So how did we come to think of a ‘ clue’ as a hint for something’ Well, it’s easy the word clue actually means a ball of yarn’ if you remember in the old fable.. A fellow by the name of Theseus figured out how to escape from the labyrinth by unraveling a ball of yarn as he went in.
Besides being a great poet’ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was also known as having been the first American to have installed plumbing in his home.
The two smallest countries in the world at this time are the nations of Monaco and the Vatican. Both are less than one square mile in area and thus are smaller than Central park in New York City.
You do realize that every 15 seconds or so, someone is digging a hole in a road somewhere in Britain’ It bothers me that someone actually keeps track of this kind of stuff.
The average American spends 27 minutes a day reading a newspaper.
Those shoes on your feet’ yes, the ones on your left foot and your right foot’ well, until King George IV ordered different shoes for each of his feet, you could only buy shoes that could be worn on either foot..started a trend that is still here.
Don’t ever look for any photos on the front page of The Wall Street Journal..There won’t be any.
Head on over to Marysville, California if you are inclined to attend their annual Prune Festival.
In 1984, in the town of Hunt, Texas a 4-year-old poodle named Leo saved the lives of his owners. It seems two of the children were out playing when they stumbled onto a rattlesnake. Leo placed himself between the snake, received 11 bites to the head.. But survived.
Bet you didn’t know that actor Michael Douglas once worked at a service station pumping gas.
If you didn’t know that then you probably didn’t know that Madonna was fired from her job at a New York Dunking Donut shop for throwing jam at one of the customer.
So you got a white elephant gift from someone’ where’d this term come from anyway’ Came from the country of Siam. Seems the old kings over there figured out a way to punish people that offended them without making it seem that they were doing so. They’d give the poor soul a rare albino elephant’ it would be a great insult to turn down a gift from the King. Thus the person committing the offense would be stuck with a gift he didn’t want or one that he couldn’t afford to maintain.
The only animal in the world without any natural enemies is the great white shark.
Forgot to tell you that Siam, now called Thailand is the only Asian country that has never been ruled by a European power. Perhaps those elephants had something to do with it.
I didn’t know the weasel and the ermine are the same. Seems in the winter when it’s coat is white, then it’s a ermine.in the summer after it changes back to brown, then it becomes a weasel never heard of anyone buying a weasel coat have you’
Never one to let his handicap get in his way’ a fellow named Matthew Buckinger (1674-1722) of Nuremberg, Germany was a quadriplegic who made his living as a juggler. Old Matthew was married several times and fathered 11 children. He became an excellent musician and was able to play the flute, bagpipes and trumpet. Supported himself in these various artistic talents even with his handicaps.
It was Oscar Wilde that said It’s a very sad thing that nowadays there is so little useless information.’
Pretty smart people the Spartans..when they wanted to send something in code, they’d write the message on a long strip of paper..then this would be wound around a staff of various sizes the person receiving the message had a staff of the same exact size. When it was rolled back onto his staff the message was clear’ anyone else trying this would only read garbage.
The only person ever to run for President of the United States from prison was Eugene Debs in 1920. He had been jailed for sedition. Still he received almost 1,000,000 votes or 3.5 % of the total votes cast.
Things you might not have noticed .The Mona Lisa doesn’t have any eyebrows..the fashion at that time was to shave them off.
Antarctica is the only continent that doesn’t have any land above sea level
Kids toys called Legos got that name from the Danish words’ leg godt.which as you know means play well.
Jimmy carter was the first United States President to have been born in a hospital’ all the others were born at home.
Everyone knows that Albert Nobel was the inventor of dynamite. You might not know he was also the inventor of plywood.
Ever notice that the high sugar cereals are always placed at the eye level of children’ Now you will.
The meaning of the word Mississippi’ is ‘ big river..what else could it be’
Why does Mickey Mouse only have four fingers’
The blue-green algae that flamingos eat is what causes their feathers to turn pink..
The word hi-jack comes from a term used during the prohibition..seems it was common when a place was being held up for the gunman to yell out ‘ High, Jack’ to indicate that everyone should raise their hands over their head.
The most widely sung song in English is Happy Birthday to You. This was adapted from the song..’ Good Morning to You’ by Mildred and Patty Hill. Good for them.
1894 baseball rules designated that home plate was 60 feet and 6 inches from the edge of the mat embedded in the pitchers mound. Until then the distance had been 50 feet.
The flight recorder on airplanes commonly known as the black box isn’t’ it’s orange.
Think about this next time you light up.the average smoker who smokes a package of cigarettes a day inhales a ‘ cup of tar into their lungs each year
While I’ m on this subject.The average smoker…will smoke a average of 10,500 cigarettes a year ‘ the heavy smoker will suck on about 40,000 a year..
Cut the head off of a cockroach and it can still live for several days..
The expression To fly off the handle’ refers to someone who is angry and chops wood so fast that the handle flies off of his ax.
Florence Nightingale, the famous hospital reformer never went anywhere that she didn’t have a pet owl in her pocket odd wasn’t it’
In 1903 the New York Times wrote an article that stated that ‘ time and money spent in airship experiments are wasted dollars..’ This was a week before the Wright brothers first flight.
In 1864, the sheriff of Idaho Territory, name of Henry Plummer chased bad guys during the day’ at night he led a group of robbers and murderers.seems he got away with being the area’s most wanted man for some time’ they eventually caught him and hung him.
Wedding dresses worn during the American Revolution were red instead of white…In honor of the war going on at the time.
A horse race over an obstacle course is called a steeplechase, right’ The term came from England after a group of foxhunters decided to race their horse. They challenged each other to ride in straight line towards the steeple on a distant church. Now of course, it just means a race over an obstacle course.
While we’ re on words.The word sheriff comes from an old Anglo-Saxon word called shire reeve. This was an official title of a man appointed by the king to collect taxes and enforce the law.
The Romans often made statues with heads that could be removed so they could be replaced with some other notable from time to time.
As you can also guess, the month of July was named for the Roman, Julius Caesar. The month of August was named for Augustus Caesar, who else’
The average person eats and drinks about 2,000 of stuff each year…We might want to cut down on some of this.
Shakespeare has no living descendants.
To combat the plague in the 14th century, it was thought that if you let birds fly around the room, they would inhale the poison in the air and keep the vapors in motion.they also believed that letting pigs sleep next to you would help cure plague. These did not work.
Take this to the pump’ a car driving 57 miles an hour gets about 2/3 the mileage from a gallon of gas as does the car driving 50 miles per hour.
Now this is a point, which makes me wonder how they know’ There are more insects in a square mile of rural land than there are people on this planet. Who figured this out and who counted them’