World Wasp Day
September 24
There are more than 100,000 species of wasps around the globe. That is, except for Antarctica. Wasps do not make honey, unlike bees. They do help in the pollination of plants. Wasps can be classified in two: the social wasps and the solitary wasps. Most wasps are solitary. Social wasps live in a nest with at least 5,000 other wasps, while the solitary wasps do not build a nest at all and live alone. The female wasps are equipped with stingers, allowing them to sting humans. Their male counterparts do not have these. So yes, defending the nest is the female’s job. The lifespan of wasps is only 10 to 22 days.
National Punctuation Day
September 24
Early writing consisted of long strings of symbols, characters, or letters without spaces, capitalization, or punctuation. Most of the communication before the printing press consisted of oral traditions, which required no punctuation because the gestures and voice inflections in spoken language were sufficient to impart meaning. Ancient Romans originally had no spaces or periods and wrote in all capital letters. They introduced the practice of adding a dot between words and numbers to indicate a break and called it a period. The comma is from the Greek word “komma” which refers to something that has been cut off. In other words, when you use commas, you are “cutting off” clauses from a sentence. The comma used to be a dot in the middle of the line, signifying a short pause, but it changed shape over time. Latin writers used the word “questio” to finish a question. Later, “questio” was abbreviated to “qo”, but because it was often read as the ending of a word, it was written in a single space with the “q” over the “o”. Over many years, the “q” became a curved line with a tail, and the “o” was relegated to a dot.
Today’s Birthdays of Note….
Jim Henson – Puppeteer The Muppet Show – born in Greenville, Mississippi
F. Scott Fitzgerald – Author – born in St. Paul, Minnesota
