amazon

We are installing a little retaining wall near our front steps and we had to go to Home Depot to get some gravel and masonry adhesive.  I asked Doug if the stones we were using (which we didn't get at HD) were a particular brand.  He said they were called "Rio".  Since that means "river" in Spanish, my Benadryl (spider bites) soaked brain went straight to Rio Grande and Rio de Janeiro, and eventually to the dumb question of the day in which I demonstrate my ignorance of history and geography:

Why did the explorers name it the Amazon River when most of the people who come from that part of the world tend to be fairly short?  Or did they name it that because the river is so huge?

I may be ignorant, but at least I'm curious, so I just looked it up and found my answer here.  Apparently an explorer named Francisco Orellana was attacked by a band of female warriors known as "Icamiabas"  which means "women without husbands" and that made him think of the Amazons in Greek mythology so he named the river sort of in honor of his attackers.

I'm really glad I know that now and I have to say I like the idea of ferocious female warriors trying to protect their river from the evil intruders.

It's really kind of a challenge to come up with something to post each day, especially when I'm apparently perfectly happy to go three months without posting anything at all.  So my posts will undoubtedly suffer a bit (or a lot) in quality as I write about random things that pop into my head, especially after spending the day under the influence of Benadryl.

I think I'll go make a slipcover for the couch now.