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• Why do we say "Let's make a toast"? The ancient Romans used to drop a piece of burnt toast, tostus into their wine glasses to reduce the wine's acidity and absorb impurities. The act of dropping the toast in and raising a glass to honor someone became intertwined. And even after people stopped using toast, they continued to "make a toast." |
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• You say tomato, the Supreme Court says overruled! In the 1893 "Nix vs. Hedden" case, an importer claimed the tomato as a fruit in order to avoid U.S. Vegetable import tariffs. Technically, he was right. Tomatoes are classified as fruits because they contain seeds, but the Supreme Court ruled that they be taxed as vegetables since they are used in savory dishes instead of sweet. |
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• Would you like malaria with your gin? Yes, you heard right; malaria used to pair quite well with a gin and tonic. When the British were occupying India, they were very susceptible to malaria. To battle the disease they drank quinine-fortified tonic water. Since the tonic didn't have a very pleasing taste, they mixed it with a little gin and added a few citrus slices for the ideal medicinal cocktail. |
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• When was pepper a status symbol? Pepper began its long reign as the spice king during the Middle Ages when paradise was believed to be a physical place on Earth. Spices such as cinnamon and pepper were reputed to grow in close proximity to it, thus making them important status symbols on the table. Pepper was so valuable during Elizabethan times that the guards on London docks had to have their pockets sewn up to make sure they didn't steal any. |
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• How did a translation mistake result in the black arts? The original Greco-Latin word was necromantia "divination by means of the dead." When the French translated it, they confused necro "dead" for niger "black," causing people to negatively associate the word "black" with dark, secret practices. • Why knock on wood? The phrase "knock on wood" comes from a very literal superstition. People used to knock on wood to thank the tree's spirit for granting them a favor. |
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• What does the Viewfinder have to do with WWII? Although most of us remember the viewfinder toy from childhood, it was also an important training tool during WWII. The U.S. military produced special sets of reels to aid with artillery spotting and aircraft identification. They purchased 100,000 viewers and nearly six million reels for soldiers between 1942 and 1945. • How did Etch-A-Sketch® save Christmas? In 1960, Ohio Art took out ads on TV to promote their Etch-A-Sketch® toy. Due to the incredible demand for the toy, the company continued manufacturing them until noon on Christmas Eve. The Etch-A-Sketches® were then immediately shipped to the West Coast so people in California could buy them on Christmas Eve and still have them Christmas morning. |
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• Ever heard of the education program, no headstone left behind? Famous for his eerie stories and poems, Edgar Allan Poe's dark side could be rooted in the fact that he was educated in a cemetery. The boarding school he attended in England bordered a graveyard, and the headmaster, too cheap to buy textbooks, would conduct lessons among the graves. Each child was instructed to choose a headstone and then find the deceased's age by subtracting the year of birth from the year of death. On the first day of school, each student was presented with a small shovel. If a parish member died during the semester, the children were sent outside to dig the grave, and voila! Gym class. |
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• Who should George Washington send a thank-you to? Dolley Madison. During the War of 1812 when the British were attempting to burn down the White House, first lady Dolley Madison rescued a painting of George Washington. Good thing too; the famous portrait by Gilbert Stuart was later used on the $1 bill. • Which man was fated to be president? Talk about destiny! Gerald Ford, who served as both vice president and president, is the only person never to have been elected to either of these positions. He was appointed vice president, under the rules of the 25th Amendment, when Spiro Agnew resigned. And he became president when Richard Nixon resigned. |
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• Why isn't Moosylvania our 51st state? "Moosylvania" was Bullwinkle's fictional home state in The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show. As a publicity stunt, producer Jay Ward and publicist Howard Brand actually bought a small island on a lake in Minnesota, which they named "Moosylvania." The pair then began collecting signatures from about 50 cities to petition for its statehood. They even went so far as to drive to the White House to speak with President Kennedy, where they were stopped at gun point and brusquely turned away. They later found out that they had arrived on the first day of the Cuban Missile Crisis. |
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• Psst...what's the password? "Open Sesame!" This magic password was made famous in Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves (Arabian Nights), but it wasn't just a randomly chosen saying. The phrase reflects the distinguishing feature of the sesame plant. When sesame seeds are ripe, the pod bursts open to reveal the seeds inside, thus "Open Sesame." • Who was our most forgetful president? Thomas Jefferson. Before he died, Jefferson wrote a lengthy memorial inscription for his tombstone, which included many accomplishments, from "author of the Declaration of Independence" to "founder of the University of Virginia." So, what did he forget? The tombstone fails to mention that Jefferson was once president of the United States. |
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• When can you drop the soap?
When it floats! Ivory soap became the first floating soap in 1878 when too
much air got into a developmental batch. An employee forgot to shut off the
machine when he took a lunch break, and when he returned the mixture was
much more frothy than usual. Afraid he would get in trouble, he didn't tell
anyone and shipped the batch. About a month later, Procter and Gamble began
receiving requests for the "floating soap." Eventually, the employee came
forward about his accident, which allowed P&G to start production using the
new formula. |
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• What famous dessert can we thank the girl scouts for? No, it isn't cookies, it's S'mores! Although the history is a bit murky, there isn't an official creator or date, the first printed recipe for the tasty campfire treat appeared in the 1927 book "Tramping and Trailing with the Girl Scouts." • What inventor really lights our fire? That would be John Walker. In 1826, he was stirring a chemical mixture of antimony sulfide, potassium chlorate, gum, and starch, when he removed the stir stick and found a dried lump at the end. He scraped the stick against the floor to get rid of the lump, and the stick ignited. Unfortunately, Walker got all fired up about his invention of the match, and instead of getting it patented, he just showed it off to everyone. It was only a matter of time before Samuel Jones, who was attending one of Walker's demonstrations, got the bright idea to get it patented under his name. The first matches were called Lucifers and were a huge success. |
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• Which president did America get for a discount? President Herbert Hoover, who was a self-made millionaire prior to running for presidency in 1928, didn't just give the U.S. a discount, he worked for free! He donated his entire presidential salary to charity, and from 1914 to his death his fifty years later, Hoover never accepted any payments for his public service. |
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• Why do these shoes have holes in them? The classic wingtip shoe features decorative holes, also called "Brougeing," that make the shoe look more stylish. But the wingtip wasn't always so dressy. According to legend, the wingtip shoe is a descendent of "brogues," simple shoes worn in Scotland and Ireland. What was unique about these shoes is that they featured holes in them. Due to the damp weather and the amount of time spent in bogs, keeping water out of shoes was next to impossible, so the holes were added to help with drainage. • How can dad shave more time off his morning routine? By not shaving, of course! According to "The Bathroom Companion" by James Buckley Jr., the average man spends approximately 140 days of his life shaving. Unfortunately for men, boycotting the razor hasn't always been an option. Back in 1705 Russia, Peter the Great made having a beard punishable by a fine or jail time. |
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• What do skunks and beer have in common?: "Skunky" beer actually contains the same chemical compound as a skunk's spray. When beer is exposed to sunlight or even fluorescent light it undergoes a chemical reaction the creates 3-methyl crotyl mercaptan - the same chemical found in skunk spray. Brown bottles do a better job at shielding out light than green or clear bottles, but your best bet is to just keep your brew in the dark. |
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• Hey little tomato, why don't you ketchup? Originally ketchup or what the Chinese called "ketsiap" was a sauce made from the brine of pickled fish or shellfish. Travelers returning from Singapore in the 17th century lauded the virtues of ketchup, but since many of the Asian ingredients were not available, new recipes were created using local ingredients, such as mushrooms and, of course, tomatoes. • Why does Ronald McDonald owe Thomas Jefferson? Because Thomas Jefferson brought French fries to America! Jefferson served French fries at a White House Dinner in 1802 after having enjoyed them in France. The name was coined during World War II when American soldiers in France became big fans of the fried potatoes. |
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• Now, which one is the aisle? Contrary to our usage of the term, the aisle actually refers to the passageways on either side of a church. People have long used the phrase "walk down the aisle" in reference to marriage (and to the central walkway of the church), but what the bride really walks down is the nave. |
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• Who isn't feeling the puppy love? That would be the U.S. Postal Service. Over the past 10 years, the Postal Service has reported an average of 2,800 dog bites, which is better than in the 1980s when the average was 7000! So why can't we all just get along? Mail carriers arrive at around the same time everyday, usually come right up to the front door and sometimes actually slide objects into the house. For a territorial dog, this daily situation puts it into defense mode. To further fuel the fire, the mail carrier leaves shortly after the dog begins barking, which leads the dog to think that it was successful at fending off this invader and will continue this same behavior in the future. • Hey Cat! Why do you keep getting stuck in trees? Cats use their strong back legs and claws to scurry up trees in a snap. But to come down they have to rely on weaker front legs, which they are hesitant to use. Plus, their claws are now pointing in the wrong direction, making it difficult to grip the tree properly. |
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• Who are the mothers of mother's day? Before President Woodrow Wilson made it an official holiday in 1915, Mother's Day wasn't about flowers and cards, but instead it was a tribute to women's peace-making activities. Mother's Day is actually a marriage of two separate campaigns that began during the Civil War. The first version of Mother's Day is attributed to Anna M. Jarvis of West Virginia who participated in Mother's Work Days, in which women's brigades worked to improve critical community sanitation. In 1868, Jarvis established Mother's Friendship Day, which encouraged women to ease tensions between North and South once the war was over. The second mother of Mother's Day was Bostonian Julia Ward Howe, author of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic," who called upon all women to band together to abolish war. Her Mothers' Peace Day celebrations took place for several years in Boston and other cities until the end of World War I. |
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• Why do we really tie strings around our fingers? Of course, everyone knows that a string around the finger is a visual reminder that you need to do something. But the early Anglo-Saxons started the tradition in a much more literal sense: they believed that tying a string around ones finger kept an idea from escaping, in effect, tying the idea to one's self. • Which flower has the best memory? That would be the forget-me-not, a lovely flower rooted in a bittersweet love story. Legend has it that in medieval times, a knight and his lady were walking along the side of a river. He was carrying a bouquet of the flowers, but because of the weight of his armor, he fell into the river. As he was drowning he threw the flowers to his loved one and shouted "Forget-me-not!" |
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• Want to go green with that old pair of blue jeans? That's exactly what a school in Sheffield, England did. The school passed on traditional insulation in favor of a more eco-friendly one: 4,000 pairs of recycled jeans! The recycled material was manufactured by Recovery Insulation, an innovative, Sheffield-based company, established with the aim of providing a durable and environmentally friendly insulation material made from recycled cotton textile fibers. |
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• Need to have a turtle shipped? One of the stranger services that both UPS and FedEx offer is the shipment of live animals. That's right. UPS will ship amphibians, crustaceans, fish, beneficial insects (bees, butterflies, crickets, lady bugs), mollusks, reptiles (limited to lizards and turtles) and worms. FedEx dabbles less in live-animal shipments and will not transport household pets, but they may accept certain shipments of live animals such as horses, livestock and zoo animals (to and from zoo locations only). And just so you know, UPS will not ship any poisonous animals, endangered or threatened species, arachnids, birds, crocodiles, mammals, obnoxious insects (flies, locusts, mosquitoes, roaches and termites) or snakes. This all being said, these services are seldom offered and have intense requirements and restrictions in order to make the trip humane and safe for the animal, but it's good to know in case you ever need to ship some frogs cross-country. • Why so pink, flamingo? The substance that makes flamingos pink is carotene — the same stuff that makes carrots orange. Flamingos feed on various types of crustaceans, as well as plankton, brine shrimp, and blue-green algae, all of which are high in alpha and beta carotene. As they digest food containing carotene, their bodies begin to produce a reddish compound known as canthaxanthin. This material settles into a flamingo’s legs, feet and feathers, giving it a strong, pinkish hue. |
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• Did you say funny bone or punny bone? The first mention in literature of the word "funny bone" was by Reverend Richard Harris Barham in his 1840 book "The Ingoldsby Legends." Technically, the funny bone is the enlarged knob at the end of the humerus (upper arm bone), and while you do feel a sharp, tingling feeling if you hit it - it's really not that funny. Barham, who was well known for his punning, probably saw the pun "humorous" in the "humerus" bone and dubbed it the funny bone - one of the few puns that have become accepted phrases in the English language. |
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• Who is Eostre and what does she have to do with bunnies? Eostre (Ostara) was the Anglo-Saxon goddess of the spring and the dawn, and her name is the origin of the word Easter. Every year at the vernal equinox, people held a festival to celebrate the goddess. Eventually the Christian holiday celebrating the Resurrection was combined with the pagan festival to form Easter. According to legend, Eostre saved a bird whose wings had frozen during the winter by turning it into a hare. The hare became her sacred companion, retained its avian ability to lay eggs and over time developed into our modern-day Easter Bunny. • What popular Easter Candy is downright presidential? That would be the Jelly Bean, a personal favorite of President Ronald Reagan. Reagan not only ordered 3.5 tons of Jelly Bellies to the White House for the 1981 inaugural festivities, but also had Jelly Belly create a new flavor (blueberry) so that there would be red, white and blue jelly beans at the event. |
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• What was the one thing that Amazon Women were missing? The word Amazon comes from the Greek words a (meaning "without") and mazos (meaning "breast"). According to legend, the Amazon were a fierce tribe of warrior women who cut or burned off their right breasts, thus making it easier to shoot a bow and arrow. |
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• What's so romantic about the romance languages? Actually, not much. The term "romance" as we know it today derives from the Latin romancie and is an adverb describing anything written or spoken in the Roman vernacular or the vulgar Latin, which was the language of the common people, soldiers and slaves. During medieval times in Western Europe, tales about heroes, chivalry and love became popular. These tales were often written in the vernacular and came to be called "romances." • How do you insult a piece of chocolate? Just call it a "ganache." Ganache, the luscious basis for truffles, was discovered when an apprentice in a Parisian patisserie accidentally spilled scalding milk into a bowl of chocolate squares. His patron called him a "ganache" (imbecile), but then discovered that the mistake had produced a new delicious use for chocolate. Ganache is made today by mixing scalding cream with twice its weight in chocolate shavings, and sometimes includes added butter. |
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• Why did the month of February get the not-so-royal treatment? When Julius Caesar reformed the calendar in 45 B.C., the months alternated between 30 and 31 days, with the exception of February which had 29 days and 30 in a leap year. To honor Julius, the Roman Senate named the month of July after him. Later, Julius's grandnephew Augustus came to power, and the Roman senate also wanted to honor him with his own month. However, due to the alternating calendar system, the month of August would only have 30 days. To prevent any argument that Emperor Augustus had an inferior month, August was lengthened to 31 days. The extra day needed to inflate the importance of August was taken from February. |
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• What was Dr. Seuss's most famous gamble? Publisher Bennet Cerf bet the famous children's book author $50 that he could not write a book using just fifty words. Fifty words later, Dr. Seuss had written Green Eggs and Ham and won the bet. Forty-nine of the words in the book are one-syllable words. The fiftieth, of course, is "anywhere." And even though Cerf had lost $50, Green Eggs and Ham went on to be the most successful book by Dr. Seuss, and it is the fourth best-selling children's book of all time. • How did a filing cabinet inspire The Wizard of Oz? Author Frank Baum had already settled on the word "Wizard" to be a part of the title when the filing cabinet on his desk caught his eye. The three drawers were labeled A-G, H-N and O-Z. And thus the land of Oz was created. |
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• Who is the gatekeeper of the new year? That would be the Roman god Janus, who serves double duty as the gatekeeper of heaven in mythology. Janus has two faces: one for looking back at the old year and one for looking forward to the the new year. And he also lends his name to the first month of the year. |
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• Before the North Pole, where did Rudolph call home? Rudolph is actually a Chicago native. And although it's difficult to imagine Christmas without him, he has only been around since 1939. That year, the Chicago-based Montgomery Ward store asked copywriter Robert L. May to create a Christmas story that they could give to shoppers as a promotional gimmick. May drew on his own "ugly duckling" childhood and came up with the story of the oddball reindeer that had a glowing red nose and no friends. May's boss was unsure, thinking the red nose would be associated with drinking. But he was finally won over when Denver Gillen of the art department showed him whimsical illustrations based on the deer from the Lincoln Park Zoo. The famous song was written almost ten years later by Johnny Marks, May's brother-in-law. • What do animal crackers and ornaments have in common? In 1902, Nabisco animal crackers officially became Barnum's Animals with a circus theme. It was that same year that Nabisco decided to create special holiday packaging for the classic children's treat. They designed the box to look like a wooden circus cage and attached a string, so that it could be hung from the Christmas tree as an ornament. The package was so popular that it became a year-round favorite. |
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• What was the very first white elephant gift? A white elephant! In the early 17th century, white (albino) elephants were regarded as holy in Thailand and other Asian countries. To keep a white elephant was very expensive and yielded no profit. The owner had to feed the elephant, care for it and provide access for people who wanted to worship it. If a Thai King became dissatisfied with a subordinate, he would give him a white elephant. The gift would, in most cases, ruin the recipient. |
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• What do vodka, whiskey and water have in common? Centuries ago, vodka and whiskey were once thought to be as essential to life as water. In fact, the word vodka takes its name from the Russian word voda which means water. And whiskey comes from the Gaelic word uisce beathadh meaning "water of life." • What should you never mix with a wine brick? Necessity was certainly the mother of invention during prohibition. One popular product of the period was the wine brick. The wine brick was a 4 x 8 inch block of dried and compressed grapes. The wine brick was accompanied by this label: "Warning: Do not place this Wine Brick in a one-gallon crock, add sugar and water, cover and let stand for seven days, or else an illegal alcoholic beverage will result." |
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• What does it really mean to go green? Well, that depends on what language you speak. If you live in France, "to be green to someone" means to bear a grudge against them. Also in France, a "green tale" means a spicy story and "green language" means slang. In Spanish, "giving oneself a green" means to take time off of work. Of course, we all have heard of being "green with envy" which is attributed to Shakespeare's Othello. Germans, however, do not turn "green with envy," they turn "yellow with envy." |
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• Puzzled about entertainment during the 1930s? Surprisingly, the golden age of puzzles took place during the Great Depression. Puzzles were seen as an escape from troubled times and a small opportunity to succeed in a dismal time. During the 1930s craze for puzzles, drugstores and libraries offered puzzle rentals. They charged three to ten cents per day, depending on size. • Who was the real Mary Jane? |
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• Did being "kind-hearted" exist before the 16th century? Of course it did, but the term itself was coined in 1534 by Miles Coverdale when he was translating the Bible from German and Latin versions into the first English version. • Who says nice guys finish last? The phrase is attributed to baseball manager Leo Durocher, but in his 1975 autobiography he claims he was misquoted. The famous remark was made on July 6, 1946 when Durocher was managing the Brooklyn Dodgers. Leo was referencing his cross-town rivals the New York Giants when (according to him) he said, "Take a look at them. They're all nice guys, but they'll finish last. Nice guys. Finish last." He was quoted the next day by reporter Frank Graham of the New York Journal-American as "Nice guys finish last." |
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• What famous astronomer was a college dropout? Despite being extremely gifted, Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei was not a very good student. He studied medicine at the University of Pisa, and except for his mathematics class, he was extremely bored by his courses. He was frequently absent and was a troublemaker with professors. His frequent absences from class eventually led the university to inform Galileo's family that their son was in danger of flunking out. In the end, Galileo studied mathematics with a private tutor and dropped out of college without a degree. • How many birthdays would you celebrate on Neptune? Sorry birthday boys and girls, but if you lived on Neptune you wouldn't even get to celebrate your first birthday. Neptune's year is 60,200 days long (or 164 Earth years). In fact, Neptune takes so long to orbit around the sun that humans have not seen one complete rotation since it was discovered in 1846. |
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• All hail Lord Sandwich! The origin of the sandwich goes back to the 18th century British politician John Montagu, 4th earl of Sandwich. Rumor has it that the bread-and-meat combo sustained Lord Sandwich while he was at the gambling table. His biographer, however, suggests that he ate them at his desk because he worked such long hours. • What is a mustardarius? In medieval European courts and monasteries, making mustard wasn't just a job, it was a career. The "mustardarius" was in charge of selecting mustard seeds and preparing the mustard. This was a very important job when you consider that, in medieval Europe, mustard was used as liberally as ketchup is today in the U.S. For centuries, mustard was considered an elixir. The Romans gargled with it to ward off colds, and the Greeks applied plasters made from it to treat a host of ailments. • What does WWII have to do with PB&J? Although no one knows the exact origin of the peanut butter and jelly sandwich, it is known that both spreads were on the U.S. Military ration menus during WWII. Some suggest that GIs added jelly to their peanut butter to make it tastier. Once the GIs returned, peanut butter and jelly sales soared in the U.S. |
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• What's the perfect way to cool down in Italy? With a glass of wine of course! Seven hundred years ago, Murano glass makers needed a way to cool off while working in the hot glass-blowing furnaces, and the tradition of the goto was born. Not too tall, stable, personalized to be recognizable and very whimsical (not to mention a way for the glassmakers to compete with each other) the goto was ideal for the furnace. • Which European country first enjoyed the pleasures of chocolate? Spain. The first official shipment of cocoa beans arrived in Spain in 1585. But the Spanish had been secretly bringing in the precious crop for nearly 60 years before that. In fact, in 1579 English pirates looking for treasure on a Spanish galleon mistook the valuable beans for sheep droppings, and burned the entire ship. It wasn't until the mid-1600s that France, England and Italy started their own love affairs with the sweet treat. |
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• What do potatoes have to do with Halloween? Already celebrated across Europe, Halloween came to America’s shores during the potato famine of 1846 via the huge influx of Irish immigrants. That’s right—Halloween is an Irish holiday. It originated as the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced sow-in), which celebrated the new year on November 1. On the night of October 31, it was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth. • What important contribution did America make to Hallowwen? Pumpkins! Pumpkins are a fruit native to America. Before they had pumpkins, the Irish and Scottish people were making Jack-O-Lanterns from turnips or potatoes, while the English used large beets. When immigrants from these countries came to the U.S., they discovered that the pumpkin was ideal for Jack-O-Lanterns • Are Bats Really Blind? Bats use a listening technique called Echolocation - the ability to bounce sounds off an object to determine its size, shape and location - to navigate in the dark and find food. Bats emit extremely high pitch sounds (beyond human hearing range) that travel through the air and bounce off any object they come across. When the echo returns, the bat can figure out how far away it is based on the length of time it took the echo to return. On top of that, the bat can also determine how big the object is and what direction it is moving. |
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• Who do we have to blame (or thank) for the alarm clock? The alarm clock has come a long way since clock-maker Levi Hutchins from New Hampshire invented it in 1787. Created solely because he hated oversleeping, Hutchins' invention was never patented or mass-produced. His alarm clock contained in a 29" x 14" pine cabinet. The minute hand tripped a gear when it reached 4 a.m. and set off a bell. • Was the snooze time on alarms randomly chosen? You may think that 9 minutes is an odd choice for a time increment, but when the snooze feature was added in the 1950s, the gears of alarm clocks were already standardized. This meant that the teeth on the snooze gear had to mesh with the existing gear configuration, leaving engineers with a difficult decision: Snooze could be for either nine minutes or for 10 minutes. Ten minutes was viewed as too long (people could fall back into a "deep" sleep), so clock makers decided on the nine-minute gear. Although today's digital clocks can be programmed to have a snooze of any length, most still use nine minutes because that's what consumers expect. |
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• Can ants hold their liquor? • How does drinking beer help the planet? Recent studies show that beer bran, a byproduct of brewing with barley, could be used in the future to clean polluted waters. Beer bran, which is produced by every brewery, has been found to adsorb benzene and trichloroethylene (two widespread environmental pollutants found in water). We'll cheers to that! |
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• Is there really a devil in deviled eggs? Deviled eggs trace their origins back to Ancient Rome, where spicy stuffed eggs were a diet staple. The term “deviled” was coined in 18th century England and refers to the use of fiery hot spices or condiments. The term was presumably adopted because of the connection between the devil and the excessive heat in Hell. • Who invited the ants? When one ant discovers your picnic, it spreads the news by leaving a trail of pheromones as it heads back to the colony. Other ants come across the trail, follow it to the food source, and leave another layer of pheromones, making the scent of the trail even stronger and turning one tiny ant into a horde of hundreds faster than you can say “potato salad.” |
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• Is there any truth to the legend of mermaids? • How much salt is in the ocean? |
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• Where did sunglasses originate? • If the sun were to suddenly stop shining, it would take eight minutes for people on earth to be aware of the fact. This is how long it takes for sunlight to travel the 93,000,000 miles to earth. |
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• What do politics and barbecues have in common? • What do men really think of their cooking skills? |
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• Each year there are 36,000 chain saw accidents. And between 1991-2005 there was a 200 percent increase in nail-gun related injuries to the DIY crowd. • Have you ever been stuck between a ladder and tree? In Northern Westchester Hospital, a man came into the emergency room because he had accidentally sawed off the branch that was supporting his ladder. Last year, there were 198,480 emergency room visits due to ladder-related accidents. |
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• The "mother" of Father's Day was Sonora Dodd from Spokane, Washington. She conceived the idea of Father's Day while listening to a Mother's Day sermon in 1909. She wanted to honor her father, William Smart, a widowed Civil War veteran who raised their family of six on a farm. June 19, 1909 was the first Father's Day celebration, so chosen because it was the month of Smart's birthday. But it wasn’t until 1966 when President Johnson made the third Sunday in June Father's Day. It was made a permanent public law by President Nixon in 1972. • What team first wore plastic batting helmets? |
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• Check the swimmerets to find out the sex of a lobster. These small feathery appendages are located on the underside of the tail. On males, the first pair of swimmerets closest to the body are hard and bony. On a female all the swimmerets are soft and feathery. The female also has a small rectangular shield between her second pair of walking legs. This is the sperm receptacle where she stores the sperm after mating until she lays her eggs. • This holiday was first known as Decoration Day because it was a time set aside to decorate the graves and honor those that died | ||
