Saturday, November 20, 2010

Things I learned this week - It's Not L.A.

They say you should try and learn something new every day. I think that's a fabulous plan. I try to pay attention to my surroundings so I can do just that.

Some days, I learn BIG things. Life changing lessons.

Other days, it's little bitty trivial things.

For example, this week I learned:

- That this thing:Starbucks splash stick exists.

What is it? It's a little "stopper" for the starbucks coffee lids, a little plug..so your coffee doesn't spill...and can also be used as a stirrer. See:


Who knew?

I also learned:

- That the capital of California is Sacramento. Okay, fine, I realize I should PROBABLY be embarrassed by this one, but here's my excuse: I was 1o years old when I moved to the U.S. and I NEVER had a geography class in school. I know Portuguese geography pretty well. But the U.S.A.? All I know is self taught, and I'm an East Coast girl, so the west coast details are a little fuzzy. And don't even ask me about all those rectangles and squares in the middle of the country...I have no idea. But, I have decided to try to teach myself more about U.S. geography, because really...I should know...

I learned as well:

That the word "redound" actually exists. A friend included it in an email to me, and I thought it was a typo...I was wrong. It actually has several meanings in current language, but since my friend was using it in old English terms:


redound
1382, "to overflow," from O.Fr. redonder "overflow, abound" (12c.), from L. redundare "to overflow" (see redundant). Meaning "to flow or go back" (to a place or person) is from 1382; hence "to rebound" (c.1500), and "to contribute to" (the credit, honor, etc.), c.1500.

See? Now maybe you learned something new today! What other things have you learned this week?

2 comments:

PBNJM said...

ok I learned Redound. the other two I already knew, the starbucks thing has been around for a while, but there are a lot of starbucks out here and not many there, also I'd be in trouble if I didn't know the capital of California, since I live here!

Thanks for the lesson though, I love learning new words, could you give me a sentence?

Tui Snider said...

Redound, eh? Cool new word to me, as well!

I struggle with geography, too. Seems like the best way to put a place on my mental map is if I go live somewhere for a while.

~Tui