Happy birthday, Cal Ripken Jr.! When my mom was going through chemotherapy and losing her hair my dad, being the delicate bleeding heart that he is, started calling her Cal. She really didn�t mind too much because she knew he didn�t know what to do with himself over her illness. And they were watching a lot of baseball.

Inspired by june�s �10,000 Things,� here are some little known eccentricities/factoids about my formative years:

~My bed at my family beach house has a drawer on the bottom and when I was a kid and had friends sleep over I insisted that my friend take the bed and I would sleep on the air mattress in the drawer because it just fit too perfectly not to. It ended up being quite uncomfortable and I was disappointed.

~In grade school I had a makeshift nail salon in my basement where I would lure family members for emergency manicures. It was called "The Greatest Nails" and was later changed to "Not Just Nails" to accommodate the flourish of makeovers I would launch. I even had the little cuticle cream warmer and rhinestones and sticky foil for all of your 1980�s nail fashion needs. I also had an airbrush but I never mastered the art or painting little palm trees on figernails. It was in this small salon in second grade that my sister (twelve years my senior) grilled me enigmatically as to whether I knew about sex, interjecting every two seconds, �But it�s not my place to talk to you about it, if you have questions, go to Mom.� I had no idea what she was talking about because the word �sex� was never uttered. The conversation began with, �I�ve heard you and your friends talking in the backseat about, well, families, and having families.�

~I learned about how babies are conceived in T�s closet in kindergarten, huddled under a yellow and white afghan her grandma had knitted. We were wearing red Crayola lipstick. She told me in perfect science-speak, with hand gestures, �The sperm travels down the vagina and meets the egg.� I didn�t realize until two years later that the physical act of sex had anything to do with this. The epiphany happened at Bennigans during lunch when my friend LB said, �I was made in Mexico.� And I�m all, �You were born there?� And she�s, �No, I was born here but I was made in Mexico.� This went on for a confused minute or two, as my mother and sister exchanged worried glances. Finally, realizing I wasn�t picking up what she was putting down, LB leaned over and whispered loudly into my ear, �My parents had sex in Mexico.� The next time I was over at her house she showed me her brother�s Playboys. I remember very distinctly several pictures of Grace Jones and a sliced strawberry that had a pussy in it.

~I started a band in seventh grade called �Out of Order� that consisted of a keyboard, two girls that could sing, two girls that couldn�t sing, and me. Oh, but we all could dance. And isn�t that the important thing? We wrote such underground dance hits as �Why, Why, Why� and �You�ve Got a Strange Way of Saying I Love You� which I nervously shared with my music teacher who declared flatly, �They sound exactly the same.�

~I was obsessed with Brian Boitano when he was in the 1988 Winter Olympics to the point that I was looking up his name in the phonebook thinking he just might be in there, even though it only covered Bergen County in Jerz. My best friend Stef shook her head at me. �Jenn, I think he�s gay.� She did/said the same thing about the raven-haired blue-eyed Jeremy that I fell in love with at summer stock a few years later. She was right. Then I discovered Morrissey.

~During my prank-calling period, I called a random number because I was lonely and told the girl who answered, �My best friend is moving away� upon which she yelled at me, �You�re a jerk! You�re an ANUS!�

~My friends and I had a game at sleepovers where we would each pick a character at the beginning of the Love Boat episode (and we wisely chose the most attractive ones because they�d get the most play) and whenever that character would make out we would make out with our pillows. I�m actually amazed that I was allowed to watch the show considering my parents� strict, practically anorexic approach to my television intake. �I don�t want you watching that Smurfs crap. Gargamel keeps destroying them, or trying to destroy them, and at the beginning of every episode they�re completely trusting of him. I don�t like the message.� I wasn�t allowed to watch Three�s Company either but somehow I seem to know every episode. I had a mad crush on Jack Tripper.

Word of the Day for Saturday August 24, 2002:

evince ih-VIN(T)S, transitive verb:

To show in a clear manner; to manifest; to make evident; to bring to light.

The study showed that girls were better prepared for class, had better attendance records, and evinced more positive academic behavior overall. --Christina Hoff Sommers, [1]The War Against Boys: How Misguided Feminism Is Harming Our Young Men

Though his earliest tales are little more than quick, offhand sketches seasoned with slapstick humor, his mature stories evince the psychological complexity and atmospheric detail that distinguish his best-known plays. --"Quick Trips Through the Imagination," [2]New York Times, July 12, 2000

Those who supported the war in Vietnam evinced no such fears and no reluctance about new adventures abroad. --William M. Leogrande, [3]Our Own Backyard: The United States in Central America, 1977-1992

At no time in her life did Tina evince religious faith, and, a few years later, she would declare outright that she had "[no] belief or religion." --Patricia Albers, [4]Shadows, Fire, Snow: The Life of Tina Modotti

Evince is from Latin evincere, to conquer entirely, to prevail over, to prove irresistibly, from e- (here used intensively) + vincere, to conquer.