MAY

Is there any connection between "dopes" (stupid people) and "dope" (drugs)?

I guess this comes under the heading of dumbing down the language. Yes, there is a connection, but it does not originate in English. So let us head for the land of windmills and tulips – and the wide-open city of Amsterdam, where they used to say you could buy anything – to get the dope on it.

The Dutch word "doop" meant a thick sauce. In underworld slang, it was also applied to the substance of similar consistency that resulted from heating opium. By extension, doop also came to mean narcotics in general and specifically the kind used to drug thoroughbreds to fix a race. Extended even further, doop was used to describe the dope that would bet on such a race.

Are you following this? It leaves me feeling a little doopy. Let's cut it short: then it got Anglicized.

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



Didja Know...
The sculptor who created Mount Rushmore's famous presidential monument was Gutzon Borglum? (Source: Travel South Dakota)

When did they start making people who were getting married take blood tests?

Getting married can be a draining experience. There's the ring, the caterer, the guest list... and other tasks in that vein. You may even have to bleed for your nuptials. Why?

First, you should know that if you would rather not bleed for the sake of the government – paying taxes is bleeding enough – you can move to another state. The tests are no longer required everywhere. They originated in the 1930s as an effort to discover cases of venereal disease, then widespread but curable, before infected marital partners could pass it on to their spouse and perhaps a child. Connecticut drew first blood, in 1935, and eventually many, although not all, states required the tests.

Now that the VD crisis has receded, how about a screening to see if either prospective spouse squeezes the toothpaste from the top, followed by preventive counseling for those who test positive?

Source: TRIUMPH OF THE STRAIGHT DOPE by Cecil Adams



Didja Know...
The country/western singer Garth Brooks attended Oklahoma State University on a track scholarship? His event was the javelin throw. (Source: Trivia2001)

What's so "liberal" about the liberal arts?

No, this doesn't represent the Democratic Party's program to promote culture in America. "Liberal" in this context means free as opposed to the servile, or practical arts. The latter are "servile" because they deal with necessity, work and the everyday, rather than the finer things.

The concept of the seven liberal arts – maybe they rolled the dice to see how many there would be – goes back to ancient times. By the Middle Ages, they had become codified: arithmetic, astronomy, geometry, grammar, logic, music and rhetoric.(Who said "Driver's Ed.?") Although the early Church Fathers held them suspect because they could lead people to secular pursuits, they eventually became part of the curriculum in church schools. Their function was to develop a whole person, more "human" than just someone who works like a beast of burden.

The liberal arts – they make weekends!

Source: DO PENGUINS HAVE KNEES? By David Feldman



Didja Know...
The birth name of Freddy Mercury, the late lead singer of Queen, was Farookh Bulsara? Source: an xs4all.nl members page)

How does one become a saint?

If you have to ask, it's probably already too late for you. Nevertheless, the process of canonization is a basic part of one of the world's great religions -- we'll stick to Roman Catholicism here -- and everyone ought to know something about it.

Sainthood was a local affair, strictly regulated by bishops, until a thousand years ago, when the Pope began to formalize the process and concentrate the power to create new saints in Rome. Eventually the Church settled on a two-step process. Beatification is the preliminary phase, involving limited veneration. To reach that point a candidate is proposed and then investigated, with a "postulator" assigned to making the case for sainthood and a "devil's advocate" looking for any negative factors. Once beatified, there must be proof of two miracles associated with the candidate. The Pope makes the final decision.

Still want to try for it? Be good, be very good.

Source: ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITANNICA



Thorny issue

Although roses have been cultivated for five millennia, as late as a century ago there were only four or five basic varieties of this legendary flower. But over the past 100 years, we have expanded that repertoire to 8,000 shades and shapes.

I'm still waiting for chocolate-chip and Andy Warhol Basic White.

Source: READER'S DIGEST BOOK OF FACTS



Didja Know...
The oldest continuously inhabited city in the world is Damascus, Syria? (Source: Newsweek)

What's the difference between a weasel and an ermine?

You mean in current dollars and cents, or in status? Imagine showing up for that big deal society wedding in weasel! Or picture a playboy giving his playgirl a weasel stole for her birthday. Boy would the fur fly.

Of course, nobody ever thinks of posing this question to a weasel and an ermine. And that's a good thing, too, because an ermine is nothing more than a weasel in winter. Not all weasels, but those populating northern habitats are a mousy brown in summer. But in winter, ah, they turn a very lush white, except for the black tip of their tail. Their pelts are relatively rare and beginning with the Middle Ages in England, ermine was a sign of royalty.

The short-tailed weasel, from which royal robes were made, was eventually named the Bonaparte weasel, perhaps because they were worn while the wearer dined on Beef Wellington.

Source: ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITANNICA



Didja Know...
The oldest continuously inhabited city in the world is Damascus, Syria? (Source: Newsweek)

Why do we call a man whose wife has committed adultery a "cuckold?"

When I was a kid, this whole thing fascinated me. The word adultery was intriguing because clearly, whatever it really was, you had to be an adult to do it -- like smoking, for example. And the word "cuckold" was but one letter away from being an out-and-out obscenity and thus inherently interesting.

Well it turns out that aside from being interesting, it's also more than a bit cuckoo. In fact, that's where cuckold comes from: the cuckoo bird. The cuckoo lays its eggs where they don't belong, in other birds' nests. What about the little birdies already there? They don't become bothers and sisters with the newcomers. The filial phonies who have feathered the nest displace the original occupants. So a cuckold, the victim of adultery, has really been cuckooed. The word evolved from the Old French, cucualt.

Source: A BROWSER'S DICTIONARY by John Ciardi



Didja Know...
In Fairbanks, AK, it is considered an offense to feed alcoholic beverages to a moose. (Source: DumbLaws.com)

Who invented the toothbrush?

Surely a better person than he or she who invented the dentist. Those folks really give me a pain.

Now don't bristle, but that "who" will have to be collective. The toothbrush is an anonymous, evolving cultural artifact, not an invention. We begin with a twig, frayed at one end, which was a kind of ancient brush used at least as far back as the Egypt of the Pharaohs. They are still used in some rural areas of the United States.

The modern toothbrush originated in China about the time that Columbus discovered America. They used bristles taken from the back of a hog's neck and attached them to bamboo or bone to brush their teeth. (I guess you could say it was a kind of piggyback contraption.) Europeans adopted the device, but used horsehair for bristles. Nylon toothbrushes, considerably more sanitary, finally appeared, in the U.S. in 1938.

Source: EXTRAORDINARY ORIGINS OF EVERYDAY THINGS by Charles Panati

Did Julius Caesar ever eat Caesar's Salad?

Not even at a toga party. We might as well ask if he ever ate Waldorf salad, Baked Alaska or Southern Fried Chicken. In the days of the Romaine, uh, Roman Empire, this dish was unknown.

And contrary to what many people think, Caesar's Salad was not invented in Prince Mike Romanoff's Hollywood restaurant, either. But Romanoff, who by the way was also not a prince, is credited with popularizing it and adding the anchovies.

Caesar's Salad was first tossed in Tijuana, where tourists wearing Roman sandals have passed through in legions, but never in Roman chariots, other than Alfa Romeos. Its creator was Caesar Gardini, the other Caesar, who put it together at his restaurant, Caesar's Place, from romaine lettuce, egg and dressing.

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



Spare the rod...

What would you do with Cuisenaire rods? Do you think they're useful for making shish kebab from food processed in a whatzit? Actually they're colored rods of different sizes used to teach kids mathematics.

Now that's what I call old-fashioned teaching: stick it to them.

Source: THE HANDY SCIENCE ANSWER BOOK

When did terrorism first become a political weapon?

The word terrorism dates from the French Revolution, when Robespierre used the guillotine in a calculated attempt -- called "The Terror" -- to demoralize his enemies, rendering them helpless. Anarchists in Russia in the 1880s tried to change the political world by assassinating political leaders. They, too, were called terrorists.

But over the past 75 years terrorism has become more than political violence used outside of a formal military context. It is also killing or kidnapping innocent civilians to intimidate, secure demands or make a point. Modern terrorists play to the media and leverage technology to make it possible for a few to hold sway over the many. Examples are as widely varied as the Ku Klux Klan, the Irish Republican Army, the police and rogue military units in some countries, the contending forces in the Middle East and the 19 men who took 6,000 lives on September 11.

Source: ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITANNICA



Slow down and lose weight

Don't you wish you were a star? No, not like Brad Pitt or Gwyneth Paltrow. I mean the ones that twinkle in the night sky. The fat ones, with the biggest bulge around the middle, are the ones that rotate the fastest. The skinnier stars spin more slowly.

Real stars never have to diet. They just become cosmic couch potatoes.

Source: THE NEW YORK TIMES


Didja Know...
The ocean liner Queen Elizabeth II moves only six inches for each gallon of diesel that it consumes? (Source: useless trivia)

Who invented the refrigerator, and when did it first become available to consumers?

You didn't think it was the rap singer, Ice Cube, did you? It wasn't Phoebe Snow, either. In fact, this marvelous invention, which believe it or not predates the six-pack of brewskies, began its life in Scotland.

Scottish scientist William Cullen, in 1748, discovered that the liquid ethyl ether, allowed to evaporate in a partial vacuum, cooled its surroundings. Americans in the early 19th century substituted the rapid expansion of a gas for the evaporation of a liquid as the coolant. With the widespread availability of electricity at the beginning of the 20th century, the time was ripe for the debut of the household appliance that we know. It arrived in 1913.

Now grab me a cool one, will you, Bud?

Source: PANATI'S BROWSER'S BOOK OF BEGINNINGS by Charles Panati


Changing colors everywhere

The chameleon is a marvelous creature. It changes its skin color, has eyes that are out of synch with each other and can stick its tongue out long distances to grab everything in sight. Come to think of it, a creature that doesn't look you straight in the eye, that changes before your eyes and can grab for anything – that's not a lizard, that's a politician!

Source: THE JOY OF TRIVIA



Didja Know...
Every day more money is printed by Parker Bros, Inc for their boardgame, 'Monopoly,' than by the US Treasury? (Source: useless trivia)

Why do we say we're "out of touch" with someone, even if they're nowhere near enough to touch?

Is English your native tongue? Be grateful. It's logically contradictory phrases such as this that make English as a second language a first-rate pain in the derriere.

The phrase "out of touch" originates with the military, a not exactly touchy-feely institution. Armies in the eighteenth century marched in increasingly tighter formations. I'm not saying it was a great idea -- the famed British Redcoats did it fighting the colonists in the American Revolution and look what it got them. But they did it. In order to stay in formation, soldiers made sure that they could touch the man nearest to them by swinging their elbows. If you couldn't make contact, you were "out of touch."

Now call your aunt Mabel, who hasn't heard from you in ages, before she brings up the heavy artillery.

Source: WHY YOU SAY IT by Webb Garrison



Didja Know...
That 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? (source: Triviaonline)

Why is the pipe under your kitchen sink S-shaped?

Didn't know I had been looking under your kitchen sink, did you? I've also been going through your dresser draws and... well, I won't embarrass you.

While we commonly refer to that curve in the pipe as "S,' the proper name for it is a "P" trap. You insist it looks like an "S," not a "P?" Complain to City Hall. Anyway, this bend in the pipe, or P trap, is there to create a water seal. It insures that only water, not air fills the pipe below that point.

The reason for the water seal is so that you don't get a whiff of what's further down the pipe -- get my drift? Somewhere at the end of all such pipes is a sewer, the odors from which would not boost your appetite one iota.

Source: WHY DO DOGS HAVE WET NOSES? By David Feldman



Didja Know...
Coca Cola was originally colored green? (source: The Junk Food Companion)

Why do we say that giving someone blanket permission to do something is giving him or her "carte blanche?"

I'm not great at making decisions, so when someone gives me blanket permission to do something my first inclination is to take them literally, pull the covers over my head and go back to sleep. Nor do I speak French. Carte blanche? What kind of wine do I drink with it?

But that's what reference books are for. Did you think the expression meant blank card, as in a blank check (now that's talkin' my language)? Not quite. It means white card. In France, giving someone a white card with your signature was an invitation for him or her to fill in what they wanted to do. It had your automatic authorization.

Giving someone carte blanche assumes that you have a high trust level. You say you do? Then can I have your autograph on this, uh, empty bank form?

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



Didja Know...
The video for Michael Jackson's "Bad" was directed by Martin Scorsese? (Source: MTV)

Why did children's book author Theodor Geisel change his name to Dr. Seuss?

Well he couldn't call himself Dr. Spock, for obvious reasons. Nobody would believe he was Dr. Louis Pasteur. Nurse Seuss didn't quite do it. And Dr. Zeus sounded a bit presumptuous.

Believe it or not, the widely beloved children's book author needed a quick name change because of some illicit booze he was caught with doing Prohibition. He was at Dartmouth and editor of the school's humor magazine when a room check turned up a bottle of gin in his quarters. The Grinch in charge of the place decreed that he be booted from the magazine as punishment for imbibing.

Outwitting the authorities, the young man took his middle name, Seuss, as his last name and stayed on the publication. In later life he promoted himself to "Dr.," a title that Dartmouth confirmed on him officially with an honorary doctorate in 1957. I hope they returned his gin.

Source: JUST CURIOUS JEEVES by Jack Mingo and Erin Barrett



Didja Know...
Mohandas Gandhi's middle name was Karamchand? (Source: Encarta.com)

What's that lion doing roaring at the beginning of MGM films?

Well, it's certainly more impressive than a hyena laughing or a house cat coughing up a hairball. Hey, maybe the lion is hungry or just looking for a little kitty-catting from his lady lion.

Ok, I'll tell you the truth. MGM inherited the big pussycat when it acquired Goldwyn Pictures (which became the "G" in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer). Howard Dietz, an advertising executive, who had attended Columbia University, had created the trademarked feline, named Leo, for producer Samuel Goldwyn. Columbia's mascot was a lion and their football fight song was "Roar, Lion, Roar." Leo was thus an Ivy League lion, a gentleman and a scholar, and always roared properly.

As far as I know, Leo never joined the Screen Actors Guild, owned a house in Malibu or broke up with Julia Roberts.

Source: THE BOOK OF ANSWERS by Barbara Berliner



Didja Know...
that "I am" is the shortest complete sentence in the English language? (source: Useless Knowledge)

What's so "fulsome" about fulsome praise?

You can fulsome of the people some of the time... whoops, wrong question. Ok, I'm back. This is a sneaky word. It sounds like a word we might easily use to praise. And it also sounds like it goes well with praise. And one might guess that it means that the praise is, is, is -- full of it?

In a word, "yes." It IS full of it; that is the correct answer. Not only is fulsome sneaky, it's also deceitful. People get tricked by its sound into misusing it in a positive sense, but it doesn't have any. Fulsome comes from the Middle English word fulsum, which meant full of fat. Think of it as padded praise. Fulsome praise is stuffed, overdone, insincere, out of proportion to what it's praising. If someone heaps it on you, heap it back.

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



Didja Know...
That it costs a total of $6,400 to raise a medium-size dog to the age of eleven? (source: Useless Knowledge)

Why do we say that a well-intentioned person has his or her heart in the right place?

Having your heart in the right place has its roots in genuine anatomical ignorance. In Europe's "Dark Ages," among the uneducated, which meant most people, the classical world's knowledge of anatomy was largely lost. Oh, they knew where one's heart should be. But they also thought the organ could wander around, a notion promoted by the behavior of various body parts when influenced by strong emotion. For example, if you were under stress and you swallowed hard, "your heart was in your mouth."

Therefore a heart in the right place meant there was no unusual body activity betraying wayward thoughts or nervousness. You were together, and your intentions could be trusted.

Boy, were they ignorant. I would never be so silly. My head is screwed on right.

Source: WHY YOU SAY IT by Webb Garrison



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

Why is the White House white?

You would have to have slept longer than Rip Van Winkle to think that it's because the White House is associated with purity. And if we were looking just at the past decade, perhaps scarlet red would have been a more appropriate shade.

In fact, contrary to what many people think the place where the President hangs his hat wasn't always white and was not originally called the White House. The original building, put up at the end of the 18th century, was called the Presidential Palace and was made of brownstone. And it might still be somber looking had not the British set fire to it during the War of 1812.

Restoring the place involved, among other things, covering the burn marks. White paint was just fine for this purpose, leading people to refer to it thereafter as the White House, a designation that became official under Teddy Roosevelt.

Source: JUST CURIOUS JEEVES by Jack Mingo and Erin Barrett



Didja Know...
Forty percent of all people at a party snoop in their host's medicine cabinet? (source: Useless Knowledge)

Why is there more static electricity in winter than in summer?

This has nothing to do with the economic law of supply and demand. Who needs this stuff, cold weather or hot? All it produces is more bad hair days and dogs and cats who suddenly find your proclivity to pet them, well, shocking.

To get static electricity, you need two objects with a substantial difference in electrical charge between them. That difference in charge occurs when it's difficult for the charge from one to be conducted to the other. That happens when the air between them is characterized by low conductivity. Dry air, found in a heated room on a cold day, has that low conductivity.

Until the difference in charge builds up enough, the two objects might as well be, shall we say, poles apart. But when the difference is sufficiently large to overcome the low conductivity, the result can make your hair stand on end.

Source: WHY DO DOGS HAVE WET NOSES? By David Feldman



Didja Know...
There are more collect calls placed on Father's Day than on any other day of the year? (source: Useless Knowledge)

Why do we call a problem with a torn cuticle a "hangnail?"

Well, "torn cuticle" sounds disgusting, so we're already ahead if we call it just about anything else. How about a notsocuticle?

Seriously, a hangnail has nothing to do with capital punishment for nails. The cuticle is the hardened skin at the base of a nail and it's that, not the nail itself, that's torn.

In Anglo-Saxon England, a corn on the toe was called an "agnail." They derived that word from "ang," meaning "ouch, it hurts," and naegl, the head of a nail, because a corn looked like the head of that which you drive into wood. The toe and finger problems seemed similar, and the two kinds of "nails" at least sounded identical. Shift the anatomy, make a pun and add an "h" and you have the hangnail. Ouch, it hurts.

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



Didja Know...
More children are conceived in December than in any other month? (Source: Readers Digest)

Why do we refer to something lascivious as lewd?

It's only a coincidence that this word rhymes with nude. It's also just a coincidence that it rhymes with crude. And it's still a coincidence that it rhymes with scr…., oops, can't print that. One more coincidence and I'm going to assume that someone is toying with us.

First used in the 13th century, lewd derived from the Old English word laewede, which is how I probably spelled lewd on my last spelling test in grade school. It meant laic, as in layperson, one who was not of the clergy. At the time, members of the clergy were just about the only people who could read. Everyone else was illiterate. In other words, lasciviousness was linked to ignorance or lack of an education.

What a relief! I'd hate to think that college men and women might have dirty thoughts, use dirty words or (gasp!) do dirty things.

Source: A BROWSER'S DICTIONARY by John Ciardi



Didja Know...
Although there are 30,000 species of edible plants, 90 percent of the world's food comes from just 20 of them? (Source: New York Daily News)

Why do we call something that achieves its end by trickery a gimmick?

Step right up and see the hootchie cootchie girl, take a walk down the midway, eat some cotton candy and take a spin at a game of chance. We're going to an old-fashioned carnival.

Virtually everything at the carnival was hyped beyond reason. And in games of chance, you usually didn't have a chance. Typical was the spinning wheel at which you could win a cheap prize – a "gimcrack" in carney talk – if it stopped at the right spot. That spot, in reality, was wherever the wheel's operator wanted it to stop. He used a hidden device called a gimmick to control the wheel's spin. Eventually gimmick entered the language to describe any bit of trickery to achieve a goal.

What? You say you didn't see the hootchie cootchie girl? Just a gimmick to get you to read on.

Source: WHY YOU SAY IT by Webb Garrison



Didja Know...
An ostrich's eye is bigger than it's brain? (Source: Bizzarro)

Why does the devil have horns?

You think, maybe, he should just wear earmuffs instead? Actually, a more interesting problem might be what kind of a hat can you wear if you have horns? The devil has to accessorize, too, after all. But we're stuck with the current query.

To get to the point, Christian iconography of the Middle Ages, which is our source for pictorial characterizations of Satan, was influenced by Roman and Greek mythology. When artists had to depict the devil, they took as their model the satyrs (Mick Jagger wasn't available), attendants of Bacchus, the Greek god of wine.

The satyrs were soused and besotted, horned and hooved hellions of sloth, who could find nothing better to do than chase nymphs all day. They were just no damned good and thus perfect models for the ultimate horny fellow.

Source: EVER WONDER WHY? By Douglas B. Smith



Didja Know...
Some lions mate over 50 times a day. (Source: Bizzarro)

Why does hair turn gray?

Because people continue to insist on having and raising children? Because the hair coloring companies are putting something in our drinking water? It's a publicity stunt somehow involving Madonna and Michael Jackson?

All of these are plausible, but there's an easier explanation. You get older. Your body produces less melanin, the substance that gives hair its color. Without that color, your hair becomes transparent. Each hair is hollow, a shaft enclosing a column of air. Without the protective coloring, light can penetrate your hair and be refracted by that air column, producing the white/gray color we associate with aging.

Should you color it? What will you do when you lose that hue?

Source: JUST CURIOUS JEEVES by Jack Mingo and Erin Barrett



Didja Know...
The last dictionary that Noah Webster wrote contained 70,000 words and their meanings? He wrote it with no help and by hand. (Source: Useless Trivia)

Why are animals the featured characters in so many children's stories?

There's just something about four-legged furries that grabs kids, right? Or is it paid propaganda from zoological societies to create adult animal lovers? Are children's book authors so flaky that they actually think that animals can talk? Perhaps these books are really written by animals looking for a fair shake.

None of the above. It's all about emotional distance. Kid's stories often deal with scary themes, such as separation, violence and the consequences of misbehaving. Animals can be portrayed as just human enough, and childlike, where appropriate, to make them surrogates for people. But in the end kids know that they are not people. So, the stories may make them a little uncomfortable, but will usually not terrify them.

All except the guy in the next cubicle from me. He never got over Bambi. He hangs deer pinups on his corkboard and quotes Thumper at sales meetings. Obnoxious!

Source: WHY THINGS ARE & WHY THEY AREN'T by Joel Achenbach



Didja Know...
The ant can lift 50 times its own weight, can pull 30 times its own weight and always falls over on its right side when intoxicated. (Source: Bizzarro)

Why is it a 10-foot pole with which we will not touch something?

First, let's clear up a common misunderstanding. This ubiquitous measure of avoidance has nothing whatsoever to do with especially tall citizens of a prominent Eastern European country.

Now, what's this 10-foot fetish all about? Why not seven feet? That would keep you far enough away and bring good luck, to boot. Simple: In early 19th century America, farm produce was often taken to market on flat bottom boats. Most rivers weren't that deep, and a 10-foot pole was ideal for pushing away from shore and propelling the craft by pushing the pole against the river bottom. The 10-foot pole was so common that it became an informal, figurative standard of measurement, like going the whole 9 yards and not giving an inch. (Knew a guy once who went only 7 yards, gave 2 inches and wouldn't touch anything with a 5-foot pole. Ended up 6 feet under.)

Source: WHO PUT THE BUTTER IN BUTTERFLY? By David Feldman


Didja Know...
Butterflies taste with their feet. (Source: Bizzarro)

Why do we say that de-emphasizing something is soft pedaling it?

When I was a young child, I heard this as "soft-petaling," and assumed it had something to do with flowers. In adolescence, I finally got the words right but still had the source wrong. It never had anything to do with bicycles. Finally, I reached adulthood and realized it must refer to the gas pedal on my car.

All wrong. When you soft-pedal something, you're making an analogy to playing a piano. When that instrument first came into wide use what distinguished it from other keyboard instruments, the harpsichord, for example, was its wider dynamics. The pedals enabled the musician to soften a note. Similarly, you soft-pedal something when you soften its intent or affect.

Of course, if you soft pedal too often you lose credibility, strike the wrong chord, and may have to change your tune.

Source: WHY YOU SAY IT by Webb Garrison



Didja Know...
The strongest muscle in the body is the tongue. (Source: Bizzarro)

Why do we say that we're "parking" a car?

George Carlin, existential philosopher, raconteur, and dean of dirty words, has remarked on how curious it is that we drive on a parkway and park in a driveway. If there were any logic to English, you might think that the only time you truly park a car is if you wrap it around a tree.

Ok, let's take an etymological trip. We start in Normandy in the early Middle Ages, where they've adapted a Germanic word close to "park" to describe an enclosure holding game animals. The Normans invade England and establish deer parks. Eventually, English soldiers, after a day's march, circle their wagons and put their horses in the middle, calling that a park. Over time, any military vehicle moved to a set position is said to be parked. Then the act of doing this for any vehicle comes to be known as parking.

Are we there yet? We're there.

Source: WHY YOU SAY IT by Webb Garrison



Didja Know...
The actress Morgan Fairchild's birth name Patsy McClenny? (Source: Quizland)