...and you thought you knew everything?

A friend of mine sent me an email recently that I want to share. It's all about some interesting facts you may or may not know. I can't be certain if all of the statements below are true, but I'll give this list the benefit of the doubt. Whoever made this list must have checked it all out.

This is the kind of trivia you should know in order to get your team a decent prize down at your local pub quiz!

_______________________________________

You thought you knew everything?

Stewardesses is the longest word 
typed with only the left hand. 


And 'lollipop' is the longest word typed
with your right hand. 
(Bet you tried this out mentally, didn't you?) 




No word in the English language rhymes with 
month, orange, silver, or purple. 

' Dreamt' is the only English word that ends in the letters 'mt'.
(Are you doubting this?) 

Our eyes are always the same size from birth,
but our nose and ears never stop growing. 

The sentence: 'The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog'
uses every letter of the alphabet.
(Now, you KNOW you're going to try this out for accuracy, right?) 

The words 'racecar,' 'kayak' and 'level' are the same whether they are read left to right or right to left (palindromes).
(Yep, I knew you were going to 'do' this one.)


There are only four words in the English language which end in 'dous': tremendous, horrendous, stupendous, and hazardous.
(You're not possibly doubting this, are you ?)


There are two words in the English language that have all five vowels in order: 'abstemious' and 'facetious.'
(Yes, admit it, you are going to say, a e i o u) 


TYPEWRITER is the longest word that can be made using the letters only on one row of the keyboard.
(All you typists are going to test this out) 


A cat has 32 muscles in each ear. 


A goldfish has a memory span of three seconds 
(Some days that's about what my memory span is..) 

A 'jiffy' is an actual unit of time for 1/100th of a second. 

A shark is the only fish that can blink with both eyes. 

A snail can sleep for three years.
(I know some people that could do this too!) 


Almonds are a member of the peach family. 



An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain. 
(I know some people like that also . Actually I know A LOT of people like this!) 

Babies are born without kneecaps..
They don't appear until the child reaches 2 to 6 years of age. 



February 1895 is the only month in recorded history not to have a full moon. 

Fenruary 2012 will NOT have a full moon!


In the last 4,000 years, no new animals have been domesticated. 

If the population of China walked past you, the line would never end because of the rate of reproduction. 

Leonardo Da Vinci invented the scissors 


Peanuts are one of the ingredients of dynamite!

Rubber/elastic bands last longer when refrigerated. 


The average person's left hand does 56% of the typing.



The cruise liner, QE 2,
moves only six inches for each gallon of diesel that it burns.

The microwave was invented after a researcher walked by a radar tube and a chocolate bar melted in his pocket.
(Good thing he did that.)



The winter of 1932 was so cold that  Niagara Falls 

froze completely solid .



There are more chickens than people in the world. 


Winston Churchill
was born in a ladies' room during a dance. 

Women blink nearly twice as much as men.

__________________________________________ 

Now you know more than you did before!!

Good luck in your pub quiz!!! 

Going to California!

Thanks for dropping by my blog! Nice to have you here again.

There's not much happening around here these days. It's all family occasions and football matches, all happy days of course! ..... even if the mosquitoes are annoying the hell out of me!

I'm also happy about a recent art sale I made. This painting here below called 'Two Black Cats' is leaving home! A sale is a sale as they say, money in the pocket, so one must be happy! YaaBaaDabaDoo indeed!!

I was a little sad today however as I had to post this little painting off to an art collector in the U.S.A.

It's a painting that I have liked having in my studio and I have always enjoyed watching and listening to reactions from people who come to see it. The Finnish people seem to appreciate it's simplistic and positive message, and more importantly, it appeals to the young and old. It has also been one of my most popular paintings for prints both here in Finland and abroad. Especially so in the United States with print sales in Manhattan Kansas, Austin Texas, and Maspeth New York amongst others. And now the original painting is finally on it's way to San Diego California. I want to thank all of those who purchased prints and a special thanks to the nice lady in California who will receive 'Two Black Cats' in the post shortly. I hope they serve you well! This song is for you and my black cats....

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Thanks for reading my blog and please feel free to share it with any of your friends.

You can receive my blogposts direct to your email or facebook profile by pressing the follow button at NetworkedBlogs  and you are welcome to visit my art page on Facebook by clicking the 'Like' button under my signature below.

- Alan 

                     

'FIRST BLOOD' - No man, no law, no war can stop him!

Finnish Mosquitos take no prisoners!

It's summertime again here in Finland, whoa hoo!!! 
Warm sunshine, colourful gardens, the smell of barbeques, cold beers ......and yes, I almost forgot, the baby mosquitos have hatched......Yes, it's time to go to mosquito war again!!

Well, as long as you're indoors in the evening it's actually not too bad here. Earlier this week I had my first uninvited guests to sample my blood. I'm kind of use to it by now, but there are still certain places I try to prevent the little buggers from biting. They have their favorite places, like the back of the legs, the ankles and much to my annoyance, the back of my hands! I know that I shouldn't moan about such little things and that people have bigger problems, but this is one creature I don't feel guilty about killing. In fact I get a lot of pleasure when I do manage to kill one. Unfortunately however, I face a losing battle every year as I am constantly out-numbered. 


I'd like to have an endless supply of mosquito repellant, but it's quite expensive here. I sometimes wish there were more repellant products to choose from, forcing a bit of brand competition. Perhaps that could lower the prices. If anyone knows of something that can be easily be made on the cheap at home please leave a comment. I've tried a few things already, but the mosquitos just keep on biting!

One new item I recently discovered in the shops that may help keep mosquitos and other nasty biters away is the 'Bug Zapper'. It looks like a miniture tennis racket with electrified wires as threads. This battery-powered device is new to me, but it may have been out for a while. If anyone has used it let me know your opinion. I bought mine at Clas Ohlsen in Helsinki, but I noticed that they're available in other countries such as Sweden and the UK. I shall be testing it myself after my next barbeque, so watch this space!

Bug Zapper

There is one flying insect I hate even more than any mosquito or wasp and it's a creature I have only ever encountered here in Finland. I don't know the english or finnish name for it, only the swedish. It may be a type of horse-fly, but I need to do a little more research. All I can say is that it looks half-fly, half-moth. This 'fly' cannot be heard as it comes to bite you, and when I say bite, I mean 'bite'. I've heard that they actually remove a small piece of flesh in the process. And the bites can vary as this fly comes in different sizes. I have seen small ones resembling normal flies, and I have also seen big ones, some as big as golfballs! I will have to keep awake and alert if I am to get one of these beauties with my new Bug Zapper. Yep, this fly is one lean mean stealth munchin' machine! 

This is my second blogpost on the pests I love to hate. You can read my first one by clicking here.   

 Thanks for reading my blog and feel free to share with all your friends.

-Alan

You are welcome to visit my art page on Facebook by clicking the 'Like' button here.

Please leave your reaction to this blogpost by ticking one of the little boxes below. Thanks!

Visit 

The Art Garage website 

Click here !

  

Summertime Blues?.....No thanks!!!

This blogpost is written especially for anyone living here in Finland.

Living in Finland for a few years now, I have witnessed the harsh winters and learned to deal with cold temperatures. I have shovelled my fair share of snow and lost the feeling in my fingers several times.

It's been a long cold winter and now summer is finally here!

Time to get the Kabanossi and Karhu out, put the sandals and shorts on, set up the trampoline or pool if you're lucky enough to have one. 




Going a little crazy just because of a bit of sun is something I can relate to, being an Irishman. One could easily replace the Finnish cold for Irish rain in this equation. And believe me, a cocktail of Irish rain and atlantic winds can really get you down sometimes. Show an Irishman a window full of summer sunshine and he'll be straight out for a game of golf before getting ready for an evening of barbeque and beer! I've noticed that Finns are very similar in their appreciation of all things sunny and nice too. While the Finnish winter can be beautiful and unique in it's own way, one window of summer sunshine and the Finnish public are straight down to the beach, park or their summer cottage for some quality time!!

So before you go out and disappear under the big glow of the summer sun, let me wish all my blog visitors in the northern half of the world a very happy summer!

And if any readers living here in Finland have doubts about letting your hair down this summer, or if you are having second thoughts about jumping in that lake with nothing but your birthday suit on, why not watch this video. Remember, while the winters here are wonderful and picturesque, they are also very long. The summer is short, and I think this will encourage you to enjoy it even more. It's a long video, but worth watching at least for the guy's commentary. I thought he was funny and....and I must go visit that well-known "Baltic country Viagra", I heard it's economy has been growing rapidly since joining the Eurozone. He seemed to enjoy his visit anyway. I watched this on full screen as he used a top of the line Sony camera.

Thanks for reading my blog and feel free to share with all your friends. My next blog will return to a subject I love to hate!

-Alan

You are welcome to visit my art page on Facebook by clicking the 'Like' button here.

Please leave your reaction to this blogpost by ticking one of the little boxes below. Thanks!

Visit 

The Art Garage website 

Click here !

Soul Inspired!

When most people think of Irish music festivals they think of fiddles, tin whistles, lively dancing and the odd refreshment. But times have changed and nowadays Ireland has many other musical festivals to offer, and for many different tastes. Festivals such as the Cork Jazz Festival, the Electric Picnic, and the Castlebar Blues Festival for example. And this month another festival which has only been around for 5 years comes back to Ireland's capital. Set up by a group of young dedicated Dubliners in 2007 the annual 'Dublin City Soul Festival' is an event about creating positive feeling through soul music. It's a way for musicians and like-minded people to come together and show their passion for what's best about Ireland. One of the big attractions of this year's festival I reckon will be the amazing and charismatic Mirenda Rosenberg, a singer from the U.S. now living in Ireland since 2005. Tickets are only €15 to see her, an absolute bargain! Check her out here in this video, fantastic!

There has been a wholesome connection between the roots of soul music and various musicians in Ireland over the years, and a great bond of musical respect has been established because of this. Well-known Irish artists such as U2, Van Morrison, Sinead O'Connor, The Chieftains, Damien Rice and Lisa Hannigan come to mind.

And I suppose we shouldn't forget that little movie by director Alan Parker called 'The Committments'. This is the band that came to my mind first when I heard about this new festival in Dublin. It's a film I really enjoyed for the energy, the acting and of course that sweet soul music! Although I don't recall anyone singing soul music on the buses when I was growing up in Dublin. Weddings perhaps, but never on public transport!

It's not a bad redition of the old classic soul tunes. But let's be honest here and say that the originals are the ones to savour and add to your cd collection. The Committments were at their best an excellent covers band, not unlike a lot of the cover bands doing the pub circuits around Ireland at the moment. It is however nice to see that the old gang are back together again these days, and they have a 20th Anniversary Reunion Concert planned for next November in Dublin's Olympia Theatre. In fact they play two nights on November 9th and 10th, 2011. If you're lucky enough to be in Ireland around those dates you might like to enter this competition here to win some tickets. They recently had a comback concert last March with all of the original line-up. Here's a little video from Irish television with a few of them singing the classic 'Chain of Fools', and yes, that is the gorgeous Imelda Quirke singing!!...sorry I mean Angeline Ball!

  

The Dublin City Soul Festival's big banner-call this year is 'Cead Mile Failte', which is an Irish welcome as described in this short poem here.

An Irish Welcome

Here's Céad Míle Fáilte to friend and to rover
That's a greeting that's Irish as Irish can be
It means you are welcome
A thousand times over
Wherever you come from, Whosoever you be.

I recently received an email from one of the Soul Festival's event people asking me if I'd like to take part in this year's event. The organisers have a project called Eye Candy where they ask artists to donate a piece of their work in aid of the festival's charity. The charity in question is called the 'Musical Youth Foundation'. It is the aim of this charity to provide more access for every Irish child to music through free lessons and musical instruments. I did of course donate a painting. I didn't have a lot of notice about the event, but I hope this little piece which I sent over can help somehow. I call it 'Soul Inspired' with a slight pun towards Dublin city's most controversial landmark called 'The Spire' on O'Connell Street (see photo below). The 'Dublin City Soul Festival 2011' is on from May 26th to May 29th 2011.

Finally, speaking of charity events, for anybody living in Ireland there's a great little table quiz being held in Dublin on June 1st, 2011 in aid of the Irish Cancer Society. It's called 'The Hogan Quiz' and it's organised by a wonderful bunch of people with plenty of heart and soul. And they also happen to be cousins of mine so you will definately have a great night. For more information check out their event page on Facebook here!

Thanks for reading my blog and please share it with all your friends.

-Alan

You are welcome to visit my art page on Facebook by clicking the 'Like' button here.

Please leave your reaction to this blogpost by ticking one of the boxes below. Thanks!