Well, then. Here's some knitting content for ya.

I know it's my blog. :-) I still don't like to bore half my readers. It's a personality quirk. Consider the Daily Tidbits retired. For those who loved them [a distinct minority, bless your hearts], I may pop one in every now and then. But no more dailyness.

Instead, then, I offer a little peek at something. With no commentary. The ladies in Austin will know what it is, because I started it there and everyone was reasonably mesmerized by the weirdness of it. I'll have more for you shortly, including a wee movie.





It's done, btw. You won't believe how I bound this sucker off. But you'll have to wait to see.

I can take it, really.

Tell me the truth. If you're hating these things, I'll stop.


[final results above. sigh.]

Daily tidbit for May 18

Page 6: Alger, Horatio Jr.1834-90. Some 20 million copies of Alger's 125+ books taught 2 generations of US boys that economic and social success comes to the virtuous, however humble his beginnings.

Daily tidbit for May 17

Page 9: Alberta, most westerly of Prairie provinces, Canada, 248 000 sq miles, population 846 000 (1948 est), cap Edmonton. A large plateau rising to Rockies in the west, with rolling prairie land in south. Drained by many rivers, Alberta abounds in small lakes and streams. Mostly fertile soil is irrigated by canals and dams in Calgary-Lethbridge area. Main agricultural products are wheat, cereals, livestock, wool and dairy produce.

Daily tidbit for May 16

Page 8: airplane, [or aeroplane]. Self-powered heavier-than-air craft with fixed wings, capable of flight. Modern airplanes are monoplanes (1-winged) but in the early development of aviation biplanes and triplanes were common. Single-engine craft have given way to 2- and 4-engine, and recent developments in jet propulsion include the introduction of jet liners on regular passenger schedules.

Daily tidbit for May 15

Page 7: age of consent, the age at which one is deemed legally competent to consent, esp. to marriage or extramarital sexual intercourse. For marriage, the statutory trend has been toward the 16 to 18 yr level for both sexes. Age of consent to sexual intercourse, which may be inovked as a defense by the male to a charge of statutory rape, was 10 yrs under common law, has been raised by statute to the 13 to 18 yr level.

Daily tidbit for May 14

Page 6: aeolian harp (from Aeolus), musical instrument, popular from c1600-1900, consisting of a box over which are stretched a number of strings of equal length and different thicknesses, tuned in unison. Placed outdoors or on a window ledge, the strings are vibrated by the wind, their varying thicknesses creating different harmonics.

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you want one now, don't you? well, here.

Daily tidbit for May 11

Page 5: adolescence, period following puberty, circa 12-21 in women, circa 14-25 in men, when an individual approaches the culmination of his physical and mental growth, marked by rapid growth of the reproductive organs, increased glandular development, great increase in the size of the muscles, bones, heart. Mental development accompanies intellectual expansion and increased academic experience. Seeking status as an individual the adolescent desires freedom and independence, often comes into conflict with parents and other adults. Emotional disturbances often occur during adolescence.

Daily tidbit for May 10

Page 4: Adler, Alfred, 1870-1937. Austrian psychiatrist. Contemporary and colleague of Sigmund Freud. Adler later rejected Freud's sexual theories, developing a method of treatment based on the theory that personality problems are due to overcompensation.

Daily tidbit for May 9

Page 3: actuary, a statistician who calculates the risks and probabilities of accident, illness and death for insurance companies and similar agencies. On the basis of mortality tables, etc, the appropriate insurance rates are determined.

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oh. my.

Daily tidbit for May 8

Page 2: absolute zero. When a gas is cooled its pressure drops by nearly equal values for each degree of drop in temperature. With an ideal gas the rate of drop in pressure would be uniform; the pressure would be zero at a specific temperature, called absolute zero Kelvin (after Lord Kelvin who devised a thermodynamic temperature scale). On the centigrade scale, absolute zero equals -273.2 degrees.

Daily tidbit

What the hell?

Backstory: when we were coming home from our last Chicago visit, we flew out via Milwaukee. Not so interesting, you say? How wrong could you be? Because Milwaukee Airport has a vintage bookstore in it. Renaissance Books. A kickass way to kill the time before your flight.

Here's the treasure I came home with:



The Basic Everyday Encyclopedia, published in 1954. Containing nearly one million words [!] and 12,500 main articles. This book contains "many thousands of useful facts--in every field of human knowledge--right at your fingertips, in this handy, modern, desk-size encyclopedia."

Well, then. How could I leave without it? Cost: $6 [original cost $1].

Why do you care? Maybe you don't. But this kind of glimpse into what life was like before I was born fascinates me. So every day, I plan to share the best tidbit on the page with you here. Start with page 1, and working all the way to page 574. I'll still blog the same stuff as usual. I'm just adding this in for a little historical perspective and, I hope, a laugh.

Shall we begin? Yes, let's.

Page 1: Abbe, Cleveland, 1836-1916. US meteorologist. His (1st) demonstration in US of weather forecasts based on telegraphic reports led in 1870 to the establishment of the US Weather Bureau.

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It's a beautiful, sunny, cool day today. Thanks, Cleveland!