301. There is a store in old Amman called The Jordan Thinner Factory -- obviously paint thinner, but really funny in English.

302. There is no sugar sold in the Sugar Market in downtown, but there is a perfumer from Grasse, who obviously collects oils.

303. Matt and I walked on a street today that totally encases a river. You never see it.

304. If you go to Hashem's restaurant in downtown Amman and order everything (literally), drinking two bottles of water and drinking three cups of tea total, your total bill will be 5JD (about $7.50). My kind of restaurant -- falafal, bread, foul (bean dip), hummus and french fries.

305. The clothing shops downtown also seem to sell mannequins, leading to the creepy question: who's buying all these mannequins, and what are they doing with them?

306. There is a side street downtown called Hammam Bridge. The Hamman is a Turkish bath, and this side street has a tiny little one just as you turn onto it.

307. We found a fish place today with live lobsters. I asked the guy where the lobsters were from, and he said, "Canada --they are missing the Olympics!"

308. The lobsters travel in insulated little boxes. I wonder if they get little lobster passports with visas?

309. Abu Ali's book kiosk today featured Saddam Hussein, Courtney Cox, Mahmoud Darwish, and a magazine with my favorite headline ever, "Make this Christmas Arabic!"

310. Walking with Matt, anywhere, for any reason, is one of my favorite things EVER.

291. One of my new favorite snacks is a couple of dried apricots with a small amount of peanut butter -- salty and tangy. What's not to love?

292. Frederick Douglass's quote upon being in the Lincoln White House, "I felt big there."

293. Robert Lincoln, Abraham Lincoln's son, who was present or arrived just after the assassinations of several presidents, loved the statue of his father at the Lincoln memorial so much that he used to go see it often, muttering, "Isn't it beautiful," under his breath.

294. The victims of many political assassinations -- including Lincoln and King -- got to have a good moment just before. While it stinks that they were assassinated, at least they got to go out having just had a happy time. Lincoln went out on a laugh line -- "Don't know the manners of good society, eh? Wal, I guess I know enough to turn you inside out, old gal -- you sockdologizing old man -trap" -- and King died after having a pillow fight with his brother and several friends.

295. Sockdologizing means manipulative, in case you were wondering.

296. In Philadelphia, there is a museum called the Mutter Museum which features medical specimans, including Chief Justice Marshall's kidney stones and specimens of John Wilkes Booth.

297. FindAGrave.com will list, with biographies, the final resting place of over 200 historical figures. Knock yourself out.

298. Jeremy Bentham stipulated in his will, in the eighteenth century, that his body should be mummified and brought into all meetings at the University of London. It's still there in a case. When Matt attended University College, London, he showed me Mr. B. He's still taken to meetings.

299. Teddy Roosevelt was saved, in part, from shooting by the thickness of his written speech folded up in his pocket.

300. "With malice towards none." Take that, Sarah Palin.

Second excerpt from Shonagon's Pillow Book:

" 96. It Was a Clear, Moonlit Night

It was a clear, moonlit night a little after the tenth of the Eighth Month. Her Majesty, who was resting in the Empress's Office, sat by the edge of the veranda while Ukon no Naishi played the flute for her. The other ladies in attendance sat together, talking and laughing; but I stayed by myself, leaning against one of the pillars between the main hall and the veranda.

'Why so silent?' said Her Majesty. 'Say something. It is sad when you do not speak.'

'I am gazing into the autumn moon," I replied.

'Ah yes," she remarked, 'that is just what you should have said.'"

281. Rhys now has a "skike" which is a combination of a bike and a scooter. It is orange. He loves it and goes really fast.

282. Radhika is experimenting with riding her bike with no hands.

283. The color red has been proven to influence people to make irrational decisions, which may explain why red cars are often in accidents.

284. Red is the only color word in English that has an Indo-European root (the word "reudh").

285. The Russian word "krasnaya" can mean "red" or "beautiful".

286. Chinese obituaries are traditionally written in red ink.

287. The word pink, in the 17th century, referred to a yellowish-greenish color as well as the shades we would all recognize.

288. From the 1920s to the 1940s, pink, being related to red, was considered a masculine color, while blue was considered feminine. Then it flipped.

289. There is a species of iguana that is pink.

290. The Pink Panther, in the Inspector Clouseau movies, is named for the flaw, like a panther, inside the giant pink diamond.

271. Philematology is the science of kissing.

272. Before they created KISS, they were known as Wicked Lester. Who would you rather go hear?

273. It is estimated that men spend double the amount of money women do on Valentine's Day.

274. The children of Adam are limbs of one body

Having been created of one essence.

When the calamity of time afflicts one limb

The other limbs cannot remain at rest.

If you have no sympathy for the troubles of others

You are not worthy to be called by the name of "man." (Sa'di)

275. In Vermeer's painting, The Love Letter, the main character is holding a lute, which symbolized love, and was a slang term for a vagina.

276. "What will happen when you actually have your arms around me and I look into those very dear brown eyes and we stand free, in this best of all possible worlds? Combustion, darling, spontaneous combustion." Freddy Bloom to her husband Philip Bloom, August 5, 1945.

277. The ancient Egyptians kissed with their noses, not their mouths.

278. We possess special neurons to locate our lovers' lips in the dark.

279. It is illegal in Indiana for a man with a moustache to kiss other humans.

280. In 16th century Naples, couples could be given the death penalty for kissing.