Interesting bits of useless info

The ClubHouse: Archives: Interesting bits of useless info

Moondance

Wednesday, January 30, 2002 - 03:09 pm Click here to edit this post
Most people got married in June because they took their yearly bath in May and still smelled pretty good by June. However, they were starting to smell, so brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the body odor.

Baths consisted of a big tub filled with hot water. The man of the house had the privilege of the nice clean water, then all the other sons and men, then the women and finally the children-last of all the babies. By then the water was so dirty you could actually lose someone in it-hence the saying, "don't throw the baby out with the bath water."

Houses had thatched roofs - thick straw - piled high, with no wood underneath. It was the only place for animals to get warm, so all the dogs, cats and other small animals (mice, bugs) lived in the roof. When it rained it became slippery and sometimes the animals would slip and fall off the roof -hence the saying "It's raining cats and dogs."

There was nothing to stop things from falling into the house. This posed a real problem in the bedroom where bugs and other droppings could really mess up your nice clean bed. Hence, a bed with big posts and a sheet hung over the top afforded some protection. That's how canopy beds came into
existence.

The floor was dirt. Only the wealthy had something other than dirt, hence the saying "dirt poor." The wealthy had slate floors that would get slippery in the winter when wet so they spread thresh (straw) on the floor to help keep their footing. As the winter wore on, they kept adding more thresh until when you opened the door it would all start slipping outside. A piece of wood was placed in the entrance way hence, a "thresh hold."

In those old days, they cooked in the kitchen with a big kettle that always hung over the fire. Every day they lit the fire and added things to the pot. They ate mostly vegetables and did not get much meat. They would eat the stew for dinner, leaving leftovers in the pot to get cold overnight and then start over the next day. Sometimes the stew had food in it that had been there for quite a while - hence the rhyme, "peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot nine days old."

Sometimes they could obtain pork, which made them feel quite special. When visitors came over, they would hang up their bacon to show off. It was a sign of wealth that a man "could bring home the bacon." They would cut off a little to share with guests and would all sit around and "chew the fat."

Those with money had plates made of pewter. Food with a high acid content caused some of the lead to leach onto the food, causing lead poisoning and death. This happened most often with tomatoes, so for the next 400 years or so, tomatoes were considered poisonous.

Most people did not have pewter plates, but had trenchers, a piece of wood with the middle scooped out like a bowl. Often trenchers were made from stale bread which was so old and hard that they could be used for quite some time. Trenchers were never washed and a lot of times worms and mold got into the wood and old bread. After eating off wormy, moldy trenchers, one would get "trench mouth."

Bread was divided according to status. Workers got the burnt bottom of the loaf, the family got the middle, and guests got the top, or "upper crust."

Lead cups were used to drink ale or whiskey. The combination would sometimes knock them out for a couple of days. Someone walking along the road would take them for dead and prepare them for burial. They were laid out on the kitchen table for a couple of days and the family would gather around and eat and drink and wait and see if they would wake up - hence the custom of holding a "wake."

England is old and small and the local folks started running out of places to bury people. So they would dig up coffins and would take the bones to a "bone-house" and reuse the grave. When reopening these coffins, 1 out of 25 coffins were found to have scratch marks on the inside and they realized they had been burying people alive. So they thought they would tie a string on the wrist of the corpse, lead it through the coffin and up through the ground and tie it to a bell. Someone would have to sit out in the graveyard all night (the "graveyard shift") to listen for the bell; thus, someone could be "saved by the bell" or was considered a "dead ringer."

Neko

Wednesday, January 30, 2002 - 03:23 pm Click here to edit this post
Whoa

Tksoard

Wednesday, January 30, 2002 - 03:36 pm Click here to edit this post
Gee Moon, I didn't know that!!! Thanks!!

Pcakes2

Wednesday, January 30, 2002 - 03:48 pm Click here to edit this post
Moondance, a couple of years ago someone emailed me this info, and I deleted it...I'm so happy that you posted it! PS: I got married in June

Max

Wednesday, January 30, 2002 - 03:49 pm Click here to edit this post
Moonie, you are a wealth of information! That's really interesting. :)

Moondance

Wednesday, January 30, 2002 - 03:49 pm Click here to edit this post
LOL Pcakes... and with your soaps, I am sure you smelled just GREAT!:)

Meme9

Wednesday, January 30, 2002 - 03:53 pm Click here to edit this post
Very interesting Moon, isn't it great that we live now!

Moondance

Wednesday, January 30, 2002 - 03:54 pm Click here to edit this post
Just wondering what sayings will come from our generation!:)

Dahli

Wednesday, January 30, 2002 - 03:56 pm Click here to edit this post
Moon, these are fascinating. I had no idea how these terms came about but I used them anyway! Thanks

Willi

Wednesday, January 30, 2002 - 03:58 pm Click here to edit this post
I love information like this!

:)

Juju2bigdog

Wednesday, January 30, 2002 - 09:34 pm Click here to edit this post
I was thinking I remembered something about those origins of familiar phrases being hoaxes, so I went and looked it up.

Urban Legends

This Snopes site is a good one to bookmark and check when you get those e-mails from my cousin Cheryl who sends me five internet hoaxes a week.

Grooch

Thursday, January 31, 2002 - 06:32 am Click here to edit this post
How do we know the hoax sites aren't hoaxes?

Meme9

Thursday, January 31, 2002 - 07:18 am Click here to edit this post
Grooch, you read my mind...LOL

Whowhere

Thursday, January 31, 2002 - 07:25 am Click here to edit this post
Butterflies taste with their feet.

A duck's quack doesn't echo, and no one knows why.

In 10 minutes, a hurricane releases more energy than
all the world's nuclear weapons combined.

On average, 100 people choke to death on ball point pens every year.

On average people fear spiders more than they do death.

Ninety percent of New York City cabbies are recently arrived immigrants.

Thirty-five percent of the people who use personal
ads for dating are already married.

Elephants are the only animals that can't jump.

Only one person in two billion will live to be 116 or older.

It's possible to lead a cow upstairs...but not downstairs.

Women blink nearly twice as much as men.

The Main Library at Indiana University sinks over an inch every year because when it was built, engineers failed to take into account the weight of all the
books that would occupy the building.

A snail can sleep for three years.

No word in the English language rhymes with
"MONTH".

Average life span of a major league baseball: 7 pitches.

Our eyes are always the same size from birth, but our nose and ears never stop growing.

The electric chair was invented by a dentist.

All polar bears are left handed.

In ancient Egypt, priests plucked EVERY hair from their bodies,
including their eyebrows and eyelashes.

An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain.

TYPEWRITER is the longest word that can be made using the letters only on one row of the keyboard.

"Go." is the shortest complete sentence in the English
language.

If Barbie were life-size, her measurements would be 39-23-33. She would stand seven feet, two inches tall.

A crocodile cannot stick its tongue out.

The cigarette lighter was invented before the match.

Americans on average eat 18 acres of pizza every day.

Bookworm

Thursday, January 31, 2002 - 10:44 am Click here to edit this post
I was glad to see the return of this thread. Some of these are the same as Whowhere's useless info above but were numbered to nicely so left them in.

1- Rubber bands last longer when refrigerated.

2- Peanuts are one of the ingredients of dynamite.

3- There are 293 ways to make change for a dollar.

4- The average person's left hand does 56% of the typing.

5- A shark is the only fish that can blink with both eyes.

6- There are more chickens than people in the world.

7- The longest one-syllable word in the English language is "screeched."

8- On a Canadian two-dollar bill, the flag flying over the Parliament building is an American flag.

9- All of the clocks in the movie "Pulp Fiction" are stuck on 4:20.

10- No word in the English language rhymes with month, orange, silver or purple.

11- "Dreamt" is the only English word that ends in the letters "mt".

12- Almonds are a member of the peach family.

13- There are only 4 words in the English language which end in dous": tremendous, horrendous, stupendous, and hazardous.

14- A cat has 32 muscles in each ear.

15- An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain.

16- Tigers have striped skin, not just striped fur.

17- In most advertisements, the time displayed on a watch is 10:10.

18- Al Capone's business card said he was a used furniture dealer.

19- The characters Bert & Ernie on Sesame Street were named after Bert the cop and Ernie the taxi driver in Frank Capra's "It's a Wonderful Life."

20- A dragonfly has a life span of 24 hours.

21- A goldfish has a memory span of 3 seconds.

22- It's impossible to sneeze with your eyes open.

23- The giant squid has the largest eyes in the world.

24- In England, the Speaker of the House is not allowed to speak.

25- The microwave was invented after a researcher walked by a radar tube and a chocolate bar melted in his pocket.

26- The average person falls asleep in seven minutes.

27- There are 336 dimples on a regulation golf ball.

28- The average human eats 8 spiders in their lifetime at night.

29- A cockroach can live nine days without its head before it starves to death.

30- A polar bear's skin is black. Its fur is not white, but actually clear.

31- Elvis had a twin brother named Aaron, who died at birth, which is why Elvis' middle name was spelled Aron: in honor of his brother. It is also misspelled on his tomb stone.

32- Donald Duck comics were banned in Finland because he doesn't wear pants.

33- More people are killed by donkeys annually than are killed in plane crashes.

34- Stewardesses is the longest word typed with only the left hand.

35- Shakespeare invented the words "assassination" and "bump."

36- Marilyn Monroe had 6 toes on one foot.

37- If you keep a goldfish in the dark room, it will eventually turn white.

38- Women blink nearly twice as much as men.

39- Right-handed people live, on average, nine years longer than left-handed people do.

40- The sentence "the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" uses every letter in the English language.

41- The names of the continents all end with the same letter with which they start.

42- TYPEWRITER is the longest word that can be made using the letters on only one row of the keyboard.

43- The word racecar and kayak are the same whether they are read left to right or right to left.

44- A snail can sleep for 3 years.

45- American Airlines saved $40,000 in 1987 by eliminating one olive from each salad served in first-class.

46- The electric chair was invented by a dentist.

47- Vatican City is the smallest country in the world with a population of 1,000 and a size of 108.7 acres.

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

49- No president of the United states was an only child.

Whowhere

Thursday, January 31, 2002 - 10:54 am Click here to edit this post
Slight contradiction in our posts bookworm:

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

Mine says "Go." is the shortest complete sentence in the English language.

Very interesting bits of uselss, contradicting information. :)

Micknrc

Thursday, January 31, 2002 - 11:06 am Click here to edit this post
One could qualify them both by saying "I am." is the shortest declarative sentence and "Go." is the shortest imperative sentence.

Students are taught that a "complete" sentence must have a subject and a verb (I am.), but I always used to point out the exception of the imperative sentence in which the implied subject is you i.e. "Go." or "Keep off the grass."

Old English teachers die hard.

Twiggyish

Thursday, January 31, 2002 - 11:17 am Click here to edit this post
I wonder if, "I'm" would work?

Whowhere

Thursday, January 31, 2002 - 11:43 am Click here to edit this post
Thanks for clearing that up Mick!

Here are some more I just received:


1. If you're too open minded, your brains will fall out.

2. Age is a very high price to pay for maturity.

3. Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than going to a
garage makes you a mechanic.

4. Artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity.

5. If you must choose between two evils, pick the one you've never tried
before.

6. My idea of housework is to sweep the room with a glance.

7. Not one shred of evidence supports the
notion that life is serious.

8. It is easier to get forgiveness than permission.

9. For every action, there is an equal and opposite government program.

10. If you look like your passport picture, you probably need the trip.

11. Bills travel through the mail at twice the speed of checks.

12. A conscience is what hurts when all your other parts feel so good.

13. Eat well, stay fit, die anyway.

14. Men are from earth. Women are from earth. Deal with it.

15. No husband has ever been shot while doing the dishes.

16. A balanced diet is a cookie in each hand.

17. Middle age is when broadness of the mind and narrowness of the waist
change places.

18. Opportunities always look bigger going than coming.

19. Junk is something you've kept for years and throw away three weeks
before you need it.

20. There is always one more imbecile than you counted on.

21. Experience is a wonderful thing. It enables you to recognize a
mistake when you make it again.

22. By the time you can make ends meet, they move the ends.

23. Thou shalt not weigh more than thy refrigerator.

24. Someone who thinks logically provides a nice contrast to the real
world.

25. Blessed are they who can laugh at themselves for they shall never
cease to be amused.

Whowhere

Thursday, January 31, 2002 - 11:53 am Click here to edit this post
I'm on a roll......

If you yelled for 8 years, 7 months and 6 days you would have produced enough
sound energy to heat one cup of coffee.
(Hardly seems worth it.)
****************************************************************
If you passed gas consistently for 6 years and 9 months, enough gas is
produced to create the energy of an atomic bomb.
(Now that's more like it!)
****************************************************************
The human heart creates enough pressure when it pumps out to the body to
squirt blood 30 feet.
(O.M.G.!)
****************************************************************
A pig's orgasm lasts 30 minutes.
(In my next life, I want to be a pig.)
****************************************************************
A cockroach will live nine days without its head before it starves to death.
(Creepy.) (I'm still not over the pig.)
****************************************************************
Banging your head against a wall uses 150 calories an hour.
(Do not try this at home...maybe at work.)
****************************************************************
The male praying mantis cannot copulate wh!ile its head is attached to its
body. The female initiates sex by ripping the male's head off.
("Honey, I'm home. What the....?!")
****************************************************************
The flea can jump 350 times its body length. It's like a human jumping the
length of a football field.
(30 minutes...can you imagine??)
****************************************************************
The catfish has over 27,000 taste buds.
(What could be so tasty on the bottom of a pond?)
****************************************************************
Some lions mate over 50 times a day
(I still want to be a pig in my next life...quality over quantity.)
****************************************************************
Butterflies taste with their feet.
(Something I never wanted to know.)
***************************************************************
Elephants are the only animal that cannot jump.
(OK, so that would be a good thing....)
****************************************************************
A cat's urine glows under a black light.
(I wonder who was paid to figure that out?)
****************************************************************
Starfish have no brains.
(I know some people like that too.)
****************************************************************
Humans and dolphins are the only species that have sex for pleasure.
(What about that pig??)

Urgrace

Thursday, January 31, 2002 - 12:04 pm Click here to edit this post
What about - "You."

Whowhere

Thursday, January 31, 2002 - 01:54 pm Click here to edit this post
Things I Bet You Didn't Know...

1. A rat can last longer without water than a camel.
2. Your stomach has to produce a new layer of mucus every two weeks or it will digest itself.
3. The dot over the letter "i" is called a tittle.
4. A raisin dropped in a glass of fresh champagne will bounce up and down continuously from the bottom of the glass to the top.
5. A female ferret will die if it goes into heat and cannot find a mate.
6. A 2 X 4 is really 1-1/2 by 3-1/2.
7. During the chariot scene in "Ben Hur", a small red car can be seen in the distance.
8. On average, 12 newborns will be given to the wrong parents daily.
9. Because metal was scarce, the Oscars given out during World War II were made of wood.
10. The number of possible ways of playing the first four moves per side in a game of chess is 318,979,564,000.
11. The name Wendy was made up for the book "Peter Pan". There was never a recorded Wendy before.
12. The very first bomb dropped by the Allies on Berlin in World War II killed the only elephant in the Berlin Zoo.
13. If one places a tiny amount of liquor on a scorpion, it will instantly go mad and sting itself to death.
14. Bruce Lee was so fast that they actually had to s-l-o-w film down so you could see his moves. That's the opposite of the norm.
15. The first CD pressed in the US was Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the USA".
16. The original name for butterfly was flutterby.
17. The phrase "rule of thumb" is derived from an old English law which stated that you couldn't beat your wife with anything wider than your thumb.
18. The first product Motorola started to develop was a record player for automobiles. At that time, the most known player on the market was
Victrola, so they called themselves Motorola.
19. Roses may be red, but violets are indeed violet.
20. By raising your legs slowly and laying on your back, you cannot sink into quicksand.
21. Celery has negative calories. It takes more calories to eat a piece of celery than the celery has in it to begin with.
22. Charlie Chaplin once won third prize in a Charlie Chaplin look-alike contest.
23. Chewing gum while peeling onions will keep you from crying.
24. Sherlock Holmes NEVER said "Elementary, my dear Watson".
25. An old law in Bellingham, Washington, made it illegal for a woman to take more than 3 steps backwards while dancing.
26. The glue on Israeli postage is certified kosher.
27. The Guinness Book of Records holds the record for being the book most often stolen from Public Libraries.
28. Astronauts are not allowed to eat beans before they go into space because passing wind in a spacesuit damages them.
29. Bats always turn left when exiting a cave.

Moondance

Thursday, January 31, 2002 - 01:55 pm Click here to edit this post
These are GREAT!!!!

Babyruth

Saturday, February 02, 2002 - 06:21 pm Click here to edit this post
The first couple to be shown in bed together on prime time television
was Fred and Wilma Flintstones.

Coca-Cola was originally green.

Every day more money is printed for Monopoly than the US Treasury.

Hawaiian alphabet has 12 letters.

Men can read smaller print than women; women can hear better.

City with the most Rolls Royce's per capita: Hong Kong

State with the highest percentage of people who walk to work: Alaska

Percentage of Africa that is wilderness: 28%.
Percentage of North America that is wilderness: 38%.

Cost of raising a medium-size dog to the age of eleven: $6,400

Average number of people airborne over the US any given hour: 61,000.

Intelligent people have more zinc and copper in their hair.

The world's youngest parents were 8 and 9 and lived in China in 1910.

The youngest pope was 11 years old.

First novel ever written on a typewriter: Tom Sawyer.

111,111,111 x 111,111,111 _,345,678,987,654,321

This one freaks me out; How about this:
The nursery rhyme "Ring Around the Rosy" is a rhyme
about the plague.
Infected people with the plague would get red
circular sores ("Ring around the rosy"). These sores would smell very
bad so common folks would put flowers on their bodies somewhere
(inconspicuously), so that it would cover the smell of the sores
("...a pocket full of posies...").
People who died from the plague would be burned to reduce the
possible spread of the disease ("...ashes, ashes, we all fall down!")

Q. What occurs more often in December than any other month?
A. Conception.

Q. What separates "60 Minutes," on CBS from every other TV show?
A. No theme song.

Q. Half of all Americans live within 50 miles of what?
A. Their birthplace.

Q. If you were to spell out numbers, how far would you have to go
until
you would find the letter "A"?
A. One thousand

Q. What do bulletproof vests, fire escapes, windshield wipers and
laser printers all have in common?
A. All invented by women.

Q. This is the only food that doesn't spoil.
A. Honey

Q. There are more collect calls on this day than any other day of the
year.
A. Father's Day

Q. What trivia fact about Mel Blanc (voice of Bugs Bunny) is the most
ironic?
A. He was allergic to carrots.

Q. An activity of 40% of all people at a party
A. Snoop in your medicine cabinet.

Bookworm

Sunday, February 10, 2002 - 07:17 pm Click here to edit this post
Gotta breathe some life back into this thread... I was cleaning out my email and found this story.


The STORY BEHIND the Song "TAPS"

We have all heard the haunting song, "Taps." It's the song that gives us that lump in our throats and usually creates tears in our eyes. But, do you know the story behind the song? If not, I think you will be pleased to find out about it's humble beginnings.

Reportedly, it all began in 1862 during the Civil War, when Union Army Captain Robert Ellicombe was with his men near Harrison's Landing in Virginia.

The Confederate Army was on the other side of the narrow strip of land. During the night, Captain Ellicombe heard moans of a soldier who lay severely wounded on the field. Not knowing if it was a Union or Confederate soldier, the Captain decided to risk his life and bring the stricken man back for medical attention.

Crawling on his stomach through the gunfire, the
Captain reached the stricken soldier and began pulling him toward his encampment. When the Captain finally reached his own lines, he discovered it was actually a Confederate soldier, but the soldier was dead. The Captain lit a lantern and suddenly caught his breath and went numb with shock. In the dim light, he saw the face of the soldier. It was his own son. The boy had been studying music in the South when the war broke out.

Without telling his father, the boy enlisted in the Confederate Army. The following morning, heartbroken, the father asked permission of his superiors to give his son a full military burial despite his enemy status.

His request was only partially granted. The Captain had asked if he could have a group of Army band members play a funeral dirge for his son at the funeral. The request was turned down since the soldier was a Confederate. But, out of respect for the father, they did say they could
give him only one musician. The Captain chose a bugler. He asked the bugler to play a series of musical notes he had found on a piece of paper in the pocket of the dead youth's uniform. This wish was granted.

The haunting melody, we now know as "Taps" used at military funerals, was born.

Day is done
Gone the sun
>From the Lakes
>From the hills
>From the sky.
All is well,
Safely rest.
God is nigh.

Fading light
Dims the sight
And a star
Gems the sky,
Gleaming bright
>From afar,
Drawing nigh,
Falls the night.

Thanks and praise,
For our days,
Neath the sun,
Neath the stars,
Neath the sky,
As we go,
This we know,
God is nigh.

Willsfan

Tuesday, February 12, 2002 - 08:30 pm Click here to edit this post
Arizona is sometimes referred to as the Valentine State because it joined the Union
as the 48th state on February 14, 1912.

Whowhere

Thursday, February 21, 2002 - 09:39 am Click here to edit this post
THE CLASS OF 2005
Just in case you weren't feeling old enough today, this will certainly change things. Each year the staff at Beloit College in Wisconsin puts together a list to try to give the Faculty a sense of the mindset of this year's incoming freshman.

Here is this year's list:

The people who are starting college this fall across the nation were born in 1983.

They have no meaningful recollection of the Reagan Era and probably did not know he had ever been shot.

They were prepubescent when the Persian Gulf War was waged.

There has been only one Pope in their lifetime.

They were 10 when the Soviet Union broke apart and do not remember the Cold War.

They are too young to remember the space shuttle blowing up.

Tianamen Square means nothing to them.

Bottle caps have always been screw off and plastic.

Atari predates them, as do vinyl albums.

The expression "You sound like a broken record" means nothing to them.

They have never owned a record player.

They have likely never played Pac Man and have never heard of Pong.

They may have never heard of an 8 track. The Compact Disc was introduced when they were 1 year old.

They have always had an answering machine.

Most have never seen a TV set with only 13 channels, nor have they seen a black and white TV.

They have always had cable.

There have always been VCRs, but they have no idea what BETA was.

They cannot fathom not having a remote control.

They don't know what a cloth baby diaper is, or know about the "Help me, I've fallen and I can't get up" commercial.

Feeling old yet? There's more:

They were born the year that Walkmen were introduced by Sony.

Roller-skating has always meant inline for them.

Jay Leno has always been on the Tonight Show.

They have no idea when or why Jordache jeans were cool.

Popcorn has always been cooked in the microwave.

They have never seen Larry Bird play.

They never took a swim and thought about Jaws.

The Vietnam War is as ancient history to them as WWI, WWII and the Civil War.

They have no idea that Americans were ever held hostage in Iran.

They can't imagine what hard contact lenses are.

They don't know who Mork was or where he was from. (The correct answer, by the way, is Ork)

They never heard: "Where's the beef?", "I'd walk a mile for a Camel," or "De plane, de plane!"

They do not care who shot J.R. and have no idea who J.R. was.

Michael Jackson has always been white.

Kansas, Chicago, Boston, America, and Alabama are places, not bands...

There has always been MTV.

They don't have a clue how to use a typewriter.

Babyruth

Thursday, February 21, 2002 - 10:10 am Click here to edit this post
Geez, do I feel ancient at 44.
My faves are the Jaws one and the Michael Jackson one.

Tksoard

Thursday, February 21, 2002 - 11:08 am Click here to edit this post