The origin of the "best man" tradition ~

"Best man" is of Scottish origin and goes back many centuries to the times when a prospective groom simply kidnaped the woman of his choice and carried her away with him.

Such a venture required courage and audacity as well as a good deal of manpower.

So the groom selected the bravest of his friends to accompany him. They were known as "groomsmen" - a term still used in some parts of the country to describe ushers at a wedding. the closest and most valiant of the bridegroom's associates became known as the "best man".

Similarly the bridesmaids were originally the closest friends of the bride, the ones who helped or pretended to help the bride defend herself against her abductors.

Why do we call Monday Monday and Friday Friday? For the answer, we must look back thousands of years and investigate a number of languages.

Our modern week owes much to the Babylonians, who were dividing years into seven-day weeks as long ago as the 15th century B.C. They also came up with the idea of naming days of the week after the seven heavenly bodies they knew best -- the sun and moon and the five inner planets.

When the Romans adopted the seven-day week, they gave the days Latin names associated with those same heavenly bodies: solis dies (sun's day), lunae dies(moon's day), Martis dies (Mars), Mercurii dies (Mercury), Jovis dies (Jupiter or Jove), Veneris dies (Venus), and Saturni dies (Saturn).

In Latin, the names of the planets (except the sun and moon) were also names of gods, and each day was dedicated to the god it was named for. You can still hear the influence of those Latin weekday names in the Romance languages (consider the French lundi, mardi, and mercredi, for Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday), although the French did rebaptize the more religiously significant weekend names samedi (a word related to Sabbath) and dimanche (from a Latin phrase meaning "Lord's day").

Like many civilizations, the early Germanic peoples were influenced by the Roman empire. They adopted the Roman seven-day week, but not without adding their own twist. Instead of picking up the Latin day-names wholesale, they translated them into their Germanic equivalents. Thus, solis dies (literally, sun's day) was translated to a compound that eventually yielded the Old English sunnandaeg (sunne, meaning "sun," and daeg, meaning "day"). The Latin lunae dies yielded the Old English monandaeg (from mona, Old English for moon).

The Germanic people also substituted the names of their own gods for Roman ones, matching the deities' similar characteristics. For instance, Mars was the Roman god of war. In Germanic mythology, the god Tyr (spelled Tiw in Old English) held that position. Thus, Mars' day became tiewesdaeg when it was translated into Old English.

The Roman god Mercury was associated with the Germanic god Odin (Woden in Old English), and Mercurii dies became wodnesdaeg. The Germanic thunder god, Thor, replaced the Roman god Jupiter or Jove to form the Old English thursdaeg, and the Germanic Frigg (wife of Odin) replaced the Roman Venus to give us Frigedaeg. But the Germanic people had no god to equate with Saturn, so they left him in place when they translated his day-name into the Old English as saeterndaeg, our
modern Saturday.

Nobody named Mercedes had anything to do with the production of
the Mercedes-Benz.

Instead, the name is that of the daughter of Emil Jellinek, the Austrian who habitually named his cars for her.

(In 1900, three of his racing cars were called Mercedes.) Later,
when he induced the Daimler automotive works to design a car for
him, he called it Mercedes.

Are pigs really "dirty" animals?

The pig's reputation for being dirty is ill-deserved. Even in fairly close confinement a pig will select a place in which to defecate and repeatedly use that spot and that spot only. Most domestic animals are indiscriminate in this respect.

In America the pig early received the reputation of "liking" filth, because in New England it was usually kept in the worst place on the farm - dark sty under the barn. In their natural state, pigs are forest-roaming creatures.

When day is hot, pigs will wallow in the mud - but not because they like dirt. The reason is that pigs have no perspiration apparatus, and this is their way of lowering the temperature of the skin.

Pigs are sometimes maligned for eating garbage. In captivity,of course, they eat what they are fed. It is well to recall that of all domestic animals their preferred diet is closest to that of human beings.

Finally, it is often said that pigs can not swim, because if they try, they will cut their own throats with their forehooves. This, also is nonsense. They can swim perfectly well.

The real meaning of "beat around the bush" is not so much to evade an issue entirely but to approach it cautiously and indirectly.

"Stop beating around the bush! Get to the point," goes back to many centuries and comes from the language of huntsman.

The first automobile was neither invented not produced in the
United States by Duryaes, by Henry Ford, or by anybody else.

Not even the second automobile, as a matter of fact, was invented or
produced in America.

Both honors go to Germany: The Benz Patent Motor Wagon was patented by Karl Benz in Mannheim in 1885; and the Daimler was patented the same year in Stuttgart, sixty miles away, by Gottlieb Daimler, working independently of Benz.

There isn't any such thing as bananas tree; bananas do not grow ontrees, but rather develop on very large herbs; the banana "tree" does not, in fact, have roots but a rhizome. And what appears to be its trunk, or stalk, is actually made up of very large leaves in tubular configuration. Nor is the banana native to the Western
Hemisphere; its origin, according to most horticulturists, lies in Southeast Asia.

BIG BEN

Many cooks turn up the heat to make something "boil faster". Waterboils at 212 degrees Fahrenheit (at sea level) and so long as it is in an open receptacle, its temperature cannot be raised any higher. Therefore furiously boiling water does not cook an egg, let's say, any faster than mildly boiling water.

Proof of this is the fact that a three-minute egg (at sea level) is a three-minute egg no matter how hard it boils.As neophytes in the mountains are forever learning, however, a "3-minute egg" takes a good deal longer at high altitudes, because water boils at a lower temperature there.

Do dogs sweat through their tongues? Dog's do not "sweat with their tongues," as is often said. There are some sweat glands in dogs, but the only ones of any significance are on the soles of their feet.

There are no sweat glands anywhere near the dog's muzzle.

It is quite possible for a catholic priest to be married, even
though a Catholic priest may not marry. Many Eastern Rite Catholic priests are, as a matter of fact, married, although their marriage must have taken place before ordination.

What does Air Force One have that other planes don't?

Yeah, the President. He wouldn’t tolerate the abysmal service or eat the peanuts they serve on your flight. Nor would there be any reason for that flight attendant with the painted-on-smile to tell him,
“have a nice day.” He knows he won’t.

Although any Air Force plane carrying him is designated Air Force One, there are two Boeing 747’s especially fitted for the
President’s use. When he goes bye-bye, he has a bedroom, an office, a private bathroom and a small gym. There’s office space for his staff, a conference/dining room, a medical treatment area and a communications section with about 20 TV monitors, secure phone lines and wiring shielded from the disrupting electrical pulse of a nuclear blast. The plane can be refueled in-flight, allowing him to stay up indefinitely.

Ah, I see the hands going up.

Why does a circle have 360 degrees?

We can thank the Egyptians for this. While a circle could have been divided up into any convenient number of degrees, the Egyptians chose 360, one degree for each of the solar days in the Egyptian year (they added five days a year to correct their calendar).

How many glasses of water a day should I be drinking?

Assuming you’re a person and not a fish, you know you need to make the effort to drink water.

But how much is enough? Six glasses a day? Eight?

More if you work out?

How much of your life do you want to spend peeing?

The publicly spirited bottled water companies seize upon every study that has pointed to the need for eight glasses, eight ounces each a day.

Selflessly, they remind us to fill’er up. But many nutritionists are challenging these figures as all wet. They say they are based on studies of atypical groups – hospital patients, soldiers active at high altitudes and the like.

So how much is enough? Assuming you eat a reasonably healthy diet and don’t have any special medical need for fluids, you may need no more than the amount that quenches your thirst.