Timbits2Toonies

In 100 days we ring in the year 2020. Sweden's Carl XVI Gustaf is the seventh monarch of the House of Bernadotte.  Turin is the home of Vermouth. The toponym Okanagan is Salish for 'place of water'.  New Year's is a publisher's holiday so you can't use use last year's calendar. Raggedy Ann was born in 1915; Raggedy Andy, five years later. The population of Regina is 1.162 million.  The surname Warren means 'dweller in or keeper of a game reserve. 131 years ago today, the first  National Geographic Magazine appeared. Czechs are most Praguematic.  It takes seven kilos of uranium-235 to build a deadly nuclear bomb. Goodwill operates 162 thrift stores in Canada and the US. Poles feast on clear, ruby-red borscht every Christmas Eve. This is the last day of summer. My neighbour must be a kamikaze pilot--all his jokes bomb. Wet burritos are eaten with a fork and knife. Australia's National Tartan was proclaimed in 1984....

Today in 1894 the first Stanley Cup playoff series began. Invented in China, chopsticks have been in use for more than 2,000 years. Phonophobes struggle with the irrational fear of noise. Holiday Inn rents more than 214,000 bedrooms around the globe. Chopsticks are the reason that custard was not invented by the Chinese. Ranking first, 96.4% of Romanians own their own homes; Switzerland is 50th with 43.4%. The piano is both a string and percussion instrument. Eight languages are spoken by First Nation People in the Yukon. The name Arlo is of Spanish origin; it means barberry tree’. Slang: Language that takes off its coat, rolls up its sleeves and gets to work.  Metrophiles love poetry.  Kindergarten is mandatory in Nova Scotia, BC and PEI. The giraffe is the largest ruminant. Barbecue, hurricane and squash are all borrowed from Indigenous American languages. Geology may rock but Geography is really where it’s at. Smokey t...