Chunksters, numbers, and a RE-birthday

Books I'm still reading:

• 50 Popular Beliefs That People Think Are True ~ by Guy P. Harrison, foreword by Dr. Phil Plait, 2011, collection, 458 pages — This book is divided into eight sections:  Magical Thinking, Out There, Science and Reason, Strange Healings, Lure of the Gods, Bizarre Beings, Weird Places, and Dreaming of the End.  Wherever possible, Harrison presents alternative scientific explanations, which in most cases are even more fascinating.
• A History of the World in 100 Objects ~ by Neil MacGregor, 2010, history, 736 pages — I'm still reading this chunkster a bit at a time.  More info HERE.

Word of the Day

Chunkster = There was a Chunkster Challenge about a decade ago, and people were challenged to read big, fat books of 450+ pages.  They could be fiction or nonfiction.  It looks like that's what I'm doing with these two books:  458 + 736 pages.  They're both on my Kindle, so they're not heavy.

Numbers of the Day (odd ones and even ones)

Amy Krouse Rosenthal (Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life, 2005, p. 119):  "Justin came home from school with the announcement that he had just learned what even and odd numbers were.  Okay, I said.  So tell me:  What's infinity, even or odd?  I certainly didn't have an answer in mind; I posed it only as a fun, unanswerable kind of question.  He thought about it for a moment, then concluded:  Mom, infinity is an 8 on its side, so it is an even number."  [FYI, infinity is not a number.]

Re-birthday

Today is the 14th anniversary of my quadruple bypass surgery on February 19, 2009.  A year later, I decided it was a perfect occasion to party with the friends who took care of me (and my cat) while I was recovering, so I sent invitations to my RE-birthday party.  This photo shows me holding the cake Donna brought for the occasion.  See the giant candle shaped like a ONE?

Hmm, that means the "new" me is 14 years old.  Somebody remind me how to act like a teen.  At 11, my sixth grade teacher called me "stately" and chose me to play the part of Marmee in the 2-hour production of "Little Women" she produced using my classmates and me.  That made me the "mother" of four of my friends.  Hmm.  I don't know how to act like a teen, and I'm not sure I ever knew.  I was always considered the "mature" kid.

As I was searching for the top photo, I ran across this one of me in an art class after moving to the Crown Center.  I was struck by the similarity of how I posed — or at least the tilt of my head.  The photos were taken at least five years apart, maybe more.

Deb Nance at Readerbuzz

hosts The Sunday Salon.