Monday, August 19, 2024
Sunday, August 18, 2024
Personal Things
PERSONAL THINGS
Attitude With A Side Of Grr
Showing gratitude without completely being grateful.
Bravery
The story of an ill-advised road trip.
Capitol Buildings
My journey to visit each one.
It Is What It Is
Journal-like writings during my father's fatal illness.
Memorial For Someone I Should Have Met
The unconventional way I went to a wake and felt weird about doing so.
My Tattoos
A rated-PG guide to the ink that's permanently on my body.
My Theory
What happened surrounding my mother's suicide.
Reflections On Vagabonding
Wishing I had done more during my 20+ months of aimlessness.
The Greaving Mother
An insane woman accused 12-year-old me of something awful.
The Most Meat-Heady Thing I've Ever Experienced
Unnecessary testosterone almost ruined a good time.
Turn The Paige
The unbearable obligation of talking to strangers.
Opinions & Rants
OPINIONS & RANTS
Analysis of a
Catholic church's ridiculous newsletter.
The world might be
more peaceful if people were not so confident.
What I think of your baby. But not really. Or something.
A simple sandwich just might represent peace.
A dramatic argument that going out to eat is awful.
Many ways in which a particular mammal is far superior to a certain
bird.
Why the world would benefit from cemeteries being eliminated.
Encouragement to think critically and look beyond what you are first told.
Lesser-known but disturbing tales from The Good Book.
The dissection of a common nice gesture.
A brief history of time (not that one) discussing how days and years
came to be and the silliness of Daylight Saving Time.
A fake advertisement for candles.
A bunch of sad realities and the introduction of Giffyblap.
An essay on evil people with a correlation to poop.
A simple expression and nice gesture lead to chaotic rage.
Factual Articles
FACTUAL ARTICLES
I strive for accuracy and always use at least 2-3 sources before adding something. If you spot an error, please comment at the bottom of the appropriate page.
A basic how-to attempting to clear up confusion.
Explanations of all its parts.
The origins of common holidays.
Basic information on some of the oldest schools in the United States.
Where we live, what surrounds us, and just how huge the Sun is.
A list of unused "conversation starters".
Important and/or interesting facts about the American presidency, Electoral College, and each commander-in-chief.
Definitions and origins of common phrases and words.
Comparing and contrasting common things, such as frogs/toads, tsunamis/tidal waves, and religious denominations.
The fourteen ancient and modern architectural wonders of the world.
VIDEOS
Here are some videos I have been in and/or worked on. Enjoy!
Literal Pigskin Picks
For the 2019-20 NFL season, I made a series of increasingly silly videos picking winners based on the teams' names. It was accompanied by a since-removed tally of all picks. (Weeks 7 and 8 have gone missing for some reason.)
Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, Week 4, Week 5, Week 6, Week 9, Week 10, Week 11, Week 12, Week 13, Week 14, Week 15, Week 16, Week 17, Playoffs Week 1, Super Bowl
BONUS
2020 Mock Mock Draft
BONUS
2020 Mock Mock Draft
I Never Sausage A Hot Dog
My friend Mark loves hot dogs and I've filmed him discussing different styles and interviewing restaurant owners.
Random
A lonely man comes to terms with his inner rabbit.
A man dressed as Eeyore confronts an intruder.
A group of men wants a woman to lick the meat.
Some pictures of me looking lost while vagabonding, set to a song by The Beatles.
A guy runs around in a kilt, screams, and slaps people.
A guy runs around in a kilt, screams, and slaps people... but in a different location.
Parody of a scene from The Shining for a friend's brewery.
Poetry
Poetry
Know how most poetry is awful, especially when written during high school and college times? I don't claim that mine is an exception but maybe there's a line or two that is interesting. We'll see.
(Not to worry- I won't ever update this.)
Enjoy!
Sorrow & Things You Never Knew
Saturday, August 17, 2024
What Does That Mean?
What Does That Mean?
What is a gift horse? How can a fiddle be fit? Is a dead ringer the same as a spitting image?
Below are links to common expressions and words, their meanings, and their often-curious origins.
Many have been translated through the centuries and the original connotations
are disputed. Keeping that uncertainty in mind, I have chosen the most reasonable and/or interesting explanations.
To suggest more things, use the comments section below!
Current words/phrases: 350
***NEWEST ADDITIONS***
November 19, 2024:
Beantown, cretin, cutting-edge technology, giving
the cold shoulder, NATO, out of whack, Phillips-head screwdriver
ain't, bought the farm, catch-22 + many others
don't look a gift horse in the mouth, et cetera, fifteen minutes of fame + many others
gas-lighting, happy as a clam, in a nutshell + many others
Jesus H. Christ, kick the bucket, loose lips sink ships + many others
mayday, neck of the wood, Oedipus complex + many others
pardon my French, quitting cold turkey, raining cats & dogs + many others
saved by the bell, the bee's knees, under the weather + many others
vice versa, wiggle room + some others
SOURCES
Google, The Phrase Finder, Mental Floss,
Etymonline, idiomorigins.org, Grammarist, Wikipedia.org, wordhistories.net, spellingbee.com,
Reader’s Digest, Take Our Word For It,
The Conversation,
Collins Dictionary, Inverse.com, HistoryNewsNetwork.org, VeryWellMind.com, Grammarphobia.com, Urban Dictionary, Say Why Do I, Greek Boston, GreekMythology.com, Insider.com, Snopes.com,
Almanac.com, US Dairy, WritingExplained.com, Bored Panda, The Hindu, U.S. Department Of Defense, Social Security Administration, MirandaRights.org,
USCourts.gov, Calemon Law
What's The Difference?
WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE?
These continually-updated lists explain the differences between commonly confused things.
Comment at the bottom of this page to suggest things you are too lazy to look up yourself. I would be glad to do that work for you.
...
Newest differences
(updated October 4th, 2024)
dinner/supper, Iceland/Greenland, highway/freeway/++++ (Common Things)
typical/stereotypical (Grammar)
Virgin Mary/Mary Magdalene (People)
cherubim/seraphim (Religion)
...
Examples: alligator/crocodile, insect/bug, turtle/tortoise
COMMON THINGS
Examples: country/nation, concrete/cement, jail/prison
GRAMMAR
Examples: country/nation, concrete/cement, jail/prison
GRAMMAR
Examples: farther/further, infamous/notorious, your/you're
Examples: half/step siblings, LGBTQ+, psychopath/sociopath
Examples: Amish/Mennonites, Sunni/Shia, branches of Christianity
Examples: asteroid/meteor, metric/imperial, special/general relativity
SOURCES
Google, Mental Floss, Wikipedia, Kestrel Meters, Diffen, National Oceanic
& Atmospheric Administration, Encyclopedia
Brittanica, Family Search, Garden Design, National Snow&
Ice Data Center, Quora, PBS, Learn Religions, History, My Jewish Learning, BBC, Grammarist, The Atlantic, The Phrase Finder, Thought Co., Criminal Defense
Lawyer, Space.com, Clark Exterminating
Company, Arizona State
University, American Museum of
Natural History, Online Etymology
Dictionary, The Mayo Clinic, Understanding
Dwarfism, Sciencing, Grammarly, Vice.com, Library of Congress, Bon Appetit, North Carolina Sweet
Potatoes, National Center for
Biotechnological Information, National Health
Service (UK), Senate.gov, CNN.com, Spark Notes, MIT School of
Engineering, Worldstandards.eu, Oscars.org, Emmys.com, TonyAwards.com, Outright
International, Forces.net, GoodYearBlimp.com, Greenbelly Meals, American Museum of Natural History; Utah Geological Survey, www.gotquestions.org
Phone Balone
Phone Balone
I have a
list in my phone of trivia I’ve learned and found interesting. These tidbits
were meant to start conversations or be inserted when there’s a lull.
However…
Doing that
has been a rare exception.
Instead of
keeping it hidden, here is the list. The bold/italic part is what I originally
wrote and below are explanations, if applicable. Admittedly, I have no idea
what some of these things that made sense at the time now mean.
In a way,
I’m calling myself out for being too hesitant to really use these things.
Perhaps they can spark discussions in other ways now.
Also, you
can probably determine the type of book I was reading at the time.
-----------------------------
West
(Roman CC) and East (Byzantine/Orthodox)
Known as The
Great Schism, in 1054, Pope Leo IX and Patriarch Michael Cerularius disagreed over
important religious matters like celibacy and what type of bread should be used
for Communion. They excommunicated each other and formed the largest sects of Christianity-
the Catholic Church based in Rome and the Orthodox Church headquartered in
Constantinople (now known as Istanbul).
‘Muslim’
= ‘one who submits to Allah’
Sikhism
- goal was to bridge Hindus & Muslims
The world’s
fifth-largest religion has now become its own thing. Sikh men wear turbans and
women usually don conservative dress and head-coverings.
One
of them cannot exist
My answer to
the hypothetical question, ‘What happens when an unstoppable force meets an
immovable object?’
Is
hatred of evil good?
A
fraction of infinity is infinity
Weird to think
that a part of something could also be that entity itself.
Should
you also love the devil (enemy of God)?
According to
the Bible, humans should show love for everyone, including enemies.
Could?
Would? Should?
When over-thinking
something, I ask myself these questions while deciding whether or not to do it.
‘Could I?’ is akin to ‘Am I able to do it?’ and almost always results in a ‘yes’.
‘Would I?’ is similar to ‘Do I want to?’ And ‘Should I?’ can be seen as ‘Is
this safe and/or productive?’ Majority rules, though sometimes I don’t accept
that and proceed as I feel anyway.
If
God allows evil, shouldn’t we as well?
If A
= B, why does B exist?
Are
things themselves, or just patterned parts?
Nothing is
whole, as everything is made of atoms.
If
you save someone, they were worth saving
This idea goes
along with a traditional Chinese saying and forms part of the plot of Chuck
Palahniuk’s novel Choke, in which a guy cons people into preventing him from choking
to death and subsequently sending him money for bills that do not exist.
Can
‘funny’ ever be a fact?
Hawk
grabbing baby rabbit
In the
beginning of Ken Jennings’s book Planet Funny, he describes a video of a hawk
suddenly taking a baby rabbit. While Jennings does not find the idea humorous, he
couldn’t help laughing while watching the clip.
“Corny”
old jokes catered to rural life
Did you hear
about the wooden tractor? Wooden wheels, wooden engine, wooden work!
Joke
teller & audience must be ready for humor to work
Joke
fads make comedy attainable
Using
artificial sweetener is an unnatural act
Iran
- only religious can enroll in school
Iran is an
Islamic country and almost all aspects of a school’s curriculum reflect that.
Zoroastrianism, Judaism, and Christianity are considered minor religions but
one of the four must be officially declared by a person seeking public
education.
Compulsory
voting in Australia
Since 1924, everyone
over 18 must vote, unless an excused reason has been established. Though the
fine for not doing so is only $20, Australian voting rates routinely go above
90%.
J Appleseed
- apples inedible but were fermented
A real person,
John Chapman was a conservationist who helped many areas of the US grow apples
with his revolutionary methods- but they were not for eating. A very popular
alcoholic drink during the early 1800s was hard cider.
Growlers
were pails lined w/ lard to keep foam down
A popular hypothesis
suggests they were named for the sound carbon dioxide made when escaping the
vessel.
Sauerkraut
was called “liberty cabbage” during World War 1
Ciders
allowed during Prohibition
They were legal
as long as nothing was added to increase the alcohol content.
E.coli
is in already us and most is beneficial
Many strains
of the bacteria live in the intestines of healthy animals, including humans.
Rum
- blanket term for booze
During
Prohibition, people and ships that illegally moved alcohol around were called
rum runners.
Volstead
Act allowed cider and wine
Minnesota
Representative Andrew Volstead was primarily responsible for 1919’s National
Prohibition Act, which brought forth the 18th Amendment and outlawed
the sale, manufacture, or possession of beverages containing more than 0.5% ABV-
alcohol by volume. However, the Act permitted alcohol that was purchased prior
to its enactment, along with any used for religious and medicinal purposes. At
the time, many people became clergy members and doctors became quite popular,
prescribing alcohol for all sorts of reasons, including minor injuries and sore
throats.
Packages
told how NOT to create alcohol
Labels on grapes
advised against fermenting the product to turn it into wine and gave detailed
instructions on exactly what to avoid.
St.
Pierre was a middleman
Though close
to Canada, the French islands of Saint Pierre & Miquelon provided
much-needed storage for alcohol during Prohibition in the US. By law, Canadians
were forbidden from selling liquor in the US, so inhabitants of the islands supplied
that service for them.
Atlases
named for globe-trotting king, not the Titan
It is thought
that an atlas (book of maps) is called such after the mythological Greek Titan
whose job was to hold up the sky, however some argue the namesake is King Atlas
of Mauretania, an ancient kingdom in northern Africa. Whether the latter holds
the honor or not, the Atlas Mountains are in that region and the word forms the
root of Atlantic.
Mondegreen
= mishearing song lyrics
Planners
never saw Baldwin St. in NZ
Baldwin Street
in Dunedin, New Zealand, is the world’s steepest road. City planners in London,
who had never visited the area, were in for quite a shock when they marked the
road as a straight line.
Places
on road signs are called “control cities”
The
mascot of Prohibition Party was the camel
Kepler
- pretended astrology for money
German astronomer
Johannes Kepler wrote that astrology was valid but excessive use of it was bad.
However, he was not getting paid enough for Astronomy, so he focused on
astrology to earn money, because people were much more interested in that
subject. And now there is a college named for him that features “education” in
astrology. Go figure.
Good/bad
witches in Oz; having both was new
The concept of
good and bad was not new, but L. Frank Baum broke tradition by including a good
witch in the first of his 14 books about Oz.
Joining
a Crusade meant eliminating debt and crimes
It’s as if
some people tried to gain control of Jerusalem for reasons that had nothing to
do with religious beliefs.
“Heaven
is full”
This was an “official”
reason given for the failure of the second Crusade.
Mosaic
= “of Moses”
There is
actually no proof that the term means this, but Moses *was* given quite an
array of people to protect. It probably comes from Latin and refers to the
Muses, goddesses in Greek mythology who inspired people to create art.
Both
Martin Luther and John Calvin believed in (and condemned) witchcraft
Gellie
Duncan - devil helped her heal people
A young Scottish
woman was tortured into confessing that she was a witch for having a birthmark
on her body and allegedly helping to plot a storm in the North Sea. She was
also gifted at healing the sick, something that earned praise but also
suspicions of the church. She was pardoned in 2004, over 300 years after her
execution.
Poor
and diseased confessed to witchcraft
Being poor
and/or diseased was seen as a sign of sorcery, so many people made false
confessions, hoping their lives would be spared and possibly improved. In some
cases, it even worked!
Oh,
what a shocking bad hat!
An old-timey
insult meaning that a person was up to no good.
Trial
by fire, water, bread/cheese
In a former
region of Germany called Franconia, people accused of going against the church
were given options for their trials. One of them was to eat dry bread and
cheese without choking, which was a sign of guilt.
Dark
matter - bending light, keeping galaxies
Scientists don’t
officially know what dark matter is made of, but many are convinced of its
existence. There is a force that binds galaxies and sometimes make them behave
oddly (such as bending light when nothing visible is in its way) that they
believe dark matter is responsible for.
The
common cold has a variety of strains, therefore immunity is impossible
Carrots/eyesight
- WW2 British pilots
Carrots
contain beta-carotene, which the human body converts to Vitamin A. This has no
effect on healthy people but can aid eyesight in people with a natural
deficiency. During World War 2, British propaganda (falsely) claimed that
eating them gave their pilots night-vision. And yes, ‘carrots’ were named because
they are high in ‘carotene’.
ECREE
“Extreme
claims require extreme evidence.” -astronomer Carl Sagan
The
most-valuable things (other than lives) on the Titanic were Ostrich feathers
Chilean
sea bass actually toothfish
There is no
creature that is officially called a Chilean sea bass. It simply sounds more
appealing than ‘Patagonian toothfish’, which is what’s being eaten.
Sacre
bleu- for surprise
The French
phrase, meaning something like ‘holy blue’, was used as an oath to avoid taking
the lord’s name in vain.
Snake
anti-venom comes from horses
Although other
animals could produce anti-venom, horses are stronger and easier to work with
because they’re generally calm. For six months, horses are injected with small
amounts of poison until their blood and anti-bodies build up to a level where
they can be extracted and made for humans to fight against the toxic substances.
Lobsters
- cockroaches of the sea
In the 16- and
1700s, before they were discovered to be a delicacy, lobsters were food for poor
classes of people and even served as pet food.
If
universe was infinite, night sky would be brighter
According to a
very complicated theory known as Olbers’s Paradox, the argument for a finite
universe in which observable stars are moving away from Earth, therefore
shifting and dimming their light, causes the dark night sky.
Uncertainty
- not knowing speed AND position
German
physicist Werner Heisenberg (Breaking Bad fans will know that name) found that
knowing both a particle’s speed and position is impossible, because at least
one is constantly changing. This idea applies only to quantum physics, as
larger objects can be calculated with precision.
‘Ukelele’
is Hawaiian for ‘jumping flea’
The
numbers on a roulette table add up to 666
Reindeer
can see ultraviolet light
This helps
them find food and avoid predators in dark conditions.
Light,
electrons are particles or waves depending on observation
In a
complicated scientific experiment called double-slit, a beam of light is aimed
at a flat surface but directed at two slits in an otherwise non-penetrable
plane before arriving. The expected result would be two straight lines; however,
a striped pattern is seen. The beam must split itself in two to go through both
slits, but when the waves meet again, the pattern emerges, indicating that it’s
made of particles. An observer can view either, but never both at the same
time. (Still confused? Me too. But I tried. Science is hard.)
World
seed bank - Vavilov starved to death
In Leningrad
(now called Saint Petersburg), Russia, plant geneticist Nikolai Vavilov stored
thousands of seeds from around the world. Josef Stalin saw the building as a
threat because the botanist’s Science did not agree with the dictator’s
politics, which basically said that genes were not real, therefore settling
firmly on the second part of the Nature vs. Nurture debate. While the Nazis (who
believed that ONLY genes mattered) tried to overtake Leningrad, Vavilov starved
to death in a prison camp, having never “confessed” to a crime.
Nowadays, Svalbard,
Norway’s Global Seed Vault contains seeds from all the world’s plants, in case a
world-wide catastrophe should strike. It was inspired by the work of Vavilov
and his team.
Divorced,
beheaded, and died. Divorced, beheaded, survived.
The refrain
from a song in the show Horrible Histories, describing the fate of Henry VIII’s
six wives.
Von
Frisch - dance language of bees
Austrian ethologist
Karl von Frisch discovered that bees can communicate by dancing. (An ethologist
studies behavior in non-human animals.)
Alfred
Dreyfus - false espionage; J’accuse by Zola
As an Alsatian
in the French military, Dreyfus was falsely accused and convicted of being a
German spy. He was Jewish and therefore an easy scapegoat, though the actual
offender was a Catholic officer. The whole incident was described in and
brought to the public’s attention via Emile Zola’s publication J’accuse.
The
placenta evolved from a virus
Had it never
happened, you might not be here to read this. And I may never have written it.
Whoa.
Radio
waves 1 meter long, hard to track w ears
I have no idea
where I learned this or why, but some searching has found that humans cannot
hear radio waves over a meter in length because their frequencies are too low.
Only
virgins may approach unicorns
An early
description of unicorns comes from India. The animals were considered unique
and therefore magical and pure. Medieval interpretations of Christian folklore
likened the Virgin Mary to a unicorn, and the two often appear together in art.
Since unicorns represent purity, they only appreciate other innocent creatures.
“The
sleep of reason produces monsters.”
This was the
title of an illustration by Spanish artist Francisco Goya.
Arthur
Conan Doyle was not knighted for creating Sherlock Holmes
He was given
the title by Edward VII for serving as a doctor and publicly defending Britain’s
actions during the Boer War in South Africa.
Hitler
had a Jewish astrologer
To be fair to
Hitler, which is a very rare way to begin a sentence, Erik Jan Hanussen changed
his name from Hermann Steinschneider and posed as a Danish aristocrat. He was a
charlatan with claims of hypnotic and fortune-telling abilities. How many times
he advised Hitler is up for debate, but Hanussen definitely taught him how to captivate
and control a crowd. He was assassinated by Nazis after “predicting” the
Reichstag fire of 1933, proving that he could not be trusted with confidential
information.
“The
only facts in this book are page numbers.”
Peter
The Great- beard tax
In an attempt
to modernize and build the economy of Russia, the tsar imposed this tariff for
anyone wishing to keep a beard. The choices of those caught were to pay or be
publicly shaved.
Lactose
tolerance is a gene mutation
Exact
age of the Sphinx is uncertain due to rain and erosion
It’s believed
to be around 4,500 years old.
Quakers
paid triple taxes to remain neutral
Some refused
to pay taxes, claiming the government could use any amount of funds to go to
war.
Helium
discovered via Sun w/ prism
In 1868,
French astrophysicist Pierre Janssen saw a mysterious coloring through a
spectroscope (which acts like a large prism) during a solar eclipse. He
identified it as an extra-terrestrial element, which was later named after the
Greek word for Sun, helios.
An LED
bulb only emits light that humans can see
LED = Light
Emitting Diode. Older bulbs produced visible AND invisible light.
Genie
Wiley- locked up for childhood
Born in 1957,
Genie Wiley (not her real name) was discovered at 13, when her nearly-blind
mother accidentally took her into a social services office. (She had intended
to apply for disability benefits in the same building.) Genie caught the
attention of workers, who first thought she was much younger and autistic. It
was soon discovered that her father forced her to be tied up for most of her
childhood, only able to move fingers and toes. He also isolated his daughter, which
dis-allowed her to learn social skills. Though plenty of linguists tried, Genie
was never able to communicate verbally. It is believed, but not known for sure,
that she currently lives in California.
Hydrogen
(explosive) + Oxygen (combustive) = H2O
The molecules
in water are so tightly bound together that oxygen from the air cannot cause it
to explode.
The
Sirens became mermaids
In ancient
mythology (Greek *and* Roman), the Sirens sang irresistible songs to lure ships
toward them, which would always result in wrecking and death. Through the
evolution of story-telling, tales of mermaids likely resulted from the Sirens
being in the sea.
Milgram
experiment- electric shocks
In 1961, psychologist
Stanley Milgram tested how far people would go when pressured by authority. Participants
were instructed to administer electric shocks of increasing intensity to an
unseen subject each time he gave an incorrect answer to a question. Had a person
actually been hooked up to receive the jolts, many who partook would have given
fatal shocks. Everyone sent at least a dangerous amount. The experiment is seen
as unethical and controversial, but its importance is highly-regarded,
especially when approaching how people in Nazi Germany behaved. Were they truly
evil or just following orders?
Intersectionality
Black women suffer from oppression on two fronts, because of their skin *and*
gender.
Henotheism
= belief in one god among many
Jonah
- ran away, overboard, fish
According to
the Bible, Jonah went against God’s command and fled to a ship that was set to
cross the Mediterranean Sea. When a storm threatened the ship, Jonah revealed
himself to be the cause of its misfortune and suggested that the crew throw him
overboard. It worked and the tempest went away. While floating alone in the
sea, Jonah got swallowed by a huge fish and remained intact inside the creature
for three full days. Jonah prayed for forgiveness and God had the fish spit him
out on land, where he proceeded to fulfill God’s original order.
“The
death of one is a tragedy while the deaths of a million is just a statistic.”
Nothing
concrete attributes this historic quote to Josef Stalin.
Shiksa
= Yiddish for ‘attractive female gentile’, though it’s often used in a negative
way
David
ordered census, God got mad, 70k killed
David, king of
the Israelites, ordered a census to see how many warriors were in his realm.
This angered God, who gave David punishment choices, of which he picked a
plague that killed 70,000 people. It’s been said that David committed the sin
of pride but the true cause for God’s wrath in this passage is not known.
Saget
- no sodium, tears made chicken tasty
In Bob Saget’s
autobiography, Dirty Daddy, he described growing up with flavor-less meals.
Then he made a joke (or was it not?) about crying onto his food, which made it
appetizing.
Beauty
in art - like/dislike monarchies
Paintings (especially
British ones) frequently showed whether a ruler was liked by the artist or not.
Is
rigging game shows for entertainment wrong?
Birds
are born with egg teeth
Though not all
birds have them, an egg tooth is a protrusion from a chick’s beak that enables
it to emerge from the shell. After birth, the appendage falls off or gets
absorbed into the body.
Wilmer
McLean - Bull Run, Appomattox
Virginian
land-owner Wilmer McLean lived near Manassas, where one of the first battles in
the Civil War occurred. Hoping to avoid further involvement, he moved to
Appomattox, where, four years later, Confederate General Lee surrendered,
marking one of the last conflicts of the war.
In
the 1700s, whaling ships often left mail for other places at the Galapagos
Islands
Joan
Of Arc was burned for wearing male clothes
English troops
captured and convicted the teenager of heresy, but they also sentenced her to
death for cross-dressing, which was against divine law. Her ultimate downfall,
however, was insisting that the voices she heard were on the French side. (It’s
been rumored that she had syphilis (from abuse), which could explain her apparitions.)
Aboriginals
- spirit kids wanting to be born
I couldn’t
find anything about what this means, but ‘spirit children’ in Africa (specifically
Ghana) are born deformed, indicating a devastating event. They are often
exorcized or even killed.
Khadijah
had someone tell Muhammad to propose
She was the
first person to believe that Muhammad was a prophet and eventually became his
wife, though the idea was initially rejected because he did not have enough
money to support her. After finding out she had her own means as a successful
merchant with her tribe’s trading company, he agreed to the union.
Scours
- baby calves
Well, I just
learned the hard way that ‘scours’ is a disease that infects some calves that
causes diarrhea, which can lead to death.
Pulling
Christmas crackers
In the United
Kingdom and some of its Commonwealth countries, a holiday tradition involves putting
some kind of prize in a tube and decorating it. The whole thing is pulled apart
by two people and whoever ends up with the bigger side earns the contents. This
is called a ‘cracker’ because of the sound it makes during gameplay.
Without
vultures to eat carcasses, there would be more diseases
Rabies
prevents swallowing so the virus can spread
NGC
= New General Catalog (Caroline Herschel)
The first
woman to discover a comet and the sister of German astronomer William, Caroline
was instrumental in developing a system of compiling space objects, such as
nebulae and galaxy clusters.
Hippocrates
- things are not caused by angry gods
The “father of
medicine” was the first person to realize that diseases were caused by other
factors, after witnessing failures of prayer.
Cassini
rejected idea of finite light speed
His assistant,
Danish astronomer Ole Rømer, published the idea that light has a limit but does
not get enough credit for the discovery. Rømer also invented the first
practical thermometer.
Skiing
on planets with less gravity than Earth would smash records
In
the 1600s, surgeons were considered inferior
Pocahontas
corruption of Spanish for ‘no shame’
A member of
the Powhatan tribe, she was born Amonute and re-named Rebecca after converting
to Christianity so she could marry John Rolfe. ‘Pocahontas’, a childhood
nickname, probably means ‘playful one’ but could alternately be translated as ‘poorly-behaved’.
I could find nothing linking it to Spanish, corruption or not.
Urban
legend: Free ice cream on cruise ships = deaths
Dead bodies
are refrigerated, not frozen.
St.
Michael’s, MD - fooled British
During the War
Of 1812, the small town of Saint Michael’s knew it would be attacked. While
soldiers planned and battled nearby, the town’s citizens, taking advantage of
the dark, hung lanterns in trees and other high places, hoping to trick the
British into missing with their gunfire. This worked, according to local
legend, which has not been confirmed but doesn’t stop residents from dubbing
it, “The Town That Fooled The British”.
Banjo
- originally from Africa; seen as crude then classy
Ah, white
people…
BB
King - men fighting in bar
Before fame,
B.B. King was playing at a dance hall in Arkansas when a fight broke out
between two men in the audience, eventually causing a fire that burned the
venue down. King escaped the blaze but (foolishly) went back into the hall to get
his guitar. He learned the fight was over a woman named Lucille and called all
of his guitars such from that point forward.
Suicide
- men more likely to do, women to attempt
In 2022, males
had a “success rate” almost four times higher than females.
Guiteau
wrote Arthur about making him president
Attorney Charles
Guiteau assassinated James Garfield because he felt his support of the
presidential candidate was not properly rewarded with a government job. From
prison, Guiteau wrote a letter to the president’s successor, Chester A. Arthur,
claiming that he was responsible for Arthur’s given presidency and should
therefore be pardoned. Though technically correct, the request was denied. It is
still debated whether Guiteau went insane because of a disease, was a
narcissist, or a combination of the two.
Opioid
addiction began after the Civil War
Onanism,
known better as masturbation, was seen as a form of insanity in 1800s
Lobotomies
worked, but…
Mothman
may have predicted 9/11
The Mothman is
a legend from West Virginia that claims a giant creature with glowing red eyes
terrorized people in the 1960s. There have been “sightings” since, with people
claiming the beast can also predict and warn of disasters.
Wolf/sheep
is like sides in war
No idea where
this came from nor what it’s about.
Longpig
= human meat
The term was
derived from the language of Fijian cannibals. It supposedly tastes like pork.
1850
- Spain wouldn’t sell Cuba
The US was a
big supporter of Cuban independence, even offering Spain $100 million for the
island.
Forrest
ignored soldiers killing blacks
During the
American Civil War, Fort Pillow in Tennessee was held by Union forces. An
attack by a Confederate sniper killed the fort’s commander, then the new one ran
away when learning that another assault was imminent. The Southern troops faced
little resistance because the remaining Union soldiers surrendered. Instead of
taking them as prisoners of war, they were massacred because most of them were
black. Their commanding officer, Nathan Forrest, defended the action, claiming
it was not about race but necessity.
FDR
was afraid of fire
The man who
said, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself” and was known for giving
Fireside Chats, was indeed scared of something, though it was justified. Because
of his Polio, Roosevelt could not easily escape from his house should a fire have
occurred. He developed many precautions, including never locking doors, and
regularly held practice runs to test the situation. Apparently, he was also wary
of the number 13.
Urdu/Hindi
similar at first, different when “proper”
The languages
of Pakistan and India have over 70% vocabulary in common and use the same
sentence structure. Differences begin to appear as they get fancier.
Old
Ironsides was made out of oak
The war-ship USS
Constitution consisted of very strong wood, which supposedly made cannon-balls
bounce off of it.
A
group of ravens is called an unkindness
SOURCES
google.com, nationalgeographic.org, Department of Territory Families, Housing,
& Communities, en.wikipedia.org, Harvard International Review, Australian Electoral Commission, www.smithsonianmag.com, www.merriam-webster.com/, thecounter.org, The Etymology Nerd, sciencehistory.org, mentalfloss.com, theguardian.com
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