5. Dante Alighieri spent the last 20 years of his life in exile. 6. Miguel de Cervantes was captured by pirates, enslaved, then ransomed. 7. Geoffrey Chaucer was the first person to be buried in Poets’ Corner (Westminster Abbey). 8. Beatrix Potter was a noted botanist. 9. At college, Lord Byron kept a bear as a pet.

Joe Horner from Little Jack Horner’s Furniture Refinishing in Willow Park, Texas came by this morning and took our game table top to refinish. It has a motley brown finish marred by many nicks and scratches. We’ve decided to have it done in a black satin because the table base and chair frames are made of a gray metal that will look marvelous with the black color. They refinished our dining table two weeks ago and it is beautiful. We highly recommend this company should you need this service.

While I’m in the recommendation mode, I want to tell you about a highly touted book for children that I recently purchased. It is titled “How to Clean a Hippopotamus” written by Steve Jenkins and Robin Page. The book is about unusual animal relationships. I believe this is called ‘symbiotic’ in some circles. The illustrations are stunning and the information is beautifully presented. Now, I’m not a kid, but I am young at heart and I thoroughly enjoyed reading this little book. I plan to send it to my grandson, Joshua, who is 6 years old and he is reading quite well. If you have children or grandchildren, please consider this book for them. I ordered mine from Amazon.com.

We are thankful this is not another 95 degree day in Texas. We woke up this morning with our air conditioner running constantly and it is apparently low on refrigerant. The serviceman came, cleaned the unit and brought the refrigerant up to par and $224.00 later we have proper air conditioning again. As Gilda Radner said, “It’s always something.”

Have spent another part of this day doing research for “Cherokee Wanderings”. Even though it is historical fiction, one must have the facts of the particular place and time correctly depicted. My research includes the middle 1800’s right after the Civil War and the Missouri/Indian Nation area of the country during this time. Successful authors tell me I must protect the credibility of the story at all times or it will lead to loss of readers.

This is all I have to say for now.