Today's Dippit!

Quote

"No man is free who is not master of himself." 

Epictetus

Joke

Why did the old man fall in the well? Because he couldn't see that well.

Fun Fact

The legend of the Loch Ness Monster goes back nearly 1,500 years.

There's a tale written in the year 565 A.D. that speaks of an Irish monk traveling through Scotland. While there, Saint Columba heard stories of a "water beast" that attacked and killed the local people when they went in the river. Wanting to help, the monk used his friend as bait to lure the beast into sight, at which point Columba commanded it to "go no further," and the creature stopped and swam back upstream. That river is now known in Scotland as the River Ness, which flows out from the famous Loch Ness.

Reading Fact

Reading biographies and memoirs allows readers to learn about the lives and experiences of real people, inspiring empathy, resilience, and personal growth.

History Fact

The Bloody Mary Wasn't Always Called a Bloody Mary

The popular brunch beverage and hangover cure didn't actually start off as being called a Bloody Mary. Nope. It was actually called A Bucket Of Blood. Appetizing… After Bucket Of Blood, it transitioned to Red Snapper and, finally, Bloody Mary.

Movie/TV Trivia

The Alien series has a continuing obsession with alphabetising their androids chronologically. Ash, Bishop, Call. Could Michael Fassbender’s David be an android in the upcoming Prometheus? SPOILER ALERT Yes. Although as it’s a prequel it should really be Zeus or Zola or Zebedee.

Movie/TV Quote

"In moonlight, black boys look blue."

Moonlight (2016)

Moonlight, the Best Picture-winning sophomore feature from director Barry Jenkins, was the result of such delicate, thoughtful alchemy. Jenkins' lush visuals, inspired by the work of Hong Kong filmmaker Wong Kar-wai, supplement the poetic words of playwright-turned screenwriter Tarell Alvin McCraney, who developed the script as an unproduced conceptual theater project at Yale in the late '00s, and both elements are brought to life by actors like Alex Hibbert, playing the impressionable young Chiron, and Mahershala Ali, playing the wise drug dealer Juan. The intimacy of the "in moonlight, black boys look blue" monologue, which finds Ali telling a personal story and embodying the voice of "this old lady" from his childhood in Cuba, is different than many of the more abrasive, explosive quotes on this list. It can't be reduced to a meme or deployed as a GIF. But in a film built around small gestures, it has a profound, reality-altering power. The line transports you through time and space, the vulnerability of the performer and the character working in perfect harmony.

Conversation Starter

If you could have dinner with anyone living or not, who would it be?

Writing Prompt

 How Would You Do on a Civics Test?