Quote
“The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.”
Mark Twain
Joke
If an English teacher is convicted of a crime and doesn't complete the sentence, is that a fragment?
Fun Fact
The two tiny holes in every BIC pen is to ensure that the air pressure is the same both inside and outside the pen, which helps the ink flow to the tip.
Reading Fact
Stephen King’s Riding the Bullet was the world’s first mass-market ebook, available to download for just $2.50.
The book, published by Simon & Schuster, sold over 400,000 copies in just 24 hours after the release, causing the SoftLock server to jam. Some Stephen King fans waited for hours for the book to download, and the encryption caused countless computers to crash.
History Fact
I Can Feel it Comin’ in the Air Tonight
For a very long time, people believed that diseases were caused by bad smelling, infected air—it’s what’s known as the miasma theory of disease. This is why plague masks look so freaky: plague doctors wore them and the masks’ long, hollow noses held flowers and other combatants of the smelly, supposedly diseased air.
Movie/TV Trivia
To clean the Wookie suits for Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the costuming department used vodka and tea tree oil, sanitizing them and cutting down on drying time.
Movie/TV Quote
"Kiss me, my girl, before I am sick."
Phantom Thread (2017)
You wouldn't typically think someone poisoning her partner is "sweet," but Phantom Thread pulls it off. Paul Thomas Anderson's follow-up to the hazy, mumbling, postmodern mystery Inherent Vice favors the meticulous, harsh candor of Daniel Day-Lewis' Reynolds Woodcock and the narrative straightforwardness of a couple falling in love. A fashion designer with obsessive-compulsive and controlling tendencies, Woodcock spends the entire running time verbally cutting down those who fail him -- including Alma, the waitress he's turned into his muse, though she's totally unwilling to give up her own assertiveness and independence (The tea is going out, the interruption is staying right here with me!). Their dynamic makes his response to Alma's revelation that his omelet is poisoned so perversely sweet. Just when the struggle of being together reaches its darkest moments, Alma and Reynolds lay their cards on the table. She wants him flat on his back; he's finally willing to give up control. It epitomizes the contradictory, painful, and transcendent nature of love, and puts a fitting capstone on Alma and Reynolds' courtship.
Conversation Starter
What is the best restaurant in your area?
Writing Prompt