The Moose is Lose!

Animal Silhouette Tea Light Holder
$58

• Why isn't Moosylvania our 51st state? "Moosylvania" was Bullwinkle's fictional home state in The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show. As a publicity stunt, producer Jay Ward and publicist Howard Brand actually bought a small island on a lake in Minnesota, which they named "Moosylvania." The pair then began collecting signatures from about 50 cities to petition for its statehood. They even went so far as to drive to the White House to speak with President Kennedy, where they were stopped at gun point and brusquely turned away. They later found out that they had arrived on the first day of the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Psst...What's the Password?

• Psst...what's the password? "Open Sesame!" This magic password was made famous in Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves (Arabian Nights), but it wasn't just a randomly chosen saying. The phrase reflects the distinguishing feature of the sesame plant. When sesame seeds are ripe, the pod bursts open to reveal the seeds inside, thus "Open Sesame."

• Who was our most forgetful president? Thomas Jefferson. Before he died, Jefferson wrote a lengthy memorial inscription for his tombstone, which included many accomplishments, from "author of the Declaration of Independence" to "founder of the University of Virginia." So, what did he forget? The tombstone fails to mention that Jefferson was once president of the United States.

Open Sesame! Password Book
$12

The Dirty Details

Handmade Vegetable Soap
$20

• When can you drop the soap? When it floats! Ivory soap became the first floating soap in 1878 when too much air got into a developmental batch. An employee forgot to shut off the machine when he took a lunch break, and when he returned the mixture was much more frothy than usual. Afraid he would get in trouble, he didn't tell anyone and shipped the batch. About a month later, Procter and Gamble began receiving requests for the "floating soap." Eventually, the employee came forward about his accident, which allowed P&G to start production using the new formula.

• When should you steel it? When your name is Ed Cox. In 1917, Cox, an aluminum pot salesman, created a pre-soaped, steel-wool pad to use as a unique calling card. His wife named the soap pads S.O.S or "Save Our Saucepans." The heavy-duty cleaning pads quickly became more popular than the pots.

Gimme S'More Info!

• What famous dessert can we thank the girl scouts for? No, it isn't cookies, it's S'mores! Although the history is a bit murky, there isn't an official creator or date, the first printed recipe for the tasty campfire treat appeared in the 1927 book "Tramping and Trailing with the Girl Scouts."

• What inventor really lights our fire? That would be John Walker. In 1826, he was stirring a chemical mixture of antimony sulfide, potassium chlorate, gum, and starch, when he removed the stir stick and found a dried lump at the end. He scraped the stick against the floor to get rid of the lump, and the stick ignited. Unfortunately, Walker got all fired up about his invention of the match, and instead of getting it patented, he just showed it off to everyone. It was only a matter of time before Samuel Jones, who was attending one of Walker's demonstrations, got the bright idea to get it patented under his name. The first matches were called Lucifers and were a huge success.

Porcelain Campfire
$20

The Patriot Fact

Campaign Slogan Mug
$12

• Which president did America get for a discount? President Herbert Hoover, who was a self-made millionaire prior to running for presidency in 1928, didn't just give the U.S. a discount, he worked for free! He donated his entire presidential salary to charity, and from 1914 to his death his fifty years later, Hoover never accepted any payments for his public service.

• How did Gerald Ford get by before the White House? Even former presidents had to have summer jobs, and President Gerald Ford spent his summers filling paint cans at his father's hardware store and working as a park ranger at Yellowstone National Park. But perhaps his most interesting job (besides being president) was his work as a male model. He even appeared on the cover of Cosmopolitan magazine in 1942.

Shoe Shine and a Shave

• Why do these shoes have holes in them? The classic wingtip shoe features decorative holes, also called "Brougeing," that make the shoe look more stylish. But the wingtip wasn't always so dressy. According to legend, the wingtip shoe is a descendent of "brogues," simple shoes worn in Scotland and Ireland. What was unique about these shoes is that they featured holes in them. Due to the damp weather and the amount of time spent in bogs, keeping water out of shoes was next to impossible, so the holes were added to help with drainage.

• How can dad shave more time off his morning routine? By not shaving, of course! According to "The Bathroom Companion" by James Buckley Jr., the average man spends approximately 140 days of his life shaving. Unfortunately for men, boycotting the razor hasn't always been an option. Back in 1705 Russia, Peter the Great made having a beard punishable by a fine or jail time.

Organic Cotton Shoe Shine Kit
$80

Trivia on Tap

Half Pint Glasses
$30

• What do skunks and beer have in common?: "Skunky" beer actually contains the same chemical compound as a skunk's spray. When beer is exposed to sunlight or even fluorescent light it undergoes a chemical reaction the creates 3-methyl crotyl mercaptan - the same chemical found in skunk spray. Brown bottles do a better job at shielding out light than green or clear bottles, but your best bet is to just keep your brew in the dark.

• Why don't bartenders like it when you wet your whistle? The phrase "wet your whistle" originated from English pubs' old practice of baking whistles into the rim of ceramic beer mugs. Customers would simply whistle to the bartender to order their next drink. Needless to say, the high-pitched practice died out, and thankfully so.

Food Fight!

• Hey little tomato, why don't you ketchup? Originally ketchup or what the Chinese called "ketsiap" was a sauce made from the brine of pickled fish or shellfish. Travelers returning from Singapore in the 17th century lauded the virtues of ketchup, but since many of the Asian ingredients were not available, new recipes were created using local ingredients, such as mushrooms and, of course, tomatoes.

• Why does Ronald McDonald owe Thomas Jefferson? Because Thomas Jefferson brought French fries to America! Jefferson served French fries at a White House Dinner in 1802 after having enjoyed them in France. The name was coined during World War II when American soldiers in France became big fans of the fried potatoes.

America Bib and Burp Cloth
$36

To the Happy Couple!

Holy Matrimony Soap
$9

• Now, which one is the aisle? Contrary to our usage of the term, the aisle actually refers to the passageways on either side of a church. People have long used the phrase "walk down the aisle" in reference to marriage (and to the central walkway of the church), but what the bride really walks down is the nave.

• What do you say we untie the knot? In many ancient wedding ceremonies, the priest or family patriarch would knot together the garments of the bride and groom to symbolize their union. But the Greeks mixed things up a little with the practice of untying the knot. Greek brides used a Herculean knot to fasten the girdles under their wedding dresses. Only the bridegroom was allowed to untie this knot, and while doing so, he was supposed to pray to the gods to grant him a fruitful marriage.

It's Raining Cats and Dogs

• Who isn't feeling the puppy love? That would be the U.S. Postal Service. Over the past 10 years, the Postal Service has reported an average of 2,800 dog bites, which is better than in the 1980s when the average was 7000! So why can't we all just get along? Mail carriers arrive at around the same time everyday, usually come right up to the front door and sometimes actually slide objects into the house. For a territorial dog, this daily situation puts it into defense mode. To further fuel the fire, the mail carrier leaves shortly after the dog begins barking, which leads the dog to think that it was successful at fending off this invader and will continue this same behavior in the future.

• Hey Cat! Why do you keep getting stuck in trees? Cats use their strong back legs and claws to scurry up trees in a snap. But to come down they have to rely on weaker front legs, which they are hesitant to use. Plus, their claws are now pointing in the wrong direction, making it difficult to grip the tree properly.

Dog and Cat Necklaces
$28

Uncommon Mamas

Box of Chocolates Soap Gift Set
$48

• Who are the mothers of mother's day? Before President Woodrow Wilson made it an official holiday in 1915, Mother's Day wasn't about flowers and cards, but instead it was a tribute to women's peace-making activities. Mother's Day is actually a marriage of two separate campaigns that began during the Civil War. The first version of Mother's Day is attributed to Anna M. Jarvis of West Virginia who participated in Mother's Work Days, in which women's brigades worked to improve critical community sanitation. In 1868, Jarvis established Mother's Friendship Day, which encouraged women to ease tensions between North and South once the war was over. The second mother of Mother's Day was Bostonian Julia Ward Howe, author of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic," who called upon all women to band together to abolish war. Her Mothers' Peace Day celebrations took place for several years in Boston and other cities until the end of World War I.

• It's 1912, do you know what gift to buy your mother? Why not a box of chocolates? In 1912, Whitman's Candies put out the very first box of chocolates, Whitman's Sampler, and had instant success. The president at the time, Walter Sharp, inspired by a cross-stitched sampler hanging in his home, created a sampling of the company's best-selling chocolates and more importantly, included the now-famous index showing the filling of each candy. Sharp worked with a skilled employee to create the original cross-stitch sampler that is still featured on Whitman's yellow boxes of chocolates.

Memories

• Why do we really tie strings around our fingers? Of course, everyone knows that a string around the finger is a visual reminder that you need to do something. But the early Anglo-Saxons started the tradition in a much more literal sense: they believed that tying a string around ones finger kept an idea from escaping, in effect, tying the idea to one's self.

• Which flower has the best memory? That would be the forget-me-not, a lovely flower rooted in a bittersweet love story. Legend has it that in medieval times, a knight and his lady were walking along the side of a river. He was carrying a bouquet of the flowers, but because of the weight of his armor, he fell into the river. As he was drowning he threw the flowers to his loved one and shouted "Forget-me-not!"

Forget-Me-Knot Rings
$50 - $200

Good Green Fun

Earthopoly, $25

• Want to go green with that old pair of blue jeans? That's exactly what a school in Sheffield, England did. The school passed on traditional insulation in favor of a more eco-friendly one: 4,000 pairs of recycled jeans! The recycled material was manufactured by Recovery Insulation, an innovative, Sheffield-based company, established with the aim of providing a durable and environmentally friendly insulation material made from recycled cotton textile fibers.

• What's the poop on recycling in the Netherlands? Props again to the Europeans for the innovative and interesting uses for waste. And we really mean waste. In the Netherlands, disposable diapers are composted in industrial systems and the resulting methane is collected as fuel. Smells like a good idea to us!

Wild About Trivia

• Need to have a turtle shipped? One of the stranger services that both UPS and FedEx offer is the shipment of live animals. That's right. UPS will ship amphibians, crustaceans, fish, beneficial insects (bees, butterflies, crickets, lady bugs), mollusks, reptiles (limited to lizards and turtles) and worms. FedEx dabbles less in live-animal shipments and will not transport household pets, but they may accept certain shipments of live animals such as horses, livestock and zoo animals (to and from zoo locations only). And just so you know, UPS will not ship any poisonous animals, endangered or threatened species, arachnids, birds, crocodiles, mammals, obnoxious insects (flies, locusts, mosquitoes, roaches and termites) or snakes. This all being said, these services are seldom offered and have intense requirements and restrictions in order to make the trip humane and safe for the animal, but it's good to know in case you ever need to ship some frogs cross-country.

• Why so pink, flamingo? The substance that makes flamingos pink is carotene — the same stuff that makes carrots orange. Flamingos feed on various types of crustaceans, as well as plankton, brine shrimp, and blue-green algae, all of which are high in alpha and beta carotene. As they digest food containing carotene, their bodies begin to produce a reddish compound known as canthaxanthin. This material settles into a flamingo’s legs, feet and feathers, giving it a strong, pinkish hue.

Reclaimed Tin Turtle Sculpture
$40

Just Kidding!

Nice Underwear Doormat, $22

• Did you say funny bone or punny bone? The first mention in literature of the word "funny bone" was by Reverend Richard Harris Barham in his 1840 book "The Ingoldsby Legends." Technically, the funny bone is the enlarged knob at the end of the humerus (upper arm bone), and while you do feel a sharp, tingling feeling if you hit it - it's really not that funny. Barham, who was well known for his punning, probably saw the pun "humorous" in the "humerus" bone and dubbed it the funny bone - one of the few puns that have become accepted phrases in the English language.

• Who really got the last laugh? That would be author John A. Joyce. Joyce published a book in 1885 that included a poem called "Solitude" with the well-known lines "Laugh and the world laughs with you, Weep and you weep alone." Problem was that author Ella Wheeler had already published the exact same poem in the February 25, 1883 issue of the New York Sun. Wilcox challenged Joyce to produce evidence of his authorship, and she even offered to donate $5,000 to a charity of Joyce's choosing if he could disprove her authorship. Even though no one else believed him, Joyce refused to let "Solitude" go. For years, he continued to reprint the poem as his own. And before he died in 1915, he had the first two lines of "Solitude" emblazoned on his tombstone.

Bunny Tales

• Who is Eostre and what does she have to do with bunnies? Eostre (Ostara) was the Anglo-Saxon goddess of the spring and the dawn, and her name is the origin of the word Easter. Every year at the vernal equinox, people held a festival to celebrate the goddess. Eventually the Christian holiday celebrating the Resurrection was combined with the pagan festival to form Easter. According to legend, Eostre saved a bird whose wings had frozen during the winter by turning it into a hare. The hare became her sacred companion, retained its avian ability to lay eggs and over time developed into our modern-day Easter Bunny.

• What popular Easter Candy is downright presidential? That would be the Jelly Bean, a personal favorite of President Ronald Reagan. Reagan not only ordered 3.5 tons of Jelly Bellies to the White House for the 1981 inaugural festivities, but also had Jelly Belly create a new flavor (blueberry) so that there would be red, white and blue jelly beans at the event.

Egg Cups
$10

No Boys Allowed

Girls Dancing Oil Drum Wall Art, $120

• What was the one thing that Amazon Women were missing? The word Amazon comes from the Greek words a (meaning "without") and mazos (meaning "breast"). According to legend, the Amazon were a fierce tribe of warrior women who cut or burned off their right breasts, thus making it easier to shoot a bow and arrow.

• What got inventor Josephine Cochran into such a lather? A dishwasher. In 1850, Joel Houghton patented a wooden machine with a hand-turned wheel that splashed water on dishes, which wasn't very effective, but it was the first of its kind. In 1886, Josephine Cochran proclaimed in disgust, "If nobody else is going to invent a dishwashing machine, I'll do it myself." And she did. Josephine invented the first hand-operated mechanical dishwasher that actually got the job done. The invention was presented at the 1893 World's Fair, but hotels and large restaurants were the only ones to buy the first models. It was not until the 1950s that dishwashers became common in households. Josephine also founded a company to manufacture these dishwashers, which eventually became KitchenAid.

The Language of Love

• What's so romantic about the romance languages? Actually, not much. The term "romance" as we know it today derives from the Latin romancie and is an adverb describing anything written or spoken in the Roman vernacular or the vulgar Latin, which was the language of the common people, soldiers and slaves. During medieval times in Western Europe, tales about heroes, chivalry and love became popular. These tales were often written in the vernacular and came to be called "romances."

• How do you insult a piece of chocolate? Just call it a "ganache." Ganache, the luscious basis for truffles, was discovered when an apprentice in a Parisian patisserie accidentally spilled scalding milk into a bowl of chocolate squares. His patron called him a "ganache" (imbecile), but then discovered that the mistake had produced a new delicious use for chocolate. Ganache is made today by mixing scalding cream with twice its weight in chocolate shavings, and sometimes includes added butter.

Loved Locket
$38

Happily Ever After

Frog Prince, $55

• Why did the month of February get the not-so-royal treatment? When Julius Caesar reformed the calendar in 45 B.C., the months alternated between 30 and 31 days, with the exception of February which had 29 days and 30 in a leap year. To honor Julius, the Roman Senate named the month of July after him. Later, Julius's grandnephew Augustus came to power, and the Roman senate also wanted to honor him with his own month. However, due to the alternating calendar system, the month of August would only have 30 days. To prevent any argument that Emperor Augustus had an inferior month, August was lengthened to 31 days. The extra day needed to inflate the importance of August was taken from February.

• What do X's have to do with kisses? Although no one is completely sure of its origins, one theory of the X as a kiss can be traced back to the middle ages, when people who were illiterate would sign their name with an X, and then kiss it to show their sincerity. Another theory holds that the X looks like two highly stylized mouths kissing.

Literary Gems

• What was Dr. Seuss's most famous gamble? Publisher Bennet Cerf bet the famous children's book author $50 that he could not write a book using just fifty words. Fifty words later, Dr. Seuss had written Green Eggs and Ham and won the bet. Forty-nine of the words in the book are one-syllable words. The fiftieth, of course, is "anywhere." And even though Cerf had lost $50, Green Eggs and Ham went on to be the most successful book by Dr. Seuss, and it is the fourth best-selling children's book of all time.

• How did a filing cabinet inspire The Wizard of Oz? Author Frank Baum had already settled on the word "Wizard" to be a part of the title when the filing cabinet on his desk caught his eye. The three drawers were labeled A-G, H-N and O-Z. And thus the land of Oz was created.

Puzzlemaster Decks
$13

Happy New Year!

Tobaggan Gnome-Be-Gone Yard Sculpture, $250

• Who is the gatekeeper of the new year? That would be the Roman god Janus, who serves double duty as the gatekeeper of heaven in mythology. Janus has two faces: one for looking back at the old year and one for looking forward to the the new year. And he also lends his name to the first month of the year.

• Does the ball always drop on New Year's Eve? The famous Times Square tradition of the ball drop has happened every year since 1907, with the exception of 1942 and 1943, when its use was suspended due to the wartime "dimout" of lights in New York City. The crowds who still gathered in Times Square greeted the New Year with a moment of silence followed by chimes ringing out from One Times Square.

Christmas Legends

• Before the North Pole, where did Rudolph call home? Rudolph is actually a Chicago native. And although it's difficult to imagine Christmas without him, he has only been around since 1939. That year, the Chicago-based Montgomery Ward store asked copywriter Robert L. May to create a Christmas story that they could give to shoppers as a promotional gimmick. May drew on his own "ugly duckling" childhood and came up with the story of the oddball reindeer that had a glowing red nose and no friends. May's boss was unsure, thinking the red nose would be associated with drinking. But he was finally won over when Denver Gillen of the art department showed him whimsical illustrations based on the deer from the Lincoln Park Zoo. The famous song was written almost ten years later by Johnny Marks, May's brother-in-law.

• What do animal crackers and ornaments have in common? In 1902, Nabisco animal crackers officially became Barnum's Animals with a circus theme. It was that same year that Nabisco decided to create special holiday packaging for the classic children's treat. They designed the box to look like a wooden circus cage and attached a string, so that it could be hung from the Christmas tree as an ornament. The package was so popular that it became a year-round favorite.

Reindeer and Moose Pewter Candle Holders
$40

Holiday Traditions

Animal Silhouette Porcelain Elephant, $65

• What was the very first white elephant gift? A white elephant! In the early 17th century, white (albino) elephants were regarded as holy in Thailand and other Asian countries. To keep a white elephant was very expensive and yielded no profit. The owner had to feed the elephant, care for it and provide access for people who wanted to worship it. If a Thai King became dissatisfied with a subordinate, he would give him a white elephant. The gift would, in most cases, ruin the recipient.

• When did Christmas trees go electric? Before the invention of Christmas lights, people used real candles to decorate their trees. But in 1882, Edward H. Johnson (an associate of Thomas Edison and vice president of the Edison Electric Company) had a string of 80 red, white and blue Christmas tree light bulbs hand-wired especially for him. On December 22, he displayed his lit-up tree at his home on Fifth Avenue in New York. The happening was ignored by local papers, but picked up by a Detroit newspaper, which sparked an interest in his invention. For many years, Christmas lights were too expensive for the average person. It wasn't until the 1950s that the majority of households owned them.

Cheers!

• What do vodka, whiskey and water have in common? Centuries ago, vodka and whiskey were once thought to be as essential to life as water. In fact, the word vodka takes its name from the Russian word voda which means water. And whiskey comes from the Gaelic word uisce beathadh meaning "water of life."

• What should you never mix with a wine brick? Necessity was certainly the mother of invention during prohibition. One popular product of the period was the wine brick. The wine brick was a 4 x 8 inch block of dried and compressed grapes. The wine brick was accompanied by this label: "Warning: Do not place this Wine Brick in a one-gallon crock, add sugar and water, cover and let stand for seven days, or else an illegal alcoholic beverage will result."

Winerd - The Wine Tasting Game
$36

Going Green

All-Natural Soy Candles, $24 each

• What does it really mean to go green? Well, that depends on what language you speak. If you live in France, "to be green to someone" means to bear a grudge against them. Also in France, a "green tale" means a spicy story and "green language" means slang. In Spanish, "giving oneself a green" means to take time off of work. Of course, we all have heard of being "green with envy" which is attributed to Shakespeare's Othello. Germans, however, do not turn "green with envy," they turn "yellow with envy."

• What do your feet have to do with plants? It's all in the name. Early Roman farmers used to tuck seeds and saplings into the soil and then stamp on them with their feet. The word plant derives from the Latin word planta which means "sole of the foot."

Kid's Stuff

• Puzzled about entertainment during the 1930s? Surprisingly, the golden age of puzzles took place during the Great Depression. Puzzles were seen as an escape from troubled times and a small opportunity to succeed in a dismal time. During the 1930s craze for puzzles, drugstores and libraries offered puzzle rentals. They charged three to ten cents per day, depending on size.

• Who was the real Mary Jane?
The famous shoe for girls existed long before the name did. Mary Jane was a character created by Richard Outcault for his comic strip Buster Brown. Mary Jane was Buster's sister, and she was always outfitted in black shoes with a single-buckle strap. In 1904, Outcault attended the St. Louis World's Fair, where he sold licenses to companies to use the Buster Brown characters. Among them was the Brown Shoe Company, which became the brand most associated with Buster Brown, Mary Jane and her now famous shoes.

Arcobaleno Toy, $40

Mary Jane Infant Socks, $22

Worth a Thousand Words

Be The Change Paperweight, $34 each

• Did being "kind-hearted" exist before the 16th century? Of course it did, but the term itself was coined in 1534 by Miles Coverdale when he was translating the Bible from German and Latin versions into the first English version.

• Who says nice guys finish last? The phrase is attributed to baseball manager Leo Durocher, but in his 1975 autobiography he claims he was misquoted. The famous remark was made on July 6, 1946 when Durocher was managing the Brooklyn Dodgers. Leo was referencing his cross-town rivals the New York Giants when (according to him) he said, "Take a look at them. They're all nice guys, but they'll finish last. Nice guys. Finish last." He was quoted the next day by reporter Frank Graham of the New York Journal-American as "Nice guys finish last."

Out of this World

• What famous astronomer was a college dropout? Despite being extremely gifted, Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei was not a very good student. He studied medicine at the University of Pisa, and except for his mathematics class, he was extremely bored by his courses. He was frequently absent and was a troublemaker with professors. His frequent absences from class eventually led the university to inform Galileo's family that their son was in danger of flunking out. In the end, Galileo studied mathematics with a private tutor and dropped out of college without a degree.

• How many birthdays would you celebrate on Neptune? Sorry birthday boys and girls, but if you lived on Neptune you wouldn't even get to celebrate your first birthday. Neptune's year is 60,200 days long (or 164 Earth years). In fact, Neptune takes so long to orbit around the sun that humans have not seen one complete rotation since it was discovered in 1846.

Space Growth Chart
$16

Tasty Tidbits

Foodie Fight Trivia Game, $19 each

• All hail Lord Sandwich! The origin of the sandwich goes back to the 18th century British politician John Montagu, 4th earl of Sandwich. Rumor has it that the bread-and-meat combo sustained Lord Sandwich while he was at the gambling table. His biographer, however, suggests that he ate them at his desk because he worked such long hours.

• What is a mustardarius? In medieval European courts and monasteries, making mustard wasn't just a job, it was a career. The "mustardarius" was in charge of selecting mustard seeds and preparing the mustard. This was a very important job when you consider that, in medieval Europe, mustard was used as liberally as ketchup is today in the U.S. For centuries, mustard was considered an elixir. The Romans gargled with it to ward off colds, and the Greeks applied plasters made from it to treat a host of ailments.

• What does WWII have to do with PB&J? Although no one knows the exact origin of the peanut butter and jelly sandwich, it is known that both spreads were on the U.S. Military ration menus during WWII. Some suggest that GIs added jelly to their peanut butter to make it tastier. Once the GIs returned, peanut butter and jelly sales soared in the U.S.

FOREIGN FLAIR

• What's the perfect way to cool down in Italy? With a glass of wine of course! Seven hundred years ago, Murano glass makers needed a way to cool off while working in the hot glass-blowing furnaces, and the tradition of the goto was born. Not too tall, stable, personalized to be recognizable and very whimsical (not to mention a way for the glassmakers to compete with each other) the goto was ideal for the furnace.

• Which European country first enjoyed the pleasures of chocolate? Spain. The first official shipment of cocoa beans arrived in Spain in 1585. But the Spanish had been secretly bringing in the precious crop for nearly 60 years before that. In fact, in 1579 English pirates looking for treasure on a Spanish galleon mistook the valuable beans for sheep droppings, and burned the entire ship. It wasn't until the mid-1600s that France, England and Italy started their own love affairs with the sweet treat.

Goto Venetian Wine Glasses
Set Of 6, $300

HALLOWEEN

Halloween Coir Mast, $24 each

• What do potatoes have to do with Halloween? Already celebrated across Europe, Halloween came to America’s shores during the potato famine of 1846 via the huge influx of Irish immigrants. That’s right—Halloween is an Irish holiday. It originated as the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced sow-in), which celebrated the new year on November 1. On the night of October 31, it was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth.

• What important contribution did America make to Hallowwen? Pumpkins! Pumpkins are a fruit native to America. Before they had pumpkins, the Irish and Scottish people were making Jack-O-Lanterns from turnips or potatoes, while the English used large beets. When immigrants from these countries came to the U.S., they discovered that the pumpkin was ideal for Jack-O-Lanterns

• Are Bats Really Blind? Bats use a listening technique called Echolocation - the ability to bounce sounds off an object to determine its size, shape and location - to navigate in the dark and find food. Bats emit extremely high pitch sounds (beyond human hearing range) that travel through the air and bounce off any object they come across. When the echo returns, the bat can figure out how far away it is based on the length of time it took the echo to return. On top of that, the bat can also determine how big the object is and what direction it is moving.

ALARM CLOCKS

• Who do we have to blame (or thank) for the alarm clock? The alarm clock has come a long way since clock-maker Levi Hutchins from New Hampshire invented it in 1787. Created solely because he hated oversleeping, Hutchins' invention was never patented or mass-produced. His alarm clock contained in a 29" x 14" pine cabinet. The minute hand tripped a gear when it reached 4 a.m. and set off a bell.

• Was the snooze time on alarms randomly chosen? You may think that 9 minutes is an odd choice for a time increment, but when the snooze feature was added in the 1950s, the gears of alarm clocks were already standardized. This meant that the teeth on the snooze gear had to mesh with the existing gear configuration, leaving engineers with a difficult decision: Snooze could be for either nine minutes or for 10 minutes. Ten minutes was viewed as too long (people could fall back into a "deep" sleep), so clock makers decided on the nine-minute gear. Although today's digital clocks can be programmed to have a snooze of any length, most still use nine minutes because that's what consumers expect.

Sky Watch, $60

BEER

Bottle Opener Fridge Magnet, $20

• Can ants hold their liquor?
In 1888, naturalist John Lubbock conducted an experiment that tested beer’s effect on ants. According to Lubbock, the ants that had too much to drink were carried home by their "designated driver" nest mates.

• How does drinking beer help the planet? Recent studies show that beer bran, a byproduct of brewing with barley, could be used in the future to clean polluted waters. Beer bran, which is produced by every brewery, has been found to adsorb benzene and trichloroethylene (two widespread environmental pollutants found in water). We'll cheers to that!

PICNICS

• Is there really a devil in deviled eggs? Deviled eggs trace their origins back to Ancient Rome, where spicy stuffed eggs were a diet staple. The term “deviled” was coined in 18th century England and refers to the use of fiery hot spices or condiments. The term was presumably adopted because of the connection between the devil and the excessive heat in Hell.

• Who invited the ants? When one ant discovers your picnic, it spreads the news by leaving a trail of pheromones as it heads back to the colony. Other ants come across the trail, follow it to the food source, and leave another layer of pheromones, making the scent of the trail even stronger and turning one tiny ant into a horde of hundreds faster than you can say “potato salad.”

Picnic Backpack, $25

THE OCEAN

Beach Mat, $25

• Is there any truth to the legend of mermaids?
Sailors who claimed to have spotted mermaids on their sea voyages weren't entirely hallucinating. They probably caught a glimpse of a manatee, which when swimming under water, slightly resemble a curvaceous woman—with a head and arms (flippers) and a fish tail for the back half. Although it's hard to imagine a manatee being mistaken for a woman, in their defense, the sailors had been at sea and away from women for far too long. Even Christopher Columbus in 1493 reported seeing three mermaids on his voyage. The mermaids were "not as pretty as they are depicted," he wrote in his journal, "for somehow in the face they look like men."

• How much salt is in the ocean?
If the ocean's total salt content were dried, it would cover all of the continents to a depth of about 5 feet.

THE SUN

• Where did sunglasses originate?
Early sunglasses weren't used to block the sun at all. For centuries, Chinese judges wore smoke-colored quartz glasses to conceal their eye expressions in court.

• If the sun were to suddenly stop shining, it would take eight minutes for people on earth to be aware of the fact. This is how long it takes for sunlight to travel the 93,000,000 miles to earth.

Solar System Shower Curtain, $30

BBQ

BBQ Apron, $44

• What do politics and barbecues have in common?
Barbecues became associated with political rallies in the 19th century because it was a popular and inexpensive way to lobby for votes. Because barbecue is not class-specific, these gatherings also brought together a wide variety of people from different economic backgrounds.

• What do men really think of their cooking skills?
According to a 2005 industry report by the Hearth, Patio & Barbecue Association, the primary griller (male) in the majority of households considers himself to be average or above in terms of cooking skills.

DO-IT-YOURSELF MISHAPS

• Each year there are 36,000 chain saw accidents. And between 1991-2005 there was a 200 percent increase in nail-gun related injuries to the DIY crowd.

• Have you ever been stuck between a ladder and tree? In Northern Westchester Hospital, a man came into the emergency room because he had accidentally sawed off the branch that was supporting his ladder. Last year, there were 198,480 emergency room visits due to ladder-related accidents.

Home Maintenance Organizer, $25

FATHER'S DAY

Golfer's BBQ Set $30

18 Reasons Keychain, $12

• The "mother" of Father's Day was Sonora Dodd from Spokane, Washington. She conceived the idea of Father's Day while listening to a Mother's Day sermon in 1909. She wanted to honor her father, William Smart, a widowed Civil War veteran who raised their family of six on a farm. June 19, 1909 was the first Father's Day celebration, so chosen because it was the month of Smart's birthday. But it wasn’t until 1966 when President Johnson made the third Sunday in June Father's Day. It was made a permanent public law by President Nixon in 1972.

• What team first wore plastic batting helmets?
Brooklyn Dodgers teammates Pee Wee Reese and Joe Medwick first used plastic inserts in their ball caps in 1941. It wasn’t until 1952 that an entire team – the Pittsburgh Pirates – wore the modern-day style of batting helmets. Major League Baseball was played for more than half a century without any head protection.

SUMMER

• Check the swimmerets to find out the sex of a lobster. These small feathery appendages are located on the underside of the tail. On males, the first pair of swimmerets closest to the body are hard and bony. On a female all the swimmerets are soft and feathery. The female also has  a small rectangular shield between her second pair of walking legs. This is the sperm receptacle where she stores the sperm after mating until she lays her eggs.

• This holiday was first known as Decoration Day because it was a time set aside to decorate the graves and honor those that died in the Civil War. Although many cities claim to be the birthplace of Memorial Day, President Lyndon Johnson declared Waterloo, NY the official birthplace. Waterloo started celebrating Memorial Day on May 5, 1866. It was a community-wide event during which businesses closed and residents decorated the graves of soldiers with flowers and flags. But it wasn't until 1971 that Congress declared Memorial Day a national holiday to be celebrated the last Monday in May.

Americana Shade Lamps, $110

Crab & Lobster Sculptures, $40

MOTHERS

Red Hot Mama Pill Case and Mirror, $26 - $30

Wicked Cook Parents Mug, $22

• The earliest celebration honoring mothers was in ancient Greece. Every spring, the Greeks had an annual spring festival to honor Rhea, the Mother of the gods. They would pay her tribute with honey-cakes, fine drinks and flowers at dawn. Today, people echo that same tradition by bringing mom breakfast in bed.

• The presence of a baby's DNA can be found in its mother years after the baby is born. So even though the cord is cut, part of the baby is with Mom forever.

MOTHERS

• Mr. Rogers credits his mother with helping him establish his neighborly fashion sense. Many of the sweaters he wore on his TV show were actually knitted by her. Mr. Rogers says his mother knitted one sweater every month for as long as he knew her, and each Christmas everyone in the extended family would get a sweater. One of Mr. Rogers' cardigans now hangs in the Smithsonian.

• More mothers give birth on Tuesday than any other day with an average of more than 12,000 births happening on the third day of the week. That's 16 percent more than any other day. This occurs because the majority of doctors do not schedule C-sections or inductions on the weekend. They are postponed until after the Sunday. And as most mothers know, giving birth can take some time, which is why there are more births on Tuesday than Monday.

"Understand Your Mother" Breathspray, $5

Mother Game, $30

PLANTS

Recycled Tin Roses, $20 - $200

Garden Vase, $50

• The color of a flower is vital to pollination. Plants that attract moths are usually white or a pale yellow, which makes them visible even when the light is dim. Butterflies are more attracted to bright colorful flowers. Butterflies have more advanced vision than humans when it comes to seeing colors and can see things we cannot. They are able to spot the slightly more colorful center, which is the nectar bearing part of the flower and key to pollination.

• The smallest known flowers are in the genus Wolffia, which are less than a millimeter long. They look like tiny mealy particles and float on the surface of ponds and streams. A bouquet of a dozen could fit on the head of a pin. The largest single flower is the Rafflesia or "corpse flower." They are generally 3 feet in diameter with the record being 42 inches.

• Besides being beautiful and a source of shade, one tree can remove 26 pounds of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere each year - that equals 11,000 miles of car emissions! And one acre of trees can remove 13 tons of particles and gases from the atmosphere annually. Don't have room for a forest? Basic landscaping plants like shrubs and turf remove smoke, dust and other pollutants from the air. So get planting!

CREATIVE LICENSE

• What is the Postal Service’s largest one-day pickup?
It would have to be the 70.5 million pounds of food they collected in 2006 in the largest one-day food drive in the nation. It involves all 50 states, over 10,000 communities and nearly 1,500 local branches. Since 1993, they have collected 765.5 million pounds of food to help needy families.

• Why did vanity plates originate?
Connecticut introduced “vanity plates” in 1937. They were offered as reward to drivers who had five years of perfect driving. These drivers were allowed to have a name, nickname or initials imprinted on their plates. These days, vanity plates produce millions of dollars in revenue for the DMV and fill up the state courts with First Amendment cases.

License Plate Map, $3900

License Plate Mailbox, $225

EARTH DAY

Recycled Label Pillows, $45 - $75

Reclaimed Wood Tall Rose Wall Art, $65

• We definitely have our weather problems here on earth. But at least we’re not alone. Because of low moisture on Mars, a giant dust storm can last for weeks and even blot out the sun. Mars also has us beat on tornadoes: earth's are generally 2000 feet tall, but Mars ' tornadoes can be five miles high. A hurricane on Jupiter was twice the size of our entire planet and lasted for three centuries.

• All paper is made from pulp (the spongy part of the tree), and lingin is the glue that holds the tree together. If lignin makes its way into the paper product, then the paper turns yellow and brittle when exposed to light. Hence, why newspapers turn yellow so quickly. They aren’t made to last long, which is why they all should be recycled, thus saving 250,000,000 trees each year!

RAIN

• Umbrellas were developed in China. Standard-bearers realized that the banners they held as they marched protected them from sudden downpours. This basic idea of a piece of fabric on a stick was translated into the collapsible marvel we rely on today. Contrary to popular belief, the iconic Chinese parasol was invented after umbrellas designed to protect against rain, not before.

• Rain dances of some kind exist in almost every traditional culture, which isn't surprising considering rain's importance for agriculture. While the practice is usually associated with Native Americans, cultures from ancient Egypt to Japan have their own kind of rain-promoting ritual. In fact, the oldest surviving rain dance is Romanian, and is called Paparuda. During times of drought, a young girl, wearing a skirt made from grasses and vines, sings and dances through the streets of the village, stopping at every house, where the hosts pour water on her.

Weather System Shower Curtain, $30

Fuente Floor Lamp, $120

SPRING

Blue Ferris Wheel Hummingbird Feeder, $55

Handmade Pigeon Bircall, $45

• The hummingbird is the smallest species of bird, but they get the itch for a major road trip up north each spring, just like their larger cousins. When the weather starts to warm up, these shrimpy but spunky birds fly nearly 600 miles from the Yucatan Peninsula, over Texas and the Midwest, and finally arrive in their summer homes in the New England. You’ll recognize their rapidly flapping wings and distinctively long and pointy beaks, used to suck the nectar from flowers – now you’ll know to ask them about the weather down in Mexico too.

• Before major league baseball extended all the way to the West Coast, teams would often conduct their spring training in sunny California. Major league teams now train in either Florida or Arizona in informal leagues known as the Grapefruit and Cactus Leagues, after each state’s iconic plant. Spring training has sometimes drawn players even further afield: the Brooklyn Dodgers trained in Havana, Cuba in 1947 and 1959, and in the Dominican Republic in 1948.

VALENTINES

• In ancient Rome, February 15 was Lupercalia, a festival where Roman city folk would avert the cold of winter by literally running wild. According to Plutarch, a Greek historian and man-about-town, during Lupercalia "many of the noble youths and of the magistrates run up and down through the city naked, for sport and laughter striking those they meet with shaggy thongs. And many women of rank also purposely get in their way, and like children at school present their hands to be struck, believing that the pregnant will thus be helped in delivery, and the barren to pregnancy."

• The modern marriage ritual has come a long way since the days of rampaging Roman nobles and "shaggy thongs", but we still have a long way to go in terms of environmental impact. Just getting your friends and family together for the big day requires a lot of jet fuel, and high-quality paper invitations can eat up a lot of trees. Luckily, it's not only easy, but also fun to be green during your next big celebration. Check out Ideal Bite's newest addition for tips on how to offset the carbon footprint of life's most memorable occasion.

Read more about going green

MEN'S WEAR

Wine Glass Tie, $34

Silver Type Key Cufflinks, $45

• The venerable necktie began as a bib. In medieval Europe, it was common for men to wear loose pieces of cloth near their necks to prevent their clothes from being stained by food and wine. Eventually this cloth was cut into a standardized shape and was included as part of Croatian military uniforms during the 16th century. Croatian mercenaries were some of the fiercest fighters in Europe, and the necktie (more like an ascot at this point) lost all messy eating associations.

• When most people (including us) think of cufflinks, images of intricate metal devices, often monogrammed and finished in some rare metal, come to mind. In Europe however, small decorative knots made from silk or elastic rope, called Monkey's Fists, are also popular for keeping cuffs together. The knot originated from sailing: when crew members needed a way to reliably throw a rope, they'd tie off the end as a Monkey's Fist, which concentrated some weight at the end of the line and made it fly more predictably.

VALENTINES

• Chaucer was the first writer to associate Valentine’s Day, which he called “Volantynys day” with romance. The holiday’s association during the Middle Ages was largely with courtly love – the kind of devotion that would make knights fight in crusades, protect relic-bound pilgrims, and slay dragons to impress a lady and prove his virtue. Some say that the Valentine’s Day card comes from letters these adventuring knights would send their ladies while off being virtuous, to let them know they were well
and still very much in love.

• In Japan and Korea, women are usually the only ones who give gifts on Valentine’s Day. A variety of specialty chocolates, called giri-choko, have been developed just for the holiday. Giri-choko literally means “obligation chocolate”, and women sometimes give a box to everyone in their office. A complementary holiday called White Day has emerged in these countries, in which men return the favor by giving white chocolate to women. White day usually falls on March 14, and in recent years the “white” theme has been extended to include gifts of lingerie.

Small Heart Canvas, $60

Cupid-be-Gone, $65

NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTION

Reader's Journal, $30

Travel Log, $30

• New Year's Resolutions are all about reinventing yourself but are by no means a modern idea. The ancient Romans believed that the god Janus had a face with eyes on both the front and back of his head, allowing him to see the previous year as well as the New Year. Janus was the god of doorways, beginnings, and endings, which is why the year's first month was named for him. Resolutions were considered to be promises made with Janus that needed to be taken seriously, since he could see if they would be kept. I wonder if belief in Janus would help people keep the most common modern resolutions, which are weight loss, eating healthier, reading more, and exercising.

• The Times Square Ball Drop evolved from the function of the time ball, a device used to synchronize navigation before the advent of electronic communication. These balls were common in England and America during the 19th century. While they were built for a practical purpose they inspired people with their beauty, and the design was adopted for the first New Year's ball drop in Times Square on the eve of 1907. Time balls were smaller versions of the famous Times Square ball This year, the ball was re-fitted with energy efficient LED lights, which will remain the ball's light source for the years to come.