Ren Allen

"It would be interesting to me to see what sorts of
things have been questioned today!"

I love it! I have to keep notebooks around at all times for all the
questions, ideas or places we see that we want to remember. It's a
constant flow. I finally got a notebook tiny enough to fit in my
carry-along bag.

Let's see...this week we've had Sierra wanting to know the etymology
of the word "library", how tall Emporer Pengiuns are, looked up how to
cook the yummy treat we saw on Food Network (chocolate ravioli), and
today Jared had a really interesting question that we forgot to write
down and now it's GONE! Darn....

Ren
learninginfreedom.com

Ren Allen

"Sunday night Holly and I were in the hot tub and she asked me (out of
the blue, it seemed) whether people actually really ever put messages
in bottles. "

Trevor was once fascinated with this idea, so we launched one in the
creek behind our house (back in Battleground WA, in the 90's). It made
it about 4 blocks away...a neighbor contacted us to let us know they
found it! Sheesh. We had high hopes for Japan or something.:)

Ren
learninginfreedom.com

Krisula Moyer

Why do people give cards on Valentine's day?

What does the "video" part mean in video games?

Laura Endres

> Why do people give cards on Valentine's day?
>




I received this by email today.... :-)

Today is Valentine's Day, the day on which we celebrate romantic love & florists in the US import several million pounds of roses from South America. Around 36,000,000 boxes of chocolates will be given as gifts today.

The holiday comes, in part, from the Romans' holiday honoring Juno, the goddess of women and marriage, on the night before the Feast of Lupercalia. Roman girls would put slips of paper with their names on them into a clay jar, and the boys would choose their partner for the festival by taking a slip from the jar. This was one of the few times girls and boys were allowed to socialize, and the dancing and games often evolved into courtship and marriage.

Tradition has it that Valentine's Day as we know it began sometime in the middle of the third century. Claudius II of Rome was waging several wars and needed to recruit more soldiers for his armies. He thought that many men were reluctant to join because they didn't want to leave their wives and families, and so he temporarily banned engagements and marriages. O foolish Claudius! Saint Valentine was working as a priest at the time and he and his partner Saint Marius broke the law and secretly married couples. Eventually Saint Valentine was caught and sentenced to death. While awaiting his punishment he would talk with the young daughter of the prison guard whose father allowed her to visit occasionally. Saint Valentine was killed on February 14, 269 A.D., but he had left a note for the guard's daughter, signed, "Love from your Valentine." This all sounds like made up history - but there you have it.


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Ren Allen

I'm assuming you've told Holly about the movie "message in a bottle"?

Here's the link if not: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0139462/

Ren
learninginfreedom.com

Sandra Dodd

No, didn't know about it, but we'll check it out. Thanks!

She's out of town until Monday night, and I forgot to ask her why
that bottle question came up.



On Feb 15, 2006, at 10:10 AM, Ren Allen wrote:

> I'm assuming you've told Holly about the movie "message in a bottle"?
>
> Here's the link if not: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0139462/



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]