OCTOBER

When did people start saying, "Have a nice day?"

Perhaps when the smog level in Los Angeles actually began to cause brain damage. Maybe when aliens from another planet planted computer chips in the skulls of people they abducted -- I think I saw that on "The X-Files" or in the National Inquirer.

Believe it or not, at least one etymological snoop traces it back to Chaucer, who has one of his characters say, "Fare well, have good day." A mid-1950s ad firm in Los Angeles, Carson/Roberts, had receptionists chirp to clients, "Have a happy day." And TV weatherperson Carol Reed used to sign off with, "Have a happy."

The first traceable use of the actual phrase "Have a nice day" was by Kirk Douglas in the 1948 movie, A Letter to Three Wives. But it didn't become widely popular until the 1970s when, no doubt, it was a coded way of wishing someone a day without disco.

Source: THE PHRASE THAT LAUNCHED 1000 SHIPS by Nigel Rees



Aging boomers getting it in bed

Baby boomers, who have spent copiously on all kinds of consumer electronics in recent years, are enhancing their lifestyles as they age with bed accessories. The latest craze is the expensive pillow. One executive spent $60 on a pillow advertised to relieve neck tension, but it kept ending up on the floor.

It worked. She laughed so hard at the ineptness of this overpriced product that every muscle in her body relaxed.

Source: www.wsj.com

Who started Yahoo?

A product name can suggest function or appearance – a computer "mouse," for example. Or it can draw attention by being ridiculous, as in something that sounds like an exuberant cowboy about to tear up the pea patch on a Saturday night.

David Filo and Jerry Yang were studying for a Ph D. in electrical engineering at Stanford University way back in April 1994 when they devised the web index that was to become Yahoo. It started as a familiar list of favorite sites. Finally, it got too big for them to scroll through and they had to organize it into a hierarchy. They put it on the web for other people to use and added tools that allowed searches. It grew, it became Yahoo and they became rich.

Why "Yahoo?" Its founders deny that it stands for "Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle." Just be grateful that it isn't "Heehaw!"

Source: www.sun.com



I think I gotta hand it to them

According to a study published in the journal Psychological Science, you can think better if you gesture with your hands. One of the authors concluded: "These findings suggest that gesture reduces the cognitive load of explanation, freeing capacity that can be used on a memory task at the same time."

I use this technique to solve difficult problems. While I think, my gesture is to dial the phone number of someone who can solve it for me.

Source: www.nytimes.com



Didja Know...
The ancient Mayan calendar lists the end of time precisely at December 12, 2012?
(Source: dribbleglass.com)

Why is teasing, "tantalizing?"

I have a German-American friend whose only aunt, Gretchen, was one of those people who tease mercilessly. "Tante" is German for aunt, and when my friend was a kid, he assumed that "tantalizing" was coined from it.

That was his personal mythology. For the rest of us, a more universal myth is the source of tantalizing. The gods regarded King Tantalus as a royal pain in the butt. (I don't know why, but who am I to question ancient deities?) To put him in his place, they came up with a fiendish punishment. They put him in water up to his chin. Above him was a fruit tree. When he was thirsty and inclined his head to drink, down went the water level. If he got hungry and reached for some fruit, up went the branches.

Thus teasing equals tantalizing, not to mention sadism.

Source: www.Merriam-Webster.com



Noise 'r Us

The journal Sleeping and Breathing recently reported on a study of snoring done at Case Western Reserve dental school. The study found that people with round heads are more likely to snore than those whose heads are long and thin.

Once again, couples counselors have to deal with that age-old question, "Does size matter?"

Source: www.nytimes.com



Didja Know...
"Steatopygia" means an accumulation of fat in the buttocks?
(Source: etymology.com)

Why do we graduate from college with a "bachelor's" degree?

Judging from what we read in the paper these days, many people are graduating from college with, first, a pretty big bar tab. It's amazing that they can walk steadily enough across the stage at graduation to be handed anything but a summons.

As for the bachelor's degree, when I was a kid I thought it was related to coming of age. Would you call an unmarried 11-year-old a "bachelor?" But there's a more formal explanation. It was only in the 14th century that the word was applied to college graduates and unmarried persons. It originated a century earlier as a description of a young knight or aspiring knight – thus a soldier low in the military hierarchy. So, a college graduate as "bachelor" would be earning his or her spurs academically, but only at the lowest rank in academia.

Source: DICTIONARY OF WORD ORIGINS by Jordan Almond



Long in the tooth – if she had teeth

Raggedy Ann has made it to the National Toy Hall of Fame, where she joined other cultural icons such as the Hula Hoop, Mr. Potato Head, Slinky and Silly Putty. Created in 1915, the doll beat out G. I. Joe among this year's eligible toys.

When interviewed, the 87-year-old said her only wish now was to live long enough to see doll hospitals accept Medicare.

Source: www.cnn.com



Didja Know...
Americans filed more civil lawsuits per capita in 1830 and in 1850 than they do today?
(Source: Ralph Nader/Slate.com/University of Wisconsin Law School)

Was any U. S. president ever arrested while in office?

Tending to be lawyers, many presidents have approached the bar and a few may have spent too much time in one, but none has ever been behind bars. However, one was briefly detained.

Ulysses S. Grant had a drinking problem, but that wasn't it. It was speeding that did him in. It happened on M Street in Washington about 1870. Driving a carriage that couldn't have been powered by more than a couple of horsepower, the president was pulled over for exceeding the speed limit, a serious offence in those days. But quickly the cop recognized the perpetrator. Embarrassed, the young officer was more than willing to forget the whole thing. But President Grant insisted that the officer "do his duty." So, the policeman impounded the horse and carriage and Grant walked home.

Say what? You want to talk about which presidents SHOULD have been arrested? Another day.

Source: www.americanpresident.org



A vintage education

The Bordeaux Ecole de Management now offers a master's degree in wine. According to an executive at the Robert Mondavi Winery, the program was "designed to build the next generation of wine leaders with a global view."

I once attempted a serious study of wines. I dunno about global views, but I vaguely recall what it looked like from under the table just before I passed out.

Source: THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

Who was the Robert in Robert's Rules of Order?

Probably a control freak, anal-compulsive to the max. According to him, you can't make a move without a motion, clear your throat without a point of order, or wipe up the floor with some dunderhead unless you have the floor in the first place.

Henry Martyn Robert got started early doing things by the book. An 1857 graduate of West Point, he became an Army Engineer, eventually returning to the Academy to head its engineering department. By all accounts, he had a colorless career – surprise! – and became interested in parliamentary procedure while spending time in New Bedford, Massachusetts during the Civil War. Maybe it had something to do with whales.

He published his book about how to engineer meetings in 1876. Later he rose to the rank of Brigadier General. And that's it. Well, at least you learned something. I bet you thought his first name was Robert.

Source: www.robertsrules.com



Say, you remind me of someone I used to know . . .

Dr. Douglas Vakoch has a job that's out of this world. He works at SETI, the California institute that has been given the mission of communicating with beings on other planets. Vakoch's title is "Interstellar Message Group Leader," and he has to come up with our message to THEM should we find them.

Well, after Roswell and the X-Files, our opening line can only be: "Come here often?"

Source: THE NEW YORK TIMES



Didja Know...
The word "fornication" derives from the Latin word fornix, meaning "arch?" Roman street prostitutes found lots of customers underneath the arches of the Colosseum.
(Source: DribbleGlass.com)

Why do we call a smart aleck a wiseacre?

You know that piece of property that everyone thought was a real dog but your neighbor bought anyway 10 years ago? The one where they just put up those luxury condos? Your neighbor should be called a wiseacre.

In truth, wiseacre began as a description of "a smart man." It originated in the 16th century as an import from the Middle Dutch word wijsseggher, meaning soothsayer, or truth teller. That, in turn, came from the Old High German word, wissago, also meaning a smart guy.

Folk usage gradually gave the word a more disparaging sense, as in the attitude that many Americans take toward Ivy Leaguers – too smart by a half. As for the "acre" part, the trail goes cold. Come to think of it, did you ever meet a real estate agent who wasn't a, well . . ..

Source: www.wordsmith.org



A bumper crop

One million people get bumped from U. S. flights annually, 95 percent of them voluntarily. Many travelers garner free flights and other compensation by setting themselves up as bumpees. They seek out crowded flights, arrive early and butter up gate agents.

I did this last year and did so well that I was able to quit my job. I never realized I might enjoy getting bumped off.

Source: THE WALL STREET JOURNAL



Didja Know...
According to the New England Journal of Medicine, the most popular time for sex is 11 p.m.?
(Source: ILoveBacon.com)

How fast can fish swim?

Faster than you can, ducky. But you should know that the figures we have were obtained with considerable difficulty, since most fish do not come with speedometers as standard equipment and few have volunteered for carefully regulated time trials.

There are sport fisherpersons who swear that the blue fin tuna is fastest. But that fish hasn't topped 45 miles an hour. In fact, the yellow fin has edged it slightly. No, mates, the fastest fishy is the cosmopolitan sailfish – I guess it reads the New Yorker – which has been clocked at upwards of 60 miles per hour. We know that because a cop pulled him over for swimming 60 in a 30-mile per hour zone. The officer said he was stewed to the gills.

By comparison, people don't swim much faster than 5 miles per hour, which is why your friends the fish ask you to kindly keep to the right.

Source: THE HANDY SCIENCE ANSWER BOOK by The Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh



Windows of opportunity?

A recent academic study, "Executive Control of Cognitive Processes in Task Switching," suggests that it takes longer to do a bunch of tasks by going back and forth between them than to do each in succession. In brief, multitasking may not be an efficient way to work.

I bet this is a sneaky ploy by some psychology department to get a Microsoft grant for research to prove that multitasking, like yogurt and prunes, is good for you.

Source: www.cio.com



Didja Know...
Athletic supporters were introduced in 1874 to help bicycle riders as they pedaled over cobblestone roads. The term "jock strap" comes from these early "bicycle jockeys?"
(Source: ILoveBacon.com)

In the U. S., who comes after the President and Vice President in the line of succession?

The odds against both President and Vice President dying of "natural causes" in the same year have been calculated at 840:1. So if you're next in line after them, watch out: "you may be next" in more ways than one.

In 1792, under provisions of the Constitution, Congress designated the President pro tempore of the Senate number three, followed by the Speaker of the House. The Presidential Succession Act of 1886 made the departmental secretaries in the order their department was created, starting with the Secretary of State, next in line after the Vice President. The Succession Act of 1947 put the Speaker of the House and President pro tempore of the Senate in the third and fourth spot, followed by the secretaries. That's still in effect, and since 1967, if the vice presidency alone is vacant, the President nominates a new one, subject to Congressional approval.

Source: FACTS ABOUT THE PRESIDENTS by Joseph Nathan Kane



$24, in deed

The purchase of Manhattan from Indians for $24, the greatest real estate deal in history, is hearsay. There was no deed. A Dutch businessman overheard from passengers on a ship returning from the New World a price of 60 guilders. In 1846, an American historian estimated that would equal $24 (in his day, of course).

Whatever – it might still be a good time to refinance the mortgage.

Source: www.mcny.org



Didja Know...
Viagra has become a popular gift for Chinese workers to give their bosses?
(Source: New York Times)