Q: Did you ever wonder why dimes, quarters and half dollars have notches,
while pennies and nickels do not?

A: The US Mint began putting notches on the edges of coins containing gold
and silver to discourage holders from shaving off small quantities of the
precious metals. Dimes, quarters and half dollars are notched because they
used to contain silver. Pennies and nickels aren't notched because the
metals they contain are not valuable enough to shave.

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Q: Why do men's clothes have buttons on the right while women's clothes
have buttons on the left?

A: When buttons were invented, they were very expensive and worn primarily
by the rich. Because wealthy women were dressed by maids, dressmakers put
the buttons on the maid's right. Since most people are right-handed, it is
easier to push buttons on the right through holes on the left. And that's
where women's buttons have remained since.

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Q: Why do X's at the end of a letter signify kisses?

A: In the Middle Ages, when many people were unable to read or write,
documents were often signed using an X. Kissing the X represented an oath
to fulfill obligations specified in the document· The X and the kiss
eventually became synonymous.

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Q: Why is shifting responsibility to someone else called "passing the
buck"?

A: In card games, it was once customary to pass an item, called a buck,
from player to player to indicate whose turn it was to deal. If a player
did not wish to assume the responsibility, he would "pass the buck" to the
next player.

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Q: Why do people clink their glasses before drinking a toast?

A: It used to be common for someone to try to kill an enemy by offering him
a poisoned drink. To prove to a guest that a drink was safe, it became
customary for a guest to pour a small amount of his drink into the glass of
the host. Both men would drink it simultaneously. When a guest trusted
his host, he would then touch or clink the host's glass with his own.

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Q: Why are people in the public eye said to be "in the limelight"?

A: Invented in 1825, limelight was used in lighthouses and stage lighting
by burning a cylinder of lime which produced a brilliant light. In the
theater, performers on stage "in the limelight" were seen by the audience
to be the center of attention.

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Q: Why do ships and aircraft in trouble use "mayday"as their call for
help?

A: This comes from the French word m'aidez -meaning "help me" -- and is
pronounced "mayday,"

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Q: Why is someone who is feeling great "on cloud nine"?

A: Types of clouds are numbered according to the altitudes they attain,
with nine being the highest cloud. If someone is said to be on cloud nine,
that person is floating well above worldly cares.

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Q: Why are Zero scores in tennis called "love"?

A: In France, where tennis first became popular, a big, round zero on the
scoreboard looked like an egg and was called "l'oeuf," which is French for
"egg". When tennis was introduced in the US, Americans pronounced it
"love".

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Q: Why are many coin banks shaped like pigs?

A: Long ago, dishes and cookware in Europewere made of a dense, orange
clay called "pygg". When people saved coins in jars made of this clay, the
jars became known as "pygg banks." When an English potter misunderstood the
word, he made a bank that resembled a pig. And it caught on.

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Q: Why are they called "Caddies"

A:When Mary, later Queen of Scots, went to Franceas a young girl (for
education &survival), Louis, King of France, learned that she loved the
Scot game "golf." So he had the first golf course outside of Scotland
built for her enjoyment. To make sure she was properly chaperoned (and
guarded) while she played, Louis hired cadets from a military school to
accompany her. Mary liked this a lot and when she returned to Scotland
(not a very good idea in the long run), she took the practice with her. In
French the word "cadet" is pronounced 'ca-day' and the Scots changed it
into "caddie."

Whats Jameson Quizes?

If that potter hadn't misunderstood I might have ended up with a bunch of coins in an orange clay pot instead of a cross-eyed piggy.

Here in The Netherlands so called Jameson quizzes are being held.
Usually in an English or Irish pub, but Dutch pubs are taking over as well.

A group of people (max 6) form a team to compete with other teams.
The bar tenders ask all kinds of questions, which can be like: what's the name of Mick Jagger's wife, or: what's the scientific name for mist in outer space, but also things like from which song are the following lines...."...."

The team who has the most points at the end, usually wins a bottle of Jameson. But these days they give away other brands as well.

It's usually a lot of fun. Like Trivial Pursuit, only in a bar and without the dice and board and all

Anna and I are a 2-person team and we always call ourselves"
"Ignorance is bliss"

Ah. So its just a branded Pub quiz. yeah they are always a good giggle. Finding a great original name that we all agree on is always half the battle.

thats some interesting general knowledge there.

I've always wondered about the buttons thing myself... now I have an answer.

That's kewl stuff. You can counter on this one.

Not anymore. There's a big hooplaa about people melting down pennies for the copper (from older pennies) because copper prices are so high right now. An old pennies' weight in copper is worth about .07

One (of many) reasons the Treasury Service wants to do away with the American penny.

That's why I save every penny. My son's kids will probably never see them if the US Treasury is sucessful.

Interesting trivia, Sheepy. Thanks!

People are also stealing copper cables because of their worth right now.

I love reading about little known interesting facts like this! Thanks, Sheepy!

And here I thought they were about Irish Whiskey lol

Here's some more

"Stewardesses" is the longest word typed with only the left hand and "lollipop" with your right.
( Bet you tried this out mentally, didn't you. ) *I don't get this one, actually.

Maine is the only state whose name is just one syllable.
( I'll bet you're going to check this out, there's gotta be another one... HUH )

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

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

Our eyes are always the same size from birth, but our nose and ears never stop growing.

The sentence:"The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog"uses every letter of the alphabet.
( Now, you KNOW you're going to try this out for accuracy, right ? )

The words 'racecar,' 'kayak' and 'level' are spelled the same whether they are read left to right or right to left.
They are called "Palindromes".

There are only four words in the English language which end in "dous":
tremendous
horrendous,
stupendous,
and hazardous.


There are two words in the English language that have all five vowels in order:
"abstemious" and "facetious."
( Yes, admit it, you are going to say.... a e i o u )

TYPEWRITER is the longest word that can be made using the letters only on one row of the typewriter keyboard.

All 50 states are listed across the top of the Lincoln Memorial on the back of the $5 bill.

A dime has 118 ridges around the edge.

A cat has 32 muscles in each ear.

A goldfish has a memory span of three seconds.

A "jiffy" is an actual unit of time for 1/100th of a second.
( I really didn't know this.)

A shark is the only fish that can blink with both eyes.

A snail can sleep for three years

Al Capone's business card said he was a used furniture dealer.

Almonds are a member of the peach family.

An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain.

Babies are born without kneecaps. None, until a child reaches 2 to 6 years of age.

February 1865 is the only month in recorded history not to have a full moon.

In the last 4,000 years,no new animals have been domesticated

If the population of China walked past you, 8 abreast, the line would never end
because of the China birthrate.

If you are an average American, in your whole life, you will spend an average of 6 months in your car waiting at red lights.

Leonardo Da Vinci invented the scissors.

On a Canadian two dollar bill, the flag flying over the Parliament building is an American flag.

Peanuts are one of the ingredients of Dynamite ! ( Warning ! It's not a good idea to sneeze while eating them ! )

Rubber bands last longer when refrigerated.

The average person's left hand does 56% of the typing.

The cruise liner, QE2, moves only six inches for each gallon of diesel that it burns.

The microwave was invented after a researcher walked by a radar tube and a chocolate bar melted in his pocket.

The winter of 1932 was so cold that Niagara Falls froze completely solid.

There are more chickens than people in the world.

Winston Churchill was born in a ladies' room during a dance.

Women blink nearly twice as much as men

Canada hasn't used a 2 dollar bill in years. They have the "Toonie" a 2 dollar coin

Even more trivia!

Cannon Balls. We must keep history alive!!!!

In the heyday of sailing ships, all war ships and many freighters
carried iron cannons. Those cannon fired round iron cannon balls. It was
necessary to keep a good supply near the cannon. But how to prevent them from
rolling about the deck?

The best storage method devised was a square based pyramid with one ball
on top, resting on four, resting on nine, which rested on sixteen. Thus,
a supply of 30 cannon balls could be stacked in a small area right next to
the cannon.

There was only one problem -- how to prevent the bottom layer from
sliding/rolling from under the others. The solution was a metal plate
called a "Monkey" with 16 round indentations. But if this plate were
made of iron, the iron balls would quickly rust to it. The solution to
the rusting problem was to make "Brass Monkeys."

Few landlubbers realize that brass contracts much more and much faster
than iron when chilled. Consequently, when the temperature dropped too far,
the brass indentations would shrink so much that the iron cannon balls would
come right off the monkey.

Thus, it was quite literally, "Cold enough to freeze the balls off a
brass monkey!"
(And all this time, you thought that was an improper
expression, didn't you?)

What's so hard with it? S T E W A R D are letters you are typing with the left hand, and L O I P you are typing with the right hand.

We had to learn to type with all ten fingers without looking in vocational training. Mind you, I'm no secretary! But today it very much comes in handy.

It's interesting how many of these old customs come from the French.

wrong

How would a goldfish know to start looking for food at the top of its bowl every time it saw you close to the bowl, if it had only a 3 second memory.

in fact how would a gold fish in the wild know where to get its food from or how to survive with a 3 second memory. It makes no sense that any animal would have such a short memory.

Goldfish (or any fish in a tank) can actually be trained to do certain things through repetition.. thus proving they have long memories.

Sorry but this myth just annoys the heck out of me. It was made up to make people feel better about keeping them in small bowls.. and it's nonsense.

Saw a story on Mythbusters about the goldfish. I think they disproved the myth... although Adam's fish weren't as smart as Jaime's... but definitly more than a 3-second memory.

Hey, I just copied/pasted it again.
I saw that Mythbusters too. Was cool

A cat keeps purring no matter if it is inhaling or exhaling, a baffling accomplishment.

*grabs cat and makes her purr...*

So can I.
Can’t let those pesky cats get one up on me!

( I bet you are all trying now .)

July 20 1969 - American astronaut Neil Armstrong, nearly 240,000 miles from earth, spoke these words to millions listening at home: "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind." A moment later, he stepped of the lunar module Eagle, becoming the first human to walk on the surface of the moon. That first step was taken with Armstrong's left foot.

Why is that baffling?

The purring sound is produced by vibration, which has no influence over breathing.

And the film footage shows the flag flapping happily in the wind.. even though there is no wind on the moon.

That's the way it was posted at the Trivia site, with that tagline. I think purring is pretty amazing

In Breton, Alabama, there is a law on the town's books against riding down the street in a motorboat.

Whats really amazing about it, is that science still hasn't worked out why cats purr.

There's a few theories around.. but no-one really has any idea.

That's what i meant by it. "Why they do"

That's why all the conspiracy theorists think the moon landing was a fake... among other things.

http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/top10...ohoaxes-10.html

Yep

thats what I was hinting at.

I'm surprised there aren't conspiracy theories about conspiracy theories.

That's why all the conspiracy theorists think the moon landing was a fake... among other things.

http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/top10...ohoaxes-10.html

The flag "waved" as it was treated with wires and such, so it would appear to wave.

http://astroprofspage.com/archives/162

Gisborne, in New Zealand, was the first town in the world to see the rays of the sun in the new millennium in 2001. Even though there are towns further east, and in fact slightly over the 180° East line, Gisborne is actually the closest to the date line, and hence was the first.