17th February: Madame Butterfly

On 17 February 1904 Giacomo Puccini's Opera Madame Butterfly was poorly received at its world première at La Scala. It went on to become an opera classic, though, and here are ten things you might not know about it.

1. Madam Butterfly, often referred to as Madama Butterfly, is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini, with an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa.
2. It is based on the short story Madame Butterfly, written in 1898 by John Luther Long. This story, in turn, was based on the semi-autobiographical 1887 French novel Madame Chrysanthème by Pierre Loti, which Long's sister used to tell him stories about.
3. Before it was an opera, it was a one act play by David Belasco, called Madame Butterfly: A Tragedy of Japan. The play premièred in New York in 1900, and afterwards moved to London. Puccini saw it there in the summer of that year and was inspired to write an opera based on it.
4. So what's the plot? It's set in 1904 Nagasaki, when a US naval officer called Pinkerton is about to marry a 15 year old Japanese girl called Ciocio-san. It's a marriage of convenience for him, as he intends to leave her and marry an American woman as soon as he can. Ciocio-san, however, sees it as much more than that - she's even converted to Christianity ahead of her marriage. Her family renounce her when they find out she has done that. Soon after the wedding, Pinkerton leaves her in their home and goes back to America, promising he will come back. He's left her pregnant, of course, and she is determined to wait for him, despite her maid and the marriage broker insisting he won't come back. Pinkerton has, meanwhile, married an American woman called Kate. In due course, Ciocio-san has a son, who she names Sorrow. Three years later, Pinkerton writes to say he is returning - his wife, Kate, has agreed to adopt Ciocio-san's child. Ciocio-san is so excited to hear he is coming back that her maid and the American Consul who delivers the letter, cannot bear to tell her the whole truth. When Pinkerton sees how Ciocio-san has decorated the house for his return he is filled with remorse, but still a cowardly rat fink, he can't face her and gets his wife and the Consul to break the news to Ciocio-san; who prays to her old gods, leaves her son blindfolded at the altar with an American Flag in his hand, and commits suicide.
5. In case you're wondering what any of this has to do with Butterflies, Ciocio-san means "Butterfly" in Japanese.
6. Some tunes in the opera may sound familiar - the American National Anthem is used throughout as a musical theme to represent Pinkerton; and the Humming Chorus sounds a bit like Bring Him Home from Les Miserables which is well known for being heavily influenced by Puccini’s work.
7. It's one of the most popular operas in the world now, but that wasn't the case at the 1904 première. The audience hated it, and made bird, cow, and goat calls as well as booing. Even having some of the top opera singers of the time in the cast didn't help. Why should this be? Opera scholars think it was because Puccini finished writing it late, leaving little time for the cast to rehearse properly.
8. After this mega-flop, Puccini revised the opera four times, up until 1907 when he completed the fifth version, the version most often performed today. The original 1904 version is occasionally performed.
9. There is a memorial to Puccini and also Tamaki Miura, a singer who won international fame for her performances as Cio-Cio-san, in the Glover Garden in Nagasaki.
10. As well as parts of Les Miserables, Madam Butterfly has a wider influence. Miss Saigon is directly based on the story of Madama Butterfly; and its influence is also apparent in the film Fatal Attraction starring Michael Douglas and Glenn Close. Not only does the soundtrack include parts of the opera, but an alternate ending of the film shows Alex committing suicide like Cio-Cio-San, to Un bel dì - the opera's most famous aria. Its influence even extends into the punk scene - The Sex Pistols released a single called Madama Butterfly which features vocals of both Pinkerton and Cio-Cio-San.

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February 16th: Eckhart Tolle Quotes

Born on this date in 1948 was Eckhart Tolle, speaker, teacher on spirituality and the author of The Power of Now. Here are some quotes from him.

1. Life is the dancer and you are the dance.
2. Where there is anger, there is always pain underneath.
3. The past has no power over the present moment.
4. Some changes look negative on the surface but you will soon realize that space is being created in your life for something new to emerge.
5. I have lived with several Zen masters - all of them cats.
6. It is not uncommon for people to spend their whole life waiting to start living.
7. What a caterpillar calls the end of the world we call a butterfly.
8. When you become comfortable with uncertainty, infinite possibilities open up in your life.
9. You can only lose something that you have, you cannot lose something that you are.
10. You are the Universe expressing itself as a human for a little while.

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15 February: Teddy Bears

On 15 February 1903 the first Teddy Bear was sold in America. It was made by Morris and Rose Michtom, Russian immigrants. They lived in Brooklyn, New York. Here are 10 things you might not know about teddy bears.

1. Most people have heard the story about how the teddy bear got its name; how in 1902, Theodore Roosevelt, often referred to as Teddy, went on a hunting trip and didn't manage to shoot anything, so was presented with a wounded Bear cub tied to a tree so that he could make at least one kill. Roosevelt refused to kill the cub because it wouldn't be very sportsmanlike. A newspaper published a cartoon of him holding a bear cub and "Teddy's bears" became a thing. Sadly, though, just because Roosevelt wouldn't shoot the bear it didn't mean it got to live. Roosevelt told the hunters to put the bear out of its misery and after he'd gone, they killed it with a knife.
2. Teddy bears already existed before this but were called simply "stuffed bears" or "Bruins". They hadn't been around all that long - the first one had been produced in Germany that same year German toy maker Margarete Steiff, who was asked to produce such a toy by her nephew after a visit to the zoo. She thought bears were rather scary for children's toys, so she gave them Button eyes and cute faces.
3. Morris and Rose Michtom got permission from Roosevelt to market their toy bears as Teddy Bears. They caught on fast - in March 1903, the Steiff Company shipped 3,000 more across the Atlantic.
4. The first Teddies in Britain were made by the J.K. Farnell company in 1908. In 1925 they created the "Alpha Bear", which is widely believed to have been the inspiration behind the look of Winnie the Pooh. The name Winnie the Pooh came from a real bear called Winnipeg, which came from Canada and was much loved by Christopher Robin Milne on trips to the zoo.
5. After the Titanic sank in 1912, the Steiff company created 500 teddy bears in honour of the victims. These “mourning bears” were Black with Red-rimmed eyes. They now sell for $20,000 or more in auctions.
6. Teddy bears get around. Aviation pioneers, Alcock and Brown, took teddy bears with them as mascots on their historic flight from St. John's, Newfoundland to Clifden, Ireland in 1919. That was only the beginning. More recently, in the 21st century, a bear called Raymondo belonging to the ISPY company travelled 395,605 miles, visiting six continents and 35 countries with airline crew members and sponsors. He's officially the most travelled toy, but Magellan T. Bear has been to places no bear has been before. He became the first teddy bear in space on Space Shuttle Discovery in 1995. He was a project for a Colorado elementary school. He later flew around the world, and visited the South Pole, as well.
7. Someone who collects or is particularly fond of teddy bears is called an ‘arctophile.’ The word comes from the Greek arctos (bear) and philos (loving).
8. It's definitely the word for Jackie Miley, from Hilly City, South Dakota, who has the world’s biggest teddy bear collection. As of 2012, she owned 8,026 of them.
9. The smallest commercially available stitched teddy bear is 0.29 inches tall, and is made by South African “microbear” maker Cheryl Moss. The largest Teddy bear is C.T.Dreams, which stands for Connect the Dreams. He lives at the Exploration Place in Wichita, Kansas and is 55 feet 4 inches tall.
10. The song, Teddy Bear's Picnic was originally called The Teddy Bear Two Step. It was composed in 1907 by JK Bratton, but the words weren't added until 1932, by Jimmy Kennedy.

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14th February: Oregon

On this date, in 1859, Oregon was admitted to the Union as the 33rd state. Here are some things you might not know about Oregon.

1. Oregon is the only US state whose Flag has two different designs - the state seal in Blue and gold on the front, and a golden Beaver on the back, the beaver being the official state animal.
2. Oregon is the only state which has an official state nut - the Hazelnut. Then it has all the usual official symbols - state fish: Chinook Salmon; State Bird: Western Meadowlark; State Tree: Douglas Fir; State Insect: Oregon Swallowtail; State Rock: The Thunder-egg (geode); State Beverage: Milk; State Song: Oregon, My Oregon; State Gem: Oregon sunstone; State Motto: Alis volat Propriis (She flies with her own wings).
3. The capital is Salem, but the city everyone has heard of is Portland. Portland has its own Leprechaun colony, the only one west of Ireland. They live in the world's smallest official park, which measures just two feet across. The park was created in 1948 by World War II veteran Dick Fagan, who decided to do something special with the hole built for a streetlamp which was never placed.
4. As well as the world's smallest park, Oregon has the world's shortest river, D River in Lincoln City, which is only 121 feet long. At the other extreme, the state is also home to the world's biggest Mushroom, which is 2.4 miles across and is believed to be between 1900 and 8650 years old; and the deepest lake in the USA - Crater Lake, which is in the crater of an ancient volcano and is about 2,000 feet deep; the nation's deepest river gorge - Hells Canyon at a depth of 8,000 feet, and the world’s tallest barber shop pole at Forest Grove.
5. Oregon has a town called Sisters and a town called Brothers. There's also a town named Boring, which is twinned with a town in Scotland called Dull. The state has over 60 ghost towns, too, more than any other state.
6. Simpsons creator Matt Groening was born in Portland. In 2012 he finally answered the debate about which state the family's home of Springfield was in - Oregon. Many of the characters are named after streets in Portland.
7. If you're interested in Carousel horses or rosaries, Oregon is the place to be as there are museums there dedicated to both.
8. Some more about Portland - the name was decided on the flip of a coin. It was almost named Boston. It is the only major city in the U.S. built on a dormant volcano; and the people here seem to like taking their clothes off - Portland has the most strip clubs per capita than any other city in the country, and is the venue for the annual World Naked Bike Ride. 10,000 naked cyclists take part, making it the world's largest naked cycling event.
9. No one knows for sure how Oregon got its name. Some believe it is derived from the French word for hurricane (ouregan), others believe it's from the Spanish word orejon, meaning "big ears."
10. When in Oregon, it's illegal to whistle underwater, box with a Kangaroo, eat Ice cream on Sundays, juggle without a licence, walk down a sidewalk and knock the head off a Snake with a walking cane, or wear roller skates in Toilets. Bathing suits must cover the body from neck to knee, and dishes must be left to drip dry.

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13th February: Kiss Day

Kiss day (except in South Korea where they celebrate this in June) - Studies have shown that people have much more vivid memories of their first kiss than they do about the first time they have sex. Here are some fascinating facts about kissing.

1. The word “Kiss” is from the Old English cyssan, which in turn comes from the proto-Germanic kussijanan or kuss - probably based on the sound of a kiss. The study of kissing is called philematology. while someone who studies kissing is called an osculologist. Why not a philametologist? I don't know. The fear of kissing is philemaphobia, most common among inexperienced kissers.
2. In some people the fear may originate from the fact that when two people kiss, they exchange between 10 million and 1 billion Bacteria. This isn't necessarily a bad thing - it helps boost the human immune system and the saliva produced is good for the teeth.
3. The average person spends at least two weeks of their life kissing.
4. The first mention of a kiss in writing is in Sanskrit texts dating back to 1500 B.C. The first kiss on screen was shot in 1896 by the Edison Company. The film was 30 seconds long and consisted entirely of a close up of a man and a woman kissing. The first on-screen kiss between two members of the same sex was in Cecil B. DeMille’s 1922 film Manslaughter. The film with the most kisses is Don Juan (1926) in which John Barrymore and Mary Astor share 127 kisses. The film with the longest kiss is Andy Warhol’s 1963 film, Kiss. Kissing in films was seriously restricted by something called the Hay's Code, which laid out strict rules about kissing in American films. The people kissing must not be horizontal; at least one had to be sitting or standing. Married couples in films must sleep in twin beds. If kissing on one of the beds occurred, at least one of the actors had to have a foot on the floor. There was also a strict time limit. It was possible to get around that one, as Alfred Hitchcock directed Ingrid Bergman and Cary Grant to repeatedly kiss briefly while Grant spoke on the telephone in the 1946 film Notorious. They counted each as a separate kiss, and it certainly had an effect. Polls consistently list this kiss as one of the sexiest kisses in cinematic history.
5. According to Guinness World Records, the longest-lasting kiss ever was between Ekkachai and Laksana Tiranarat of Thailand, which lasted 58 hours, 35 minutes and 58 seconds.
6. About two thirds of people tilt their heads to the right when they lean in for a kiss. Scientists speculate that a person's preference in this regard starts in the womb.
7. Why do we sign letters with "X" denoting a kiss? The theory is that it dates back to when most people couldn't read or write and would sign documents with an X, which was an abbreviation of the word "Christ" (as in "Xmas"). Many people would kiss their mark as a sign of reverence and in time the X itself came to mean a kiss. A kiss as a way to seal a contract was also a thing in ancient times, and since back then a marriage was little more than a business deal, that's why couples kiss at the end of their wedding.
8. Humans aren't the only animals which kiss one another. Cows, puffins, Squirrels and even Snails kiss, although it's usually little more than touching faces. Chimpanzees are the only animals whose kisses resemble a human kiss. It seems likely there's an evolutionary reason for kissing. Some say it started when mothers passed chewed up food to their offspring mouth to mouth during weaning or that it was a way for prospective partners to check compatibility by tasting each other's saliva. The fact that human Brains have special neurons to help couples find each other's lips in the dark is further evidence for the importance of kissing.
9. That said, not all cultures kiss on the lips. In the Trobriand Islands lovers will go through several phases of sucking and biting with the climax being biting off each other’s eyelashes. In fact, in the South Pacific, short eyelashes are a status symbol. Inuits rubbed noses and smelled each other's cheeks. Some cultures in the Middle East and Asia still look down on kissing in public, although many non-kissing cultures soon caught on when they were exposed to western culture.
10. The muscle mostly used in kissing is the orbicularis oris (the muscle around the mouth). One kiss, however, uses 146 muscles in total, including 34 facial muscles and 112 postural muscles.

See Also

Quotes about kissing.

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12th February: Grapefruit

February is Grapefruit Month. So here are ten things you might not know about grapefruit.

1. Grapefruit gets its name because the fruit grow in clusters on the trees like large Grapes.
2. Grapefruit is a hybrid originating in Barbados as an accidental cross between two introduced species, sweet Orange and pomelo. A man called Captain Shaddock is thought to have been the first to introduce some of the seeds from Asia in the 17th century. He might have crossed them, although the most common theory is that it was an accidental cross, occurring naturally. Hence grapefruit was known as the shaddock or shattuck until the nineteenth century.
3. It was also referred to as "the forbidden fruit" during the 18th century. It was first documented in 1750 by Welshman Rev. Griffith Hughes, who described specimens from Barbados in his book, The Natural History of Barbados.
4. Opinions seem to be divided on which nation is the world's top grapefruit producer. Wikipedia says it's China, followed by the USA, while other sites say most of the world's supply comes from Florida and Texas. Wikipedia's figures are for "grapefruit and pomelo" however. The grapefruit was brought to Florida by Count Odet Philippe in 1823.
5. Botanically grapefruit is a berry. Grapefruit trees are evergreen and can grow to 13–15m (43–49 ft), although their usual height is about around 5–6 meters (16–20 ft). A single grapefruit tree can produce more than 1,500 pounds of fruit.
6. A grapefruit is 75% juice. A medium grapefruit produces 2/3 of a cup of juice.
7. They're good things to include in a diet for weight loss, and 1/2 (100g) of a grapefruit contains roughly 60% of your daily requirement for Vitamin C They don't react well with certain drugs though, statins being one example, so check before eating if you're on medication.
8. Grapefruit is known for its slightly tart, bitter taste. In some parts of the world, such as Haiti and Costa Rica, it is cooked and eaten as a dessert or made into jam.
9. The grapefruit is said to be one of the “Seven Wonders of Barbados,” and Texas Red Grapefruit was designated as the official fruit of Texas in 1993.
10. There are special items of cutlery especially designed for eating grapefruit. A grapefruit spoon is like a teaspoon except it tapers to a sharp or serrated edge in order to separate the flesh of a grapefruit from its rind. A grapefruit knife is small with a curved serrated blade, designed to hug the curves of the grapefruit and separate the outer edge of the segments from the rim of the fruit.

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February 11: Leslie Neilsen Quotes

Leslie Nielsen was born on February 11 1926. Here are ten of his one liners for you to enjoy.

1. Doing nothing is very hard to do... you never know when you're finished. The upside is that from the moment you wake up in the morning, you're on the job.
2. I really have to keep an eye on myself, because sometimes I think I might say something important.
3. I've been called the Laurence Olivier of spoofs. I guess that would make Laurence Olivier the Leslie Nielsen of Shakespeare.
4. It's a topsy-turvy world, and maybe the problems of two people don't amount to a hill of beans. But this is our hill. And these are our beans!
5. When I got home I received a call from Mimi Du Jour. She said she wanted to see me at the club right away. Since I had no idea where the Club Rightaway was, I suggested the Club Flamingo. She agreed.
6. One thing a person won't do when he's laughing is try to beat you up.
7. It doesn't really matter where I go (Heaven or Hell). I'll have plenty of friends in both places.
8. Sometimes integrity is a punch in the face.
9. Truth hurts. Maybe not as much as jumping on a bicycle with the seat missing, but it hurts.
10. Those who the gods seek to destroy first, learn how to play golf.

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