A Few Little Known Facts

[Braveheart 0]

A few little known facts for you...

 

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, "goodnight, sleep tight" came

from.

 

 

2. The sentence "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog." uses every letter in the alphabet.

 

It was developed by Western Union to test telex/twx

communications.

 

 

3. The Main Library at Indiana University sinks over an inch every year because when it was built, engineers failed to take into account the weight of all the books that would occupy the building.

 

 

4. The phrase "rule of thumb" is derived from old English law which stated that you couldn't beat your wife with anything wider than your thumb.

 

 

5. Ten percent of the Russian government's income comes from the sale of vodka.

 

 

6. Only one person in two billion will live to be 116 or older.

 

 

7. In Cleveland, Ohio, it's illegal to catch mice without a hunting license.

 

 

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

 

 

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

 

 

10. The 3 most valuable brand names on earth: Marlboro, Coca-Cola, and Budweiser, in that order.

 

 

11. In 10 minutes, a hurricane releases more energy than all the world's nuclear weapons combined.

 

 

12. 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" or what we know today as the "honeymoon."

 

 

13. In English pubs, ale is ordered by pints and quarts. So,in old England, when customers got unruly, the bartender would yell at them to mind their own pints and quarts and settle down.

 

It's where we get the phrase "mind your P's and Q's."

 

 

14. 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.

 

 

And last but not least...

 

15. In ancient England, you could not have sex unless you had consent of the King (unless you were in the Royal Family). When anyone wanted to have a baby, they

got consent of the King & the King gave them a placard that they hung on their door while they were having sex. The placard had F.U.C.K. (Fornication Under

Consent of the King) on it. Now you know where that came from.

 

Don't you feel smarter???

[upena 2]

regarding #15

 

See Snopes

[dave_boo 0]

I also take issue with the P's and Q's line. Whilst it is a fine tale, it is more likely to have sprung up with the printing press explosion, where a careless assistant would waste money during typesetting if he got the p's and q's put in backwards (fairly simple mistake if you look at a cast p and q for printing).