1. Popcorn is a whole grain. Who knew?

2. Eileen Cook is hilarious. I just finished Getting Revenge on Lauren Wood, and it was if high school life came back to haunt me, except on steroids. You can read the first chapter here, but then you’ll have to buy the book, so be prepared.

3. People once thought that blood carried personality traits. And thus, the blood of a calf could be transfused into a man loony with syphilis in order to make him calm and calflike. Seriously. This was done. And the guy lived… at least for a while… I learned this in the introduction to Blood: An Epic History of Medicine and Commerce, by Douglas Starr, and now I’m kind of scared to keep reading.

4. The downtown branch of the Vancouver Public Library is about a thousand times more interesting to children than the Kitsilano branch. However, once said children have chosen their books, it is about a thousand times more difficult to take them with you to the adult section. They will block the escalators, leap in front of people in wheelchairs, attempt to move compact shelving, and otherwise wreak a level of havoc not quite possible in Kitsilano.