The Know-It-All - F, G

F

Fahrenheit, Daniel - German physicist and inventor of the mercury thermometer (1714). I've always wondered why he did not choose 0 as the freezing point. Instead, he chose 0 as the temperature of an equal ice-salt mixture, 30 as the freezing point of water and 90 was supposed to be the normal body temperature of a human. Again, why choose 30 for the freezing point of water? And who cares about the temperature of an equal ice-salt mixture? He botched the numbers anyway. 32 is actually the freezing point of water and normal human temperature is 98.6! This is a prime example of how bad ideas can take root and stick future generations with bad systems. Ask me about church governance sometime.

Fleming, Ian - Famous for his Bond books, I did not realize he also wrote the the book about the flying car, Chitty-Chitty Bang Bang. He apparently loved gadgets.

G

Gandhi - Let me quote from the EB here, "(Gandhi) went through a phase of adolescent rebellion, marked by secret atheism, petty thefts, furtive smoking and - most shocking of all for a boy born in a Vaishnava family - meat eating." In a strange way, this gives me more hope for human nature. People can change. Hopefully I'll be able to remember that when I have teenagers of my own.

Gettysburg Address - This is for all you long winded preachers out there. Lincoln was not the featured speaker the day he gave this historic oration. The big attraction that day was a two hour harangue given by Massachusetts congressman and President of Harvard, Edward Everett. In two minutes, Lincoln relegated Everett to a historical footnote. Shorter is better.

Grateful Dead - I know the band, but I did not know the folktale. Here's the short version: Traveler finds the corpse of a man denied burial because he had too many debts, traveler pays for burial. Later, the spirit of the corpse appears in the form of an animal and saves the traveler from some sort of danger. Ladies and gentlemen, The Grateful Dead.

Greenland - Why is Iceland green and Greenland so icy? Because Eric the Red was banished from Iceland in 982 A.D. for manslaughter. In a felonious P.R. ploy to entice people to join him there, he called his new home Greenland. Like most P.R. people I know, Eric was shady, but smart.

It would have been appropriate for me to be up to the J's today for two reasons. First, congrats to the University of Kansas (as in, Jayhawks) on their national championship in men's basketball. What a game! Secondly, because today it is my brother J.'s birthday. Haven't quite made it that far, but happy birthday to you anyway. You could fill an encyclopedia with the good and important things I've learned from you.