Huey Lewis's "Back To The Future" Cameo!

I might just be the last person alive in the 1980s to learn this!

But do you remember that pivotol scene in Back To The Future, where Marty's band, The Pinheads, is trying out for their school's Battle of The Bands? And they are doing a great cover of Huey Lewis & The News' "The Power of Love"? And the stiff nerdy adult judges stop them to say "it's just too darn loud"?

In case you need a reminder!

As it turns out, the judge with the megaphone is Huey Lewis, my brother informed me on Christmas day! What's a fun ironic part for him.

That movie is brilliant. :)

Original Titles For Classic Novels

Sometimes authors go through several novel names before landing on one. Below are some examples of title "first drafts" of books whose names have become part of our culture.

Doesn't have the same ring to it, does it?

1. The Strike by Ayn Rand

(Atlas Shrugged)

2. The High-Bouncing Lover by F. Scott Fitzgerald

(The Great Gatsby)

3. Atticus by Harper Lee

(To Kill A Mockingbird)

4. The Last Man In Europe by George Orwell

(1984)

5. Fiesta by Ernest Hemingway

(The Sun Also Rises)

6. First Impressions by Jane Austin

(Pride and Prejudice)

7. Catch-11 by Joseph Heller

(Catch-22)

8. Mistress Mary by Frances Hodgson Burnett

(The Secret Garden)

I would imagine some of our slang would have been much different if some of these titles ended up getting published. Would we call a no-win situation a "Catch-11", you think? :)

[source]

Your Left Side Is Likely Your "Good Side"

Straight from September's issue of Reader's Digest:

Your "good" side is more science than pose. Scientists at Wake Forest University showed research subjects photographs of 20 male and female faces taken from opposite angles. The participants uniformly found the left side of the faces more appealing than the right. 

Since the brain's right hemisphere is better at signaling emotion than the left - and controls the left side of the face - facial expressions tend to be stronger on the left. 

Perhaps that's why iconic paintings like Vermeer's Girl With The Pearl Earring lead with the left side.

Which photo of Angelina do you think looks better? 

Science says the one on the right!

Lions And Ligers And Liligers, Oh My!

I just learned today that not only do "ligers" (half-lion and half-tigers) exist, but now so do the babies of lions and ligers: "liligers".

This little girl was born in a zoo in Siberia, and is thought to be the first liliger in existence. It's the first one in captivity at least. She's too cute! And she has a pretty great name.



And if that's not cute enough, she's being raised by a common domestic cat, since her mother stopped producing milk. Can you imagine her cuddling with her adopted cat-mama? My heart just exploded. :)

source: abcnews.com

How Many Spaces To Use After A Sentence?

Apparently the answer is ONE. I can already feel myself wanting to use two spaces after each.  sentence.  I.  write!

According to an article on The Atlantic, the only reason that we ever used two spaces after the end of a sentence was because of a flaw in typewriters, and now every major style guide recommends just one space. Why did typewriters lead us to use two?

Well, with typewriters, all letters, numbers, and symbols all occupied the same amount of space (called "monospaced type"). So an "i" would take up the same amount of space on a line as a "W", thus leaving much more white space on the page. With more white space, it was harder to detect when a sentence ended, so the standard became to use two spaces.

Here's a great example from The Skilled Workman (which has a ton of typography tips for publishing):

Now, and since the 1970s, besides the little-used "courier" font, we use "proportional fonts" where the letters only take up the space they need. As a result, it's much easier to see where sentences end and begin. So the extra space has been dubbed "unnecessary".

To read the entire explanation from The Atlantic, click here. And for an interesting counter-argument, click here. :)

Typewriters didn't only affect our sentence-spacing, but the beginning (and arguably modern misuse) of the "Caps Lock" key. Check out a great article about that, too, on Slate.com: Click here!