Useless Fact - Halloween:

Halloween has ancient origins in the United Kingdom. It seems to be a version of the ancient Celtic holiday called "Samhain" (sow' an) celebrating the end of harvest and the beginning of the new year. The Druids, a Celtic religious group, brought in Saman, the Lord of the Dead. They believed that the dead were allowed to wander on earth in search of living bodies to take over and turn into evil witches. People made themselves and their homes as undesirable as possible to keep the spirits away by wearing costumes, masks, being loud and obnoxious, and keeping their homes cold and dark.

With the onset of Christianity in the U.K., the celebration shifted into "Halloween." The Scottish referred to October 31st, the night before All Saints Day, a Catholic holiday honoring those who had died in the faith, as "Hallowe'en." In Old English, "hallow," means to sanctify. The Irish came up with trick-or-treating when peasants went door-to-door demanding food to celebrate. Homeowner's gave them "soul cakes" to prevent bad curses and encourage prayers that would help them get into heaven. The Scottish had a special cake called "Dumb Bannock." They baked this cake on Halloween to predict who would be married in the coming year. The English added bobbing for apples: whoever bit into an apple first, would be married first the next year.

Halloween in America The Irish brought the holiday to the United States in the 1840's. American's adopted the Jack-o-Lantern, a tradition started in Ireland as a result of folklore. Special decorations went up using colors that reflect the ancient origins: orange signifying harvest and black signifying death. Skeletons were added from the Day of the Dead festival celebrated in Mexico. Candy was chosen over soul cakes, costumes became funny as well as scary, and the first card made its appearance in 1920. In 1950, a group of
Sunday school children decided to trick-or-treat for money for needy children rather than candy. They raised and donated $17.00 and started the tradition of trick-or-treating for UNICEF. Halloween is here to stay, so let the haunting begin.

Where did pay toilets go?

You date yourself.

Although most people alive today don't remember coin-slotted lavatories, they were once quite common.

The original thought was that making people pay for the "service"
would encourage them to keep the toilet clean. But the opposite
happened. People were so angry at having to pay to carry out basic biological functions that vandalism increased, costing more to fix than could ever be collected in dimes.

Furthermore, women's groups declared pay toilets discriminatory because women had to pay to urinate, whereas men had the luxury of free urinals.

Many courts backed this argument, and by the late 1960s, most coin slots had been removed.

Today pay toilets are very rare indeed.

Why does scratching an itch make it feel better?

The old saying goes that if your palm itches you will come into some money. Finding money may be nice but it won't do a thing for your itch.

A good scratch will. An itch can be caused by almost anything—insects, dust particles, allergies, emotions, infections, etc. All itches result for the same reason: local stimuli are irritating the fibrous nerve endings on the upper layer of the skin. The brain interprets these stimuli as itches.

Scratching can either remove the stimuli or cause pain in the area of the itch, which neutralizes the itching sensation in the spinal cord. While we are on the subject of itches, why is it that shirt manufacturers insist on sewing their itchy labels on the inside of the collar, where they are guaranteed to rub against the back of our necks and make us itch all day long?

- Ruffian, the racehorse who refused to be
beaten.

Ruffian (born April 17th 1972 ) was a filly that won her very first race by 13 lengths and broke the track record. In her first two years of racing she won every race she entered. Late in her second year of racing she fractured a bone and was retired to rest for a while. Even so, she was crowned two-year-old filly of the year. As a three-year-old, she raced longer distances and won every time. She won all three legs of the Filly Triple Crown and seemed destined for greatness. But there was one more test.

It was decided to hold a match race on July 6th at Belmont Park between Ruffian and the winner of that year's Kentucky Derby, Foolish Pleasure. Over 31,000 people watched the match. The match was considered the battle of the sexes. Could the giant black filly beat a colt?

Foolish Pleasure took an early lead but Ruffian came on strong and pulled in front by half a length. As they reached the mile marker, the two great horses were running neck and neck.Then it happened. There was a sickening crack. Ruffian had broken her leg.

Her jockey struggled to pull her up but she was fighting him. She
wanted to continue the race in spite of her shattered leg.A team of four veterinarians and an orthopedic surgeon worked for 12 hours trying to save her leg, during which time she stopped breathing twice and had to be revived. When the anesthetic wore off, she started thrashing her legs around like she was running, her mind was still in the race, and although they tried to restrain her, she flailed about and broke her other leg.

The veterinarians knew she could not survive further surgery so they put the gallant horse to sleep to end her suffering.

Ruffian was buried at Belmont Park, near the flagpole. As a fitting tribute, they buried her with her nose facing the finish line.

Flags flew at half mast that sad day.

MARY CELESTE--A Maritime Mystery

The Mary Celeste was a 100 foot brigantine which weighed 282 tons and was registered in New York. On November 7, 1872 she sailed from New York bound for Genoa with a cargo of 1701 barrels of American alcohol (Value-$35,000). The ship was valued at $14,000.

On board the Mary Celeste were Master Benjamin Spooner Briggs (Captain), his wife Sarah, two year old daughter Sophia Matilda and a crew of seven.

Another ship the 'Dei Gratia' sailed on November 15, 1872 from New York with a cargo of 1735 barrels of petroleum. The 'Dei Gratia' was following a parallel course of the Mary Celeste.

On December 5, 1872 , the 'Dei Gratia' came upon the Mary Celeste. The crew noticed that the ship was yawing (coming into the wind and then falling off--or out of control). Eventually, several crew members of the 'Dei Gratia' boarded the Mary Celeste. They found the vessel to be in seaworthy condition, but apparently abandoned (and in a hurry).

The Crew of the 'Dei Gratia' was divided and helped sail the Mary Celeste safely to Gibraltar. She arrived Friday, December 13, 1872 at approximately 9:00 AM. There has been much speculation over the years as to what happened to the Captain, his family, and the crew of the Mary Celeste. To this day, it remains one of the greatest of Maritime Mysteries.

The Mary Celeste was not the only ship to be found abandoned. In April,1849,the Dutch schooner 'Hermania' was found dismasted but otherwise sound. It too was abandoned. And,in February, 1855, a ship named 'Marathon was also found abandoned but in perfect order.

Oysters and the "r" months.

The old belief that oysters are safe to eat only during the months that incorporate the letter r in their names is pure fiction. True, oysters tend to to be watery during the summer, but that poses no danger to health.

In spite of folklore to the contrary, by the way, oysters are no special help to virility or potency. They are a pretty poor source of energy in any sense; a half dozen raw ones of the kind commonly grown along the Atlantic coast add up to only some sixty calories.

- Plague:

Plague -- just mention the word and people cringe. But what exactly is this disease?

There have been three major epidemics of plague throughout history -- in the 6th, 14th, and 17th centuries (the approximate death toll from these three epidemics -- 137 million victims).

The most common name for this illness -- The Black Death or Bubonic Plague.

The Bubonic Plague is an infectious disease caused by a bacterium named 'Yersinia pestis'. It derives its name from the swollen lymph nodes or buboes that was but one of its many symptoms. Another term used to describe this illness was "The Black Death". This referred to the spots on the skin that are red at first and then turn black.

In the 1330's an outbreak of this deadly disease occurred in China. It was brought to Europe by merchant ships that were carrying dying people and infected rats. People usually become infected when bitten by a rodent flea that was carrying the plague bacterium.

The death rate was ninety percent for those exposed to the bacterium. Depending on the general health of the infected person, death usually occurred in less than one week. The Italian writer Boccaccio said its victims often "ate lunch with their friends and dinner with their ancestor in paradise."

At its worst, the Bubonic Plague killed two million victims a year.

After five years approximately 25 million people were dead -- one-third of Europe's population. A terrible killer was loose in Europe. Medieval medicine had nothing to combat it.

In winter, the disease seemed to disappear because the fleas who helped to carry it from person to person are dormant then.Survivors lived in constant fear that the plague would return.

Medieval Europe never recovered from the effects of the plague. So many people had died that there were serious labor shortages all over Europe. The Pneumonic form of the plague could be spread from person to person by coughing, sneezing, or simply talking.

Today, modern antibiotics are effective against plague, that is if the infected person is treated promptly. Outbreaks in people still occur. In the United States, the last urban plague epidemic occurred in Los Angeles in 1924-25.Since then, only scattered cases occur and most of these are in rural areas numbering ten to fifteen persons each year. The World Health Organization reports that globally 1,000 to 3,000 cases of plague occur every year.

In the United States most cases of plague occur in two regions:

1) northern New Mexico, northern Arizona, and southern Colorada

2) California, southern Oregon, and far western Nevada
And, plague also exists in South America, Asia, and Africa.

What's the origin of the hand signals used in baseball today?

In the early 1900s, the New York giants baseball team had a pitcher named Luther H. Taylor. He was a deaf mute who was, in an era of insensitivity, nicknamed "Dummy."Taylor lost a lot of games due to his inability to communicate with his teammates.

John McGraw, the manager of the Giants, was under enormous pressure from the team's owner,the fans and the sportswriters to trade Taylor. Instead, McGraw required the entire Giant team to learn American Sign Language. Once that was accomplished, McGraw used hand signals tolead his team.

That's the origin of the hand signals that are used in baseball today.

Useless fact - Why do flies swarm around a fixed spot in the air?

It depends. If there's nothing obvious around to attract the flies' interest, then usually the big draw is the other flies.

They're mating, you see. Swarming flies (often they're called gnats) don't live very long and they have to make hay while the sun shines, so to speak. We won't go into the details. Let's just say that years from now you'll probably spend some time in bars that operate along similar lines

~source used: "Know It All" by Ed Zotti

- Why do geese fly in a V?

Lots of guesses, no definite answers. Here are some of the top
theories.

1. The geese fly in a V to save energy. Some people think each goose flies close to the one in front of it because the goose in front blocks the wind. With less wind resistance to overcome, the goose behind doesn't have to work as hard. (Race car drivers do something similar: they try to drive close to the car in front so they'll use less gas.)Trouble is, for this idea to work, each goose would have to fly at a certain angle to the one in front and maintain a certain distance in between. And they'd all have to flap their wings at the same time. But they don't. The birds wander all over the place and flap their wings any which way.

2. It helps the geese stay together. The idea here is that by keeping the bird in front of them in view, the geese won't get lost. Geese have easy-to-spot tail markings that make this easier. Doubters, however, claim that the geese's honking is what keeps them together. What's more, geese stay in formation after dark, when they can't see the goose in front of them.

3. The geese fly in a V so other geese can recognize them at a distance. Why it's more important that one bunch of geese be able to recognize another bunch of geese I don't know, but that's the theory. So there you have it—another muddle. Maybe some hotshot young scientist of the future can get this straightened out.

Pores of the skin breathing.

Despite pseudo-scientific advertisements for various cosmetics and soaps, the pores do not "breathe," nor is there any need to go to special efforts, under ordinary circumstances, to "keep the pores open."

Among related fallacies is that painting or gilding the whole body closes up the pores and thus causes a quick death by suffocation. No truth in it. Keeping one's body gilded for any length of time would not, obviously, be desirable. But any ill effects would certainly not show themselves at once—assuming, that is, the absence of a toxic substance in the gilt.

useless fact - Why is the handle on the left side of the toilet when most people are right-handed?

The early pull-chain flushers were placed on the left side of the tank so that people sitting could reach up and flush with their right hand. When handles replaced the chains, the flush mechanism, although lowered, remained on the left side of the toilet. These days, 66% of people flush when standing, using the left hand or crossing over with the right. Even some of the sitter-downers admit to crossing over and using their left hand to flush because it wrenches the shoulder to try to flush with the right hand while sitting. The toilet is thus one of the few devices in our modern world set up for lefties.

Rated G Useless Facts

Why do the elephant and donkey represent the Republican and Democratic parties? Neither creature is particularly regal or distinguished. How did they come to be the symbols of our national parties?

One person is primarily responsible. A man named Thomas Nast was the most influential political cartoonist in U.S. history. He was the nineteenth-century version of Gary Trudeau, and worked for Harpers Weekly magazine as a political cartoonist. Another political cartoonist first used the donkey to represent the Democratic party in 1837, when a cartoon appeared depicting President Andrew Jackson riding the beast.

However, Nast is credited with popularizing this political symbol. In 1870, he drew a donkey labeled "theCopperhead Press," to mock the Democratic newspapers who sympathized with the South. Nast first used the elephant to represent the Republican party in a satirical cartoon. In 1874 the New York Herald reported that President Ulysses S. Grant intended to run for an unprecedented third term in 1876, and accused him of "Caesarism," referring to the famous Roman emperors. Several weeks later, the paper erroneously reported that animals from the New York City Zoo had escaped and were roaming around Central Park. On November 7, just before midterm elections, a Nast cartoon ran in Harper's Weekly depicting a donkey disguised as a lion and marked "Caesarism." The lion was scaring all the other animals that were loose in the park, including a huge elephant labeled "the Republican Vote."

Nast's depiction of the two parties using these animals was not complimentary but it stuck, and they now proudly represent their respective parties.

Incidentally, Nast is also famous for drawing the first modern-looking Santa Claus. Before Nast, Santa didn't even have a beard.

Do cats have belly buttons?

Sure. They just don't look like human belly buttons. Cat belly buttons are a long scar, often covered with hair, located just under the cat's rib cage. Almost all mammals have belly buttons because they all had, at one point, umbilical cords. Umbilical cords provide food and so on while the baby is still inside its mother's womb. The exceptions are the duckbill platypus, the echidna (also known as the spiny anteater), and Adam and Eve. The platypus and the echidna, which live in Australia, are born in eggs, so they don't have umbilical cords. As for Adam and Eve — well, think about it.