What I Learned This Week - 2/13/15

1.  307 days until "Star Wars - the Force Awakens" (aka: Episode VII) is in theaters.
2. Best comment of the week from my middle daughter to the youngest, “I like that sound you make when you are quiet”.
3. Erie, Pennsylvania’s Blasco Library, loans out fishing poles and tackle boxes.
4. Branches of the Chicago Public Library run a “Rods and Reads” program that provides poles and tackle sets for adults and kids.
5. At the Lillian Goldman Law Library at Yale University one can “check out” General Montgomery, a certified therapy dog owned by one of the librarians, for a 30-minute petting session.
6. Malaysian artist, Louise Low Seok Loo, uses bras to create amazing works of art – like a large shark entitled, “Fatal Attraction”. I see what she did there.
7. "BattleBots" is coming back this summer.
8. My youngest believes that the rumble strips on the side of the highway are for blind drivers.
9. Kids won’t believe you if you tell them that coconuts are "bear eggs".
10. A company that performs assessments on disasters determined that - if the epic New York City battle in the movie, “The Avengers” were real, it would have cost 160 billion dollars in financial damage.
11. I don’t understand why the moons on every planet except for Earth’s have names. I pretty sure astronomers just name their own dogs, “dog”.
12. “Deep-fried gnocci” is a thing.
13. “Snake-Head boots” are another thing.
14. There will be THREE Friday the 13ths this year....bad things come in threes.
15. "Salted Caramel Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies" are a thing.....a delicious thing.
16. Japanese toymakers have devices that will translate Doginese (BowLingual) and Meownish (MeowLingual) - yes, dog and cat noises. Cue Dug from the movie, "Up".
17. There is now a portable fish bowl so you can take your scaled friend on interesting urban adventures.
18. "Rear Gear Dog Butt Covers" are a thing that don't need to be Googled.
19. In western Iran there lives an endangered snake that preys on birds, and carries its own lure at the end of its tail - an appendage that looks just like a spider - aptly named "Spider-tailed Horned Viper (Pseudocerastes urarachnoides)". Sweet dreams.