Trivial Tuesday!

Just some trivial bits and bobs for your blog-reading amusement!  Wouldn't want you to check in here and be bored or anything.

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, "good night, sleep tight" came from.

2. 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."

3. The name Jeep came from the abbreviation used in the army for the "General Purpose" vehicle, GP

4. The first toilet ever seen on television was on "Leave It To Beaver."

5. Thirty-five percent of the people who use personal ads for dating are already married.

6. The world's termites outweigh the world's humans 10 to 1.

7. On average, 100 people choke to death on ball point pens every year, so be careful.

8. One of the longest one-syllable words in the English language is screeched. (Strengths is another one.)

9. No word in the English language rhymes with month, orange, silver or purple.

10. "Dreamt" is the only English word that ends in the letters "mt".

Note: I found these trivial facts at the website http://www.dan.hersam.com/.  I don't know him, but you'd be surprised how nearly impossible it is to find website with, simply, lists of facts.  The world wide web is THE biggest collection of millions and millions of pieces of information...and yet, there are very few websites that just list facts about 'stuff'.  I guess I'll just start reading encyclopedias - you know, those collections of books we all turned to for information before the internet came along?  :-)

Later,
Jen