You learn something new everyday.

bnt

I learned that Peach Melba is named in honour of the soprano Dame Nellie Melba, and that her stage name “Melba” was simply short for her home town of Melbourne, Australia.

Speedsie

bnt wrote: »

I learned that Peach Melba is named in honour of the soprano Dame Nellie Melba, and that her stage name “Melba” was simply short for her home town of Melbourne, Australia.

Melba Toast is also called after Dame Nellie!

the purple tin

King Canute was not trying to turn back the tide, he wanted to show his subjects that a king was just a human being and did not have god-like powers.
His story got twisted over the years and now he is wrongly remembered as a dope with a massive ego.

the purple tin

Deleted User wrote: »

The "old bill" is cockney rhyming slang for pig's swill.

Aha that's where the term pigs came from as well then.

ILoveYourVibes

Deer shed velvet from their horns ..and its really uncomfortable so they try scratching it off.

Only steers and females keep their horns during winter. Intact males don't. So santa prob uses steers.

vriesmays

In WW1 the British navy fed gulls from their submarines. When a German sub was in the English Channel gulls would see it submerged and fly over it giving away its location.

Capt'n Midnight

vriesmays wrote: »

In WW1 the British navy fed gulls from their submarines. When a German sub was in the English Channel gulls would see it submerged and fly over it giving away its location.

Sadly it didn't work.

https://www.audubon.org/news/the-british-tried-training-gulls-find-submarines-world-war-one

One such scheme emerged from the British Board of Invention and Research in 1915. It involved feeding wild gulls from a dummy periscope, in the hope that the birds would come to associate submarines with a free meal. The sight of a wheeling, whirling flock of gulls would warn ships of a U-boat lurking nearby.

It didn’t work, though one admiral tried to salvage the effort by suggesting that the gulls be taught to defecate on the periscopes, thus blinding the submarine crews.

Long story short during the Cold War the British came up with the Chicken Powered Nuclear Landmine.

Loafing Oaf

vriesmays wrote: »

In WW1 the British navy fed gulls from their submarines. When a German sub was in the English Channel gulls would see it submerged and fly over it giving away its location.

On a not entirely unconnected note, the term 'limey' for a British person derived from the practice of British sailors of consuming citrus fruits to ward off scurvy.

the purple tin

The first ever ATM was unveiled in a Barclays branch in London in 1967. The actor Reg Varney from On the Buses was the first person to use it.

fussyonion

the purple tin wrote: »

The first ever ATM was unveiled in a Barclays branch in London in 1967. The actor Reg Varney from On the Buses was the first person to use it.

I'm freaked out cos I was thinking about this very fact this morning.

If you stretched out your DNA, it would go as far as Pluto.
And back.
17 times.

Loafing Oaf

Read in a history magazine that the Olympic torch relay originated with the Nazis. One of their more enduring contributions to civilsation...

vriesmays

They also invented methadone.

the purple tin

The reason we never do up the bottom button on a waistcoat is because of King Edward VII's big belly. He was more comfortable leaving it open because of his massive gut, especially after eating. The aristocracy and royal staff started copying him and it caught on everywhere after a while.

If you're ever watching an old period drama or films set before the 20th century keep an eye out for any open bottom buttons and if you see one you know the wardrobe dept has made a boob

Loafing Oaf

How Starbucks got its name

The first Starbucks was opened in Seattle, Washington, on March 30, 1971,[9] by three partners who met while they were students at the University of San Francisco:[10] English teacher Jerry Baldwin, history teacher Zev Siegl, and writer Gordon Bowker were inspired to sell high-quality coffee beans and equipment by coffee roasting entrepreneur Alfred Peet after he taught them his style of roasting beans.[11] Bowker recalls that Terry Heckler, with whom Bowker owned an advertising agency, thought words beginning with "st" were powerful. The founders brainstormed a list of words beginning with "st," and eventually landed on "Starbo," a mining town in the Cascade Range. From there, the group remembered "Starbuck," the name of the chief mate in the book Moby-Dick.[12] Bowker said, "Moby-Dick didn't have anything to do with Starbucks directly; it was only coincidental that the sound seemed to make sense."[12][13]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starbucks#Founding

Bobblehats

Quantum Erasure

And the logo is a two-tailed mermaid

Loafing Oaf

Quantum Erasure wrote: »

And the logo is a two-tailed mermaid

the evolution of the logo

iamstop

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/115718989#Comment_115718989

I remember reading about the Russians trying to train dogs with bombs on their backs to run under tanks so they could blow them up but in the end more Russian tanks got destroyed than enemy tanks.

cj maxx

That Christmas day only became a bank holiday in Scotland in 1958.

Strumms

That Reg Varney had an atm card