Writing, History, and Thoughts

  March 13, 2018 With news this week of the discovery of what could be the earliest known  siddur , a Jewish prayer book dated at around 840 AD – we have put together a list of 10 of the oldest known surviving books in the world today. Writing and literature are thought to have been first developed between the 7th and 4th millenium BC. Since the dawn of writing an incredible array of different materials have been used for recording text, including clay, silk, pottery, papyrus, even coffins – so the question of the oldest surviving book depends very much on how you classify one. The Mirriam-Webster Dictionary defines a book as:  a set of printed sheets of paper that are held together inside a cover; a long written work . This definition rules out clay tablets, scrolls and similar, though many scholars have expanded the definition to include any significant piece of writing bound together inside a cover. The question can also touch on the nature of the book. Some scholars h...

  Before he was president, Richard Nixon was such a prolific poker player that he amassed enough winnings to help fund his very first political campaign. In January 1944, Nixon was stationed in the South Pacific while serving in the U.S. Navy, and it was during this time that he became something of a card shark, though it’s rumored he had no idea how to even play poker upon his arrival at the base. Nixon quickly took an interest in learning the game and spent hours studying strategy before putting his money at risk. His hard work proved fruitful, and the future president raked in around $40 to $50 each night (roughly $700 to $876 today). One fellow serviceman  noted  that he once saw Nixon “bluff a lieutenant commander out of $1,500 with a pair of deuces.”    Nixon continued to win big before returning stateside in July. Upon arriving home, he claimed to have won $8,000 (around $140,000 today) from his various poker exploits, though some estimates put the winnin...