Friday, May 14, 2010

4 Things I Learned This Week--#71 (Bears, Twitter, Feet, Maids)


Black Bears

Over at Red Pine Mountain Mountain Woman did some research on black bears after having one visit her on her deck right outside the big windows during the night. Among the things she shared is that they don't like the smell of citronella and ammonia. To read about her visit with Black bear, here is a link to her tale: Mountain Woman Learns She Is a Coward. She kept me on the edge of my seat!



Popular Cat

Sockington the Cat, is famous as the Tweeting Cat with an army of 1.5 million followers on Twitter! (more than Tom Cruise). This was another free kibble trivia fact I learned this week. You can read more about him at 5 Things You Didn't Know About Stockington. Now our pets want Twitter accounts!

Feet Cramps

From the PLAIN DEALER this week, I learned that to prevent feet from getting cramps during the night, you can (1)stretch your calf muscles before going to bed, (2) stretch your toes by gently pulling them back toward you before going to bed, (3) wear socks to bed to keep your muscles warm, and (4) drink plenty of water through the day.

Rules For Being A Good Maid from The Help

I like reading historical fiction books because it's a fun way to learn things about history. I wish schools used historical fiction books to teach history instead of those history textbooks. It would have been much more interesting. Well, here is a short list that Minnie was taught from her mother about being a maid in The Help by Kathryn Stockton: 

1.    It is nobody's business.  Keep your nose out of your white lady's problems and do not share yours. Remember:  white people are not your friends.
 
2.    You don't ever let that white lady find you sitting on her toilet.
 
3.    When you cook white people's food, you taste it with a different spoon.

4.    You use the same cup, same fork, same plate every day.  Keep it in a separate cupboard and tell that white woman that's the one you'll use from here on out.
 
5.    You eat in the kitchen.  

6.    You don't hit on her children.  White people like to do their own spanking.

7.     No sass-mouthing. 

What really shocked me was that Mississippi was still following these rules in the 1960s! I had no idea.  The author grew up with a maid and wondered how the maid felt, so wrote a book about it.  This is her first novel and a best-seller for weeks.  It has over 2,000 customer reviews on Amazon!


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5 comments:

Doreen McGettigan said...

Happy Friday; I enjoyed my visit to your blog!

BeadedTail said...

Sockington is very popular! Wow! And that book is just incredible. I can't imagine living in a world like that.

Lin said...

I couldn't believe how scary that bear tale was! I was reading it this week too. Yikes. That guy showed no fear!

My mom believes an old wives tale of leaving a bar of soap under your mattress to stop foot cramps. Whatever.

Karen and Gerard said...

Doreen: Thanks for visiting!

Beaded Tail: I don't know why Stockington is so popular on Twitter--I checked his profile but wasn't impressed with his tweets. The Help is a very interesting book.

Lin: I thought of Yogi bear when I read her story. (He was a cartoon bear who stole picnic baskets.) A bar of soap under the mattress to stop foot cramps? Hmm. That makes no sense.

The Silver Age Sara said...

Karen,
Thanks for mentioning my bear. He did come back but Mountain Man is home and hopefully scared him away for good with his shotgun.

I don't spend much time on Twitter but I'm going to check out the tweeting cat.

I never knew about wearing socks to bed and that it helped with cramps. I'll have to try it.

Love your Friday posts.

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