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Here are 10 things I wouldn't know if I couldn't read.

1.

Evan Lurie, the composer and music director for The Backyardigans kids TV show, was a founding member of the Lounge Lizards, a jazz-punk band in the '80s.

2.

Scientists at the Tokyo Institute of Technology are developing a device to record scents, smells and fragrances in digital format that can be put on a disc and played back afterward, anywhere. Soon you won't have to stop to smell the flowers '85 3.

It was Theodore Roosevelt who said, `` The first duty of an American citizen, then, is that he shall work in politics.''

4.

One in every 10 college students today is over 40 years old. Of the 78 million Baby Boomers living in the U.S., 45 million have some college experience and 20 million have at least one college degree. Speaking of Boomers, on average 7,918 Americans turn 60 every day, or about 330 an hour.

5.

Speaking of old, know who's going to be playing Johnny Depp's father in the next `` Pirates'' movie? Keith Richards. No kidding.

6.

At the four-day Portuguese festival in New Bedford in July, they cut the size of the cups used to dispense the traditional Madeira wine to 7 ounces. By most reports it didn't do much to reduce the number of rowdy drunks and arrests, as authorities had hoped. Know how big the cups were in previous years? 28 ounces.

7.

Every year The Washington Post asks readers to supply alternate meanings for words and submit them for prizes. My favorites this year are coffee (a person who is coughed upon), flabbergasted (appalled at how much weight you have gained), lymph (to walk with a lisp), balderdash (a rapidly receding hairline), oyster (a person who sprinkles his conversation with Yiddish expressions) and willy-nilly (impotent). 8.

A quick history lesson: An `` automatic, continuous clothing closure'' was patented in the U.S. in 1851, but it never was developed enough to be marketed. Whitcomb Judson patented a `` clasp locker'' for boots and shoes in 1893, but that didn't make much of an impression either. What we're getting to here is the invention of the zipper, which was accomplished in 1913 by Gideon Sundback, a Swedish-born immigrant to Canada and an employee of Judson's. The word `` zipper'' was coined by the B.F. Goodrich Co., which used them on tobacco pouches and boots.

9.

Using a microwave on average costs you $5.50 a month in electricity charges.

10.

The traditional 4th wedding anniversary symbol is fruit. The modern symbol is electrical appliances.

Hey, if you get a chance, help teach somebody how to read.

See you next week.

ORESTE P. D'ARCONTE is publisher of The Sun Chronicle. Reach him at darconte(at)thesunchronicle.com or at 508.236.0394.