WHO KNEW?
1.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. That's where the phrase, "goodnight, sleep tight" came from.
2.The sentence "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog."uses every
letter in the alphabet. (developed by Western Union to test telex/twx
communications).
3.The only 15 letter word that can be spelled without repeating a letter is
'uncopyrightable'.
4.When opossums are playing 'possum, they are not "playing." They actually
pass out in terror.
5.The Main Library at Indiana University sinks over an inch every year
because when it was built, engineers failed to take into account the weight
of all the books that would occupy the building.
6.The term "the whole 9 yards" came from W.W.II fighter pilots in the
Pacific. When arming their airplanes on the ground, the .50 caliber machine
gun ammo belts measured exactly 27 feet, before being loaded into the
fuselage. If the pilots fired all their ammo at a target, it got "the whole
9 yards."
7.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.
8.When Heinz ketchup leaves the bottle, it travels at a rate of 25 miles per
year.
9.The name Jeep came from the abbreviation used in the army for the "General
Purpose" vehicle, GP.
10.Ten percent of the Russian government's income comes from the sale of
vodka.
11.On average, 100 people choke to death on ball-point pens every year.
12.No NFL team which plays it's home games in a domed stadium has ever won a
Super Bowl.
13.The first toilet ever seen on television was on "Leave It To Beaver."
14.Only one person in two billion will live to be 116 or older.
15.In Cleveland, Ohio, it's illegal to catch mice without a hunting license.
16.It takes 3,000 cows to supply the NFL with enough leather for a
year's supply of footballs. (And you thought they were pigskins!)
17.Thirty-five percent of the people who use personal ads for dating are
already married.
18.There's an average of 178 sesame seeds on McDonald's Big Mac bun.
19.The world's termites outweigh the world's humans 10 to 1.
20.The 3 most valuable brand names on earth: Marlboro, Coca-Cola, and
Budweiser; in that order.
21. In 10 minutes, a hurricane releases more energy than all the world's
nuclear weapons combined.
22.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" or
what we know today as the "honeymoon."
23.In English pubs, ale is ordered by pints and quarts. So in old England,
when customers got unruly, the bartender would yell at them to mind their
own pints and quarts and settle down. It's where we get the phrase "mind your
P's and Q's."
24.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.
