A Less Renowned Presidential Assassination

I'm old enough to have the indelible stamp of the moment when I heard that President Kennedy had been shot. I realize that more than one of our past presidents have been killed while in office. I just finished reading the most fascinating book, Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer by James L. Swanson.
I've come across a website that covers the assassination of another of our presidents, William McKinley. I haven't explored this in depth yet but it looks like a well-done site and has, no doubt, a number of fascinating details about what happened. Click here.

Giving "Voice" To Our Literature

I just found out about a website dedicated to producing audio versions of all books in the public domain. Called LibriVox ("acoustical liberation of books in the public domain"), volunteers read chapters from works in the public domain. These audio files are then made available for downloading and can be accessed in a similar manner to a podcast.

What a wonderful communal effort on the part of people who both love literature and believe strongly in making these books available in more than one format.

Not Just Your Run-Of-The-Mill Fiddle

For those of us interested in music -- and perhaps in sounds and timbres in general -- here's a site which has a gallery of unusual instruments. It's the Gallery at Oddmusic.com.

Click on the link for the instrument that piques your curiosity and you'll typically see a picture or pictures of the instrument. Many of them also have sound files available to listen to, as well.

Check these out: LightHarp, Skatar, Uncello, Triolin, Cymbalom, Bazantar, Aerolian Wind Harp, and many more!

Historical Yo-Yos

I don't know about you, but I certainly went through a phase where I couldn't get enough time playing with a yo-yo. Not that I mean to imply that anyone, any age, couldn't while away their time quite usefully learning all the fancy yo-yo tricks and techniques.

Well, whether you want to look back through the prism of nostalgia or just check it out because you love your yo-yo, check out the Museum of Yo-Yo History.

The (Record-Making) Wrap on Gum

Chewing gum and I have a checkered past. I've had times when a wad of bubble gum or Juicy Fruit was something to relish. But there were also all those years as a music teacher and the iron-clad rule of "no gum." (How can you play the clarinet or even a string instrument with gum in your mouth?)

Why then am I directing you toward a site that celebrates an almost unimaginable level of gum use? A site dedicated to a gum wrapper chain clocked at 48,077 feet in length as of March, 2006? Why?

No good reason really. Just one of those feats that seems unbelievable.

The man who has accomplished this is Gary Duschl of Viriginia Beach, VA. The guy has earned your visit to his site. Click here.

The Vincent van Gogh Gallery

For those of you who are fans of van Gogh, he is an online gallery that purports to have all his works available for viewing via the web.

What a resource! Visit The Vincent van Gogh Gallery

An "Elemiddle" School?

I had never heard of the term "elemiddle". Period. Turns out it is a termed coined by those who advocate K-8 schools as the most effective model for educating those years. If you're intrigued by the notion at all, you might be interested in the article linked below:

American Association of School Administrators - Publications - The School Administrator - The Rise of the ‘Elemiddle’ School

Digital Photography Lessons

Check out this site (I think it's really a blog) for what looks like some very good tips on taking photos with a digital camera.

Need To Take A Snooze?

Maybe you really should get more rest. Turns out sleep is very important, even though it's not fully understood why humans, let along most other organisms, check out of consciousness and zone for hours every day. Enough of us learned in college, at least, that no one can go that long without a good snooze.

Check out a wealth of information at the National Sleep Foundation. This may be one case where what you read will put you to sleep....and that's a compliment!