Did you know....?

By Claire Eamer

Have you noticed that the world is way too serious these days? I mean -- there are reasons why it's serious. I know that. But we can't do serious all day, every day. So here's some non-serious sciency stuff.

When I'm researching a new book, my family gets used to my wandering through the living room or sitting down to a meal and starting the conversation with, "Did you know...?" It means I've found another awesome, mind-boggling, who-woulda-thunk-it fact in my research. Some of those facts make it into the final book. Some don't. But I love them all. So here are a few.

When I was researching Out of the Ice: How Climate Change is Revealing the Past, I read about Ötzi the Iceman, the man who died 5300 years ago in the Alps and whose body lay frozen and preserved all that time, along with his travel gear. Which included socks! Somehow, knowing that a guy who lived and died so long ago wore socks makes him so much more real in my mind. And they weren't ordinary socks. He wore leather shoes stuffed with grass to protect him from the cold, and string socks to keep the grass in place.

Okay, it doesn't look much like a modern sock. But if you look closely at this
replica of the Iceman's footwear, you can see a kind of twine mesh sock
holding the insulating grass in place. The outside shoe had a bearskin sole
and deerskin upper. This replica is in the Bata Shoe Museum in
Toronto, Ontario.

Speaking of socks, here's another sock-fact I learned -- this time while researching What a Waste! Where Does Garbage Go? Roman soldiers wore socks! Inside their sandals!!

Here's the handle of a Roman razor, made in the form of a foot wearing
a sandal and sock. The rolled top of the sock is part way up calf, and, if you
look closely, you can see a herringbone pattern in the sock. That shows it was
probably made of woven material, not knitted yarn.
Photo by The Portable Antiquities Scheme, Philippa Walton.

When you think about it, that makes sense. Not every place the Romans went was as sandal-friendly as central Italy. At the Roman fort of Vindolanda in notoriously cold and wet northern England, an ancient rubbish dump revealed the truth. Almost 2000 years ago, someone in a Roman soldier's family (his mother?) sent him a care package containing -- as recorded in a letter that is still legible -- two pairs of sandals, two sets of underwear -- and socks.

Here's why that Roman soldier wouild have been grateful for warm socks.
He almost certainly spent time on duty at Hadrian's Wall, just north of
Vindolanda. Even on a fine, warm day like this, it's a rough and exposed
place. But in winter, with the cold and the rain and the wind...? Socks
would be very welcome. Claire Eamer photo.

Both those sock facts made it into their respective books, but just in passing. Maybe I need to write a book about socks? Okay, maybe not. But maybe a book about Indian Runner Ducks? They are weird! They stand upright, like penguins, and instead of waddling like your average duck, they can run.

Here's a little family of Indian Runner Ducks. They're sometimes called
bowling pin ducks or penguin ducks, and you can see why.
Photo by Alan Rockefeller - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0,
 https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=40930474

Runner ducks come from the East Indies, from some of the islands that now make up Indonesia. They're good egg-layers and good walkers -- which means they can be walked to market, rather than carried. They don't need water as much as most ducks, and their wings are too small for flying, so they are fairly easy to keep. But you've got to admit, they're a bit silly-looking!

And why my sudden interest in Indian Runner Ducks? I think it's related to the fact that there are currently seven Indian Runner Duck ducklings living in a basket in our laundry room. I'm looking forward to watching them race around the yard like speedy penguins in a few weeks.

Here -- have a duckling picture. If that doesn't cheer you up, I don't know what will.

Claire Eamer photo