3 Facts, 3 Words, 3 Thoughts 

THE FACTS 

* The Invention of the TV Dinner 

Like so many other life-improving inventions, the frozen TV dinner began as a mistake. 1n 1953, an employee of Swanson & Sons mistakenly ordered 260 tons of fresh turkey for the Thanksgiving holidays. This was way, way more than was needed. To get rid of the excess, salesman Gerry Thomas came up with a plan: They cooked the birds; ordered 5000 aluminum trays; filled them with turkey, mashed potatoes, and peas; and froze the whole thing. It saved the day. The following year Swanson sold 10 million frozen TV turkey trays at 98 cents each – a windfall of $9.8 million (over $94 million today)!

* The Best Kind of Investor 

In 2014, the Fidelity Mutual Funds group looked at records of its investors by age, sex, and account size to determine which ones had made the most money. They found that the only thing the best performers had in common was that they were all dead – and many of them had been dead for decades – though their accounts had not yet been closed. In other words, the best investment strategy seemed to be: Do nothing.

* The First Telephone Book 

In 1878, two years after Bell introduced the telephone to the public, the New Haven Telephone Company published a directory of its subscribers – a cardboard sheet with the names of 50 people and businesses that owned phones. It had no phone numbers, because people resisted the idea of dialing the numbers themselves. They much preferred talking to the company’s switchboard operator and having them connect the call. A copy of this directory sold in 2008 for $170,500.

THE WORDS 

* mien (noun) 

Mien (MEEN) is a person’s look or manner, especially one that indicates their character or mood.

Example: “Falsehood always endeavors to copy the mien and attitude of truth.” – Samuel Johnson

* bonhomie (noun) 

Bonhomie (bahn-uh-ME) – from the French for good (bon) + man (homme) – is geniality; cheerful friendliness.

Example: “John Stuart Mill, / By a mighty effort of will, / Overcame his natural bonhomie / And wrote ‘Principles of Political Economy.’” – Edmund Clerihew Bentley

* kawaii (noun or adjective) 

Kawaii (kuh-WHY or kuh-why-EE) – which roughly translates as lovable or adorable – is the Japanese pop culture of celebrating cuteness. As an adjective, the word can be associated with just about anything that is endearing, shy, and childlike. (Think “Hello Kitty” – perhaps the most famous kawaii character.)

Example (from Avril Lavigne’s song “Hello Kitty”):

Min’na saiko arigato, k-k-k-kawaii! (Thank you everyone, cute!)
K-k-k-kawaii.
Mom’s not home tonight
So we can roll around, have a pillow fight…

 THE THOUGHTS

(from Michael Masterson)  

* “You can’t be knowledgeable about everything. Choose what you want to know and what you are willing to be ignorant about. I choose to be ignorant about sports, because it seems trivial. And music, because I don’t think knowledge enhances my experience of it.”

* “In marriage and other important relationships, politeness is at least as important as passion.”

* “Having without sharing is having less than half.”

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