What Have You Forgotten? (Fun Facts and a giveaway)

Have you ever had your child come to you with a question that you know you should know, and you realize you don't know? Know what I mean? My daughter and I were having a discussion this morning about some pre-calc that she didn't understand. I told her yet again, that math had been my best subject in high school/college - and she informed me that it was so long ago she just figured I wouldn't remember! (To be honest - and I think I can be honest with you all - I probably wouldn't have remembered, but as long as she had her text - I'm a quick study!)

If you have ever forgotten something you think you once knew, leave a comment for the chance to win a copy of I Used to Know That: Stuff You Forgot From School. Please leave your email address so that I can get in touch with you. (Giveaway open to U.S./Canada only and will end Dec 29.) I guess you can even enter if you still know it all, too! Meanwhile, see if you remember the facts below.

12 Days and 12 Facts for This Holiday Season
By Caroline Taggart,
Author of I Used to Know That: Stuff You Forgot From School

Ever catch yourself saying I Used to Know That?

Each holiday season brings another round of cocktail parties, family get-togethers, and corporate gatherings -- and invariably, lots of small talk. It's easy to feel overwhelmed when discussing politics, literature, and other intellectual "stuff," especially when what is thought to be general knowledge is often long-forgotten. Enter I Used to Know That: Stuff You Forgot From School. From English and Literature to Math and Science, from History and Geography to Religion and Other-Worldly Topics, this book leaves you equipped to handle any topic of conversation.

Here we've cherry-picked twelve fun facts for the holiday season -- one for every day of Christmas (or whatever holiday you prefer!) Quiz yourself to see how much "stuff" you need to brush up on before hobnobbing with the boss or office crush.

1. On building sentences: Just what is a "clause"? (Not to be confused with Santa Claus.)

Answer: A clause contains a subject and a verb and may stand alone as a sentence or as part of a sentence (when it is often called asubordinate clause): Santa Claus loves cookies but can't eat them without milk.

2. How many bones is the spine made up of?

Answer: 26 small bones called vertebrae (Be careful lifting all those heavy holiday boxes.)

3. Acclaimed author Charles Dickens (1812-70) wrote which Christmas classic?

Answer: A Christmas Carol. The miserly Ebenezer Scrooge tries to ignore Christmas and is haunted by the ghost of his former partner, Marley, and by the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Yet to Come, who show him the error of his ways.

4. The fist chapter of this famous book opens with "Call me Ishmael." Name the book and author. (Hint: it makes a whale of a gift!)

Answer: Moby Dick by Herman Melville. Melville is also the author of Pierre and the unfinished Billy Budd.

5. There's a name for the process of watering your Christmas tree? Who knew?

Answer: Grab the kids and give them this science factoid as they nurture the family tree: Osmosis is a form of diffusion that is specific to the movement of water. Water moves through a selectively permeable membrane (that is, one that lets some types of molecules through but not others) from a place where there is a higher concentration of water to one where it is lower.

6. Can you name all 6 wives of Henry VIII, father of the Church of England?

Answer: (Listed in order) Catherine, Anne, Jane, Anne, Catherine, Catherine. They are often remembered as divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived. Sure makes you think twice when complaining about bad relatives.

7. Who was the 16th President of the United States?

Answer: Abraham Lincoln (R, 1861-65) and yes -- he really was born in a log cabin on a winter's day. Notably famous for many reasons including his Gettysburg Address: "Four Score and Seven Years ago our fathers brought fourth upon this continent a new nation conceived in Liberty . . . "

8. 'Tis the season to be jolly giving! Don’t forget to tip well this season -- etiquette coaches will tell you that means no less than 18%. So just how much should you tip on a bill of $50?

Answer: Percent means by a hundred, so anything expressed as a percentage is a fraction (or part, if you prefer) of 100. So 18% is 18 parts of 100, or 18/100 or .18. If your bill is $50, multiply 50 by .18 to get your tip total of $9. If you're feeling generous, a 20% tip would require you to multiply 50 by .20, for a total of $10.00

50.00 x .18 = 9.00

50.00 x .20 = 10.00

Percentages can also be holiday-relevant when it comes to figuring out in-store sales. In this case, you want to multiply by the inverse of the percentage listed. So if you have a $50 sweater that's on sale for 25% off, multiply 50 by .75 for your total of $37.50. That same $50 sweater on sale for 40% off would equate to $30, or $50 multiplied by .60.

50.00 x .75 = 37.50

50.00 x .60 = 30.00

9. Brr, it's cold outside. But just how cold does it have to be to get some snow around here?

Answer: Did you know that the freezing point of water is 32 degrees Fahrenheit? Keep an eye on the temperature and watch your footing for ice on the ground. (See previous fact about those treasured vertebrae!)

10. Everyone knows Santa and his elves live in the North Pole. But what about the South Pole (aka Antarctica)?

Answer: The South Pole was discovered by Roald Amundsen (1872-1928, Norwegian), who was also the first to sail though the Northwest passage, the sea route from Pacific to Atlantic along the north coast of North America. Antarctica is the only continent that contains no countries -- instead, it is a stateless territory protected from exploitation by an international treaty. A good place for the elves to protest low wages?

11. Which Ocean is bigger: the Pacific or the Atlantic?

Answer: The Pacific Ocean is larger at 69,374 square miles -- that's almost double the Atlantic, which comes in at 35,665 square miles. Making it even more astonishing that St. Nick can cross the globe in just one night.

12. Remember the reason for the Season! Can you name a few things that both Judaism and Christianity have in common?

Answer: Both are monotheistic religions that share the first five books of the Christian Old Testament. Both religions view Jerusalem as a sacred site, the former for the Wailing Wall (contains the remains of the temple that was thought to be the place where God resides on earth) and the latter for Christ's burial and resurrection site.

Happy Holidays to all!

©2009 Caroline Taggart, author of I Used to Know That: Stuff You Forgot From School

Author Bio
Caroline Taggart, author of I Used to Know That: Stuff You Forgot From School, has been an editor of non-fiction books for nearly 30 years and has covered nearly every subject from natural history and business to gardening and astronomy. She has written several books and was the editor of Writer's Market UK 2009.

For more information please visit www.amazon.com.

Thank the Lord, School's in Session!

Yesterday my youngest went back to school - he was the last to head off - and it coincides nicely with my last Back-to-School post! Enjoy!


World Religions
by Caroline Taggart,
Author of I Used to Know That: Stuff You Forgot From School

There are, of course, lots of them and lots of subdivisions within them, but here is a little about the five really big ones, starting with the oldest.

JUDAISM
Monotheistic religion whose beginnings are lost in the mists of time. Its adherents are called Jews, their god is eternal and invisible, and trusting in God's will is a fundamental tenet. Jewish law as revealed by God is contained in the Torah, which comprises the first five books of the Christian Old Testament. The Wailing Wall in Jerusalem is a sacred site.

HINDUISM
Polytheistic, about 5,000 years old, and followed primarily in India. One of its tenets is that one's actions lead to the reward or punishment of being reincarnated in a higher or lower form of life. The aim is to be freed from this cycle and attain the state of unchanging reality known as Brahman. The three principal creator gods are Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva, but Krishna (an incarnation of Vishnu) is also widely worshipped. The main scriptures are the Vedas. The Ganges River is seen as a goddess of purity and pilgrims come to the holy city of Varanesi (Benares) to bathe in the river. The cow is a sacred symbol of fertility.

BUDDHISM
Founded in the 6th century b.c. by Gautama Siddhartha, known as the Buddha or "Awakened One." There are no gods in Buddhism; its adherents follow the philosophy expressed in the Buddha's Four Noble Truths -- that existence is characterized by suffering, that suffering is caused by desire, that to end desire is therefore to end suffering, and that this may be achieved by following the Eightfold Path to the ideal state of nirvana.

CHRISTIANITY
Monotheistic religion that grew out of Judaism 2,000 years ago and is based on the belief that Jesus Christ is the son of God. The holy book is the Bible, divided into the Old and New testaments; the New Testament is the one concerned with the teachings of Christ and his apostles. The church divided initially into Eastern (Orthodox) and Western (Roman Catholic) branches. The Catholic Church still recognizes the Pope as leader and Rome as a holy city, but a major rift beginning in the 16th century led to the emergence of the Protestants and many subsequent subdivisions. Jerusalem is the traditional site of Christ's burial and resurrection.

ISLAM
Monotheistic religion whose god is called Allah, founded in the 7th century a.d. by the one prophet, Mohammed. The holy book -- the Koran or Qur'an -- contains the revelations that Allah made to Mohammed. The holy cities are Mecca, birthplace of Mohammed, and Medina, where he is buried. All able-bodied Muslims who can afford it are expected to make a pilgrimage (hadj) to Medina at least once in their lives. The Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem is the oldest intact Muslim temple in the world and is built over the point from which Mohammed traditionally ascended to heaven.

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS
Given to Moses by God on Mount Sinai (remember Charlton Heston and those massive tablets?), these are a basic code of conduct for both Jews and Christians.

1. Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
2. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.
3. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.
4. Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy.
5. Honor thy father and thy mother.
6. Thou shalt not kill.
7. Thou shalt not commit adultery.
8. Thou shalt not steal.
9. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.
10. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbor's.

The above is an excerpt from the book I Used to Know That: Stuff You Forgot From School by Caroline Taggart. The above excerpt is a digitally scanned reproduction of text from print. Although this excerpt has been proofread, occasional errors may appear due to the scanning process. Please refer to the finished book for accuracy.

Copyright © 2009 Caroline Taggart, author of I Used to Know That: Stuff You Forgot From School

Author Bio
Caroline Taggart, author of I Used to Know That: Stuff You Forgot From School, has been an editor of non-fiction books for nearly 30 years and has covered nearly every subject from natural history and business to gardening and astronomy. She has written several books and was the editor of Writer's Market UK 2009.

For more information please visit www.amazon.com

One down and two to go!

Well, one daughter has started her Freshman year of high school - another is set to start her Senior year Wednesday and the third starts preschool next Monday (yes preschool, next year I get to put one in college and one in kindergarten!) So it is time for my next Back to School Post!

Figures of Speech (and other devices for spicing up your writing)
by Caroline Taggart,
Author of I Used to Know That: Stuff You Forgot From School

A figure of speech is technically an expression used in a nonliteral (that is, a figurative) way, such as when you say My lips are sealed. Obviously, this is not possible unless you have put glue over them. When most people learn ways to expand their writing style, they are often directed to utilize such techniques as alliteration and onomatopoeia, which poets also use for effect. Here is a basic list that you may (or may not) remember:

alliteration: when a number of words in quick succession begin with the same letter or the same letter is repeated. For example, Full fathom five thy father lies, as Ariel sings in The Tempest.

assonance: similar to alliteration, but now with the repetition of vowel sounds. For example, And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side/ Of my darling -- my darling -- my life and my bride,/ In the sepulchre there by the sea,/ In her tomb by the sounding sea. (Edgar Allan Poe, Annabel Lee)

euphemism: replacing an unpleasant word or concept with something less offensive, as in substituting the term Grim Reaper for death. Some are also intended to be funny, as when morticians refer to corpses as clients.

hyperbole: Pronounced hy-PER-bo-lee. Not HY-per-bowl. Exaggeration for effect, as in I've told you a hundred times. This is the opposite of . . .

litotes: understatement for effect, as when not bad means completely wonderful. Litotes can be interpreted differently, depending on culture and verbal emphasis.

metaphor: an expression in which a word is used in a nonliteral sense, saying that x is y rather than x is like y, which would be a simile. For example, Macbeth's Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player, That struts and frets his hour upon the stage.

metonymy: Merriam-Webster defines this as "a figure of speech consisting of the name of one thing for that of another of which it is an attribute or with which it is associated." For example, the term press, which originally was used for printing press, now connotates the news media. Easily confused with synecdoche.

onomatopoeia: a word or phrase that sounds (a bit) like the sound it is meant to convey: buzz, purr, or Tennyson's the murmuring of innumerable bees.

oxymoron: an apparent contradiction for effect, the classic example being jumbo shrimp.

personification: giving human qualities, such as emotions, desires, and sensations to an inanimate object or an abstract idea. Emily Dickinson's The Railway Train is often cited as an example of personification:

I like to see it lap the miles,
And lick the valleys up,
And stop to feed itself at tanks;
And then, prodigious step
Around a pile of mountains . . .

simile: a comparison that -- unlike a metaphor -- expresses itself as a comparison, usually with the words as or like. Examples include dead as a dodo or like a bat out of hell.

synecdoche: a form of metonymy, but in this instance specifically "a whole for the part or a part for the whole." For example, a set of wheels used to denote the term automobile, or the command All hands on deck to summon a crew of sailors.

The above is an excerpt from the book I Used to Know That: Stuff You Forgot From School by Caroline Taggart. The above excerpt is a digitally scanned reproduction of text from print. Although this excerpt has been proofread, occasional errors may appear due to the scanning process. Please refer to the finished book for accuracy.

Copyright © 2009 Caroline Taggart, author of I Used to Know That: Stuff You Forgot From School

Author Bio
Caroline Taggart, author of I Used to Know That: Stuff You Forgot From School, has been an editor of non-fiction books for nearly 30 years and has covered nearly every subject from natural history and business to gardening and astronomy. She has written several books and was the editor of Writer's Market UK 2009.

For more information please visit www.amazon.com

Back to School: The Queen's English

Speaking of The Queen's English - I registered my 14 year old daughter for high school a few weeks ago. When we had gone through all the paperwork (residency, physical, etc) stood in all the lines (pictures, Student I.D.'s, etc, etc) and put money out every time I yawned (yearbook, homecoming t-shirt, spirit wear, school pictures, etc, etc, etc), we finally arrived to the last station where we would pick up her schedule and get her textbooks - They hand us the stack and we are looking at them and I don't see an English book. Thinking that is strange, I look at her schedule and discover that she doesn't have a second period class - it skips from 1st to 3rd. Well, I of course, think my daughter is very bright and trustworthy - but am not comfortable allowing her to roam for an entire class period. I ask the personnel working this station - and they send me back down to the counselor's office as they only pass out the stuff - they don't schedule it! So - back down stairs we went to wait in the office until a counselor became free... And, you guessed it - her second period class was English. Her counselor made some crack about my daughter being the first student to ever come looking to take an English class - Unfortunately the next sentence out of my daughter's mouth contained an incorrect form of a verb. . .and the counselor and I had a quick laugh at my daughter's expense (sorry honey!) But I have blathered on enough! On to The Queen's English!

The Queen's English
By Caroline Taggart,
Author of I Used to Know That: Stuff You Forgot From School

The older generation is always complaining that the young can't speak or write correct English. Mind you, the older generation has always complained that the young can't speak or write correct English. That's because language is constantly changing (that's part of the fun of it) and only the most ardent pedants waste their time trying to stop it. But there are times when correct English matters: when you're writing a school report, for instance, or going for a job interview.

Teaching grammar went out of fashion in the 1960s, so if you are any age from 15 to 50 you may be one of many people who missed out on being taught the rules of your own language. If you sometimes feel a bit at sea about apostrophes and adjectives, comparatives and conjunctions, here's a not-too-serious quiz to help you through some of the pitfalls.

1) Commonly misspelled words: Only one of these four words is spelled correctly. Can you identify it and correct the others?

cematery, definate, embarrass, priviledge

2) Prolix prepositions: Prepositions are little words like at, to, under, on, off, usually used to show where one thing is in relation to another. It's a common mistake to use too many of them. With this in mind, can you correct these two sentences?

I took a day off of work.

Put that book back down on the table.

3) Dangling participles: A clause introduced by a present participle -- that's a word like "walking," "talking", "seeing," "believing" -- should have the same subject as the main clause. So can you correct this sentence?

Walking through the store, the red shoes caught her eye.

4) Restrictions and non-restrictions: Commas may not seem important, but they can make a big difference. What's the difference in meaning between these two sentences?

The trees which had yellow leaves looked beautiful in the sunshine.

The trees, which had yellow leaves, looked beautiful in the sunshine.

5) Apostrophes: They can be used to show that a letter is missing, or to indicate possession. So where do they go in this sentence?

Theres often lots of confusion about an apostrophes position.

6) The media is the message: Some words in English have unusual plural forms, often because they derive from Greek or Latin. Two of these words are plural, the other is singular. Can you give the singular forms of the plurals and vice versa?

formula, criteria, data

7) Too much of a good thing: Tautology and pleonasm are fancy words for saying the same thing twice. What's wrong with these expressions?

"unconfirmed rumor," "free gift", "HIV virus"?

8) Subjects and objects: the subject of a sentence is the person or thing that performs the action; the object is the one that receives it. Pronouns (words like he, she, it which take the place of nouns) take different forms depending on whether they are the subject or the object. So which of these are correct?

My husband and I would like to wish you every happiness.

My husband and me would like to wish you every happiness.

Please accept this small gift from my husband and I.

Please accept this small gift from my husband and me.

ANSWERS

1) Embarrass is correct. The others should be cemetery, definite, privilege.

2) I took a day off work and Put that book back on the table are neater and say exactly the same thing.

3) We all know what is meant by this sentence, but strictly speaking it says that the red shoes are doing the walking. As she was walking through the store, the red shoes caught her eye or Walking through the store, she noticed the red shoes are both grammatically correct.

4) The first version suggests that not all of the trees had yellow leaves (some were a different color) and only the yellow ones looked beautiful. In the second version all the trees have yellow leaves and all look beautiful.

5) There's often lots of confusion about an apostrophe's position. The first apostrophe indicates that "there's" is short for "there is", the second that the position "belongs" to the apostrophe.

6) Formula is a Latin singular, plural formulae. Criteria is from Greek and is the plural of criterion; data is Latin again and is a plural. Although rarely used nowadays, the singular is datum, meaning one piece of information.

7) They all contain an unnecessary word: a rumor is by definition unconfirmed -- once it's confirmed it becomes a story, or a fact, or a piece of news. And a gift is always free: if you have to pay for it, it isn't a gift. In the last example, it's "virus" that is unnecessary: what do you think the V stands for?

8) My husband and I would like to wish you every happiness and Please accept this small gift from my husband and me are correct. "I" is the subject of the verb, "me" is the object. To check this, try taking away "my husband and." You wouldn't say Me would like to wish you or Please accept this small gift from I, now would you?

©2009 Caroline Taggart, author of I Used to Know That: Stuff You Forgot From School

Author Bio
Caroline Taggart, author of I Used to Know That: Stuff You Forgot From School, has been an editor of non-fiction books for nearly 30 years and has covered nearly every subject from natural history and business to gardening and astronomy. She has written several books and was the editor of Writer's Market UK 2009.

For more information please visit www.amazon.com

Back to School! Already???

August - can't believe it is here already! I will be registering my daughters for high school in the next week - with one of them starting the 19th and the other one the 24th. My little one doesn't go back to preschool until after Labor Day - lucky him! But with school starting I thought it would be fun to do a series of posts that have been made available to me about - you guessed it - School! So - to start the fun:

Ten Trivia Facts You Probably Used to Know
By Caroline Taggart,
Author of I Used to Know That: Stuff You Forgot From School

You know how it is -- the kids come home from school full of enthusiasm for a new subject, ask you to explain something, and you think, "Oh, yes, I used to know that." When I started to write a book on things you'd forgotten from your schooldays, I realised that I half-knew lots of stuff. I'd heard of phrases and clauses, but did I know the difference between them? I had a vague idea about photosynthesis -- it's to do with how plants grow, isn't it? But doesn't being green come into it somewhere? And then there was the War of 1812 -- what was that all about?

So there are three Top Trivia Questions to start with; I'll answer them and then I'll give you seven more. That way, even if you can't answer the kids' questions, you can quickly change the subject and throw in some knowledge of your own.

1. Language: What's the difference between a clause and a phrase? These are the building blocks of a sentence. The difference is that a clause contains a subject and a verb. It often stands alone as a simple sentence (He loves dogs), but may also be part of a longer sentence (He loves dogs, but he doesn't own one). A phrase is a group of words in a sentence that does not contain a subject and a verb (In the afternoon, he took his mother's dog for a walk).

2. Biology: What is photosynthesis? It is -- as we suspected -- to do with how plants grow. It's the process by which they convert carbon dioxide and water into carbohydrates, using the energy they absorb from light by means of a green pigment called chlorophyll. Chlorophyll is stored mainly in the leaves and is the reason most plants are green. Photosynthesis releases oxygen into the atmosphere, enabling the rest of us to breathe.

3. History: The war of 1812, between the U.S. and Britain, actually lasted nearly three years, from 1812 to 1815. Britain was already at war with France (under Napoleon) and the U.S. sided with the French. American ships, trying to break a blockade that would prevent supplies from reaching France, were being seized by the British, who then coerced American seamen into the Royal Navy. On top of that, the U.S. was disputing British control of territories in Canada; New England's support for Britain complicated the issue further. This war -- the last time the U.S. and Britain fought on opposing sides -- ended in stalemate when the British defeated Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo and subsequently lifted their blockade.

4. Literature: Where does the expression 'It just growed' come from? It's a misquotation from Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-96), a fiercely anti-slavery novel published in 1852, when this was the political hot potato in America. The most famous character is the slave girl Topsy, who didn't know where she came from (i.e. didn't realise that God had made her) and said, 'I s'pect I growed.'

5. Math: who was that Pythagoras guy anyway? He was a Greek mathematician and philosopher who lived in the 6^th century BC. His theorem (the word comes from the same root as "theory" but means something that can be proved) states that in a right-angled triangle "the square on the hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the squares on the other two sides." The hypotenuse is the longest side of the triangle, opposite the right angle. This theorem really really matters to mathematicians, because it is fundamental to calculations used in architecture, engineering, astronomy, navigation and the like.

6. Geography: which were the original 13 states of the Union? In alphabetical order: Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Virginia. Delaware was the first to ratify the new constitution and is nicknamed "The First State" to this day.

7. Chemistry: what's the Periodic Table of Elements? It's a way of setting out the names of all the known chemical elements so that the vertical columns contain groups or families with similar properties. It was devised in the 19^th century by a Russian chemist called Mendeleev and has been in use ever since. An element, by the way, is a substance that cannot be decomposed into a simpler substance by a chemical process. Groups of elements come together to form compounds. So, for example, a combination of the element hydrogen (H) and the element oxygen (O) can form the compound water (H₂O).

8. Physics: what are conduction, convection and radiation? These are the ways in which heat is transferred from one "body" (that is, "thing") to another. Put simply, conduction means that a cool thing -- whether solid, liquid, or gas -- is warmed up by coming into contact with a hot thing. Convection occurs in liquids and gases and is the basis of the principle that hot air rises. A hot liquid or gas is generally less dense than a cool one; as the hot particles rise, cooler ones rush in underneath to take their place. The hot particles, having risen, cool and come down again, and so on. Radiation involves the energy that all objects emit. It is the only one of the three methods that works in a vacuum and is how the sun's rays manage to warm the Earth from so far away.

9. Art: who was Jackson Pollock? He was what is called an Abstract Expressionist and he believed that the act of painting was more important than the finished product. His paintings are therefore highly colourful, often huge, and (like his life) chaotic to the point of frenzy. He died in a motor accident in 1956, aged only 44.

10. Music: why should I care about Johann Sebastian Bach? He was incredibly important in the development of classical music: without him, some say, there might have been no Haydn, no Mozart, and no Beethoven. He wrote mostly organ music, church music, and orchestral music; his most famous works include the Brandenburg Concertos, the St. Matthew Passion, The Well-Tempered Clavier, and Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring. He had many children, including the composers Carl Philip Emmanuel and Johann Christian.

©2009 Caroline Taggart, author of I Used to Know That: Stuff You Forgot From School

Author Bio
Caroline Taggart, author of I Used to Know That: Stuff You Forgot From School, has been an editor of non-fiction books for nearly 30 years and has covered nearly every subject from natural history and business to gardening and astronomy. She has written several books and was the editor of Writer's Market UK 2009.