Scattered Thoughts, Random Musings

Happy hump day! Today I introduce a second installment of the "What D'ya Know" segment and what I wanted to discuss Polydactyl cats, or better known as "Hemingway Cats". These are basically cats that have more then the typical 18 digits (5 on each front paw and 4 on the back) and they get the nickname because the famous writer was such a fan of them. He was given one as a gift and after his death, his home in Key West, FL was turned into a home and museum for the decedents of his polys. His home is now occupied by 40-50 of them. Mine apartment happen to be occupied by one: my kitty Duchess! If you can't tell from the pictures on my site , she has 6 digits on each front paw. When I adopted her from the ASCPA, they told me polys like her were considered lucky so I was sold! Though I've always been a cat lover, I never heard about these "Hemingway Cats" until I adopted Duchess. One of the other rumors I've also heard about these cats, asid...

So I'm starting something new: a monthly "What D'ya Know" segment that will feature (I hope) interesting topics that everyone just knows about but not really the why . We know yawning is contagious but why? We know in Jeopardy, they always start with "What is..." but why? We know cat's have whiskers, by why (lol, true story--a friend asked me why my cat's had such long whiskers and I thought that's a good question...). But because of my random mind--and nosey nature--I like to know a little of a lot, to be able to satisfy my "well, why is that?" questions. And I thought I'd share my findings. But be warned, I don't claim to be an expertise in any of this! This is just plain, ole Google research (which may not even 100% accurate) but I hope you find them interesting, fun, and enlightening... So, why is yawning  contagious? We all know we yawn when we're tired. But the phenomenon is being next someone who yawns and g...