Where Knowledge Junkies Get Their Fix

For those who love trivia about anything, you have to get a subscription for the magazine Mental Floss. I read every issue cover to cover. Every article is always fascinating ranging in subjects from history to medicine to pop culture and food, etc. The art is also great and usually hilarious, plus, what few ads they do have in the magazine are for "intellectual" products and events such as visual dictionaries and announcements for book festivals. Every issue reads like you are having a conversation with a friend at a coffee shop and it has stuff that you are never told about in school. Basically it rocks. Here are some of the titles of the feature stories in this month's issue:

• Toilet Paper: How America Convinced the World to Wipe
• Born to Run: 7 Incredible Escape Stories
• Architecture 2050: 5 Places to Live in the Future
• The Genius of the Joy of Cooking

Go on, check it out and test your knowledge by taking some fun quizzes on

http://www.mentalfloss.com/

Make sure you read their "About" section; it will really give you an idea of what to expect and it will make you laugh!

I Am a Yankee Doodle

Yo, this is my first ever blog. In honor of the 4th of July coming up, I will start the blog's fun facts off with trivia about the holiday and related topics. Here we go:

• The first 4th of July party was held at the White House in 1801 by Thomas Jefferson.
• The words "Under God" were not added to the pledge until 1954.
• The 4th of July was not declared a national holiday until 1941.
• The 13 stars on the original flag were formed in a circle so that all the colonies were represented equally.
• The majority of the nation's flags used for paraphernalia for the holiday is ironically made in China.
• Both Thomas Jefferson and John Adams died on July 4th, 1826. James Monroe, the 5th president, also died on the 4th in 1831.
• Francis Scott Key, author of the National Anthem, set to the tune of an English drinking song entitled "The Anacreon in Heaven".
• The 13th president Calvin Coolidge was born on the 4th of July 1872.
• Uncle Sam was a symbol that became popular during the War of 1812, however, the U.S. Congress did not adopt him as a national symbol until 1961.

To view the original Declaration of Independence, check out this link to the National Archives:

http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/declaration.html 

To read about popular myths regarding the 4th of July follow this link to an article on the History News Network: http://hnn.us/articles/132.html 

Famous Quote

"In the truest sense, freedom cannot be bestowed; it must be achieved."

 - Franklin D. Roosevelt