Some interesting facts

[Harry]

A friend sent me these in an e-mail. Can't swear they are all true.
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In the 1400's a law was set forth in England that a man was allowed to
beat his wife with a stick no thicker than his thumb. Hence we have
"the rule of thumb"
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Every day more money is printed for Monopoly than the U.S.Treasury.
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Men can read smaller print than women can; women can hear better.
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Coca-Cola was originally green.
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It is impossible to lick your elbow.
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The State with the highest percentage of people who walk to work:
Alaska
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The percentage of Africa that is wilderness: 28% (now get this...)
The percentage of North America that is wilderness: 38%
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The cost of raising a medium-size dog to the age of eleven: $6 400
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The average number of people airborne over the U.S. in any given hour:
61,000
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Intelligent people have more zinc and copper in their hair.
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The first novel ever written on a typewriter: Tom Sawyer.
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The San Francisco Cable cars are the only mobile National Monuments.
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Each king in a deck of playing cards represents a great king from
history:

Spades - King David
Hearts - Charlemagne
Clubs -Alexander the Great
Diamonds - Julius Caesar
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111 111 111 x 111 111 111 = 12 345 678 987 654 321
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If a statue in the park of a person on a horse has both front legs in
the air the person died in battle. If the horse has one front leg in
the air the person died as a result of wounds received in battle. If
the horse has all four legs on the ground the person died of natural
causes.
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Only two people signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4th John Hancock and Charles Thomson. Most of the rest signed on August 2 but the last signature wasn't added until 5 years later.
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Q. Half of all Americans live within 50 miles of what?
A. Their birthplace
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Q. Most boat owners name their boats. What is the most popular boat
name requested?
A. Obsession
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Q. What do bulletproof vests, fire escapes, windshield wipers and laser
printers all have in common?
A. All were invented by women.
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Q. What is the only food that doesn't spoil?
A. Honey
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Q. Which day are there more collect calls than any other day of the
year?
A. Father's Day
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In Shakespeare's time mattresses were secured on bed frames by ropes. When you pulled on the ropes the mattress tightened making the bed firmer to sleep on. Hence the phrase......... "goodnight sleep tight."
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It was the accepted practice in Babylon 4,000 years ago that for a
month after the wedding the bride's father would supply his son-in-law
with all the mead he could drink. Mead is a honey beer and because
their calendar was lunar based this period was called the honey month
which we know today as Honeymoon.
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Many years ago in Scotland a new game was invented. It was ruled
"Gentlemen Only...Ladies Forbidden"...and thus the word GOLF entered
into the English language.
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The first couple to be shown in bed together on prime time TV were Fred
and Wilma Flintstone.
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In English pubs ale is ordered by pints and quarts... So in old England
when customers got unruly the bartender would yell at them "Mind your
pints and quarts and settle down."
It's where we get the phrase "mind your P's and Q's"
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Many years ago in England pub frequenters had a whistle baked into the
rim or handle of their ceramic cups. When they needed a refill they
used the whistle to get some service. "Wet your whistle" is the phrase
inspired by this practice.
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The United States "Navy " air force is bigger than the Air Force's air
force.

[Audrey]

Thanks Harry. I always do find things such as this interesting.

[mbhenty]

Great post Harry. I love the facts pertaining to "P and Qs," and "Wet your Whistle," and "Rule of Thumb."

Please forgive and not to poo poo on one of the facts but:

The statue of The Marquis de Lafayette in Fall River, at Lafayette Park, shows the horse with one leg up. I was under the impression that Lafayette died of natural causes at home. He was in his late 70s when he died.

It is true though that statues in other cities of Lafayette also show him riding with the horse with one leg up????????

Jump in here Audrey what do you think?

[Audrey]

Fall River got it wrong... They simply made a mistake-- but many make the same one with statues.



This is perhaps the most well known monument of Le Marquis de La Fayette in Paris. (La Fayette is the correct spelling in French, not Lafayette)

He did indeed die at a ripe old age and not in battle.

[Audrey]

More....

If you toss a penny 10000 times, it will not be heads 5000 times, but more like 4950. The head's picture weighs more, so it ends up on the bottom.

It was discovered on a space mission that a frog can throw up. The frog throws up its stomach first, so the stomach is dangling out of its mouth. Then the frog uses its forearms to dig out all of the stomach's contents and then swallows the stomach back down again.

Armored knights raised their visors to identify themselves when they rode past their king. This custom has become the modern military salute.

Sylvia Miles had the shortest performance ever nominated for an Oscar with "Midnight Cowboy." Her entire role lasted only six minutes.

Charles Lindbergh took only four sandwiches with him on his famous transatlantic flight.

Goethe couldn't stand the sound of barking dogs and could only write if he had an apple rotting in the drawer of his desk.

Ivory bar soap floating was a mistake. They had been overmixing the soap formula causing excess air bubbles that made it float. Customers wrote and told how much they loved that it floated, and it has floated ever since.

Studies show that if a cat falls off the seventh floor of a building it has about thirty percent less chance of surviving than a cat that falls off the
twentieth floor. It supposedly takes about eight floors for the cat to realize what is occurring, relax and correct itself.

Your stomach has to produce a new layer of mucus every two weeks otherwise it will digest itself.

The Sanskrit word for "war" means "desire for more cows."

101 Dalmatians and Peter Pan (Wendy) are the only two Disney cartoon features with both parents that are present and don't die throughout the movie.

'Stewardesses' is the longest word that is typed with only the left hand.

Armadillos are the only animal besides humans that can get leprosy.

To escape the grip of a crocodile's jaws, push your thumbs into its eyeballs -- it will let you go instantly. Pay attention Floridians!

Reindeer like to eat bananas.

A group of unicorns is called a blessing.

A group of owls is called a parliament.

Clans of long ago that wanted to get rid of their unwanted people without killing them used to burn their houses down - hence the expression "to get fired."

Canada is an Indian word meaning "Big Village".

"I am." is the shortest complete sentence in the English language.

The term "the whole 9 yards" came from WWII fighter pilots in the South Pacific. When arming their airplanes on the ground, the .50 caliber machine gun ammo belts measured exactly 27 feet, before being loaded into the fuselage. If the pilots fired all their ammo at a target, it got "the whole 9 yards."

The most common name in the world is Mohammed.

The word "samba" means "to rub navels together."


The term, "It's all fun and games until someone loses an eye" is from Ancient Rome. The only rule during wrestling matches was, "No eye gouging." Everything else was allowed, but the only way to be disqualified was to poke someone's eye out.

A 'jiffy' is an actual unit of time for 1/100th of a second.

The average person falls asleep in seven minutes.

Money isn't made out of paper, it's made out of cotton.

[Harry]

Great stuff, Audrey. The origin of sayings are always fascinating as some of them seem to make no sense until you hear how they started.

Michael, is the La Fayette statue on Eastern Ave. near the Rolling Rock?

[nbcatlover]

Claim: The number of hooves lifted into the air on equestrian statues reveals how the riders died.
Status: False.

Origins: Folk
wisdom has it that equestrian statues contain a code whereby the rider's fate can be determined by noting how many hooves the horse has raised. The most common theory has it that if one hoof is raised, the rider was wounded in battle (possibly dying of those wounds later but not necessarily so); two raised hooves, death in battle; all four hooves on the ground, the rider survived all battles unharmed.

The hoof code mostly holds true in terms of Gettysburg equestrian statues, but there is at least one exception. James Longstreet wasn't wounded in this battle yet his horse has one foot raised.

Even the most cursory look at the statues around Washington, D.C. quickly disproves that the hoof code at all holds sway in that locale.

Refer to Source for balance of article: http://www.snopes.com/military/statue.htm

[mbhenty]

Yes Harry, thanks. The statue of Lafayette stands at the head of Lafayette Park at RT 6 which is Eastern Ave. The Rolling rock is about 150 feet away across Eastern Ave and located on a small Green. (Corner of Eastern Ave and County St.)

Yes Audrey, if the horse's front legs is an indication of the death of it's rider, it is not only Fall River but America that got it wrong. I have seen a statue of (sic) La fayette similar to the one in Fall River in Baltimore, Maryland not far from the Washington Monument. It too displays Lafayette with his horse with one front leg up.

I was thinking that this must have been done to render respect to one who was one of the greatest Generals in American fight for independence.

Lafayette loved America and respected George Washington so much that he named his son George Washington. And when the Marquis died his son scattered American soil around his grave site. To this day the American Flag still flies over La fayette's grave in respect for a country which was loved by La fayette almost as much as his beloved France.



oops! Yes mbcatlover, just seen your post, missed it the first time around. Interesting........Thanks.

[theebmonique]

I love this kind of stuff. Thanks all.

I tell my students about words like "laser" which really aren't "wprds", but acronyms. Light Amplification through Stimulated Emission of Radiation....I need to get my list from school...there are more.


Tracy...

[SallyG]

I'm not sure if this is fact, or just my own observation. My ex-husband was an avid opera fan. I was pretty lukewarm on it, but I loved the trips to NY to the Metropolitan Opera. While attending one opera by Wagner, one of his Ring series operas, I suffered through about 4 hours of singing by an all male cast. At the very end, the last singer to come out was a heavy-set lady dressed in the typical Viking attire, complete with horned helmet. She sang her piece and the curtain went down, much to my relief! It suddenly occurred to me that the old saying "It ain't over till the fat lady sings" MUST have come from this opera.

[Constantine]

I hope you all know about snopes.com, a great place for checking out questionable information.

(Another false one is the one about playing card kings, by the way.)

[Kashesan]

Great Stuff, Harry! (I love the collect calls on Father's Day. Nothing comes for free, even a Happy Father's Day message)

kash