Make a list of 43 things I know very little about, & then learn at least 3 things about each of them

Vincent van Gogh’s painting ‘Irises’ that is housed in the Getty in LA was the first painting, and so far only painting, to ever have an effect on me similar to a religious experience. It is a truly breathtaking piece to me. I knew a few things about him from here and there but did a research paper on him last year for my Basic Design class (after putting him on this list) so now I know quite a bit. If I can remember it, that is. Let’s see…

1. He was born exactly a year after a stillborn brother who was also named Vincent. It’s been said that may have had an effect on his mental state.
2. He began his career in art as an art dealer but eventually lost that career due to his eccentricities.
3. Only one of his paintings ever sold during his lifetime.

Hmm, I’ve fallen pretty far behind on this goal.

Susan B. Anthony – I only really know that she was a major suffragette and that she was the first woman on an American coin. That lack of knowledge is really shameful, especially for someone as interested in women’s rights as I am. So let’s remedy it!

1, When she was six a schoolteacher refused to teach her long division because of her gender. Her father learned about it and “had her placed in a group home school, where he taught Susan himself.”

2. She worked as a teacher, which inspired to fight for equal wages, since male teachers earned about 4 times as much as female.

3. She died died 14 years, 5 months and five days before passage of the 19th Amendment.

4. She was a conservative suffragette, believing that women should focus on getting the right to vote first and foremost before trying anything more radical. Despite this she was lifelong friends with Elizabeth Cady Stanton who not only was more of a radical but who criticized Susan’s stance.

What I knew: It wiped out a large portion of the population in a horrible way, it put a great strain on the relationship between Ireland and England, and that the reason it was so bad was because the potatoes were essentially all the Irish were allowed to keep to eat. It’s also my understanding that people would try to eat grass to survive and would die an even worse death.

1. It began in late 1845 due to an airborne fungus.
2. Other crops were doing well but everything was being shipped out of the country to make a profit for the Irish-English landlords.
3. It’s estimated that approximately 1 to 1.5 million people died from starvation and disease during the famine and a million or more emigrated to other lands to escape it.
4. The winter of 1846-47 was the worst “in living memory” and contributed to even more suffering.
5. By 1850 New York had more Irish-born citizens than Dublin due to immigration caused by the famine.
6. The Great Hunger, as it is sometimes called, reduced the population of Ireland by 20 to 25 percent between 1845 and 1852.

What I knew: Not terribly much, to be honest. I know it’s part of Great Britain, that it would seem that it’s much like Ireland when it comes to the relationship between the Welsh and the English only less bitter, and that it is very hilly and has its own language.

1. Wales has three National Parks.
2. Wales is located to the west of England.
3. The daffodil is the National Flower of Wales.
4. Welsh is now compulsory in the schools of Wales and that’s helping to stop the decline of usage of the language.
5. Anthony Hopkins and Richard Burton are both from Wales.

It’s also absolutely beautiful and I’d love to visit one day.

What I knew about Indonesia: Uh…yeah, pretty much nothing.

1. It’s a Southeast Asian republic made up of more than 17,500 islands. Only about 6,000 of those are inhabited.

2. Indonesia is home to the smaller and rarer species of orangutan, the Sumatran Orangutan, which is critically endangered.

3. The country’s motto is Bhinneka Tunggal Ika, which means “Unity in Diversity”.

4. Bali and Jakarta are both in Indonesia. Most of Indonesia’s Hindu population lives in Bali, and Jakarta is the capital city.

All in all, it sounds like a beautiful country, full of varied cultures and peoples and with a landscape that’s just as diverse.

The only thing I really remember about the Roosevelt biography that I read as a kid is a way to fake someone out while boxing. I know that he was a big game hunter, a boxer, and a conservationist. I know I’ve always thought he was awesome and was a great president but I’ve forgotten why over the years.

What I learned (and re-learned):

1. “Altogether, in the seven-and-one-half years he was in office, he provided federal protection for almost 230 million acres, a land area equivalent to that of all the East coast states from Maine to Florida.” – http://www.theodoreroosevelt.org/

2. He was President of the American Historical Association.

3. Not only was he was he President but he was also a police commissioner, a colonel of the Rough Riders, Governor of New York, and a deputy sheriff, in addition to a bunch more posts. All before the age of 42. (Holy cow.)

4. He was Eleanor Roosevelt’s uncle and 5th cousin to Franklin D. Roosevelt.

5. In 1908, he was permanently blinded in his left eye during one of his boxing bouts, but this injury was kept from the public at the time.

6. He was the first American to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

And so, so much more. A truly awesome man in the original sense of the word. We should all be more like Roosevelt. I want to read some of the books he authored as well as another biography.

What I already knew: They’re an F-body car (whatever that is), my boyfriend has a 1994 one, and his dad has a classic 1969 one.

What I learned:

Camaros stopped being produced in 2002 (how did I not know that?) but there are plans for a new one for 2009.

It was designed and produced specifically to compete with the Ford Mustang. “Automotive press asked Chevrolet product managers “What is a Camaro?”, and they were told it was “a small, vicious animal that eats Mustangs”.” That’s an awesome answer, I think. They’re actually being reintroduced partially because of the success of the latest Mustang redesign, from what I can tell.

The “Third Generation” models were from 1982 to 1992 and are the ones I think of as “redneck cars”.

The 1969 Camaro was the first to offer two-tone paint.

Oh, and the F-Body is apparently the platform on which the car is built. F-body cars are the Camaro and the Pontiac Firebird.

Martin Luther King, Jr. – I knew far less about him than I ought to.

He went to college at age 15 after skipping two grades.

He was the youngest person (at the time?) to win to the Nobel Peace Prize.

Whether or not James Earl Ray was his killer or worked alone in killing King is apparently a matter of debate. There are conspiracy theories surrounding the shooting. Jesse Jackson, who was with King at the time of his assassination, has said, “I will never believe that James Earl Ray had the motive, the money and the mobility to have done it himself.”

King was publicly in doubt about the Vietnam War and his statements against it caused media backlash.

Opryland – I know I loved it and I can still name a lot of the rides but I didn’t know much about the history of it or the details surrounding why it closed.

It opened in 1972.

The park was doing well in the 70’s not long after its opening and a resort hotel was built next door – it’s become the largest non-casino hotel in the U.S.

The park was small comparatively and was trapped from growing bigger due to being blocked in by a river and a road. Opryland Hotel’s expansion also blocked growth of the park.

The Park closed permanently in 1997.

Gaylord Entertainment has found that there was no real reason behind the park’s closing: “In 2004, The Tennessean published a statement by Gaylord Entertainment claiming that current company executives had found no evidence that previous management ever had a business plan for Opryland, let alone any strategic analysis that led to closing it, and that no compelling reasons had been found for the park’s closure. Most of the Opryland-era executives left Gaylord Entertainment early in the decade when the company restructured itself into a more hospitality-oriented company.” (from wikipedia)

Reading all of this depressed me quite a bit especially finding out that the fate of the rides remains mostly unknown aside from those that were sold as scrap metal. I have so many childhood memories of that place and the Screamin’ Delta Demon was without a doubt the coolest ride ever built. Apparently you can still see parts of the Grizzly River Rampage from the Opry Mills Mall but not for long because the hotel’s expanding again soon. Sigh.

1. Opryland

2. Martin Luther King, Jr.
3. Heart Diseases
4. June Carter
5. Insulin Resistence
6. The Irish Potato Famine
7. American Civil War
8. The Wool Industry
9. History of Iraq
10. Camaros11. Vincent van Gogh12. Theodore Roosevelt
13. Current Space Programs and Projects
14. The Nintendo Company
15. Maury County, Tennessee
16. Parkinson’s Disease
17. Biodiesel
18. Adoption Laws
19. The Apple Company
20. Johnny Appleseed
21. Burkhas
22. Fidel Castro
23. How Local Politics Work
24. Susan B. Anthony
25. Computer Hardware/How Computers Work Internally
26. Roth IRAs
27. The National Park System
28. History of Columbia, Tennessee
29. The Grimm Brothers
30. WW1
31. Jewish Culture
32. Mark Twain
33. Quakerism
34. The Vikings
35. California Gold Rush
36. How Recycling Centers Work
37. The Cherokee in Modern Times
38. How Car Engines Work
39. Charlie Chaplin
40. Alfred Hitchcock
41. Wales/The Welsh
42. Theory of Relativity
43. Indonesia

An eccentric list, I hope.