Thank you for reading the January 2023 issue of This Awful Awesome Life. Previous issues are available to read on our website. Go to www.thisawfulawesomelife.com and start scrolling or you can enter specific search criteria.

Next month we will be celebrating Black History Month. In previous issues we’ve featured celebrated people of color in the areas of politics, activism, science, medicine, history, and the arts. We’ve only touched the surface of this vast pool of incredibly talented people. There are many new firsts to celebrate.

February is also the month of love as Cupid points his bow and makes us all fall in love with the idea of Valentine’s Day. Are you the over-the-top kind of person who constantly tries to top previous Valentine’s Day celebrations? Is there such a thing as too much? Do you prefer a small intimate gesture of love? We’ll try to answer the question, “How deep is your love?” in our next issue.

How are you doing with those New Year’s resolutions? We’ll be reminding you not to sweat the small stuff. Think of 2023 as a marathon instead of a sprint and pace yourself. If you hit a rough patch, don’t abandon your goals… refocus them and press on. There’s a lot of year left.

Lilly Kauffman, Orlando Bartro, Linda Cahill, and I will be back with interesting articles and recipes for you.

We’ll be continuing our reading recommendations, streaming articles, “What’s in a Word?” and “Dare to Believe.”

It’s a new year for quizzes, Q&A’s, and book reviews. 

Stay safe. Stay well. You are important, and you are loved.

All my best,

Fran

Answers to the January 2023 Shhhh Quiz:

1.    Publication of Silent Spring by Rachel Carson helped expose the dangers of certain pesticides.

2.    The name of the band, Quiet Riot was inspired by a misheard statement by Rick Parfitt of the British band, Status Quo about his ideal name for a band.

3.    The wolf spider is the only known spider to make noises. It is capable of making small purring sounds.

4.    All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque describes the physical and mental trauma of soldiers during World War I and the detachment from civilian life many experienced after the war from the perspective of a German soldier.

5.    Fish, oysters, clams, and anemones have no vocal cords.

6.    John Wayne starred in this 1952 film which garnered John Ford an Academy Award for Best Director, The Quiet Man.

7.    The Quiet American by the English author Graham Greene depicts the breakdown of French Colonialism in Vietnam and the early involvement of the United States in the Vietnam War during the 1950s.

8.    Quiet title is a legal term for an action/lawsuit brought in a court having jurisdiction over property disputes to remove any obstacles clouding the rightful ownership of a property.

9.    “The Quiet Things That No One Ever Knows” is a song by the band, Brand New.

10. Orfield Laboratories Quiet Chamber in Minneapolis, Minnesota was dubbed the quietest place in the world by Guinness World Records until 2015 when Microsoft Labs in Redmond Washington claimed the title.

11.  Quiet Riot covered the song, “Cum on Feel the Noize” originally recorded by the band Slade.

12. This creature soundlessly digs its way through the dirt. Earthworm

13. These creatures known for their many limbs are silent, Octopus and Squid.

14. Antarctica is the quietest continent on Earth.

15. A sensory deprivation tank which was designed by John C. Lily, an American physician and neuroscientist, in 1954 is used for restricted environmental stimulation therapy (REST).

16. Once thought to be silent, this long necked creature is capable of making soft humming noises. Giraffes

17. According to a tranquility map produced by the Campaign to Protect Rural England in 2006, Kielder Mires is the quietest/most peaceful spot in England.

18. The Hoh Rain Forest (Washington) is considered one of the quietest places in North America because the lush green moss that grows there effectively muffles sound. It’s also a great place to see a banana slug, the second largest species of land slug in the world.

19. “In space no one can hear you scream,” is the iconic tagline from the film, Alien.

20. Known as the “master of silence,”  the legendary mime Marcel Marceau was forced into hiding as a youth during the Nazi occupation in France because he was Jewish. He bravely risked his life to work with the French Resistance to save many children during World War II.