The Writer's Life 12/8 - Pilot

RIP John Glenn, 95, fighter pilot, astronaut and senator. On February 20, 1962, he flew the Friendship 7 mission, becoming the first American to orbit the Earth and the third in space following Alan Shepard and Gus Grissom. He was the last survivor of the Mercury Seven. During WWII he flew 59 combat missions in the South Pacific, and flew another 63 in the Korean War, where for a time future Hall of Fame baseball player Ted Williams was his wingman. His nickname was "magnet ass" for his alleged ability to attract enemy flak. On two occasions he returned to base with over 250 holes in his craft. In 1974 he won election as Senator to his native state of Ohio. and served through January 1999. On October 29, 1998, age 77, still a sitting senator, he became the oldest person to fly in space, and the only one to fly in both the Mercury and Space Shuttle programs. Well done, sir. Thank you.

Here's a list of oddities from factsd.com:
Bubble wrap was originally intended to be used as wallpaper.
The first part of the body to form in the womb is the rump.
Tears caused by sadness, happiness and onions look different under a microscope.
The expiration date on water bottles is for the bottle, not the water.
Bird poop is white because birds don’t pee.
Blue flames are hotter than red flames.
On Venus, it snows metal, galena and bismuthinite.
You recall memories better with eyes closed.
People with blue eyes have a higher alcohol tolerance.
Men are more likely to first say “I Love you” than women.
Hippopotamus milk is pink.
You have never seen your face, only pictures and reflections.
The human eye can distinguish about ten million colors.
People are more likely to make good decisions when they need to urinate.
Antarctica is the only continent without reptiles.
Some snakes survive for two years without a meal.
Antarctica is the largest desert in the world.
Beavers have orange teeth.
Cows have distinct accents in their mooing, depending on where they are from.
The human brain takes in eleven million individual pieces of information per second but is cognizant only of 40, roughly.
Barbie’s full name is Barbara Millicent Roberts.

A light wind allowed the floating book shop to operate for a couple hours on this cloudy December day. My thanks to the gentleman who bought the Eugene Ionesco absurdist play, Rhinoceros, and Lewis Thomas' The Lives of a Cell, a collection of pieces on biology; and to the young man who purchased Bipolar II: Enhance Your Highs, Boost Your Creativity, and Escape the Cycles of Recurrent Depression by Ronald R. Fieve, and another work of non-fiction. 

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