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

1. The ides of the months were originally established to mark the full moons, but once the months became established at different lengths, that designation was useless.

And, Julius Caesar not withstanding, the ides don't always fall on the 15th of the month.

They do in March, May, July and October, but the ides are the 13th in the other eight months of the year.

2. The soft drink Moxie, New England's own, gets its kick from the roots of yellow plants known as gentians. In Africa, gentians are used to treat malaria, in South America they are used for snake bites and in Europe and Asia they are mixed into digestives and apertifs.

3. Christian Huygens of the Netherlands, who died in 1695, invented the pendulum clock.

4. Will Massachusetts voters eliminate the income tax at the polls in November? Bet on it. Will the Legislature and governor honor the vote? Don't bet on it. Footnote: We've only had a state income tax since 1916.

5. There's a 12-story-high pyramid made of 55 tons of fiberglass on the flatlands of Kozenki outside Moscow, that does nothing - except re-arrange the energy fields and karma of the hundreds of thousands of people who go there to spend a little time.

The Russian cosmonauts and many of their Olympic athletes have visited it.

It was built by a Ukrainian defense contractor, who has built others across the continent.

6. The Vectrix Corp. electric scooter, built in Middletown, R.I., can accelerate from zero to 50 miles per hour in 6.8 seconds and gets the equivalent of 357 miles per gallon. Expect to spend about 10 grand for one.

7. The photographing of the dead, babies mostly, was a common practice up through the 1800s. The photos were framed and displayed in the family homes.

I know this is true, because I remember a picture of my grandmother's 10th child, who died in childbirth, hung in an elaborate frame in an upstairs foyer of the house I was raised in.

8. The tarentella, the Italian peasant dance, is believed by some to have been a cure for a spider bite. Dance hard and long enough and the venom is dissipated. It gave its name to the Italian wolf spider - the Tarantula. 9. There are at least 10 railways, cog and otherwise, running through New England that will take you on a scenic trip for a price. The closest are the Cape Cod Central Railroad in Buzzards Bay and the Berkshire Scenic Railway in Lenox, both in Massachusetts, and the Old Colony & Newport Railway in Newport, R.I..

10. This month, if they haven't already, they are turning on the most powerful atom-smasher ever built, in Meryn, Switzerland.

Proponents think it could show us invisible matter or extra dimensions in space.

Detractors say it could create a black hole that will swallow the earth or emit particles that could burn the planet to a crisp.

This is the point in my column where I usually say I'll see you next week.

See you next week. Gulp.