According to a 2022 Census of Agriculture, the U.S. added almost a million bee colonies in the past five years, but honey production has declined.
St. Isidore (of Seville) is the patron saint of computers, programmers, and the internet as a whole.
Gelotology is the study of laughter and its effects on the body, in a psychological and physiological sense.
In 1936, pilot Dick Merrill and singer Harry Richman (“Puttin’ on the Ritz”) wanted to complete the first round-trip, transatlantic flight. To help ensure the plane would remain buoyant in case it was forced into the ocean, Merrill filled empty spaces in the wings with 41,000 ping pong balls.
Henry Croft (1861–1930), an orphan street sweeper who collected money for charity, decorated his clothes with mother of pearl buttons to draw attention to himself. The tradition has carried on in working class London culture and the group is known as “the pearlies,” short for Pearly Kings and Queens.
This article appears in October 11 • 2024.