More blueberries are being eaten and thus more blueberries are being planted. The U.S. produced 143.6 million pounds in 2007 and 182.1 million pounds in 2009.  Washington State has gone from 28 million pounds of blueberries two years ago to an estimated 90.1 million pounds this year, which is an astounding jump. People love those antioxidants.

The orange basketball rims on public courts in New York City stand up to a lot of abuse.  Although other cities buy factory-made rims, the blacksmiths of New York’s parks department handcraft these sturdy steel rims. The design “has been kept in a dusty composition notebook in the center of the cavernous workshop.”  Its origins are unknown but harken back to a time when everything possible was made locally instead of ordered from a national manufacturer.

Gibraltar’s Barbary Macaques’ connection to a secret World War II plot makes for an engaging travel article though the revelation is easily found on the Internet.  The story goes that as long as Gibraltar’s monkeys remain, the territory will stay under British rule.  This being a situation that the residents prefer, when it became a concern during WWII Winston Churchill monitored the dwindling monkey population.  He imported additional macaques from Algeria and Morocco to remove any doubt.

Paul Allen’s Flying Heritage Collection of World War II combat aircraft are getting some ground reinforcements. A German Jagdpanzer 38(t) tank destroyer and Soviet T-34 tank have joined the collection. On Memorial Day the public can watch them being driven and fired.

The N.Y. Times City Room blog takes a look at former college dorm rooms of the famous. This being the Times, the elite abodes at Yale, Princeton, and Harvard are examined, with campus maps for the first two.  Notable students from recent celebrity (Michelle Obama, Elena Kagan) to truly historic figures (FDR, JFK) are called out.  More interesting are the many comments which bring out that ol’ college lore, passed down from student to student.  From my alma mater, the tale of the Mayling Soong room in Tower Court, and from Smith, the residences of Sylvia Plath.  (Yes, I did have to look up my Wellesley dorm room number; but I can still rattle off my student ID#.)

The New England Belt Sander Racing Association resulted from a 1988 discussion of possible Olympic Games woodworking events. Belt sander racing was deemed the safest of the options and since then a group of self-proclaimed lunatics have gathered every year or so to misuse the power tool. The races became so popular that they had to take a hiatus a few years ago. They were back this month with participants expected from other power tool racing associations. Speed is not the only factor as trophies have been presented in revered categories such as “Most Spiritually Bereft.”

Peter Gabriel has joined the campaign to save Woolley Valley near Bath, Somerset in England. The valley, which sits beneath the hill that inspired his song “Solsbury Hill,” is being developed by a farming company to raise chickens and alpacas. The company points out that proper farming of the land will preserve it, but the work includes adding animal sheds, access roads, also cutting hedgerows and draining wet areas. Those opposed wish the landscape to stay unspoilt.

I remember turning around in the Musée d’Orsay in Paris and unexpectedly coming face-to-profile with “Whistler’s Mother,” a painting I thought would be residing in the United States. But there it was amongst a wealth of French paintings, frame after frame of the greatest hits from the impressionist and post-impressionist periods. The museum is undergoing a renovation and selections from the collection are on two tours, both stopping in San Francisco.  Right now, the de Young Museum is hosting “Birth of Impressionism” through September 6th.  Soon after, the post-impressionists get their turn. It’s “a masterpiece everywhere you turn”, and Whistler’s mom gets to see her home country.

From the NASA History Office, a pdf list of every known astronaut wake up call song. It begins with Gemini 6 and “Hello Dolly” and includes the morning songs sent to the Spirit and Opportunity rovers on Mars. David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” is listed only twice (and the second is in a medley). Elton John’s “Rocket Man” is listed four times (twice in medleys).

“That’s crazy,” said Kounts, looking at line after line of the perfectly slanted script in the Constitution.

Washington state does not require cursive in school curriculums.  Most teachers still teach it anyway, but that doesn’t mean students use it much. A Latin teacher at Seattle’s Roosevelt High School noticed the decline in her students’ handwriting, from cursive to print around five years ago and in some cases very messy print.  She asked a friend, a retired third grade teacher to give her A.P. Latin class a cursive refresher. In addition to reviewing the basics, the teachers brought in letters and historical documents written in longhand that the students, raised on computers, marveled over.  But the reality is that cursive can go the way of the dodo bird and much won’t suffer, except perhaps the thank you note which still seems to have a hold, albeit a weak one, in modern etiquette.  But I have to wonder… where will girls wistfully scribble the initials in hearts that decorate notebooks and book covers when those go away? Annotation and post-it apps in their e-books?