Carnivorous Plants

There are more than 600 species of carnivorous plants.

Todays bit of trivia comes from my daily trivia calendar, but it's also one of those coincidences that frequently happen to me. (and if they weren't so mundane, I'd think there was something more than coincidence to them.) I had just torn off yesterday's date to see this bit of trivia and not but a few minutes later, went to my Amazon shopping cart to add a bonus cash award I got from using Bing and saw a recommendation for the movie The Little Shop of Horrors - about a man-eating plant. I have the original, but not the remake.

I haven't seen them in a while, but I used to buy Venus Flytraps at the dime store when I was a kid;  they didn't live long and I always figured it was not only because I couldn't provide them the proper environment, but that I wore them out touching them to make their leaves shut.  Maybe I should buy one on Amazon and give it another try.

analphabetic

analphabetic  an·al·pha·bet·ic [an-al-fuh-bet-ik, an-al-]

adjective

1. not alphabetic: an analphabetic arrangement of letters.
2. unable to read or write; illiterate: analphabetic peoples.
3. Phonetics . of or constituting a system of phonetic transcription, as the one devised by Otto Jespersen, that for each sound indicates by separate sets of symbols the articulator, the point of articulation, and the size and shape of the mouth opening.

noun

4. an illiterate person; analphabet.

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A new word for me (and my spell checker, which has this word and its derivations underlined), but to be honest, I never would have guessed its meaning. I would've said it was someone who had to make sure all their letters were written at the same height and spacing...but that's because I saw the "anal" part first.

Annie's Song - John Denver

I never was a huge John Denver fan, but have always thought this was a lovely tune.  It brings tears to my eyes, which just goes to show how big of an emotional sap I am.

picayune

picayune pic·a·yune [pik-ee-yoon, pik-uh-]
Also, pic·a·yun·ish, Informal

adjective

1. of little value or account; small; trifling: a picayune amount.
2. petty, carping, or prejudiced: I didn't want to seem picayune by criticizing.

noun

3. (formerly, in Louisiana, Florida, etc.) a coin equal to half a Spanish real.
4. any small coin, as a five-cent piece.
5. Informal. an insignificant person or thing.

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I've liked this word since I first learned it.  I've seen it used in a discussion to describe someone else's concerns and sometimes even their ideas or intelligence.

If they don't know what it means, then it means it's been used correctly.  Of course, THAT means you're being picayune by thinking that.

Listen to the Mockingbird

From Wiki: "Listen to the Mocking Bird" (1855) is an American popular song of the mid-19th century. Its lyrics were composed by Septimus Winner under the pseudonym "Alice Hawthorne", and its music was by Richard Milburn.

It relates the story of a singer dreaming of his sweetheart, now dead and buried, and a mockingbird, whose song the couple once enjoyed, now singing over her grave. Yet the melody is moderately lively.

"Listen to the Mocking Bird" was one of the most popular ballads of the era and sold more than twenty million copies of sheet music. It was popular during the American Civil War and was used as marching music. Abraham Lincoln was especially fond of it, saying, "It is as sincere as the laughter of a little girl at play."

 

Mockingbird

A Mockingbird can imitate the songs of 40 different birds.

Image courtesy of ClipArtBest