“This is My Quest”

   I recently finished reading The Know-It-All by A.J. Jacobs. It was really a good book, funny and informative, all about Jacobs’ quest to read the entire Encyclopedia Britannica. This has inspired me to do two things: learn more and adopt my own quest. I have been doing well on both accounts.


1. Learning more- I actually learned a lot of interesting things from The Know-It-All. For example:


     a. The curious case of Prynne. An ancient Greek meritrix (Latin censoring) who made tons of money. Then she got arrested for blasphemy and put on trial. Things looked pretty bleak for her (the sentence was execution) so she flashed them. They acquitted her. I learned that boobs will make heterosexual males do anything.


     b. Nathaniel Hawthorne, author of The Scarlet Letter, my most recent required school reading book, wrote the number 64 compulsively on scraps of paper. Although interestingly enough, I found no mention of it in the actual book he is so famous for. They must have edited those parts outs.


    c. Queen Victoria’s bustle played “God Save the Queen” when she sat on it.


    d. In Medieval England they had an Abbot of Unreason in charge of all Christmas celebrations.


2. Adopting a quest- back last spring my school had a pop tab drive for the Ronald McDonald House. I don’t actually drink soda, but I ended up with a ton. Then I got addicted. Now I can’t stop. So I have now made it my quest to get 1 million pop tabs. It seems insane, but I’m going to do it. I have about 4,000 now. It’s a good start.


The CIA tried to assassinate Fidel Castro 634 times. (Yay Learning!)