> Life's Little Mysteries (Updated Daily)

I n the 1400's a law was set forth that a man was not allowed to beat his wife with a stick no thicker than his thumb. Hence we have "the rule of thumb".



Many years ago in Scotland, a new game was invented. It was ruled "Gentlemen Only...Ladies Forbidden"...and thus the word GOLF entered into the English language.



The first couple to be shown in bed together on prime time TV was Fred and Wilma Flintstone.



Every day more money is printed for Monopoly than the US Treasury.



Men can read smaller print than women can; women can hear better.



Coca-Cola was originally green.



It is impossible to lick your elbow.



The average number of people airborne over the US any given hour: 61,000



Intelligent people have more zinc and copper in their hair.



The first novel ever written on a typewriter: Tom Sawyer.



Each king in a deck of playing cards represents a great king in history:

Spades - King David

Hearts - Charlemagne

Clubs -Alexander, the Great

Diamonds - Julius Caesar



111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321



If a statue in the park of a person on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle. If the horse has one front leg in the air the person died as a result of wounds received in battle. If the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural
causes.



Q. If you were to spell out numbers, how far would you have to go until you would find the letter "A"?

A. One thousand



Q. What do bullet-proof vests, fire escapes, windshield wipers, and laser printers all have in common?

A. All invented by women.



Q. What is the only food that doesn't spoil?

A. Honey



In Shakespeare's time, mattresses were secured on bed frames by ropes. When you pulled on the ropes the mattress tightened, making the bed firmer to sleep on. Hence the phrase "goodnight, sleep tight."



It was the accepted practice in Babylon 4,000 years ago that for a month after the wedding, the bride's father would supply his son-in-law with all the mead he could drink. Mead is a honey beer and because their calendar was lunar based, this period was called the honey month, which we know today as the honeymoon.



In English pubs, ale is ordered by pints and quarts... So in old England, when customers got unruly, the bartender would yell at them "Mind your pints and quarts, and settle down." It's where we get the phrase "mind your P's and Q's"



Many years ago in England, pub frequenters had a whistle baked into the rim, or handle, of their ceramic cups. When they needed a refill, they
used the whistle to get some service. "Wet your whistle" is the phrase inspired by this practice.


Amazing huh?

The longest one-syllable word in the English language is “screeched.”


“Dreamt” is the only English word that ends in the letters “mt”.


Almonds are members of the peach family.


The symbol on the “pound” key (#) is called an octothorpe.


The dot over the letter ‘i’ is called a tittle.


Ingrown toenails are hereditary.


The word “set” has more definitions than any other word in the English language.


“Underground” is the only word in the English language that begins and ends with the letters “und.”


There are only four words in the English language which end in”-dous” tremendous, horrendous, stupendous, and hazardous.


The longest word in the English language, according to the Oxford English Dictionary,
is pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis.
The only other word with the same amount of letters is pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconioses, its plural.


The longest place-name still in use is
Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapiki mau
ngahoronukupokaiwenuakitanatahu, a New Zealand hill.


Los Angeles’s full name is “El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de los Angeles de Porciuncula” and can be abbreviated to 3.63% of its size, “L.A.”


A cat has 32 muscles in each ear.


An ostrich’s eye is bigger than its brain.


Tigers have striped skin, not just striped fur.


In most advertisments, including newspapers, the time displayed on a watch is 10:10.


Alfred Hitchcock didn’t have a belly button.It was eliminated when he was sewn up after surgery.


Telly Savalas and Louis Armstrong died on their birthdays.


Donald Duck’s middle name is Fauntleroy.


Al Capone’s business card said he was a used furniture dealer.


The muzzle of a lion is like a fingerprint - no two lions have the same pattern of whiskers.


Steely Dan got their name from a sexual device depicted in the book ‘The Naked Lunch’.


A pregnant goldfish is called a twit.


The Ramses brand condom is named after the great phaoroh Ramses II who fathered over 160 children.


There is a seven letter word in the English language that contains ten words without rearranging any of its letters, “therein” the, there, he, in, rein, her, here, ere, therein, herein.


Duelling is legal in Paraguay as long as both parties are registered blood donors.


John Larroquette of “Night Court” and “The John Larroquette Show” was the narrator of “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.”


The characters Bert and Ernie on Sesame Street were named after Bert the cop and Ernie the taxi driver in Frank Capra’s “Its A Wonderful Life”


A goldfish has a memory span of three seconds.


It’s impossible to sneeze with your eyes open.


It was discovered on a space mission that a frog can throw up.The frog throws up its stomach first, so the stomach is dangling out of it’s mouth.Then the frog uses its forearms to dig out all of the stomach’s contents and then swallows the stomach back down again.


Cranberries are sorted for ripeness by bouncing them; a fully ripened cranberry can be dribbled like a basketball.


The male gypsy moth can “smell” the virgin female gypsy moth from 1.8 miles away.


The letters KGB stand for Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti.


The name for Oz in the “Wizard of Oz” was thought up when the creator, Frank Baum, looked at his filing cabinet and saw A-N, and O-Z, hence “Oz.”


The microwave was invented after a researcher walked by a radar tube and a chocolate bar melted in his pocket.


‘Stewardesses’ is the longest word that is typed with only the left hand.


To “testify” was based on men in the Roman court swearing to a statement made by swearing on their testicles.


The combination “ough” can be pronounced in nine different ways.The following sentence contains them all “A rough-coated, dough-faced, thoughtful ploughman strode through the streets of Scarborough;after falling into a slough, he coughed and hiccoughed.”


The only 15 letter word that can be spelled without repeating a letter is uncopyrightable.


Facetious and abstemious contain all the vowels in the correct order, as does arsenious, meaning “containing arsenic.”


Emus and kangaroos cannot walk backwards, and are on the Australian coat of arms for that reason.


Cats have over one hundred vocal sounds, while dogs only have about ten.


The word “Checkmate” in chess comes from the Persian phrase “Shah Mat,” which means “the king is dead”.


The reason firehouses have circular stairways is from the days of lore when the engines were pulled by horses.The horses were stabled on the ground floor and figured out how to walk up straight staircases.