Bouncing pickles
According to Connecticut law, for a pickle to be qualified as a pickle it must bounce when held one foot above an oak table. Martin Elementary School media specialist Lisa Plavin (Manchester, CT) knew that, plus nine other fascinating facts about her state. As a result, she has won for her school a 52-volume set of children’s books about the United States from Scholastic Library Publishing. Other interesting tidbits can be found in this Journal Inquirer article.

Independent bookstores are the sober equivalent of your local bar: Not only does everyone know your name, they know what you like. Furthermore, they benefit the publishing business: “Independent stores are where innovation lies,” says Kent Carroll of Europa Editions. “They can still make best sellers. The chains didn’t come onboard until after the fact.” Here is New York Magazine's listing of fourteen great NYC bookstores.

Eponym--carpaccio
Created in 1950 by Venetian restaurateur Giuseppe Cipriani, carpaccio is named after Vittore Carpaccio, the Renaissance painter. Cipriani created the dish for the Countess Amalia Nani Mocenigo, who had been under doctor’s orders to avoid cooked meats. According to Cipriani’s memoir, he chose to name the dish after Carpaccio because the red in the beef matched the colors found in Carpaccio’s paintings. Recently, some restaurants have begun using the term for similarly prepared non-meat dishes (such as pear carpaccio). M-W Word of the Day

On December 6, 1877 Thomas Alva Edison recited "Mary Had a Little Lamb" into his new phonograph device. It was the world's first recording of the human voice. Edison had invented a method to inscribe telegraph messages through indentations on paper tape, and then store them to send later. So he wondered if the same could be done for sound. He figured that he could use a metal cylinder wrapped in tin foil, and when he spoke into a mouthpiece, the sound vibrations would be indented onto the cylinder in a specific pattern by a recording needle. So he made a sketch, and gave it to John Kruesi, a Swiss machinist who worked with him. In less than a week, Kruesi presented Edison with a model. Edison wrapped the cylinder in tinfoil, turned the handle, and shouted a verse of "Mary Had a Little Lamb" into the mouthpiece. To everyone's shock, the machine repeated it back.
December 7 is known as "Delaware Day" in that state, because it was on this day in 1787 that Delaware became the first state of the United States, when 30 delegates met in Battell's Tavern in Dover and ratified the U.S. Constitution.
December 7 is the birthday of the sculptor Bernini, born Giovanni Lorenzo Bernini in Naples in 1598. He sculpted many fountains around Rome, and he's most famous for his work as an architect and artist on St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City.
December 7 is the birthday of novelist Willa Cather, (books by this author) born in Back Creek Valley, Virginia (1873). Her family moved to Nebraska where Cather spent most of her free time talking to the immigrant farmers and listening to their stories about their homelands. She was amazed that they had come to America to be farmers, even though most of them had been tailors, locksmiths, joiners, and cigar-makers, and had never farmed in their lives. She went to college, then moved to New York City and became a successful magazine editor for McClure's. After 10 years, she quit her job and took a trip back to Nebraska, where she was inspired to begin work on O Pioneers! (1913). The Writer’s Almanac

In Toledo: The Lyric Photoplay Society of the Collingwood Arts Center presents a gala Christmas theatre pipe organ concert followed by a classic movie:
"Angel on My Shoulder" (1946) starring Claude Rains, Paul Muni and Anne Baxter
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 14TH
COLLINGWOOD ARTS CENTER
2413 Collingwood Avenue
Attended parking as well as our concession counter for your convenience. Theatre Organ Concert begins 2:15 p.m. and movie at 3p.m. Admission $5