If I Can Dream

Remember watching the "Idol Gives Back" show on American Idol this past season? Remember seeing the Elvis & Celine duet and wondering to yourself, "How the hell did they do that?" Well, I found out.

Come On-A My House

While busy doing a playlist for an upcoming wedding, I happened across Rosemary Clooney's "Come On-A My House". It's so kooky in the beginning, kind of reminds me of The Adams Family or something... But the lyrics don't make any real sense, except that if you go to her house you'll get candy, peaches, plums and a-pomegranite too. Oh well, enough of me analyzing the lyrics. Here are some facts about Rosemary Clooney that you've--I'm sure--always wanted to know:

In 1951, her record of "Come On-A My House" became a hit, despite the fact that she hated the song passionately. She had been told by Columbia to record the song, and that she would be in violation of her contract if she did not record it.

Her brother is Nick Clooney and his son is George.

She was a spokesperson for Coronet paper towels. She sang the memorable jingle: "Extra value is what you get, when you buy Coronet." Jim Belushi later parodied this on SNL.

She became addidcted to sleeping pills and tranquilizers due to her hectic schedule of raising 5 kids, working on her TV show, movies, and records.

Started a brain facility in Long Beach, California named after her sister, Betty, who died of a brain aneurysm in 1976.

Rosie died on June 29, 2002 at the age of 74.

For more info on Rosie, please click here.

Psychology Class Part I

I promised myself I would start writing down every cool thing I learned in psychology class each day, but it hasn't happened yet. I guess I'll just try to remember some now...

The stage of sleeping in which you dream you're falling is called "light sleep" and it's the first stage of Non-REM sleeping. It only lasts a few minutes, but falling off a cliff sure does scare the crap outta me!

Although your brain is active during REM, your voluntary muscle control is taken away. So if you're fighting Mr. T in your dream, your brain stops you from looking stupid on the couch.

Dreams, according to Freud, are unconscious, forbidden thoughts that need to escape. Example, you secretly wish the lunch lady would keel over and in your dreams, she really does.

The state of a car in your dream is meant to symbolize the state of YOUR health. My teacher explained that a friend of hers always told her about his dreams and spoke of one where he saw his old, beat up truck. She explained that the car's appearance related to a person's health. He didn't think anything of it. Years later, he was diagnosed with liver cancer and always remembered that dream. Kind of eerie, but it may or may not be true. Depends on what you believe in I guess.

Smell is the strongest trigger of memory. Studying with a candle burning or cookies baking helps you study better. On test day, when you think of that smell, you think of the answers for the test. (Also, studying before bed is a way to ace a test.)

A libotomy procedure involves the frontal cortex being seperated from the brain, therefore making a person dull. All personality is taken away. (SEE: Last 20 minutes of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.)

The Bobo Doll experiment, conducted in 1961 by Albert Bandura, showed that kids who were exposed to violent behaviors were more likely to act violenty themselves, compared to children who were exposed to normal, non-violent behavior.(Wikipedia Link)

Your brain generates 25 watts of power while you’re awake--enough to light a light bulb.

All of the above are some of the things I learned so far in my psychology class. It's pretty fun, actually, learning about your brain and body. I've always wanted to know why we do certain things. Maybe my little tidbits each day can help you learn something you never knew.