44. FRESHLY IRONED HANDKERCHIEFS

The tissue that recycles itself!

* Thanks very much to Andrew McNamara, my good friend from NC State, for coming up with this simple miracle. He also writes, "I realized how much I missed freshly ironed handkerchiefs when I realized that we had both an iron and an ironing board at the apartment. It brings back memories of home with getting the oh so neatly ironed handkerchiefs from the box in the closet."
* As an alternative punch line, he offers, "Allowing you to blow your nose in style."
* Personally, I don't like the regular tissues either. I prefer paper towel.

43. OCEAN BREEZES

The original air conditioning

* My family and I went to the beach in Delaware last weekend. On a very hot day, how pleasantly the wind blew ashore! My mom commented that she could understand why, before air conditioning had been invented, people flocked to the beach to take advantage of its breezes.
* Let's see if I can remember my middle school science to explain what causes an ocean breeze: The land heats more quickly than the water. Therefore, during the day in the summer, the land is hotter than the water. The hot air above the land rises, leaving an area of low pressure above the land, into which the air above the water comes, creating a breeze.
* Think of all the phrases for the feeling of being relaxed: "A day at the beach," "A breeze," ...

42. HEAD RESTS

Supporting our necks
while we make long treks
* How important is it to have a comfortable position when you're spending many hours in a row in a car?
* Thanks to my cousin Annie for sharing the idea for this simple miracle and its punchline. She, her husband Tim, and two young daughters, came up with it while they were on a lengthy drive to Tim's parents' house.

41. THE SPACE BAR

Always there when you need it

* Imagine a world without spaces between words. I suppose you could replace them, to a point, with punctuation. But is there anything else that indicates the specific pause bespoken by a space?
* Herein, when you're ready for a space, there's that space bar - big, broad, and ready to be slapped by your thumbs.
* Think of the rhythm of the keys for a good typist. It's almost like a symphony, and the space bar is the cymbals of the keyboard orchestra.
* Thanks to Derek Ho coming up with the idea for this simple miracle.

40. OATMEAL

My favorite grain for energy gain

* I keep one of those tall cylinders of oatmeal at my desk at work and have a bowl every morning for breakfast.
* Usually, I like to add brown sugar, raisins (simple miracle #38), and a sliced banana. But recently, I've had vanilla yogurt and blueberries. What are your oatmeal toppings of choice?
* Sometimes, I forget to bring in my measuring cup and I have to guess the correct proportion of oats and water. This can be a disaster. However, sometimes I do just fine. I think that it is a good skill to be able to determine specific quantities just by sight.

39. KNEES

Without them, it would be very hard to stand up

* Imagine trying to get out of bed without your knees. You'd need to have very strong hips and tough feet.
* Furthermore, kneeling would be possible. How much different would our prayer be?
* Did you learn the "head, shoulders, knees, and toes, knees and toes" song when you were growing up? My English as a Second Language class gets a big kick out of it.
* The simple miracle originally appeared at CWRU in the fall of 2004.

38. RAISINS

Wrinkled and crinkled so that in our breakfasts and cookies they can be sprinkled

* I've never tried entire grapes in my oatmeal. But it seems like raisins would be much better.
* I keep a container of raisins on my desk. Sometimes, during the afternoon, I'll grab a handful for a snack.

37. POT HOLDERS

Providing important reduction in heat conduction

* How much skin would I have lost without them?
* Another fascinating and similar piece of technology is coffee mug handles. Consider how much hotter is a mug containing hot coffee than its handle. What keeps the heat from going from mug to handle? Perhaps my father, a chemist, can explain it to me.
* In the absence of a pot holder, a towel (simple miracle #36) may also suffice.