Louise Carroll: December thoughts from the idea file

Louise Carroll
·3 min read

Every day, I hear something interesting or unusual and I jot it down for the idea file. I always think I can use it in a story, but when that doesn't happen, it finds a forever home in the random thoughts column.

  • The lion sleeps up to 20 hours a day. I don't know why I ever thought I would need to know that.

  • "The world is changed by your example, not by your opinion." - Paulo Coelho, novelist

  • This is a valuable tip: The color of the tabs or twist ties that keep bread fresh can tell you when the bread was baked. For example, Monday is blue and Tuesday is green.

  • "It is criminal to steal a purse, daring to steal a fortune, a mark of greatness to steal a crown. The blame diminishes as the guilt increases." - Friedrich Schiller, poet and dramatist

  • In the 1950s, a Navy engineer listening for enemy submarines unexpectedly discovered structured, repetitive songs of humpback whales. This led to a groundbreaking realization: these whales are music sensations.

  • I like words that sound like what they are. Squandermania is perfect. It means spending money extravagantly.

  • There are seven points on the crown on the Statue of Liberty. They represent the seven continents and the seven seas of the world.

  • “If only the sun-drenched celebrities are being noticed and worshiped, then our children are going to have a tough time seeing the value in the shadows, where the thinkers, probers, and scientists are keeping society together.” - Rita Dove

  • Brazil is larger than the contiguous United States. I didn't know that.

  • Weird doesn't follow the I before E rule for spelling. That's pretty weird.

  • The average American eats about 8 pounds of candy a year. I am above average. I always was an overachiever. And a Hershey's kiss contains 26 calories, which takes five minutes of walking or about four minutes of kissing to burn off.

  • Hawaii moves four inches toward Japan every year.

  • The color red does not make bulls go crazy. Bulls are colorblind to red. I guess they just don't like having a cape flapped at them. Who would?

  • In Britain's 2001 census, 390,000 people listed Jedi as their religious affiliation.

  • "There is far too much law for those who can afford it and far too little for those who cannot."- Derek Bok, lawyer and educator.

  • Mushrooms may be taking over the world.The largest living thing is a mushroom located in Malheur National Forest in Oregon. It covers 2,200 acres and is between 2,000 and 8,000 years old.

  • "Everybody, soon or late, sits down to a banquet of consequences." - Robert Louis Stevenson

  • What's Barbie's real name? The Barbie doll's full name is Barbara Millicent Roberts.

  • In 2023, the most popular cat names are Luna and Milo. The most popular dog names are Luna and Charlie. How popular are they in the Ellwood area? Does anyone have a Luna, Milo or Charlie?

  • “Courage is the most important of all the virtues, because without courage you can't practice any other virtue consistently. You can practice any virtue erratically, but nothing consistently without courage.” - Maya Angelou

This article originally appeared on Beaver County Times: Louise Carroll: December thoughts from the idea file