Here are some bits and bobs that I came across in October.

1. Apparently you can make popcorn in the microwave simply by putting kernels in a paper bag. (I wanted to try this before publishing this post, but I never got around to locating a paper bag. Let me know if you’ve done this!)

2. National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) began in July 1999, when six of the 21 participants reached the 50,000 word goal. (A whole post about NaNoWriMo is coming soon.)

3. Poppy seeds can lie dormant for decades, until they are activated by sunlight.

4. Both Gretchen Rubin and Emily P. Freeman have published adult colouring books.

5. Come From Away is a new musical about the (nearly 7,000) passengers stranded in Gander, Newfoundland (population 11,000) after 9/11. It’s coming to Toronto in November and Broadway in February. I’m intrigued!

6. Lewis Carroll himself abridged Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland into a book for younger children called The Nursery Alice. (I’m reading it to my three year old now; she thinks the chapters are out of order because she’d never seen Roman numerals before!)

What did you learn in October?