Quote
“Identity is a prison you can never escape, but the way to redeem your past is not to run from it, but to try to understand it, and use it as a foundation to grow.”
Joke
Two windmills are standing in a wind farm. One asks, “What’s your favorite kind of music?” The other says, “I’m a big metal fan.”
Fun Fact
Japanese square watermelons are ornamental plants and are not edible.
Reading Fact
Roald Dahl was buried with some of his favorite items: a bottle of Burgundy, his snooker cues, HB pencils, a power saw and some chocolate.
He was buried in November 1990 in Oxford, England, and according to his granddaughter, the family gave him a “sort of Viking funeral”. Today, children continue to leave toys and flowers by his grave.
History Fact
The UK government collected postcards as intelligence for the D-Day landings.
Starting in 1942, the BBC issued a public appeal for postcards and photographs of mainland Europe’s coast, from Norway to the Pyrenees.
This was an intelligence-gathering exercise. Initiated by Lieutenant General Frederick Morgan, he was searching for the hardest beaches to defend.
The postcards were sent to the War Office and helped form part of the decision to choose Normandy as the location for the eventual D-Day landings.
Movie/TV Trivia
Star Wars was originally prefixed by the definite article ‘The’.
Movie/TV Quote
"I won't say it for Little Baby Ears over there, but it rhymes with 'smushmortion.'"
Knocked Up (2007)
In a far earlier era of blogging -- 2007! -- the "smushbortion" line delivered by Jonah Hill while Seth Rogen's Ben rips a bong during Knocked Up was a study in primitive backlash virality, the internet's unique superpower. It was picked apart by writers on sites like The Atlantic, Slate, and The Guardian. "The a-word," as Jay Baruchel calls it, was effectively banned from Judd Apatow's second major directorial blockbuster from the mid-2000s, and critics read into that: Is Apatow a pro-life filmmaker? Probably not, if his current politics are any indication of his past. Back in pre-woke pop culture, it was just a satirical scene where an adult friend group of immature straight white dudes try, without appropriate language or informed politics, to talk about what to do when your bro knocks up a lady, thus begetting a hilariously backwards and stupid conversation.
Conversation Starter
What do you think of stay-cations? (Vacationing and seeing tourist attractions where you live.)
Writing Prompt
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