A Doll Comes To Visit

You are a fifth-grade girl who comes home from school to find a doll on your front porch. The doll looks like you, is dressed like you, and there is something about the eyes. Who left it? Why is it here? And what makes this doll so special?

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With a Little Help From My Friend

Jim Jenkins is an ace detective who solves the most difficult crimes. Yet he always works alone. Or does he?

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The Boy Who Could Wiggle His Ears

Learning how to wiggle your ears is really hard. But you can do it if you keep trying. And if you learn to keep trying, no problem is too big. So if you can wiggle your ears, you can do anything!

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Vilfredo Pareto’s Big Contribution

Economists have a different way of viewing the world.  Take the Italian economist, engineer and philosopher Vilfredo Pareto, who lived from 1848 to 1923.  Among his other accomplishments, he discovered what is known today as Pareto’s Principle, or Pareto’s Rule.  He realized that 20 percent of the people controlled 80 percent of the wealth in

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Why Zebras Have Stripes

Have you ever wondered why zebras have stripes? I was catching up on my reading during my recent trip to California, and I ran across a blurb in the July 2016 issue of National Geographic magazine entitled “Patterns Puzzle Predators”.  It begins by saying — “If a zebra zigs, with its stripes make a predator

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Happy Birthday, Nikola Tesla

July 10 was the birthday of Nikola Tesla, born in 1856 in what is now Croatia.  You may have heard of the Tesla coil, but he also was responsible for alternating current.  Unfortunately, his business ventures weren’t always successful, and he died alone and impoverished in 1943. The PBS Newshour website has a feature “8

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How to Clean Up the Oceans

According to Science magazine, (http://science.sciencemag.org/content/347/6223/768), eight million metric tons of plastic waste enter the oceans every year.  The ocean now has at least 700 pieces of plastic for every person on earth.  Is there any way we could ever clean up this mess? A twenty-one-year-old man from the Netherlands has an idea.  Realizing that plastic

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Disneyana Fan Club Convention Flashback — Conserving Animation Art

This year’s Disneyana Fan Club DisneyanaMania Convention is now less than a week away, so today I’m excerpting parts of one of my favorite convention presentations.  In 2006, Ron Stark of S/R Labs explained how to preserve and restore valuable collectibles, information that is always timely.  For more information about this year’s convention, visit http://www.disneyanafanclub.org/content/disneyanamania-2016-wednesday-july-13-through-saturday-july-16-2016 This

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The Dog Days of Summer

I’ve always heard of the “dog days” of summer, and I always thought, somewhat logically, that the expression came from the propensity of dogs to rest in the midday heat.  But that’s not the case. According to National Geographic, the saying has nothing to do with dogs.  Rather, it refers to Sirius the dog star. 

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Some Facts About the 4th of July

I hope everyone enjoyed their 4th of July.  After the parades, cookouts and fireworks, I came across some interesting details about the holiday, courtesy of the daily email from The Writer’s Almanac — [July 4th] marks the day in 1776 when the Continental Congress approved the Declaration of Independence from Great Britain. The document was

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Happy 4th of July!

To help celebrate “disloyalty to royalty” day, I am repeating my poem on patriotism from Some Poems About Life.   The Patriot Jerry is a patriot, he loves his country dear. He waves the flag on July 4th, he makes his feelings clear. He fancies himself vigilant, his loyalty is defined. But when it comes

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