Did You Know – The More I Know, The More I Know I Don’t know.

“Fight Against Stupidity And Bureaucracy”

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This is a bit Donald Rumsfeld, but it is certainly true that the more of these facts I see, the more I know I don’t know, except I would know if I could remember them all.

But enough of that.

Let’s get on with today’s lot.

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did you know3

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The official state vegetable of Oklahoma

is the watermelon.

watermelon, official state vegetable of Oklahoma

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Horses cannot breathe through their mouths.

Horse's mouth

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The word ‘Hazard’ comes from the Arabic ‘al zahr’ which means ‘the dice’.

The term came to be associated with dice during the Crusades

and eventually took on a negative connotation because

games of dice were associated with gambling.

Hazard sign

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If you eat a teaspoon of sugar after eating something spicy,

it will completely neutralize the heat.

teaspoon of sugar

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When the oldest person on Earth was born,

there was a completely different set of people on the planet.

oldest person on Earth

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The last veteran of the American Civil War died in 1956,

long enough to see the atomic bomb dropped in Japan.

Albert_Woolson_(ca._1953)
Albert Henry Woolson, last surviving Civil War veteran on either side whose status is undisputed.

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A “butt load” is an actual unit of measurement,

equivalent to 126 gallons.

butt load - giant_ass_in_seat

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The word ‘posh’, which denotes luxurious rooms or accommodations,

originated when ticket agents in England

marked the tickets of travelers going by ship to the Orient.

Since there was no air conditioning in those days,

it was always better to have a cabin on the shady side of the ship

as it passed through the Mediterranean and Suez area.

Since the sun is in the south, those with money paid extra

to get cabins on the left, or port, traveling to the Asia,

and on the right, or starboard, when returning to Europe.

Hence their tickets were marked with the initials for

Port Outbound Starboard Homebound, or POSH.

POSH logo black_full

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Nepal is the only country without a rectangular flag,

it looks like two pennants glued one on top of the other.

Nepal-Flag

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Dr Seuss wrote “Green Eggs And Ham”

to win a bet against his publisher

who thought that Seuss could not complete

a book using only 50 words.

Green Eggs And Ham Dr Seuss

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Crocodiles are more closely related to birds than to lizards.

american-crocodile

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Not only was James Garfield ambidextrous,

he could write Latin with one hand

and Greek with the other at the same time.

James Garfield ambidextrous

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Shakespeare and Pocahontas

were alive at the same time.

Shakespeare and Pocahontas

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Kiribati is the first country in the world

that will be entirely lost due to rising sea levels.

They are already planning the complete and

permanent evacuation of the population.

Kiribati

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Duddley Do Right’s Horses name was “Horse.”

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Fasab’s Fascinating Fun Facts Folks!

“Fight Against Stupidity And Bureaucracy”

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Another alliteration and another bunch of fascinating fun facts.

Throw a few of these out when you get the opportunity and dazzle you friends with your new knowledge.

Well, you’ll probably get one of those odd quizzical looks at least.

Enjoy.

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A 75 year old person will have slept about 23 years.

rip van winkle

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The word “set” has the most number of definitions in the English language; 192

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Hong Kong has more Rolls Royce cars per capita than any other city.

of Rolls Royces owned by The Peninsula Hotel Hong Kong

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The longest name in the Bible is Mahershalalbaz.

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In a survey of 200,000 ostriches over 80 years, not one tried to bury its head in the sand.

ostrich-head-in-sand

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Elephants have the longest pregnancy in the animal kingdom at 22 months.

The longest human pregnancy on record is 17 months, 11 days.

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Possums have one of the shortest pregnancies at 16 days.

The shortest human pregnancy to produce a healthy baby was 22 weeks, 6 days

— the baby was the length of a ballpoint pen.

opossum clipart

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

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Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) was born on and died on days when Halley’s Comet can be seen.

Mark Twain

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Benjamin Franklin was the fifth in a series of the youngest son of the youngest son.

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The name Wendy was made up for the book Peter Pan.

There was never a recorded Wendy before it.

wendy

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One in ten people live on an island.

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Humphrey Bogart NEVER said “Play it again, Sam” in Casablanca

casablanca still play it Sam

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

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Jim Henson first coined the word “Muppet”.

It is a combination of “marionette” and “puppet.”

Kermit the muppets

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Arabic numerals are not really Arabic; they were created in India.

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The word “maverick” came into use after Samuel Maverick, a Texan who refused to brand his cattle.

Maverick

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Maine is the only state whose name is just one syllable.

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A “quidnunc” is a person who is eager to know the latest news and gossip.

quidnunc

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Chrysler built B29’s that bombed Japan.

Mitsubishi built the Zeros that tried to shoot them down.

Both companies now build cars in a joint plant called Diamond Star.

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In the last 4000 years no new animals have been domesticated.

german shepherd

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Richard Millhouse Nixon was the first US president whose name contains all the letters from the word “criminal.”

The second? William Jefferson Clinton

It can’t be a coincidence, it really can’t!!!

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The country code for Russia is “007”.


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The French Don’t Have A Word For “Entrepreneur”

“Fight Against Stupidity And Bureaucracy”

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Despite the fact that it has huge corporations like Cartier, Dassault, L’oreal, Lafarge, Michelin, Peugeot-Citroen, Renault, and many more, President George W Bush once astutely remarked that the French don’t have a word for “entrepreneur”.

It’s hard to say whether he thought they had no entrepreneurs in France, or that the French had borrowed the word we used for themselves. But it is too dangerous territory to delve too deeply into trying to understand how Dubya thought or why he said some of the things he said. Let’s just instead enjoy the humor of them. 

But what is interesting is to delve a little deeper into the words that the English language has borrowed, and then assimilated, from other languages.

I have only noted a few examples here, a comprehensive list would run into the thousands. It makes me think that they didn’t say very much to each other in Britain before they were invaded and new words brought into their language.

Here is a short list. The origin of some of the words may well surprise you.

 

ARABIC: admiral, adobe, albatross, alcohol, alcove, alfalfa, algebra, algorithm, apricot, arsenal, artichoke, assassin, candy, carat, cipher, coffee, cotton, giraffe, guitar, harem, jar, jumper, lacquer, lemon, lime, magazine, mattress, muslin, orange, safari, sequin (clothing ornament), sofa, spinach, sugar, talc, tangerine, tariff, tuna, zenith , zero

 

DUTCH: ahoy, bamboo, bazooka, Brooklyn, bundle, caboose, coleslaw, cookie, cruise, dam, decoy, dike, dope, easel, elope, freebooter, gherkin, Harlem, holster, landscape, loafer, rucksack, scone, sketch, skipper, spook, trigger, wagon, yacht, yankee

 

FRENCH: abattoir, amateur¸ architect¸ astronomy, balloon, banquet, bikini, boutique, bureaucracy, cadillac, caliber, canon, carbon, cartel, chandelier, chauffeur, dagger, delicious, denim, deputy, diagram, education, ejaculation, election, empire, eviction, fiancée, flamboyant, flatulence, foreclose, fraternity, galoshes, glacier, gourmet, hangar, harassment, harmony, homicide, hypocrisy, identity, ignorance, imagination, immunize, irrigation, jealousy, jeopardy, journalism, kennel, kilometer, laundry, lemonade, liberty, lieutenant, lunatic, macabre, magician, mathematics, medicine, millionaire, mortgage, music, narcotic, native, negligee, nonchalant, oblique, occupy, optician, organism, ounce, pacific, panache, paragraph, perfume, pigeon, pirate, pistol, prejudice, president, psychiatry, quantity, queue, quote, racism, raconteur, rapport, rendezvous, residue, rhubarb, sabotage, salon, scabbard, secret, soufflé, tart, tourniquet, trenchant, trespass, turbulent, turtle, umpire, union, universal, vacation, valiant, vampire, vestibule, voyeur

 

GERMAN: hamburger, pretzel, larger

 

HEBREW: alphabet, jubilee, sycamore

 

INDIAN: avatar, bandana, bangle, bazaar, bungalow, cashmere, catamaran, chutney, curry, dinghy, doolally, dungarees, guru, gymkhana, hullabaloo, jungle, juggernaut , khaki, loot, polo, pukka, pundit, pyjamas, shampoo, shawl, swastika, thug, typhoon, veranda, yoga

 

IRISH: brogues, galore, gob, hooligan, poteen, shamrock, slob, whiskey

 

NATIVE AMERICAN: caribou, cisco, Eskimo, hickory, moccasin, moose, pecan, skunk, tomahawk, as well as many place names including, Mississippi, Michigan, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Wyoming, Wisconsin and Chicago, Illinois

 

And finally for this example,

 

SPANISH: alligator, armada, avocado, barbecue, bonanza, burro, cafeteria, California, canyon, cargo, Caribbean, chocolate, cigar, Colorado, corral, desperado, Florida, guerrilla, hurricane, jerky, Montana, mosquito, Nevada, oregano, patio, plaza, ranch, stampede, tobacco, tomato, tornado