Did you balance an egg today?

Tommorow is officially the first day of Spring, although the weather for nearly a week has been wonderful. With the start of Daylight Savings Time, as well as the change of seasons, the days are growing longer and the long winter is finally over (we hope).

I've actually heard birds singing in the morning before I get up for the day.

So, spring bgins at 6:44 a.m. tomorrow, when the Sun crosses over the equator. Did you know that during the spring equinox, you can balance a raw egg on its end? It is easier closer to the equinox, but can be done for the majority of the day. You should be able to do this before going to work tomorrow.

I believe the reason you can do this, and you should try this because it is an excellent exercise in patience and a wonderful thing to accomplish, even briefly. If you have children around the house, it will make you look like the best magician ever.

Plus, if you are ever on a game show, this useless bit of information may come in handy. I received an email last week that was full of useless information. Feel free to use any of the following to impress your friends, co-workers, family or neighbors:

'Stewardesses' is the longest word typed with only the left hand.

And 'lollipop' is the longest word typed with your right hand.

No word in the English language rhymes with month, orange, silver, or purple.

'Dreamt' is the only English word that ends in the letters 'mt'.

Our eyes are always the same size from birth, but our nose and ears never stop growing.

The sentence: 'The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog' uses every letter of the alphabet.

The words 'racecar,' 'kayak' and 'level' are the same whether they are read left to right or right to left (palindromes).

There are only four words in the English language which end in 'dous': tremendous, horrendous, stupendous, and hazardous.

There are two words in the English language that have all five vowels in order: 'abstemious' and 'facetious.'

TYPEWRITER is the longest word that can be made using the letters only on one row of the keyboard.

A cat has 32 muscles in each ear.

A goldfish has a memory span of three seconds.

A 'jiffy' is an actual unit of time for 1/100th of a second.

A shark is the only fish that can blink with both eyes.

A snail can sleep for three years.

Almonds are a member of the peach family.

An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain.

Babies are born without kneecaps. They don't appear until the child reaches two to six years of age.

February 1865 is the only month in recorded history not to have a full moon.

In the last 4,000 years, no new animals have been domesticated.

If the population of China walked past you, eight abreast, the line would never end because of the rate of reproduction.

Leonardo Da Vinci invented the scissors

Peanuts are one of the ingredients of dynamite!

Rubber bands last longer when refrigerated.

The average person's left hand does 56% of the typing.

The cruise liner, Queen Elizabeth 2, moves only six inches for each gallon of diesel that it burns.

The microwave was invented after a researcher walked by a radar tube and a chocolate bar melted in his pocket.

The winter of 1932 was so cold that Niagara Falls froze completely solid.

There are more chickens than people in the world.

Winston Churchill was born in a ladies' room during a dance.

Women blink nearly twice as much as men.

Every day, we use a fun fact on the front page of the Sentinel, our way of bringing a bit of trivial information into your life. We hope that you enjoy them.

Now, let's get to balancing that egg...

As always, I welcome your comments. You can reach me by email at tstangl@lemarscomm.net, telephone 712-546-7031, x40 or toll free 1-800-728-0066 x40.

Thanks for reading, I'll keep in touch. Feel free to do the same.