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RETURN

Weird Fact of the Month

12/07  Christmas Trivia – "The 12 Days of Christmas"
It is said that the traditional Christmas carol "The Twelve Days of Christmas" was 
written as a secret teaching tool to instruct children in the meaning of the Christian 
faith.  From 1558 to 1829 Roman Catholics in England were apparently forbidden 
to openly practice their religion.  This carol was devised to get the message across
without upsetting the Protestants.  Here is the code:

This trivia came from numerous web sites.

11/07  Where do these weird sayings come from?
We use many expressions in our daily conversations that we really have no idea what
they mean or where they got their start.  Here are samples of some of them along with
their origins:

In The Nick Of Time (just before time is up) - 
Years ago, the scores of some games (like soccer) were kept by cutting notches or
"nicks" in each end of a wooden Tally Stick.  A winning goal that came just before the 
clock ran out was said to be a "nick in time."

Pull The Wool Over Someone's Eyes (trick or deceive) -
In the days when gentlemen wore powdered wigs, "wool" was a slang word for hair.  
Jokesters would knock a man's wig (his wool) down over his eyes so that he couldn't 
see what was happening.

The Jig Is Up (The game or trick is exposed) -
In Shakespeare's time, "jig" was slang for trick.  When the "jig is up", the trick has
been discovered.

A Flash In The Pan (something that looks like it will be a big success, but
does not work out) -
Flintlock muskets had a little pan to be filled with gunpowder.  When the trigger was 
pulled, a spark from the flint would light that powder.  It was supposed to burn 
through a hole in the barrel and light more powder behind the bullet. A "flash in the 
pan" made light and smoke for a second, but did not fire the bullet.

Raining Cats And Dogs (raining very heavily) -
Centuries ago, people thought certain animals had magical powers.  Sailors believed 
cats had something to do with rainstorms.  Dogs and wolves were symbols of wind 
in Norse mythology.

This trivia came from the World Almanac for Kids (2003 edition).

10/07  "Mobile" home lacks curb appeal:

This past September, Patrick Richardson’s house was stuck for more than a week next to 
the Hollywood Freeway in Universal City, California.  He was transporting the house from 
Santa Monica to the Santa Clarita Valley when it struck an overpass, shearing off the top of 
its gabled roof.  For 10 days, the sagging house was parked on the freeway's shoulder.
The old advertising slogan, "If you lived here you'd be home now," had been uttered a
thousand times.  Radio reports repeatedly blamed snarled commuter traffic on "that house
on the freeway."  Internet bloggers have joked about how the house has given new meaning 
to the term "easy freeway access."  Taggers scrawled fresh graffiti on the home every night.

The owner was trying to save money by moving the house himself.  By the time the 
20-foot-wide structure reached the downtown area, the wheels were reportedly coming loose 
from the trailer hauling the house.  Richardson made emergency repairs and lumbered 
onward, only to come to a halt again in Hollywood.  That's where his house struck the 
14-foot-10-inch Western Avenue bridge.  The impact sheared off the top of the structure's 
roof.  It took hours to free the stuck house.  Richardson eventually was able to limp another 
3-1/2 miles to where the shoulder beneath the overpass was wide enough for the house to 
be parked out of traffic lanes.  That is where the structure sat, day after day, rush hour after 
rush hour.

With all the graffiti, photographers and blogger's comments; the incident took on a life of 
its own.

The house generated urban myths. Stories that homeless people had broken in and started 
living there and that some of the structure's interior furnishings, including a TV, apparently 
were stolen (although not confirmed).

The deadline to move the house came and went, so professional movers were hired to 
move the home and trailer to an undisclosed location.  Of course, the bill will be going to 
the home owner.

This whole situation happened because the owner was trying to save some money.  Now 
he has moving bills, fees, a severely damaged house splattered with graffiti, damaged 
furniture, loss of contents, and an embarrassing story that will be hard to live down.

Something to consider for the future:  Leave the big stuff to the professionals.

This compressed and slightly edited story came from the on-line version of the LA Times.
The original reporters and contributors were:
By Bob Pool, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer, September 25, 2007
Dana Bartholomew, Staff Writer
Brian Vander Brug / LAT
Gene Blevins/Special to the Daily News
Daily News Staff Writer Carol Rock

9/07  If at first you don't succeed, try, try again (then ask someone):
This past April, a supermarket chain in the UK decided to lecture shoppers about Easter.  
"Brits are set to spend a massive 520 million pounds ($1.02 billion U.S. dollars) on Easter 
eggs this year." it said in a press release.  "Many young people don't even know what 
Easter is all about."  It then went on to tell everyone it's "the birth of Jesus."  A hasty revision, 
which made reference to "Britons' mounting ignorance regarding Easter," changed the 
references to "rebirth" before a third version was released to use the word "resurrection" 
after it had "consultations" with the Church of England. 

(Well, they may have been way wrong about the meaning of Easter, but at least they
were absolutely correct about the "being ignorant" part).

This story came from the weird trivia site thisistrue.com ( This Is True).

8/07  Are felons more important than the public?
Two convicted murderers are among 13 escapees from a prison in Sudbury, 
Derbyshire, England, in recent months.  But most of the men, including the murderers, 
are still at large because police won't release their photos since that could breach their 
human rights. 
"When making a decision to release any photograph, police forces must take into 
account numerous factors including the public interest test,"  lectured a police 
spokesman.  The test is "whether there is a strong local policing purpose and, of course, 
the Human Rights and Data Protection Acts." 
So now what?  The spokesman said by escaping, the felons "abused the trust we have 
placed in them," and "it's up to us to trace their whereabouts."

(Of course we wouldn't want to abuse the rights of murderers.  I guess the public 
will just have to take their chances while the police abuse the trust the public 
placed in them.)

This story also came from the weird trivia site thisistrue.com (This Is Also True).

7/07  In the middle of.......
If you wanted to see an island in a lake on an island in a lake on an island, where
would you go? You would have to end up at Lake Taal in Luzon, Philippines.
The Philippines is a country made up of islands in the south Pacific Ocean.  One of 
the islands has a lake on it called Lake Taal.  In the middle of the lake is Volcano 
Island (still recently active).  In the middle of that island is another lake formed by 
the crater of the volcano.  Within that lake is a lava rock outcropping that forms 
yet another island.

 
Volcano Island (web photos)

6/07  In the shadow of the past:
At the present time, a home in Minneapolis' Lake Of The Isles neighborhood is
for sale at $5.75 million.  At 6400 square feet, it is dwarfed by the first home that
once occupied the site.  
The Gates Mansion, built in 1914, was a 40-bedroom, 38,000 square foot (yes,
that's 38 thousand.  The average comfortable new home is around  2000-3000 
sq. ft.) was Minneapolis' biggest and most expensive.  It was built as a love nest
for Charles Gates and his new bride.  It was also the first residence in the United
States to be air conditioned.  Gates never lived in the house.  He died after a
hunting trip to Wyoming with Buffalo Bill Cody.  The second owner never lived
in the house either.  He died in 1929.  Finally, the house was demolished in the
mid-1930s.

5/07  What's in a name?
Members of the Growing in Grace ministry in Florida are convinced that
their 60-year-old leader is the reincarnation of Jesus Christ. 
Jose Luis De Jesus Miranda doesn't have any formal religious training; rather, 
he is a former heroin addict and prison inmate from Puerto Rico who has 
convinced followers that he represents the second coming -- and has recently 
dubbed himself the Antichrist.  Members, who tithe up to 40 percent of their 
incomes, buy into the Antichrist title so much that they show their devotion 
by getting "666" tattoos.  De Jesus previously proclaimed he was the 
reincarnation of the Apostle Paul, then "the Other" before proclaiming himself 
both Christ and Antichrist.  (why don't they ever proclaim that they were 
once Bob the stable boy or someone like that?  Just wondering).
On a trip to Canada to get more converts there, De Jesus canceled an interview 
with the Winnipeg Sun when their reporter started asking about children getting 
"666" tattoos.  A spokeswoman offered to find someone else to do the 
interview, but the reporter asked why, since De Jesus claims only he can speak 
for his ministry.  "We don't function with common sense," she replied. (Miami 
Herald, Winnipeg Sun) ...You don't say.

This came from This Is True and backed up by other web sites also.  The
part about him claiming to be the Antichrist might not be too far-fetched.
His other claims are... well, you can fill in your own opinions here.

4/07  Moving ahead for safety:
The small town of Gaston, South Carolina, finally gave in and set up its
first stoplight in 1985.  Two hours later, a car ran the stoplight while it was
red, causing a four-car pileup.

3/07  28 Days?  Why February Gets The Short End:
The shortest month of the year seems to have gone by in a flash.  Why does
February have only 28 days?  It's the Romans' fault. Our modern calendar 
is loosely based on their old, confusing one.  Records are sparse and sketchy, 
but legend has it that the first king of Rome devised a 10-month lunar calendar 
that began at the spring equinox in March and ended with December because 
winter time wasn't important for the harvest.
The second king of Rome decided to make the calendar more accurate by 
matching it up with the actual lunar year, which is about 354 days long.  That is 
when January and February were added after December to account for the 
new days. 
The new months each had 28 days but even numbers were considered bad 
luck at the time, so a day was added on to January, giving the year an odd-
numbered 355 days.  No one knows why February was left with 28 and 
remained an unlucky month.  It may be related to the fact that Romans honored 
the dead and performed rites of purification in February.  (The word februare 
means "to purify" in the dialect of the ancient Sabine tribe.)  
The 355-day calendar couldn't stay in sync with the seasons because it didn't 
account for the amount of time it took for the Earth to orbit the sun, so an 
extra "unnamed" month of 27 days was inserted after February 23 every couple 
of years to even things out.  The pontiffs who were in charge of calendar 
upkeep didn't always add the extra month on schedule.  (Boy, imagine that
calendar programming nightmare on your Blackberry).
In around 45 B.C., Julius Caesar commissioned an expert to put aside the 
confusing lunar origins of the Roman calendar and make it sun-based, like the 
Egyptian one.  Caesar added 10 days to the calendar year and an extra day in 
February every four years.  (The leap-year day was inserted after the 23^rd, the 
same time as the old "extra" month.)  Now, the year averaged out to 365.25 
days, very close to the actual average length of a year: 365.2425 days (and even
that varies)

This is a condensed version of a story by Melonyce McAfee on Slate.com

2/07  The World's Most Dangerous Road:
Bolivia's North Yungas Road in South America is hands-down the most 
dangerous in the world for motorists.  It runs in the Bolivian Andes, 70 km 
(43 miles) from La Paz to Coroico, and plunges down almost 3,600 meters 
(11,811 ft) in a maze of extremely narrow hairpin curves and many near-misses
at the edge of an 800-meter (2624 ft) abyss. 
A fatal accident happens there every couple of weeks, and 100-200 people 
perish there every year.  
Along the route there are many visible reminders of accidents, and the 
wreckage of unfortunate buses and trucks lie scattered around at the bottom
of the valley.

 







Buses crowded with locals go in any weather, and try to beat the incoming 
traffic to the curves. It does not help that the fog and vapors rise up from the 
heavily vegetated valley below, resulting in almost constant fogs and limited 
visibility. Plus the tropical downpours cause parts of the road to slide down 
the mountain.

  

 



CLICK HERE to read a BBC article of a first-hand chilling account of
this adventure.

This condensed article is used by permission from Avi Abrams' web site 
'Dark Roast Blend'.  If you want to check out other dangerous roads, a 
hiking trail that hangs off the side of a mountain cliff, and strange old sci-fi 
stuff, CLICK HERE to check it out.  Thanks Avi!

1/07  Lesser Known Holidays:
Since everyone is still in the holiday spirit, here are some lesser known 
holidays to partake in.  There are "official" weird daily holidays (according 
to many fun-trivia web sites) throughout the year.  Here are a few samples 
for January:

Jan. 02:  National Chocolate Covered Cherry Day
Jan. 06:  Fruitcake Toss Day
Jan. 13:  Penguin Awareness Day
Jan. 21:  Squirrel Appreciation Day
Jan. 21:  National Hugging Day
Jan. 22:  Celebration of Life Day
Jan. 22:  Answer Your Cat's Questions Day
Jan. 23:  Rid The World of Fad Diets and Gimmicks Day
Jan. 29:  Bubble Wrap Appreciation Day

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Take me to the weirdness of 2006

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