DECEMBER

Why do we use the expression “Katy bar the door” to describe the dire consequences if we don’t take some precaution?

This expression dates from the 1890s, shortly after the poet Dante Gabriel Rosetti had penned a tribute to the original Katy. In his poem, he used the line, “Catherine, keep the door!”

The story goes like this: In the 15th century, King James I of Scotland saw himself as firm but fair. But his subjects -- some of them, at least - - considered him a royal pain in the butt. One day they managed to corner him in a building in the town of Perth. Unfortunately for James, the room he was in did not have a bar resting across the iron holders for it. Catherine Douglass, a member of his wife’s entourage, came to James’ aid. She placed her arm where the bar should have been. Snap! The King’s enemies broke in, broke her arm and killed the King.

Moral: when your enemies have the big guns, don’t try to defend yourself with small arms.

Source: www.worldwidewords.org



Spaced out

Since about 1985, American companies have invested about $17 billion in commercial space technology, but with disappointing results. Lockheed alone has lost about $3 billion on satellite communications technology.

Hey, if you want to make money from space, build a big warehouse.

Source: www.wsj.com



Didja Know...
No French rider has won the Tour de France since Bernard Hinault won his record-tying fifth Yellow Jersey in 1985? (Source: CNN/SI.com)

Was Bill Clinton the only U. S. president to be involved in a sex scandal while in office?

What do you mean by “in?” Or “was?” How about “a?”

John F. Kennedy’s presidential hanky panky was not public knowledge till 12 years after he died. Other presidents, such as Jefferson and Cleveland, went awry before they went to Washington. So, the closest match would be Warren G. Harding, who played poker and apparently, played around. At least that’s what many historians believe. Only three years after he died in 1923, a woman named Nan Britton created quite a stink with a kiss and tell tome, “The President’s Daughter.” According to her, she and the married Harding weren’t hanging clothes when they dallied in a White House closet. But her claims have never been corroborated.

Harding also had a pre-presidential “friend” named Carrie Phillips, whose letters to Warren are sealed until 2014, at the behest of his heirs. Obviously, they suspect that the contents go beyond gardening and stamp collecting.

Source: www.straightdope.com



It makes cents

Benjamin Franklin, famous for the expression, “A penny saved, is a penny earned,” is buried across the street from the Philadelphia Mint. Visitors to his gravesite often leave pennies on his tombstone for good luck.

See what happens if you coin an expression?

Source: www.ask.yahoo.com



Didja Know...
New York City mayor Mike Bloomberg's annual salary is $0? (Source: NY Daily News)

Can sugar make you smarter?

Well, it can make you fatter - for sure. And if you have a sweet tooth and indulge it enough, it could end up your only tooth. But can burning the calories in sugar spark an idea?

Never mind what your mother told you, the answer is “yes.” Studies have shown that kids who eat sugary breakfast cereals are brainier in the classroom. Adult gray matter gets a similar boost. The latest study, in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, says the effect is also evident in older people. Loading up on carbohydrates in the morning improved their memory and enhanced their ability to focus and accomplish various tasks.

We await the study that shows that pie a la mode for breakfast makes you smart enough to avoid the diabetes, obesity and possibly shortened lifespan that overdoing it can cause.

Source: www.nutiritionnewsfocus.com



Social Climbers

Evolution has led to the male of some species of spiders weighing much less than the female. This unusual characteristic evolved because the males often need to climb great distances to reach the female’s web. Smaller spiders make better and quicker climbers, able to better compete with the other guys who are going for it.

Hey, anything to get a leg up on the competition.

Source: www.nytimes.com



Didja Know...
Fred and Wilma Flintstone were the first couple to be shown in bed together on prime time television? (Source: Useless Knoledge)

What's the difference between catsup and ketchup?

One describes a domesticated animal eating the third can of food you put in front of him, having rejected the first two dinner offerings. The other is what you need to do when you fall behind, 10 – 0.

Okay, you want to be literal? The only difference is what brand you buy of this slightly spiced tomato sauce concoction that turns french fries into a meal. The word originated as kecap, meaning, “taste,” on the Malay Peninsula. It migrated to China, where it became ke-tsiap, and was Anglicized when the Anglos got a hold of it.

There are a number of variations on the name that arise when the thick variety is presented to one in a restaurant and one can’t get it to flow out of the jar despite smacking, shaking and pounding it. Unfortunately, my editor will not permit me to repeat any of those names.

Source: DICTIONARY OF WORD AND PHRASE ORIGINS by William and Mary Morris



Put the bite on the bug

Did you ever wonder how the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention trap all the mosquitoes they need for their research? Their traps attract the little buggers by releasing carbon dioxide mixed with other gases in the same concentration they are found in human breath, a natural attractant.

Next step: develop a gas that will kill them by emulating the breath of a person who has just consumed an entire onion and anchovy pizza....

Source: www.kiplinger.com



Didja Know...
Al Capone's business card said he was a used furniture dealer? (Source: pogolo.com)

Is there any limit to how high birds can fly?

Would you accept, "the sky's the limit?" I didn't think so.

Well, the oxygen has to be plentiful enough for them to breathe and the air can’t be too thin for them to get a lift under their wings. Having said that, we know from the testimony of airline pilots that some birds really get up there. Swans, for example, have been reported at 27,000 feet. That's probably about the top.

Then there's the vulture that hit a passenger plane, 37,000 feet above the Ivory Coast. At least we can extrapolate from the mangled feathers that were its remains that it was a vulture. But ornithologists suspect that it rather than flying that high, it got caught up in a storm, was frozen solid and delivered to that height by an updraft.

Given the shrinking meal service on most planes, we know that vulture couldn't have been scavenging for leftovers.

Source: WHY MOTHS HATE THOMAS EDISON, Hampton Sides, ed.



Turn back the sands of time

You can now access the Beach Volleyball Database on the Internet. On the very first page that the web server tosses up, you will find "Today in Beach Volleyball History." After all, the sport has been around for a century.

I could have sworn beach volleyball was invented to fill the time on cable sports stations between the monster truck demolition derby and naked miniature golf.

Source: www.bvinfo.com



Didja Know...
A dragonfly has a life span of 24 hours? (Source: pogolo.com)

What are we actually doing when we sleep?

Getting that raise, winning the lottery, seducing a movie star, and eating a sinful desert without consuming a calorie. Dream on!

In truth, "shut eye" doesn't begin to describe sleep. During sleep, our muscles go limp – but we do change position once or twice an hour -- our heart slows up and we breathe in a slow, even rhythm. We become deaf to all but loud noises. Our brain waves also slow, with increasingly fewer oscillations per minute until we reach the minimum in what is called deep sleep. The exception, which happens a few times a night, is when our brain waves suddenly quicken and we manifest rapid eye movement and experience some muscle twitching. That's dreamtime, when anything goes – sex, chocolate, money, power, preferably simultaneously.

Anyway, that's what the scientists say. But hey, to be honest, I'm not even sure what I’m doing while I'm awake.

Source: www.howstuffworks.com



Take that, white wine and quiche!

Microbreweries, which brew and usually serve their product on the premises, have only been around in the U. S. since 1979. The first opened in Sonoma California that year, in the heart of the wine country. A micro is defined as a brewery that turns out fewer than 15,000 of the close to 200 million barrels produced in the U. S. each year.

Among the brewskies, they are newskies.

Source: www.americanheritage.com



Didja Know...
There are 293 ways to make change for a dollar? (Source: pogolo.com)

Why don't we eat "cow" instead of "beef?"

“Cow” suggests the animal with the big dreamy eyes and the cute “moo,” grazing placidly in a bucolic setting. “Beef” is a hamburger. Would you order your cow rare, medium or well done?

To whom do we owe the distinction between live animal and lunch? Blame the invaders – the French from Normandy, who invaded England in 1066. They conquered and ruled the Anglo- Saxon peasants, who were only good for herding livestock and eating slop. The live animals kept their Anglo-Saxon names because the Anglo-Saxons worked with them. The French, the new nobility in England, were above such things, and at the table, it was strictly cuisine. So, the cooked animal took on Latin-derived French names, such as “buef” for cow and “porc” for pig. We’ve simply retained that distinction.

Well, I hope I got it right. I wouldn’t want to have to eat crow, or is it my bon mots?

Source: www.straightdope.com



The Geek Shall Not Inherit the Earth

The number of engineering degrees granted in the U S. declined from a high of 77,572 in 1985 to 60,914 in 1998. At NASA, engineers over age 60 outnumber those under 30.

I knew it! All those nerdy characters in 1980s teen films, with their gawky plastic shirt pocket penholders, have sapped our national will.

Source: www.wsj.com



Didja Know...
The average person's left hand does 56% of the typing? (Source: pogolo.com)

If reiterate means to repeat, iterate means . . .

Surely, psychologists came up with the idea of the repetition-compulsion when overhearing someone’s mother chant, “If I’ve told you once, I’ve told you a thousand times ....” Just as surely, the word “reiterate” was invented to describe this ritual.

Then iterate must be that primal “telling,” which you’ve heard reiterated. It should be, but it ain’t. Iterate also means to repeat. There’s not even a shade of difference between the two words. The “re” isn’t even good for an extra bit of emphasis, as in “again and again.” I reiterate, I iterate, they mean the same thing. Even stranger is the fact that reiterate came first, as much as a hundred years before the first usage of iterate, which has been traced to 1533. They both derived from the Latin, iterum, or “again.”

Well, I suppose if English were logical, “reveal” would mean, “to have another calf.”

Source: www.merriam-webster.com



Hot rock

Besides being beautiful, diamonds are one of the world’s most indestructible substances. You can cut almost anything with them. But they are not fireproof. You can set one on fire with a blowtorch. All you need is to heat it to about 1500 degrees F.

That much heat turns the carbon in diamonds into graphite. Makes for one heck of an upscale pencil.

Source: The Book of Answers



Didja Know...
Two thirds of the world's eggplant is grown in New Jersey? (Source: pogolo.com)

Why might we describe an unsophisticated young person as a "callow" youth?

Possibly, because we are snooty aesthetes trying to put on literary airs and cannot bring ourselves to simply say that he or she is immature or inexperienced? Maybe, but callow does have a certain sting to it, suggesting a snide superiority on our part. And we are superior, aren’t we?

In fact, not only is the word a bald-faced assertion of superiority vis-à-vis, the youth, it’s bald all over. It derives from calu, the Old English word for bald. But that would make it ambiguous when describing the young. Babies and old men are both likely to be bald. But by the 17th century, callow meant bald as in lacking feathers, a condition characterizing only young birds, not yet equipped to fly.

Callow youths are thus not only clueless, they are flightless, too. They are naturally grounded, a fate many adolescents deserve, anyway.

Source: www.Merriam-Webster.com



Taking a break? Take your passport.

Among the citizens of major industrialized nations, Italians take the most vacation days, an average of 42 a year, while Americans are last with only 13. About a fourth of US workers also toil at their main job for at least part of the weekend.

This is a problem in guilt management, cultural perception and definition. Americans simply need to add about a month of 24-hour coffee breaks to the calendar.

Source: www.coxnews.com



Didja Know...
Sneezing with your eyes open will NOT cause them to pop out? (Source: Encarta.com)

Like, what part of speech is "like" when used like this?

Lexicographer David Grambs dismisses it as “a stalling tactic for the syntactically challenged,” a barbaric “hiccup vocable” that might have sprung from “a California beach cave” or a “brain softener in our reservoirs.”

He is soooo, like, hostile! And I’m like, what’s he got against four-letter words? In the first sentence of this paragraph, like is an adverb, modifying “is.” The second sentence demonstrates another frequent use, as a conjunction. The question with which I opened – “what part of speech ...” -- uses “like” as an interjection. Each suggests some level of ironic detachment between oneself and what one is saying. But why say something if you are going to immediately back off from your own words? Perhaps people are so afraid of being sued these days that they don’t want to be too closely identified with anything. Like, I mean, you know.

Whatever.

Source: www.vocabula.com



Go with the flow

How does water drip? Scientists have been trying for over a century to figure it out. At Purdue University, a computer simulation describes how a drop forms, falls and breaks up. The program must solve 50,000 equations simultaneously.

It would be easier, faster and cheaper for them to watch my neighbor for an afternoon. He’s a total drip.

Source: www.nytimes.com



Didja Know...
Tigers have striped skin, not just striped fur?
(Source: pogolo.com)

Just what is this "Botox" we hear so much about?

The name sounds like it was cooked up by some Madison Avenue hotshots from old laundry product trade names, such as Borax and Chlorox. They clearly needed something to clean up its real moniker, which is botulinum toxin A, source of botulism, or food poisoning.

Why do people want to be injected with this stuff, now all the rage? Well, it wouldn’t be the first time that something harmful, modified or in small doses, was beneficial. Vaccines, for example, are made from viruses. The minor, localized paralysis caused by Botox can temporarily (up to three months or so) get rid of wrinkles, which are caused by muscle contractions. This same property makes Botox useful in treating some forms of cerebral palsy and other conditions caused by involuntary muscle contraction.

Anyway, now you know why kids don’t have wrinkles. They get their Botox in natural form from their school cafeteria.

Source: www.howstuffworks.com



Viagra saves the seals?

Chinese men have for centuries believed that the sexual organs of male seals could cure impotence, creating some of the demand for the animals. The coming of Viagra appears to have decreased that demand.

Next thing you know, there’ll be a pill that really does grow hair on your chest. Then we won’t need seal fur, either. Then an overpopulation of seals will ruin the environment. We can’t win.

Source: www.boston.com/globe/



Didja Know...
The baseball pitching legend Sandy Koufax's given name was Sanford Braun?
(Source: ESPN.com)

Is Winnie-the-Pooh a boy or a girl?

When we were very young, we might have innocently asked this question about the beloved character engendered by author A. A. Milne. With the loss of innocence, the question becomes even more interesting.

Even Christopher Robin took “Winnie” to be a girl’s name, although the context of the story suggests he’s a boy. Early in Winnie-the-Pooh, Milne acknowledges this confusion, declares that Pooh is a male, but gives no reasonable explanation of why he’s “Winnie.”

But there is an explanation outside the book. The real bear that inspired the character was a female. She was a World War I Canadian army mascot named Winnipeg -- “Winnie,” for short. She ended up in a London zoo, where Milne’s son – the real Christopher Robin -- took a shine to her. He even renamed his Teddy Bear, formerly “Edward,” “Winnie,” inspiring his father’s stories. Pooh, pooh that all you want; it’s the truth.

Source: www.ask.yahoo.com



Join the club

There are golf teams at 1,100 US colleges. At nine schools, you can major in something called “golf management.” Lest you think these are Mickey Mouse programs, they have dropout rates as high as 50 percent.

Why do golf majors drop out? Lack of drive. Too much puttering around.

Source: www.wsj.com



Didja Know...
The soccer legend Pele's real name is Edson Arantes Do Nascimento?
(Source: FIFA.com)

Why is scoring three goals in a game a "hat trick?"

Americans and Canadians with swelled heads think this is exclusive to hockey. But one can sometimes hear it from fans of other sports, such as soccer, where the feat depends on the feet.

Claiming exclusive use of the phrase really isn’t cricket, although the expression happens to have originated with that batty sport in the late 19th century. There are two theories explaining its genesis, one gentlemanly and the other, shall we say, “common.” Taking the high road first, some etymologists say that hat trick referred to a bowler who managed to take three wickets with no more than three balls. In appreciation, it was customary for his club to buy him a new hat. The other theory holds that the same achievement gave the player license to pass his hat through the crowd.

But whatever the origin, a hat trick is always a feather in one’s cap.

Source: www.worldwidewords.org



Something to go gag-ga about

“How’s my itsty bitsy cutie pootie?” People talk like that to babies and pets. But according to a report in the journal Science, they only elongate and stress the vowels when talking to children, unconsciously trying to teach them to talk.

What if we did the same for pets? Pardon me, I think my cat left me voicemail.

Source: www.cbsnewyork.com



Didja Know...
The theme from 'Monty Python's Flying Circus' is 'The Liberty Bell March,' by John Philip Sousa?
(Source: The Music of John Philip Sousa)

Why might we "make no bones" about a matter?

Because we have no skeletons in our closet? The expression means to be frank, forthright and tell it like it is. But taken literally, it doesn’t make much sense. It needs to be fleshed out.

One theory places its origins in a soup bowl or a plate of stew. If the dish had no bones about it – no bones in it -- it was more clear-cut and basic. More likely, it derives from the practice of some gamblers who rub the dice together and talk to them before they toss them, trying to coax a winning throw. “Bones” was slang for dice. So, to make no bones about it meant to get right to it, without preliminaries or distraction.

Whoops, you crapped out. Baby will not get that new pair of shoes.

Source: DICTIONARY OF WORD AND PHRASE ORIGINS, by William and Mary Morris



Pluckers

We have chickens bred as roasters, why not birds you don’t have to pluck? Researchers are already breeding naked chickens. It began with a single mutant chicken, and now may turn into an industry.

But why wait for a mutant? Just tell a bird to go pluck itself.

Source: www.nytimes.com



Didja Know...
The Indian epic poem the 'Mahabharata' is eight times longer than 'The Iliad' and 'The Odyssey' -- combined? (Source: AbsoluteTrivia.com)

What's a prairie chicken?

A guy from the midwest who won’t fight you no matter what bad name you call him? No, and in fact it’s not a chicken of any kind. The prairie chicken is really a grouse.

There’s the greater prairie chicken, Tympanuchus cupido, and the lesser prairie chicken, Tympanuchus pallidinctus. (Got that?) One is two inches longer than the other. The greater is also the brighter, with white, yellow, black and brown feathers. The male prairie chicken may be the only bird to boogaloo. When it’s time to mate, he’s got ants in his pants and he’s got to dance. He courts the female by blowing up pouches at the side of his neck, starts raising a racket, turns up the feathers on his neck, flairs his tale, spreads his wings, shimmies, hops and struts. Mercy!

Well, it’s more effective than, “Come here often?”

Source: The World Book Encyclopedia



Sounds of the Store

Companies like Banana Republic have found profits in branded compilation music CD’s. For example, you can take home a “Pottery Barn Christmas.”

I can see the possibilities: “Burger King’s ‘Music from Grease,’” “Martha Stewart’s Mosh Pit Mayhem” and “Break a Leg: Show Business Favorites from the World Wrestling Federation.”

Source: www.business2.com



Didja Know...
The Indian epic poem the 'Mahabharata' is eight times longer than 'The Iliad' and 'The Odyssey' -- combined? (Source: AbsoluteTrivia.com)

What does Air Force One have that other planes don't?

Yeah, the President. He wouldn’t tolerate the abysmal service or eat the peanuts they serve on your flight. Nor would there be any reason for that flight attendant with the painted-on-smile to tell him, “have a nice day.” He knows he won’t.

Although any Air Force plane carrying him is designated Air Force One, there are two Boeing 747’s especially fitted for the President’s use. When he goes bye-bye, he has a bedroom, an office, a private bathroom and a small gym. There’s office space for his staff, a conference/dining room, a medical treatment area and a communications section with about 20 TV monitors, secure phone lines and wiring shielded from the disrupting electrical pulse of a nuclear blast. The plane can be refueled in-flight, allowing him to stay up indefinitely.

Ah, I see the hands going up. No, he doesn’t earn frequent flyer miles.

Source: www.howstuffworks.com



Looney idea?

Should the moon be open to developers? Some Japanese companies are already studying the feasibility of lunar tennis courts and resort hotels. But environmental activists are drawing a line in the sand – or is it dust? – calling for preservation efforts to keep the moon pristine.

I can imagine the first ads for Green Cheese Acres: “It’s out of this world.”

Source: www.wsj.com



Didja Know...
The town through which Lady Godiva rode naked was Coventry, England (Source: CET Trivia pages)

Exactly how might "Type-A" behavior cause a heart attack?

Are you impatient, hostile, or anxious? If so, step back so you don’t keel over on me. Then relax, jog, or meditate and read this.

All animals – us, too, ducky – have a two-part autonomic nervous system, an accelerator and a brake, that regulates heartbeat, blood pressure and breathing. The sympathetic nervous system, the gas pedal, pumps up your adrenaline to deal with physical or psychological stress – the fight or flight syndrome. If you overuse it – “I’ll kill that driver if he cuts me off!” – you’re over-stressing yourself. One day, under a burden it’s not made to sustain, your heart suddenly tocks when it should have ticked. Sayonara

Your parasympathetic nervous system, on the other hand, stimulated by whatever relaxes you – exercise, music, a pet, or a roll in the hay -- slows your body processes. You’re loosy goosy, you keep shopping and eat really good Thai food till you’re 100.

Source: www.nytimes.com



It ain’t Oshkosh, by gosh

People often use the name “Podunk” to mean the sticks. Frequently it’s appended, as a put-down, to some place in Middle America, as in “Podunk, Iowa.”

Surprise! The U. S. Geological Survey lists 23 Podunks. Connecticut and Michigan have the most: 6 each. Vermont has 4 and New York, 2. Iowa has none. So, the next time someone uses Podunk as a putdown, tell them to stick it up their Kalamazoo.

Source: www.geonames.usgs.gov



Didja Know...
A diet of dead pink flamingoes has changed the color of Kenyan baboons' coats from grey to reddish brown? (Source: Colormatters.com)

Why might an informer be called a stool pigeon?

“Stool pigeon” originated in the US in the early 19th century. The most likely origin for the expression is linguistic. The French called the decoy birds hunters used to catch hawks, “estale,” which came into Medieval English as “stale” or “stall.” By the 16th century, stall was English criminal slang for the decoy who worked with a pickpocket.

In America the word became “stool” and was combined with “pigeon,” slang for someone who could be easily snookered. The expression first meant a police decoy who fooled criminals, and later, an informer, a criminal who gained the trust of his companions in crime and then set them up for capture. He put himself in the hot seat by defying the criminal code: People who tell, go to . . . . somewhere bad.

Source: www.worldwidewords.org



You’ve been abbreviated

You could be an office wise guy and insist that CEO means Certified Egoist Organizer, Cutting Everything Out, Chiropractic Elite Organization, Chief Evangelist Office, Can't Even Operate, or Catch Every Obstacle. These are real abbreviations, not made up.

But you might also be indulging in a Career Ending Opportunity.

Source: www.stands4.com



Didja Know...
Rock Elm generates the greatest heat among common firewoods? (Source: Yahoo.com/Woodheat.org)

Why might we call someone who habitually jokes a wag?

Because they tell funny tails, uh, tales? No, because they remind one of a gallows bird.

What? Well, that’s just an expression. If you ever saw the movie Tom Jones or read the Henry Fielding novel, you know that Tom was a mischievous, prank-playing, smart-assed, irreverent guy -- a fellow just “born to be hanged,” a gallows bird, in other words. The Middle English word for a gallows bird was “waghalter,” from which we get wag.

On the other hand, it may have come more directly from “wag” itself, which as early as the 13th century meant simply swaying, something also associated with a hanging.

So, we started out to trace the etymology of a word meaning someone who is funny, and end up needing an anti-depressant. Maybe we should reserve “wag” for people who are only into gallows humor.

Source: www.Merriam-Webster.com



Somebody hit the delete key, please

What if you died at you computer, mouse in hand, email unread? Do you still have those images downloaded from www.hotcha.com? Want your heirs to discover them? Now you can put a program called “Deadman’s Switch” on your machine. If you don’t reset it after a specified time, it carries out your last instructions, such as deleting those images, on the assumption that YOU have been permanently deleted.

Source: www.nytimes.com



Didja Know...
Before 1847, San Francisco was known as Yerba Buena? (Source: NY Daily News)

How many glasses of water a day should I be drinking?

Assuming you’re a person and not a fish, you know you need to make the effort to drink water. But how much is enough? Six glasses a day? Eight? More if you work out? How much of your life do you want to spend peeing?

The publicly spirited bottled water companies seize upon every study that has pointed to the need for eight glasses, eight ounces each a day. Selflessly, they remind us to fill’er up. But many nutritionists are challenging these figures as all wet. They say they are based on studies of atypical groups – hospital patients, soldiers active at high altitudes and the like.

So how much is enough? Assuming you eat a reasonably healthy diet and don’t have any special medical need for fluids, you may need no more than the amount that quenches your thirst. And tell the bottled water companies to dry up.

Source: www.wsj.com



Delicate dunning

Some creditors no longer put the screws on delinquent debtors. Discover Card, for example, now sends them a greeting card that reads, “We understand life's unexpected detours and are dedicated to serving you in any way we can.” A spokesperson for the company says, “understanding” “encouragement” and “hope” are the message.

Hey, talk to me about “forgiveness!”

Source: www.wsj.com



Didja Know...
Vatican City only became a sovereign state in 1929? (Source: liturgicas)