TIPPING
Some think it began in the 17th century, when restaurants had boxes labeled T.I.P.—To Insure Promptness—on the wall beside their entrances. Patrons who wanted their food in a hurry deposited a few coins in the box before they sat down.
AN APPLE FOR THE TEACHER
Now an outmoded custom, it stems from the days when public schoolteachers were paid with whatever the community could afford. Often they were given food or goods in lieu of cash.
THE TOOTH FAIRY
In Germany, where the idea apparently originated, the tooth was not placed under a pillow. Instead, it was put in a rat hole, because it was thought that the new tooth growing in would take on the “dental quality” of the animal who found it.
COVERING A YAWN
People once thought that their souls could escape during a yawn. They covered their mouths to prevent this and, since yawns can be contagious, to try to keep people around them from “catching” the yawn. The apology after a yawn originated as an expression of regret for having exposed people to mortal danger.
THE COST OF THINGS: 1930
Christmas tree light set (eight bulbs): 88¢
Motor oil: 49¢ a gallon
Electric toaster: $1
Washing machine: $58
Random Science
If you could tap the energy released by an average-size hurricane, it would be enough to satisfy all U.S. energy needs for six months.
In any given year, about 26,000 meteorites land on the earth’s surface, the vast majority dropping into the oceans. Only seven people in recorded history have been hit by one.
When glass breaks, the cracks travel faster than 3,000 mph.
Gold is so rare that all of the pure gold produced in the last 500 years would fit inside a 50-foot cube.
At least 100,000 separate chemical reactions occur in the human brain every second.
About 70 percent of the earth is covered with water, but only 1 percent of that water is drinkable.
Sound travels through steel 15 times faster than it travels through air.
To escape Earth’s gravitational pull, a spacecraft has to move faster than seven miles per second—a speed that would take you from New York to Philadelphia in under 20 seconds.
Rain contains vitamin B12.
According to a University of Michigan study, men are six times more likely to be struck by lightning than women are.
If you could capture a comet’s entire 10,000-mile vapor trail in a container, the condensed vapor would occupy less than one cubic inch of space.
Earth travels through space at 66,600 miles per hour—eight times faster than the speed of a bullet.
Golf
Japan has more than 13 million golfers, but only 1,200 golf courses.
Fewer people golf on Tuesday than on any other day of the week.
Eight percent of all money spent on sporting goods in the United States is used to buy golf equipment.
Before 1850, most golf balls were stuffed with feathers.
Golf was banned in England in 1457 because it was a distraction from archery.
It’s about 10 times easier to shoot a hole in one while golfing than it is to score a perfect 300 game while bowling.
Amount Tiger Woods’s caddie made in 2000: $1 million.
Golf probably comes from the Dutch word kolf, which means “club.”
Golf club Alan Shepard used on the moon: six iron.
The world’s first golf rule book was published in Scotland in 1754.
The first golf course with 18 holes was St. Andrews in Scotland, in 1764.
When it was introduced in 1848, the modern golf ball was called a “gutta-percha” ball.
A golf club remains in contact with the ball for half a thousandth of a second.
More people die playing golf than any other sport. Leading causes: heart attacks and strokes.
Earth Science 101
A 7.0 magnitude earthquake is 900 times more powerful than a 5.0 earthquake.
How much would you weigh at the exact center of the earth? Nothing.
Space dust increases the earth’s weight by as much as six tons a day.
Which goes up, stalactites or stalagmites? Try this: “When the mites go up, the tights come down.”
Geologically speaking, we live in the Cenozoic era, which began 65 million years ago.
Due to the rotation of the earth, an object can be thrown farther if it’s thrown west.
The earth is turning to desert at a rate of 40 square miles per day.
The earth spins 1,000 mph faster at the equator than at the poles.
If the earth had no space between its atoms, it would be about the size of a baseball.
All That Glitters
Odds that a polished diamond weighs more than a carat: one in 1,000.
In a typical diamond mine, you have to dig 23 tons of ore to find a single one-carat diamond.
An ounce of gold can be beaten thin enough to cover an entire acre of ground.
The largest gold nugget ever found weighed 172 pounds, 13 ounces.
There’s enough gold in the ocean to give every human nine pounds.
Diamonds are up to 90 times harder than corundum, the next-hardest mineral.
The number one use of gold in the United States: class rings.
Only 20 percent of diamonds are considered high enough quality to be classified as gems.
Diamonds will not dissolve in acid.
The thinnest man-made thread is a gold filament.
It takes about a ton of ore to provide the gold for one wedding ring.
Diamonds have been worth more than pearls for only about a century.
About 75 percent of all the gold mined each year is made into jewelry.
The diamond is the only gem composed of a single element (carbon).
A cubic foot of gold weighs more than half a ton.
Pound for pound, radium is worth more than gold.
South Africa mines almost half of the world’s gold.
Bug Off!
Ants have five noses. Each one smells a different odor.
Each year insects eat a third of the world’s food crop.
In a single day, a pair of termites can produce as many as 30,000 offspring.
Leaf-cutter ants can build anthills 16 feet deep and one acre square.
The horsefly can pierce a horse’s hide with its mouth.
The longest earthworm ever found was 22 feet long.
Fire beetles fly into forest fires to lay their eggs.
A common housefly beats its wings about 20,000 times per minute.
Only the female mosquitoes eat blood. Males eat sap.
A queen honeybee can lay as many as 1,500 eggs a day.
A bee has 5,000 nostrils. It can smell an apple tree two miles away.
It takes three minutes for a fresh mosquito bite to begin to itch.
Animal responsible for the most human deaths worldwide: the mosquito.
Word Origins
TYCOON
Meaning: A wealthy and powerful business person
Origin: “A trumped-up Japanese title, taikun was a word used to magnify the role of the shogun or military commander of the country, especially when he was addressing foreigners, the point being to suggest that he was more potent and important than the emperor himself. The word meant ‘emperor’ or ‘great prince,’ borrowed from the Chinese t’ai kiuen (‘great prince’).” (The Secret Lives of Words, by Paul West)
THIRD DEGREE
Meaning: Intense, often brutal, questioning, especially by police
Origin: “Dating to the 1890s in America, it has no connection with criminal law. The third degree is the highest degree in Freemasonry. Any Mason must undergo very difficult tests of proficiency before he qualifies for the third degree and it is probably from these ‘tests’ that the exhaustive questioning of criminals came to be called the third degree.” (QPB Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins, by Robert Hendrickson)
> ATCHOO!
Meaning: The sound you make when you sneeze
Origin: “Excluded from dictionaries, this imitative word corresponds oddly with the French à tes souhaits (pronounced ‘a tay soo-eh’), their version of ‘God bless.’ It even sounds like it, though à tes souhaits follows the sneeze. Is this overlap a mere fluke, or has somebody really been listening?” (The Secret Lives of Words, by Paul West)
POSTHUMOUS
Meaning: Something that arises from or occurs after one’s death
Origin: “Posthumous comes from the Latin postumus, ‘last’ or ‘lastborn,’ which, strictly speaking, could be applied to the last child born of a particular mother and father, without reference to death. The h crept into postumus by association with humus (earth or ground) and perhaps with some help from humare (to bury). The modern spelling and meaning were fixed by Posthumus Leonatus, hero of Shakespeare’s Cymbeline, who received this name, as the audience is informed at the start of the play, because he was born after his father died.” (Devious Derivations, by Hugh Rawson)
TATTOO
Meaning: A permanent mark on the skin made by ingraining an indelible pigment
Origin: “When Captain Cook sailed to Tahiti in 1769, he unwittingly introduced tattoos to sailors. Upon studying the island’s inhabitants, Cook described how ‘both sexes paint their bodys.’ Cook called it ‘tattow,’ his rendition of the Tahitian term tatau. The word was derived from the Polynesian ta, ‘to strike,’ a reference to the puncturing of the skin ‘with small instruments made of bone, cut into short teeth.’” (The Chronology of Words and Phrases, by Linda and Roger Flavell)
LUKEWARM
Meaning: Barely warm
Origin: “Luke was a Middle English word, now obsolete, meaning ‘warm,’ which was based on lew, another word for ‘warm.’ Lew, in turn, was derived from the Old English word hleow, meaning (guess what?) ‘warm.’ You have probably realized by now that lukewarm actually amounts to saying ‘warm-warm,’ but this sort of redundancy is common when obsolete words are carried over into modern usage.” (The Word Detective, by Evan Morris)
SEEDY
Meaning: Somewhat disreputable; squalid
Origin: “During the seasons when rye, barley, oats, and other grains were being planted, a fellow who spent his days in the fields was likely to be covered with seeds. Once the derisive title entered common usage, it came to mean anything run-down—from shacks to individuals.” (Why You Say It, by Webb Garrison)
Know Your -ologies
Anemology: The study of wind
Conchology: The study of shells
Dactylology: Communication using fingers (sign language)
Hippology: The study of horses
Ichthyology: The study of fish
Mycology: The study of fungi
Myrmecology: The study of ants
Neology: The study of new words
Nosology: The study of the classification of diseases
Oenology: The study of wines
Otology: The study of ears
Potamology: The study of rivers
Rhinology: The study of noses
Sinology: The study of Chinese culture
Matter Miscellany
Trash in landfills keeps its original weight, volume, and form for 40 years.
The average pencil will draw a line 35 miles long.
Even clean air may contain as many as 1,500 specks of dust per cubic inch.
A cubic yard of air weighs about two pounds.
Most avalanches travel downhill at a rate of 22 mph.
The only rock that floats in water: pumice.
Sand melts at 3,100°F.
Sound travels a mile in five seconds through the air. Under water, it travels a mile in one second.
Scientific name for the dust we kick up when in motion: the “Pigpen effect.”
The average smell weighs 760 nanograms.
There are an estimated 30 billion billion molecules in a cubic centimeter of air.
It takes about 3 1/2 hours for sound waves to travel from San Francisco to New York.
Scientists don’t completely understand why thrown stones skip across water.
Helium-filled balloons float because helium is seven times lighter than air.
Hot water weighs more than cold water.
Mercury is the only metal that is liquid at room temperature.
Left to its own devices, one ton of iron can turn into three tons of rust.
Lead melts at a temperature of 620°F. Tin melts at 446°F. Mix them together and they melt at 356°F.
Dry ice doesn’t melt. It evaporates.
Eh Two, Canada?
Canada was the second country to legalize medical marijuana. (First: Belgium)
Canada has the second coldest national capital: Ottawa. (First: Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia)
Canada is the second largest foreign investor in Chile. (First: United States)
Canada has the second highest university enrollment rate in the world. (First: United States)
Canada has the second most tornadoes. (First: United States)
Canada is the second in pork exports. (First: Denmark)
Canada has the second highest amount of gum chewed per capita. (First: United States)
Canada has the second highest broadband Internet access in the world. (First: South Korea)
Canada was the second country to publish a national atlas. (First: Finland)
Canada has the second highest freshwater use per capita. (First: United States)
Canada has the second highest water quality. (First: Finland)
Canada is the second largest per capita emitter of greenhouse gases. (First: United States)
Canada has the second most biotech companies. (First: United States)
Canada is the second largest exporter of red meat. (First: Australia)
Canada is the second biggest market for U.S. seafood. (First: Japan)
Canada is the second largest foreign investor in Korea. (First: United States)
The Speed of Things
A penguin with a six-inch stride can run as fast as an average man.
Columbus traveled at an average speed of 2.8 miles per hour on his first voyage across the sea.
Water can flow through a plant at four miles per hour.
The speed of a roller coaster increases an average of 10 miles per hour when it’s raining.
Good thing they’re hauling gas: giant oil tankers get about 31 feet per gallon.
Flying fish “fly” at 40 miles per hour.
Top speed of a chicken at full gallop: 9 miles per hour. Top speed of a pigeon in flight: 90 miles per hour.
When you pop a champagne cork, it can travel as fast as 100 miles per hour.
Average speed of a golf ball in flight during the PGA Tour: 160 miles per hour.
Peregrine falcons can dive at speeds up to 240 miles an hour.
Toys
Barbie (the doll) has a last name: Roberts. Ken’s last name is Carson.
World’s largest manufacturer of female apparel: Mattel. (They make Barbie clothes.)
Chance of meeting someone with Barbie’s human-scale measurements (36–18–33): one in 100,000. Chance of meeting someone with Ken’s: one in 50.
Easy-Bake Ovens have been sold since 1964.
If you lined up all the Slinkys ever made, they could wrap around the world 126 times.
You can buy a gold-plated Slinky for $100. Sterling silver: $400.
Play-Doh was used as a wallpaper cleaner before it became a toy.
Lego has manufactured more than 189 billion pieces in 2,000 different shapes since 1949, about 30 Lego pieces for every living person on earth.
Annual sales of G.I. Joe increased by 46 percent in 2002—following the 9/11 attacks.
The import of stuffed animals and female dolls is banned in Saudi Arabia.
Nearly 21,000 people are injured every year from air rifles, paintball pistols, and BB guns.
In 1958 Crayo
la changed its “Prussian blue” to “midnight blue” in response to teacher recommendations that children could no longer relate to Prussian history.
World’s most popular “laptop”: the Etch A Sketch.
Processed Foods
First food eaten by an American in space: pureed applesauce from a tube.
There are 27 chemicals that can be added to bread without being listed on the label.
The first cereal to come in a box? Shredded Wheat.
First food product permitted by law to have artificial coloring: butter. (It’s naturally white.)
One of the most popular soups in 1929: peanut butter soup.
The first canned foods appeared in 1810, but the can opener wasn’t invented until 1858.
Most of the egg rolls sold in the United States are made in Houston.
Lemon Pledge has more lemons than Country Time Lemonade.
Six weeks after an aluminum can is recycled, it’s back on the shelf in the form of a new can.
First Editions
World’s First Dictionary: Explaining Words, Analyzing Characters (A.D. 100), by Xu Shen. Chinese words and definitions.
World’s First Fantasy Story: The Castaway, published in Egypt circa 1950 B.C. The story of a man who is shipwrecked on an island ruled by a giant bearded serpent with a deep voice and an ability to predict the future.
World’s First Sci-Fi Story: True History, by Lucian of Samosata, published in the 2nd century A.D. Adventures in outer space, in unknown seas, and on the moon. Everyone in space speaks Greek.
World’s First Book of Firsts: Origins of Ages (100 B.C.), author unknown. Lists the founders of the ruling families of China.
World’s First Novel: Cyropaedia (360 B.C.), by the Greek author Xenophon. An account of the life of Cyrus, founder of the Persian empire. The book offers “an idealized account of Persian society, contrasting with the unsympathetic views of most Greeks.”
Uncle John's Bathroom Reader Extraordinary Book of Facts: And Bizarre Information (Bathroom Readers) Page 8
