Wednesday, February 9, 2022

Read in the Bathtub Day - February 9, 2022

DIANE'S CORNER .. 

Celebrate Read in the Bathtub Day

When you think about reading in the bathtub, does it bring back memories of childhood soaks with your favorite comic books? Perhaps you think about the scolding by the Librarian when you tried to return the book that got away – and took a plunge into the bathwater? It’s time to make new memories on Read in the Bathtub Day! Grab your favorite book or device (I admit I read my digital books in the bath – carefully of course!) and get ready for a relaxing soak.

History of Read in the Bathtub Day

It is easy to imagine the first person to read in the bathtub to be some noble reading off scrolls in a tiny tub as they tried to figure out how to rule their realm. Possible, but perhaps that joy came later when tubs, indoor plumbing, and lighting made the task a joy rather than a chore? It is not difficult to imagine that as books and comfort became handier, that this pastime became a favorite from the top of society to the bottom!

The origins of reading in the bath probably emerged in Roman bathtubs, the first culture to truly embrace the culture of bathing. The owners of these facilities would often adorn them with scrolls in the walls or sometimes entire libraries. It was a way of consolidating everything into one location, presumably to cut costs. From our perspective, it is easy to imagine that Roman citizens were the first people to read in the bath. But whether they did or not remains to be proven. 

During the dark ages, the concept of bathing went into decline, and Roman baths fell into ruin. However, the emergence of personal, household bathrooms in the Renaissance probably kicked off the modern age of bathtub reading.

Before the invention of toilet paper, people would use whatever was lying around to wipe themselves. Sometimes this was leaves or bits of straw from the farm. Occasionally, though, it was the printed word.

Reading, therefore, might have made its way into the bathroom via the backdoor, if you’ll excuse the expression. Once the industrial revolution got going, and the price came down, old bits of newspaper seemed like the perfect wiping aid. 

Water and paper, however, don’t mix, meaning that reading in the bathtub has always been something of a high-risk activity. Many books have been wrecked over the years after falling into the bath and getting soaked. 

Bathroom reading has been associated with Pulp magazines since the 1970s. According to Canadian author Margaret Atwood, bathroom reading refers to any episodic material. It lends itself to rapid consumption, usually in the morning. 

Researchers think that the amount of reading in the tub has gone up since the introduction of the smartphone. Interestingly, the smartphone doesn’t solve the water problem (unless you buy a waterproof model). But it does allow you to curate the content you consume, instead of putting up with whatever story the papers push out. 


thanks for the beautiful pics of animals in danger of extinction, Sylvia
Western lowland gorilla. It lives in primary or secondary montane forests and swampy areas. 

JOKE OF THE DAY

The white rhinoceros is the second largest land animal on the planet after the elephant.

WORD OF THE DAY

meme

MEANING:
noun:
1. An element of culture, idea, behavior, etc., that’s transmitted from person to person.
2. An image, video clip, etc. often with amusing caption, that’s transmitted virally on the Internet.

ETYMOLOGY:
From Greek mimeisthai (to imitate, copy); coined by the biologist Richard Dawkins in his book The Selfish Gene in 1976.

USAGE:
“I mean, jeez, no one clicked ‘like’ on the meme you posted four minutes ago and you think that’s a reason to kill yourself?”
Katharine Miller; Slantindicular; Sparkling Observationalist; 2017.

One of the rarest, largest and strongest birds in the world is the Philippine eagle.

TODAY'S ARTIST 

thanks, Natalie
Stanhope Alexander Forbes RA (18 November 1857 – 2 March 1947) 
was a British artist and a founding member of the influential Newlyn school of painters. He was often called 'the father of the Newlyn School'.

Saiga. In 2002, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) classified this species as "CR", which means "critically endangered"

IDIOM OF THE DAY

What does the saying 'Best of both worlds' mean?

Meaning: If you have the best of both worlds, you benefit from different things that do not normally go together.

Blue-throated macaw. Found in Bolivia


thanks, Patsy

Frog phyllomedusa-lemur. 

(Not So) TOTALLY USELESS FACTS OF THE DAY

Pablo Prigioni became the NBA’s (National Basketball Association) oldest rookie ever when he made his debut on November 2, 2012. Playing for the New York Knicks, the 35 year old would average 3.5 points, 3 assists, and 1 steal per game.

The Snickers chocolate bar is named after a horse. Not just any horse, but the favorite horse of Frank and Ethel Mars, owners of the Mars company. Sadly, the horse passed away shortly before the release of the chocolate bar.

Connie Mack was a MLB (Major League Baseball) manager for the Philadelphia Athletics from 1901 to 1950. During this stretch of FIFTY YEARS, he compiled a record of 3,582 wins and 3,814 losses. His teams won 5 World Series.

African vulture. One of the reasons for the decrease in the number of individuals is the anthropogenic factor: the savannah territories are constantly decreasing due to the growth of cities and towns, and with them the number of ungulates, which are the main source of food for vultures, is also decreasing.

READERS INFO
Coronavirus Style by Sylvia, CAN DO Correspondent
Easy Fast Biscuits - Keto
For each person you will need:

2 T. Coconut flour
1 T. Almond flour
1/2 t. Baking powder
1 T. Sour cream/yogurt/cream cheese
1 egg

In a larger bowl, beat egg with sour cream. Mix flours and baking powder in a smaller bowl, then beat into egg mixture until smooth.

Let sit for 10 minutes.

Form into biscuit shapes by hand, and bake on prepared sheet at 350° until nicely golden, about 12 minutes.

If you want scones, for each egg add 1/4 t. cinnamon to the flours and 2 t. raisins or currents to the batter before allowing it to rest.

For shortbread, add a little sweetener (equivalent of 2-4 teaspoons of sugar) to the flours, and 1/2 t. vanilla to each egg.

Ambystomidae of the family of amphibians of the order Caudates. Known as the Mexican walking fish.

COFFEE

thanks, Ella

The gangetic gavial is a large reptile of the crocodilian order. The gharial is one of the largest modern crocodiles, slightly behind the saltwater crocodiles. It is a unique animal among modern crocodiles.

PICTURES OF THE DAY

Ignace-Gaston Pardies (1636–1673) was a French Catholic priest and scientist. His celestial atlas, entitled Globi coelestis in tabulas planas redacti descriptio, comprised six charts of the night sky and was first published in 1674. The atlas uses a gnomonic projection so that the plates make up a cube of the celestial sphere. The constellation figures are drawn from Uranometria, but were carefully reworked and adapted to a broader view of the sky. This is the third plate from a 1693 edition of Pardies's atlas, featuring constellations including CancerGemini and Taurus, visible in the northern sky.

Buenos Aires, Argentina
Plants growing in the wetlands of the Ciervo de los Pantanos national park.

The Bengal tiger is the most numerous of the tiger subspecies, with 1,706 individuals in India, 200 in Bangladesh, 140 in Pakistan, 155 in Nepal, 24 in Iran, 67 in Bhutan and 5 in Russia. Completely exterminated in Afghanistan.

knit .. Valentine's Day
thanks, Grace
Valentine's Day Fox

knit
thanks, Rae

knit
Lisbeth Blanket


Common chimpanzee. For more than 150 years, the number of chimpanzees has been declining mainly due to anthropogenic factors: habitat destruction (deforestation), poaching. 

CROCHET PATTERNS OF THE DAY 
thanks, Valerie, Canadian Correspondent


Roxellan's Rhinopithecus. 

crochet
 .. Valentine's Day
thanks, Bertha

crochet
thanks, Millie

crochet
Crochet Pouf


Sifaka crowned.

RECIPE
thanks, Shelley, New York Food Correspondent


Piebald marmoset. 

PANTRY RECIPE
thanks, Debbie

Black rhinopithecus. Only 17 groups of these animals with a total number of not more than 1,700 individuals live in the northwestern province of Yunnan and the adjoining areas of the Tibet prefecture.


CROCKPOT RECIPE
thanks, Denise

Nosach. Distributed exclusively on the island of Borneo, where it inhabits coastal regions and valleys.

VEGAN/ VEGETARIAN RECIPE

Both vegetarian and vegan diets may provide health benefits, including reduced body weight, lower cholesterol levels, and decreased risk of cardiovascular disease. However, it is important for vegetarians and vegans to ensure that they are meeting all of their nutritional requirements.

thanks, Alice

Chuck. 

COPYCAT RECIPE 
thanks, Jenny

US environmentalists conducted a large-scale analysis of the state of polar bear populations in the Arctic and concluded that these large Arctic predators could be completely gone by 2025. 

RETRO RECIPE
thanks, Ann
George Washington's Small Beer
A small beer has lower alcohol content than most other beers. It was a colonial favorite partly because of its low cost. George Washington, ever a practical man, developed a recipe for small beer that could have been quite a hit at the very first Fourth of July celebration.

1 large sifter of bran hops
3 gallons of molasses
1 quart of yeast

Take a large sifter full of bran hops to your taste. Boil these three hours. Then strain out 30 gallons into a cooler, put in three gallons molasses while the beer is scalding hot, or rather drain the molasses into the cooler and strain the beer on it while boiling hot.

Let this stand until it is little more than blood warm. Then put in a quart of yeast. If the weather is very cold, cover it over with a blanket and let it work in the cooler 24 hours. Then put it into the cask [and] leave the bung [hole] open [until] it is almost done working. Bottle it that day [or] week it was brewed.

Kitoglav, or gray heron.

SWEETS RECIPE .. Valentine's Day
thanks, Winnie

The hippopotamus is one of the largest modern land animals.

ADULT COLORING .. Valentine's Day


Snow leopard or Irbis. 

FUN
CAN YOU FIND THREE HEARTS AMONG THE BUTTERFLIES?


answer:



Little Soldier Macaw.

CRAFTS .. Valentine's Day
thanks, Mary
how to make bacon roses


White-bellied lizard

CHILDREN'S CORNER .. Valentine's Day
thanks, Lana
Write on bananas

The giant panda is a vulnerable species. 

PUZZLE

Fire Hydrant Jigsaw Puzzle


Okapi


WORD SEARCH


above
adopted
along
areas

bough

ceremonial
cleft
demand
desert
diverge
dote

early
expend

forsaken
friend
frustrate
gear
guard

heal
human

lapse
legal
math
model
monarchy

offend
orderly

pelt
plagiarist
precise
rasp

shape
silhouette
solemn
stress
strict

ties


Reticulated giraffe. Found in Ethiopia, Kenya


SUDOKU .. very hard


solution:




Beluga sturgeon. Found in the Black and Caspian Seas and associated rivers


ICE BREAKER
thanks, Kris
You can use 'ice breaker questions' to build a rapport, enabling strangers to engage in back and forth conversion. With a little practice and possibly a beer or two, you’ll be breaking more ice than the Titanic. 

What Is The Best Candy Ever?

Great white shark. Found mainly in temperate coastal waters


QUOTE
thanks, Valerie

Cheetah. Found in: Africa, Iran



Giant panda. Found in Gansu, Shaanxi, and Sichuan provinces (China)


CLEVER 


Philippine eagle. Found in the Philippine islands of Leyte, Luzon, Mindanao, and Samar


EYE OPENER 
thanks, Amy

Livingstone’s fruit bat. Found in the Comoros Islands



Marine iguana. Found in the Galapagos Islands


A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
The animals of the world exist for their own reasons. They were not made for humans any more than black people were made for whites or women for men. -Alice Walker, poet and novelist (b. 9 Feb 1944)

Ring-tailed lemur. Found in Madagascar


OPTICAL ILLUSION

Chess pieces or people? – Or maybe both? 

www.DianesDailyCorner.Blogspot.com

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