Bones n' Slovenia

On the old 80's TV series Cheers, my favorite character would have to be Coach Ernie Pantusso( played by the late Nicholas Colasanto- also notable as mob boss Tommy Como in Raging Bull). But the character I most resemble is Cliff Clavin( played by John Ratzenberger), the bar's know-it-all. A fount of useless information. 
    And that's me. Cliff, but hopefully without the pomposity. Like him, though, I  have a penchant for gathering facts and figures, with a special fondness for those which are particularly vague or meaningless. 
    A hummingbird's heart beats six times a second. The male Lion sleeps an average of 14 hours per day. Debra Winger was the voice of E.T. Karl Malden's birth name was Mladen Sekulovich. 

And so on(ad nauseum). Over the last couple months, I've been reading up on the human body, currently learning about the Skeletal System. Dem bones. There are 206 of 'em in the average human body(though Gray's says there are 200), and 4 different kinds: long, short, flat and irregular. All 3 types of blood cells come from the bone marrow, a red pigment found inside the bone(long bones), within the medullary cavity: erythrocytes, or red blood cells; leukocytes, or white blood cells; and thrombocytes, or platelets. 

Well that's probably enough about bones. Cliff would probably be citing studies from the University of Heidelberg at this point. And ordering another beer. 

Also reading about the Republic of Slovenia. About as disparate a subject as you can get, after the skeletal system- but it gives the blog a title with some comic incongruity in there. My real motivation for reading about it is that a good friend of mine went over there this month to play music. So my curiosity was piqued. Sometimes it doesn't take much..

 Okay, so here's what I know about Slovenia(and then I'll give you Cliff's version): 
  Slovenia is located, geographically, east of Italy, north of Croatia, south of Austria and southwest of Hungary. It's one of the six republics(along with Montenegro, Macedonia, Serbia, Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina)that made up the former Yugoslavia. They were part of the Roman Empire, and later ruled by the Austrian Hapsburgs, from about the 13th century until the First World War. In 1918, Slovenia joined forces with Croatia and Serbia in what would become Yugoslavia in 1929. During the Second World War, Slovenia was annexed between Italy, Germany and Hungary, but returned to being part of Yugoslavia after the war. In 1992, Slovenia became(for the first time ever)an independent nation. They joined NATO in 2004. Slovenia's main industry is manufacturing: chemicals, transport equipment, among other things. 9% of the population is involved in farming. They also appear to have some fine jazz musicians. 

  And here is how I think Cliff might see it:
  
  Slovenia is ruled by the number 2. Consider these amazing facts: the population of Slovenia is 2,008,000. The population of Ljubljana(its capital and most populous city)is 280,000. There are 211 municipalities in Slovenia. Its land mass is roughly 20,000 square kilometers. More than coincidence???

While Cliff is ordering a round for the whole bar after leaving them all speechless, I should wrap this up. Nice to know a little bit more about another corner of the world. I don't know that I'll ever visit there, but it sounds like I'd have a nice time if I did.