These are some facts I’ve learned along the way. I’ll update this list when I’ve got something new and fascinating. At least I will when I remember… best intentions and all that.

• I am teaching myself to read Dutch and am constantly surprised by its similarity to archaic English. More so than modern German.
• The word trauma comes from Greek and is unrelated to the German traum meaning dream. Traum and dream (droom in Dutch) share a common root.
• Parts of crime drama Broadchurch, starring former Doctor Who David Tennant, were shot around West Bay in Dorset. I’ve been there!
• Lol is Dutch for fun.
• Granny Smith apples originated in Australia.
• The U.S. Constitution was signed on the 157th anniversary of the founding of the city of Boston, MA.
• Exactly 27 years later, Francis Scott Key completed his lyric poem The Defense of Fort McHenry, later to become The Star-Spangled Banner.
• I have a personal reason for being interested in September 17.
• I can read Middle English, the language of Chaucer.
• The ARM processor, used in most smart-phones today, was originally designed by Acorn Computers and ARM originally stood for Acorn RISC Machine.
• If you join one face of an equilateral tetrahedron (4 faces) so that it coincides with one of the triangular faces of an equilateral 4-sided pyramid (5 faces) which has the same edge length, the resultant polygon has 5 faces, not 7.
• Opposite faces of dice have a total of 7 spots.
• The Himba tribe of Namibia have only four names for colors: zuzu for dark shades of blue, red, green and purple; vapa for white and some shades of yellow; buru for some shades of green and blue; and dambu for other shades of green, red and brown. This has a measurable effect on their perception of color.