Monthly Archives: February 2014
TRIVIA TRAIL: PIERRE-AUGUSTE RENOIR
Renoir’s Two Sisters On A Terrace 1881 Question: Where was the famous artist Pierre-Auguste Renoir born? Answer: Limoges, France, on February 25th, 1841. Originally apprenticed to a porcelain painter, he went on to attend the famous art school, the École des Beaux-Arts. In 1874, He, along with such artists as Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, Edgar […]
HISTORIC CELEBRATION: VALENTINE’S DAY
The Middle Ages are also oft referred to as the Age of Chivalry, and with chivalry came romance. The first written valentines came from the quill of Charles, Duke of Orleans, who, in 1415, whiled away the dull hours of imprisonment in the Tower of London by writing romantic verses for his wife over in […]
TRIVIA TRAIL: FIRST WINTER OLYMPICS
Question: How many spectators attended the first Winter Olympics in Chamonix, France in 1924? Answer: Ten thousand spectators assembled to watchtwo hundred and fifty-eight competitors from sixteen different countries. Less than a dozen were female, and all of those were figure skaters. A kid-competitor, twelve-year-old Norwegian skater, Sonja Henie, didn’t fare too well at those […]
HISTORY TIDBIT: SWEATERS
It’s National Sweater Day! The idea is to show support for energy conservation by wearing extra sweaters. Sweaters are knitted garments, and knitted garments have been around for a long time. How long is hard to say, but fragments, and sometimes whole specimens of what are now known as Coptic socks have been found on […]
HISTORIC CELEBRATION: GROUNDHOG DAY
According to legend, if groundhogs coming out of their holes today happen to behold their shadows, they will take fright and scuttle back inside, signalling another six months of winter weather. If, however, the day is too cloudy to produce shadows, we can look forward to an early spring. The spring predictions associated with this […]
Time Travelling With Kids 