Today's Dippit!

Quote

"Quality is not an act, it is a habit." 

Aristotle

Joke

A woman walks into a library and asked if they had any books about paranoia. The librarian says "They're right behind you!"

Fun Fact

Pro baseball once had women players.

While there are currently no female players in Major League Baseball, there have been plenty of women in professional men's leagues. The first was Lizzy Arlington, who pitched during the ninth inning for the Reading Coal Heavers in 1898 and won her team the game. A little over 30 years later, an African-American woman, Jackie Mitchell, pitched against the Yankees during an exhibition game, striking out both Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. What's more impressive: Mitchell was 17 years old at the time.

Reading Fact

Reading can improve empathy and perspective-taking skills by allowing readers to step into the shoes of characters with different backgrounds and experiences.

History Fact

Johnny Appleseed Was Real

The folkloric hero was a real person. His real name was John Chapman and his hometown was Leominster, Massachusetts. He also has a street named after him, though the city planners decided it would be more poetic to use his mythical name: Johnny Appleseed Lane.

Movie/TV Trivia

For all the talk of John Carter‘s $200m write-off, the worldwide box office is slowly catching up with the budget. Disney can’t say the same for 2011’s Mars Needs Moms which ended with a gulf of $112m between costs and ticket sales. Note to Disney: keep away from the red planet.

Movie/TV Quote "I have such doubts!"

Doubt (2008)

There's a specific kind of endorphin rush you get when one of the characters in a movie says the TITLE of the movie IN the movie. In Doubt, this happens at least three times, maybe 10, maybe 100, starting with the first scene. But it's the last scene, the fraught, melodramatic conclusion, that contains its single best line, whispered with great feeling by Meryl Streep. It comes after Meryl and Amy Adams oust a priest from their school who they think has been abusing young boys, but no one ever saw any actual proof, so there's still a tiny chance, in Meryl's character's mind, that he never did anything. But that's not important. You don't even need to have seen the movie to know how to wield this line in any social situation that requires an appropriately distressed Streep impression.

Conversation Starter

Whatis the best pickup line you’ve ever used? Heard?

Writing Prompt

Do You Have Too Much Homework?