Believe it or not.... More trivial than funny

xzanti

Well, I never knew that !!!!
> In the 1400's a law was set forth that a man was not allowed to beat
his
> wife with a stick 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.
>
> Don't delete this just because it looks weird. Believe it or not, you
can
> read it..........
>
> I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was
rdgnieg.
> The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid aoccdrnig to rscheearch at
> Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in
a
> wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer
be in
> the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed
it
> wouthit a porbelm Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey
> lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.
>
> >~~~~~~~~~~~AND FINALLY~~~~~~~~~~~~
> >
> >At least 75% of people who read this will try to lick their
elbow!!!!!!
>

Chopperdog

Very good Xzanti, I like that kind of stuff

Here are some more;

>LIFE IN THE 1500'S



The next time you are washing your hands and complain because the
water temperature isn't just how you like it, think about how things used
to be.

Here are some facts about the1500s:



Most people got married in June because they took their yearly
bath in May, and still smelled pretty good by June. However, they were
starting to smell, so brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the body
odor.

Hence

the custom today of carrying a bouquet when getting married.







Baths consisted of a big tub filled with hot water. The man of
the house had the privilege of the nice clean water, then all the other sons
and men, then the women and finally the children. Last of all the
babies. By then the water was so dirty you could actually lose someone in it.

Hence the saying, Don't throw the baby out with the Bath water..







Houses had thatched roofs-thick straw-piled high, with no wood

underneath. It was the only place for animals to get warm, so all
the cats and other small animals (mice, bugs) lived in the roof When
it rained it became slippery and sometimes the animals would slip and fall
off theroof.

Hence the saying . It's raining cats and dogs.



There was nothing to stop things from falling into the house.
This posed a real problem in the bedroom where bugs and other droppings could mess up your nice clean bed. Hence, a bed with big posts and a sheet hung over the top afforded some protection.

That's how canopy beds came into existence.







The floor was dirt. Only the wealthy had something other than
dirt.

Hence the saying, Dirt poor. The wealthy had slate floors that would get

slippery in the winter when wet, so they spread thresh (straw) on
floor to help keep their footing. As the winter wore on, they added more
thresh until, when you opened the door, it would all start slipping
outside. A piece of wood was placed in the entranceway.

Hence the saying a thresh hold.







(Getting quite an education, aren't you?)



In those old days, they cooked in the kitchen with a big kettle
that always hung over the fire. Every day they lit the fire and added
things to the pot. They ate mostly vegetables and! did not get much meat.
They would eat the stew for dinner, leaving leftovers in the pot to get cold

overnight and then start over the next day. Sometimes stew had food
in it that had been there for quite a while. Hence the rhyme, Peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot nine
days old..







Sometimes they could obtain pork, which made them feel quite

special. When visitors came over, they would hang up their bacon
to show off. It was a sign of wealth that a man could, bring home the
bacon.

They would cut off a little to share with guests and would all sit
around and chew the fat.






Those with money had plates made of pewter. Food with high acid

content caused some of the lead to leach onto the food, causing
lead poisoning death. This happened most often with tomatoes, so for the
next 400 years or so, tomatoes were considered poisonous.







Bread was divided according to status. Workers got the burnt
bottom of the loaf, the family got the middle, and guests got the top, or
the upper crust.







Lead cups were used to drink ale or whisky. The combination

would sometimes knock the imbibers out for a couple of days.
Someone

walking along the road would take them for dead and prepare them
for burial. They were laid out on the kitchen table for a couple of
days and the family would gather around and eat and drink and wait and see if they would wake up.
Hence the custom of holding a wake.







England is old and small and the local folks started running out
of places to bury people. So they would dig up coffins and would take
the bones to a bone-house, and reuse the grave. When reopening these
coffins, 1 out of 25 coffins were found to have scratch marks on
the inside and they realized they had been burying people alive. So
they would tie a string on the wrist of the corpse, lead it through the coffin
and up through the ground and tie it to a bell. Someone would have to sit
out in the graveyard all night (the graveyard shift) to listen for the
bell;

thus, someone could be, saved by the bell or was considered a
...dead

ringer..

tbh

xzanti wrote:

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

one hundred and one?

petes

Of course I tried to lick my elbow.

tbh

and?

petes

Still trying.

arghh

very enjoyable bravo more:)

daithimac

encore encore

Can this be made a sticky

Scrotum

Very good i love trivia like that.:)

Parsley

I know a guy that can lick his elbow.

Capt'n Midnight

Scrotum wrote:

Very good i love trivia like that.:)

even better when they are genuine rather than mostly bollocks* like the original post


*bollocks is a victorian word for a long sermon.

lots more debunking on www.snopes.com
eg: http://www.snopes.com/language/acronyms/golf.asp

btkm8unsl0w5r4

It not impossible to lick your elow

http://images.google.ie/images?q=lick%20elbow&sourceid=mozilla-search&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&sa=N&tab=wi

biko

# The modern submarine was invented by an Irishman named John Philip Holland. He was funded by the Fenian Brotherhood.

# The first divorce ever granted by the Irish government was in 1997.

# The newt is Ireland's only indigenous reptile.

# The term "honeymoon" originated from an Irish tradition. The word for honeymoon in Gaelic is "mi na meala", which means "the month of honey". Irish monks used to produce a fermented honey brew called mead and would give enough to a bride and groom to last them a month after their wedding. It was believed that this drink enhanced fertility and was the best way to ensure a good beginning for a new marriage.

# The use of the rosary in Catholic prayer originated in Ireland. Irish monks would pray 150 psalms each day, and the lay-people who wanted to pray along with the Irish monks began carrying a pouch with 150 pebbles so that they could keep track of all the prayers if they were not at the monastery. This soon evolved into a thin rope with 150 knots, and the rosary was born.

# The wolfhound is the official dog of Ireland. It is the largest of all dogs and can be up to six foot four when standing on its hind legs.

# Irish monks were almost entirely responsible for maintaining Western culture and literacy in Europe after the fall of Rome.

Capt'n Midnight

biko wrote:

# The newt is Ireland's only indigenous reptile.

I have a pet amphibian, I call him tiny, because he's my newt.

Next time you are down kildare street pop in to the natural history museum to see the lizards. I saw a live one in a bog in the west many years ago.

biko wrote:

# Irish monks were almost entirely responsible for maintaining Western culture and literacy in Europe after the fall of Rome.

Tell that to the Byzantines. Also the church wasn't totally destroyed after the ffall of Rome and the dark ages wern't so dark.

Sangre

> 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.

They spoke English in Babylon? Wow, that is amazing!

Scrotum

A zebra is white with black stripes.

All the planets in our solar system rotate anticlockwise, except Venus. It is the only planet that rotates clockwise.

Hummingbirds are the only animal that can also fly backwards.

Insects do not make noises with their voices. The noise of bees, mosquitoes and other buzzing insects is caused by rapidly moving their wings.

The cockroach is the fastest animal on 6 legs covering a meter a second.

The word "listen" contains the same letters as the word "silent".

The only 2 animals that can see behind itself without turning it's head are the rabbit and the parrot.

A 'jiffy' is an actual unit of time for 1/100th of a second.

India invented the Number System. Zero was invented by Aryabhatta.

The whip makes a cracking sound because its tip moves faster than the speed of sound.

A hippopotamus can run faster than a man.

India never invaded any country in her last 10000 years of history.

'Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia' is the fear of long words.

Didaskaleinophobia is the fear of going to school.

Phobatrivaphobia is a fear of trivia about phobias !!

A snail can sleep for 3 years. ( wow, lucky chap eh ? )

The names of the continents all end with the same letter with which they start

In 1883 the explosion of the volcano Krakatoa put so much dust into the earth's atmosphere that sunsets appeared green and the moon appeared blue around the world for almost two years.

"Almost" is the longest word in the English language with all the letters in alphabetical order.

Twenty-Four-Karat Gold is not pure gold since there is a small amount of copper in it. Absolutely pure gold is so soft that it can be molded with the hands.

Electricity doesn't move through a wire but through a field around the wire.

Do you know the names of the three wise monkeys? They are: Mizaru (See no evil), Mikazaru (Hear no evil), and Mazaru (Say no evil ).

Rabies

India never invaded any country in her last 10000 years of history.

India is a woman?

Victor

Scrotum wrote:

India never invaded any country in her last 10000 years of history.

Pakistan / Bangladesh may differ on this statement.

BigEejit

Rabies wrote:

India is a woman?

That was the weakest nitpicking I've seen in a long time :rolleyes:

slumped

xzanti wrote:

Well, I never knew that !!!!
>
> 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 .
>
>

Golf originated in Scotland, and was loosely based on a game called "colf" from The Netherlands.

Mary Queen of Scots was a well known golfer in her day - 1567. She played in Scotland.

I know its only trivial but so was your post.

Sam Vimes

Scrotum wrote:

Electricity doesn't move through a wire but through a field around the wire.

how do you mean? surely its the electons in the atoms of the copper that are moving and the electric and magnetic fields are just a side effect

biko

Capt'n Midnight wrote:

Tell that to the Byzantines

Western, as in West, not Turkey

Mad Dog

Some very interesting ones here :eek:

Feral Mutant

Scrotum wrote:

Insects do not make noises with their voices. The noise of bees, mosquitoes and other buzzing insects is caused by rapidly moving their wings.

Who didn't know that? Do people think insects just like to yell when they fly?

BigEejit

Feral Mutant wrote:

Who didn't know that? Do people think insects just like to yell when they fly?

Well bees have to stop every now and again because the tip of their tongues goes numb from saying "bzzzzzzzzzz" ...fact

Capt'n Midnight

Scrotum wrote:

All the planets in our solar system rotate anticlockwise, except Venus. It is the only planet that rotates clockwise.
The axial tilt of Uranus is such that it rotates both clockwise and clockwise depending on your point of view

Hummingbirds are the only animal that can also fly backwards.insects are animals too

Insects do not make noises with their voices. The noise of bees, mosquitoes and other buzzing insects is caused by rapidly moving their wings.cicadas make noise by bucking their abdomen up to 120dB of it

A snail can sleep for 3 years. ( wow, lucky chap eh ? )the cicadas from 2004 won't reappear until 2021

The only 2 animals that can see behind itself without turning it's head are the rabbit and the parrot.most small song birds can see behind themselves but not directly in front,
IIRC giraffes can see behind them too
arthropods are animals and a hell of a lot of them have oodles of eyes

India invented the Decimal Number System. Zero was invented by Aryabhatta.

A hippopotamus can run faster than a man.yawn, so can a crocodile, on rare ocassions large ones run like hares with the rear legs moving ahead of the front legs and the back arched up

India never invaded any country in her last 10000 years of history. it was a large grouping of independent kingdoms that fought each other for much of that time. It's like saying that latin america never invaded anyone (the malvinas?)
if you ignore the Raj and invasions of Afganistan They invaded Goa, Hyderabad, Pakistan, Bangladesh. Burmah was part of India at one stage and the rest of the boarders are desert or mountains

The names of the continents all end with the same letter with which they startOceania, Eurasia

"Almost" is the longest word in the English language with all the letters in alphabetical order.billowy, beefily (Aegilops)

Electricity doesn't move through a wire but through a field around the wire.only at high frequency - look up skin depth - also AC doesn't move through the wire since the electrons hardly move from their initial position. With DC some electrons will move through the wire

<sigh> if it's on the internet it must be true :rolleyes:

Dunkleosteus probably had the biggest meanest "teeth" and bite of any animal. And it wasn't a dinosaur.

Scrotum

Sorry Ross, i just got them off google.

Capt'n Midnight

Does anyone know of links to the old irish laws they are removing from the statutes ?

BioHazRd

More suited to after hours

*moved*

Bio

me and the biz

Capt'n Midnight wrote:

<sigh> if it's on the internet it must be true :rolleyes:

Dunkleosteus probably had the biggest meanest "teeth" and bite of any animal. And it wasn't a dinosaur.

Did you go looking through books/websites to prove his post wrong?

The_B_Man

i dunno whether he did or not, but im indifferent to either set of answers...