Ponder
Points
So, if you thought the word ‘sweatshop’ referred to a business where
people actually sweated a lot, would you be right? Maybe, depends on
how you look at it. Actually the word originated in England in the
early 1800’s and meant
getting work out of people for very low wages. It was used here in
America to describe the working conditions in the garment industry
in New York.
Speaking of England, who was the first member of British royalty to
ever
visit the United States? It wasn’t until June of 1939 when George VI
and his
family (including the present Queen Elizabeth) came to visit the
Worlds Fair
in New York City. Probably took them that long to get over their
loss in
1781 at Yorktown.
You knew that India has a bill of rights for cows.
So, Vincent Van Gogh…the artist.. actually sold only one painting
in his
lifetime. It was called ‘The Red Vineyard’ . Bought for 400 francs
by a lady
from Belgium. It’s now in a museum in Moscow.
What’s so different about penguins? Well, for one they are the only
bird
that can swim but can’t fly. For another, they are the only bird
that walks
upright.
Things you always wanted to know but were too lazy to find out
yourself…a
US quarter has 119 grooves on its edge.
"The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" was the first novel written
on a typewriter.
Mark Twain wrote it in 1875. He kept it a secret in fear of having
to answer
questions or write testimonials for it. Wonder who wrote the first
one on a
computer?
You knew that Hawaii was our southernmost state didn’t you? Some
folks think
its Florida.
Our sun gives off enough energy each day to equal more than 550
billion tons
of coal. We’d have to extract coal for a 1,000 years to equal one
day’s
output.
I’d always heard that King John signed the Magna Charta in 1215. He
didn’t.
He couldn’t write. Used his seal to grant the thing.
When baseball was first invented, the winning team had to score 21
runs.
In Clarendon, Texas it’s illegal to dust a public building with a
feather
duster. Why?
In a book called "The Correct Thing in Good Society"
published in 1902, it
was noted that "It is not the correct thing to say, in case of
a slight
squall at sea, ‘Captain is there any hope left?’"
It would be all right to use the word .."Shoulderclapper"
to describe
someone who affects familiarity with you.
Old timers report that they often used pure granular sugar on
wounds. It was
said to promote clotting and discourage bacteria growth.
In 1899, distress calls were sent out after a collision at sea
between two
British ships. What made this special was the fact that radio, or
wireless,
had just been invented a short time before by G. Marconi. Lifeboats
arrived
and all were rescued.
So what’s the coldest place ever recorded on this planet? Well, that
would
be Vostok, Antarctica on July 21st 1983. Got down to minus 129.
Now that we’ve learned that, what about the hottest? Sept. 13, 1922
in El
Azizia, Libya. Before the day was over, it got up to 136 degrees.
It’s been said that one of the reasons Benjamin Franklin wasn’t
allowed to
write the Declaration of independence was because some feared he
would
conceal a joke in it. Apparently old Ben was somewhat of a
prankster.
On that vein, remember that Martin Van Buren was the first man to
become
President after having been born in the United States. All the ones
before
were born in the colonies.
Jesse is the father of King David. What was his mother’s name? Can’t
find it
in the Bible. David has several brothers and sisters, but there
isn’t any
mention of his mother’s name that we can find.
Most people don’t know that in September of 1942, a Japanese plane
actually
bombed parts of Oregon in an attempt to set the forests on fire. The
plane
had been carried over on a submarine (the I-25). It wasn’t until
many years
later that this information was released. This was the first time
the US
mainland had ever been bombed.
The English inventor and chemist named John Walker never took out a
patent
on his best invention, matches. He thought they should belong to the
public.
Did you know there are over 35 million digestive glands in the
stomach? You
do now.
Odd thing about the two letters, sn…They turn up in many different
words in
the English language always in relationship to the word nose. For
example,
sneeze, sneer, snicker, snort, snob (to turn up your nose at
someone),
snout, snuff, snarl and to snoop (stick your nose into someone’s
affairs).
The Cathedral of Notre dame at Amiens was built to hold 10,000
people. The
entire population of the town could attend services at the same
time.
So, who was the only person whose image on a postage stamp was
determined by
a vote? Well, surprise, surprise, it was Elvis Presley in 1993. The
public
was given a choice between a younger version and an older. They
choose the
younger.
Which city in the world takes such pride in their sewer system that
they
offer tours to visitors? Why, Paris, France of course.
Santa’s brother’s name is Bells. At least according to some Dutch
and French
tradition. He comes back to visit children on New Years Eve and
brings
cookies and cakes.
The Amazon River produces so much fresh water that you can still
drink it
more than a hundred miles after it gets to the Atlantic Ocean.
You’ve heard the term ."the cat’s out of the bag." Well,
this originated
when you used to go to the store with your own sack. It was made of
burlap
in those days, not paper or plastic. Seems dishonest merchants would
often
sell you a pig, but substitute a cat in it’s place. When you got
home, many
miles and hours later, you’d find out you’d been cheated and thus
the
phrase.
By the way, this is also where the term, buying a "pig in a
poke" came from.
It was in 1988 that Princess Diana made the immortal statement.” I
would walk
miles for a bacon sandwich."
What’s a bird sonogram? It’s an electronic visual reproduction of
birds
calling produced by a sound spectrograph.
Is our blood really blue? Nope, just appears that way since the deep
veins
don’t get much sunlight. Those blood vessels and veins closest to
the
surface show up as red. The blue ones are just too deep to be
affected by
any sunlight. Kind of like losing the color the deeper you go when
you’re
scuba diving.
You knew that Nero didn’t fiddle while Rome burned. First off, the
fiddle
hadn’t been invented. Also, Nero was having a party over in Antium,
which
was over 50 miles away. Is this the first case of spin politics?
I’ll bet you didn’t know there are over 9,000 species of grass. All
members
of the Poaceae family. This is the most numerous of all flowering
plants.
Freud had to have someone go with him whenever he rode a train. He
never
learned how to read a railroad timetable.
