Now You Know -- Giant Trivia Bundle : Now You Know / Now You Know More / Now You Know Almost Everything / Now You Know, Volume 4 / Now You Know Christmas [1 ed.] 9781459724747

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Now You Know

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INTRODUCTION This book is a collection of scripts originally written for radio and first heard on Sound Source Network’s syndicated radio show, “Now You Know.” The concept was born while I was producing another Standard Broadcasting series, “Life in the Twentieth Century.” During the mixing, my technical wizard, Gary Mottola, would invariably react to scripted anecdotal information with, “I didn’t know that,” to which I would respond, “Well, now you know.” That repeated exchange started me thinking along a different track that led to this project. The DNA of a culture is found within its language and rituals. These are our living links to the past. Without realizing it, hundreds of times each day we express the thoughts and ideas of our ancestors through our words and customs. The custom of two people shaking hands upon meeting comes from a Roman practice, for example, and the expression “sleep tight” dates back to the sixteenth century. The scripts that comprise this book, although thoroughly researched, are not academic studies, but rather, they are meant to entertain and arouse curiosity. Originally confined to thirty-second radio blurbs, the information within is concise, eclectic, and often fascinating. You’ll learn how history is alive within each of us and in fact woven into the routines of our everyday existence.

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Just enjoy it! Doug Lennox Toronto, May 2003

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PEOPLE & PLACES

Why do we call New York the “The Big Apple?” During the 1940s, Robert Emmerich, who played piano in the Tommy Dorsey Band, wrote an obscure song called “The Big Apple.” It was soon forgotten by everyone except legendary reporter Walter Winchell, who liked the song so much that in his daily column and on the air he began referring to his beat, New York City, as “The Big Apple,” and soon, even though Emmerich’s song was long forgotten, its title became the great city’s nickname. 7

Why is Chicago called the “Windy City”? Most people believe that Chicago got its nickname from its prevailing winds, but that isn’t the case. In 1893, Chicago hosted the World’s Columbian Exposition, celebrating the four hundredth anniversary of America’s discovery. The city’s aggressive promotional campaign for the event offended the people of New York, whose press nicknamed it the Windy City to mock its bragging ways. The moniker stuck, but, fortunately for Chicago, its original meaning has been forgotten by most. Why are the Southern United States called “Dixieland”? The nickname “Dixieland” didn’t come from the Mason-Dixon Line, the boundary between the free and the slave states. Rather it’s from the word dixie, which was what southerners called a French ten-dollar bank note of New Orleans that was already in use in 1859 when Daniel Emmet, a northern black man, wrote and introduced his song “Dixie,” which spread the South’s nickname and somehow became a battle song for the Confederacy. How did an English police force become known as “Scotland Yard”? In the tenth century, in an effort to stop hostilities between their two countries, the English gave a Scottish king land in London with the provision that he build a castle on it and live there for a few months every year. Seven centuries later, with the two nations united under one king, the land returned to English ownership. In 1829, the London police took up

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residence on the land, which by then was known as Scotland Yard. Why is the American presidential home called the “White House”? From 1800, when John Adams became the first president to inhabit it, until 1814, when the British burned it because the Americans had torched Toronto, the presidential building was a grey Virginia freestone. It was painted white to cover up the fire damage done by the British. It wasn’t officially called the White House until Teddy Roosevelt began printing its image on the executive mansion stationery in 1901.

How did the centre of world commerce, Wall Street, get its name?

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In September of 1653, the settlers in what is now New York City felt threatened by the local Natives and by the possibility of an invasion by Oliver Cromwell’s army. For protection, they built a large protective wall that stretched a half-mile across Manhattan Island. That wall was situated on the exact spot that we now know as the financial centre of the world: Wall Street. How did the centre of the song publishing industry become known as “Tin Pan Alley”? Tin Pan Alley is an actual place in New York City. It’s the nickname for the side streets off Times Square, where for generations music publishers have auditioned new songs. The name came from the late 1800s, when the awful sound of cheap tinny pianos coming through the open office windows of hundreds of publishers was likened to the beating of tin pans. Why are the people of Oklahoma called “Sooners”? In the 1800s, when the American West was first opened, the early pioneers were offered free land east of the Rockies, but to ensure fairness, they could only stake out forty acres after a race to the region on a specific date and time. Those heading for Oklahoma who jumped the gun and settled on the best land before the official start of the race were cheating and were called “Sooners” because they arrived “sooner” than those who obeyed the law. Why do we say, “When in Rome, do as the Romans do”?

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If you wish to gain esteem and avoid grief, then it’s wise to respect the customs of the majority within any culture you may find yourself. When St. Ambrose was sent on a mission to Rome by St. Augustine, he was concerned about which holy day to observe since the Romans fasted on a different day than was his custom. St. Augustine’s wise advice is still with us: “When in Rome, do as the Romans do.” How did feminists come up with the expression “male chauvinist pig”? The word chauvinism originally meant excessive patriotism and came from the name of Nicolas Chauvin, a French general who was known for his extreme devotion to Napoleon Bonaparte. “Male chauvinism” became a description of a man preoccupied with masculine pursuits during the 1950s, and the word pig, borrowed from a slur on policemen, was added by the women’s movement in the 1970s.

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Why do we call prostitutes “hookers”? It’s a myth that the camp followers of Union General Joseph Hooker gave us the popular euphemism for a prostitute. It’s true they were called “Hooker’s division,” or “Hooker’s reserves,” but the word predates the American Civil War as, of course, does the profession. It first appeared in 1845 as a reference to an area of New York known as “the Hook,” where ladies of the night could be found in abundance.

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What exactly is a “family circle”? When the early Normans brought fire indoors they built semicircular open fireplaces. To keep warm at night or when the air was cool, the family would sit in a semicircle opposite the one formed by the hearth, creating a complete circle where they would spend time telling stories or singing songs within what they called the “family circle.” When neighbours were included, it became “a circle of friends.” Why is a self-employed professional called a “freelancer”? The word freelance came out of the period between the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries, when mercenary knights with no particular allegiance would take their lances into battle for the prince or state that paid them the most money. They were referred to as freelancers by authors in the nineteenth century and operated much like the gunfighters in the American West. Now, a freelancer is anyone who works independently. Why do we call an enthusiastic amateur a “buff”? A buff is someone with a keen interest in a subject that is not related to his or her profession. The term was coined by New York firemen, who were often hindered by crowds who gathered at fires either to help or stand around and criticize. At the time, around 1900, most winter coats worn by the spectators were made of buffalo hide, and from those the firemen came up with the derogatory term “buffs” to describe those pesky amateur critics.

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Why do we call wealthy members of society “the upper crust”? In the days of feudalism, when noblemen gathered for a meal in the castle, those of higher rank sat at the head of a T-shaped table, and the rest sat in order of diminishing importance away from them. For such occasions a yard-long loaf of bread was baked, and the honour of making the first cut belonged to the highest-ranking person at the head table, who would then pass the bread down in order of rank, but always keeping for himself the “upper crust.” Why is a lazy, irresponsible person called “shiftless”? The word shift means to change or rearrange, which is why we call those who work during differing blocks of time “shift workers.” This use of the word shift also applies to an individual’s ability to change or adapt. Therefore, if you’re “shiftless” you lack the initiative or resources to change with the circumstances. On the other hand, someone who is “shifty” is too adept at change and isn’t to be trusted. Why do we say that someone with a hidden agenda has “an axe to grind”? As a boy, Benjamin Franklin was sharpening tools in his father’s yard when a stranger carrying an axe came by and praised the boy on how good he was with the grindstone. He then asked Franklin if he would show him how it would work on his own axe. Once his axe was sharpened, the stranger simply laughed and walked away, giving young Franklin a valuable lesson about people with “an axe to grind.” 14

Why is a newcomer called a “rookie”? A rookie is anyone new to an organization requiring teamwork and whose lack of experience may cause errors. The word originated in the American military during the Civil War when massive numbers of young and untrained soldiers were rushed into battle, causing major problems with discipline. The veterans called these incompetents “reckies,” an abbreviation of recruits, which through time became “rookies.” Why are strangers who plead for help called “beggars”? The name of a twelfth-century monk, Lambert de Begue, whose followers wandered the French countryside depending on handouts, gave us the verb to beg. When in 555 AD the Roman general Belisarius was stripped of his rank and wealth, he became one of history’s most notable beggars, and his frequent cry, “Don’t kick a man when he’s down,” gave us a maxim for all who are on very hard times. Why is someone who challenges what appears to be an obvious truth called a “devil’s advocate”? During the Roman Catholic proceedings leading to the assignment of sainthood, a specific individual is given the job of investigating the candidate and the validity of any associated miracles. He then argues vehemently against the canonization by denigrating the potential saint on behalf of the devil. His official Vatican title is the “Devil’s Advocate.” Why do we call someone who does things differently a “maverick”? 15

In the nineteenth century, Samuel A. Maverick was a stubborn Texas rancher who, because he said it was cruel, refused to brand his cattle even though it was the only way to identify who owned free-range livestock. Instead he would round up all the unbranded cattle he could find, even those not from his own herd. At first any stray unbranded cow was called a “maverick,” but the word has grown to mean anyone who doesn’t play by the rules. Why is a college student in her second year referred to as a “sophomore”? After her first, or “freshman,” year, a college student is called a “sophomore,” and has been since the description emerged at Cambridge in 1688. The word is constructed from the Greek sophos, meaning wise, and moros, meaning foolish. So a second-year student is somewhere between ignorance and wisdom. Similarly, when we say something is “sophomoric,” we mean it is pretentious or foolish. Why is a private detective called a “private eye”? In 1850, the Pinkerton Detective Agency opened in Chicago with the slogan “We never sleep,” and its symbol was a large wide-open eye. Pinkerton was very effective and criminals began calling the feared operation “the eye.” Raymond Chandler and other fiction writers of the 1930s and 1940s simply embellished the underworld expression by introducing “private eye” as a description for any private investigator. Why are women temporarily separated from their husbands called “grass widows”?

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The expression grass widow originated hundreds of years ago in Europe where summers were unbearably hot. Because grass was scarce in the lowlands, husbands would send their wives and children, along with their resting workhorses, up into the cooler grassy uplands while they stayed in the heat to till the land. It was said that both the wives and horses had been “sent to grass,” which gave us the expression grass widows. Why does a man refer to his wife as his “better half”? Most men call their wives their “better half” because they believe it, but the expression comes from an ancient Middle Eastern legend. When a Bedouin man had been sentenced to death, his wife pleaded with the tribal leader that because they were married, she and her husband had become one, and that to punish one-half of the union would also punish the half who was innocent. The court agreed and the man’s life was saved by his “better half.” Why are women referred to as the “distaff” side of a family? In medieval times the marriage bargain held men responsible for the physical labour outside of the home, while the women provided nourishment and comfort inside. A distaff was a rod used to hold wool during weaving and became a symbol of honour and respect to the value of a woman’s work toward the family’s well-being. The equal to the female “distaff-side” is the male “spear-side.” Why do Mexicans call Americans “gringos”?

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Some say that during the Mexican-American war at the end of the nineteenth century, locals heard the invaders singing “Green Grow the Lilacs” and simply picked up “gringo” from “green grow.” Others say that because the American uniforms were green, the expression came from a rallying cry: “Green, go!” But, in fact, gringo is a Spanish word on its own and is a slang insult for anyone who is fair-skinned and looks foreign. Why is someone with a lot of nerve referred to as being “full of moxie”? Today Moxie is a New England soft drink, but it began as a tonic invented by Dr. Augustine Thompson in 1884 as “Moxie Nerve Food.” Although the 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act put an end to its medicinal claims, there are still those who say Moxie gives them energy, and so to be “full of moxie” means to be full of false nerve. What does the title esquire mean? The British title esquire, like the magazine, has very masculine roots. An esquire was a young man who was a manservant to an armoured knight and whose job included holding his master’s shield. With the passing of the knights, esquire was applied to any young man of noble birth who hadn’t yet earned a proper title. Eventually the word became a term of respect for any promising young man. Why do we call someone who continually takes the fall for someone else a “whipping boy”?

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In the mid-seventeenth century, young princes and aristocrats were sent off to school with a young servant who would attend classes and receive an education while also attending to his master’s needs. If the master found himself in trouble, the servant would take the punishment for him, even if it were a whipping. He was his master’s “whipping boy.” Why is the word late used to describe the recently deceased? To prefix a person’s name with “the late” certainly signifies that he or she is dead, although you would be correct in using it only with the name of someone who had died within the past twenty years. Its use began with medieval rulers, whose first name often had been passed down through generations of males. To avoid confusion with the living monarch, i.e., James II, his deceased father would be referred to as “the late King James.” How did the word gay come to mean homosexual? The word gay is from the Old French gai, meaning “merry.” It came to mean reckless self-indulgence in the seventeenth century, and it wasn’t until the 1930s that its homosexual connotation came out of the prison system, where the expression “gay-cat” meant a younger, inexperienced man who, in order to survive, traded his virtue for the protection and experience of an older convict. When a man gifted with charm seizes an opportunity, why do we say, “He’s in like Flynn”?

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The Australian actor Errol Flynn had an amazing prowess with the ladies, and of course the tabloids built this into a legend. During the Second World War, servicemen coined the phrase “in like Flynn” either to brag about their own conquests or to describe someone they envied. Flynn said he hated the expression, but his own boast that he had spent between twelve and fourteen thousand intimate nights ensured its survival. Why do we say that someone who inherited wealth was “born with a silver spoon in his mouth”? If someone is “born with a silver spoon in his mouth,” it means that he was born into wealth rather than having had to earn it. The expression comes from an old custom of godparents giving the gift of a spoon to a child at its christening to signify their responsibility for its nourishment and well-being. If they were wealthy, the spoon was usually silver, and if not, it would be pewter or tin. Why do we call a cowardly person “yellow”? Yellow, meaning cowardly, is actually an abbreviation of yellow dog, an American insult that first appeared in the nineteenth century to describe a cowardly or worthless person. In the early twentieth century, when employers were fighting trade unions, they insisted that new employees sign a pledge never to join a union. This pledge was called a “yellow dog” contract by union members with the implication that anyone signing it was “yellow.”

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POP CULTURE

How did Clark Kent get his name? When conceived in 1934, Superman was endowed with the strength of ten men, but he couldn’t fly. After being turned down by fifteen syndicators, the Man of Steel took to the air and acquired the needed strength to become a super legend. Some say Superman’s success is within the storyline of his secret identity, whose name was derived from two popular actors of the time: “Clark” Gable and “Kent” Taylor.

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Who was Mortimer Mouse and whatever happened to him? Mortimer was Walt Disney’s original name for a cartoon mouse in the historic 1928 cartoon “Plane Crazy.” When Walt came home and told his wife about the little mouse, she didn’t like the name “Mortimer” and suggested that “Mickey” was more pleasant-sounding. Walt thought about it for a while and then grudgingly gave in, and that’s how Mickey, and not Mortimer, went on to become the foundation of an entertainment empire. How did the cartoon character Bugs Bunny get his name? In 1940, Warner Bros. asked its illustrators for sketches of a “tall, lanky, mean rabbit” for a cartoon titled “Hare-um Scare-um.” Someone in the office labelled the submission from cartoonist “Bugs” Hardaway as “Bugs’ Bunny” and sent it on. Although his drawings weren’t used, the words that labelled them were given to the rabbit star of the 1940 cartoon “A Wild Hare,” which introduced “Bugs Bunny.” How did the Wizard Of Oz get that name? The classic tale of Dorothy in the land of Oz came from the imagination of L. Frank Baum, who made up the story for his son and a group of children one evening in 1899. When a little girl asked him the name of this magical land with the Scarecrow, Tinman, and Cowardly Lion, he looked around the room for inspiration. He happened to be sitting next to a filing cabinet with the drawers labelled “A-G,” “H-N,” and finally “O-Z,” which gave him a quick answer: “Oz.” 22

How did the name Wendy originate? The name Wendy was invented by J.M. Barrie for a character in his 1904 play Peter Pan. The poet W.E. Henley, a close friend of Barrie’s, had a four-year-old daughter, Margaret, and because her father always referred to Barrie as “friend,” she would try to imitate him by saying “fwend” or “fwendy-wendy.” Sadly, Margaret died at the age of six, but her expression lives on in Peter Pan and all the Wendys that have followed. Have you ever wondered how Cinderella could have walked in a glass slipper? The story of Cinderella was passed along orally for centuries before it was written down by Charles Perrault in 1697. While doing so he mistook the word vair, meaning ermine, for the word verre, meaning glass. By the time he realized his mistake, the story had become too popular to change, and so instead of an ermine slipper, Cinderella wore glass. Why is a beautiful blonde called a “blonde bombshell”? The expression “blonde bombshell,” often used to describe a dynamic and sexy woman with blonde hair, came from a 1933 movie starring Jean Harlow. Hollywood first titled the film Bombshell, but because it sounded like a war film, the British changed the title to Blonde Bombshell. It originally referred only to the platinum-haired Miss Harlow, but has come to mean any gorgeous woman of the blonde persuasion. How many movies are made annually in Hollywood?

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There hasn’t been a movie made in Hollywood since 1911, when, fed up with ramshackle sets and the chaotic influence of hordes of actors and crews, the town tossed out the Nestor Film Company and wrote an ordinance forbidding the building of any future studios. Even so, the magic of the name was already established, and so the industry we call Hollywood grew up around that little town in such places as Burbank, Santa Monica, and Culver City — but not in Hollywood. Why do we call Academy Awards “Oscars”? Since 1928, the Academy Awards have been issued by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for excellence in filmmaking. The statuettes were nicknamed “Oscar” in 1931 by Margaret Herrick, a secretary at the academy who, upon seeing one for the first time, exclaimed, “Why it looks just like my uncle Oscar.” Her uncle was Oscar Pierce, a wheat farmer. Who was Mona Lisa in da Vinci’s famous masterpiece? Although it’s known as the Mona Lisa, Leonardo da Vinci’s famous painting was originally titled La Giaconda. Painted on wood, it’s a portrait of Lisa Gherardini, the wife of a Florentine merchant. X-rays reveal that Leonardo sketched three different poses before settling on the final design. The painting of Lisa has no eyebrows because it was the fashion of the time for women to shave them off. What is the most popular rock and roll song in history?

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Because the lyrics in the Kingsmen’s 1963 recording of the song “Louie, Louie” were unintelligible, people thought they were dirty, and although they weren’t, a U.S. congressional investigation assured the song’s enduring success. Since being sold by its author, Richard Berry, for $750 in 1957, “Louie, Louie” has been recorded by nearly one thousand different performers and sold an estimated quarter-billion copies. Who owns the song “Happy Birthday”? “Happy Birthday” began as “Good Morning Dear Children” and was written by educators Mildred and Patty Hill in 1893. In 1924, a publisher changed the opening line to “Happy Birthday to You” and it became a ritual to sing the song to anyone celebrating his or her birthday. In 1934, after hearing the song in a Broadway musical, a third Hill sister, Jessica, sued the show and won. The Hill family was thereafter entitled to royalties whenever the melody was performed commercially. What’s unusual about the music to the American national anthem? In 1814, after a night in a pub, Francis Scott Key was taken prisoner during the war between Canada and the United States. When he saw the American flag still flying over Fort McHenry he was inspired to write his famous lyrics with one particular barroom song, “To Anacreon In Heaven,” still in his mind. And so “The Star Spangled Banner” was written to the tune of a traditional old English drinking song. Who was Matilda in the song “Waltzing Matilda”? 25

In the Australian song “Waltzing Matilda,” a billabong is a pool of stagnant water. A swagman was someone who carried around everything he owned in a knapsack. Waltzing meant hiking, and Matilda wasn’t a woman but rather an Australian word for a knapsack. So Waltzing Matilda means: walking with my knapsack. How did the poem “Mary Had a Little Lamb” become so famous? “Mary Had a Little Lamb” was written in 1830 by Sarah Hale, the editor of Godey’s Ladies Magazine. She was inspired after watching young Mary Tyler’s pet lamb follow the girl to school, which, of course, was against the rules. The poem became immortal more than fifty years later when Thomas Edison used it as the first words ever spoken and then recorded on his new invention, the phonograph. Who was Little Jack Horner in the nursery rhyme? At a time when Henry VIII was confiscating church property, one monk appeased the king with the gift of a special Christmas pie. Inside the crust were deeds to twelve manor houses secretly offered in exchange for his monastery. The steward who carried the pie to London was Jack Horner, who along the way extracted a plum deed for himself. It was for Mells Manor, where Horner’s descendants still live to this day. Where did the bearded figure Uncle Sam come from? Sam Wilson was a meat packer who supplied preserved beef to the U.S. Army in the nineteenth century. The barrels of 26

meat were stamped “U.S.” to indicate they were property of the United States, but the soldiers joked that the initials were actually those of the supplier, “Uncle Sam” Wilson. The bearded figure of “Uncle Sam” was drawn and introduced by Thomas Nast, the same cartoonist who created the Republicans’ elephant and the Democrats’ donkey. How did the Mercedes automobile get its name? In 1900, the Daimler Corporation was commissioned to design and build a special racing car to add to the fleet of a wealthy Austrian named Emil Jellinek. Mr. Jellinek gave the special car the nickname “Mercedes,” which was his daughter’s name. Jellinek was so impressed with the car that he bought into Daimler, and when the company merged with Benz in 1926, company officials decided to keep the name and market a commercial car as the Mercedes Benz. Why were dancers in the thirties and forties called “jitterbugs”? Band leader Cab Calloway coined the word jitterbug as a description of both the music and the dancers during the big band era. It came from a time when drinking alcohol was prohibited by law, giving rise to the popularity of illegal booze. Because of its hangover effect, moonshine had long been called “jitter sauce,” and Calloway, while watching the intoxicated dancers, labelled them “jitterbugs.” How did the soft drink Dr. Pepper get its name?

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In Virginia in the 1880s, Wade Morrison, a pharmacist’s assistant, wanted to marry his boss’s daughter. But her father considered Morrison too old for her and asked him to move on. After Morrison had settled down and opened his own drugstore in Waco, Texas, one of his employees came up with a new soft drink idea, which Morrison developed and named after the man who gave him his start in the drug business: his old girlfriend’s father, Dr. Kenneth Pepper. How did the drink Gatorade get its name? In 1963, Dr. Robert Cade was studying the effects of heat exhaustion on football players at the University of Florida. After analyzing the body liquids lost during sweating, Cade quickly came up with a formula for a drink to replace them. Within two years, Gatorade was a $50-million business. The doctor named his new health drink after the football team he used in his study, the Florida Gators. Why do we call a bad actor a “ham” and silly comedy “slapstick”? In the late nineteenth century, second-rate actors couldn’t afford cold cream to remove their stage makeup, so they used ham fat and were called hamfatters until early in the twentieth century when these bad actors were simply called “hams.” Physical comedy became known as “slapstick” because of its regular use of crude sound effects: two sticks were slapped together off-stage to accentuate a comic’s onstage pratfall (prat being an Old English term for buttocks). Why are vain people said to be “looking for the limelight”? 28

In the early days of theatre, the players were lit by gas lamps hidden across the front of the stage. Early in the twentieth century, it was discovered that if a stick of lime was added to the gas, the light became more intense, and so they began to use the “limelight” to illuminate the spot on stage where the most important part of the play took place. Later called the “spotlight,” the “limelight” was where all actors fought to be. How did teenagers become a separate culture? The word teenager first appeared in 1941, but the emancipation of that age group began forty years earlier when new laws freed children from hard labour and kept them in school. Until then, there was only childhood and adulthood. At the age of thirteen, a girl became a woman and could marry or enter the workforce and a boy became a man. Today, teenagers are treated as children with suppressed adult urges. Why is a formal suit for men called a “tuxedo”? In the nineteenth century, the accepted formal dress for men was a suit with long swallowtails. But one evening in 1886, young Griswald Lorillard, the heir to a tobacco fortune, shocked his country club by arriving in a dinner jacket without tails. This fashion statement caught on, and the suit took on the name the place Lorillard introduced it: Tuxedo Park, New Jersey. Where did the coffee habit come from? Muslims were the first to develop coffee. As early as 1524 they were using it as a replacement for the wine they were forbidden to drink. According to legend, an astute Arab 29

herder noticed that his goats became skittish after chewing on the berries of a certain bush, so he sampled a few himself and found them to be invigorating. The region of Abyssinia where this took place is named Kaffa, which gave us the name for the drink we call coffee.

Why do we define the rat race as “keeping up with the Joneses”? Keeping up with the Joneses has come to mean trying to keep up with your neighbours, in terms of material possessions, at any cost. The expression comes from the title of a comic strip that ran in newspapers between 1913 and 1931 and chronicled the experiences of a newly married man in Cedarhurst, New York. Originally titled “Keeping Up With the Smiths,” the cartoon was changed to the “Keeping Up With the Joneses” because it sounded better.

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CUSTOMS

Why do we say “Hello” when we answer the telephone? The first word used to answer the phone was the nautical greeting “ahoy” because the first regular phone system was in the maritime state of Connecticut. Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor, answered with the Gaelic “hoy,” but it was Thomas Edison’s greeting of “hello,” an exclamation of surprise dating back to the Middle Ages, that caught on, and so we answer today with, “Hello?”

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Why do we say “goodbye” or “so long” when leaving someone? The word goodbye is a derivative of the early English greeting “God be with you,” or as it was said then, “God be with ye.” Over the years its abbreviated written form and pronunciation became “goodbye.” As for “so long,” it came to Britain with soldiers who had spent time in Arabic-speaking countries, where the perfect expression of goodwill is “salaam.” The unfamiliar word to the English men sounded like, and then became, “so long.” When did men start shaving every morning? In many cultures shaving is forbidden. The reason we in the West lather up every morning can be traced directly back to Alexander the Great. Before he seized power, all European men grew beards. But because young Alexander wasn’t able to muster much facial hair, he scraped off his peach fuzz every day with a dagger. Not wanting to offend the great warrior, those close to him did likewise, and soon shaving became the custom. Why do men wear neckties? Roman soldiers wore a strip of cloth around their necks to keep them warm in winter and to absorb sweat in the summer. Other armies followed suit, and during the French Revolution the Royalists and the Rebels used ties to display the colours of their allegiance. They borrowed the design and the name, cravat, from the Croatian Army. Later, ties became a French fashion

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statement, offering a splash of colour to an otherwise drab wardrobe. Why are men’s buttons on the right and women’s on the left? Decorative buttons first appeared around 2000 BC, but they weren’t commonly used as fasteners until the sixteenth century. Because most men are right-handed and generally dressed themselves, they found it easier to fasten their buttons from right to left. However, wealthy women were dressed by servants, who found it easier to fasten their mistresses’ clothes if the buttons were on her left. It became convention and has never changed. Why do baby boys wear blue and girls wear pink? The custom of dressing baby boys in blue clothes began around 1400. Blue was the colour of the sky and therefore Heaven, so it was believed that the colour warded off evil spirits. Male children were considered a greater blessing than females, so it was assumed that demons had no interest in girls. It was another hundred years before girls were given red as a colour, which was later softened to pink. Why is a handshake considered to be a gesture of friendship? The Egyptian hieroglyph for “to give” is an extended hand. That symbol was the inspiration for Michelangelo’s famous fresco “The Creation of Adam,” which is found on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Babylonian kings confirmed their authority by annually grasping the hand of a statue of their 33

chief god, Marduk. The handshake as we know it today evolved from a custom of Roman soldiers, who carried daggers in their right wristbands. They would extend and then grasp each other’s weapon hand as a non-threatening sign of goodwill. Where did the two-fingered peace sign come from? The gesture of two fingers spread and raised in peace, popularized in the 1960s, is a physical interpretation of the peace symbol, an inverted or upside-down Y within a circle, which was designed in 1958 by members of the anti-nuclear Direct Action Committee. The inverted Y is a combination of the maritime semaphore signals for N and D, which stood for “nuclear disarmament.” Where did the rude Anglo-Saxon one-fingered salute come from? When the outnumbered English faced the French at the Battle of Agincourt, they were armed with a relatively new weapon, the longbow. The French were so amused that they vowed to cut off the middle finger of each British archer. When the longbows won the day, the English jeered the retreating French by raising that middle finger in a gesture that still means, among other things, “in your face.” Why do Christians place their hands together in prayer? The original gesture of Christian prayer was spreading the arms and hands heavenward. There is no mention anywhere in the Bible of joining hands in prayer, and that custom didn’t 34

surface in the church until the ninth century. In Roman times, a man would place his hands together as an offer of submission that meant, “I surrender, here are my hands ready to be bound or shackled.” Christianity accepted the gesture as a symbol of offering total obedience, or submission, to God. Why was grace originally a prayer said after a meal? Today, we say grace before a meal in thanksgiving for an abundance of food, but in ancient times, food spoiled quickly, often causing illness or even death. Nomadic tribes experimenting with unfamiliar plants were very often poisoned. Before a meal, these people made a plea to the gods to deliver them from poisoning, but it wasn’t until after the meal, if everyone was still standing, that they offered a prayer of thanksgiving, or “grace.” Why at the end of a profound statement or prayer do Christians, Moslems, and Jews all say “amen?” The word amen appears 13 times in the Hebrew Bible and 119 times in the New Testament as well as in the earliest Moslem writings. The word originated in Egypt around 2500 BC as Amun, and meant the “Hidden One,” the name of their highest deity. Hebrew scholars adopted the word as meaning “so it is” and passed it on to the Christians and Moslems. Why is June the most popular month for weddings? The ancient Greeks and Romans both suggested marriage during a full moon because of its positive influence on fertility. The Romans favoured June, a month they named after Juno, the goddess of marriage, because if the bride 35

conceived right away, she wouldn’t be too pregnant to help with the harvest. She also would probably have recovered from giving birth in time to help in the fields with the next year’s harvest. Why are wedding banns announced before a marriage? The custom of proclaiming wedding banns began in 800 AD when Roman Emperor Charlemagne became alarmed by the high rate of interbreeding throughout his empire. He ordered that all marriages be publicly announced at least seven days prior to the ceremony and that anyone knowing that the bride and groom were related must come forward. The practice proved so successful that it was widely endorsed by all faiths. Why does a groom carry his bride over the threshold? The custom of carrying a bride over the threshold comes from the kidnapping practices of the Germanic Goths around 200 AD. Generally, these men only married women from within their own communities, but when the supply ran short, they would raid neighbouring villages and seize young girls to carry home as their wives. From this practice of abduction sprang the now symbolic act of carrying the bride over the threshold. Why do brides wear “something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue” to their weddings? According to wedding tradition, the bride wears something “old” to remind the couple of the happiness of the courting 36

period. She wears something “new” to represent the hopeful success of the couple’s new life together; something “borrowed” to symbolize the support of friends; and something “blue” because it’s the colour of fidelity. If a bride wears a single girlfriend’s garter, it will improve that girl’s prospects of marriage. Why do bridegrooms have a best man? In ancient times, most marriages were arranged, and so the groom wasn’t always the bride’s first choice. The man she favoured would often swear to carry her off before or during the wedding. To avoid this, the groom stood on the bride’s right to keep his sword arm free and would enlist a warrior companion to fight off the rival if he showed up. This companion was, in fact, the “best man.” Why is a wedding reception called a “bridal” party? The expressions bridal feast, bridal bed, and bridal cake, among other bridal references, all date back to around 1200, when a wedding was a rather boisterous and bawdy affair. The word bridal comes from “bride-ale,” which was the special beer brewed for the wedding and then sold to the guests to raise money for the newlyweds. Because of the bride-ale, weddings were quite rowdy until around the seventeenth century, when the church managed to get a grip on the whole thing.

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Why do we drink a toast on special occasions? By the sixth century BC, Greeks had discovered that poisoning wine was an excellent way to get rid of their enemies, and so to reassure guests at a social function, it became necessary for the host to take the first drink. The Romans added a piece of burnt bread, or “tostus,” to the custom because it absorbed acid, making the wine more pleasant to drink. Flattering words were spoken during the toasting ceremony to reassure the guests of their safety. 38

Why does everyone touch wine glasses before drinking at a dinner party? The custom of touching wine glasses comes from a medieval host’s precaution against being poisoned by a guest, or vice versa. The original ritual was that while touching glasses, a little wine was exchanged, poured from one goblet into the other, around the table. Then everyone took their first drink at the same time. By mixing drinks this way, the host and everyone else could be assured that no assassin was in their midst. Why do we roll out a red carpet for special guests? The red carpet treatment dates back to the 1930s, when a carpet of that colour led passengers to a luxurious train, the Twentieth Century Limited, which ran between New York and Chicago. The Twentieth Century was the most famous in America and was totally first class with accommodation and dining car menus that were considered the height of luxury. Walking the red carpet to the train meant you were about to be treated like royalty. Why do we put candles on a birthday cake? The Greeks borrowed celebrating birthdays from the Egyptian pharaohs and the cake idea from the Persians. Then early Christians did away with birthday parties for a while until the custom re-emerged with candles in Germany in the twelfth century. Awakened with the arrival of a birthday cake topped with lighted candles, which were changed and kept lit until after the family meal, the honoured child would make a wish

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that, it was said, would come true only if the candles were blown out in a single breath. How did wakes become part of the funeral tradition? The Irish are the most famous for their wakes, holding elaborate and festive celebrations with testimonials and toasts to the recently deceased. The custom began long before the advances of scientific undertaking and was a way of passing enough time to ensure that the subject wasn’t about to be buried alive. The ritual was held to see if the subject would wake up, which sometimes happened, and so it was called a “wake.” Why are flags flown at half-staff? In the sixteenth century, ships would lower their flag halfway as a sign of submission during battle, and it was said they were flying at “half-mast.” On reaching port, the flag remained half-lowered in honour of those who had sacrificed their lives. In the seventeenth century the ritual moved to land, where it was said the flags were at “half-staff,” as a sign of respect for any individual who had died serving his country beyond the call of duty. Why do funeral processions move so slowly? The Romans introduced the lighting of candles and torches at funeral services to ward off evil spirits and guide the deceased to paradise. The word funeral itself is derived from the Latin word for torch. By the fifteenth century, people were placing huge candelabras on the coffin

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even as it was carried to the burial ground. The funeral procession moved at a very slow pace so that the candles wouldn’t blow out. Why do the British drive on the left side of the road while Americans use the right? The British custom of driving on the left was passed down from the Romans. The chariot driver stayed to the left in order to meet an approaching enemy with his right sword hand. Americans switched to driving on the right because on covered wagons, the brakes were built on the left, forcing the driver to sit on that same side and, consequently, to drive on the right so they could have a clear view of the road. Why do we use Xs as kisses at the bottom of a letter? During medieval times, most people could neither read nor write, and even those who could sign their names were required to follow it with an X, symbolizing the cross of St. Andrew, or the contract would be invalid. Those who couldn’t write their names still had to end the contract with the X to make it legal. To prove their intention, all were required to kiss the cross, which through time is how the X became associated with a lover’s kiss. How did we start the ritual of kissing a wound to make it better? Everyone with children has kissed a small bruise or cut to make it better. This comes from one of our earliest medical procedures for the treatment of snakebite. Noticing that a victim could be saved if the venom was sucked out through 41

the point of entry, early doctors soon began treating all infectious abrasions by putting their lips to the wound and sucking out the poison. Medicine moved on, but the belief that a kiss can make it all better still lingers. How did flipping a coin become a decision-maker? The Lydians minted the first coins in 10 BC but it wasn’t until nine hundred years later that the coin toss became a decision-maker. Julius Caesar’s head appeared on one side of every Roman coin of his time, and such was the reverence for the emperor that in his absence often serious litigation was decided by the flip of a coin. If Caesar’s head landed upright, it meant that through the guidance of the gods, he agreed in absentia with the decision in question.

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SPORTS & LEISURE

Why is the Cleveland baseball team called the Indians? Controversy generally surrounds the choice of Native American names for sports teams, but not in Cleveland. That city’s baseball team is named in honour of one of their star players from the 1890s. He was Alex Sophalexis, a Penobscot Indian so respected that in 1914, one year after his death, Cleveland took the name “Indians” to commemorate Alex and what he had meant to their team.

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Why is the L.A. baseball team called the Dodgers? Before moving to Los Angeles, the Dodgers were based in Brooklyn, New York. The team had originated in the nineteenth century when, because of the dangers of horse-drawn trolleys and carriages, the pedestrians of Brooklyn called themselves “trolley dodgers.” Because most of their working-class fans had to dodge traffic on their walk to the games, the Brooklyn baseball team named themselves the “Dodgers” in their honour. When the team moved to L.A. in the 1950s, they took the name with them. Why does the letter K signify a strikeout on a baseball scoresheet? Early in baseball history, a man named Henry Chadwick designed the system we still use for keeping score. Because his system already had an overabundance of Ss scattered throughout his scoresheet — safe, slide, shortstop, sacrifice, second base, etc. — he decided to use the last letter of struck, as in, “he struck out,” rather than the first. And that’s why K signifies a strikeout in baseball. Why do we call someone who is left-handed a “southpaw”? When the first baseball diamonds were laid out there were no night games. To keep the afternoon or setting sun out of the batters’ eyes, home plate was positioned so that the hitter was facing east, which meant the pitcher was facing west. Most pitchers threw with their right arm, but the rare and dreaded

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left-hander’s pitching arm was on the more unfamiliar south side, and he was referred to, with respect, as a southpaw. Why is an erratic person called a “screwball”? In baseball, when a pitcher throws a curveball, it breaks to a right-handers left and a left-handers right. Early in the twentieth century, the great Christy Mathewson came up with a pitch that broke in the opposite direction and completely baffled opposing batters, who called it a “screwball.” It became a word used to describe anything eccentric or totally surprising — including some humans. Why in sports does the home team wear white while the visitors wear darker colours? Early television was in black and white and the definitions weren’t nearly as precise as they are today. When the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation was testing for live hockey broadcasts in 1952, they found that if both teams wore their traditional colours, it was impossible to tell them apart. They solved the problem by having the home team wear white, while the visitors stayed in their darker uniforms. Why is a football field called a “gridiron”? The word football first described a game involving two teams and an inflated animal bladder in 1486. The game evolved several times before North Americans introduced new rules, such as three chances to advance the ball five yards, that led to white lines being painted on the field. From the stands, these lines gave the field the appearance of

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broiled meat from the metal grating of a griddle or “gridiron,” and so that’s what they called it. Why isn’t it over ’til the fat lady sings? In the 1970s, Washington sports columnist Dan Cook wrote, “The opera isn’t over ’til the fat lady sings.” Later, basketball coach Dick Motta, referring to the Bulls’ slim playoff chances, misquoted Cook when he said, “It isn’t over ’til the fat lady sings,” and it stuck. The inspiration might have been the old American proverb, “Church ain’t out ’til the fat lady sings,” but regardless, it’s now accepted in sports as meaning: where there’s life, there’s hope.

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Where did we get the expression second string? In sports jargon, the second string is the second-best group of players on a given team. The term has also found its way into business, where it is used in much the same way. In fact, it comes from medieval archers, who always carried an extra string in case the one on their bow broke. Therefore the second string had to be as good as the first, as did the third and fourth strings.

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Why do we say a person isn’t “up to scratch?” During the early days of bare-knuckle boxing, a line was scratched across the centre of the ring, dividing it into two halves. This is where the fighters met to start the contest, or where they “toed the line” to begin each round. If, as the fight progressed, one of the boxers was unable to toe the line without help from his seconds, it was said he had failed to come “up to scratch.” Why is a boxing ring square? In the days of bare-knuckle boxing, before modern rules, a circle was drawn in the dirt and prize fighters were ringed by the fans. When one of the men was knocked out of that circle, he was simply pushed back into the ring by the crowd. In 1867, Marcus of Queensbury introduced a number of rules to boxing, including three-minute rounds and a roped-off square, which fans continued to call the “boxing ring.” Why do we call the genuine article “the real McCoy”? In the 1890s, a great boxer known as Kid McCoy couldn’t get the champion to fight him, and so to seem beatable, he began to throw the odd bout, and fans never knew if they’d see the “real McCoy.” The plan worked, and he became the welterweight champion of the world. Once, while in a bar, McCoy was challenged by a drunken patron who didn’t believe that he was the great boxer, and McCoy flattened him. When the man came around, he declared that the man who had knocked him out was indeed the “real McCoy.”

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Why is a fistfight called “duking it out”? “Duking it out” and “Put up your dukes” are both expressions from the early 1800s when bare-knuckle boxing was considered a lower-class activity. When Frederick Augustus, the then duke of York took up the sport, English high society was shocked. The “Duke” gained so much admiration from the other boxers, however, that they began referring to their fists as their “dukes of York” and eventually as their “dukes.” How did tennis get the terms seeded and love? Tennis was popularized by the French nobility, and because a zero looked like an egg that’s what they called it. Egg in French is l’oeuf, which became love in English. The seeding or placing of the best players within favourable tournament positions required other players to graciously cede — yield or give up — the spots. In time, the word mutated to the spelling of its homonym, seed, and so players were said to be seeded. Why are golf assistants called “caddies”? In medieval France the first-born sons of nobility were known as the “caput,” or head, of the family, while the younger, less valuable boys were called “capdets,” or little heads, and were often sent to the military to train as officers. In English, “capdets” became “cadets,” which the Scots abbreviated to “cads” or “caddies,” meaning any useless street kid who could be hired for the day to carry around a bag of golf clubs. Why is it so difficult for women to join prestigious British golf clubs?

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Exclusive men’s country clubs were called golf clubs long before the game was invented. “GOLF” is an acronym derived from the phrase “gentlemen only, ladies forbidden.” Men had formed these clubs to enjoy themselves without the politics of dealing with women. When they began chasing a small ball around the grounds they gave the game the same name as their club: golf. Why are billiards played on a pool table? During the nineteenth century, off-track gamblers would often play billiards while waiting to hear the results of a horse race. Sometimes, if they agreed on the merits of a particular horse, the gamblers would pool their money in an effort to win a greater amount on one bet or to soften the blow of a loss. The “pooled” money, both bet and won, was counted out on the playing surface of the billiard table, which the gamblers came to call their “pool table.” Why, when someone has won without question, do we say that he did it “hands down”? To win hands down has nothing to do with placing a winning hand of cards face down. Instead, the expression comes from the earliest days of horseracing. If a horse had proven its superiority and was approaching the finish line well ahead of the pack, the jockey would release the reins, giving the animal free reign to the finish. He therefore would win the race “hands down.” Why is a lottery winning called a “jackpot”?

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A jackpot is any large amount of money won through gambling. The word comes from a game of draw poker in which only a player dealt a pair of jacks or better can open. Several hands are usually dealt before this happens, and with each deal the players must add to the ante, which can grow to a considerable amount of money — the “jack” pot. When two jacks are finally dealt and a player opens the betting, the winner will take the jackpot. Where did the expression “according to Hoyle” come from? An Englishman named Edmond Hoyle wrote a rulebook for the card game whist, the ancestor of bridge, in 1742. Hoyle’s rules were used to settle arguments during that one game until Robert Foster published Foster’s Hoyle in 1897, which included the rules for many other card games. Since then, “according to Hoyle” has meant according to the rules of any game, including those played in business and personal relationships. Why, when someone losing begins to win, do we say he’s “turned the tables”? The phrase “to turn the tables” is a chess term dating from 1634 that describes a sudden recovery by a losing player. The switch in position of each side’s pieces makes it look as though the losing player had physically turned the table on his opponent to take over the winning side of the board. Incidentally, it’s impossible to successively double the number of coins on each square of a chessboard. By the time 51

you’ve finished you would need 18 quintillion coins, more than all that have ever been minted. Why is a non-relevant statement during a debate or argument said to be “beside the point”? The expression “beside the point” is from ancient archery and literally means your shot is wide of the target. Its figurative meaning, that your argument is irrelevant, entered the language about 1352, as did “You’ve missed the mark.” Both suggest that regardless of your intentions, your invalid statement is outside the subject under discussion. Why is a marathon race exactly 26 miles and 385 yards long? In 1908, the first modern Olympic marathon was designed to start at Windsor Castle and end in front of the royal box in the London stadium, a distance of exactly 26 miles, 385 yards, and that became the official distance. The race honoured Pheidippedes, who in 490 BC had run 22 miles, 1,470 yards to carry news to Athens that the Greeks had defeated the Persians on the plain of Marathon. Would ancient Greek athletes have had any chance against our well-trained modern Olympians? At least two ancient Greek athletes would have done well in the modern games; their Olympic records stood until the twentieth century. Twenty-six hundred years ago, an athlete named Protiselaus threw a cumbersome primitive discus 152 feet from a standing position. No one exceeded that distance 52

until Clarence Houser, an American, threw the discus 155 feet in 1928. In 656 BC, a Greek Olympian named Chionis leapt 23 feet, 1.5 inches, a long jump record that stood until 1900, when an American named Alvis Kraenzlein surpassed it by 4.5 inches. What does it mean to “rest on your laurels”? The practice of using laurels to symbolize victory came from the ancient Greeks. After winning on the battlefield, great warriors were crowned with a wreath of laurels, or bay leaves, to signify their supreme status during a victory parade. Because the first Olympics consisted largely of war games, the champions were honoured in the same manner: with a laurel, a crown of leaves. To “rest on your laurels” means to quit while you’re ahead. Why is a trophy a symbol of victory? After a victory on a battlefield, the ancient Greeks would build a monument dedicated to a chosen god, which they called a “trophy.” These trophies were made of limbs stripped from the dead enemy soldiers and then hung on a tree or pillar, a ritual that is kept alive by modern “trophy hunters,” who celebrate their victory over an unarmed animal by hanging its head on the wall. Be grateful for the Stanley Cup. Why is a blue ribbon a symbol of champions? Blue was the favourite colour of England’s King Edward III, who in 1348 created the highest Royal Order of the Knights of the Garter. Its membership was and is limited to the king and princes of England as well as a very few knights of 53

distinguished service. The insignia of the Royal Order is a blue garter, and because of this, blue ribbons have come to be a reward for any supreme achievement.

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POLITICS & HISTORY

Why are political positions referred to as “left” and “right”? Over two hundred years ago, King Louis XVI of France was forced to convene a form of parliament for the first time in more than a century. At the assembly, the more radical delegates took up seats on the left of the King, while their conservative counterparts sat on his right. Ever since, liberal views have been referred to as from the left, and conservative ideas as from the right. 55

Why are those seeking political favour from elected officials said to be “lobbying”? The term lobbying originates from the earliest days of the British Parliament, where an extensive corridor runs between the Chamber of Lords and the House of Commons. Because the general public were allowed into this corridor, or lobby, it was where constituents waited to meet with their representatives in order to influence their votes on current legislation. This practice was called “lobbying” because it took place in the lobby. Why do we say that a political candidate on a speaking tour is “on the stump”? When early European settlers were moving west and clearing the land, every farm had an abundance of tree stumps in their fields. “Barnstorming” politicians who looked for a place of prominence to be seen and heard by the gathered electorate would invariably find a large tree stump to stand on from which he would make his pitch. This gave us the expression “on the stump,” which is still used to describe a politician seeking election. Why are some politicians called “lame ducks”? A lame duck is a powerless American politician. After an election in a parliamentary system, such as that found in Britain or Canada, the House reconvenes and the winners immediately form the new government. In the American system, however, the newly elected congress doesn’t take control for months, leaving those who have lost still in charge. During this time, because they can’t pass anything 56

meaningful, the powerless politicians are as useless as lame ducks.

Where did the phrase spin doctor come from? The term spin doctor first appeared in the New York Times during Ronald Reagan’s campaign for re-election in 1984.

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“Spin” is the twist given a baseball by a pitcher throwing a curveball to deceive the batter, while a “doctor” is someone who fixes a problem. Therefore, a “spin doctor” is someone who, faced with a political problem, solves it by putting a twist on the information to bend the story to his or her own advantage. What does it mean when someone suffers a “sea change”? Sea change is a term often used in politics that refers to a surprising and significant change from a previous position. Because early sailors were familiar with the sudden and unpredictable temperament of the sea, one minute calm and life-threatening and dangerous the next, they introduced the expression “sea change” into everyday English language meaning any sudden transformation. Why do we say that healing a relationship is “mending fences”? In 1880, the strong-willed senator John Sherman was testing the water for a presidential nomination. He slipped out of Washington but was followed to his Ohio farm by a reporter who found the senator talking with a high-ranking party official while standing near a fence. When the reporter asked what they were doing, the response, “We’re mending fences,” gave him his headline, and it became a new phrase for healing relationships. Within a democracy, what are the fourth and fifth estates?

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Within British history, the first three estates with influence over legislation were the Church, the House of Lords, and the House of Commons. The term fourth estate has meant different forces of influence over Parliament at different times, including the army. It was first used to describe the press during a debate in the House of Commons in 1828 and has retained that meaning ever since. The fifth estate was added to include radio and television. Why when someone tells a secret do we say he’s “spilled the beans”? As a system of voting, the ancient Greeks placed beans in a jar. They called these small beans or balls “ballota,” which gives us the word ballot. A white bean was a “yes” and a brown bean was a “no.” The beans were then counted in secret so the candidates wouldn’t know who voted for or against them. If the container was knocked over, and the beans were spilled, the secret was out of the jar. Why did Abraham Lincoln’s son withdraw from politics? In 1865, Robert Lincoln rushed to his father’s deathbed. Sixteen years later, as Garfield’s secretary of war, he was with that president when he was shot by an assassin. In 1901, Robert arrived in Buffalo for the American Exposition just in time to see President McKinley murdered. After that, Robert Lincoln vowed never again to be in the presence of an American president. Why do monarchs refer to themselves using the “royal we”?

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When Roman consuls spoke of public issues they did so on behalf of all those with whom they shared power and so they used the plural pronoun we, instead of the singular I. The first king to use the “royal we” was Richard I, implying that he was speaking for his subjects as well as himself. It’s improper for non-royals to use the plural self-reference, so when Margaret Thatcher did it in 1989, we were not amused. How did Edward VII make it fashionable to leave the bottom button of a man’s vest undone? King Edward VII had a large appetite and an even larger tummy. He began leaving the bottom button of his vest undone because after a meal he simply couldn’t do it up. Those who didn’t want to make the king uncomfortable did the same, and so it became the fashion of the day. Edward’s bulging belly may in part have been a consequence of his favourite dish, which was, of course, chicken à la king. Why is the Irish gift of the gab called “blarney”? Kissing the Blarney Stone at Blarney Castle near Cork, Ireland, is supposed to transfer the gift of gab to the kisser, but the idea that the word blarney meant a smooth talker came from the mouth of Elizabeth I of England in 1602. She had insisted that Dermot McCarthy surrender Blarney Castle as proof of his loyalty, but he kept coming up with excuses — so many excuses, in fact, that the Queen once exclaimed in exasperation, “Odds Bodkins, more Blarney talk!” Why is some extreme behaviour called “beyond the pale”?

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The expression dates back to the English Crown’s first efforts to control the Irish by outlawing their language and customs. But the unruly Irish were just that, and by the fifteenth century the English still controlled only a small area around Dublin, protected by a fortification called “The Pale,” meaning sharp sticks (i.e., impaled). To the British, to go “beyond The Pale” meant that you were entering the uncivilized realm of the wild Irish. Where did the expression “paying through the nose” come from? In Northern Ireland during the ninth century, the British introduced a harsh poll tax of one ounce of gold per year on all Irish households. The tax was nicknamed the “Nose Tax” because if a person didn’t or couldn’t pay, he had his nose slit. This cruel but effective procedure gave rise to the expression “paying through the nose,” meaning if unreasonable due payments aren’t made, there will be dire consequences. Why is someone displaying absolute loyalty said to be “true blue”? With the slogan “a true covenantor wears true blue,” the Scottish Presbyterians adopted blue as their colour in the seventeenth century during their defense of their faith against Charles I. The instruction came from Numbers 15:38 in the scriptures, which tells the children of Israel to fringe the borders of their garments in ribbons of blue. Blue is a powerful symbol of Judaism and the national colour of Israel. Why do we say “justice is blind”? 61

The Egyptian pharaohs, concerned that courtroom theatrics might influence the administration of justice, established the practice of holding trials in darkened chambers with absolutely no light. That way, the judge wouldn’t be moved by anything but the facts. It’s this principle that inspired Lady Justice, the well-known statue of a woman in a blindfold holding the scales of justice that is often found outside contemporary courtrooms. Why do we say a graduating lawyer has “passed the bar”? To control rowdiness, a wooden bar was built across early courtrooms to separate the judge, lawyers, and other principle players from the riffraff seated in the public area. That bar, first used in the sixteenth century, also underlies the English word barrister, the lawyer who argues the case in court. When someone has “passed the bar” or has been “called to the bar,” it means he or she is now allowed into the closed-off area. Why, when someone has been fooled, do we say he’s had “the wool pulled over his eyes”? In British courts, both judges and attorneys wear wool wigs, a custom that originated in the eighteenth century. The judge’s wig is larger than the lawyer’s, so he’s often called the “bigwig.” When a crafty lawyer wins at trial against all odds, it’s as though the lawyer had blinded the judge with his own wig. It’s said he just had “the wool pulled over his eyes.” Why do we say that someone caught in a dishonest or criminal act “got nailed?”

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In the early days of criminal justice, punishment was often barbaric. Public hangings and floggings were commonplace, and for lesser crimes, the infliction of public humiliation and pain on the criminal was considered necessary to deter others from committing similar crimes. One such deterrent was to nail the convicted person’s ears to the hangman’s scaffold, where he or she would spend the day as a public spectacle. They had been “nailed.” Why were executions held at sunrise? In prehistoric times, executions of condemned prisoners were carried out as sacrificial ceremonies to the rising sun. In the Middle Ages, because the executions were public, they continued to be held early in the day so as not to attract huge crowds. It wasn’t until well into the twentieth century that more enlightened societies brought capital punishment indoors, not because executions were shocking, but because they were too popular. What is the origin of the phrase, “I’ll be hanged if I do and hanged if I don’t”? When America was fighting for its independence, the British poet Thelwall was arrested after enraging King George with his liberal, seditious support for the colonies. In prison he wrote to his lawyer, “I shall be hanged of I don’t plead my own case,” to which his lawyer replied, “You’ll be hanged if you do!” His lawyer got him off, and the phrase became a slogan that contributed to the demise of the royal cause in America.

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Why do we refer to an important issue as “the burning question” of the day? During a time when the church and the state were equal in government, anyone failing to follow the state religion was burned at the stake. Those who demanded the separation of church and state were considered heretics, and thousands who were caught discussing the issue were burned at the stake. Because of this, whenever there was a secret debate on religious freedom, the subject was referred to as “the burning question.” Why when someone is betrayed do we say he was “sold down the river”? After 1808 it was illegal for deep southerners to import slaves, and so they were brought down the Mississippi River from the North to the slave markets of Natchez and New Orleans. This gave the northerners a way of selling off their difficult or troublesome slaves to the harsher plantation owners on the southern Mississippi, and it meant that those selected or betrayed would be torn from their homes and families to be “sold down the river.” Why, when there’s no turning back, do we say, “The die is cast”? When you say, “The die is cast,” you are quoting Julius Caesar. In 49 BC, the Roman general stood and thought long before crossing the Rubicon River into Italy with his army, a move that would break Roman law and start a civil war. When he made his decision and moved forward, he said, “Alea jacta est” (the die is cast), meaning, as when throwing 64

dice, that the outcome is in the hands of fate, and there is no turning back from the consequences. Another phrase with a similar meaning came out of this same event: Crossing the Rubicon means taking a step or action that sets you on an irrevocable path.

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WAR & MILITARY

Why when someone dies do we say, “He bought the farm?” During the Second World War, airmen introduced the term “he bought the farm” after a pilot was shot down. The expression caught on with all the armed services and meant that if you gave your life for your country, your impoverished family would receive insurance money for your death, which would help pay off the mortgage on the family farm. Death

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for your country meant you were “buying the farm” for your parents. Why is a glaring error called a “snafu”? During the Second World War, massive military operations were so huge they were usually fouled up by their sheer weight and size. The frustrated servicemen called them SNAFUs, an acronym for “Situation Normal: All Fouled Up.” Some say that “fouled up” was a polite adaptation for family use, but regardless, the expression snafu lived on, and now, as it did then, means a glaring error. Why is a restricted limit called a “deadline”? A deadline is an absolute limit, usually a time limit, and was popularized by the newspaper business, in which getting stories written and printed on time is of ultimate importance. But the expression comes from American Civil War prisoners, who were kept within crude makeshift boundaries, often just a line scratched in the dirt or an easily breached rail fence. They were told, “If you cross this line, you are dead,” and soon the guards and prisoners simply called it what it was: a deadline. Why do paratroopers shout “Geronimo” when they jump from a plane? During the Second World War, Native American paratroopers began the custom of shouting the name of the great Indian chief Geronimo when jumping from a plane because, according to legend, when cornered at a cliff’s edge by U.S. cavalrymen, 67

Geronimo, in defiance, screamed his own name as he leaped to certain death, only to escape both injury and the bluecoats.

Why when someone ignores the rules do we say he “turned a blind eye”? In 1801, while second in command of a British fleet near Copenhagen, Horatio Nelson was told that his commander had sent up flags ordering a retreat. Nelson lifted his spyglass to his previously blinded eye and said he couldn’t see the order, and then he ordered and led a successful attack. Nelson’s insubordination became legend and gave us the expression “turn a blind eye.” Why do we say, “I heard it through the grapevine”? During the American Civil War, a Colonel Bee set up a crude telegraph line between Placerville and Virginia City by

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stringing wires from trees. The wires hung in loops like wild grapevines, and so the system was called the “Grapevine Telegraph,” or simply “the grapevine.” By the time war news came through the wires it was often outdated, misleading, or false, and the expression “I heard it through the grapevine” soon came to describe any information obtained through gossip or rumour that was likely unreliable. Where did croissants, or crescent rolls, originate? In 1683, during a time when all the nations of Europe were at war with each other, the Turkish army laid siege to the city of Vienna. The following year Poland joined Vienna against the Turks, who were ultimately forced to lift the siege in 1689. As a celebration of victory, a Viennese baker introduced crescent-shaped rolls, or “croissants,” copying the shape of the crescent Islamic symbol on the Turkish flag. During the American War of Independence, which country contributed the most soldiers to fight alongside the British? The country that contributed the most soldiers to fight with the British against Washington was America itself. By 1779, there were more Americans fighting alongside the British than with the colonists. Washington had about thirty-five hundred troops, but because one-third of the American population opposed the revolution, up to eight thousand loyalists either moved to Canada or joined the British Army. What exactly is a last-ditch stand?

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In the sixteenth century, when an army attacked a walled city or fortress, they would advance by digging a series of trenches for protection until they were close enough to storm the walls. If there was a successful counter-attack, the invaders would retreat by attempting to hold each trench in the reverse order from which they had advanced until they might find themselves fighting from the “last ditch.” If they failed to hold that one, the battle was lost. Where did the expression “the whole nine yards” come from? During the South Pacific action of the Second World War, American fighter planes’ machine guns were armed on the ground with .50 calibre ammunition belts that measured exactly twenty-seven feet, or nine yards, in length before being loaded into the fuselage. If, during mortal combat, a pilot gave everything he had by firing all his ammunition at a single target, it was said he’d given it “the whole nine yards.” What is the origin of the twenty-one gun salute? All salutes are signals of voluntary submission. Early warriors simply placed their weapons on the ground, but when guns came along, the ritual of firing off or emptying cannons was done to illustrate to approaching foreign dignitaries that they had nothing to fear. In 1688, the Royal Navy regulated the number of guns to be used in saluting different ranks. For a prime minister, nineteen guns should be used, but for royalty or heads of state, the salute should be done with twenty-one guns.

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In modern warfare, is it infantry or machines that determine the outcome? Machines win modern wars. A 1947 study found that during the Second World War, only about 15 to 25 percent of the American infantry ever fired their rifles in combat. The rest, or three-quarters of them, simply carried their weapons, doing their best not to become casualties. The infantry’s purpose is not to kill the enemy, but rather to advance on and then physically occupy his territory. Why is an overly eager person or group said to be “gung-ho?” The adjective gung-ho comes from the Chinese word gonghe, meaning “work together.” It entered the English language through U.S. Marines who picked it up from the communists while in China during the Second World War. Because the marines admired the fervour of the Chinese leftists in fighting the Japanese, while the rightists under Chiang Kai-shek seldom fought, they adopted “gung-ho” as a slogan. They emulated the communists with “gung-ho” meetings and eventually called themselves “the gung-ho battalion.” Where did the word assassin come from? While mounting a jihad against the invading Christian Crusaders in the 1300s, Hassan ben Sabah controlled his command of radical killers with a potion that gave them dreams of an eternity in a garden where young women pleased them to their heart’s content. The potion was from hashish, and these young killers became known as hashish

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eaters, which in Arabic is hashashin, or as the Crusaders pronounced it, “assassin.” Why when two people share the cost of a date do we say they’re “going Dutch”? War has influenced the slurs in our language more than anything else. For example, when a soldier runs from battle the French say he’s gone travelling “English style,” while the English say he’s on “French leave.” During the Anglo-Dutch wars of the seventeenth century, British insults were that “Dutch courage” came from a bottle while a “Dutch treat” meant that everyone paid their own way, which of course was no treat at all. Why do the military say “Roger” then “Wilco” to confirm a radio message? During the Second World War, the U.S. Navy used a phonetic alphabet to clarify radio messages. It began, Alpha, Baker, Charlie, Dog, and went on to include Roger for “R.” Because “R,” or “Roger,” is the first letter in received, it confirmed that the message was understood. On the other hand, “Wilco” is a standard military abbreviation for “will comply.” Why is the bugle call at day’s end called “taps”? In the seventeenth century, the British borrowed a Dutch army custom of sounding a drum and bugle to signal soldiers that it was time to stop socializing and return to their barracks for the night. The Dutch called it “taptoe,” meaning “shut off the taps,” and the abbreviated “taps” became a signal for tavern owners to turn off the spigots on their beer and wine 72

casks. After lights out, taps signals that the soldiers are safely home, which is why it’s played at funerals. Why is a secret enemy amongst us referred to as a “fifth column”? Any secret force within an enemy’s midst during wartime is called a fifth column. The phrase comes from the Spanish Civil War, when the general leading the 1936 siege of Madrid with four columns of infantry was asked if four were enough. He replied that he had a fifth column hiding inside the city. Since then a fifth column has meant a secret organized force amongst the enemy or ourselves. Why are those for and against war called “hawks” and “doves”? Those who side with war have been called “hawks” since 1798, when Thomas Jefferson coined the term war hawk. The description of those who favour peace as doves is from the biblical book of Genesis. When Noah sent a dove over the water to see if it was receding, it returned with an olive leaf, indicating there was land nearby. The modern use began during the Cuban Missile Crisis and continues to the present. What does the D stand for in D-Day? Although D-Day has become synonymous with the Allied landing on June 6, 1944, in Normandy, it was used many times before and since. The D in D-Day simply stands for “day,” just as the H in H-Hour stands for “hour.” Both are commonly used codes for the fixed time when a military 73

operation is scheduled to begin. “D minus thirty” means thirty days before a target date while “D plus fifteen” means fifteen days after. Why, when someone we trusted turns against us, do we say he’s “shown his true colours”? Sailing under false colours means to sail under the enemy flag, and it was once a legitimate naval manoeuvre used to get close enough to the enemy for a surprise attack. At the last moment, just before opening fire, the false colours were lowered and replaced by the ship’s “true colours.” Although such deception is now considered dishonourable, we still say when someone we trusted reveals himself as the enemy that he is showing his “true colours.” Why do we call a traitor a “turncoat”? Someone who changes sides during a war is called a “turncoat” because of the actions of a former duke of Saxony who found himself and his land uncomfortably situated directly in the middle of a war between the French and the Saxons. He quickly had a reversible coat made for himself, one side blue for the Saxons, and the other side white for the French. Then, depending on who was occupying his land, he could wear the appropriate colour of allegiance. Why when abandoning ship do we say “women and children first”? In 1852, the HMS Birkenhead was off to war in South Africa when she ran aground and sank off the coast of the Cape. The only useable lifeboats were quickly filled by the 20 women 74

and children on board, while the 476 soldiers lined up on deck to go down with the ship. This is where the tradition of “women and children first” was born, and in naval circles is still called “the Birkenhead drill.” Why is gossip called “scuttlebutt”? The word scuttlebutt comes from sailors of the British Navy. Nineteenth-century warships had large wooden casks with holes cut in the lid for drinking water. The word scuttle means a hole, like the one created to scuttle a ship, or in this case, the one in the cask. The water cask itself was called a butt. And just as is done around the water coolers of today’s offices, sailors exchanged the latest gossip while getting a drink at the scuttlebutt. How did a crushing public humiliation become known as a “Roman holiday”? The Etruscans of ancient Italy ritually honoured their dead war heroes by sacrificing the lives of all prisoners seized in battle. After conquering the Etruscans, the Romans borrowed and embellished the ritual by having the prisoners kill each other. They turned the slaughter into public gladiatorial games and declared the spectacle a Roman holiday, which became an expression synonymous with any cruel and crushing public destruction. Why do we say, “It’s cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey”? Early warships fired iron cannonballs from a stack piled next to the cannon. To keep them in place, they used a square 75

piece of rust-proof brass with indentations to secure the bottom layer of balls. This plate was nicknamed the monkey. When it got cold enough, the mischievous brass monkey would shrink, causing the balls to fall out and roll all over the deck. It was “cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey.”

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HOLIDAYS

Which culture began celebrating the new year with a feast of food and alcohol? The earliest recorded New Year’s festival was in ancient Babylon in what is now Iraq. Before the introduction of a calendar year, the celebration took place in spring during the planting season. The Babylonian feast was elaborate, lasting eleven days, and included copious drinking and eating in a tribute to the gods of fertility and agriculture. Celebrating the

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new year was both a thanksgiving and a plea for a successful new harvest. What is the origin of New Year’s resolutions? In medieval times, during the last feast of the Christmas week, knights of the realm were required to place their hands on a peacock and vow to continue living up to their pledge of chivalry. This was known as the knight’s “peacock vow.” The New Year’s custom of resolving to live a better life originated with the Babylonians, who promised the gods that they would return all borrowed farm and cooking tools and pay off personal debts. How accurate is the Groundhog Day forecast? In German folklore, if it’s sunny when he emerges from hibernation, a groundhog will be frightened by his own shadow and return to his lair; therefore crops shouldn’t be planted because there will be another six weeks of winter. In fact the groundhog comes out hungry and ready to mate, but if he’s still dozy and his senses are dulled, he goes back to sleep. As a forecaster, the groundhog is accurate only 28 percent of the time — about the same as the weatherman. How did Valentine become the patron saint of lovers? In 270 AD, the mad Roman emperor Claudius II outlawed marriage because he believed married men made for bad soldiers. Ignoring the emperor, Bishop Valentine continued to marry young lovers in secret until his disobedience was discovered and he was sentenced to death. As legend has it, he fell in 78

love with the jailer’s blind daughter, and through a miracle he restored her sight. On his way to execution, he left her a farewell note ending in, “From Your Valentine.” How did March 17 become St. Patrick’s Day? When the time came to honour the patron saint of Ireland’s birthday, church officials gathered solemnly to choose a day, then realized that most of St. Patrick’s life was a mystery. They finally narrowed his birth-date down to either March 8 or 9, but because they couldn’t agree which was correct, they decided to add the two together and declared March 17 to be St. Patrick’s Day. How did the shamrock become a symbol of St. Patrick? In the fifth century, Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, transformed that country from its pagan roots to Christianity. During an outdoor sermon, Patrick was struggling to explain the Holy Trinity when he spotted a shamrock. He used its three leaves to illustrate how the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost grew from a single stem, symbolizing one God sustaining the trinity, and ever since, the shamrock reminds the faithful of that lesson. What are the origins of April Fool’s Day? Up until 1564, the French celebrated New Year’s between March 25 and April 1, but with the introduction of the new Gregorian calendar the festival was moved to January 1. Those who resisted became the victims of pranks including invitations to nonexistent New Year’s parties on April 1.

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Soon the April 1 celebration of a non-occasion became an annual festival of hoaxes. How did the rabbit and eggs become symbols of Easter? The word Easter comes from the ancient Norse word Ostara, which is what the Vikings called the festival of spring. The legend of a rabbit bringing Easter eggs is from German folklore, which tells of a poor woman who, during a famine, dyed some eggs then hid them in a chicken’s nest as an Easter surprise for her children. Just as the children discovered the nest, a big rabbit leaped away, and the story spread that it had brought the eggs. How did we start celebrating Mother’s Day? In 1907 Miss Anna Jarvis of West Virginia asked guests to wear a white carnation to the church service on the anniversary of her mother’s death. But Mother’s Day became increasingly commercial, and Miss Jarvis spent the rest of her life trying to restore its simplicity. The strain of her efforts to stop Mother’s Day and what it had become led her to an insane asylum, where she died alone in 1948. How did Father’s Day get started? During a Spokane, Washington, Mother’s Day service in 1910, a Mrs. Sonora Dodd thought of how she and her five brothers had been raised on a small farm by her single father. She proposed a Father’s Day celebration, but although it caught on locally, it was a political hot potato and didn’t receive permanent recognition until an edict by President

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Richard Nixon in 1972. Father’s Day is now the fifth-largest card-sending occasion in North America. Why do children demand “trick or treat” during Halloween? When the Irish introduced Halloween to America, children celebrated with a night of mild vandalism. Their bag of “tricks” included breaking or soaping windows or overturning outdoor toilets. Soon they realized that adults would offer candy or other “treats” to stop these tricks. They then offered the homeowner a choice of giving them goodies or suffering the consequences. This mild blackmail demand came as, “Trick or treat?” Why do we carve jack-o’-lanterns for Halloween? In Irish folklore, a supreme con man named Jack, or “Jack-o,” once tricked the Devil himself. Upon his death, his sins barred him from heaven, and because he had once fooled the Devil he couldn’t enter hell. After a lot of begging he finally persuaded Satan to give him one burning ember. Placed in a hollowed-out turnip it served as a lantern to light his way through the afterlife. Later in North America, the plentiful pumpkin replaced turnips for use as “Jack-o’s lanterns.” Where did the customs of Halloween come from? The ancient Celts celebrated October 31 as New Year’s Eve. They called it “All Hallows Eve.” They believed that on that night, all those who had died in the previous twelve months gathered to choose the body of a living person or animal to 81

inhabit for the next year before they could pass into the afterlife. The original Halloween festival included human sacrifices and scary costumes, all designed to protect the living from the dead. What was the original meaning of merry in “Merry Christmas”? Today, merry, as in “Merry Christmas,” suggests gaiety, a mood for celebration, but its original meaning was quite different. For example, the carol we sing as “God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen,” should read “God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen.” The word was at least four hundred years old when it was first written down in 1827, and at that time merry didn’t mean joyous, but rather, peaceful or pleasant. Was Rudolph the only name of the red-nosed reindeer? In 1939, when Robert May, a copywriter for Montgomery Ward, wrote a promotional Christmas poem for that Chicago department store, its principal character was “Rollo” the Red-Nosed Reindeer, but the corporate executives didn’t like that name, nor did they approve of May’s second suggestion, “Reginald.” It was May’s four-year-old daughter who came up with “Rudolph,” and the title for a Christmas classic. How much would all the gifts cost in “The Twelve Days of Christmas”? Because the golden rings are pheasants and not jewellery, the most expensive item in “The Twelve Days of Christmas” is seven swans a-swimming, at US$7,000, followed by ten lords a-leaping and nine ladies dancing. The current price of a 82

partridge in a pear tree is $34, which is the hourly rate for eight maids a-milking. So when everything is added up, the tab is $15,944.20. What were the bizarre ingredients of history’s most exotic Christmas pies? An early English saying was, “The devil himself dare not appear in Cornwall during Christmas for fear of being baked in a pie.” Records show that living creatures from blackbirds to pheasants, from foxes to rabbits, and in one case even a dwarf, were cooked into Christmas pies at temperatures not hot enough to kill them. Then, as a festival highlight, the crust was broken, and the enclosed creatures would fly, hop, or run among the guests.

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How much weight does the average person gain over Christmas? In the Middle Ages, Christmas banquets started at three in the afternoon, with appetizers and fortified mulled wine followed by ten main courses, and lasted until midnight. Today, over the holidays, North Americans consume 24 million turkeys and 112 million cans of cranberries. We drink 108 million quarts of eggnog and 89 million gallons of liquor. The average weight gain over the Christmas holidays is four to six pounds. What is the origin of Boxing Day?

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Beginning in the Middle Ages, Boxing Day was known as St. Stephen’s Day in honour of the first Christian martyr. Although unknown in the United States, Boxing Day is still observed in Britain, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia. It’s called “Boxing Day” because on the day after Christmas, the well-off boxed up gifts to give to their servants and trades-people, while the churches opened their charity boxes to the poor.

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ANIMALS

Why do we call a predictable trial a “kangaroo court”? The expression “kangaroo court” came out of Texas in the 1850s. It meant that the accused’s guilt was predetermined and that the trial was a mere formality before punishment. Kangaroo was a Texas reference to Australia, a former British penal colony where everyone had been guilty of something, and so if a convict were accused of a new crime, there would be no doubt of his guilt.

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When a person is upset, why do we say someone’s “got his goat”? When someone “gets your goat,” it usually means you’ve lost your temper or become angry enough to be distracted. It’s a term that came from a horse trainer’s practice of putting a goat in a stall with a skittish racehorse to keep him calm before a big race. An opponent or gambler might arrange for the goat to be removed by a stable boy, which would upset the horse and its owner and so reduce their chances of winning. Why is something useless and expensive called a “white elephant”? The term “white elephant” comes from ancient Siam, where no one but the king could own a rare and sacred albino, or white, elephant without royal consent. The cost of keeping any elephant, white or otherwise, was tremendous, and so when the king found displeasure with someone he would make him a gift of a white elephant, and because the animal was sacred and couldn’t be put to work, the cost of its upkeep would ruin its new owner. Why do we call a leg injury a “charley horse”? The phrase charley horse has its roots in baseball. At the beginning of the twentieth century, groundskeepers often used old and lame horses to pull the equipment used to keep the playing field in top condition. The Baltimore Orioles had a player named Charley Esper, who, after years of injuries, walked with pain. Because his limp reminded his teammates of the 87

groundskeeper’s lame horse, they called Esper “Charley Horse.” Why are there “bulls” and “bears” in the stock market? An eighteenth-century proverb mocks the man who “sells the bearskin before catching the bear.” A “bearskin speculator,” like the man in the proverb, sold what he didn’t yet own, hoping that the price would drop by the time he had to pay for it. “Bulls” speculate, hoping the price will rise. The analogies come from a time when fights were staged between the two animals, in which a bear needed to pull the bull down while the bull fought by lifting the bear with its horns. How long is a furlong? The furlong is an ancient British unit of measurement, literally meaning the length of a furrow. It’s the distance a horse can pull a plow without resting, which was calculated at exactly 220 yards, or 201.168 metres. When the Romans introduced the mile to Britain, it was changed in length to accommodate a tidy eight furlongs. This was done because all property and other precise distances such as that of a horserace were measured locally in furlongs. Why is an informer called a “stool pigeon”? A “stool pigeon” is someone who betrays a group or cause to which he or she belongs. In their efforts to attract passenger pigeons, hunters would tie or nail a single pigeon to a stool and wait for a flock to be drawn to the cries of the desperate bird. Then, as they approached, the birds would be shot by the thousands. This practice continued until the 88

species became totally extinct. The poor bird that unwillingly played the traitor was called a “stool pigeon.” Why do we say that someone with money is “well heeled”? Before cockfighting was banned in 1849, individual birds were often fitted with sharp steel spurs, giving them an advantage in mortal combat. They were “well heeled.” In the nineteenth century, the expression became slang for anyone armed with a weapon. Then, around 1880, the term began to mean anyone who was well-off financially and who could overcome any obstacle with money instead of a weapon. Why is an innocent person who takes the blame for others called a “scapegoat”? The term scapegoat or escape goat entered the English language with William Tyndale’s translation of the Hebrew Bible in 1525. Under the Law of Moses, the Yom Kippur ritual of atonement involved two goats. One was sacrificed to the Lord, while all the sins of the people were transferred to the other. The scapegoat was then led into the wilderness, taking all the sins of the Israelites with it. Why do we say that something worthless is “for the birds”? In the days before automobiles, the streets were filled with horse-drawn carriages, and these animals quite naturally left behind deposits from their digestive systems. These emissions contained half-digested oats that attracted swarms of birds, which took nourishment from the deposits. The people of the

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time coined the expression for the birds as meaning anything of the same value as these horse-droppings. Why is an unknown contestant called a “dark horse”? Sam Flynn, a travelling Tennessee horse trader, often found a horse race planned in the same town as an auction. So he mixed a coal black racing stallion named Dusky Pete in with his workhorses, then quietly entered him in the local races and wagered heavily on Dusky Pete, who would invariably win. As word spread of Sam’s deception, so did the caution: “Beware the dark horse.” Why do we call male felines “tomcats”? A 1760 book titled The Life and Adventures of a Cat became so popular that from then on, all un-neutered male cats were called “Tom” after the book’s feline hero. A female cat that has procreated is called a “queen,” a title easily understood by any cat lover. Legend has it that one such cat lover, the great prophet Mohammed, once cut off the sleeve of his shirt before standing rather than disturb a sleeping kitten. Why do we say, “Never look a gift horse in the mouth”? It’s considered rude to examine a gift for value, and the expression “Never look a gift horse in the mouth” means just that. The proverb has been traced to St. Jerome, who in 400 AD wrote a letter advising a disgruntled recipient of a gift of a horse to accept it in the spirit given without looking for flaws. It was then, and is still, common practice to look into a newly acquired horse’s mouth, where you can tell its age by the condition of its teeth. 90

Why when astonished would someone say, “Well, I’ll be a monkey’s uncle”? During the famous Scopes trial in 1925, a Tennessee schoolteacher, John T. Scopes, was accused of breaking that state’s law by teaching Darwin’s theory of evolution rather than the Biblical origins of mankind. The trial was a sensation and astonished many who had never heard that humans might be related to the apes, and from this came the expression, “Well, I’ll be a monkeys uncle.” Why when we have no choice at all do we say it’s a “Hobson’s choice?” Thomas Hobson lived between 1544 and 1631 and was the owner of a livery stable in Cambridge, England. He was a very stubborn man whom Seinfeld might have called the “Livery Nazi” because, regardless of a customer’s rank, he would rent out only the horse nearest the stable door. Hobson became famous for never renting horses out of order, so “Hobson’s choice” came to mean, “take it or leave it.” How did pumpernickel bread get its name? During the winter of 1812, while Napoleon’s army was retreating from Russia, the only available food was stale, dark bread. Although his men were dying from hunger, Napoleon ensured that his great white horse, Nicholl, always had enough to eat, which caused the soldiers to grumble that although they were starving there was always enough “pain pour Nicholl,” or “bread for Nicholl.” When anglicized, “pain pour Nicholl” became “pumpernickel.” 91

Why is misleading evidence called a “red herring”? A “red herring” is a false clue leading detectives off the track during a criminal investigation. The term comes from a practice once used to train police dogs. When herring is smoked it becomes red, and when the young dogs were being trained to follow a scent, the trainers tossed smoked fish around to test their ability to follow a trail. Escaping prisoners learned of the practice and often took red herring along to distract the dogs sent after them. Why is “until the cows come home” considered a long time? If left to their own devices, cows in pasture will regularly show up at the barn for milking twice a day: once in the morning and once in the evening. The expression “’til the cows come home” first appeared in the sixteenth century when most people were familiar with the cycles of farm life. It was often used when a party went on long into the night — it would have to end in the morning when the cows came home and needed milking. Why do we say that someone who has wasted his life has “gone to the dogs”? In prehistoric China, for hygiene and safety reasons dogs weren’t allowed inside the city walls. It was also forbidden to dispose of garbage within the city, and so the designated dump outside the walls was where the stray dogs found food. When undesirables and criminals were banished from the city and forced to compete with the dogs for food at the garbage dump, it was said they had “gone to the dogs.” 92

Why do we say a hysterical woman is acting like she’s “having kittens”? In medieval times and during the American era of witch trials in Salem, whenever an unfortunate pregnant woman began to have premature pains or extreme discomfort, the authorities suspected that she had been bewitched. Because witchcraft and cats were synonymous, they feared that she was about to have a litter of kittens and that the creatures were scratching to get out from the inside. They would say her hysteria was because she was “having kittens.” Why do we use the word wildcat to describe a risky venture? Whether it’s a strike or an oil well, the word wildcat describes anything that is considered risky and has a good chance of failing. It comes from a time before regulations when state banks like the Bank of Michigan issued their own money. That bank’s notes had a panther on the face and were called “wildcats.” When the bank went down, so did a lot of fortunes. From then on, all high-risk ventures were described as wildcats. Why do we call a computer problem a “bug”? According to Grace Hopper, who led the team that developed the first large-scale computer for the American Navy in 1945, the word was coined when, after tracing an unexplained problem for days, they finally found the cause to be a two-inch bug, a moth, that had gotten stuck in the relay system. From then on, all unexplained computer problems were called bugs. 93

Why is do we say someone who is successful is “bringing home the bacon”? This thousand-year-old expression came from a common British competition of trying to catch a greased pig at a country fair. But the first time it was recorded and entered into modern use in North America was in 1910, when, after her son won a championship fight, Jack Johnson’s mother told the press, “My boy said he’d bring home the bacon.” From then on, “bringing home the bacon” meant achieving success. Why do we call money saved for a rainy day a “nest egg”? The term nest egg usually refers to savings that compounds or grows with interest or through investments. The expression is an old one and comes from a trick poultry farmer’s use to increase a hen’s egg-laying ability. By placing a false egg (often a doorknob) in her nest, the farmer fools the chicken into laying more eggs than she otherwise would, meaning more money for the farmer, which he credits to his “nest egg.”

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How did we get the idea that the stork delivered babies? The suggestion that storks delivered babies came from Scandinavia and was promoted by the writings of Hans Christian Andersen. Storks had a habit of nesting on warm chimneys and would often lift articles from clotheslines then stuff them into these nests, which to children looked

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like they were stuffing babies down the flue. The stork is also very nurturing and protective of its young, which helped it become symbolic of good parenthood. Why do we say, “Every dog has his day”? In ancient times, just as today in third-world societies, dogs lived miserable lives with little or no human care, which led to the hard-times expressions, “it’s a dog’s life,” “sick as a dog,” and “dog-tired.” As for the proverb “Every dog has his day,” it was first recorded as an epilogue after the famed Greek playwright Euripides was killed by a pack of dogs in 405 BC. Why is taking the “hair of the dog” a hangover cure? In the Middle Ages, people treated a dog bite with the ashes of the canine culprit’s hair. The medical logic came from the Romans, who believed that the cure of any ailment, including a hangover, could be found in its cause. It’s a principle applied in modern medicine with the use of vaccines for immunization. “The hair of the dog” treatment for hangovers advises that to feel better, you should take another drink of the same thing that made you feel so bad. Why do we say when someone has a raspy voice that he has a “frog in his throat”? The expression “frog in your throat” doesn’t come from sounding like a frog because you have a cold or sore throat. It originates from an actual Middle Ages medical treatment for a throat infection. Doctors believed that if a live frog was placed head-first into a patient’s mouth the animal would 96

inhale the cause of the hoarseness into its own body. Thankfully, the practice is long gone, but the expression “frog in your throat” lives on.

What is the difference between a “flock” and a “gaggle” of geese? Any group of birds, goats, or sheep can be referred to as a flock, but each feathered breed has its own proper title. Hawks travel in casts, while it’s a bevy of quail, a host of sparrows, and a covey of partridges. Swans move in herds, and peacocks in musters, while a flock of herons is called a siege. A group of geese is properly called a gaggle, but only when they’re on the ground. In the air they are a skein.

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BELIEFS & SUPERSTITIONS

Why is a horseshoe thought to be good luck? A horseshoe’s charm comes from the legend of Saint Dunstan, who, because of his talent as a blacksmith, was asked by the Devil to shoe his cloven hoof. Saint Dunstan agreed, but in carrying out the task, he caused the Devil such pain that he was able to make him promise never to enter a house that has a horseshoe hanging above the doorway. Thus, from the Middle Ages on, the horseshoe has been considered good luck. 98

Why does breaking a wishbone determine good luck?

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Twenty-four hundred years ago, because roosters heralded the sunrise and hens squawked before laying an egg, the Etruscans thought they were soothsayers. Because the sacred fowl’s collarbone resembled a human groin, it was believed to have special powers and was called a wishbone. The Romans introduced the custom of two people pulling on the wishbone to see whom luck favoured. The winner was said to have gotten “a lucky break.” Why is the ladybug considered good luck? Called either “ladybird” or “ladybug,” the little red beetle with the black spots is the well-known and beloved subject of a nursery rhyme and is called a “lady” after the Virgin Mary because it emerges around March 25, the time of the Feast of the Annunciation, which is also known as Lady Day. Called the “Mary bug” in German, the ladybug brings good luck to a garden by eating unwanted pests. Why is Friday the thirteenth considered to be bad luck? The number thirteen represents Judas, the thirteenth to arrive at the Last Supper. Friday by itself is unlucky because it was the day of Christ’s Crucifixion. Years ago, the British set out to disprove these superstitions. They named a new vessel HMS Friday, laid her keel on a Friday, and then sent her to sea on a Friday that fell on the thirteenth. The plan backfired: neither ship nor crew was ever heard from again. Then, of course, there’s Apollo 13. Why is it considered bad luck to walk under a ladder?

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This superstition comes from the idea that many early cultures considered a triangle to be a sacred symbol of life. For Christians, a triangle represents the Holy Trinity. A ladder against a wall forms a triangle with the ground, and so to walk beneath it would be to disrupt a sanctified space and risk divine wrath. Even earlier, Christians considered the ladder resting against a wall to represent the ladder that rested against the cross during the Crucifixion, and therefore evil. For this reason condemned criminals were forced to walk under the gallows ladder — the entranceway to eternal darkness. The executioner always walked around it to position the noose. How did spilling salt become a symbol of bad luck? As man’s first food seasoning, and later a food preservative and a medicine, salt has been a precious commodity for ten thousand years, so spilling it was costly as well as bad luck. This superstition was enhanced by Leonardo da Vinci’s painting of the Last Supper, within which Judas has spilled the table salt as a foreboding of tragedy. Because good spirits sat on the right shoulder and evil on the left, tossing spilled salt over the left shoulder became an antidote. Why do we cross our fingers when wishing for luck? Crossing our fingers for luck predates Christianity and originally involved two people. In the pagan ritual, a close friend placed his or her index finger over the index finger of the person making the wish in order to help trap the wish at the centre of a perfect cross, which is where benevolent spirits lived. To ensure the wish stayed in place and on the wisher’s

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mind, it was often tied to the finger with string, a practice that eventually evolved into a memory aid. Why do we say “Bless you” after a sneeze? The ancient Greeks believed a blessing might prevent evil from entering your body during its unguarded state while you sneeze. Our tradition comes from the black plague of 1665, when sneezing was believed to be one of the first symptoms of the disease. Infection meant certain death, and so the symptom was greeted with the prayer, “God bless you,” which through time has been shortened to “Bless you!” Why do we call sadness “the blues”? The blues were around long before African Americans put them to music. The expression originates in the belief of early English settlers that “blue devils,” or mean spirits, had followed them to their new land. These devils were thought to be the cause of sadness, and so a bout of depression was called “the blues.” Because no one could have been sadder than the black slaves, their raw expression of the mood in a unique and brilliant musical form became known as “the blues.” What is Tecumseh’s Curse? The great Shawnee Chief Tecumseh, who died fighting with Canada against the United States’ invasion in the War of 1812, placed a curse on the American presidency. He proclaimed that every president elected in a year that ends in a zero would die during his term. Since then, every president 102

elected in such a year has died in office, with the exception of Ronald Reagan, who was shot, but survived. Here is a complete list of presidents affected by the curse: • William Henry Harrison, elected in 1840, died of pneumonia one month into his presidency. • Abraham Lincoln, elected in 1860, was assassinated in 1865 at the beginning of his second term. • James A. Garfield, elected in 1880, was assassinated in 1881. • William McKinley, elected for his second term in 1900, was assassinated in 1901. • Warren G. Harding, elected in 1920, died of Ptomaine poisoning in 1923. • Franklin D. Roosevelt, elected for his third term in 1940, died of a cerebral hemorrhage in 1945 at the beginning of his fourth term. • John F. Kennedy, elected in 1960, was assassinated in 1963. • Ronald Reagan, elected in 1980, survived an assassination attempt while in office. Some say that by surviving he broke the curse. Why are new ships christened with champagne? Beginning around the tenth century with the idea that the departed spirits would guide seamen on the ocean, ships were

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christened, or blessed, with the blood of sacrificial victims, which was splashed throughout the vessel. Eventually those who thought this too barbaric began using red wine, but the Christian church complained that this was an affront to its sacraments, and so ships were christened with white wine, the best of which is champagne. Why after boasting do we knock on wood? When children play tag and hold a tree for safety, they are acting out a four-thousand-year-old custom of the North American Indians who believed that because the oak was most frequently struck by lightning, it was the home of the sky god. The Greeks came to this same conclusion two thousand years later and because both cultures believed that bragging or boasting offended that god, they knocked on the tree either to divert him from their bragging or to seek forgiveness. Why do people in mourning wear black? Today, mourners wear black as a symbol of sadness and respect for their lost loved ones, but it didn’t start out that way. Many years ago it was believed that the spirit of the departed, fearing harsh judgement, would try to remain on earth by inhabiting a familiar body. The mourners wore black and stayed indoors or in shadows to hide from the departed spirit who sought to possess them. Why are cemeteries filled with tombstones? Today, a tombstone is a tribute marking someone’s final resting place, but the custom began within ancient fears that 104

the departed spirit might rise from the grave to search out and inhabit the body of a living person. To prevent this, the coffin was nailed shut, a heavy stone was placed on its lid, and it was buried deep in the ground. For even greater security, another heavier stone was placed on the surface over the grave, giving us the tombstone.

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WORDS

Why do we call a dollar a “buck”? The Indians taught the first European settlers the value of a buck. Like gold, deer or buckskin was used in trading as a unit of value against which everything else was assessed. “The buck stops here” is a different matter. That expression came from frontier poker, in which the buck was a knife made of buckhorn that was passed around the table to indicate who was dealing. When a hand was finished, the dealer “passed the buck” to the next player. 106

Why is a severe snowstorm called a “blizzard”? The word blizzard didn’t mean a snowstorm until 1870, when a newspaper editor in Estherville, Iowa, needed a word to describe a fierce spring storm. The word blizzard had been hanging around with no particular origin for about fifty years and was used to describe a vicious physical attack, either with fists or guns. After its use by the editor, what better word to describe a violent snowstorm than blizzard? Why do we call luxurious living a “posh” existence? In the days of their empire, British tourists travelled by ship from England to the warmer climates of India and the Mediterranean. Wealthy passengers on these voyages demanded cabins shaded from the sun, which meant being on the port side on the way out and the starboard side on the way home. Tickets for these cabins were marked “POSH,” which stood for Portside Out, Starboard Home, and posh stuck as a word that signified luxury. Why do we use the word glitch to define an unknown computer problem? Along with space exploration came new expressions that are now everyday language. Astronauts said “affirmative” for yes, “check” to confirm a completed task, and “copy” to indicate that an instruction was understood. “Glitch,” an unexplained computer malfunction, was first used to describe the Mercury space capsule’s frustrating tendency to signal an emergency when none existed.

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Why are the sides of a boat called “starboard” and “port side”? In the primitive days of navigation, the helmsman stood at the stern of the ship, controlling the vessel’s direction by hand with a rudder, which was on the right side and called a steer board, or as the Anglo-Saxons called it, a “starboard.” The left side of the ship is called the “port” side, because with the steering mechanism on the right it was the only side that could be brought to rest against a harbour or port. Why do we call the first weeks of marriage a “honeymoon”? The custom of a “honeymoon” began over four thousand years ago in Babylon, when for a full lunar month after the wedding, the bride’s father would supply his son-in-law with all the honey-beer he could drink. It was called the “honey month.” The word honeymoon didn’t enter our language until 1546, and because few people could afford a vacation, a honeymoon didn’t mean a trip away from home until the middle of the nineteenth century. Why do we say someone diverted from a goal has been “sidetracked”? Early railroads had only a single track between destinations. Problems arose when a train was met by another going in the opposite direction or was about to be overtaken by a faster one. This dilemma was solved with the creation of sidings, short lengths of track built parallel to the main line where one train could pull over while the other

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went by. The train had been “sidetracked,” meaning that, for a time at least, it wasn’t going anywhere. Why do we say someone charming has “personality”? In the Greek and Roman theatres, actors wore masks to indicate the different characters they were playing. The Latin word for mask, persona, came to mean a personality other than that of the actor. Today, persona, or personality, still refers to the mask a person wears to hide his or her true character while playing a role for the outside world. How did the dandelion and the daisy get their names? The dandelion and the daisy are both named for a particular physical characteristic. The English daisy, with its small yellow centre and white- or rose-coloured rays, closes at night and reopens with daylight like the human eye, and so it was named the “day’s eye.” The dandelion, because of its sharp, edible leaves, was named by the French “dent de lion,” the “tooth of a lion.”

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Why are Levi denims called “jeans”? In the 1850s, when Levi Strauss ran out of tent canvas for the pants he was selling to California gold miners, he imported a tough material from Nimes in France called serge de Nim. Americanized, “de Nim” became “denim.” The word jeans is from the French word for Genoa, where the tough cloth was invented. Jeans became popular with teenagers after James Dean wore them in the movie Rebel Without a Cause. Why are construction cranes and the mechanisms used for drilling oil called “derricks”?

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The derrick, an instrument used for heavy lifting, got its name from a famous London hangman. In the early 1600s, Godfrey Derrick built a sturdy gallows from which he would execute some three thousand souls by hanging. Because items hung and swayed from the cranes used to load ships, longshoremen called them “derricks” after the executioner’s infamous device. How did the word curfew come to mean “stay in your homes”? The word curfew comes from the French couvre-feu, which means “cover-fire” and was brought to England by William the Conqueror. The original Curfew Law minimized the tremendous risk of fire by ordaining that a bell be rung at eight o’clock each evening, signalling everyone to either extinguish or cover their home fires. During political unrest, the same curfew bell signalled the public to clear the streets and stay in their homes for the night. What is the meaning of the word factoid? Norman Mailer introduced the word factoid in his 1973 book Marilyn. He invented it by combining the word fact with -oid, a scientific suffix that means “resembling but not identical to.” In other words, it’s something that looks like a fact, but isn’t. Factoids are built from rumours and used by irresponsible journalists to create a story when none exists. Why is the word mayday used as an aviation distress call? The distress call “mayday” comes from the French, who were leading pioneers in flight. In 1911 there were 433 licenced 111

aviators in France, compared to just 171 in Britain and even fewer in the United States. Flying was a risky business, and it wasn’t until parachutes and radios were introduced that the French call “M’aidez,” or “help me,” became Anglicized to the modern international distress call, “Mayday!” Why is a surplus of anything called a “backlog”? While a backlog of work might be a burden, it’s better than no work at all, and in business it guarantees survival. Before stoves, or even matches, the kitchen fireplace was kept burning around the clock. This was done by placing a huge log, or back log, behind the fire that would keep smoldering once the flames had died down during the night. The embers from the back log could then ignite a new fire in the morning. Why is the paved runway of an airport called a “Tarmac”? The hard pavement surface we now call asphalt was discovered by chance when an Englishman named E. Purnell Hooley accidentally spilled tar onto some crushed stone. Hooley named this new black pavement by taking the last name of Scotsman John MacAdam, who had developed the use of crushed stone for a firm, dry highway, and prefixing it with “tar.” Tarmacadam was a mouthful, however, and was soon shortened to Tarmac. Hooley patented Tarmac in 1903. Why do we call a reaction of coercion and punishment a “boycott”?

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The word boycott, meaning to ostracize an oppressor, originated in Ireland in the late nineteenth century. As punishment for falling behind in rent, poor tenant farmers in County Mayo were being tossed from their homes by Captain Charles Boycott, who was acting as the agent of an absentee English landlord. The tenants eventually forced Boycott’s downfall by refusing to take in the harvest, making the repossessed land useless to its English owner. Why do we call a quarter “two bits”? European settlers brought their money with them to America, and coins made of precious metal were accepted everywhere at face value. The Spanish peso was divided into eight silver coins, which the English called bits, or pieces of eight. Two bits was one-quarter of a Spanish dollar. When money was printed and minted in the new world, although a dollar’s coinage was divided by ten, the expression “two bits” continued to mean one-quarter of a dollar. Why is a select roast of beef called a “sirloin”? Legend has it that in 1617, during dinner and after a few goblets of wine, King James I of England suddenly stood and drew his sword and, laying it across the entrée, declared: “Gentlemen, as fond as I am of all of you, yet I have a still greater favourite — the loin of a good beef. Therefore, good beef roast, I knight thee Sir Loin and proclaim that a double loin be known as a baron.” Why is listening in on a private conversation called “eavesdropping”?

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In medieval times, houses didn’t have roof gutters to carry off rainwater; instead they had “eaves,” which are the lower wide projecting edges of a sloping roof. These eaves protected the mud walls from damage from the rain dropping from the roof. If, during a sudden shower, someone sought cover by standing under an eave, they could hear everything that the people inside were saying. They were “eavesdropping.” Why is a large, controlled fire called a “bonfire”? On June 24, or St. John’s Day, early Britons lit chains of huge fires to support the diminishing sun. These fires were fed with the clean bones of dead farm animals and were called “bone fires,” which evolved into bonfires. There were bone fires, wood fires, and a mixture of both wood and bones was called a “St. John’s fire,” a name given, naturally, to the fires that burned heretics at the stake. Why is natural ability called “talent?” In the ancient world a talent was a unit of weight used to value gold and silver. Today’s use of the word comes from the Book of Matthew, wherein three servants are given equal amounts of money, or talent, by their master. Two invest wisely and profit while the third buries his and doesn’t. That parable is how talent came to refer to the natural gifts we are all born with. The moral of the tale is that we must use our talents wisely or we will fail. Why is socializing called “hobnobbing”?

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When the Normans conquered England, they introduced the open hearth for cooking and heating. At each corner of the hearth was a large container for heating liquids. It was called a “hob.” Near the fire was a table where the hob was placed for convenient serving. They called this table a “nob.” When friends gathered by the warmth of the fire, they drank warm beer from the hob, which was served on the nob, and so they called it “hobnobbing.” Why are notes taken at a business meeting called “minutes”? The reason the written records of a meeting are called the minutes is because, in order to keep up, the minute-taker wrote in a shorthand or abbreviation. The word used to describe this condensed writing was minute (my-noot), meaning “small,” and because the spelling is the same, the minutes (my-noots) became minutes. The same circumstances apply to Frederick Chopin’s Minute Waltz: It’s really his small or minute (my-noot) waltz. Why is extortion money called “blackmail”? If there is “blackmail” then there must be “white mail.” Mail was a Scottish word for rent or tax, and during the reign of James I, taxes or mail were paid in silver, which, because of its colour, was called “white mail.” During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, bandits along the Scottish border demanded protection money from the farmers. Because black signified evil, this cruel extortion was called a black tax, or “blackmail.”

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Why after a foolish error do we call someone a “laughingstock”? In early English, a stock was a tree trunk, and by the fourteenth century it figuratively meant the family tree or the consequences of breeding. For example someone might be from “farming stock” or “good stock,” while an animal’s breeding line was traced through their “livestock.” If someone calls you a laughingstock, they are insulting your family tree as being one filled with fools from which you are the current crop. Why are dining rooms called “restaurants”? Up until 1765, diners were offered only what innkeepers chose to serve. But then, a Paris chef named Boulanger began offering a choice of nourishing soups to passersby and on a board hanging over the door he painted the word “Restaurant,” meaning “to restore.” Boulanger was so successful that throughout the world dining rooms still display his original sign, “Restaurant,” a promise to restore energy. Why do we call a large timepiece a “clock”? Like cloche in French, clock literally means bell. When the large mechanical clock was invented in the fourteenth century it didn’t tell time with a face and hands, but rather by sounding bells on the hour and eventually the quarter- and half-hour. This time device was named a clock because it told time by sounding bells. O’clock, as in twelve o’clock or five o’clock, is an abbreviation for “of the clock,” or “of the bells.” 116

Why, when we don’t understand someone, do we say they’re talking “gibberish”? An eleventh-century alchemist translated into Latin the original eighth-century writings of an Arabian alchemist named Jabir. If his work had been discovered he would have been put to death, and so he wrote Jabir’s formulas in a mystical jargon of his own creation. To anyone other than the author, the Jabir translations didn’t make sense. And so anything like it was “Jabirish,” which eventually became gibberish. Why do we call the perfect world “Utopia”? The word Utopia was created by the English philosopher Sir Thomas More in 1516 and was the title of his book that compared the state of life in Europe at the time with an imaginary ideal society. Utopia is from Greek meaning nowhere. The thrust of More’s message was that an ideal world, or Utopia, will never exist, and that our only choice is to improve the standards of our existing society. Why is noisy chaos referred to as “bedlam”? The word bedlam is a medieval slang pronunciation of “Bethlehem,” and its use to describe a mad uproar dates back to a London hospital for the insane. St. Mary in Bethlehem was incorporated in 1547 as the Royal Foundation for Lunatics. Because people could hear but only imagine the chaos inside, they began referring to any noisy, out-of-control situation as like that in “Bedlam” — Bethlehem hospital.

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Why do we call a bad dream a “nightmare”? There are different degrees of frightening dreams, but the most terrifying cause sensations of suffocation and paralysis. Literature best describes the sleeper’s sensation in the stories of Dracula, but there was also a common female demon known as “the night hag.” Mare is an Old English term for demon and comes from the same root as murder; therefore the demon, or mare, who visits at night was called a “nightmare.” Why is a disappointing purchase or investment called a “lemon”? In 1910, the rotating slot machine appeared as a device for dispensing chewing gum and gave us the symbols still used on slot machines today. The spinning flavours were cherry, orange, and plum. Each wheel had a bar reading “1910 Fruit Gum,” and three of those in a row paid off in a jackpot of gum. But, also like today, if any row came up a lemon there was no payout at all, which gave us the disappointed expression, “It’s a lemon.” Why is a ten-dollar bill called a “sawbuck”? Among the many slang expressions for denominations of money are deuce, originally a mild curse of the devil when the number two showed up in dice or cards, and the Yiddish fin for a five. Sawbuck for a ten comes from the frame of a sawbuck, or sawhorse, on which farmers held logs to be cut into firewood. This frame rested on two X-shaped supports that resembled the two roman numerals for ten found on the early American ten-dollar bill.

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Why does criss-cross mean back and forth? Schoolchildren in the sixteenth century worked lessons on a thin wooden board that hung from their belts. On it were printed the alphabet, the numbers, and the Lord’s Prayer. Because it was preceded by a Maltese cross the alphabet was called the Christ-cross-row. Students reciting from the board always began with the prayer, “Christ’s cross be my speed.” Two centuries later, Christ’s cross had become “criss-cross.” Why are the secondary consequences of a greater event called the “aftermath”? The chain of events set in motion by a major occurrence is often called an aftermath. Math is from an old English word meaning “to mow.” The second, smaller crop of hay that sometimes springs up after a field has been mowed is called the aftermath, or “after mowing,” and although it is next to useless, it is a problem that has to be dealt with for the good of the fields. Why is a concise promotion called a “blurb”? The word blurb, meaning an inspired recommendation, comes from an evening in 1907 during an annual trade dinner of New York publishers where it was customary to distribute copies of new books with special promotional jackets. For his book, humorist Gelett Burgess caused a sensation with a cover drawing of a very attractive and buxom young woman whom he named “Miss Belinda Blurb.” From then on, any flamboyant endorsement would be known as a blurb.

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EXPRESSIONS

Why do we call a good meal a “square” meal? In the eighteenth century, a British sailor’s sparse diet consisted of a breakfast and lunch of little more than mouldy bread and water. If he were lucky, the third meal of the day included meat and was served on a square tin platter. Because of the shape of that platter, they called it their “square” meal: the only substantial meal of the day. Three squares now means three good meals a day.

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Why do we call midday the “noon hour”? The “noon hour” has shifted several times throughout history, and at one time, when Christians prayed twice a day, it meant both midday and midnight. In the original Old English the noon hour was the hour for prayers, which at the time was the ninth hour of daylight, or three o’clock in the afternoon. The singular prayer time, or noon hour, changed to midday, or twelve o’clock, during the Middle Ages in Britain. Why do we say “Goodnight, sleep tight”? Sometime during the sixteenth century, British farmers moved from sleeping on the ground to sleeping in beds. These beds were little more than straw-filled mattress tied to wooden frames with ropes. To secure the mattress before sleeping, you pulled on the ropes to tighten them, and that’s when they began saying, “Goodnight, sleep tight.” Why do we say “We’re just gonna hang out?” “Hanging out” usually means getting together for no particular reason other than to pass time and see what’s happening. The expression comes from a time before commercial signs, when English shopkeepers set up poles in front of their stores from which they would hang flags describing their goods. These flags were called hangouts, and they became a place where people would stop to linger and gossip with their friends. Why is mealtime sometimes called “chow time”?

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Chow is a Mandarin Chinese word meaning to cook or fry, while in Cantonese, chow means food. The chow chow is a breed of dog that was in fact originally bred by the Chinese to be eaten. In the early days of North American settlement, Chinese immigrants, because of their culinary talents, were often put to work cooking for the labour gangs who then picked up the phrase “chow time” as meaning it’s time to eat. Why is something in great shape said to be in “A1 condition”? In their early days, Lloyd’s of London used an “A list” to classify sailing ships for insurance purposes. Only vessels meeting strict specifications would go to the top of that list, where they were said to be in A1 condition. When, as a general insurer, the company began covering everything from Mary Hart’s legs to Jennifer Lopez’s derrière, Lloyd’s continued to classify anything first rate as “A1.” When someone loses his job, why do we say he “got the sack”? “Getting the sack” has come to mean getting fired or dismissed from anything, including a love affair. The expression entered the language long before the industrial era, at a time when workers carried their tools from job to job in a sack. When the job was done, or the labourer was discharged, the boss or employer would simply hand the worker his tool sack. He was literally “given the sack.” Why when dreaming of better times do we say, “When my ship comes in”?

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During the nineteenth century, Bristol, England, was the busiest seaport in the world, and while local sailors were at sea, tradesmen would extend credit to their wives until the very day their husband’s ship returned to port. Because the ship meant her family’s livelihood, women referred to their husband’s vessel as “my ship,” and when asking for credit would promise to pay the tab “when my ship comes in.” Why do we say a corrupt person has “gone to the Devil”? In Victorian times, to “go to The Devil” was to visit a bar on Flat Street near the London Civil Courts. The Devil was a favourite pub for lawyers, who seemed to spend more time in that bar than in their offices. If a client thought his money had “gone to The Devil” to pay for his lawyer’s drinks, he might visit the legal offices to ask for an explanation, where he would be told that the absent lawyer had indeed “gone to The Devil.” Why do we say, “I’ll be there with bells on”? During the frontier days, peddlers travelling between settlements had to move as silently as possible through the hostile forest, but when they approached a homestead or town they would take out their muffled bells and hang them on their horses’ necks to announce their arrival. The peddlers’ arrival “with bells on” brought news, letters, and goods from the outside world, and was an exciting event for the isolated settlers. Why do wives call money from their husbands “pin money”?

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Pin money became an English phrase to describe extra cash set aside by wives to run the household at the turn of the twentieth century, when pins were rare enough to be sold on just two days of the year, January 1 and 2. Although through time pins became more commonplace and far less expensive, the British courts still enforce any prenuptial agreement or property lien demanded by the wife as the “pin money charge.” Why is a special day called a “red letter day”? In the Middle Ages, simple survival meant working long and hard from sunrise to sunset, so any break, such as for a religious festival, was a very special day. Called “holy days,” these feasts were marked on the calendar in red, giving us the expression “red letter day.” Around the fifteenth century, “holy days” became “holidays,” meaning simply a day off work, still marked on the calendar in red. Why, when getting serious, do we say, “Let’s get down to brass tacks”? In the days of the general store, cloth came in bulk and was sold by the yard. The storekeeper, who quickly became expert at measuring, often used the length of his arm as a measure of each yard being purchased. If the measurement was challenged, the seller would remeasure the cloth against two brass tacks embedded in the counter that were precisely a yard apart. The issue was therefore settled by getting down to those two brass tacks. Why, if someone isn’t up to the job, do we say he isn’t “worth his salt”? 124

Thousands of years ago, before money was introduced, workers and soldiers were often paid with a negotiated quantity of salt. More than as a seasoning, salt’s value was in its use as a preservative or cure for meat, as well as a medicine. The early Romans called this payment a “salarium,” which gave us the word salary. If a man wasn’t worth his salt, he wasn’t worth his salary. Why is something recently manufactured called “brand new”? The original meaning of the word brand was a fire burning within a furnace or forge. To say an item, whether pottery or forged metal, was “brand new” meant it was fresh from the fires of its creation. This usage dates back to the sixteenth century. The verb to brand comes from the same source and means to mark ownership on something, from wine casks to livestock, using a hot iron from a fire. Why do we say that someone intoxicated is “three sheets to the wind”? Sailing ships are controlled with an intricate system of ropes, called “halyards,” “lines,” and “sheets,” whose function it is to move or hold things in place. Sheets are the ropes that control the sails. If one is loose, the sails will flap in the wind. Two loose sheets will affect the ship’s steadiness. “Three sheets to the wind” and the vessel will reel off course like a drunken sailor. Why is a pirate ship’s flag called a “Jolly Roger”?

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The purpose of a pirate ship’s flag was to signal a merchant vessel that if it didn’t surrender, it would be boarded and plundered by force. Pirates used a variety of flags. One was an hourglass that signalled time was running out. The skull and crossbones is of course the most famous flag, and it got its name “Jolly Roger” from the English pronunciation of “Ali Rajah,” which is Arabic for “king of the sea.” Why are hot summer days called “the dog days”? Sirius, the “dog star,” is within the constellation Canis Major and is the brightest in the heavens. The ancient Egyptians noted that the dog star’s arrival in July coincided with the annual flooding of the Nile, which was important for a good harvest. The Romans believed that, because of its brightness, the dog star Sirius added to the heat of the summer sun, and so they called July and August “the dog days.” Why is a misleading sales pitch called a “song and dance”? During the days of travelling vaudeville shows, there were featured stars, and there were fillers. The fillers were the comics who were hired to keep the audience amused by telling jokes within a song and dance routine until the next headliner was ready to come on stage. Since then, any well-rehearsed routine that is intended to divert your attention from what you came to see has been called a “song and dance.” Why do we say that a bad deal will only “Rob Peter to pay Paul”? 126

In the mid-1700s the ancient London Cathedral of St. Paul’s was falling apart, and the strain on the treasury was so great that it was decided that it would merge with the diocese of the newer St. Peter’s Cathedral in order to absorb and use their funds to repair the crumbling St. Paul’s. The parishioners of St. Peter’s resented this and came up with the rallying cry, they’re “robbing Peter to pay Paul.” Why when someone is snubbed do we say they’re getting “the cold shoulder”? In Europe during the Middle Ages, the “cold shoulder” had two purposes. If guests overstayed their welcome they were often served cooked but cold beef shoulder at every meal until they tired of the bland diet and left. The other “cold shoulder” was leftover mutton that was saved to give to the poor to discourage them from begging at the pantry. Why do we tell someone to “get off his keister” when we mean stand up and do something?” The word keister is derived from kiste, the German Yiddish word for strongbox or suitcase. Early Jewish immigrants who arrived with all their belongings in a kiste would often sit on them while waiting to be processed through customs, and the English-speaking agents didn’t realize that it was the suitcase and not their bottoms they were referring to when they told the immigrants to “get off their keisters.” Why when someone takes credit for another person’s achievement do we say she “stole his thunder”?

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In the early 1700s, English playwright John Dennis introduced a metallic device that imitated the sound of thunder. The production it was created for failed, and the thunder device was forgotten until months later, when, while attending another play at the same theatre, Dennis heard the unmistakable sound of his invention. He made such a public fuss that all of London picked up the phrase, they’ve “stolen my thunder.” Why, when something is stopped cold, do we say somebody “put the kibosh” on it? To “put the kibosh” on something is an Irish expression meaning to put an end to it. The word kibosh is Gaelic and means “cap of death.” It was, in fact, the black skullcap donned by a judge before he sentenced a prisoner to death. In modern usage it means, as it did to the condemned, “Your path of destruction has ended.” Why do we say “by hook or by crook” when determined to accomplish something by any means? “By hook or by crook” means by fair means or foul. Today a crook is a thief who uses deception, and to hook something means to steal it. That particular definition comes from the thirteenth century, when hooks used for shepherding were also used by peasants to bend branches when stealing firewood or fruit from the royal forest, and since their deceit was called “crooked” after the shape of their hooks, these thieves became known as crooks. Why is a stash of surplus money called a “slush fund”?

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The term slush began as a sailors’ reference to the grease from the cook’s galley, which was used to lubricate the ships masts. When the voyage was over, the surplus grease was sold, and the money was put into a “slush fund” to be shared by the enlisted men. By 1839, when a ship returned to port, any surplus supplies or battle-damaged equipment was also sold and the money added to the profits from the grease in the slush fund. Why do we say we’re “boning up” when studying or preparing for an examination? The phrase boning up comes from a British teacher of Greek and Latin who wanted to make life easier for his students. With that goal in mind he translated the Greek and Latin classics into English and then had them published and distributed within his classroom. His name was Mr. Bohn, and his grateful students called this new, speedier method of studying the classics “Bohning up.” Why is cheating on corporate accounting ledgers called “cooking the books”? If someone is using creative accounting, he is usually breaking the law, and so he needs someone with sophisticated bookkeeping skills comparable to those of a skilled chef who can prepare a dish so artfully that no one can tell how it was done. If authorities discover that the books have been cooked and criminal charges are laid, it is said that the accountant and the employer have “cooked their own goose.”

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What do we mean when we say someone’s from the “wrong side of the tracks”? In the nineteenth century, railway tracks usually ran right through the centre of town, and it was the prevailing winds that determined which was the right or wrong side to live on. As the town developed, the wealthy built homes on the cleaner, windward side of the tracks, while industrial development and the working class were confined to the other, dirtier side. To be from the “wrong side of the tracks” meant you were from a poor or working-class family. Why do we say “either fish or cut bait” when we mean “make up your mind”? There are two main jobs on a fishing boat. One is to “cut bait,” which means to prepare or cut “junk” fish for a hook, or 130

for “chum,” which is dumped in the water to attract other fish. The second job is to do the actual fishing. So the admonition “Either fish or cut bait” doesn’t mean either fish or cut your line; it means make up your mind and decide which job you’re going to do, and just do it. What are we doing when we “gild the lily”? To gild something is to cover it with a thin layer of gold. Because a lily is already in a state of natural perfection, gilding it would only be excessive. The expression is a misquote from Shakespeare’s King John, during which the king’s barons describe his second redundant coronation, “As throwing perfume on the violet or to gild refined gold to paint on the Lily.” What do we mean by the “sixth sense”? Humans are credited with five senses: sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell. So someone with a “sixth sense” is gifted with an unexplained perception outside of the common five. The expression sixth sense comes from a study of blind people reported in 1903 in which it was found that, although deprived of sight, some of the subjects could perceive or sense certain objects in a room in a way that defied scientific understanding. Why, when something doesn’t make sense, do we say “it’s neither rhyme nor reason”? When you say that something is “neither rhyme nor reason,” you are quoting Sir Thomas More. After reading something a friend had written, Sir Thomas told him that he would have to 131

rewrite it in order to make his point clear. After his friend reworked the manuscript, More read it again, and this time he approved, commenting: “That’s better, it’s rhyme now anyway. Before it was neither rhyme nor reason.” Why do we say, “Put a sock in it” when we want someone to shut up? The admonition, “Put a sock in it,” meaning keep quiet, comes from the time of the earliest wind-up phonographs in which the sound emerged from a horn. These early acoustic record players didn’t have electronic controls or any muting device to raise or lower the volume, and so the only way to soften its sound was to stuff something into the horn. A sock was the perfect size, and so to lower the volume they would “put a sock in it.”

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Why is going to bed called “hitting the hay”? When going to sea, early sailors had to provide for their own bedding. This need was catered to by merchants on the docks who, for a shilling, sold the seamen crude canvas sacks stuffed with hay. When heading off to sleep, a sailor would announce that he was going to “hit the hay.” Although less crude than those coarse canvases, early North American 133

settlers also used hay to stuff mattresses and pillows, so when going to bed, they too would “hit the hay.” Why when it appears that we can proceed with no danger do we say, “The coast is clear”? The person who says, “The coast is clear,” sounds as though he or she is being cautious about avoiding legal detection, and so it should. It originated as the standard cry from the man in the crow’s nest of every pirate ship before it chanced a landing. When the captain verified with his telescope that there was no danger in going ashore, he would repeat the cry, “The coast is clear!” And so it became an order for his fellow smugglers to prepare to land. Why when suggesting an exhaustive search do we say, “Leave no stone unturned”? The advice to “leave no stone unturned” comes from Greek mythology, wherein the Oracle of Delphi, through his communication with the gods, had acquired great wisdom. Euripides wrote that when the oracle was consulted about how to find a defeated general’s hidden treasure, he advised that the only way was “to leave no stone unturned.” The expression and the advice have been with us ever since. What is the origin of the phrase “tabloid journalism”? On March 4, 1884, a British drug company registered the word tabloid for a very small tablet it was marketing. About the same time, large broadsheet newspapers were challenged by small-format journals, and because tabloid had come to 134

mean anything small, that’s what the new papers were called. These tabloids often resorted to gossip instead of hard news, which gave sloppy reporting the name “tabloid journalism.” Why is a rough interrogation called “the third degree”? The third degree is a very difficult and sometimes brutal questioning, especially by police. In fact, without its sinister connotation, the expression comes from the Masonic Lodge and its three degrees of membership, each requiring an increasingly difficult examination. The first is Entered Apprentice, the second is Fellowcraft, and the third degree, the one most difficult to pass, is Master Mason. Why do the phrases “dressed to the nines” and “putting on the dog” mean very well dressed? The expression “putting on the dog,” meaning showing off, comes from the practice leisurely wealthy women had of carrying lapdogs to afternoon social functions. “Dressed to the nines” comes from a time when the seats furthest from the stage cost one pence, and the closest, nine pence. Sitting in the expensive seats required dressing up to fit in with the well-off. It was called “dressing to the nines.” Why do we say that someone on target is “on the beam”? Early aviators had a system of radio signals to guide pilots through fog and bad weather. Dots and dashes were beamed out from a landing field and picked up in the pilot’s earphones. If he heard dot-dashes, he was too far left, and dash-dots meant he was too far right. But when the signals

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converged into a continuous buzzing sound, the pilot was “on the beam,” or safely on course. Why is someone lost if he “doesn’t have a clue”? The original spelling of clue was C-L-E-W, and its forgotten meaning is a “ball of yarn or string.” A clew of string was unravelled as a guide out after entering an unfamiliar maze or a cave. If you became lost, all you had to do was follow the string back to the point of origin. In the modern cliché, if someone “doesn’t have a clue,” he is in the dark with no idea how to get out of his dilemma. Why is a limited space called “close quarters”? Being at “close quarters,” meaning to be overwhelmed within a small space, is a naval term from the 1700s. Merchant sailing ships laden with valuable cargo had their decks outfitted with four strong wooden barriers with musket holes to which they could retreat and continue to fight if they were boarded by pirates or privateers. They referred to these desperate circumstances as fighting at “close quarters.” When someone survives disaster, why do we say he’s “cheated the devil”? The first recorded instance of “cheating the devil” can be found in the Hebrew Talmud. The devil offered a farmer two years of a flourishing harvest with the condition that the devil would get the crops grown underground for the first year, and those grown above the ground the following year. During the devil’s below-the-soil year, the farmer grew wheat and barley. In the above-the-soil 136

year he grew carrots and turnips, and thereby cheated the devil. Why is going beyond the known limits called “pushing the envelope”? “Pushing the envelope” is an aviation expression that refers to how test pilots received instructions to challenge the known limits of flight. These instructions, if not a death sentence, were very often a flirtation with disaster. The gravity of issuing such an order was understood but not spoken. Instead, the impersonal assignment came within an envelope, silently slid or pushed across a desk from one man to another. Where did the insult “couldn’t hold a candle” come from? The derogatory expression “couldn’t hold a candle” is from the sixteenth century. Before electricity, experienced workers needing light to work by would have a young apprentice hold a candle so that they could see to complete a complex job. Holding a candle for a skilled tradesman gave the apprentice a chance to watch and learn, but if he couldn’t even do that properly, it was said disparagingly that “he couldn’t hold a candle” to the tradesman. Why do we say that someone looking for trouble has a “chip on his shoulder”? In early England, one man would challenge another to a duel by slapping his face with a glove. The challenge was a serious matter of honour, and if the slapped man did not accept it, he would be branded a coward. Having a chip on your shoulder was kind of an early Wild 137

West equivalent of the glove slap, though generally less mortal in nature. Boys and men would place a woodchip on their shoulder, challenging anyone who dared knock it off to a fistfight. So, if a man had a “chip on his shoulder,” he was clearly in an aggressive mood and spoiling for a fight. Why is it said that something with proven quality has passed the “acid test”? If someone has passed the “acid test,” it usually means that he has proven his value through experience or trial. When gold was in wide circulation, jewellers and assayers needed a method of testing golden objects and nuggets that were brought to them for cash. Because nitric acid dissolves base metals but not gold, a drop was applied to the suspect object, and if the metal didn’t dissolve, it had passed the acid test and was confirmed to be gold. Why do we say a nervous person waits with “bated breath”? The body has instinctive reactions to emotional circumstances, and one of these is how we breathe during times of apprehension. Our breathing becomes short and controlled when we are in crisis. Bated is a variation of the word abated, both meaning restricted. Therefore, when someone is in a state of fear or suspense and his breathing becomes restricted, he is said to be waiting with “bated breath.” Why do we say, “If you believe that, I’ve got a bridge I’d like to sell you”?

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After the Brooklyn Bridge was built in 1883, a young con man named George Parker approached the gullible as its owner, and after explaining the fortune to be made through toll booths, he would sell the bridge for as much as fifty thousand dollars. Parker went to jail for life, but not before selling the Statue of Liberty, Grant’s Tomb, and Madison Square Garden — and leaving us the expression, “I’ve got a bridge I’d like to sell you.” Why do we say that a victim of his own scheming has been “hoisted on his own petard”? The phrase “hoisted with his own petard” is found in Shakespeare’s Hamlet. It has come to mean that someone has been or will be hurt by the very device he’s created to injure someone else. Hoist means to raise something into the air, while petard is an antiquated word for bomb. Therefore, if you were “hoisted on your own petard,” it means you were blown up by your own bomb.

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TRIVIA

How do statues of men on horses tell how the rider died? Statues of horse and rider are exclusively of monarchs or great warriors and are usually found in places of honour. The tradition is that if the horse is depicted with all four hooves on the ground, the rider died of natural causes. If one hoof is raised, the rider’s death came later from wounds incurred during battle, and if two hooves are in the air, the rider portrayed in the statue died on the battlefield.

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What do the distress letters SOS stand for? Morse code is a series of electrical impulses that signify the letters of a structured message. SOS doesn’t stand for “save our ship” or “save our souls,” as has been commonly believed. In fact, it stands for nothing. It was chosen as a distress signal at an international conference in 1906 because, at nine keystrokes — three dots, three dashes, three dots — it was thought to be the easiest combination to transmit. What is the shortest English sentence ever created using all the letters of the alphabet? Western Union developed the sentence, “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog” as a test for their telex operators, and it’s thirty-five letters long. However it isn’t the shortest English sentence ever created using all the letters of the alphabet. That honour belongs to the sentence, “Jackdaws love my big sphinx of quartz,” which was authored by an anonymous scholar and is just thirty-one letters long. Why are there sixty seconds in a minute and sixty minutes in an hour? Around 2400 BC, the ancient Sumarians, who used six as their mathematical base, divided a circle into 360 degrees, with each degree subdivided into another 60 parts, and so on. The Romans called these units minute prima, or first small part, and secunda minuta, or second small part. This system was perfect for round clock faces, and that’s why we use minutes and seconds as divisions of time.

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What is the world’s largest number? In order to calculate massive quantities, American Edward Kasner coined the “googol,” which is a one followed by one hundred zeros. But the “googoplex” is now the largest number and is a one followed by a billion zeros, which allows us to calculate that the number of electrons passing through a forty-watt light bulb in a minute roughly equals the number of drops of water flowing over Niagara Falls in a century. What English words rhyme with orange, purple, and silver? In the English language, there are only two words that end in “GRY”: angry and hungry. There are only three that end in “CEED”: exceed, proceed, and succeed, while liquefy, putrefy, rarefy, and stupefy are the only four words ending in “EFY.” As for orange, purple, and silver, poets and songwriters should stay away from them, because there are no words in the entire English language that rhyme with them — absolutely none! If a coin is tossed and lands tails ten times in a row, what are the odds that it will be heads on the eleventh try? After a coin has been tossed and landed tails ten times in a row, many amateur gamblers would be inclined to bet that the “law of averages” would favour the coin landing heads on the eleventh try. The problem is, the law of averages doesn’t exist. The coin’s probability of landing heads is still fifty-fifty — the same as on each previous toss. Precisely who qualifies as a baby boomer? 142

A baby boomer is someone who was born after soldiers of the Second World War had come home and up to eighteen years later, so the period differs in some countries. In the U.S. and Canada, 20 million babies were born during the boom between 1946 and 1964. North America’s first baby boomer, Kathleen Casey Wilkens, was born in Philadelphia one second after midnight on January 1, 1946. Is Mount Everest the world’s tallest mountain? Mount Everest may be the world’s highest mountain, but it’s not the tallest. Hawaii’s Mount Mauna Kea is four thousand feet taller, but its huge base is submerged, which means Everest rises higher above sea level. Actually, satellite measurements indicate that the Himalayan peak K2, at 29,030 feet, is two feet higher than Everest, but snow and erosion make precise measurements difficult to attain. Was there ever a planet named Vulcan, as in the Star Trek series? In 1845, scientists believed that the only explanation for Mercury’s confusing and erratic orbit of the sun would be the presence of gravitational pull from an unseen nearby planet, which they named “Vulcan.” Eventually Albert Einstein, through his theory of relativity, explained Mercury’s behaviour, thus eliminating the hypothetical planet Vulcan — until it was resurrected by Gene Rodenberry in Star Trek. Why do local telephone numbers never start with the number one?

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The original dial telephone sent out a signal “click” for each number dialled. One click for 1, two “clicks” for 2, etcetera. The zero was reserved for the operator. “One” was never used because early switching systems read every signal as beginning with one click, regardless of the number you were dialling, and so technically, no phone number could start with 1. It continues today simply as tradition. What is the origin of the Ivy League? The term Ivy League has nothing to do with the ivy-covered walls of the prestigious schools to which it refers. Several Eastern U.S. schools — Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Columbia — became known collectively as the “Interscholastic Four League,” but the four was always written in Roman numerals — IV — and was pronounced “eye-vee.” By the end of the Second World War, the league had expanded to include Brown, Cornell, Dartmouth, and the University of Pennsylvania. Although there were then eight schools included in the league, instead of changing its name, the league decided to spell it the way it had been traditionally pronounced, and so it became the “Ivy League.” Why is the lump in a man’s throat called an Adam’s apple? The Adam’s apple is found only in men, and it got its name from an ancient embellishment of the story of Adam and Eve. Folklore had it that when Adam swallowed the forbidden fruit, one large piece of the apple got stuck in his throat and remained there, forming a lump. This lump in every man’s

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throat, his Adam’s apple, is an eternal reminder of his humility in the eyes of God. What is the difference between bravery and courage? Both bravery and courage are acts of valour and imply a certain strength and fearlessness. There is, however, a subtle difference in meaning between the two words. Courage comes from the French word coeur, meaning heart. It is a quality of character that allows someone to carry through with a difficult premeditated plan of action. Bravery, on the other hand, comes from the Spanish word bravado, meaning a single or spontaneous act of valour. It is not planned, but rather a knee-jerk reaction that often occurs within a crisis. Why are yards and metres so different in length? In the twelfth century, Henry I of England decreed that a yard would be the distance from his nose to the thumb of his outstretched arm. As crude as this seems, Henry was only off by one-hundredth of an inch from today’s version. The metre was introduced by the French after the revolution and was intended to be exactly one-ten-millionth the distance between the North Pole and the equator, which was incorrectly calculated as 39.37 inches. Why did pirates wear earrings? Earrings were used by seamen, especially warriors such as pirates, for very practical reasons and not for decoration. They were given to young sailors as a symbol of their first crossing of the equator, and their purpose was to protect the 145

eardrums during battle. The pirates, especially those who fired the ships’ cannons during closed combat with the enemy, dangled wads of wax from their earrings to use as earplugs. If “possession is nine-tenths of the law,” what are the points it outweighs? The expression “possession is nine-tenths of the law” is from the eighteenth century and means that in the pursuit of justice possession in a dispute over property outweighs these nine other essential elements of a good court case: a lot of money, a lot of patience, a good cause, a good lawyer, good counsel, good witnesses, a good jury, a good judge, and good luck. Why do we park on a driveway and drive on a parkway? The words parkway and driveway come from the days when only the well-off could afford an automobile. The long, winding roads from the highway to the manor were, and are still, called “driveways.” On the other hand, to ensure the pleasure of driving, highways were built carefully, with planted trees and groomed medians to imitate the natural beauty of a park, so they were called “parkways,” meaning left in an enhanced natural state. What was a “computer” before the electronic age? The word computer first appeared in the seventeenth century as the job title of a person who did calculations as an occupation. Although slide rules were sometimes called computers, it wasn’t until the 1940s, with the development of massive electronic data machines, that the human occupation 146

of computing became obsolete. These mechanical devices became known as computers. Is it the tower or the clock on the British Houses of Parliament that is called Big Ben? “Big Ben” is neither the tower nor the clock of England’s Houses of Parliament. Rather, it’s the largest of the bells in the tower clock, which was installed in 1858. London newspapers of the time named it “Ben” after Sir Benjamin Hall, the commissioner of works who was responsible for adding the huge 13.5-ton bell to the tower. Why are candies on sticks called lollypops? At the end of the nineteenth century, most candies were too large and dangerous for a child’s mouth, and because they were sold unwrapped, they inevitably caused a sticky mess on clothes, faces, and fingers. That was enough to make many parents keep their children from buying them. In a stroke of marketing genius, George Smith of Connecticut solved the problem by putting the candy on a stick. He named his invention after a famous racehorse of the time, Lolly Pop.

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How did written punctuation originate? 148

It wasn’t until the end of the fifteenth century that the Italian printer Aldus Manutius introduced the system of markings we call punctuation. The proper use of punctuation marks is a learned skill that has eluded even great writers ever since. Mark Twain once filled the last page of a manuscript with all the various symbols of punctuation and instructed his editor to disperse them within the story as he saw fit. Why are BC, AD, BCE, and CE all used to give calendar dates to historic events? In 525 AD the Christian church introduced a calendar using the year of Christ’s birth, 1 AD, or “Anno Domini,” as the starting point. Earlier events were BC, or “Before Christ.” Uncomfortable with these references, non-Christians replaced BC with BCE for “Before the Common Era” and AD with CE, the “Common Era.” What do the words algebra, sofa, sash, and sequin have in common? Algebra, sofa, sash, and sequin are among the hundreds of common English words that originated within the Arabic languages. A few others are: magazine, alcohol, jar, cotton, and mattress. Racquet comes from an Arabic word for hand, which is how tennis was originally played. The words alcove, chemist, coffee, and chess are also included among the everyday Arabic words that enrich our language. Why are the abbreviations of pound and ounce, lb. and oz.?

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The lb. abbreviation for pound comes from ancient Rome and is lifted from the Latin, “libra pondo,” or “pound of weight.” The oz. for ounce came from medieval Italy and is from onza, meaning a twelfth part, because at the time the English ounce was one-twelfth of the Roman pound of 330 grams. Although an ounce is now one-sixteenth of a pound, it’s still abbreviated as oz. Why is the speed of a ship measured in knots? In the 1600s, sailors measured the speed of their sailing ships by tying knots in a rope at sixty-foot intervals, then further dividing and marking the space between the knots into ten equal parts that would each be one fathom in length. Then a heavy floating log was tied to the rope’s end and thrown into the ocean. The rope was let out through a reel, and speed was measured by the number of knots that passed through the reel in thirty seconds of an hourglass. What was the origin of a New York “ticker tape parade”? Before the electronic age, ticker tape was a thin paper ribbon of information fed mechanically to the brokers on Wall Street. At day’s end, floors were ankle deep with ticker tape. On October 28, 1886, the elaborate dedication of the Statue of Liberty was visible from the brokers’ windows, causing such excitement that they began tossing ticker tape out the windows. That’s how the ticker tape parade became a New York tradition. Are the letters in the word news an acronym for north, east, west, and south?

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Some early news sheets were headed with N-E-W-S as points of a compass, but it was simply a clever gimmick. The word news predates these publications and emerged with its current meaning within a letter written by King James of Scotland in 1423. In 1616, his descendant, James I of England, wrote another letter, which included the first recorded use of “No news is good news.” How did sunglasses originate? In the thirteenth century, the Chinese invented dark glasses to be worn by judges so that none in the courtroom could read their eyes. The narrowly slit Eskimo goggles are prehistoric and are a protection against snow-blindness, not the direct sun. Modern sunglasses were a consequence of twentieth-century flight, designed by the American Army Air Corps in 1932 to keep the glare out of a pilot’s eyes.

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Now You Know More

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Preface This book is a second collection of new scripts from the Sound Source Network’s popular syndicated radio series “Now You Know,” which in book form became a Canadian best-seller. This second book was encouraged by the response to the first and continues to offer an entertaining and concise insight into the origins of everyday language use, customs, and rituals that traces the subconscious ways we are linked not only to our own ancestors but also to those of all cultures that came before us. I’ve always believed that learning is fun, if not essential, and that entertainment can sometimes be nurturing, and so I was overwhelmed by the e-mail and letters from across Canada and around the world, from individuals and major institutes of learning — but never more so than when hearing about an eight-year-old boy who used the first book as a research source for a school project that earned him an A+. For those of you who bought a copy as a Christmas or birthday gift for you fathers, sons, or husbands, I apologize

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for having introduced the “Cliff Claven Syndrome” into your homes. Once again, the scripts that are included within this book have been thoroughly researched but are not academic studies. They are for a quick read and for fun. If the information in this book entertains you and arouses your curiosity, if you say “I didn’t know that,” then I have fulfilled my intended purpose because now you will know — more. Doug Lennox 2004

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Customs

What is the origin of the engagement ring?

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The diamond engagement ring was introduced by the Venetians, who discovered the diamond’s value in the sixteenth century, but betrothal gifts hadn’t included rings until 860 A.D., when Pope Nicholas I decreed that a ring of value must be given as a statement of nuptial intent and that if the man called off the wedding, the jilted bride kept the ring. If the woman ended the engagement, she was to return the ring and be sent to a nunnery. Why does being “turned down” mean rejection? To be “turned down” comes from an antiquated courting custom followed by our very proper ancestors. When all meetings between young men and women required chaperones, and because aggressive romantic suggestions were forbidden, a man carried a courting mirror, which, at a discreet moment, he would place face up on a table between them. If the woman favoured his advances, the mirror went untouched, but if she had no interest she would turn down the mirror — and the suitor. How did throwing confetti become a wedding custom? Because the main purpose of marriage was to produce children, ancient peoples showered the new bride with fertility symbols such as wheat grain. The Romans baked this wheat into small cakes for the couple, to be eaten in a tradition known as conferriatio, or “eating together.” The guests then threw handfuls of a mixture of honeyed nuts and dried fruits called confetto at the bride, which we copy by throwing confetti. Why do brides wear wedding veils? 157

Although veils for women are today associated with Muslims, their origin goes back at least three thousand years before Mohammed was even born. Outside of the Middle East, this symbol of modesty had all but disappeared by 400 B.C. when the Romans introduced sheer, translucent veils into the wedding ceremony to remind the woman that she was entering a new life of submission to her husband. Veils predate the wedding dress by several centuries.

What are the origins of the wedding ring?

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A school of thought persists that the first wedding rings were used by barbarians to tether the bride to her captor’s home. This may or may not be true, but we do know that around 2800 B.C., because the Egyptians considered a circle to signify eternity, rings were used in marriage ceremonies. The Romans often added a miniature key welded to one side of the bride’s ring to signify that she now owned half of her husband’s wealth. Why do we say that a married couple has “tied the knot”? In Western culture, “tying the knot” suggests the pledge of inseparable unity made by a married couple. The expression comes from ancient India, when during the wedding ceremony the Hindu groom would put a brightly coloured ribbon around the bride’s neck. During the time it took to tie the ribbon into a knot, the bride’s father could demand a better price for his daughter, but once the knot was completed the bride became the groom’s forever. Why, when looking for a showdown, do we say, “I’ve got a bone to pick”? Wild pack animals will eat from a carcass only after the alpha male has finished. Having a bone to pick establishes superiority and comes from an ancient Sicilian wedding ritual. At dinner’s end, the bride’s father would give the groom a bone and instruct him to pick it clean. This ritual signalled the groom’s authority over his new wife, establishing that in all future decisions, he would have the final word.

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If most people use a fork in their right hands, why is it set on the left at the table? When the fork surfaced in the eleventh century, the only eating utensil was a knife, which was used by the right hand to cut and deliver food to the mouth. The left hand was assigned the new fork, which is why it’s set on the left. In the mid-nineteeth century, forks finally reached the backwoods of America but without any European rules of etiquette, so settlers used the right hand for both utensils. Why do we say “Let’s have a ball” when we are looking for a good time? A “ball” was a medieval religious celebration held on special occasions such as the Feast of Fools at Easter. It was called a ball because the choirboys danced and sang in a ring while catching and returning a ball that was lobbed at them by a church leader (called the ring leader). Although tossing balls during large circular dances became a common folk custom, the only ball at a dance today is the name. Why do we cover our mouths and apologize when we yawn? The yawn is now known to be the body’s way of infusing oxygen into a tired body, but suggestion is the only explanation for its contagiousness. To ancient man, who had witnessed many lives leave bodies in a final breath, a yawn signalled that the soul was about to escape through the mouth and death might be prevented by covering it. Because a yawn is contagious, the apology was for passing on the mortal danger to others. 160

Why are Christian men required to remove their hats in church? Removing clothing as an act of subjugation began when the Assyrians routinely humiliated their captives by making them strip naked. The Greeks amended this by requiring their new servants to strip only from the waist up. By the Middle Ages, a serf had to remove only his hat in the presence of his superiors. Following these gestures of respect for the master is the reason Christian men remove their hats in church and why Muslims leave their shoes by the mosque door. Why are those who carry the coffin at a funeral called “pall-bearers”? The ancient Sumarians buried their dead in woven baskets that the Greeks called kophinos, giving us the word coffin. Because people feared that the departed soul was looking to possess a new body, or re-enter his own, the coffin bearers wore hoods and black clothes, then hid the coffin under a black cloth that the Romans called a pallium, which gave us the prefix “pall,” as in pallbearer. Why do people pray with a string of beads? The rosary, or “wreath of roses,” first appeared in fifteenth-century Europe, but the practice of reciting prayers with a string of beads or knots goes back about five hundred years before the dawn of Christianity. The word bead comes from the Anglo-Saxon word bidden, meaning “to ask.” The principle for both Christians and Muslims is that the more you

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ask or repeat a prayer the more effective it is, and so the rosary is an aid in keeping count.

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Food & Drink

Why is a wiener on a bun called a “hot dog”?

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The evolution of the sausage began in Babylon, and modern incarnations include the Viennese wiener and the frankfurter, which was shaped in the form of a Frankfurt German butcher’s pet dachshund. The Dachshund Sausage Dog became very popular in America, where the bun was added in 1904. In 1906, cartoonist Ted Dorgan couldn’t spell dachshund, so he simply named his drawing of a dog on a bun covered in mustard a hot dog, and it’s been called that ever since. Why are drinking glasses sometimes called “tumblers”? In 1945, Earl Tupper produced his first polyethylene plastic seven-ounce bathroom tumbler, so called because it could fall or tumble without breaking. But a “tumbler” drinking glass had already been around for centuries before Tupperware. It was specially designed with a round or pointed bottom so that it couldn’t stand upright and had to be drunk dry before it could be laid on its side — otherwise it would tumble and spill. Is flavour the only reason that lemon is served with fish? Although lemon enhances the taste of fish, that isn’t the original reason the two were served together. Six hundred years ago, lemon was introduced with fish as a safety precaution. People believed that if someone swallowed a bone, a mouthful of lemon juice would dissolve it. We now know that this isn’t the case, but we also understand why they believed it. Sucking on a lemon causes the throat muscles to contort, helping to dislodge any stuck bone.

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Why is alcohol called “spirits” and empty beer bottles “dead soldiers”?

After a bachelor party there are a lot of “dead soldiers,” or empty beer bottles, lying around. They are dead because the alcohol, or spirit, has left their bodies. The spirit, like the soul, was considered the independent and invisible essence of everything physical and is quite separate from the material fact. A beer bottle without its alcohol has lost its spirit and, just like any other creation human or otherwise, has dearly departed. Why is enhancing a food’s taste called “seasoning”? 165

When the Gauls found that some food tastes could be improved through aging or the passing of the seasons, they called it saisonner. After being conquered by the Normans in 1066, the British called the new aging process “seasoning.” With the introduction of Middle Eastern spices from returning Crusaders in the thirteenth century, seasoning took on the meaning of anything that embellishes the taste of food. Where are the breeding waters of the species of fish known as “sardines”? The name “sardines” is used in reference to over twenty species of fish, and so they breed everywhere. A can of sardines is filled with one of dozens of species of immature ocean fish that happen to get caught in a trawler’s net, including pilchard and herring. The same is true of freshwater smelts, which are scooped up by the thousands along inland waterways after hatching in the spring and then fried as a delicacy in butter. Why do we describe warm food as “piping hot”? Today, piping hot usually means comfortably warm food straight from your own oven to the table, but it took a few centuries to evolve into that meaning. There was a time when everyone bought freshly baked bread every day from a neighbourhood or village baker. When the bread was ready, the baker would signal from his front door by blowing on a pipe or horn, which caused people to hurry to get bread before it ran out and gave us the expression “piping hot.” Does Canadian beer taste better than American beer because it has more alcohol? 166

Canadian beer might feel better than American beer, but its fuller taste comes from its ingredients. Canadian beer is brewed with 50 percent more malt barley than its watery American cousin, which relies more on corn. Regular Canadian beer has an alcohol-by-volume content of 5 percent, while American beer is 4.5 percent. A standard European beer is fuller still, with a 5.2 percent alcohol content. Canadian light beer is 4 percent, while American light is 3.8 percent. Why is a pint of American beer smaller than one that’s Canadian? Since the adoption of the metric system, pints have become rare in Canada. Liquids are usually measured in litres, but the American pint is smaller than the one in Canada because in 1824, when the British introduced the imperial gallon to the world (including Canada), American pride refused to go along with the change. Instead, they kept the outdated original and smaller English gallon from colonial times. Why do we say, “That takes the cake” when something’s done exceptionally well? African Americans of the Old South highlighted their social season with a dancing contest called a cakewalk. The contestants often practised for months and included couples of all ages. The prize was a huge cake which was set in the centre of the hall and around which the dancers exhibited their skills. A panel of judges would watch the innovative dancers until a winner was chosen, who would then “take the cake.”

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Why do we say that something special is “the apple of your eye”? For centuries it was believed that the pupil of the eye was solid and spherical like an apple, so that’s what they called it. Therefore, anything or anyone compared to it would indeed be very special. In the Bible, the expression is part of a song spoken by Moses: “He found him in a desert land, and in the howling waste of the wilderness; he encircled him, he cared for him, and kept him as the apple of His eye.” Why when humiliated are we forced to “eat humble pie”? “Humble pie” is an Americanization of the original English expression “umble pie,” a staple in the diet of very poor people during the eleventh century. After bringing down a deer, only the men could eat the choice meat from the kill; women and children were fed the innards, or the umbles, which they seasoned and baked into a pie. To be forced to eat umble pie was to be placed among the lowest in the social order. Why do the Chinese use chopsticks instead of cutlery? While Europeans were still cutting up carcasses on the dinner table, the Chinese had for centuries considered the practice barbaric. A Chinese proverb, “We sit at the dinner table to eat, not cut up carcasses,” dictated that eating should be simplified, and so food was cut into bite sizes in the kitchen before serving. The chopstick (from kwaitsze, which means “quick ones”) was the perfect instrument to convey this pre-cut food to the mouth.

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Why are potatoes called both “spuds” and “taters”? Back in the fifteenth century a spud was a short-handled spade that had a general use but was best known for digging up potatoes. People who sold potatoes were called spuddies. In Britain, taters means cold, and — as is suggested in the rhyme “potatoes in the mould equals cold” — potatoes when grown in the mould, which is topsoil, are colder than if they’d grown deeper in the ground; therefore, cold spuds are taters. Why is cornbread sometimes called “Johnny cake”? Cornbread, or “Johnny cake,” is a country comfort food that was given to the first North American settlers by the Natives. The cake was and is made principally of maize or corn and was baked on a heated flat stone from an open fire. The white trappers who first tasted cornbread were guests of the Shawnee tribe and so they called it Shawnee cake, which soon became a staple with the settlers as the mispronounced Johnny cake. Why is a large cup called a “mug”? A mug is a large drinking cup with a handle and is most commonly used to drink coffee, although it’s not unknown to beer drinkers. “A mug” is also slang for the face. In the eighteenth century, drinking vessels were shaped and painted to look like the heads of pirates or local drunks or even despised public officials or politicians. Now called “Toby jugs,” these cups with faces became known simply as mugs.

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People & Place

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Why is the city of Toronto called “Hogtown” with an area known as “Cabbagetown”? Toronto became “Hogtown” in the 1890s, when meat packing was one of the city’s principal industries. Animals of all kinds, including the squealing hogs, were off-loaded at the railway yard to be processed and shipped back out as hams. The central, upper-class, urban area known as “Cabbagetown” took its name from the gardens of the poor Irish immigrants who settled there and grew potatoes and cabbages to survive. What do a “one-horse” and a “jerkwater” town have in common? In the early days of the railroad, huge tanks were built along the routes where the steam engines could stop and refill by pulling, or jerking, a spout into place, allowing the water to flow from the tank to the engine. The tiny community that grew up around the tank was called a “jerkwater” town. A “one-horse” town was so small, one horse could do all the 172

work and transportation for the entire community, so it was about the size of a jerkwater town. What is the “downtown”?

difference

between

“uptown”

and

When New York City was only a town, its growth was restricted by the shape of Manhattan Island. The word uptown first appeared in about 1830 and was used to describe the residential area growing up the Island away from the southern business centre. Within a few years, downtown appeared to describe the opposite of uptown, or the main commercial district. Today, the suburbs are uptown, while downtown remains the heart of the business district. Why is a sleazy area of town known as the “red-light district”? In the early days of the railroad, steam trains made quick stops in small towns for water or to pick up passengers and cargo. The crew would use this time to dash to the saloon or to make a quick visit to the local brothel. While doing their business, the trainmen would hang their lit red kerosene lanterns outside so that the train wouldn’t leave without them, and this is how areas practising prostitution became known as red-light districts. Why are natives of Nova Scotia called “Bluenosers”? The famous schooner on the Canadian dime took its name from the natives of the province of Nova Scotia, who are called Bluenosers. The reason for this is that at one time, the province’s chief export was a type of potato that featured a 173

protruding blue end, which resembled a nose. As for the proud schooner Bluenose, she earned her way onto the dime by outracing the American schooner Elsie to become the fastest fishing boat on earth. Why is someone we consider slow called a “dunce”? A dunce still means someone we consider out of step, and it derives unfairly from Duns Scotus, the name of a brilliant thirteenth-century Scottish philosopher who, along with his followers (who were called “Duns men”), resisted the thinking within the Renaissance that swept the Middle Ages. In a practice as unfair as the sight of a child in a conical dunce cap, Scotus was ridiculed for being different and for daring to express his own thoughts. Why are aristocrats of the ruling classes called “bluebloods”? The name bluebloods refers to the pallor of the Spanish ruling classes after the conquest of the darker skinned Moors. After the blood in them loses oxygen while flowing back to the heart, the veins of fair or untanned people whose skin is never exposed to the sun appear blue, while the veins of those with darker complexions, like the Moors, are less obvious. Their blue blood distinguished true Spanish aristocracy from the conquering Moors. Why is someone with a drinking problem called a “lush”? In eighteenth-century London there was an actors’ drinking club called The City of Lushington, which may have taken its 174

name from Dr. Thomas Lushington, a prominent drinker from the seventeenth century whose descendants became brewers of fine ale. Lush, the abbreviation of Lushington, became a common slang reference for beer in early England. It later crossed the ocean, where in America the term lush became a reference to a heavy drinker. Why is an institution of learning called a “kindergarten” or a “school” and referred to by students as their “alma mater”? It all starts in kindergarten, a German concept meaning “children’s garden,” where the atmosphere for learning should be as pleasant for a child as being in a garden. School follows the same philosophy and is from a Greek word for leisure. When university students refer to their alma maters, they are speaking Latin for “nursing mother,” in this case one which nourishes the mind. Why are some university graduates and most unmarried men called “bachelors”? In the eleventh century, a bachelor was a low-ranking knight without the means to raise an army. To indicate this he flew a pointed banner, whereas a full knight had a flag without a tip. The bachelor was a junior, which is why a bachelor’s degree refers to the lowest rank from a university. Because most young men were unmarried, they began being referred to as bachelors in the fourteenth century. Why is a religious woman who lives in a convent and vows poverty, chastity, and obedience called a “nun”? 175

Women who are sisters within a strict religious order today are called nuns, a word that has evolved through time to mean compassion and kindness. In Sanskrit, nana meant “mother,” and it is often still used today as an endearment for grandmothers. In Latin, nonna means “child’s nurse,” again still used in the form nanny. In Greek, nane simply meant “good.” All of these gave us the word nun to describe the strength and good intentions of the religious vocation. Why do we call someone who sells illegal alcohol a “bootlegger”? During the prohibition period of the 1920s, those who sold illegal booze became very wealthy, but the term bootlegger came out of the nineteenth century, when it was the fashion for horsemen to wear very high boots. These boots were commonly used to conceal pints of illegal bottled moonshine by both the purveyor and the customer and gave us the term bootleg, which now means anything sold outside the law. Why is a bootleg joint called a “blind pig”? In 1838, Massachusetts outlawed the sale of hard liquor, causing drinkers to find creative ways to buy and sell booze. One entrepreneur set up a booth with a sign offering, for a small fee, a glimpse of an amazing striped pig. Those who paid to enter found a glass of rum standing next to a painted clay pig. The pig saw nothing, so the transaction was safe, and the expression “blind pig” was born.

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Why is a worthless bully called a “thug”? In India, the British encountered a sinister sect that worshipped the Hindu goddess of death. Known as thags in Hindi, they robbed their victims then strangled them with a silk scarf. Indian authorities wouldn’t suppress them, and so in the 1830s, the British wiped them out by hanging four hundred and imprisoning thousands. The American press picked up the story, and thags became thugs, a generic term for “hoods.” Why are men and boys called “guys”? Every November 5, the British celebrate the 1605 foiling of a plot to blow up the parliament buildings by Guy Fawkes. As part of the festivities, an effigy of Fawkes dressed in rags and old mismatched clothes was paraded through the streets and then burned on a bonfire. By 1830, any man who was badly dressed was being referred to as a “guy,” meaning he looked as disheveled as the effigy of Guy Fawkes. Why is a pretentious person called a “snob”? A snob is someone who pretends wealth and demands respect he doesn’t deserve. Universities only educated children of the nobility until Cambridge opened its doors to commoners in the seventeenth century. These new students were required to register in Latin as Sine Nobilitate, which means “without nobility.” Abbreviated, this Latin phrase is S.Nob, pronounced “snob,” and it took on the meaning of anyone above his station.

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Why are the stalwart defenders of a status quo referred to as “the Old Guard”? “The Old Guard” suggests an outdated group defending something whose time has passed, but the expression began in glory at the battle of Waterloo. Known for their fierce loyalty to Napoleon, the Imperial Guard was composed of the Young Guard, the Middle Guard, and the Old Guard. It was the Old Guard from this group who mounted the final brave but hopeless French charge at the Battle of Waterloo. Why are weather forecasters called “meteorologists”? Meteorology became the science of forecasting weather during the fourth century B.C., when it was believed that dramatic heavenly events were the cause of everything, especially weather — and there was nothing more dramatic than the arrival of a meteor. In Greek, meteorology means “a discourse from high in the air.” Studying meteors to predict weather ended in the late seventeenth century, but weather forecasters are still known as meteorologists. Why are frenzied women referred to as “hysterical” but not equally frenetic men? The physicians of ancient Greece considered hysteria to be an exclusively female problem caused by a disorder within the woman’s distinctive internal organs. Hystera is the Greek word for womb and survives today in the medical procedure hysterectomy. Men suffer the antisocial symptoms of hysteria less frequently than women, but when they do, they are called sociopaths. 179

Why is a small child called a “little shaver”? During the period when settlers spent a lot of time cutting wood, if a son looked or acted like his father he was called a “chip off the old block,” meaning that except for size, the two were as clearly related as a chip cut from its original block of wood from the family tree. A little shaver is the same, except that a shaving is smaller than a chip. A “sprig,” on the other hand, is a child too small yet to even have a branch on the family tree. Why is an unidentified person referred to as “John Doe”? “John Doe” is the name used to describe someone within legal circumstances when the true name is either unknown or indiscreet to reveal. The practice dates back to British courts in the early nineteenth century, when John and Jane Doe were used as names for unknown or unclear defendants in real estate eviction disputes. “Doe” was an extremely rare name, and there is nothing to suggest that any real John Doe ever existed. Why are prison informers referred to as “finks”? A fink, whether in prison or not, is a derogatory reference to someone who seeks favour from the authorities for information that they have learned in confidence. It’s said that a fink is someone who sings to the police or the boss like a canary, which all becomes logical when you realize that fink is the Yiddish word for “finch.” Finches, or finks, are a family of songbirds, of which the canary is one of the most vocal. Why were women warriors called “Amazons”? 180

Homer created the ancient Greek myth of fierce women warriors known as Amazons. Amazon is made up from A, meaning “without,” and mazos, meaning “breast,” because legend has it that they removed one breast to better throw a spear or use a bow and arrow. Amazons only visited men to become pregnant, and at birth only girl children were allowed to live to be raised by the Amazon warriors’ mothers. Why is the presiding officer of a committee called a “chairman”? Whether it’s a chairman or a chairwoman, that person is in the seat of authority and has been since the fourteenth century. At that time a chair was a throne (it came from the Greek word kathedra, leading to the word cathedral for the place housing the seat of the bishop). In business, the person in charge sat in a comfortable armed chair, while everyone else sat on stools, and so he took the esteemed title “chairman.” Why is a person who takes punishment for someone else called a “fall guy”? Since the 1880s, “taking a fall” has meant to be arrested or imprisoned. To take a fall now figuratively means to be taken down for something you may or may not have done, but a fall guy, like a professional wrestler, has been paid or framed to take punishment. On a movie set, a fall guy is a stuntman who again is paid to literally take the fall, sometimes from high buildings, for another actor. Why were young women from the Roaring Twenties called “flappers”?

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The 1920s was a breakout decade for young women who’d just won the right to vote. The era evokes images of young flappers like the cartoon character Betty Boop, who was only sixteen, wildly dancing to the Charleston. They were called flappers because of the way they resembled a baby duck flapping its wings before being able to fly. Flapper is a very old word meaning a girl too young to conceive. Why are only citizens of the United States called “Americans”? After discarding dozens of suggestions, Canada took its name from the Native American word kanata. The most popular of the names considered by the United States was Columbia, which is why the nation’s capital is located in the District of Columbia. But because they couldn’t make a final decision, the people of the United States have accepted the unofficial name given to them by the British during the war of independence. They are, simply, Americans. What is the difference between a “bum,” a “tramp,” and a “hobo”? During the Great Depression of the 1930s, Godfrey Irwin published American Tramp and Underworld Slang, within which he explained the difference. Bums loaf and sit; tramps loaf and walk; but a hobo moves and works. Hobo is derived from hoeboy, because many of the young men travelling the rails were from farms and carried a hoe with them so that they could work the gardens of those households that might employ them.

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Why is a spineless coward called a “wimp”? Someone who is weak and indecisive is often called a wimp, which is a short form of the word whimpering. The origin of wimp is a series of children’s books written in the 1890s by Evelyn Sharp, which featured characters called Wymps who loved playing practical jokes on others but who would cry when jokes were played on them. In the 1930s, a corpulent Popeye cartoon character named J. Wellington “Wimpy” kept the word alive. Why is a small-time player called a “piker”? Many early highways had entrances that were blocked by a pike, or long pole, which was “turned,” or opened, after a toll was paid. These highways were called turnpikes. Those who walked these roads were sometimes vagrants and very often unsophisticated farm boys on their way to seek their fortunes in the city. If you just “came down the pike” you were naive and often admonished as a “piker.” Why is a work supervisor called a “straw boss”? A straw boss is usually a supervisor or foreman of menial work, and the label comes from the farm. The “big boss” was in charge of the entire threshing crew, whose main task was to harvest the wheat from the chaff, which was straw. The “straw boss” was in charge of the secondary crew, whose job it was to gather and bail the discarded by-product. “Straw boss” has come to mean a petty supervisor without any real authority.

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Why are the names of those out of favour said to be kept in a “black book” or on a “blacklist”? The “blacklisting” of artists by the American Congress during the 1950s was a shameful and well documented reign of terror, but blacklists and little black books are still quietly with us, especially among those who see enemies everywhere. It began with King Henry VIII of England, whose infamous black book recorded so-called abuses in monasteries to justify his purge against the Catholic Church. Why is a speaker’s platform known as a “rostrum”? After a victory at sea the Romans customarily removed the decorative prow or rostrum from defeated enemy ships to be returned to Rome as symbols of their supremacy on the high seas. These rostra were displayed on the speaker’s platform in the Roman Forum until there were so many that the stage from which a speaker addressed the assembly became known as the rostrum, or the ship’s prow. What is the difference between a “ghost writer” and a “hack writer”? A ghost writer is a craftsman who writes speeches or books for another person who gets the credit as author. Although well paid, they’re called “ghosts” because they’re invisible. In the fourteenth century, while there were warhorses and draft or workhorses, an ordinary rented riding horse was known as a “hackney” or a “hack.” The word hack came to mean anything for hire, including writers who did commercial work of any kind to support their efforts at art. 184

Pop Culture

How did Hollywood get its name?

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“Hollywood” is a synonym for fantasy for some and decadence for others, yet the dream capital acquired its name from strangers on a train and became a gesture of love between a husband and a wife. In 1887, Mrs. Harvey Wilcox, whose husband owned the California land, overheard the woman next to her on a train refer to her summer home as “Hollywood.” Mrs. Wilcox liked the name Hollywood so much that her husband gave it to their California property. In movie credits, what are the actual jobs of the gaffer, the key grip, and the best boy? Filmmaking requires precision teamwork, and each credit is well earned. In movie language, a gaffer is the chief electrician; it evolved from the German word granfer, meaning “grandfather.” A grip requires strength, because he or she builds and dismantles scenery and handles other physical chores that require a strong grip. A best boy is the gaffer’s or grip’s assistant. How did dude become a greeting between buddies? The word dude originated as a Victorian slang word for a man who was effeminate. It’s a variation of dud or duds, from the Arabic word for cloak (dudde), and was a reference to fancy or foppish clothes. When vain, fashion-conscious city slickers wanted a taste of the West, they went to a Dude Ranch. Dude was kept alive by California surfers and took on its current fellowship meaning from a generation weaned on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Who was Pansy O’Hara in Gone With The Wind?

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Margaret Mitchell was a first-time writer when in 1936 she submitted a manuscript of Civil War stories told to her by her grandfather under the title Tomorrow Is Another Day, featuring a Southern belle named Pansy O’Hara. The publisher convinced her to change the book’s name to Gone With The Wind, a line from a nineteenth-century poem by Ernest Dowson, and, after a bitter argument, to change “Pansy” to “Scarlett.” Who were detective Sherrinford Holmes and Ormand Sacker? When Arthur Conan Doyle began writing mystery novels, he chose one of his medical school instructors, Dr. Joseph Bell, as his sleuth’s model and named him Sherrinford Holmes. His assistant, Watson, took his name from one of Bell’s assistants, but not before being briefly named Ormand Sacker. Incidentally, in none of the stories does Holmes ever say, “Elementary, my dear Watson.” That was used only in the movies.

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What were the origins of vaudeville? Tony Pastor introduced vaudeville in New York in 1861. The word vaudeville is an Americanization of Vau de Vire, the valley of the Vau River in Normandy, which became famous in the fifteenth century for the comedic songs of Olivier Basselin. An 1883 vaudeville bill from Boston’s Gaiety Museum featured a midget named Baby Alice, a stuffed mermaid, two comedians, and a chicken with a human face. From these humble beginnings would emerge the great American theatre. Why is Batman’s hometown called Gotham City?

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“Gotham City” is a nickname for New York and was introduced by Washington Irving in 1807 as the home of fast-talking know-it-alls. Irving took the name from a legend about King John, who wanted to build a regal estate near the actual Gotham in England but was discouraged when the citizens, not wanting to pay the added taxes, enacted a plan of feigning madness (like real New Yorkers), which caused the king to change his mind in a “Gotham minute.” Why is a citrus soft drink called 7-Up? In 1929, Charles L. Grigg of St Louis began selling a lemon-lime soft drink under the slogan “Takes the Ouch out of Grouch,” and it became a sensation. One of the soft drink’s key ingredients was lithium, a powerful anti-depressant, which was removed in the 1940s. The “7” in the name means seven ounces, while the “Up” is a reference to the carbonated bubbles rising to the surface. What was the original meaning of “rock and roll”? American slaves communicated secret codes past their white masters with music, and in 1951, when Alan Freed coined the phrase “rock and roll,” he was doing the same thing. In blues and jazz, the words mean “having great sex” (Good Rockin’ Tonight, 1948, and My Man Rocks Me With One Steady Roll, 1922). These coded lyrics were unfamiliar to the white broadcasters and gave Freed a way to cross the colour barrier and introduce white kids to rhythm and blues, where they soon learned how to Rock Around The Clock. How did the Barbie doll get its name? 189

Barbie was designed by Ruth Handler and named after her daughter. However, she didn’t realize that the original moulds came from an existing German doll named Lili, a popular cartoon prostitute of the time. At first stores refused to stock the anatomically correct doll, until it was neutralized in 1959. By the way, Barbie’s measurements if she were life-sized are 39-23-33 … still pretty sexy. Why did Charles Schulz name his Charlie Brown comic strip Peanuts? Charlie Brown first appeared as a character in a syndicated cartoon in September of 1950, which was named Li’l Folks. The most popular children’s television show at the time was Howdy Doody, and the syndicator insisted that the strip be renamed for the kids in Doody’s cordonedoff area for his live children’s audience, which was called the “peanut gallery.” And so the most popular comic strip in history became known as Peanuts. What is the origin of the name of the popular ice cream Haagen-Daazs? In the 1960s, Reuben Mattas, a Polish-born American from the Bronx, was struggling to sell his quality ice cream when he took note of the popularity of all things Danish modern. He decided to tap into the fad by putting a map of Denmark on his cartons and calling it Haagen-Daazs. Of course, there’s no such Danish word as Haagen-Daazs, but this inspiration of marketing genius became a billion-dollar idea.

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How did the Singing Chipmunks get their names, and who are the namesakes of Rocky and Bullwinkle? The Singing Chipmunks were inspired by a near accident when their creator, Ross Bagdasarian, had to swerve sharply to miss hitting a chipmunk while driving on a country road. He named the trio Alvin, Simon, and Theodore after three record company executives. As for Rocky and Bullwinkle, their creator, Jay Ward, named them after fighter Rocky Graziano and used car salesman Clarence Bullwinkle. Why are shopping centres called “malls”? Shopping centres mushroomed in the 1950s but weren’t called malls until 1967. Mall comes from the popular sixteenth-century Italian ball and mallet game palamaglio, which came to England as pall-mall (pronounced “pell mell”). By the eighteenth century the game had been forgotten, except on the name of a London street where it had been played and on a parallel ritzy avenue named the Mall, where fashionable aristocrats strolled and shopped. Why is something pleasing said to be “cool”? Cool, like groovy, was a very popular expression of satisfaction during the 1960s and early ‘70s, but only the former lives on. Cool surfaced in the early nineteenth century and, like groovy, which meant “in the groove,” as in a smoothly played vinyl record, it was popularized in the modern era by bebop jazz musicians in the 1940s. Cool means unfazed and under control, like being on ice, which is real cool.

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What is the origin of the word jazz? Jazz may be an American art form, but the word predates any application to music or sex. It first appeared in print in 1831 as jazzing, meaning the telling of fun stories. The first American use of jazz was in baseball as slang for enthusiasm in 1913. Its first musical use was a year later, to describe the vigor of West Coast band leader Art Hickman. The word jazz wasn’t used to describe black music until 1918. What are the origins of the Tony and the Emmy awards? The Tony Awards are named in honor of the prominent Broadway personality Antoinette Perry, whose nickname was Tony. The Tony Awards began in 1947, the year after her death. When the Emmy Awards were introduced in the 1940s they were called Immies, after the word image in “Image Orthocon Tube,” an important part of a television camera. Over time the Immy became an Emmy. Where did the yellow smiley face come from? The yellow smiley face, with its dotted black eyes, first appeared with a slightly crooked smile as a promotion for the deejays of radio station WMCA in New York in 1962. However, in 1963, commercial artist Harvey Ball introduced the version that’s still with us when he curved the smile as a promotion for a major insurance company. Unable to copyright his smiley face, Ball received forty-five dollars for its creation. Why does Tonto call the Lone Ranger “Kemo Sabe”?

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In 1933, during the Great Depression, radio station WXYZ in Detroit introduced The Lone Ranger. His faithful Native companion, Tonto, was supposed to have been from the Potawatomi tribe, but linguistic scholars were stumped by his reference to the Lone Ranger as Kemo Sabe. Co-creator Jim Jewell eventually confessed that he had made up the expression from the name of his father-in-law’s summer camp, Ke-Mo-Sah-Bee. Why is hair trimmed straight across the forehead called “bangs”? Since the beginning of the nineteenth century, a bobtail has described a horse with a tail cut very short, while a long but neatly trimmed tail has been called a bangtail. The “bang” refers to the quickness of the cut. The Americans abbreviated bangtail to bangs in 1878 when hair cut straight across the human forehead became popular. Like the ponytail, bangs is a hairstyle borrowed from the business end of a horse. Why is the energy from a car’s engine referred to as “horsepower”? When Scottish inventor James Watt received a patent on his steam engine in 1755, horses were being used to draw coal to a mine’s surface. After calculating that one horse had the power to haul 330 pounds 100 feet in one minute, he proved that one steam engine could replace an entire herd of horses. This made Watt wealthy and gave us a formula to interpret engine capacity in horsepower.

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Entertainment & Leisure

Why are skilled computer fanatics called “geeks”?

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Since the fifteenth century, geek or geck has described a low-life fool. For example, a geek is, in carnival slang, someone who bites off the heads of chickens or snakes. At the beginning of the computer age, the word geek took on the meaning of a socially awkward intellectual. But through accepting and celebrating their geek status, skilled computer operators have managed to change the meaning of the word, so that a geek is someone to be admired. Why do we call leisure work a “hobby”? Hobby is a word used to describe an avocation done for diversion or self-pleasure. Few people find fulfillment working for someone else, and so many express their individuality within a hobby. The word comes from a toy made from a stick with a horse’s head that children used to ride. It was called a hobby horse, and, like the child at play, anyone pursuing a hobby was doing it for escapism and pleasure, not money.

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Why is a commercial record player called a “jukebox”? Jukeboxes first appeared in restaurants and bars in the late 1930s. Juke is an African word meaning “to make wicked mischief” and came directly from American slaves, who described the illegal brothels or bootlegger shacks where they could occasionally escape their cruel lives with a jar of moonshine as “Juke-joints.” Juke had an exotic and forbidden appeal, which inspired the name jukebox. Why is the word trump used in card games, and what else in the deck, other than the cards, adds up to fifty-two?

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A trump card or suit has been designated a higher rank than usual for the purposes of the game being played and will triumph over others of normally equal value. Trump is a distortion of the word triumph. If you add up the number of letters in the names of the cards, the total is fifty-two, the same as the number of cards in the deck (acetwothreefourfivesixseveneightninetenjackqueenking). Why is a particular game of gambling with cards called “poker”? A card game called poque was introduced to America by French gamblers in New Orleans. Both the name and the game came from the German word pochspiel, which literally means “boast game,” while the derivative pochen means “to knock.” This knock on the table is still part of the many forms of poker and indicates that a player is passing on a bet. In a Southern drawl, poque was “pok-uh,” which, when spread to the rest of the country, became “poker.” Why do we say that a poker player, or anyone putting up a false front, is “bluffing”? The word bluff is from the Dutch word bluffen, meaning to deceive, and entered English as a nautical reference to the imposing front of a warship. For the same reason, the term bluff was applied to a bold coastline that rose straight and high out of the water. By the 1830s, bluffing had taken on the meaning of anything less intimidating than it appears and had entered the game of poker as a reference to the art of deception. Why is a shifty person called a “four flusher”? 197

In poker, five cards from the same suit is called a flush and is very valuable. The highest possible poker hand is a royal flush, or five cards from ten to ace all from the same suit. However, four cards from the same suit, or a four flush, is nearly worthless. If a person continues to play with such a hand they are bluffing, or hiding the truth, which gave us the expression “four flusher” for someone not to be trusted or believed. Why are cigars called “stogies”? Tobacco was picked up from the natives of the East Indies and introduced to Europe by the Spanish in the sixteenth century. The English word cigar is from the Spanish cigarro, which they took from cigarrales, a Cuban word meaning a place of leisure. Stogie is an abbreviation of Conestoga, and because the drivers of that wagon company (based in tobacco country) always had a roll-your-own cigar stuck in their mouths, observers called them stogies. Why is a tough, all-terrain vehicle called a “Jeep”? In 1937, the Army introduced a general purpose four-wheel drive vehicle which, when abbreviated, became G.P. At the same time the very popular Popeye cartoon had introduced Eugene the Jeep as a weird little pet for Olive Oil; it communicated by calling “jeep.” The young men in the service put the little G.P. and the cartoon character together and called the vehicle a Jeep. What is the origin of the Frisbee?

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In 1870, Frisbee’s New England bakery sold pies in round tins, which students at nearby Yale took to tossing as a pastime. In the 1940s, the Wham-O toy company was trying to capitalize on the new UFO mania by selling a plastic flying saucer. When Wham-O noticed Yale students tossing the metal pie plates, they trademarked the name Frisbee and mass-produced the discs in plastic — and a craze was born. How did “betting your shirt” come mean to gambling everything you own? In 1823, the bitterness that led to the Civil War surfaced during a match race between the Northern horse American Eclipse and a Southern colt named Sir Henry. The grudge match inspired fortunes to be wagered, including that of congressman John Randolph, who put up $10,000 and his entire wardrobe, which gave a newspaper the observation that he was “betting his shirt” on the race. (Incidentally, the race was won by American Eclipse, and Randolph kept his wardrobe.) Why is a theatre ticket booth called a “box office”? In early Elizabethan times, theatres admitted the general public into the ground level “pit” without charge. Before the play began, a plate was passed through the mostly standing pit audience and, like a church collection, an established amount was expected for different seats and rows. For the wealthy patrons who bought private balcony boxes for the season, tickets were conveniently held near the entrance in what was called the box office.

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Why do we call a working vacation a “busman’s holiday”? Bus is an abbreviation of omnibus, which is what they called the original horse-drawn vehicles used for public transportation. The busman, of course, was the driver, and because the bus was drawn by the driver’s own horses, he was very concerned about their well-being. It wasn’t uncommon for busmen to frequently come down to the barn during their vacation time to ensure that their horses were being well treated, which gave us the expression “busman’s holiday.” Why do actors say “break a leg” when wishing each other good luck? “Break a leg” comes from the First World War, when, before flying, German airmen wished each other a “broken neck and a broken leg.” Considering the dangers of combat with primitive aircraft, this was preferable to losing your life, which was all too common. After the war, the phrase was picked up by actors in the German theatre and eventually adopted by the British and American stages, where it was abbreviated to “break a leg.” How is “the full monty” related to “three-card monte”? “The full monty,” popularized as a movie title, is a British expression meaning “the whole thing.” It came from illegal gambling, where the huge pot of a high stakes game was called the monty, from the Spanish word for mountain, which is monte. To win the monty meant you had won a mountain of money. Three-card monte, an illegal con game, has the same Spanish origin and refers to the same thing. 200

How did the letters in Scrabble get assigned their quantities and numerical values? In 1931, an unemployed American architect named Alfred Butts invented the game we now call Scrabble. Turned down by every manufacturer he approached, he sold homemade sets out of his garage until 1946, when a company bought the rights and began mass production. Butts determined the scoring value and quantity of each letter by counting the number of times it was used on a single page of the New York Times. What was the original purpose of Rubik’s Cube? In 1980, Rubik’s Cube became a worldwide craze. Its Hungarian inventor, Professor Erno Rubick, had created the cube as a math aid for his students. After realizing the cube’s potential as a toy, he sold two million in Hungary alone before introducing it to the West, making him the Communist world’s first self-made millionaire. The Rubik’s Cube has over forty-three quintillion configurations (43,252,003,274,489,856,000). Why is a superficial vacation known as a “Cook’s tour”? When Thomas Cook founded the world’s first travel agency in 1841 he organized a railway trip for a group of non-drinkers into the British midlands. Soon the safety and security of travelling in groups encouraged the less adventurous to see the world. The more seasoned travellers, enamoured of their ideas of individual adventure, scoffed at these disciplined tours and referred to them sarcastically as “Cook’s tours.” 201

Sports

Why are both the manager of an athletic team and a large passenger vehicle called a “coach”?

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The word coach comes from the Hungarian village of Kocs (pronounced “kotch”), made famous for its large, horse-drawn carriages in the sixteenth century. In Britain, the word became coach, and by the nineteenth century took on the second meaning of a sports trainer or private tutor. The implication is that, through his experience and knowledge, the coach, like a bus or a train car, carries the younger trainees to their destinations. Why are the victors in a competition called “champions”? A boxing champion is, of course, the best in his class, but the word has a more honourable history than its use in sports. Derived from the Latin word campus, which refers to an open field where battles were fought, the word champion passed into French before being adopted into English in the thirteenth century. Its meaning was “one who fights on behalf of another” or “one who defends a person or a cause.” Why do we say that someone well conditioned has been “whipped into shape”? During the ancient Olympics, athletes were expected to go into training ten months before the start of the games. The last month was spent at the site, where — regardless of the weather or bodily injuries, while on a strictly limited diet, and without shoes, shorts, or the right to complain — whenever they faltered, they were whipped by their trainers. These Olympians were literally whipped into shape. What is the origin of the sporting term “round robin”?

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A round robin tournament is one in which everyone is treated equally. Each player must face every other player. This democratic process originated in the British Navy in the sixteenth century as a way of petitioning against grievances without being charged with mutiny. The names on the petition were all signed in a circle so that the captain couldn’t tell who was the first to sign and thus who initiated the complaint. The sailors named this document a round robin. Why is the outcome of a game known as the “score”? Scores are tallied to decide the winner of a game. Tally is from talea, the Latin word for stick. Scoring is the act of cutting notches or nicks onto that stick to keep track. A stick was sometimes split down the middle so a creditor and debtor could keep an honest tally by notching transactions at the same time. In sport, the side with the most scores or notches cut into a tally stick was the winner. Where do the golf terms “par” and “bogey” come from? Until the introduction of the modern golf ball in 1898, an average score for any given hole was called a bogey, the Scottish word for ghost, meaning that the challenge was within the individual player against an unseen opponent. The modern ball took one less stroke to reach the hole, so the new standard was called par, a short form of parity, meaning equal. Bogey was kept as meaning the original average with the old cloth-covered ball, or one shot over the new ball average of par. How is par determined for each hole on a golf course?

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Par is the number of strokes a good golfer should make on a particular hole, and it’s based on distance. A par 3 hole is up to 250 yards for men and 210 yards for women. A par 4 is 250 to 470 yards for men and between 210 and 400 yards for women. Par 5 is for holes over 470 yards for men and over 400 for women. Why do golf balls have dimples? Original golf balls were made of wood, and it wasn’t until the nineteenth century that they evolved through a number of changes. They went from wet feathers stuffed into wet leather for shrinking to “gutties,” balls made from a Malaysian form of rubber. At this point someone noticed that the new ball flew further when scuffed up after being hit a few times, and so dimples were added to encourage distance by imitating a well-used ball. Why does a golf “duffer” need a “handicap”? The word duffer was once used to describe a counterfeit coin and was expanded to include a worthless person, who, like the counterfeit coin, was only taking up space — such as a duffer on a golf course. Because they are inferior, duffers need a handicap, or help, which is really a penalty against the superior players. The word handicap came from drawing of lots for positions in a horserace, which literally required putting a hand in a cap. Why do golfers shout “fore” as a warning to those ahead of them?

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When early cannons fired a barrage into enemy lines, over the heads of their own charging infantry, the shots were often imprecise. British artillery officers would shout, “Beware before” as a warning for their advancing troops to watch out for a misfired cannon ball. Over time, and in the heat of battle, “beware before” was abbreviated to “before,” then eventually shortened to “fore,” which found its way into golf as a warning that a volley was on its way. Why do we say we’ve been “stymied” when we are facing a difficult situation? Stymied comes from the Scottish word styme, which means “unable to see,” and its usage came from golf. A stymie was when a player’s golf ball landed on the green directly between his opponent’s ball and the hole, forcing the stymied player to either spin his ball around the other or hop over it with an iron. In 1951, a new rule allowed a golfer to mark the position and remove the obstructing ball for a putt. Why is Toronto’s hockey team called the Maple Leafs? In 1927, after having just been fired by the Rangers, Conn Smythe took the winnings from a horse race and bought the Toronto St. Pats hockey team, renaming them the Maple Leafs. Impressed with how brilliantly Canadians had fought in the First World War, Smythe named his new team after the soldiers’ maple leaf insignia. Smythe is the man who said of hockey, “If you can’t beat them in the alley, you can’t beat them on the ice.” Why is the Montreal hockey club called the “Habs,” and what does their C.H. logo stand for? 206

The Montreal Canadiens began as an all–French Canadian hockey team that would be an honest representation of the Province of Quebec. Their nickname, the Habs, is an abbreviation of les habitants, meaning “those who live here.” The C.H. logo on their sweaters stands for “Club de Hockey Canadien.” The Canadiens won their first Stanley Cup in 1916, the year before the NHL was formed. Why are basketball players called “cagers”? When Canadian James Naismith introduced basketball, the game was played with a soccer ball and the baskets were peach buckets nailed to the balcony at each end of the gym. The early games were rough and crude before Naismith introduced his thirteen rules in 1892 — so rough that the Trenton basketball team, playing in the first YMCA League, built a fence around the court to keep the ball in play. This fence was like a cage, and so the players were called cagers. How many coloured flags are used in auto racing, and what do they mean? Seven flags are used as signals to drivers in car races: a green flag starts the race; a yellow flag means “don’t pass”; a red flag means “stop for an emergency”; a black flag signals a rule infraction; a white flag indicates that the leaders are starting the last lap; a blue flag with a diagonal stripe tells slower cars to move aside; and finally the checkered flag means the race is over. Who is featured on the world’s most valuable baseball card?

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The most valuable baseball card in history was issued in 1909 and features Honus Wagner. One in mint condition sold for $110,000 in 1988. The reason it became so valuable is its scarcity — it was issued by the Sweet Caporal Cigarette Company, but Wagner, an eight-time National League batting champion, had it discontinued because he didn’t want to promote smoking among children. What number has been retired by every Major League Baseball team and why? In 1997, fifty years after he broke the colour barrier, every Major League Baseball team retired Jackie Robinson’s number 42. Active players who had the number before 1997 were allowed to wear it until their retirement, but no other player will be able to wear the number again. What does the sign “No Pepper” mean at a baseball park? The sign “No Pepper” is seen in many baseball dugouts and refers to a game played to warm up the players. During pepper, one player bunts grounders and hits line drives to a group of infielders standing about twenty feet away. The fielders play the ball then throw it back to the batter as quickly as possible, and he then attempts to hit those return throws. Pepper is banned when spectators are in the park for fear of injury. What are the seven different ways a baseball batter can reach first base?

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In baseball, a batter can reach first base with a hit, or by being walked with four balls. He also goes to first if he is struck by a pitch or if the catcher interferes with his at bat. If the catcher drops the ball on strike three or the pitcher throws the ball out of the playing area the batter moves to first. Finally, the seventh way a batter can get on base is if the baseball becomes stuck in the umpire’s mask or equipment. Why do the New York Yankees wear pinstripe baseball uniforms? In 1925, thirty-year-old Babe Ruth was suffering from an intestinal disorder, and his weight ballooned to over 260 pounds. This embarrassed Yankees owner Jacob Rupert so much that he ordered the team to wear pinstripe uniforms in order to make the Bambino look thinner. Limited to 98 games that season because of surgery and suspensions, Babe Ruth still managed to hit .290 with 25 home runs. Why is the warm-up area for baseball pitchers called a “bullpen”? As early as 1809, the term bullpen referred to a stockade for holding criminals. In the 1870s, a roped-off area in the outfield for standing room was nicknamed the bullpen by the Cincinnati Enquirer. When relief pitchers were introduced into the game they took over that area to warm up, and in a stroke of brilliance the Bull Durham Tobacco Company erected a sign overhead to confirm it as the bullpen. Why is there a seventh-inning stretch during a baseball game?

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While attending a baseball game in 1910, American President William Howard Taft stood up to stretch his legs between the top and bottom of the seventh inning. The crowd stood out of respect because they thought the president was leaving, then as he sat back down so did the crowd, and a tradition was born. The stretch became popular with vendors because it was a last chance to sell off their hot dogs and French fries before fans started drifting home.

What is the origin of the mascot? A mascot brings good luck, and the name comes from masco, Latin for “witch.” Primitive peoples believed that every tribe

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descended from a separate species of animal, which they recognized as their ancestors from what they hoped were their own characteristics of bravery and ferocity. It’s the same reason most sporting teams name themselves after something they respect, hoping to attain the qualities of the Tigers, Indians, or even Mighty Ducks. Why was the Cleveland football team named the Browns? Football franchises move around, and it was the Rams who represented Cleveland before moving to L.A. and then to St. Louis. In 1946, when the city was given a franchise in the AAFC, they held a contest to name the new team, and the winner was the Brown Bombers, after the great champion Joe Louis. However, the name was colour sensitive for the time, and so they compromised by naming the team the Browns after coach Paul Brown. What does carte blanche have to do with the name of the San Diego Chargers? The naming of the San Diego football team had nothing to do with a military or an electrical charge. The team was named by the original owner, Barron Hilton, who called them the Chargers after a credit card. Hilton also owned the Carte Blanche credit card. Although to us carte blanche might be “white card,” to the French it means “blank sheet,” to be used like a blank cheque … preferably to include a ticket to watch the San Diego Chargers. What does a football player’s number tell you about his position?

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American football introduced numbers in 1915 and names in 1961, but in 1967, numbers began indicating a player’s position and eligibility. Quarterbacks and kickers wear 1 to 19, running and defensive backs 20 to 49, centres and linebackers 50 to 59, guards 60 to 69, tackles 70 to 79, and finally ends and defensive linemen wear between 60 and 89. Why is a horse race sometimes called a “derby”? In England it’s properly called a “darby,” but everywhere else, including here, it’s known as a “derby.” In 1780, the twelfth Earl of Derby was having dinner with his friend Sir Charles Bunbury when they decided to sponsor a horse race for three-year-olds in Surrey, England. They tossed a coin to decide after which of them the race would be named and Derby won — otherwise the most exciting two minutes in sports would be the Kentucky Bunbury. Why is an obstacle-filled “steeplechase”?

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In early England, the church was the centre of a town’s existence and was usually the largest and most prominent structure. For travellers on horseback, the first sign of their destination was the lofty church steeple rising above the trees. To the tired traveller, the sight was exhilarating and inspired the horsemen to quicken their paces, very often racing to see who could arrive at the steeple first. From this, a horse race became known as a “steeplechase.” Why are legal issues, basketball games, and tennis tournaments all settled on a “court”?

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Like courtesy, the word court evolved from the Latin words cum, meaning “together,” and hortus, the derivative of horticulture — so a court was an enclosed garden where young boys of noble birth learned proper social conduct. In both the judicial and sporting sense a court is a specified area within which you are expected to practise courtesy while respecting authority. Why is Canada’s national sport called “lacrosse”? Lacrosse, “the little brother of war,” was considered good training for Native American warriors. Teams consisting of hundreds of players often involved entire villages in brutal contests that could last as long as three days. To the French explorers who were the first Europeans to see the game, the stick resembled a bishop’s ceremonial staff, called a “crozier,” surmounted by a cross, or la crosse — and the sport had a new name. Why do we use the word checkmate to end a game of chess? The game of chess, played by two players, each trying to capture the other’s king with a sixteen-piece army of horses, foot soldiers, chariots, and elephants, surfaced in India in around 500 B.C. The game was adopted first by the Persians and then by the Arabs, who introduced it to Europe during their conquest of Spain. The Persian word for king is shah. Checkmate is from the Arabic Shah mat, which literally means “the king is dead.” Why is a small sporting facility called a “gymnasium” while a larger one is a “stadium”? 213

The word gymnasium is from the Greek word gymnos, which means “nude.” Thus, gymnasium literally means “a school for naked exercise.” The first Olympic event for the nude male athletes, or gymnasts, was a foot race known as a stade, which was a Greek unit of measurement for the distance of the race (which was six hundred feet), and that is why the facility was called a stadium.

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Politics & The Military

Why are governmental and legal delays called “red tape”?

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English monarchs used to write legal decrees on rolls of parchment and then bind them up with red silk ribbons. To give their work an important appearance, government bureaucrats copied the “red tape” practice. Not to be outdone, lawyers followed with ribbons of their own. The expression took hold after Charles Dickens described the frustration of dealing with governmental and legal bungling as “cutting through red tape.” Where did the sarcastic phrase “Bob’s your uncle” come from? “Bob’s your uncle” is a common British phrase and now means that you’ve accomplished something without much effort. It originated in 1887 when Prime Minister Robert Cecil appointed his nephew, Arthur Balfour, chief secretary for Ireland. The public was outraged at this blatant act of nepotism and began using “Bob’s your uncle” to describe any situation where favouritism influenced the outcome. Why is political favouritism called “pork barrel politics”? Long before refrigeration, North American farmers kept supplies of salt pork stored in barrels, and the amount of meat on hand indicated the family’s prosperity. If the barrel was low on pork, it meant the possibility of disaster through starvation. When a politician sought and gained favouritism for his constituents, he was said to have filled the pork barrels of those who had elected him, thereby assuring his re-election. Why do we call someone seeking political office a “candidate”? 216

In ancient Rome, someone seeking election would appear in public wearing a white robe to symbolize his pure character. Candidate comes from candidatus, meaning a man wearing pure white. Not fooled by the white toga, the Romans said that politicians needed to make three fortunes while in office: the first to pay back the money borrowed to buy votes, the second to bribe officials when eventually tried for misconduct, and the third for retirement. Why is someone who exposes political corruption called a “muckraker”? When President Teddy Roosevelt called the reporters who exposed political and corporate corruption “muckrakers,” the term caught on and is now used to describe tabloid journalism. Muck is manure, and the word was borrowed from John Bunyons’s book Pilgrim’s Progress, wherein a man — even though he had been promised a celestial crown — constantly kept his eyes and his muck rake on the filth of the floor instead of looking only to his halo. Why are armoured battle vehicles called “tanks”? In ancient India, large pits were dug to collect the monsoon rains and were called tanken. In the seventeenth century the concept was brought home to Britain and was introduced in English as “tank,” a place to store water. In 1915, when the British designed a heavily armoured combat vehicle, they built them under the cover of building water tanks and shipped them to the front in crates marked “Tanks.” They were introduced at the Battle of the Somme. Why doesn’t an “ovation” signify a “triumph”? 217

A triumph was a Roman celebration of a military victory over an enemy of the state. The victorious commander rode a chariot in a grand parade with his entire army and the booty and slaves he had won. An ovation was a less elaborate honour for a general who had won victory without bloodshed, perhaps by treaty or reason. He was denied a chariot and either walked or rode a horse during a less imposing ceremony. Why do we say “deep six” when we mean to eliminate or destroy something? During the Watergate scandals, John Dean said that John Erlichman told him to shred some sensitive documents and then deep six the briefcase by throwing it into the river. “By the deep six” is a nautical term referring to sounding the water’s depth and means six fathoms (eleven metres or thirty-six feet). In the navy, to deep six something meant to dispose of an item by tossing it overboard into deep water where it couldn’t be found. Why is an all-out fight called a “pitched battle”? One of the meanings of the word pitch is “to set things in order.” For example, when you pitch a tent, you are using a military expression for lining up the tents in rows. Unlike a skirmish or a surprise attack, a pitched battle was one in which the two sides lined up in formation facing each other until the order was given for the carnage to begin. The two disciplined sides held their ranks as they approached and then met each other in what was called a pitched battle. Why are foot soldiers called “infantry”? 218

The word soldier is from the Latin word solidus, meaning a gold coin, because it cost money to raise an army of mercenaries. The word infantry is from infant, with a Latin derivative meaning “non speaking,” because, like children, well-disciplined soldiers never talk back or challenge orders. Curiously, another use of the word soldier is in reference to an army ant, due to the fact that other than humans, ants are the only creatures on earth to go into battle in formation. Why do we say that a guilty person must “face the music”? To “face the music” comes from the military “drumming out” ceremony for disgraced soldiers. This ritual called for only drums to accompany the dishonoured as he was stripped of his rank and colours in front of his assembled unit. For cavalrymen, this humiliation was enhanced by having the offender sit backwards on his horse so that while leaving he could still see, as well as hear, the drums and the band. He was forced to face the music. Why is someone who doesn’t live up to expectations called a “flash in the pan”? On a pioneer flintlock rifle the hammer struck a flint to create a spark that ignited a small amount of priming powder in what was called the pan. This ignition then set off the main charge of gunpowder, causing a small explosion that fired the bullet through the barrel. When the powder in the pan didn’t ignite properly it created a flash, but the rifle wouldn’t fire. It looked good, but it was only a “flash in the pan.” Why is a single-minded person said to be “zeroed in”? 219

Before the modern era, rifle gunsights were aligned to hit a target at a known distance. Therefore, with the guesswork removed, any adjustment from a set position would be zero. The same principle applies to artillery batteries, which adjust their fire to a fixed point or “ground zero,” a term still used with satellite- and laser-guided bombs and missiles. Like the single-minded person, they’re zeroed in. Where does the disciplinary order “toe the line” come from? “Toe the line” is the same as “toe the mark” and means “follow the rules or pay the consequences.” In many sports, such as foot racing, the athletes were required to stand with their toes against a scratched line to ensure a fair start. As punishment in the navy, no matter what the weather, young trainees were forced to stand for hours with their toes touching a seam on the ship’s deck, and this too was toeing the line. Why when waking up do we say, “Rise and shine” or “Shake a leg”? “Rise and shine” comes from a 1916 United States Marine Corps manual that instructed noncommissioned officers to enter the privates’ barracks in the early morning and use the phrase to wake the men. While rise means “get up,” shine means “make sure your boots and brass are ready for inspection.” The Royal Navy used “shake a leg” to warn any women who might be sleeping in a hammock to show a leg or suffer the embarrassment of being rousted with the men. Why is the control area of an aircraft called a “cockpit”? 220

When the hideous sport of cockfighting was legal, the birds were taken to a pit in the ground where they fought to the death. These fights were quick and bloody, and for this reason, the “cockpit” became the designated name of the room on a warship were surgeons attended the wounded and dying. During the First World War, pilots, like the roosters, were inserted into a confined space to do battle, and so they named that space the cockpit. Why did First World War fighter pilots wear long silk scarves? The dashing image of First World War fighter pilots wearing long silk scarves had nothing to do with fashion. The open-cockpit biplanes were very primitive with no rear-view mirror, so the pilot depended entirely on his own vision to avoid or mount an attack. The scarf was used to wipe grease from his goggles and to keep his neck from chafing against his collar as he constantly turned his head while watching for the enemy.

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How did a telegram bring the United States into the First World War? In 1917, the British intercepted a cable from the German foreign minister to their Mexican ambassador proposing an alliance whereby the Mexicans would reacquire Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico if that country would join Germany in an attack from the south on the neutral Americans. The British made the telegram public on March 1, and the outcry forced the United States into the war a month later. What orbital advantage did Cape Canaveral have to cause NASA to choose the Florida location for its first space launches? Cape Canaveral was chosen as a launch site not only because NASA needed the booster rockets to fall harmlessly into the ocean but also, and more importantly, because the earth moves from west to east at 910 miles an hour. This Florida location allowed them to fire a rocket to the east with an added velocity push of 17,300 miles an hour from the spinning of the earth. What was the cost in human life to liberate each Kuwaiti citizen during Operation Desert Storm? After Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, an American-led military force liberated the tiny country in 1991 — but at what cost? There were 491,000 Kuwaiti citizens, who made up only 28 percent of the country’s population. The rest, or 72 percent, were immigrant labourers. Estimates are that 150,000 Iraqis were killed during the war, while 141 American, 18 223

British, 2 French, and 44 Arab soldiers gave their lives. This means it cost one life to liberate every three Kuwaitis. Why does “sally forth” mean to go forward with a new venture? Today it implies less danger, but to “sally forth” was originally a military term meaning to suddenly rush forward. The Latin derivation of sally is salire, meaning “to leap.” Castles and fortresses had closely guarded openings in the walls designed for mounting a quick counterattack against a siege. These were called sally ports, from which the defenders would vigorously rush, or sally forth, into battle. What is the meaning of the battle cry “Give no quarter”? In battle, to give no quarter means to take no prisoners. In this case, the word quarter has no numerical value but rather refers to the antiquated use of the word for a dwelling place or area, such as the Latin Quarter or a soldier’s living quarters or barracks. To grant or give quarter would mean to show mercy and provide prisoners with shelter. “No quarter asked and no quarter given” means this is a fight to the death. Why do we say, “Lock and load” when preparing for the inevitable? The expression “lock and load” comes from American G.I.s during the Second World War and refers to loading the M1 rifle for imminent combat. The phrase means to insert a full ammunition clip into the rifle, then lock the bolt forward, forcing a round into the chamber ready to fire. The original order was “load and lock,” but after John Wayne reversed the 224

order to “lock and load” in The Sands of Iwo Jima, the expression stuck. Why are military guards, some garden fences, and people on strike all called “pickets”? A picket line, of course, is a group of union people exercising their right to protest, while a military picket is a guard on duty to protect the perimeter of an encampment. The word picket comes from the early French settlers, who made fortified stockades from sharpened tree trunks, which they called piquet, meaning “pointed sticks.” It lives on in the pointed slats of picket fences and in the actions of union strikers.

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Ships & Sailing

Why does “jury-rigged” mean a temporary repair with whatever is at hand?

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In the seventeenth century, when a ship’s mast was damaged at sea, a “jury mast” was rigged to hold the sail until the replacement could be found. Because this was a critical situation the repairs had to be done within a day, or in French un jour, which in this case is the origin of jury. Something jury-rigged is a temporary repair and has nothing to do with “jerry-built,” which means permanent bad work. Why would you give a “swashbuckler” or a bully a “wide berth”? Swashbuckler, a word we use for a pirate, was created from the archaic words swash, meaning “to make noise by striking,” and buckler, meaning “shield.” A swaggering brute yelling and banging his sword on his shield was called a swashbuckler. These bullies were given a “wide berth,” which in nautical lingo means to anchor or berth a ship a safe distance away from another that might cause trouble. Why do we say that someone is “on the spot” when they’re facing big trouble? To be “on the spot” means you’re in serious difficulty, and it comes from the pirates of the Caribbean. The “spot” is the ace of spades, a card that pirates ceremoniously showed to a condemned person indicating that he was about to be executed as a traitor. To be put on the spot has become much less dire, and instead of being a signal that you’re being put to death, it has evolved into meaning, “Explain yourself or you’re out of here.” Why do we say that someone arrogant needs to be “taken down a peg”? 227

A ship’s colours are raised or lowered to signal the ship’s status. “All flags flying” signals great pride, but flags could also indicate degrees between failure and conquest. These flags were once held in place by a system of pegs, so lowering them was done by taking down a peg. This was a shame to the ship and its crew and gave us the expression for humiliation: to be taken down a peg. What’s the origin of the expression “son of a gun”? Early in the eighteenth century, wives and girlfriends (as well as the occasional prostitute) were allowed to go to sea with the sailors during long voyages. When one of them became pregnant and was about to give birth at sea, a canvas curtain was placed near the midship gun where the birth would take place. If the newborn’s father was in doubt, and it often was, the birth was registered in the log as the “son of a gun.” How did “spick and span” come to mean very clean? Today, Spick and Span is a trade name for a well-known cleanser, but the expression began in the fourteenth century as the nautical term “spick and span new,” to describe a freshly built or refurbished ship. A spick was a spike, while span was a Viking reference to new wood, but also means any distance between two extremities (such as the bow and stern of a ship). The wooden ship was so clean that even the spikes looked new. Why does “chewing the fat” mean gossip or casual conversation?

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During the twentieth century, “chewing the fat” came to mean passing time with informal small talk. The phrase originated with the grumbling of nineteenth-century British sailors whose lean diet was often nothing more than the fat from barrels of salt pork. Their whining while chewing the tough meat would expand to include complaints about every other hardship at sea and became known as “chewing the fat.” Why do we say that someone who has overcome an obstacle with ease has passed with “flying colours”? Since the eighteenth century, ships of the navy have used flags to communicate their status or well-being. The most prominent flag, of course, is that of the ship’s country, but there are dozens of other banners, which are called “colours.” The most elaborate use of this bunting is after a victory at sea, when a triumphant ship returns to its home port with a proud and full display of flying colours. Why do we describe something approximate as “by and large”? In early sailing jargon, by was “by the wind,” and when a helmsman was ordered to fill the sails he was told to steer “full and by.” This required great skill and was called steering small. A less experienced helmsman might have been told to steer large with the order “by and large,” which meant use the wind but don’t fill the sails. This is how “by and large” came to mean not quite true, but close enough. If you’re short of cash why might you ask for a loan to “tide you over”?

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If you ask for money to tide you over, you are using a nautical term to reassure the lender that repayment is inevitable. When a boat or ship wants to enter a river from the ocean at low tide, its way will be blocked by the accumulation of mud or sand that has been swept downstream and collected at the mouth of the river. When the predictable tide rises and the obstacle is “tided over” the boat, like a borrower, can continue its progress. Why do we say that something lost has “gone by the board”? During the time of wooden ships, sailors often referred to their sailing vessel as “the Boards.” We still use their language when we board a ship or are on board as part of a crew. Outboard is outside the boat, while inboard is inside. When a sailing ship’s mast was broken by enemy cannon or in a storm and couldn’t be salvaged, the captain would order the ropes holding it to be cut, letting it drift away or “go by the board.” Why is a severe labour dispute called a “strike”? Conditions on board commercial sailing ships were miserable. On long voyages, food and water went bad and hygienic conditions were lower than for animals in a stable. If they suspected that a ship was poorly prepared, it wasn’t uncommon for the crew to strike the main sail, making it impossible to go to sea until conditions improved. This gave us the word strike to describe any extreme action by labour against management.

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Holidays

Why is Easter a higher Christian holiday than Christmas?

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With the rise of Christianity, the church decided that death days were the real birthdays because the deceased was being reborn in paradise, and so the date of a person’s demise was recorded as their birth, or rebirth, day. The birthdays of saints are celebrated on their death days. It was through this logic that Christ’s death day, or Easter, became more important than Christmas. Why is Thanksgiving celebrated six and a half weeks earlier in Canada than in the United States? It took two hundred years after the pilgrims first celebrated Thanksgiving in 1621 before it became an annual holiday in the U.S. It was Sarah Hale, the author of “Mary Had a Little Lamb,” who convinced Abraham Lincoln to create the annual celebration in 1863. Canada went along in 1879, but because of a shorter growing season changed the date in 1957 from the end of November to the second Monday in October. Why are Christmas songs called “carols”? A Christmas carol is a song of religious joy, but the musical form of a carol doesn’t have to include Christmas. Its main feature is the repetition, either musically or chorally, of a theme, as in a circle. The word carole entered English from the French at the end of the thirteenth century, but it’s much older than that. Originally, a carole was a ring dance where men and women held hands while dancing and singing in a circle. How did turkey become the traditional Christmas dinner?

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Up until the nineteenth century, mincemeat pie was the common Christmas feast in both North America and Europe, with preferred birds being pigeon, peacock, guinea hen, and goose. Turkey was introduced from America to Europe by the Spanish in the sixteenth century and caught on big time in 1843 after Ebenezer Scrooge sent a turkey to Bob Cratchet in the Charles Dickens story A Christmas Carol.

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What are we saying when we sing “Deck the Halls with Boughs of Holly”? The middle Dutch word decken meant “to cover or adorn” and came from dec, which originally meant any cover, such as a tarpaulin or a roof, and was borrowed into English as a nautical term in the fifteenth century. Although today a backyard deck might mean a wooden patio, a ship’s deck was not a floor but a roof to cover cannons. The Christmas carol “Deck the Halls” is saying simply “cover the walls” with boughs of holly. Why do we kiss under the mistletoe? Two centuries before Christ’s birth, the Druids celebrated the winter solstice with mistletoe because it enhanced fertility and was a favourite of the gods. The Romans hung it prominently during orgies, which is how it became associated with kissing and also why the church banned it in the fourth century. The name mistletoe is from the Germanic word mista, meaning “manure” or “dung,” because the plant grows out of oak trees well-fertilized by bird droppings. How did holly become associated with Christmas? No one knows the exact date of Christ’s birth, although May 30 is the most popular scholastic guess. December 25 was chosen early in the fourth century in an effort to convert those of other religions who celebrated the winter solstice. Holly was a prominent part of pre-Christian winter celebrations and was used to bring others into the fold by using its leaves to symbolize a crown of thorns and its red berries to symbolize Christ’s blood at the crucifixion. 235

What happened to the man who outlawed Christmas? In 1643, the English Puritan parliament frowned on the pagan rituals of Christmas and banned its celebration after William Prynne published his anti-Christmas manifesto. Clergymen were imprisoned for so much as preaching on December 25. After several years of rioting against the ban, King Charles II arrested Prynne and had him pilloried then had both his ears cut off while the manifesto was burned in front of him. The king re-established Christmas celebrations, but not before having Prynne expelled from Oxford and the legal profession. What is the origin of the New Year’s song Auld Lang Syne? The tone and lyrics of Auld Lang Syne seem to capture perfectly the emotions involved in the passing of the fleeting accomplishments and losses of one calendar year coinciding with the rise of hope in a new one. Auld lang syne is Scottish and literally means “old long since,” or, in modern language, simply “long ago.” The song was written down by the poet Robert Burns, but he wasn’t the composer. Burns heard the folk song being sung by an anonymous old man and copied it down before passing it on to become a ceremonial fixture of New Year’s Eve.

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Beliefs & Superstitions

What is the curse on the Hope diamond?

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The Hope diamond is a steel blue, forty-four-and-a-half-carat, walnutsized diamond that is supposedly cursed, since it was stolen from the statue of a Hindu god in 1642. Since then, its owners, including Marie Antoinette, have all had brushes with madness and violent death. It’s named after a British banking family who were financially ruined. It’s now at the Smithsonian Institute and is owned by the government of the United States of America. What is the origin of the Tooth Fairy? The ritual of placing a baby tooth under the pillow to be replaced overnight with money from the Tooth Fairy is a compilation of several European customs. In Venice an old witch did the job, while in France the Virgin Mary traded money and sometimes candy for children’s teeth. Other cultures buried the tooth, or threw it at the sun for favours from the gods. The fairy was of course an Irish innovation and took hold in North America during the middle of the ninetenth century. Why is a rabbit’s foot considered good luck? If you realize that primitive societies couldn’t tell the difference between a rabbit and a hare, then you’ll understand this ancient logic as to why the rabbit’s foot is a symbol of good luck. Hares are born with their eyes open, giving them knowledge of prenatal life. The rabbit burrows underground and shares secrets with the underworld. Finally, both animals’ incredible fertility could be shared by carrying the rabbit’s foot as a phallus of good luck. Why do some people believe black cats are bad luck? 238

If you believe that a black cat crossing your path is bad luck, you believe in witchcraft. Legend has its that in the 1560s in England, a father and son threw stones at a cat that had startled them on a moonless night. The wounded cat ran into the nearby home of a suspected witch. The next day the old

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woman was seen in public limping and bruised, and a superstition was born which caused the burning alive of innocent women in the seventeenth century. Did the near tragedy of Apollo 13 cause the NASA scientists to become superstitious? Apollo 13 was launched on the eleventh of the fourth month in the seventieth year of that century. One plus one plus four plus seven plus zero totals thirteen. Liftoff was at 13:13 central military time, and the explosion took place on the thirteenth day of April. NASA claims no superstition — but has never again used the number thirteen on a manned space flight. How did astrology connect the lives of Winston Churchill, Franklin Roosevelt, and Charlie Chaplin with that of Adolf Hitler? Chaplin and Hitler were associated astrologically from birth, because both men were born within the same hour in the same week of the same year. The date connecting Churchill and FDR with the German dictator is January 30. It’s the date of President Roosevelt’s birth, Winston Churchill’s death, and Hitler’s ascension to power in Germany. Why is breaking a mirror considered seven years of bad luck? Before glass was introduced in 1300 A.D., manufactured mirrors were simply polished metal. Around 6 B.C., in much the same manner one would now use as a crystal ball, the Greeks began practising fortune-telling from a subject’s 240

reflected image in a bowl of water. If, during a reading, the bowl with the image fell and broke it meant disaster. The Romans limited the curse to seven years because they believed that’s how long it took for human life to renew itself. Why does a bad day mean that you got up on the “wrong side of the bed”? For centuries, to be left-handed was considered evil. Ancient Egyptians drew all the good armies as being right-handed, while the enemies were lefties. Until only recently left-handed children were forced to learn to use their right hands in school. The word ambidextrous means two right hands. Getting up on the wrong side of the bed means your left foot touched the floor first, signalling that you were open to dark influences. Why is it bad luck to open an umbrella indoors? The umbrella is an ancient African innovation and was intended as a portable shade against the sun. After entering Europe through Spain in the twelfth century it became more valuable as a protection from the rain. The superstition of bad luck if opened indoors came from the African belief that to open an umbrella in the shade was an insult to the sun god and would cause him to bring down his wrath on the offender. When someone we are discussing shows up, why do we say, “Speak of the Devil”? When someone recently mentioned in a conversation suddenly turns up we might say, “Speak of the Devil” as though our conversation has brought the subject into our 241

midst. This is precisely what the expression means, because in the Middle Ages it was believed that any mention of the Devil would be an invitation for the evil one to appear either in spirit or in action, and so other than within ecclesiastical circles, his name was avoided at all costs. Why is happiness referred to as “seventh heaven” or “cloud nine”? The ancient Jews believed that the highest heaven, or “heaven of heavens,” and the home of God and his chosen angels was the seventh heaven. The Moslems agreed that the seventh heaven was the pinnacle of ecstasy. “Cloud nine” was coined by the U.S. weather bureau and means “as high as clouds can get,” or between thirty and forty thousand feet. Its meaning as a euphoric state came about in the 1950s. Why do we say that someone going nowhere is in “limbo”? To be in limbo means nothing is happening, neither good nor bad. Because the Christian church believed that only those “born again” could enter heaven they needed an afterlife destination for the other good souls. Limbo is the rim of hell and the destination for the righteous who died before the coming of Christ as well as infants, unbelievers, and the unbaptized. Limbo is a place without glory or pain. Why are ministers of the gospel called “Reverend,” “Pastor,” or “Parson”?

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Reverend first appeared in seventeenth-century England and is derived from the Latin reverendus, meaning “worthy of respect.” Pastor is from the Latin word for shepherd, which is how Christ referred to himself. On the other hand, parson comes from New England, where because the minister was one of the few who could read or write they called him “the town person,” which in the local accent became “the town parson.” Why is the Pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church called the “Pope,” and where is the “Holy See”? In Italian, the word pope is an endearment meaning “father” or “papa.” The responsibility of the leader of the Roman Catholic Church is to build bridges between God and mankind, and the title Pontiff is from the original Roman reference pontifex, meaning “bridge builder.” The Holy See is a corruption of “Holy seat,” or throne, and refers to the place where this throne is housed. Why when someone receives an unfair judgment do we say they’ve been given a “short shrift”? Shrift is an ancient word and comes from the act of shriving, which is the confessional process conducted by a priest. In his pursuit of forgiveness, a confessor seeks absolution for the sins of his soul through a process of penance administered by the priest. A short shrift refers to the brief time allowed with a priest to a condemned convict just before his execution.

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Words

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Why do we say that a subordinate person is “kowtowing” to another when they are “knuckling under” to their wishes? We call the finger joints knuckles, but the word used to mean any joint in the body, including the elbows and knees. To “knuckle under” is left over from those days and refers to bending your knees or bowing, signalling submission. Kowtow is Chinese and means “to kneel and press your forehead to the ground,” which was expected in the presence of the emperor or anyone else you feared. Why when someone has been banished or ostracized by a group do we say they’ve been “blackballed”? Ostracize comes from a Greek word meaning “voting tablet,” and the ritual of “blackballing” someone was a democratic process of elimination. A group decided if a suspect member would be banished or allowed to stay by dropping black and white balls into a ballot box. The word ballot means “little ball.” If the majority were black, the candidate lost and was said to have been blackballed. Why when we hurt our elbow do we say we’ve hit our “funny bone”? When we strike our elbow, although it’s no laughing matter, we say that the tingling sensation is from our funny bone. In fact, the prickling discomfort comes from striking the ulnar nerve, and the word funny comes from some scholar with a sense of humour who turned the whole thing into a pun during the nineteenth century. The ulnar nerve passes over the end of the humerus, which inspired the term “funny bone.” 245

Why is a small newspaper called a “gazette”? In 59 B.C. Julius Caesar introduced the first handwritten daily newspapers, which were posted in prominent locations around Rome. However, it wasn’t until long after Gutenberg’s printing press was invented that news became an industry. During the mid-sixteenth century, citizens of Venice paid to hear public readings of the news, and the price was a small copper Italian coin called a gazetta, which gave us the word gazette for a newspaper. Why when asking for a loan might you say you need a “stake” to carry you over? Asking for a stake means you need to see money to continue with a project. The expression comes from the early days of bare-knuckle boxing, when promoters often stiffed the fighters by absconding with the gate money before the count of ten. To ensure that they’d be paid, boxers insisted that their share of the money be placed in a pouch on a stake near the ring, where they could see it during the bout. This was known as stake money. Why are both the contents of a novel and the level of a building referred to as a “story”? The Latin word historia entered English as history, meaning an account of significant events. By the sixteenth century the abbreviated story took the meaning of an imaginative narrative. In the Middle Ages, by using sculpture and stained glassed windows, architects told themes from history on the

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fronts of large buildings, each being the height of one of the building’s floors. Each floor told a story. Why do we say we’ve been “upstaged” when someone else grabs all the attention? To be upstaged now means to lose due credit to a lesser person. In the theatre, “upstage” refers to the back of the stage, which at one time was built higher than the front. This was because the theatre floor was flat, and a slanted stage gave a better view of all the actors. Plays were crafted placing noble characters at the rear (where they appeared higher and more regal) even though they might have fewer lines than the others. Why is a crowning achievement called a “masterpiece”? “Masterpiece” suggests great art, but when the word first appeared in German as meisterstuck, it referred to a medieval standard of excellence expected from an apprentice before being allowed to join a guild of master craftsmen. After many years under the guidance of a master, the apprentice submitted a piece of work for assessment. If his work or masterpiece passed the test, he would be allowed into the trade as a master craftsman. If “right” means correct, does “left” mean incorrect? The word right surfaced in English as riht and meant “straight.” To put things right is to straighten them out. Right took the metaphorical meaning of “good” or “just,” as in the Bill of Rights, because most people were right-handed. The suggestion that left is incorrect was understood, like in a 247

“left-handed compliment,” which is an insult. Right became a synonym for correct, but left was evil and so was left alone. What’s the origin of the word window? Early Norse homes were simply designed and often included a stable area for livestock under the same roof as the humans. In the winter, because the tightly shut doors trapped stale air and smoke from the indoor fires, they built holes high on the walls and in the roof for ventilation. They called these openings vindr auga, which means “the wind’s eye.” When the British copied this practice they modified wind’s eye to window. Why is a “benchmark” used as a reference point for quality and precision? A benchmark is a surveyor’s term and, beginning in the nineteenth century, meant a mark cut into a stone or a wall that established the exact level of altitude for a tract of land they were measuring. Today a benchmark is a high standard to strive for, but the surveyors took their meaning from the word bench as it relates to a long tract of level elevated land along a shoreline or a sloping hill. Why do we say that someone tricked has been “hoodwinked”? To have been hoodwinked means to have been put at a disadvantage. The term derives from early children’s games like Pin the Tail on the Donkey and Blind Man’s Bluff, where someone was either blindfolded or hooded and required to complete a task without being able to see. Muggers also 248

employed the hood to blind and rob innocent victims on the street. Wink was really a half-wink, a reference to the blind point when the eye is covered by the lid. Why is someone who doesn’t drink alcohol called a “tee-totaller”? An 1846 tombstone in Preston, England, has the inscription, “Beneath this stone are deposited the remains of Richard Turner, author of the word ‘Tee-Total.’” Turner emphasized the “T” to stress the first letter in total. Another group filled out pledges with a letter after their signature to reflect their positions: “M” for moderation, “A” for abstinence, and “T” for total abstinence. Why is a disaster called a “fiasco”? The word fiasco is Italian for an ordinary flask or bottle and comes from the opera, where audiences would greet a false note or a bad performance with the cry “Ola fiasco.” The logic was that they had come to hear perfection but were getting a second-rate performance, and so just as a glass blower’s flawed attempt at a beautiful piece of art was discarded or assigned to be a common flask, the opera was second rate, like a fiasco. How did the word okay come to mean all right? The word okay (or O.K.) is American and surfaced for the first time in the Boston Morning Post on March 23, 1839. It was a comedic use of “All Correct” and was deliberately misspelled as “Oll Korrect,” which when abbreviated becomes the letters O.K. The abbreviation caught on around 249

Boston and New York and became a slogan for President Martin Van Buren’s campaign for re-election. How did the word halo come to mean divinity? The word halo is Greek and literally means “threshing floor,” because it described the circular track followed by a team of oxen while threshing golden coloured grain. The idea of the halo has pagan roots and wasn’t accepted by the Christian church until the seventh century. Its symbolism of heavenly authority is the reason monarchs wear crowns and Native chiefs wear bonnets of feathers. In religious paintings a halo suggests a sacred aura. Why is something tasteless said to be “tawdry”? In 672 A.D., the eventual St. Audrey entered a convent for a life of penance and prayer. As a young woman she had worn fine necklaces, a habit she now considered the cause of her terminal neck tumour, which she covered with a scarf. After her death, women honoured her by wearing fine silk St. Audrey scarves, which through time were followed by cheap imitations for the English lower classes, who pronounced “St. Audrey” as “tawdry.” Why are a vocal restraint and a joke both called a “gag”? The original meaning of gag was to prevent someone from speaking, either by covering the mouth or through a legal restraint such as a gag order. The jocular use of gag originated in the theatre to describe times when an actor inserted an unscripted, and often humorous, line into a play. It

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was called a gag because the ad lib often caused fellow actors to lose their focus and become speechless. Why kind of a job is created by “featherbedding”? About sixty years ago, when a group of railroad men complained about being unable to sleep on their hard bunks, the boss asked, “What do you want … feather beds?” At the time a feather bed was the warmest and coziest place to curl up and sleep, and so companies began calling the union practice of creating unnecessary soft jobs requiring little or no work, for members who would otherwise be laid off, “featherbedding.” How did the word carnival come to mean a self-indulgent celebration? In the Christian calendar, Lent, a reverent and disciplined observance of Easter, begins on Ash Wednesday. In the Middle Ages the faithful were forbidden to eat meat during Lent, and so the day before Ash Wednesday became known as Fat Tuesday, when everyone would overindulge in a Mardi Gras of what was about to be forbidden. In Church Latin, carne vale literally means “farewell to meat.” Why do we refer to a bad joke as being “corny”? The reason a cheap joke is called “corny” comes from mail order seed catalogues from the early twentieth century. In an effort to make reading about seeds interesting, the publishers mixed in cartoons, jokes, and riddles throughout the crop and garden book. These inserts were of desperately low quality and were 251

known as corn catalogue jokes, and were eventually simply called corny, which came to mean any failed attempt at entertainment.

Why do we call a powerful earth-moving tractor a “bulldozer”? “Bulldozer” is a metaphor that originated in the Deep South during Reconstruction. A “bull-dose” was a dose of the bullwhip and was used by American terrorist groups to inhibit freed black slaves from using their new mandate to vote. In 1925, when a machine appeared that could change everything in its path through sheer 252

force, it took the name bulldozer from the bullwhip and changed the meaning of the word. Why is something of little value called “fluff” and poor workmanship called “shoddy”? The word shoddy is used to describe both poor workmanship and poor character, while fluff means of little value. Shoddy is derived from shode meaning “shed” or “thrown off,” and refers to the excess tossed from the good cloth during the process of weaving. This fluff is re-spun and used to make similar but cheaper wool products, which, although they look good, through time reveal their poor quality — they are fluff, of little value. Why do we ask for “the real dope” when we want the truth? Dope is from the Dutch word doop, meaning a thick sauce, and became a drug term from the semi-liquid form of opium smoked by drug addicts. The use of dope meaning “stupid” came from the retarded behaviour of someone under the influence of the drug. The use of “the real dope” as information came in around 1900 when gamblers checking on racehorses needed to know whether or not any of the horses were drugged or doped. Why do we call a large quantity “a lot”? It takes a lot of people to play a lottery or there won’t be enough money to make the prize worthwhile. Lot is from the word lottery, a very ancient practice from a time when people cast marked pebbles into a pot and then selected a winner 253

through a draw. To “throw in your lot” with the others meant you had joined them in the gamble. A lot, meaning a large quantity, took its meaning from the many balls or entrants in the lottery pool. Why when things go wrong do we say they’ve gone “haywire”? Haywire is used on farms to hold together bales of hay. It’s tightly bound and when cut will sometimes whip around in a dangerous, erratic manner. But more than this, because haywire is often used as a temporary repair on machinery that has broken down, or to hold together any equipment that’s falling apart, it became a rural expression for things or people that aren’t functioning properly … they’ve gone haywire. Why is someone who has been defeated forced to say “uncle”? Being forced to say “uncle” after losing a fight is a man thing and dates back to the late nineteenth century in the United States. In today’s terms picture a chauvinistic Republican defeating a Libertarian in some form of physical combat. To the chauvinist, the highest order of submitting to decency is believing in the state, and so to stop the beating the defeated man must cry “Uncle Sam,” which in time became “uncle.” Why are the bundles of tissue fibres that move our bones called “muscles”? In the average adult male body, there are forty-five pounds of bone compared to sixty-five pounds of muscle. The average female is 15 percent less. We call them muscles because 254

when a Roman physician saw how they rippled under the skin when flexed, it reminded him of the skittering of a small mouse, or musculus, and so that’s what he called them. En route to English, the small mouse musculus became muscle. Why are nightclothes called “pyjamas”? In the sixteenth century, the first nightgowns appeared as loose-fitting, full-length unisex garments for warmth in bed. In the eighteenth century the negligee became a lounging garment for women while, the nightshirt with loose-fitting pants called pyjamas replaced the long gown for men. Pyjamas were modelled after harem pants and were imported from Iran, using the Persian words pae for leg garment and jama for clothing. Why is something obscene said to be “gross”? Gross began as a prejudicial reference to those who are overweight, during the 1950s. Gross is from the Latin grossus, meaning thick or large, which in the fourteenth century gave us the word grocer for a wholesale merchant who bought and sold in large quantities. To an accountant, gross means “without deductions.” To “gross out” in the broad sense, as in being disgusted by anything crude or excessive, took hold during the 1960s. Why do we use the word neat, as in “That was a neat idea?” The word neat, although dated, is often used to describe something pleasing. It is also used to order a shot of alcohol straight from the bottle without any mix or ice, and it’s within 255

this context that the word became popular. The original meaning of neat was to describe anything clean or undiluted, without any impurities. This gave us the extension of meaning tidy, as in a teenager keeping a neat room, which is a neat idea. Why do we say we have a “yen” for something that we crave? Although a yen is also a type of Japanese currency, that meaning has nothing to do with an overwhelming urge; instead, the yen in question is from the Cantonese Chinese yin-yan. Yin means opium, and yan means craving. Brought to America in the mid-nineteenth century it entered English slang as “yen yen” and eventually just “yen,” which early in the twentieth century took the meaning of a craving for anything.

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Animals

Why is a theatrical flop called a “turkey”?

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A “turkey” can describe any person or endeavour that doesn’t live up to its promise, but is most commonly used to describe a bad play. In the late nineteenth century, the period between Thanksgiving and Christmas was the busiest season for the opening of new plays, just as it is now for movies. This hurried effort to catch the tourist trade served up disappointments with the same tedium as the turkey served for dinner between the two holidays, and so they were called turkeys.

Why is the family non-achiever called a “black sheep”?

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Most families have at least one embarrassing loafer who is referred to by the others, and sometimes by himself, as the “black sheep.” A black sheep is considered worthless because, unlike the majority of sheep, its dark wool cannot be dyed. Although it takes as much time and nurturing to raise a black sheep as it does any other, its wool has very little market value, making raising it almost a waste of time to the shepherd. Why do you wish a pompous person would “get off his high horse”? A person on a high horse is probably presuming to be more important than he truly is. In medieval times the height of your horse told of your rank in society and on the battlefield. Knights rode high on horses bred large and strong enough to bear the weight of the man and his armour. In ceremonial processions, kings and noblemen always rode the tallest horses, and anyone overstating his importance would be taken off his high horse. Why does “letting the cat out of the bag” prevent you from buying “a pig in a poke”? A poke has the same origins as pocket and pouch and is a small bag within which a young pig could be packaged after being sold at a farmers’ market. In 1540 it was recorded that unscrupulous farmers would sometimes replace the pig with a cat and advise purchasers not to open the bag until they reached home or the pig might escape. If the poke was opened, the cat was out of the bag, and the seller had been caught cheating.

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Why when someone’s humiliated do we say they were forced to “eat crow”? The expression “to eat crow” came from an incident during the War of 1812 when the Americans invaded Canada. A hungry New England soldier who strayed across enemy lines had shot a crow for food when he was discovered by an unarmed British officer who managed to get hold of the American’s rifle by pretending to admire it. He then turned the weapon on the young man and forced him to eat part of the crow raw before letting him go. Why is something we consider untrue called a “cock and bull” story? In the sixteenth century a papal bull or bulla was a decree from the Roman Catholic Pope and was sealed with a stamp bearing the likeness of St. Peter accompanied by the cock that crowed three times before the crucifixion. After the reformation, Martin Luther issued bulls of his own that contradicted the Vatican. His followers considered papal decrees as lies and referred to them from their seals as “cock and bull.” Why is suddenly stopping a bad habit called “cold turkey”? “Cold turkey” had the folk symbolism of stark circumstances without the trimmings (such as an unadorned sandwich made from the leftovers of a feast as a symbol of having seen better times) before it first appeared in print as a reference to drug withdrawal in 1921. The expression gained credence from the

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withdrawing addicts’ desperate appearance — cold, pale, pimply skin, making them resemble a cold, uncooked turkey. Why is having an honest conversation referred to as “talking turkey”? “Talking turkey” comes from an encounter between a white settler and a Native American in 1848. After they had bagged a turkey and a buzzard, the fast-talking white man suggested, “You can have the buzzard and I will take the turkey, or I will take the turkey and you can have the buzzard” — or, in modern language, “Heads I win, tails you lose.” The Native’s response, “Why don’t you talk turkey with me?” was passed on so often by those overhearing the argument that talking turkey became part of the language. Why is the word cuckold used to describe the husband of an unfaithful wife? Cuckold is a centuries-old metaphor for a deceived husband and is taken from the habits of the European cuckoo bird, which, in the spring, lays a single egg in the nest of some other bird to be hatched and then fed among its own chicks by the unsuspecting host. When a husband has been cuckolded, his nest has been violated by another, who might well have left behind his own offspring. Why when someone has done something crudely do we say they “rode roughshod” over the situation? To ride roughshod over something means to have done something without regard or consideration for finesse or good 261

manners. Roughshod refers to the once common practice of leaving the nails stuck out of a horses’ shoes to keep the animal from slipping if it were going across country or through the bush. If roughshod horses passed over a garden or manicured lawn, the area would be torn up and completely destroyed. Why is a spelling competition called a “bee”? Entire communities used to gather in a festive mood to build churches or to help neighbours building a barn or a home. These events were called “bees” because the number of people swarming around the task was similar to a busy hive of bees. The spelling bee is the lone survivor from this era and was the name used in 1925 by a Louisville newspaper for a national competition that is still going strong. Why is the ancestry of a Thoroughbred called its “pedigree”? A pedigree is a lineage of heredity and must be traced to determine if a horse is a Thoroughbred, which is a direct descendant in the male line from three Arabian stallions brought to Britain and Ireland in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and bred with local mares. Pedigree came from the French pie de grue, meaning “the foot of a crane,” which the forked lines of a family tree resemble. Why do we describe someone with deeply held beliefs as “dyed in the wool”? “Dyed in the wool” describes someone whose thoughts on politics or religion just can’t be changed. The original 262

meaning of the phrase was applied to the dying of raw wool, which, if done in bulk before being combed or woven, holds its colour much longer than wool dyed after processing. Today, “dyed in the wool” means that like the colour in the unprocessed yarn, convictions ingrained early, during childhood, will last the longest. When creating or correcting something, why do we say we’re “licking it into shape”? When bear cubs are born, like many other newborn animals, they are covered by an amniotic membrane. To ancient people who observed the birth from a considerably safe distance, these cubs looked shapeless until their mothers would lick away the membrane to reveal the perfectly shaped body of the baby bear. Dating from Roman times, this belief gave us the expression for making something right by licking it into shape. Why when either humans or animals are on a rampage do we say they’ve “run amok”? Running amok metaphorically means that someone is in some way dangerously out of control. An elephant that breaks free at a circus might also be described as running amok. Amok is a Malaysian word meaning “a state of murderous frenzy.” Sixteenth-century explorers said that it was terrifying to see someone running amok, a condition brought on by drug use among some of the Malay.

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Expressions

Can a person be “on the level” if he’s going “against the grain”?

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Both “going against the grain” and being “on the level” are expressions from carpentry. When a bladed instrument is used to smooth a wooden surface it only works when applied with, or in the same direction as, the grain, otherwise it’s a mess. A level ensures the precision of a frame alignment. Someone going against the grain is doing things wrong, and so is probably not as trustworthy as someone on the level. Why wouldn’t you give a “tinker’s dam” if you consider something useless? A tinker travelled from town to town repairing tin pots, kettles, and pans and got his name from the noise he made while working. His equipment included clay from which he made a mould to hold melted solder for refastening handles and joints. He called this mould a “dam,” and because it was only good for one pot, the tinker tossed it when the job was done. That’s how a tinker’s dam became synonymous with worthless. When we want someone to move faster why do we say, “Hurry up” instead of just “Hurry?” The expression “hurry up” caught on during a time when most eating establishments had a dining room on the main floor and a kitchen in the basement. To hurry of course means to increase your pace, so “hurry up” became a specific order shouted by the headwaiter to speed the food up from the basement kitchen and into the dining room, where the phrase was heard so often by the patrons that it entered our language. Why do we say, “Buckle down” when it’s time to get serious? 265

If a teacher or a foreman tells someone it’s time to buckle down, they mean “Quit fooling around, this is serious business,” and they’re using an expression from the days of knighthood. When preparing for combat, knights required their squires to attend to their armour by oiling it, laying it out, and then buckling it onto their masters’ bodies. How well this was done could be the difference between life and death for the knight, so buckling down was very serious business. Why do we say that a bad idea “won’t hold water”? The expression “won’t hold water” comes from the legend of Tutia, a Roman Vestal Virgin who was accused of having lost her innocence. To prove herself not guilty she had to carry a sieve full of water from the Tiber River to the Temple of Vesta. If the sieve held the water she was innocent, but if not she would be buried alive. She passed the test and gave us the expression for failure, “It won’t hold water.” Why does a good punchline make a comedian “pleased as punch”? Radio comedian Fred Allen once said that a good joke should have the same impact as a punch in the belly. The “punchline” is the twist that makes a joke funny, and the term was in use long before Fred Allen. It first appeared in Variety in 1921, but its use as the end of a skit goes back to the medieval husband and wife puppets Punch and Judy. Each skit ended with Punch getting the best of Judy, which gave us the expression “pleased as Punch.”

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When we arrive at the last minute, why do we say we got there just in “the nick of time”? The nick is a cut or notch made on a piece of wood; during medieval times, long before punch-in time clocks or other methods of modern tabulation, attendance, especially at schools and church services, was registered with a nick on a personalized stick of wood. If someone failed to show up on time, no nick was recorded, for which there would be suitable punishment. Why do we say that a timid person has “cold feet”? To have cold feet means to lose your nerve when facing danger; it began meaning cowardly more than a hundred years ago. This is a bit harsh, because everyone’s bodily extremities (including the hands and feet) become cold when terrified because under the circumstances, the body draws blood away from these areas to fuel vital organs for combat or flight. So cold feet don’t make the coward … it’s the running away. Why, when wanting full speed and power, do we say, “Gun it” or “Pull out all the stops”? “Gun it” comes from early aviation and auto mechanics, who coined the phrase as an instruction to get more speed by pulling out the full throttle. This sudden injection of fuel caused a minor explosion in the combustion engine, which sounded like the firing of a gun. Stops on a pipe organ control volume, so to pull out all the stops refers to accessing the organ’s maximum power.

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Where did the expression “Mind your Ps and Qs” come from? Mind your Ps and Qs means watch the details, and there are two popular explanations. The first is that because a lower case p and q are mirror images of each other, printing presses had to pay close attention to which one they used. The other, and more likely, explanation is that English pubs marked Ps and Qs on a blackboard to record each customer’s consumption of pints and quarts. “Mind your Ps and Qs” meant keep an eye on your tab. Why do we call a critical instant the “moment of truth”? The “moment of truth” is what the Spanish call that instant when a bullfighter chooses to make the final thrust of his sword and was introduced into English in Ernest Hemingway’s 1932 novel Death In The Afternoon. The timing of that final move by the bullfighter is critical for both the matador and the animal, and so el momento de la verdad, or the moment of truth, became synonymous with any critical decision.

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If you want someone to stop “harping” on something why might you say, “Pipe down”? The use of harping, as in repeating the same annoying statement or sound, comes from the repetitive and irritating noise made from tuning each string of a harp. If you tell the person harping on one string to “pipe down,” you are using a naval term. On early naval vessels, the boatswain’s final function for the day was to whistle or pipe down a signal for the crew to settle in and be quiet for the night. Why are the derelicts of “skid row” said to be “on the skids”? To be “on the skids” means to be down on your luck and still falling. In the early twentieth century, skids were greased wooden runways used on dirt roads by the forest industry to 269

make it easier to move logs from the bush to the river or the sawmill. The depressed street these skid roads passed through in a lumber town were lined by bars and flophouses where the transients looking for work lived, and so it was called “skid row.” Where do we get the expression “toast of the town”? By the eighteenth century, wealthy young men had turned feasting into an art, and at the core of the elaborate ritual was the drinking of wine. It was the custom to offer a toast to someone present with every new glass during dinner. When they tired of toasting themselves they would lift a glass in celebration of someone they might not even know, particularly a beautiful woman — who, if frequently admired this way, became known as the toast of the town. If you’re being driven to “rack and ruin” where are you going? Being driven to rack and ruin is sometimes expressed as “wreck and ruin,” but either way you’re in big trouble. Rack was the original reference and first appeared in the fifteenth century as a torture machine which encouraged victims to “rack their brains” to come up with the answers the inquisitors desired — otherwise they would be torn apart. So whether you’re being driven to rack and ruin or wreck and ruin, unless you come up with the right answers, you’re on your way to total destruction. What’s the difference between “having your back to the wall” and “going to the wall”?

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“Having your back to the wall” comes from street fighting and means you’re in a desperate situation, and although there is no room to retreat you might still win if you fight off the attack with renewed energy. On the other hand, “going to the wall” means that although you are in an equally desperate situation, you are there willingly, even though there is no chance of winning. Going to the wall comes from the condemned facing a firing squad. Why do we say that someone indecisive is “on the fence”? During the Revolutionary War, a prominent New Jersey jurist, Judge Imlay, hadn’t yet committed to either the revolutionaries or the loyalists, so when Washington encountered one of Imlay’s slaves he asked him which way the judge was leaning. Washington was so amused by the response that he retold it enough times for it to become part of our language. He said, “Until my master knows which is the strongest group, he’s staying on the fence.” Why, when embarking on a difficult project, does a group say they must “all hang together”? The meaning of “all hanging together” is that our only hope is to combine our resources because we are already doomed as individuals. It’s a quote from John Hancock, who was the first to step forward and sign the American Declaration of Independence. He said to those gathered, “We must all hang together; else we shall all hang separately,” and the hanging he was referring to was death on the gallows for treason. Why do we say that something happened so quickly that it was over before you could say “Jack Robinson”? 271

Jack Robinson was a London social climber during the early eighteenth century. He made it his business to appear at as many gatherings as possible, where he would often present his card and have his name announced, then leave for the next function before meeting his hosts. This scandalous behavior made its way into a popular song, and eventually, “Before you could say Jack Robinson” meant any act of extreme haste. Why is a sudden surprise called a “bolt from the blue”? The word bolt has many uses, but all suggest surprising quickness and all originated as a reference to an arrow from a crossbow. The word thunderbolt for lightning first appeared in the sixteenth century, while blue as a description of a clear sky appeared about a hundred years later. Since nothing could be more surprising than lightning from a cloudless sky, a “bolt from the blue” entered the language as a description of a sudden and unexpected event. Why is a false promise called “pie in the sky”? In the early 1900s, a radical workers’ union used a song called The Preacher and the Slave to blame the church for suppressing the poor with promises of rewards in heaven. The song included these lines (and from them, “pie in the sky” took the meaning of a false promise): You will eat, by and by, In that glorious land above the sky. Work and pray, live on hay,

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You’ll get pie in the sky when you die, by and by. Why is a notable achievement said to be a “feather in your cap”? Among tribal warriors, including those native to North America, a feather was awarded for each enemy killed in combat. These were worn as a headdress and eventually on armoured helmets; like today’s campaign medals, the most decorated warriors stood out as heroes. Women began wearing feathers in their caps as a signal of betrothal after it became customary for a knight to give one of his hard-earned feathers to the woman he loved. What does it mean to be at someone’s “beck and call”? To be at someone’s “beck and call” means to be standing by and prepared to immediately respond to that person’s needs. The expression comes from the rules of servitude, when a beck was a silent signal, such as a nod of the head or a hand gesture, used to summon a servant. If this subtlety didn’t work, then the master or mistress would resort to a call. This meant they had used a beck and a call to get the domestic’s attention. Why when we memorize something do we say, “I know it by heart”? Saying that we have learned something “by heart” means, of course, that we have committed it to memory, which more than likely involved a process of repetition, called learning by rote. Rote is from rota, the Latin word for wheel, meaning that to memorize something we turn it over in our minds 273

many times before knowing it by heart. The ancient Greeks believed that it was the heart, and not the brain, where thoughts were held. Why do we say that something complete “fills” or “fits the bill”? If something “fills” or “fits the bill,” it’s satisfying, whether it’s a good meal or a job well done. The expressions come from the days when theatrical advertising was done through handbills or posters. “Filling the bill” meant adding acts to pad a weak program, but if a single star could pull in an audience through his or her individual fame and talent, their name was all that was needed so it was enlarged to fit the bill. Where did the expression “neck of the woods” come from? Today, “this neck of the woods” would mean this specific neighbourhood. The phrase comes from the very beginning of European settlement in North America. It’s from the Anglo adaptation of the Algonquin Indian word naiak, meaning a narrow strip or corner of wooded land, usually protruding into water. The Algonquin naiak was interpreted by white settlers as neck, and became neck of the woods. Why is unexpected trouble called “getting into a scrape”? “Getting into a scrape” means to be in a difficult situation and is as old as England itself. When that country was a primeval forest, it was overrun with wild deer. To avoid hunters, these deer would use their sharp hooves to scrape deep gullies into the ground, where they would huddle for cover. In time these 274

would become overgrown and difficult to detect, so while out in the forest it wasn’t uncommon to fall into a scrape. When someone’s making inappropriate fun why do we say, “Quit joshing around”? Joshing means joking or kidding around, usually at someone else’s expense. It comes from the writings of the great American humourist Josh Billings, whose caustic humour took on the establishment big shots during the nineteenth century. As America’s first best-selling author, he was so widely read that his name became synonymous with deflating pompous egos and so, to josh someone took on the meaning “to make fun of.” Why when challenging the unknown do we say, “Let her rip”? “Let her rip” is an expression we use when we are apprehensive about the outcome of a new venture but determined to see what happens. Its origin is the tombstone inscription R.I.P for “rest in peace,” and the phrase came into use as a pun for embarking on a new and unknown adventure because to the religious people who coined it, although whatever comes after death isn’t a certainty, we have no choice but to just do it. Why do we say that something dwindling is “petering out”? Supplies that are gradually diminishing are said to be “petering out,” and someone exhausted is “all petered out.” The expression was used by both Abraham Lincoln and Mark 275

Twain and is derived from a very old mining term used to describe a vein of ore that splits into branches and then gradually runs out, leaving the miners and investors high and dry. The image is of Saint Peter, who left Jesus when he was needed most. Why do we say something perfect is right “on the nose”? “On the nose” didn’t come from horse racing, it came from radio. Several common hand gestures came from the early days of radio broadcasting, when elaborate productions required the director in the studio to be able to communicate without speech, and so they used hand signals. For “cut” a forefinger was slashed across the throat. Holding up the forefinger touching the thumb meant “good performance,” and touching the nose signalled “perfect timing.” It was right on the nose. Why is the use of behind the scenes influence called “pulling strings”? Marionettes are puppets controlled by strings and were popular at the courts of the French monarchy. The puppet shows satirized gossip and could be embarrassing to anyone involved in scandal. When money was slipped to the puppeteer to keep him quiet, or to influence him to embarrass someone else, it was said that the person offering the bribe — and not the puppeteer — was the one pulling the strings of the marionette. What ends are we talking about when we say we are trying to “make ends meet”?

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“Making ends meet” means to balance what you make with what is required to live, especially in difficult times, and comes to us from the sixteenth-century farmers of England. The saying refers to the beginning and the end of a year — or from the end of one year to the end of the next. If someone could overcome the unpredictable and seasonal problems throughout the year without losing money, they had survived by making ends meet. What’s the origin of the expressions “rough and ready” and “rough and tumble”? Both “rough and ready” and “rough and tumble” are expressions that came from the sport of boxing. Rough still means “crude,” so “rough and ready” meant a semi-pro or amateur who, although unpolished and perhaps not as well trained as he should be, was still considered good enough to enter the ring. If a contest was “rough and tumble,” both fighters had agreed to throw away the rules, which led to a lot of tumbling. Why is something ordinary said to be “run of the mill”? Since the dawn of the industrial age, anything that is unspectacular yet functional has been called “run of the mill.” When a raw product is to be mechanically processed, whether through a gristmill or the mill of a mine, it emerges in bulk before the different sizes and qualities have been separated by value. Worth can’t be determined until further refining and so everything looks the same — and that’s why anything ordinary is called run of the mill.

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Why do we say that someone lost is going from “pillar to post”? Going from “pillar to post” means moving from one bad situation to another. The expression comes from the Puritans of New England, who punished those who strayed from their strict moral code by taking them to the pillory where, in public view, their hands and feet were tied until they repented. If they refused to repent, they were taken to a whipping post and flogged until they acknowledged their sins … Thus, they had gone from pillar to post. Where did the expression as “drunk as blazes” come from? To be drunk as blazes comes from a feast day created by the Orthodox church to honour a sainted Armenian bishop named Blais who was beheaded by the Roman Emperor Licinius for refusing to deny his faith in 316 A.D. The excessive drinking on St. Blais’s day caused the revellers to be referred to as “drunken Blaisers,” and soon anyone anywhere who was overly intoxicated was said to be as drunk as blazes. Why is a jilted person said to have been “left in the lurch”? To be left in the lurch means to have been put in an embarrassing or difficult position; it is most commonly used when either a bride or groom fails to show up for a wedding. Lurch was originally spelled lurche and was the name of a card game now known as cribbage. The first player to score sixty-one won the round, and if this was accomplished before an opponent scored thirty, the loser was said to have been 278

“lurched,” or left so far behind they had no chance of winning. Why do we say that people who have overcome the odds have “pulled themselves up by their own bootstraps”? In the sixteenth century, bootstraps were leather loops sewn into the top, sides, or back of high-fitting boots. These were so difficult to put on that it required the help of a device with a handle and a hook and required so much energy that the vivid image of people lifting themselves up during the process — although impossible — became a figure of speech for accomplishing what appeared to be unachievable. Why is the person with the least significance called the “low man on the totem pole”? First Nations tribes told their history through the elaborate carvings of creatures on tall totem poles, but the idea that the bottom image was the least important is wrong. It originated with comedian Fred Allen, who, in 1941, wrote, “If humorist H. Allen Smith were an Indian he’d be low man on the totem pole.” Smith later used the phrase as a book title, and the expression caught on. Why might you say that someone irrational is “mad as a hatter”? Years ago, manufacturers of felt hats used mercury to treat the wool, which made it easier to pound the fibres into felt. Mercury poisoning attacks the nervous system, which caused many hatters to develop tremors and then madness. In Alice’s Wonderland tea party, she met not only a Mad Hatter but also 279

another descriptive expression, “mad as a March hare.” The hare breeds during March, so he might be excused for his absurd antics. What does it mean to say that you wouldn’t give “one iota” for something? If someone doesn’t care one iota, they don’t care very much. Like the letter “i” in English, an iota is the ninth and smallest letter of the Greek alphabet, and because the English letters “I” and “J” were often confused, iota became jot, with both words meaning something very small. That’s why to “jot something down” means to condense information, while an iota is just a little bit more than a tittle, which is the dot over the “i.” Why do we say that something deteriorating is either “going” or “gone to pot”? If a relationship or a career is going to pot, it means its glory days are over. The expression originated in 1542, long before refrigeration, and came from the urgency to save leftovers from a substantial meal before they went bad. As a metaphor, “going to pot” means that like the leftovers from a great meal, circumstances now assign the subject to something more humble, like a stew. Why does “back to square one” mean starting over? During the 1930s, the BBC broadcast soccer, or football, games on the radio. As an aid to listeners they published a map of the playing field, which was divided into numbered squares. The commentators would mention the square number 280

of the action after each description of the play. Square one was near the goaltender, so that to score you needed to carry the play the full length of the field. Why when someone’s been dispatched do we say they’ve been “snuffed out”? Snuff, of course, is a pulverized tobacco that is inhaled through the nostrils. During the eighteenth century in Ireland, it was a common custom to place a dish of snuff inside the coffin so that those at the wake could enjoy a pinch while they said their final farewell. One woman loved the tobacco smell so much that she had her coffin filled with snuff and two bushels distributed among the guests. This custom gave us the expression “snuffed out.” What’s the difference between “marking time” and “killing time”? “Marking time” is a military command for soldiers in close-order drill to stop their forward progress but to keep their feet moving in precision so they can quickly resume marching on command. Marking time means that although your progress has been temporarily stopped you are fully prepared to continue when the time is right. On the other hand, “killing time” means that you’re doing absolutely nothing, or, as the proverb says, “You don’t kill time, time kills you.” Why do we say a simple procedure is “cut and dried” unless we “hit a snag”?

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“Cut and dried” means it’s a finished job and comes from the lumber industry. The two processes for preparing wood for sale are to cut it and then dry it. The same industry gave us the expression “hit a snag,” meaning we’ve got a problem. A snag is a tree trunk stuck on the river bottom with one end protruding just enough to slow or stop the log drive, which can’t continue until the snag is removed. Why is “forty winks” used as a synonym for napping? In 1571 the Church of England introduced thirty-nine articles which clergymen of the church were required to accept before their ordination. An 1872 publication of the British humour magazine Punch suggested that reading these catechisms was tedious and that their meaning could be missed: “If a man, after reading through the thirty-nine articles were to take forty winks…” From this point on, “forty winks” has meant a brief nap. Why do we say we’re “in stitches” when we laugh hard? Like the stitches in sewing, those in the side from both running and laughing all come from the verb stick. The expression “to stick someone” is over a thousand years old and means “to stab” or “to prod.” The stabbing or sticking of a needle through cloth in sewing is thus called a stitch, and because both the pain in the side from running and that from laughing feels like you’ve been stabbed or stuck with something, these too are called stitches. What does a handkerchief have to do with “wearing your heart on your sleeve”?

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When fifteenth-century French sailors brought back linen head coverings worn by Chinese field workers as protection from the sun, they called them couvrechef, or “head covering,” which when Anglicized became kerchief. Because they were carried in the hand, they became hand kerchiefs. Women began giving scented handkerchiefs to suitors, which the suitors then tucked under their sleeves in a ritual known as wearing his heart on his sleeve. Why is a dirty story said to be “off colour”? In Britain, “off colour” has always indicated that someone might feel under the weather because the colour of their skin has changed from its normal hue to pale. In America the expression “off colour” has a related but different meaning. When someone says something that is considered sexually shocking or impolite, it will often cause those listening to blush from a rush of blood that changes their skin colour to red, so the story that caused the skin colour change is referred to as being off colour. Why is challenging the odds called playing “fast and loose”? “Fast and loose” was a medieval street game played by tricksters in much the same way as a shell game is played today. A coiled belt was laid out on a table with what appeared to be a knotted loop in the centre. Then a mark was invited to stab a knife in the loop, sticking it “fast” to the table. When the huckster easily lifted the belt the sucker lost his money for falling for the illusion that he had made the belt fast instead of leaving it loose.

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How did “one fell swoop” come to mean a single decisive action? The expression “one fell swoop” was introduced by Shakespeare in Macbeth. When Macduff learns that his wife and children have been murdered he exclaims: “What, all my pretty chickens and their dam / At one fell swoop?” Metaphorically, Macduff compares his wife and children to chickens and their murderer to a bird of prey. During Shakespeare’s time, fell meant “fierce,” and survives today in the word felon.

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Proverbs

What was the original meaning of “variety is the spice of life”?

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When William Cowper wrote, “Variety’s the very spice of life” in 1785, he was reflecting on the ever-changing fashion of clothes. The idea had been first expressed by ancient writers in different ways, but it was the genius of Cowper that caused “variety is the spice of life” to become an English proverb. Other common Cowper idioms include “The worse for wear” and “God moves in mysterious ways.” When facing disaster why do we say someone is “between the Devil and the deep blue sea”? To be “between the Devil and the deep blue sea” has largely been replaced by being “between a rock and a hard place,” which came out of Arizona and originally meant to be bankrupt. The Devil is the seam of a sailing ship’s hull, which was reinforced to support cannons and was where a board was fastened for those forced to walk the plank. The condemned sailor couldn’t turn back, so his only option was the deep blue sea. Why do we say a hypocrite is a “pot calling the kettle black”? “The pot calling the kettle black” first entered a dictionary in 1699 with the explanation, “When one accuses another of what he is as deep in himself.” When kitchen stoves were fired by wood and coal, both the kettle and the pot would become black through time, so both were equally tarnished. Another explanation is that because both were made of copper, the more prized kettle might have been polished, which would offer the grungy pot a reflection of himself. Why do we say “Every cloud has a silver lining”? 286

“Every cloud has a silver lining” originated in a poem written in 1634 by John Milton. Milton tells of a young woman who becomes lost and alone in the woods after being separated from her two brothers. As night falls, her terror is lifted and her prayers answered when she sees a dark cloud turn its bright side down to guide her and says: “There does a sable cloud turn forth her Silver Lining on the night.” When something valuable is destroyed while eliminating waste, why do we say they’ve “thrown the baby out with the bathwater”? During the time when the entire family, beginning with the eldest, used the same bathwater, you had to be careful that a child wasn’t still inside when it came time to throw out the dirty water. But the phrase was introduced in 1909 by George Bernard Shaw, who wrote, “Like all reactionaries, he usually empties the baby out with the bathwater.”

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What is the real meaning of the proverb, “A friend in need, is a friend indeed”? A friend in need could be someone in trouble who needs your help and indeed becomes your friend in order to get it, but it’s usually interpreted as meaning a friend who stands with you during a difficult time. But if you accept that “in deed” is two words instead of one, it extends the definition of a good friend from one who stands with you to one who actually helps solve the problem. What is the origin of the phrase, “It matters not whether you win or lose, but how you play the game”? The noble expression about how you play the game is a Greek historian’s fifth-century B.C. reference to the Olympians. He wrote, “Tis not for Money they contend, but for Glory”. It

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resurfaced in 1927 when the great sportswriter Grantland Rice wrote, “For when the great scorer comes to write against your name, He marks not that you won or lost but how you played the game.”

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Songs, Poems, & Nursery Rhymes

Who was Humpty Dumpty?

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The nursery rhyme in which “Humpty Dumpty has a great fall” dates back to 1493 and refers to King Richard III of England. Richard had a hump on his back and had been dumped by his mount in the thick of battle when he cried, “My kingdom for a horse” before being slain. The last line, “Couldn’t put Humpty together again,” was originally “Couldn’t put Humpty up again,” meaning back on his horse. Who is Mary in the nursery rhyme “Mary, Mary, quite contrary”? The children’s nursery rhyme “Mary, Mary, quite contrary” is about Mary, Queen of Scots, and emerged during her struggle for power with Queen Elizabeth I. The “pretty maids all in a row” were her ladies in waiting (the Marys: Seaton, Fleming, Livingston, and Beaton). The cockleshells were decorations on an elaborate gown given to her by the French Dauphin. The rhyme was popular when Mary was beheaded in 1587. What is the origin of Mother Goose’s nursery rhymes? Most nursery rhymes were never intended for children. For centuries, these ballads came from bawdy folk songs or spoofs on social issues of the day, often sung or recited as limericks in local taverns. “Nursery” wasn’t used to describe them until efforts were made in the nineteenth century to clean them up as children’s lullabies. In 1697, a French writer, Charles Perrault, published Tales of My Mother Goose, a collection of fairy tales (including “Little Red Riding Hood” and “Puss in Boots”). Why did Yankee Doodle stick a feather in his cap and call it macaroni? 291

The famous American patriotic song “Yankee Doodle” actually began as an English song of derision against the colonists. At the time there was a Macaroni Club in London which catered to foppish, wealthy young men who copied everything Italian, including sticking a feather in their caps, which to many became the sign of a “sissy.” When the Americans began winning the war they took possession of the song “Yankee Doodle” as revenge. In the Scottish song “Loch Lomond,” what’s the difference between the high and the low roads? In the song “Loch Lomond,” two wounded Scottish soldiers are in a foreign prison. One will be set free, but the one speaking is to be executed. When he says, “You take the high road and I’ll take the low road,” he’s referring to the Celtic belief that if a man dies in a foreign land, the fairies will guide his spirit home along the “low road,” while the living man will travel an earthly or “high road” that will take longer. Where did the Do, Re, Mi vocal music scale come from? In the tenth century, Guido d’ Arezzo was having trouble teaching monks their Gregorian chants, so he replaced the A, B, C music scale with sound symbols which we now know as Do, Re, Mi. He could point to a spot where he had written them on his hand and the monks would know exactly which note to sing. These hand symbols evolved into the phonetic music scale and gave Maria a song to sing in The Sound of Music.

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Al Jolson sang about it, and Stephen Foster and Ira Gershwin wrote popular songs about it … so where is the Swanee River? In the first draft of his 1851 song “The Old Folks At Home,” Stephen Foster’s river was the Pedee, but that didn’t work so he searched an atlas and found the Suwannee River, which he shortened to Swanee. In 1919, Gershwin and Irving Caesar reused the name in the Jolson classic and made the Swanee the most famous river that never existed.

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Law & Finance

Why do we have piggy banks instead of bunny banks or kitty banks?

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In medieval England, pots and dishes were made from a clay known as “pygg,” and it was common practice to save spare change in a kitchen pot. Around 1600, an English potter who was unfamiliar with this custom was asked to make a pygg bank, which he misunderstood to be a clay vessel in the shape of the animal; the end result was a clay pig with a slot in its back. The piggy bank had arrived.

Why is a charge on imports and exports called a “tariff”? When the Arab Moors invaded Spain in the eighth century they brought with them profound cultural and creative concepts that influence that country to this day. For example, when the matador skirts the bull in their life and death ballet, the Spanish crowd cries ole, which evolved from the Arabic word Allah. Twenty miles from Gibraltar is the seaport of 295

Tarifa, where the Moors introduced bounties on ships entering the Mediterranean, leaving us the word tariff. What is the origin of the dollar sign? Thomas Jefferson used the letter “S” with two lines through it to symbolize a dollar in a document within which he suggested the dollar as the primary unit of American currency in 1784. Prior to this the symbol was in use for the peso throughout Latin America. Consequently, the most widely accepted explanation is that the dollar sign ($) is a depiction of the twin pillars of Hercules wrapped with a scroll, as found on early Spanish pieces of eight. Why do we say someone without money is both “broke” and “bankrupt”? Bank comes from the Italian word banca, meaning “bench,” over which medieval moneylenders did business in the streets of Venice. If he became insolvent, the law intervened and broke the lender’s bench, which in Italian is banca rotta. Rotta referred to the broken bench, but another figurative word in use for a broken man was the Latin ruptus. With his bench broken, the banker’s spirit was banca ruptus. Why do we say they’ll “foot the bill” when someone’s paying all the costs? To foot the bill dates back to a period when women had no means of financial support, so families offered dowries to entice eligible men to marry their daughters. The cost of the wedding and the dowry were “footed up,” meaning itemized, then totalled at the bottom of the ledger. In the fifteenth 296

century, the “foot” was the bottom line, so to foot the bill meant to pay the full amount at the bottom of the invoice. What is the legal origin of the grandfather clause? The term “grandfather clause” means something is exempt if in practice before a new law forbids it, and comes from a legal trick used by the Southern States to keep former slaves from voting. A law was introduced requiring the passing of a literacy test before anyone, black or white, could vote. The only exemptions were people whose grandfathers had voted prior to the new law. This gave all whites the right to vote, and virtually all blacks were disqualified. Why do we call a way out of a legal obligation a “loophole”? Loops were originally holes in the thick stone walls of a medieval fortress. Some of these holes were small and used for observation. Others were slits that widened on the inside, enabling an archer to safely shoot out arrows during a siege. Finally, these walls had larger, hidden loops or openings through which it was possible to escape during a losing battle. These escape “loopholes” gave us the modern meaning. Why is a change described as “a whole new ball of wax”? Seventeenth-century English law used a unique way to settle the contested division of an estate. The executor divided the estate into the number of heirs, then wrote down each parcel of land in the estate on an individual scrawl. To keep it secret, each scrawl was then covered by wax and made into a ball, which was then placed into a hat. Beginning with the eldest, 297

the heirs then drew the balls at random, with the estate settled by the contents of each ball of wax. Why do we say that someone in serious trouble is “in hot water”? Before there were trials by jury, there were trials by ordeal. The ordeal depended on the crime, but if it carried the death penalty the accused could find himself in hot water. The defendant was forced into a large cauldron of boiling water, and if he survived he was clearly innocent, but on the other hand if he died he must have committed the crime because the Supreme Being hadn’t interfered. Why when there is no doubt of someone’s guilt do we say they were caught “red-handed”? Redhand goes back to the fifteenth century Scottish people and became “red-handed” within judicial circles in Britain during the eighteenth century. It means that someone has been caught in the act of committing a crime or that there is an irrefutable body of evidence to establish the criminal’s guilt. Its original reference was to murder, and the red on the hands of the accused was the blood of his victim. How did the terms of divorce evolve? Divorce to the Athenians and Romans was allowed whenever a man’s like turned to dislike. In the seventh century it was recorded that Anglo-Saxon men could divorce a wife who was barren, rude, oversexed, silly, habitually drunk, overweight, or quarrelsome. Throughout history, in societies 298

where men were paid dowries, divorce favoured the husband; however, in matrilineal societies where the woman was esteemed, mutual consent was required. The word alimony means “nourishment.” Why do we say that someone who’s been through hard times has been “through the mill”? The expression “through the mill” has nothing to do with a grist or paper mill. It came from legal circles, and in the commercial world it means to have been through bankruptcy. The phrase comes from the original English court, where petitions for discharge of debt due to insolvency were first heard. This special court was called the Mill. To have been through the mill now means to have gone through any hard time, including bankruptcy. Why are pedestrians “jaywalkers”?

who

break

the

law

called

When cars were introduced, crossing city streets became a lot more hazardous than when horse-drawn carriages were the only traffic. New safety laws were introduced, and anyone ignoring them was considered a country bumpkin. In the early part of the twentieth century, unsophisticated rural people were often referred to as “jays,” as in just another bird from the country, and so their ignorance about how to properly cross a street became known as jaywalking. Why, when someone avoids a punishment or obligation, do we say that they got off “scot-free”?

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The scot in “scot-free” has nothing to do with Scotsmen; as a matter of fact, the archaic word scot was borrowed from the Norse and meant a contribution of tax or treasure. Used in its present sense, scot first appeared in English in the thirteenth century, and its use with free became common in the sixteenth century. To be scot-free meant then, as it does now, “to be free from payment or obligation as well as punishment.” Why is a criminal record called a “rap sheet”? Rap surfaced as a word imitating sound in the fourteenth century. Among other things, it perfectly describes the noise made by someone knocking, or “rapping,” at the door. In the criminal sense it’s the rap of a judge’s gavel sounding the end of a trial that gave us such phrases as “a bad rap” and “a bum rap.” A rap sheet is a record of criminal charges wherein the suspect couldn’t prove his innocence before the rap of the gavel.

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Trivia

Why do we call gossip or unimportant information “trivia”?

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The Romans were well-known for their road building, and from their Latin noun trivium, meaning a place where three roads meet, there derived a word for insignificant information. At a three-road intersection, traffic would slow and congest, offering a great chance for light gossip and meaningless conversation. So from tri, meaning “three,” and via, meaning “roadway,” the Romans gave us trivia, a word for useless information. What does it mean to have your “mojo” working? Mojo is a word from the black Creole culture of the coastal regions of South Carolina and Georgia and probably arrived in some form with the slaves from Africa. It means “magic,” and although it’s had minor sub-cultural use as a jazz reference to drugs and sex, a mojo is a good luck charm enhanced through voodoo with the ability to cast a positive spell. If you’ve got your mojo working, then everything’s going your way. Where did the pharmacist’s symbol of “Rx” come from? To the Romans, the pursuit of the healing arts and the distribution of medicine was the highest professional calling possible and therefore could only be ordained by Jupiter. The “R” in “Rx” is from the Latin word recipere, meaning “to have been prescribed” or “to take,” while the small “x” was the god king’s symbol of approval. To the Romans, the “Rx” meant that the great god Jupiter himself had a hand in the prescription. How did the seven days of the week get their names?

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Although originating in Roman mythology, many of our names for days of the week came from the Vikings. “Sunday” is a tribute to the sun. “Monday” is a tribute to the moon. “Tuesday” is from the Germanic war god Tiu. “Wednesday” takes its name from the Germanic sky god Woden. “Thursday” is from the Norse thunder god Thor. “Friday” is from the Norse love goddess Frigg. “Saturday” is named after the Roman god Saturn. Why do Americans pronounce the last letter of the alphabet “zee” while Canadians say “zed”? The last letter of our alphabet is from the Greek word zeta, which in standard English became zed. There were, however, parts of Britain that shortened zed to zee, and it was from these regions that many people immigrated to the United States. Canada’s first immigrants (including the French) were all from regions that used the “zed” pronunciation. In 1828, Webster’s first dictionary favoured “zee” as a distinct American sound. Could an Irishman go to a “shindig” and take on the whole “shebang” with his “shillelagh”?

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A shindig, a shebang, and a shillelagh are all from Irish expressions. Shindig comes from the fighting Irishman’s habit of digging the steel toe of his boot into his opponent’s shins. Shebang is from shebeen, an Irish reference to an illegal bootlegger. His wooden club took its name from the famous oak trees near the Irish town of Shillelagh — so yes, he could go to a shindig and wipe out the whole shebang with his shillelagh. How are the two Presidents Bush related to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt? George Herbert Walker Bush became the second descendant of passengers on the Mayflower to become president; his son George W. Bush was the third. In 1620, Jane De La Noye was a small girl who arrived in America with her parents aboard the Mayflower. She was the first president Bush’s grandmother eleven times removed. Her cousin, Phillip De La Noye, had his name Americanized to Delano, and his grandson eleven times removed was Franklin Delano Roosevelt, making he and the two George Bushes cousins. We all know what a “YUPPIE” is, but what are a “TAFFIE,” a “DINK,” and a “DROPPIE”? YUPPIES are Young Urban Professional People. The U.S. Census Bureau has created many other acronyms to identify other social groups. TAFFIES are Technologically Advanced Families who are wired to the Internet. DINK stands for Dual Income No Kids, while DROPPIES is from the first letters of Disillusioned, Relatively Ordinary Professionals Preferring Independent Employment Situations. 304

What is a Catch-22? A Catch-22 is an impossible situation. In Joseph Heller’s 1961 novel Catch-22, the protagonist tries every means possible to avoid flying dangerous missions in order to survive the war. The problem was Catch-22, a regulation that specified that if a man was afraid to fly then he was sane and had to, but if he flew he was crazy and didn’t have to. Either way, at some point he had to fly. Why do we call the end of the day “evening,” and why is it divided into “twilight” and “dusk”? Twilight is defined by the ancient word twi, which means “half” or “between,” so twilight is the time between light and darkness. Dusk is the final stage of twilight and is from the lost English word dox, which meant “dark” or “darker.” Evening comes from the ancient word aefen, meaning “late,” and came to mean the general time between sunset and when you went to sleep. Do only the most intelligent graduate from university? A proper education is an advantage to any mind, but intelligence doesn’t guarantee a formal education. Albert Einstein left school at fifteen after his teacher described him as “retarded”; Thomas Edison dropped out at eight. Up to 50 percent of North Americans born with a genius IQ never graduate high school. They can take comfort in these words from Emerson: “I pay the school master, but it’s the schoolboys who educate my son.”

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How long is a moment, and what is the precise time of a jiffy? When we use moment or jiffy, as in “I’ll be back in a moment” or “She’ll be with you in a jiffy,” we usually mean in an undefined but brief period of time — but in fact, both have a precise length. Although lost through time, a moment was originally an English reference for ninety seconds, while a jiffy is from science and is one one-hundredth of a second, the time it takes light in a vacuum to travel one centimetre. Why do so many Scottish and Irish surnames begin with “Mac” as in MacDonald, and “O” as in O’Connor? One of the ancient Celtic traditions of Scotland and Ireland was (in much the same manner as for American slaves) that all the serfs who worked his land used the name of the clan chieftain. In Gaelic, the prefix Mac means “son,” while O means “grandson” or “descendant of.” Both were used to keep track of the true bloodline. MacDonald means “the son of Donald,” while O‘Connor means “the grandson of Connor.” Why are precious stones such as diamonds weighed in carats? The word carat comes from the carob bean, which grows on the cerantonia siliqua tree. Each bean is so remarkably near the same size and weight that the ancients used it as a universal measurement for precious stones. There are approximately 142 carob beans, or carats, to the ounce. Each carat is divided into one hundred points, individually weighing about the same as three bread crumbs. 306

What is the difference between a settee, a divan, and a couch? A settee, a divan, and a couch are all parlour furniture designed for sitting. Settee entered the language from the German setlaz, which means simply “seat.” Divan is from the Persian word for “council of rulers” and was given as a name to an armless couch. The word couch originally referred to a bed and comes from the French word coucher, meaning “to lie in place” … like “Voulezvous coucher avec moi.” What does the Statue of Liberty have to do with the word gadget? The word gadget first appeared in 1886, the year the French gave America the Statue of Liberty. That same year, a man named Gaget, one of the partners in the French company that had built the Liberty, conceived the idea of creating miniature statues to sell to Americans in Paris as souvenirs. The Americans mispronounced “Gaget” and called their miniature Libertys “gadgets,” and a new word for something small was born. What is the origin of the polka dot? The polka dot is a leftover from the polka dance craze that was introduced to America in 1835. Polka is the Polish word for “Polish woman,” but the dance came from Czechoslovakia — just like the song “American Woman” came from Canada. The dance was in vogue up until the end of the nineteenth century, during which time dozens of by-products capitalized on its

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popularity, including one that still lingers: wearing apparel with the polka dot pattern. Is there a difference between a penknife and a jackknife? The original difference between a jackknife and a penknife was size. Both had blades that folded into the handle for safety. The small penknife came first and was carried in a pocket in a sheath and was used for making or repairing quill pens. Pen is derived from penna, the Latin word meaning “feather.” The jackknife was simply a large, all-purpose penknife, so called because it was a handy tool for sailors, who, at the time, were called “Jacks.” Why do the hands of a clock move to the right? Early mechanical timepieces didn’t have hands. They signalled time with bells. Then one hand was introduced, indicating the hour only, until eventually sophisticated mechanics introduced the more precise minute and then second hands. Because clocks were invented in the northern hemisphere, the hands followed the same direction as the shadows on a sundial. If they’d been invented in the southern hemisphere, “clockwise” would be in the opposite direction. Why is a hospital’s emergency selection process called “triage”? Triage is from the French trier, meaning to compare and select, and was used in reference to sorting livestock for culling or slaughter. Triage entered medicine during the First World War, when battlefield physicians were overwhelmed with the wounded and dying. The least 308

likely to live were treated last. In modern hospitals the order of triage is reversed, with priority given to the most seriously in need, Why is every fourth year called a “leap year”? A leap year has 366 days, with an extra day added to February. Every year divisible by four is a leap year except those completing a century, which must be divisible by four hundred. It’s called a leap year because normally the date that falls on a Monday this year will fall on Tuesday next year and then Wednesday the year after that. In the fourth year it will “leap” over Thursday and fall on Friday. What is the rule of thumb? In 1976, NOW incorrectly linked the expression “rule of thumb” with a 1782 public statement by an English judge that in his opinion, a man should have the right to beat his wife as long as the stick used was no thicker than his thumb. In fact, the real “rule of thumb” is a reference to building or baking something through the knowledge of experience rather than precise science, with the thumb being an instrument for a rough and improvised measurement. Why is a complete list of letters named the “alphabet,” and why is a river mouth called a “delta”? One of the first things we learn in school is our ABCs, a list of all letters used in the English language. The name comes from the first two letters in the original Greek alphabet, alpha and beta. The triangular mouth of the Nile River was called a “delta” because, like all rivers leading into the sea, it’s shaped 309

like the fourth Greek letter. Every delta in the world took its name from the Nile. What part did the Big Dipper play in naming the frozen north the Arctic? As part of the constellation of Ursa Major, the Big Dipper can be seen the entire year throughout Europe and most of North America, and it becomes brighter as you travel north. The Romans followed the Greeks in naming the seven-star constellation containing the Big Dipper “the Bear,” which in Latin is ursa. In Greek the word for bear is arktos, which gave us the name Arctic for the northern land beneath the Bear. What’s the difference between a spider’s web and a cobweb? All spiders create their webs through a liquid secretion that hardens in the air. These webs are nearly invisible, especially to the insects they trap. In modern language, the spider’s web becomes a cobweb only after it collects dust and becomes visible, so the webs are different in name only. The word cob came from writings as early as the thirteenth century and had evolved from coppe, an early word for spider.

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What is the origin of the red and white barber pole? The Roman word for beard is barba, which gave us the term barber. Early barbers cut hair and trimmed beards, but they also pulled teeth and practiced medicinal bloodletting. This last procedure required the patient to expose his veins by squeezing a pole painted red to hide the bloodstains. When not in use the red pole was displayed outside wrapped in the white gauze used as bandages, and it eventually became the official trademark of the barber.

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Why is the common winter viral infection called the “flu”? In 1743, an outbreak of a deadly cold-like fever originated in Italy and swept through Europe. Because doctors believed that diseases and epidemics were ordained or influenced by the stars they called it (as the press reported it from Italy) an influenza. The English word for influenza is influence, which although abbreviated to flu still means the disease flows from the influence of the heavens.

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Now You Everything

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Almost

PREFACE The phenomenal success of the first two books in what is now a series has encouraged this the third “Book of Answers.” It seems that Canadians are fascinated with why we say certain things, how customs and everyday rituals and language originated, and the history behind this evolution. For the thousands who now own Now You Know and Now You Know More, Now You Know Almost Everything continues with the same formula of dispensing knowledge concisely, never losing sight of the joy and fun of discovering the “why” of ordinary things. Researching these books has been a delight, and each “nugget” I discover is collected with the enthusiasm of a prospector, anxious to share with you the results of my “digging,” so I thank you for educating me. What I have learned, beyond the facts in these books, is that the consequences of history are alive within each of us. Soldiers came back from distant and ancient wars with new expressions and customs that we now use without question. Terms coined by pirates and sailors on the high seas still enrich our daily lives, and we continue to see life and death or games of chance with the same wonder as the ordinary citizens of the ancient civilizations of Greece and Rome or India and China, and within our common pursuit of understanding, we still express ourselves in their words and rituals.

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The silent discovery of this research confirms, at least to me, that life on this small planet is a common experience. There is comfort in realizing that borders are illusions of ambitious men and that time has no concern — and maybe even disdain — for the bullies or conquerors; the natural order of things continues at its own pace, like the rising or setting of the sun. Each of these volumes has its own character, and even though they fall under the general umbrella of trivia, the concise information contained in each subject has clues that could lead to an individual’s pursuit of more detail if he or she wished. Aside from my main purpose of entertainment, I have kept in mind that readers, especially children, might be intrigued enough by the answers to do some exploring of their own. To this end, and to add spice, in this volume, after a few of the topics that asked for expansion, I have added points of extra information. This then is a continuation of our shared learning that the answer to everything is just beyond the obvious. It fascinates me and so, I assume, it does the reader. I remind you that this third collection, although thoroughly researched, is intended as fun. Although the title Now You Know Almost Everything is a smiling reference to all three books, I assure you that there is always more to learn, and besides, I have to keep something to myself. Enjoy!

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CUSTOMS

Why is marriage called “wedlock”? Wedd is an Anglo-Saxon word meaning “to gamble,” and there is no greater gamble than marriage. In the days when brides were bartered by their fathers, and a deal was reached with a prospective groom through an exchange of either property or cash, a young woman would have been bought and sold for breeding purposes to be finalized in a wedlock ritual called a wedding. This marriage led to matrimony, which in Latin means “the state of motherhood.” Why is it bad luck for the groom to see his bride before the ceremony on their wedding day?

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It’s bad luck for the groom to see the bride within twenty-four hours of the wedding ceremony for the same reason that brides wear veils. When marriages were arranged by two families, the groom wasn’t allowed to see or even meet his bride until he lifted her veil after they were married. This way, he couldn’t refuse to marry her if he didn’t like her looks. The twenty-four-hour ban descends from that ritual. How did wedding cakes become so elaborate? Most wedding rituals are to encourage fertility, and so it is with the wedding cake, which began with the Romans breaking small cakes of wheat and barley over the bride’s head. During the reign of Charles II, the three-tier cake with white icing we use today was introduced. The cake takes its shape from the spire of Saint Bride’s Church in London. The couple cuts the first piece together as a gesture of their shared future, whatever it might bring. Why do women cry at weddings? Men might cry at weddings, but they have been socially conditioned that as protectors and warriors signs of weakness such as tears invite an attack. There is no such thing as “happy” crying. Psychologists suggest that when people cry at happy endings, they are reacting to the moment when the critical outcome was in doubt. A woman crying at a wedding is most likely expressing subconscious disappointment in the outcome of her own romantic dreams.

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Why does the groom crush a glass with his foot at a Jewish wedding? Near the end of a Jewish wedding ceremony, after the vows have been made, wine is poured into a new glass and a blessing is recited over it by the rabbi. After the couple drinks from the glass, it is placed on the ground and crushed by the groom’s foot. This symbolizes the destruction of the Holy Temple in Israel and reminds guests that love is fragile. Those gathered shout “mazel tov,” and the couple kisses. Why do Jews place stones on a grave when they visit a cemetery? At the end of the movie Schindler’s List, the cast and some of the survivors visit the graves of those whom Schindler worked with and each places a stone on the headstone, where 319

Christians customarily place flowers. This ancient Jewish custom dates back to Biblical times, when stones adorned graves as markers. Today the stones reflect the importance of each soul and are a permanent record of all the people who come to pay their respects. What is the difference between a parlour and a drawing room? If you are invited to a stately home for dinner, you are first directed into the parlour, where, through introductions and conversation, you mingle and become acquainted with your host and other guests. It’s called a parlour after the French word parler, meaning “to talk.” After the meal, you retire to the drawing room for liqueurs and cigars. The name “drawing room” is an abbreviation of “withdrawing room” and was originally for men only. What are the subtleties hidden in the Japanese custom of bowing? A Westerner probably won’t notice the sophisticated use of the bow in Japanese culture. There are four bows, each with a different meaning. The simplest, at an angle of five degrees, means “good day.” A bow of fifteen degrees is more formal and means “good morning.” As an appreciation of a kind gesture the angle is thirty degrees, while the most extreme, a bow of forty-five degrees, conveys deep respect or an apology. During a recent five-year period, twenty-four residents of Tokyo died while bowing to each other. What’s the difference between an epitaph and a cenotaph? 320

We gather at the cenotaph on Remembrance Day because a cenotaph is a monument inscribed to honour the dead but which does not contain any remains. An epitaph is inscribed on the tombstone above a grave. Both words and concepts are Greek in origin. Today, the simplest epitaphs are for Catholic clergy: seven crosses for a bishop, five for a priest, and one for parishioners. What is the origin and meaning of the Latin male gesture of kissing the fingertips? Latinos and Europeans use hand gestures differently than North Americans. Kissing one’s fingertips before directing them toward the object of esteem can be an appreciation of anything from a good wine to a good soccer play. It simply means something is beautiful. The custom comes from the Romans, who kissed their fingertips and then directed them to the gods when entering or leaving a temple. Why does the audience stand during the Hallelujah Chorus? In 1741, after Handel introduced his majestic Messiah, demand was so great that in order to increase seating gentlemen were asked to leave their swords at home and women were asked to not wear hoops. When England’s King George II first heard the Hallelujah Chorus he rose to his feet in awe, and the entire audience followed. From that day on, it’s been tradition to stand during the final movement of the Messiah. George Frideric Handel was inspired to compose the entire Messiah in just twenty-three days. 321

BELIEFS & SUPERSTITIONS

What’s the origin of the parting wish “Godspeed”? The word Godspeed has nothing to do with haste. The archaic meaning of the word speed, as used in this case, meant succeed or prosper. Just as goodbye came from “God be with you,” Godspeed is an abbreviation of “May God speed you” and was first heard in the late fifteenth century. A modern translation might be “May God grant you success.” Why do we say that someone who’s finished or fired has “had the biscuit”?

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If someone has “had the biscuit,” they’re definitely done, regardless of the circumstances. The expression has its origins in a Protestant allusion to the Roman Catholic sacrament of Extreme Unction. Biscuit is a contemptuous reference to the host (the sacramental wafer used by Catholics during the issuing of the last rites to a dying person). If he’s “had the biscuit,” it’s all over. Where did we get the expression “For the love of Pete”? This phrase and others like it (for example “For Pete’s sake”) are euphemisms for the phrases “For the love of God/Christ” or “For God’s/ Christ’s sake” and hail from a time when those phases were considered blasphemous. Nowadays phrases like “For the love of God” are commonly used, but the euphemisms are still used as well. Why Pete? Most likely it is a reference to the catholic Saint Peter. Other phrases with similar origins are “Zounds” (archaic British slang), a contraction of “Christ’s wounds”; “Oh my goodness” and “Oh my gosh” for “Oh my God; and “Gosh darn it” for “God damn it.” Why shouldn’t you say, “holy mackerel,” “holy smokes,” or “holy cow”? As innocent as it seems today, “holy mackerel” began as a blasphemous Protestant oath against the Friday fish-eating habit of Catholics. The fish was an early symbol of Christianity. Likewise, “holy smokes” is a snide reference to religious incense burning, while “holy cow” is a shot at Hindus who consider cows sacred. “Holy moley” is an abbreviation of “holy Moses.” 323

Euphemisms are used as curses without direct reference to a religious icon. Even though it is clear what they mean, it is a way of swearing without offending the pious. How did Pat Robertson’s television show The 700 Club get its name? Today, Pat Robertson’s Christian Broadcasting Network is a multi-million-dollar conglomerate, but when they first went on the air in 1961, Robertson’s refusal to seek commercial revenue meant that only prayer and telethons kept them going. At the time, Robertson told his audience that a club of seven hundred viewers contributing ten dollars each per month would pay expenses. The success of Robertson’s effort gave The 700 Club its name. Why do most flags of Islamic countries have the same basic colours, and what is the symbolism of the crescent moon and star? The Turkish city of Byzantium was dedicated to the goddess Diana, whose symbol was the crescent moon. In 330 A.D., Constantine rededicated the city to the Virgin Mary and added her symbol, the star. The symbol was common on the arm of Christian soldiers, including Richard I. When Muslims captured the city in 1453, they reconfigured the two symbols and added their own religious significance — the crescent moon and star of Islam represent a conjunction of the moon and Venus during the dawn of July 23, 610, when the Prophet Mohammed (peace be upon him) received his first revelation from God. Mohammed carried two flags into battle: one was green, while the other was black with a white outline, the same basic colours of Islam to this day. 324

Byzantium became modernday Istanbul.

Constantinople

before

becoming

The Star and Crescent was first hoisted as a Muslim symbol by Mohammed II in 1453. Christians dropped the symbol when it became prominent among Muslims. What is the Holy Grail? Today we often refer to anything elusive and sought-after as a “Holy Grail” because from the Crusaders to the present, the search for the original Holy Grail has consumed Christendom. The “grail,” or bowl, in question was used by Christ at the last supper and disappeared after his crucifixion. Legend has it that the Holy Grail surfaced in England during medieval times and finding it became an obsession of King Arthur. Part of the legend is that Joseph of Arimathea used the grail to catch the blood of Christ at the crucifixion. The Old English greal is from the Latin word crater, meaning “bowl.” Why is unconsummated love called “platonic”? Greek philosopher Plato observed his teacher Socrates’ great but non-sexual love for young men, and concluded that the purest form of love exists only within the mind. Ideal love’s perfection is spiritual, and that perfection is often destroyed by a sexual act. Eventually, Plato’s philosophy on love was

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expanded to include women. “Platonic love” entered popular use in English around 1630. Where else, other than on a Friday, is the number thirteen considered unlucky? Friday the thirteenth is considered unlucky, but the superstition also applies to apartments, 80 percent of which don’t have a thirteenth floor. Airplanes have no thirteenth aisle, and hospitals and hotels have no room number thirteen. The most bizarre superstition is called the Devil’s luck, for those with thirteen letters in their names, including Jack the Ripper, Charles Manson, Jeffrey Dahmer, Theodore Bundy, Albert De Salvo — and Douglas Lennox. Do people really fear Friday the thirteenth? On Friday, October 13, 1307, the Grand Master and sixty of the Knights Templar were arrested, tortured, and then murdered by King Philip IV of France. Each year, thousands who fear the date fall ill or are injured in accidents. In North America over $900 million is lost in business on Friday the thirteenth because some workers and consumers are afraid to leave the house. Over any given 400-year cycle the thirteenth day of the month occurs 4,800 times. The distribution of thirteenth day of the month is as follows: Monday, 685 or 14.27 percent Tuesday, 685 or 14.27 percent Wednesday, 687 or 14.31 percent

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Thursday, 684 or 14.25 percent Friday, 688 or 14.34 percent Saturday, 684 or 14.25 percent Sunday, 687 or 14.31 percent This means the thirteenth day of the month is only slightly more likely to occur on a Friday!

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GAMES & ENTERTAINMENT

Why is a skin-tight garment called a “leotard”? Jules Leotard was the inspiration for the song “The Man on the Flying Trapeze.” He made his first public appearance in 1859 with the Cirque Napoleon and began a career of trapeze stunts that made him the toast of Europe. Leotard invented a one-piece, skin-tight garment to free his movement and display his physique. The garment made its way into the ballet studios of Paris and was known in English by 1859 as a “leotard.”

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Leotard called his garment a maillot, which now means “bathing suit” in French. Born in Toulouse, France, Jules Leotard died from smallpox at the age of thirty. What are the chances of winning one thousand dollars at a casino game of craps? If a gambler bets one dollar at a time at a craps table, the odds of winning a thousand dollars before losing a thousand dollars are one in two trillion (that’s a two with twelve zeros!). If everyone on Earth played this way, betting a dollar at a time until they won or lost one thousand dollars, and then did it over again three hundred times, only one person would ever win, and then only once in all three hundred times. Why do we judge someone by how they act when “the chips are down”? Chips are used as a substitute for money in gambling. When things aren’t going well a player’s pile of chips dwindles until he loses everything or makes a recovery. How he acts under this pressure, “when the chips are down,” is an indication of his character. That’s how secure, relatively high-yielding stocks came to be called blue chips, because in poker, blue chips are more valuable than white or red ones. How many five-card hands are possible in a deck of fifty-two, and what is a dead man’s hand? There are 2,598,960 five-card hand possibilities in a fifty-two card deck, which makes the odds of drawing a flush 500 to 1.

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But in poker there is always fate. Wild Bill Hickok looked like a winner until he was shot in the back while holding two pairs, aces and eights, which is still known as “the dead man’s hand.” If its symbol is in the shape of a black clover, why do we call the suit of cards “clubs”? Playing cards are as old as history, but the suits we use today were introduced to Britain by soldiers returning from the wars of Italy and Spain in the fourteenth century. The Italian and Spanish cards included a suit picturing real clubs, which the French later changed to a trefoil leaf and the English to a clover — but because they had learned the game from the Spanish and Italians, English players continued calling them “clubs.” Card symbols are called “pips.” Card suits in Spain and Italy are coins, cups, swords, and cudgels (clubs). In Germany they are hearts, leaves, bells, and acorns. In Switzerland they are shields, roses, bells, and acorns. What Biblical curiosities are in a deck of cards? Some people have found religious significance in a deck of cards. To them, the thirteen cards in each suit represent Jesus and the twelve Apostles or Jacob and the twelve tribes of Israel. The jack, king, and queen suggest the Holy Trinity, and when these court cards are removed the remaining forty

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cards remind them of the numerous references to the number forty in the Bible, including the number of days Jesus fasted and the years the Israelites wandered in the desert. Other references: Moses was on Mount Sinai for forty days, Jesus preached for forty months and was in the tomb for forty hours, Jerusalem was destroyed forty years after the Ascension, Elijah travelled forty days before he reached the cave where he had his vision, and Nineveh was given forty days to repent. What are the names from history of the jacks and queens in a deck of cards? In a deck of cards the jacks are Hector, prince of Troy; La Hire, comrade-in-arms of Joan of Arc; Ogier, a knight of Charlemagne; and Judas Maccabeus, who led the Jewish rebellion against the Syrians. The queens are Pallas, a warrior goddess; Rachel, Biblical mother of Joseph; Judith, from the book of Judith; and Argine, which is an anagram for regina, the Latin word for queen. Parisian card names by suit: Spades: (queen) Pallas, (jack) Ogier Hearts: (queen) Judith, (jack) La Hire Diamonds: (queen) Rachel, (jack) Hector Clubs: (queen) Argine, (jack) Judas

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The kings in a deck of cards represent which real leaders from history? The four kings in a deck of cards were designed in fifteenth-century France, and they represent great leaders from history, while the suits signify the cultures they led. Spades honour the Biblical Middle East, and the king is David. Clubs are for Greece, with the king being Alexander the Great. Julius Caesar honours the pre-Christian Roman Empire as the king of diamonds. Finally, hearts recall the Holy Roman Empire, and the king is Charlemagne. Why are there jokers in a deck of cards? The joker was introduced to a deck of cards by American sailors and was added to euchre as the “best bower” in around 1870. Euchre is an Alsatian card game and was spelled “juker,” with the J pronounced “you.” In English it was spelled as it sounded: “euchre.” Eventually, the sailors’ translation hardened the J, and “you-ker became “joo-ker” before marrying with “poker,” where it became “joker.” The joker isn’t included in the Canadian or British forms of euchre. The word bower in “best bower” is related to boor, or “fool,” which lends itself well to the joker. Jokers are sometimes a wild card in poker. The coloured joker outranks the black and white one.

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The court jester on the joker card was added in the 1880s, and the backs of the cards were used for advertising. How many ways can you win on a ninety-number bingo card? In 1919, Edwin Lowe saw people playing Bean-O at a carnival in Florida, where they put beans on numbered cards for small prizes. He developed this into a game of chance that became a craze. During its development, a friend who shouted “Bingo!” after winning gave Lowe’s game its name. On any given ninety-number bingo card, there are approximately 44 million ways to make B-I-N-G-O. According to suppliers, purple is by far the favourite ink colour in dabbers used by bingo players. What are the origins and military significance of the phrase “Go for broke”? “Go for broke” came from the world of professional gambling and is over one hundred years old. It means to risk everything, no matter what the outcome. “Go for broke” was the motto of the segregated Japanese-American volunteers of the 442nd Battalion during the Second World War. At first considered enemy aliens, these soldiers fought so well that they became the most decorated unit in American military history. Why do we say, “Make no bones about it” when stating an absolute fact? “Make no bones about it” means nothing has been left to chance. The “bones” of the expression refer to gambling dice, 333

which for thousands of years were made of animal bone. The oldest known dice were found in Iraq and date from 3000 BC. Today, to make no bones about their honesty, the dice used in Las Vegas crap games are precisely calibrated and are manufactured to a tolerance of 0.0002 inches (less than one-seventeenth the width of a human hair). Why do we say that the person in charge “calls the shots”? “Calling the shots” means being in control or taking responsibility for critical decisions. The expression comes from a form of billiards. In the game of straight pool the person shooting is required to specify both the ball he or she intends to strike and the specific pocket he or she plans to sink it into. In the mid-twentieth century, “calling the shots” moved out of the smoky pool hall and into everyday usage. Why does coming in “under the wire” mean you’ve just made it? To make it “under the wire” means another instant and you’d have been too late. Before modern electronics, stewards posted at the finish line determined the winners of horse races. A reference wire was strung across the track above the finish line to help them see the order of finish — or which nose crossed the line first. The result of a horse race was determined by the order in which the horses passed under the wire. Why is a gullible shopper called a “mark”?

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A “mark” is someone who can easily be taken advantage of and came to us from midway carnival operators (or “carnies”) who run games of chance. The word midway was first used to describe the outdoor amusements at the 1893 World’s Exposition in Chicago. After a carnie found a victim, and before sending him on his way with a cheap prize, the rogue would slap the rube on the back with a dust-covered hand, marking him as a sucker for operators down the line.

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PEOPLE

How many people live on Earth? On February 25, 2005, the United Nations Population Division issued revised estimates and projected that the world’s population will reach 7 billion by 2013 and swell to 9.1 billion in 2050. Most of the growth is expected to take place in developing nations. Nearly all humans currently reside on Earth: 6,411,000,000 inhabitants as of January 2005. Two humans are presently in orbit around Earth on board the International Space Station. The station crew is replaced with new personnel every six months. During the exchange there are more, and sometimes others are also travelling briefly above the atmosphere.

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In total, about four hundred people have been in space as of 2004. Most of them have reported a heightened understanding of the world’s value and importance, reverence for human life, and amazement at the Earth’s beauty not usually achieved by those living on the surface. Why does the term barbarian refer to a rough or wild person? The early Greek and Roman term for foreigner was barbaroi, meaning that they babbled in a strange language (by which root we also have the word babble itself). Another possible contributory origin is the Latin word as barba meaning beard. A Roman would visit the tonsor to have his beard shaved, and the non-Romans, who frequently wore beards, or barbas, were thereby labelled barbarians. Why do some women wear beauty marks? Beauty marks highlight facial features, but they began as beauty patches to cover the scars left by a seventeenth-century smallpox epidemic. As the epidemic subsided, women continued using beauty marks as a silent language aimed at potential suitors. One near the mouth signalled a willingness to flirt, one on the right cheek meant she was married, one on the left cheek meant she was engaged, while a beauty mark near the corner of the eye meant, “Let’s do it.” How did the expression “barefaced lie” originate? A “barefaced lie” is one that is obvious and told straight out without flinching by someone who is either very stupid or very brave. The phrase is interchangeable with a “bald-faced 337

lie,” in reference to the sixteenth century when most men wore beards, sideburns, and moustaches. Only the rebellious ones who shaved their faces bare were considered bold enough to tell an obvious lie. Why do some men call a special buddy a “sidekick”? The slang word sidekick describing a close male associate comes from the criminal world and first appeared about 1905. The word referred to the criminal accomplice of a pickpocket. From the mid-nineteenth century, the slang term for men’s pants had been kicks, and his pockets were on the side of his kicks. The term arose because one man would trip or bump the mark while the other, his “sidekick,” would reach into and withdraw cash from the unlucky victim’s pocket. How did street riff-raff get to be called “hooligans”? In 1898, a London newspaper wrote a series of articles about a gang of street toughs known as “Hooley’s Gang” or, as they called themselves, “Hooligans.” Strangely, the name also came up in San Francisco and New York about the same time, but because no one named Hooley was ever found it’s presumed to be an Irish reference for “rowdy.” Riff-raff means “common” and is from the Anglo-Saxon words for rags (rief) and sweepings (raff). Where did the word tomboy originate? A tomboy has meant a bold, aggressive girl since about 1579, but before that, a “Tom” was a boisterous, rude boy. If you think of the nighttime habits of a tomcat you might

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understand that a tomboy, a girl who liked the company of men, was used as late as the 1930s as a reference to a prostitute. This use of the word tom is from the Anglo-Saxon word tumbere, meaning to dance and tumble around. Why is a vulgar woman called a “fishwife” while a respectable married woman is a “housewife”? From its Anglo-Saxon root wif, wife simply means “woman.” A woman’s profession, such as a policewoman or chairwoman, often acknowledges her gender in her job title. Housewife and midwife are among the few titles like this to have survived from medieval times, but at one time, an alewife owned a pub, an oysterwife sold oysters, and a fishwife sold fish. She picked up her vulgarity from the men on the waterfront.

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Why are attractive but intellectually challenged women called “bimbos”? The word bimbo is dismissive, and although it generally suggests a dimwitted but attractive woman, it can also be used to describe a stupid or inconsequential man. In some circles, bimbo meant promiscuous as well as cute, and it turned up in North America during the 1920s. The word came from within the immigrant Italian community and is a variant of bambino, meaning “baby” or “child.” Who were the first people to establish a legal drinking age and why?

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In eleventh-century Europe, Asia, and the Middle East, thirteen was the age a person could hold property, drink legally, and, of course, serve in the military. It was the Normans who changed the age to nineteen after realizing that thirteen-year-olds were simply not strong enough for warfare. Today’s drinking ages vary from no minimum in China to twenty-one in the United States, but all agree that eighteen is old enough for the military. Why do we call someone too smart for his or her own good a “smart aleck”? The expression “smart aleck” for someone too cocky dates back to the 1840s, when New York scam artist Aleck Hoag paid off police to look the other way while he had his wife pose as a prostitute to attract men before breaking in on them, revealing that he was the woman’s husband, and demanding money from the frightened man. When Aleck Hoag stopped paying the police, they arrested the couple and coined “smart aleck” as meaning too clever for your own good. Where did the words steward and stewardess originate? A steward or stewardess is usually employed as a caretaker in a variety of circumstances, including at sea and in the air. Although the position carries great responsibility, working conditions are often unpleasant. The title of steward was originally given to someone who took care of the cattle and pigs. It derives from the Anglo-Saxon word stig-weard, meaning “sty-keeper.” No wonder they want to be called flight attendants. Why is a perfectionist called a “stickler”? 341

Stickler is from the Middle English word stightlen and means “to arrange.” A stickler is a person who does everything by the book. Historically, the stickler was the title of a judge at a duel. Within life and death circumstances he was entrusted to see that the laws of gentlemanly combat were followed to the letter and that the outcome was fair. Why is a practice session called a “dry run”? A “dry run” is firefighter jargon. It was once common for firefighters, especially volunteers, to hold public exhibitions of their skills and to compete with other companies at fairs and carnivals. This dry run gave the firefighters practice and was so called because no water was used. A “fire run” or “wet run” is a call to an actual blaze. Why is a negative perception of someone called a “stigma”? People held in low esteem are stigmatized for their actions by some outward sign or symbol of weakness. Although stigma is a Greek word meaning “puncture,” we get the word from the Romans, who called the scar branded on a slave’s forehead a stigma. In Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, the letter A stigmatized Hester Prynne and made a public example of her adultery. What colour is “Alice Blue”? President Teddy Roosevelt’s sixteen-year-old daughter popularized “Alice Blue.” It’s a light blue with a hint of gray to match her eyes. During a time of cartwheel hats and the Gibson Girl look, the press nicknamed the pretty young 342

woman “Alice Blue Gown,” which became the title of a very popular song written by J. MacCarthy and H. Tierney for their 1919 musical Irene. During the 1980s the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt had many of its prominent areas painted “Alice Blue.” Why is a middleman called a broker? There are real estate brokers, wedding brokers, pawnbrokers, and, of course, stockbrokers. A broker is someone who arranges or negotiates things. It comes to English from the French wine industry, where brocour described the person who bought wine in bulk from the winery and then sold it from the tap. The accepted meaning became anyone who bought something in order to sell it again. In English, the word brocour became broker, meaning the middleman. Broker (in its earlier spelling) first appeared in English in 1377 in Piers Plowman: “I haue lent lordes and ladyes my chaffare And ben her brocour after, and boughte it myself.” Why is the person who fixes your pipes called a “plumber”? A plumb or plumb bob is the lead weight at the end of a line used to determine the depth of water. It was sailing ships’ precursor to sonar. In the fourteenth century, when indoor plumbing was introduced, the pipes were made of lead, and the artisans who installed the pipe systems to buildings took their professional name from what had previously been the metal’s main nautical function: they were “plumbers.”

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SPORTS

Why did it take forty-eight years for a particular Canadian woman to win an Olympic race? The winner of the women’s hundred-metre race at the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics was a Polish athlete named Stanislawa Walasiewicz. The silver medallist was Canadian Hilde Strike. In 1980, when the Polish gold medallist was tragically killed as an innocent bystander during a bank robbery, the ensuing autopsy discovered that she was a he, and Strike was ultimately declared the winner. What do the five Olympic rings and their colours represent?

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The five Olympic rings were formally introduced in 1920 and represent the union of the five continents or regions of the world that are linked by the Olympic spirit and credo during the Games. The six colours of the Olympic flag, including the rings and white background, are taken from all of the nations’ flags. At least one Olympic colour appears on every flag in the world. In golf, you know about eagles and birdies, but what is an albatross? Albatross is the Spanish word for “pelican,” and although to a mariner it may be bad luck, to a golfer it’s an amazing accomplishment. More commonly known today as a double eagle, a three under par for an individual hole was originally called an albatross. Only one has ever been scored in the U.S. Open because the odds of making an albatross are 1 in 5.85 million. Gene Sarazen accomplished this in 1935. Why are golfers’ shortened pants called “plus fours”? Knickerbockers or knee breeches are pants that only go down to the knee and were quite popular in the first half of the twentieth century. Bobby Jones, among other golfers, found knickerbockers and breeches too restrictive for a full swing. Tailors solved this by designing special golf knickers with an additional four inches below the knee seam, calling them “plus fours.” The extra length allowed just enough slack to free up the golfer’s swing. Some players wear them to this day.

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Where did we get the phrase “Down to the short strokes”? When a golfer begins at the tee, he hits the ball towards the green by driving, or using a long stroke. When the ball is on the green, he must get the ball in the hole by putting — or taking short strokes. Similarly, a painter (canvases, not houses) begins on a clean canvas using large and broad strokes of the brush. As the painting progresses the brush strokes become shorter and finer as detail is filled into the painting.

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Why do we refer to golf courses as “links”? The word links is a Scottish reference to the coastal strips of semi-barren land between the ocean beach and the inland farming areas. Links land was too sandy for crops so it was where the Scots put their first golf courses. There were no trees close to the beach and the sand traps were natural with tall, reedy grass as the only vegetation. Otherwise worthless, these narrow links of land became valuable as golf courses. Why does the winner of the Indianapolis 500 drink milk in Victory Lane? After winning the Indianapolis 500 in 1936, Louis Meyer was photographed drinking his favourite beverage, buttermilk. An executive from what is now the American Dairy Association saw the picture in the paper and, realizing it was a good example for children, ensured that from that point on every winner of the Indy 500 would receive a bottle of milk to drink. How did tennis get its name? In the eleventh century, French monks started playing a game by batting a crude handball around the monastery. It was a kind of handball with a rope strung across a courtyard. The game progressed and became popular with royalty before catching on in England in the thirteenth century. When returning a ball over the net, the French players shouted, “Tenez,” which, roughly translated, means, “Take that!” The English did the same, only “tenez” became “tennis.”

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What is the origin of the hockey puck? The origin of the word puck is the Celtic game of hurley, where it means “striking the ball with the stick.” A “puck-in” after a foul is the act of sending the ball back into play from the sidelines. Since a ball is unmanageable on ice, Nova Scotians and Quebeckers started using a flat wooden puck instead. Their solution was replaced in 1886 in Ontario by a field hockey rubber ball with the top and bottom cut off. Today, a hockey puck is a vulcanized hard-rubber disc, one inch thick, three inches in diameter, and weighing between 5.5 and 6 ounces. In Ireland, to “puck” someone means to strike him. A puck bird is a robin-sized bird that dives down on goats and strikes them on the back with its beak. Where did the New Jersey Devils get their name? The New Jersey Devils began their NHL life as the Kansas City Scouts. Their tenure there lasted only till 1978, when the NHL approved the team’s move to Denver as the Colorado Rockies. In 1982 the Rockies relocated once again, this time to New Jersey. After a fan vote, the new team was christened the New Jersey Devils. Most tellers of the legend of the Jersey Devil trace the tale back to Deborah Leeds, a New Jersey woman who was about to give birth to her thirteenth child. The story goes that Mrs. Leeds invoked the Devil during a very difficult and painful labour, and when the baby was born, it grew into a full-grown devil and escaped from the house.

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People in the 1700s still believed in witchcraft, and many felt a deformed child was a child of the Devil or that the deformity was a sign that the child had been cursed by God. It may be that Mrs. Leeds gave birth to a child with a birth defect and, given the superstitions of the period, the legend of the Jersey Devil was born. How did the Boston hockey team get the name “Bruins”? In the 1920s, Charles Adams held a city-wide contest to name his new Boston hockey team. Because the colours of his Brookside Department Stores were brown and yellow, he insisted that the team wear those same colours. He also wanted the team to be named after an animal known for its strength, agility, ferocity, and cunning. The public contest came up with the Bruins, meaning a large, ferocious bear. Why is street hockey called “shinny”? Although shins take a beating during a game of shinny, the name comes from the Celtic game of shinty. A pick-up game of hockey, either on the street or on ice, shinny has no formal rules, and the goals are marked by whatever is handy. The puck can be anything from a ball to a tin can. There’s no hoisting, bodychecking, or lifting the puck because no one wears pads. “Shinny” is a uniquely Canadian expression. The first professional shin pads were hand-stitched leather-covered strips of bamboo, wrapped around the lower leg outside knee-high stockings.

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For many Canadian kids during the 1930s and 1940s, copies of the Eaton’s catalogue shoved into their socks were their first shin pads. Why is three of anything called a “hat trick”? While in Canada it refers to three goals by a single player in a hockey game, a “hat trick” means any accomplishment of three and comes from the English game of cricket. When a bowler retired three consecutive batsmen with three consecutive balls, he was rewarded with a hat. It became hockey jargon during a time when most spectators wore hats, which they tossed onto the rink as a celebration of three goals by one player. During the 1930s and 1940s a local Toronto haberdasher gave any Maple Leaf hockey player a custom-made hat if he scored three consecutive goals. How did the Detroit Red Wings and the New York Rangers get their names? In 1932 James Norris purchased the Detroit Falcons hockey team and renamed them the Red Wings. Norris had played for a Montreal team named the Winged Wheelers, which inspired the name and the winged wheel logo on the NHL’s motor city franchise. After Madison Square Garden president “Tex” Rickard bought the New York team in 1926, people began calling them after their owner — Tex’s Rangers. How did the stadium phenomenon called “the wave” get started? “The wave,” when crowds at sporting events rise up and down in a continuous pattern, gained its popularity among 350

college crowds during the 1970s and ’80s after it was first seen in North America during live telecasts from the 1968 Mexico Olympics. Known in Europe as “the Mexican Wave,” the move was revived after it was seen again en masse and on television by fans at the 1986 World Cup of Soccer. How many teams in the four major North American professional sports leagues have names not ending in the letter S? There are eight major North American sports franchises whose team names do not end in S, and none of them are in football. They are, in basketball, the Miami Heat, the Utah Jazz, and the Orlando Magic; in baseball, the Boston Red Sox and the Chicago White Sox; and in hockey, the Tampa Bay Lightning, the Minnesota Wild, and the Colorado Avalanche. How did rhubarb become baseball slang for a fight or argument? Legendary Brooklyn Dodgers broadcaster Red Barber first used rhubarb on-air to describe a baseball altercation in 1943. He said he heard it from reporter Garry Shumacher, who picked it up from another reporter, Tom Meany, who learned it from an unnamed Brooklyn bartender. The anonymous bartender used it to describe an incident in his establishment when a Brooklyn fan shot a Giants fan. Why don’t baseball coaches wear civilian clothes like those in every other sport?

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In the 1800s, baseball managers looked after travel and logistics, while a uniformed playing captain guided the team on the field. Captains who had retired from playing kept their uniforms on in case they were needed as a player. Eventually the manager’s job expanded to include coaching, but tradition and a 1957 rule insisted that no one without a uniform could enter the playing area, including base coaches and the managers. During the early twentieth century, the legendary Connie Mack managed the Philadelphia Athletics while wearing a suit and tie and never left the dugout. What do the record books overlook about the home run records of Hank Aaron, Roger Maris, and Babe Ruth? Before steroids, Roger Maris’s record of sixty-one home runs entered the books with an asterisk because of the longer length of the baseball season by 1961. Babe Ruth hit sixty home runs in 1927 during a shorter season. Most sports fans overlook the fact that Maris broke Ruth’s seasonal record with five fewer at-bats, and although Hank Aaron has more lifetime homers than Babe Ruth, the Bambino made almost four thousand fewer trips to the plate. Roger Maris hit 61 home runs in 1961 with 684 at-bats. Babe Ruth hit 60 home runs in 1927 with 689 at-bats. He accomplished 714 career home runs over the course of 8,399 at-bats. Hank Aaron hit 45 home runs in 1962. He batted 755 career home runs over 12,364 at-bats. 352

Why is someone out of touch said to be “out in left field”? “Out in left field” means to be misguided or lost, but it generally means to be out of touch with the action. In baseball, left field is generally no more remote then centre or right field, but in Yankee Stadium, when right fielder Babe Ruth was an active player, the choice outfield seats were near the Bambino. Fans in the right field stands derided those “losers” far from the action as being out in left field. Because Ruth was left-handed, most of his drives went to right field. Americans and Canadians play the same football game, but why are the rules so different? In 1874, Montreal’s McGill University was invited to play football against Harvard. Harvard was used to playing with a round soccer ball, with different rules than the Canadians, who played rugby using an oblong ball. The game ended in a tie, but the Americans were so impressed with the Canadian game that they adopted the rules. Football as we know it evolved differently on both sides of the border from that game — which ended in a tie. How did the NFL’s Ravens, Bears, and Packers get their names? The Baltimore Ravens took their name from the classic poem “The Raven” by Baltimore native Edgar Allen Poe. When a football team moved into Wrigley Field in 1921, they took the name Bears to relate themselves to the stadium owner, the Chicago Cubs. The Green Bay Packers are named after the 353

Indian Packing Company, which, in 1919, gave the team $500 for their first uniforms. How did the Anaheim Angels, the Indiana Pacers, and the Los Angeles Lakers get their names? The Anaheim Angels took their name from Los Angeles, the city where the franchise began. Los Angeles is Spanish for “the angels.” The Indiana Pacers represent the home of the Indianapolis 500, where the pace car leads the field. Although lakes are scarce near Los Angeles, they have a team known as the Lakers because they brought their name with them when they moved from Minneapolis, the land of ten thousand lakes. How did the New Jersey Nets get their name? A charter member of the American Basketball Association in 1967, this team was first known as the Americans. When they moved to Commack, New York, a year later they chose the name Nets because nets were an important part of the game, and the name rhymed with other pro teams from New York: the Mets and the Jets. Why do North Americans call the international game of football “soccer”? Football goes so far back in history that one form or another has been played by every known civilization. In the 1800s, British football split into rugby and soccer, two games with very different rules. Soccer started out as socca, a slang abbreviation of “association” as in “association football,” and

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just like rugby became rugger through slang, socca became soccer. Why are extra seats in a gymnasium or open-air benches in a stadium called “bleachers”? Bleachers were used in a pinch as uncovered overflow seating from the grandstand before they became common at baseball and football games. The first recorded printed reference was in the Chicago Tribune on May 6,1889. They were called “bleachers” because of their exposure to the sun. The folding seating at an inside gymnasium simply took its name from the open seating outside. Why is spinning a ball called “putting English on it”? The expression “putting English” on a ball is used in tennis, golf, soccer, and baseball and means you’ve spun and curved the ball to overcome a problem. The expression comes from English snooker, a pool game where one of the main strategies is to block an opponent from having a straight line shot at a ball he must hit. To do this, the shooter will create a spin on his shot to circumvent the obstruction. This spin is called “putting English on it.” “Body English” refers to the contortions made by a player as he physically transmits his intention for the ball while it’s in motion. Why is an exercising weight called a “dumbbell”?

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A dumbbell is a silent bell devised to strengthen the men who rang very large church bells. At Canterbury in the Middle Ages, it took twenty-four men to ring one bell. To build up strength (and develop their skills) novices used a silent or “dumb” bell: a heavy weight suspended by a rope from a pulley on a scaffold. People wanting to build up their physiques soon copied with dumbbells of their own.

Why is a sure winner called a “shoo-in”? The confusion around a shoo-in is in the spelling, which is often written “shoe-in.” The shoe isn’t footwear. Instead, it’s spelled as in shooing something to make it move quickly. The term comes from dishonest horse racing when, after conspiring to bet on a probable loser, the jockeys hold back their mounts and urge or “shoo in” a chosen horse through the pack, where it will cross the finish line first and pay off at great odds.

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Why is an underdog victory called an “upset”? The word upset means to be unhappy or tipped over. It had nothing to do with sports until August 13, 1919, when, in his seventh race, the great horse Man o’ War, who had defeated all of the other greats of his day by fifteen lengths or more, fell victim to an inexperienced starter and lost the race to an unknown competitor named Upset. From then on, upset became synonymous with a victorious underdog. Man o’ War retired with a record of twenty wins and only that one loss to Upset. He retired as a three-year-old, lived to be thirty, and became one of the greatest sires in the history of horse racing. Why do we say that someone who has an advantage has “a leg up”? If you have “a leg up” on your competition then you’re ahead of the game because you’ve received a boost. The expression comes from the equestrian world. When a rider needs help mounting a large horse, he might ask someone for a leg up. That someone will then create a foothold by cupping both hands so that the rider can use this to step up and get into a position to get his leg up and over the horse’s back.

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PLACES

Why is Earth the only planet not named from Greek or Roman mythology? Earth got its name long before the sixteenth century (the time of Copernicus, when humans started considering that we are on just another planet). Earth comes from the ancient Germanic languages and originally meant the soil that was the source of all life. Earth is the English name, but hundreds of languages all refer to our fertile soil, our Planet Earth, as a nursing mother. Terra Mater means “Mother Earth.” In Roman mythology, the goddess of the Earth was Tellus, the fertile soil.

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71 percent of the Earth’s surface is covered with water. Earth is the third planet from the sun and the fifth largest. Why is the city of New Orleans called “The Big Easy”? It was the jockeys of New Orleans who first began referring to the bigtime racetrack in New York as the Big Apple, a phrase popularized by gossip columnist Walter Winchell. Possibly in response to this, during the 1970s New Orleans gossip columnist Betty Guillaud began referring to her city as the Big Easy. The Big Easy was originally the name of a long-forgotten jazz club called the Big Easy Hall. Why is Boulder City the only city in Nevada where gambling is illegal? Boulder City was created specifically to house workers from the Hoover Dam building project. Because of the danger and precision of their labour, the government didn’t want these men, who earned fifty cents an hour, to be distracted by the consequences of gambling. In 1931, the state of Nevada legalized gambling everywhere except for Boulder City. To this day, Boulder City is gambling free. The Hoover Dam is 726 feet tall and 660 feet thick at its base. Enough rock was excavated in its construction to build the Great Wall of China. Who coined the phrase “a New York minute”? The push for urgency in our day-to-day existence is often expressed as a “New York minute” because that’s how long it takes an impatient New Yorker to let you know you’re a

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problem. It was discovered in 1967 as a response to a survey for a Dictionary of American English. One question asked was to fill in the blank after, “I’ll be ready in …” to which a Jasper, Texas, policeman wrote “a New York minute.” What are the Seven Seas? “The Seven Seas” is a figurative reference to all the waters of the world. Rudyard Kipling popularized the phrase for modern times as the title of an 1896 volume of poems. He acknowledged that some would interpret the meaning as the seven oceans — the Arctic, the Antarctic, the North and South Pacific, the North and South Atlantic, and the Indian — but the expression circulated long before these oceans even had names. In the ancient world, the seven seas were the Mediterranean, the Red Sea, the Indian Ocean, the Persian Gulf, the China Sea, and the East and West African seas. Where did we get the expression “down in the boondocks”? “The boondocks” refers to an isolated, unsophisticated rural region. Although it’s been used in England since 1909, American Marines stationed in the Philippines during the Second World War popularized the term. A bundok, in the primary language of the Philippines, is a mountain. The word became entrenched in our language when rediscovered during the 1960s by American soldiers in Vietnam. What’s the difference between the United Kingdom and Great Britain?

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The United Kingdom includes England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland; Southern Ireland is a separate nation. The nations on the large island as well as Northern Ireland share a common government and passport. Great Britain includes the main island of Scotland, Wales, and England and excludes all of Ireland, including the north. It’s called Great Britain to distinguish it from Brittany or Little Britain — a province across the Channel in France. Why is a burial ground for the poor called “Potter’s Field”? Judas Iscariot repented after betraying Jesus and returned the thirty pieces of silver to the conspiring priests. He then took his own life. Because they couldn’t return blood money to the temple treasury and Judas couldn’t be buried in hallowed ground, the priests used the silver to purchase Jerusalem’s Potter’s Field, where they buried Judas and gave a name to a burial place for all outcasts. Why are prestigious hotels and apartment buildings sometimes known as “Arms”? Some buildings are titled manors or halls and some call themselves arms, like the Windsor Arms in Toronto. The use of the word arms is a practice dating back to old English inns, which proudly displayed the coat of arms or heraldic insignia of the local lord above the front entrance. In America, there were no dukes or earls. Instead, they used the word arms to convey prestige.

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Why do the countries Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, and others all end in “stan”? The Middle Eastern suffix stan is an ancient Farsi word for “homeland.” Kazakhstan is from the word kazakh, meaning “free,” while Kyrgyzstan means “home of forty tribes.” Pakistan is an exception. This modern republic took its name from the first letters of Punjab, Afghanistan, and Kashmir, with the suffix istan taken from the province of Balochistan. The name Afghanistan can be traced to the ninth century Iranian Emperor Apakan.

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MONEY & NUMBERS

If both the United States and England were $1 billion in debt, which country would owe the most money? The United States and England calculate both one billion and one trillion differently. One billion in the United States is one thousand million, while in England it is one million million. One trillion in the United States is one million million, while one trillion in England is one billion million. In both cases the British quantity is larger, so if both countries owed $1 billion, England would have the greater debt. Why is an English pound sterling called a “quid”?

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When the people of Great Britain exchange money for goods or services, they will often refer to the value of a pound note as a quid, even though centuries earlier a quid referred to a sovereign, the most important gold coin in history. One pound is equal to one hundred pence. When exchanged for something of equal value the deal in Latin is quid pro quo — something for something — which when abbreviated becomes simply quid. Why are subjects of human experiments called “guinea pigs”? Experimental human guinea pigs are not named after the animal associated with medical testing. Human volunteers selected for observation under trial were usually desperate for money and would receive the nominal daily fee of one guinea for their trouble. A guinea was a forty-shilling piece first minted in 1664, so called because it was minted from West African (Guinea) gold. The guinea pig animals are misnamed, because they are from Guyana in South America and not Guinea in West Africa. Why is a differing opinion called “your two cents’ worth”? If someone speaks up out of turn or forcefully inserts their unsolicited opinion, we say he gave his “two cents’ worth.” The expression dates back to the late nineteenth century, when if you wanted to write an opinion to the editor of a newspaper or complain to a member of the legislature, the cost of mailing the letter was

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the price of a two-cent stamp. “Two cents’ worth” became an Americanism for “of little value.” Why is being called “a lucky stiff” an insult? If someone wins a lot of money in the lottery and is called “a lucky stiff,” it means we think of him as a hard-working, average person who got lucky, but the original meaning of stiff described a failure — someone with as much chance of earning that much money on his or her own as a dead person, also called a stiff. A lucky stiff then means that a person (the lottery winner, in this case) is unworthy and undeserving of monetary gain. If something sounds honest, why do we say it “rings true”? In the nineteenth century, before the mint started issuing coins with reeding or grooves on the edges to prevent it, some slightly dishonest people would shave the precious metal just enough to go visually undetected. They would then have full value for the coin as well as that of the shavings. If suspicious, a merchant would bounce the coin on a hard surface to hear if it “rang true,” thereby proving its authenticity. The word ring is from the Anglo-Saxon hringan. Why are we warned not to take any wooden nickels? During the nineteenth century, it was common practice at commercial exhibitions to promote the event through wooden coins that could be redeemed at face value only by exhibitors

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or participating merchants at and during the run of the fair. When the exhibition closed and moved on, patrons were often left with wooden nickels or other coins that were useless unless they could be pawned off to an unsuspecting local retailer. Why is money called “cash”? The history of money is fascinating. The word money is from the Latin moneta, which derives from the Hebrew word mone, meaning weight or coins; it is referred to in the Bible as maneh. The word cash entered English in the late sixteenth century. It’s from the French words casse, meaning money box, and cassier, meaning treasurer, which has given us the word cashier and its abbreviation cash. The surname Cash is a variant of Case, and is an occupational name given to persons who made boxes or chests. Where did the word dollar come from? In 1516, a silver mine opened in the German town of Sankt Joachimsthal in what today is the Czech Republic (St. Joachim was the husband of St. Anne and the father of the Virgin Mary). The German word thal means “valley,” and the town soon became known simply as Thaler. The silver coins minted from the silver mine were called thalers, which by 1600 had translated to English as “dollars” to describe the German coin or any foreign currency. The Spanish peso was the first foreign currency to be known as a dollar.

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Thomas Jefferson resolved that “the money unit of the United States be one dollar” in 1785. The first American dollar was minted in Philadelphia in 1792. If gold is so rare, why does there seem to be so much of it in circulation? Gold is very rare, but it’s also very malleable. If, since the beginning of time, all the gold ever mined were to be lumped together, it would make a cube about the size of a tennis court. A cube the size of a matchbox can be flattened into a sheet that would cover that same tennis court, and one tiny ounce of gold can be stretched into a wire fifty miles long. A little gold goes a long way. What’s the difference between yellow and white gold? Pure or 24-karat gold is yellow and relatively soft. White gold includes an alloy of nickel and palladium. Zinc is added to harden the gold for gem settings. White gold can be more expensive than pure gold because it’s harder to fabricate. 18-karat yellow gold is the most popular in Europe and is 75 percent pure gold. 18-karat white gold is 25 percent nickel. 24-karat gold is 99.9 percent pure gold, 22-karat gold is 91.67 percent, and 20-karat gold is 83.33 percent. 20-karat and above is yellow in colour. In America 14-karat yellow gold is the most popular. 14-karat white gold is harder and yellowish and used in prong settings. It’s often plated with rhodium (a form of platinum) to enhance the whiteness.

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12-karat gold is 50 percent gold; it is commonly used in class rings and can be a number of colours depending on the added alloy. 10k gold is 41.67 percent gold and is the lowest alloy to be called gold. Why is the discovery of riches called “the motherlode”? The expression “Finding the motherlode” is usually used figuratively for the discovery of an abundance of almost anything, but it comes from the mining camps of the late nineteenth century. A lode is a mining term for a vein of metal ore, the discovery of which would be exciting enough, but add “mother” and you’ve come across the origin of all the veins in the region. The motherlode is, literally, an abundant source of supply.

Why is the furthest we can go called the “nth degree”?

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To take something to the “nth degree” means we have exhausted all possibilities. The letter n is the mathematical symbol meaning “any number.” If you say “nth plus 1” you mean “to the utmost.” The expression derives from the mathematical formula n plus 1 meaning “one more than any number,” which of course is beyond the outer limits. The “nth degree” originated as university slang in the nineteenth century. Why is the last minute before a deadline called “the eleventh hour”? The reference is to the eleventh hour on the original clock devised by the Babylonians for use with their sundial. The period from dawn to sundown — when a sundial was usable — was divided into twelve hours, so the eleventh hour came just before sunset. In other words, if you did something at the eleventh hour, it was just before you ran out of daylight. You’ll find this notion used metaphorically in Matthew 20:1-16, in which we learn that even a sinner can find salvation at the last minute, even someone who procrastinates and doesn’t do what he has to do until, well, the eleventh hour. Why are a group of thirteen things called “a baker’s dozen”? In 1266, the English passed a law regulating the weight and price of beer and bread sold in the marketplace. Bakers depended on middlemen to sell their excess, especially during a good harvest year, but the new law forbade them to offer a discount or a wholesale price. They found a way to skirt the law by adding one extra loaf to each dozen. 369

This thirteenth loaf provided the profit for the middlemen. The practice of adding the thirteenth loaf is older than the phrase; “a baker’s dozen” dates from only 1599. If you have a myriad of choices, exactly how many choices do you have? Since the sixteenth century, writers have used the adjective myriad to describe a large, unspecified, or overwhelming number, such as, “The student had a myriad of excuses for not turning in his assignment” or “Steve had a myriad of reasons for his wrong decision.” Neither of these uses is literally incorrect, but based on its Greek root, one myriad is exactly ten thousand. Why do they count down backwards to a rocket launch? After NASA rolls out a rocket they start the countdown at T – 43 (said as T minus 43 hours), and with critical holds, it takes three days before lift-off. The countdown was introduced by German film director Fritz Lang in his 1928 movie By Rocket to the Moon and then, much later, copied by real life rocket scientists. Lang introduced the backward count of 5-4-3-2-1 to increase suspense. How did the numbers eleven, twelve, and thirteen get their names? The reason the nine numbers after ten are known as eleven, twelve, and the teens is clarified by looking at Roman numerals and considering that they are all plus or minus units of ten and were interpreted into archaic English with this in mind. Eleven (XI) or “leave one” means ten is one less than 370

eleven. Twelve (XII) means ten is two less than twelve. Thirteen is three plus ten (or “teen”), four plus ten is fourteen, and so on.

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TRAVEL & DISTANCE

What’s the difference between a truck, a tractor semi-trailer, and a full tractor-trailer? Those huge vehicles overwhelming the highways are called tractor semi-trailers because the back portion sits on wheels while the front end is supported by the tractor. A full trailer rides on its own wheels with axles on the front and back and is connected to the tractor by a drawbar. Sometimes a full trailer is attached to a semi, which is attached to the tractor. A truck doesn’t have any attachments.

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How did the famous Italian automobile brands FIAT and ALFA get their names? FIAT, or Fabbrica Itailana Automobili Torino, was formed in a 1903 takeover of Ceirano, which had been founded in 1901 to make cars under Renault licence using a deDion engine. Ceirano’s assets included a racecar driver named Vincenzo Lancia. In a similar 1910 move, a group of Milanese businessmen took over a factory set up to produce Darracq 4-cylinder taxicabs. This group was called Anonima Lombarda Fabbrica Automobili, or ALFA. Where did the term “drag racing” originate? Drag racing is a quarter-mile race between two cars starting side by side from a standing start. It began in the 1950s and was usually held on the main street of a small town. In the nineteenth century, because they were being dragged down the street by a horse, wagons and buggies were called drags, and in the 1850s the name transferred to the main street; it became known as the main drag, which gave drag racing a venue — and its name. If you’re abandoned and alone, why do we say you’ve been “stranded”? If you’ve been stranded, you’re abandoned and powerless. Strand came to English from the Scandinavians as a word meaning “beach” or “shore,” and it now refers specifically to the beach area between the high and low tide. In the seventeenth century, a stranded ship had been beached or left aground on the strand

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after the tide went out. The general use of the word to describe helplessness dates to 1837. How far is a league as mentioned in The Lord of the Rings? Folk tales refer to a league as a specific distance. There were sevenleague boots, and Jules Verne sent Captain Nemo twenty thousand leagues under the sea. A league is an ancient measurement; in medieval England it was simply the distance a person or a horse could walk in one hour, which is about three miles (five kilometres), the same distance as defined by the Romans. The league is no longer an official unit of measurement in any nation. Why is a country mile considered a greater distance than the average mile? To “miss by a country mile” means you weren’t even as close as if you’d have only missed by a mile. A country mile is an exaggeration of the 1,760 yards in the standardized English distance. Rural roads in Britain twist and turn through the countryside, so although the distance to be travelled is a mile, the real distance travelled on a winding road will be considerably greater than “as the crow flies,” or in a straight line. How long is a “rod”? The rod is still used as a unit of measurement for portaging in recreational canoeing, possibly because a rod is about the same length as a canoe. A rod was established to be the combined total length of the left feet of the first sixteen men 374

to leave church on Sunday. The distance was standardized in 1607 as 5 yards, or 16.5 feet. An acre is 40 rods by 4 rods, or the area a man and an ox could work in one day. A rod is the same length as a perch and a pole.

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POLITICS & THE LAW

Why do Conservatives call Liberals “bleeding hearts”? The ultra-conservative view of those who propose extending the welfare state is that they are “bleeding hearts.” That expression entered politics in the 1930s, and by the 1990s “my heart bleeds for you” had become a general put-down. It comes from the Middle Ages, when a socially conscious group known as the Order of the Bleeding Heart was formed to honour the Virgin Mary, whose “heart was pierced with many sorrows.” Why are Conservatives called “Tories”?

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By definition, Liberals want to change things while Conservatives want to maintain the status quo, so it should be no surprise that the word Tory is from the Celtic words for “the king’s party” and “partisans of the king,” both of which were derived from the Irish word toruigh, meaning “to ambush.” Formed in 1679, the Tory Party became the Conservative Party in 1832, but their opponents continue to call them Tories. Taob-righ (Celtic for “king’s party”) Tuath-righ (Celtic for “partisans of the king”) Tar-a-ri (Celtic for “come o king”) Why is someone you don’t want to hear from told to “take a back seat”? “To take a back seat” means that you have little or no influence in the decisions required to fulfill an objective, and has nothing to do with “back-seat driving.” It comes from the parliamentary system of government, where the leaders of all parties — those who make and debate the critical decisions — are seated on the front benches of the House, while those who follow the party line with no input in these matters, other than a vote, take a back seat. Why are British police officers known as “bobbies”? In 1828 Sir Robert Peel, then home secretary (and later prime minister), reorganized the London police force into a modern law enforcement agency. Officers in the new department were known at first as “peelers,” after their Irish counterparts in a

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similar reorganization when Peel was secretary for Ireland some years earlier. Bobby is the shortened, familiar form of the proper name Robert. “Peeler” was gradually replaced in the public vernacular by “bobby,” and members of the London force are still known as bobbies today. Why are police vans called “paddy wagons”? A paddy wagon sounds like a logical reference to the great number of Irish policemen in uniform during the late nineteenth century, but not so. “Paddy” is a slur against the common Irish name Patrick, and because the Irish were considered the lowest in the social order, whenever it was politically expedient to appear to crack down on crime, all of the Paddies were profiled and rounded up in police wagons. How did a broken straw come to stipulate the end of a contract? Stipulate is from stipula, the Latin word for straw, and refers to the specification of an essential part or condition of an agreement. When a landowner in feudal England wanted to remove a serf from his property, he would present the unfortunate tenant with a broken straw symbolizing the termination of their contract. During this time, men of questionable character would loiter around the courthouse offering to testify for money. They stipulated this by wearing a piece of straw in their shoes and were called “straw men.” Why does “pony up” mean “show us your money”? Gamblers understand that “pony up” means to put your money into the ante to start a poker game or to make good on 378

your losses. Pone (pronounced like pony) is from the Latin verb ponere meaning “to seize,” and its current use came from a legal writ of common law instructing a bailiff to seize a defendant’s goods or obtain security to ensure his appearance at trial. This writ of pone is more commonly known as bail. What does it mean to give someone power of attorney? If you give somebody “power of attorney,” that doesn’t mean they suddenly become a lawyer; it simply means they can legally sign papers and make decisions for you in the area in which you’ve given them that power. In many, perhaps most, cases, lawyers are given power of attorney — but it doesn’t have to be that way. The British have several additional terms for people who practise law. Lawyer is a general term describing all of them. Solicitors do most of the office work, draft documents, talk to clients, and may only appear as advocates in the lower courts. Barristers do most of the trial work, especially in the higher courts, where they are the only ones who may act as advocates. Attorney has pretty much the same meaning in Britain as in America — one who acts on behalf of another. What is a “grand jury”? A grand jury is convened to determine if the prosecution has a case against a criminal suspect. Although still used in the United States, the grand jury has been dropped by Canada and Great Britain because they subvert the presumption of innocence and due process.

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Two thirds of all the lawyers in the world live in the United States. Los Angeles has more judges than all of France, while in Washington, D.C., there is one lawyer for every twenty-five men, women, and children. Why is private property called our “bailiwick,” and how does it concern the sheriff? Bailiwick is an old English legal term and is a compound of baile, which is now bailiff, and wic, meaning a farm or dwelling. From the mid-fifteenth century it’s meant “under a bailiff’s jurisdiction” — which leads us to the sheriff. During monarchial rule, each English shire had a reeve who acted as chief magistrate for the district. When the title “shire reeve” crossed the Atlantic it became “sheriff.”

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WAR & THE MILITARY

Where did we get the expression “Over the top”? During the First World War, a charge over the protective battery that ran alongside a trench was called “going over the top.” Such a charge usually resulted in many casualties, as did most operations during that tragic conflict. Since the casualty rate was very high, it took remarkable bravery to go over the top. Some considered it excessively brave, and the phrase has come to be associated with excess. Why do we pronounce colonel with an R and spell it with an L?

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It’s a messy story, the result of confusion between two forms of the word that came into English at different times. Its source is the Italian colonna. This (along with the English word column, with the same meaning) derives from the Latin columna, because a column of men was reminiscent of the shape of a pillar. The Italian compagna colonnella (literally, “little-column company”) referred to the small company of soldiers that marched at the head of a regiment and was commanded directly by the officer in charge. That officer became known as the colonnello. This shifted into French as coronel, but later changed back nearer the Italian original as colonel. Much the same thing happened in English, where coronel was the more common form up to about 1630. For a while after this date both forms were in use until colonel eventually won. At first the word was pronounced as three syllables, but the middle became swallowed, and under the continuing influence of the “r” spelling the “l” in the first syllable vanished. When something is over why do we say, “That’s all she wrote”? “That’s all she wrote,” meaning “that’s the end of it,” has a heartbreaking history. During the Second World War, it wasn’t uncommon for an overseas serviceman to receive a brief, cutting letter from a girlfriend telling him that their romance was over and that she’d found someone else in his absence. When questioned by his buddies, the anguished soldier’s response would be, “That’s all she wrote,” and it became so common it entered our language as meaning “it’s over.” Why do yellow ribbons symbolize fidelity? 382

Yellow ribbons were first used during the Vietnam War. The inspiration came from a Civil War legend about a soldier returning home from the infamous Andersonville Prison. He had written his wife to hang a yellow handkerchief on the oak tree in the town square if she still loved him; otherwise he would stay on the stagecoach and move on. A modernized version became the hit song “Tie a Yellow Ribbon,” and a new custom was born. L. Russell Brown was inspired to write the song one late spring morning, and he drove thirty-three miles to Irwin Levine’s house to tell him the story. Irwin changed the yellow handkerchief to a ribbon so as not to offend anyone with the reality of what makes handkerchiefs yellow. They also updated the story by changing the stagecoach to a bus. The song was released in February 1973. It was the number one hit by April 1973. The song became a hit again in 1981 when the fifty-two Iran hostages were returned after 444 days of captivity.

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Why is a dismissive final remark called “a parting shot”? In 247 B.C., the warriors of the Parthian Empire were such skilled archers on horseback that even Rome couldn’t conquer them. They had developed a saddle with a stirrup, which enabled them to turn and fire arrows while riding away at full gallop. This incredible manoeuvre during a strategic retreat was known as the Parthian shot, which gave us the expression “a parting shot.” The Parthian Empire included, in part, what is now Afghanistan, Pakistan, and most of Iraq and Iran. They took 384

over the region after conquering the Scythians, who had developed the magnificent breed of horse that was the key to the Parthians’ success. While firing arrows, a rider could steady himself with the newly invented stirrups and then guide his mount with his legs. Why is malicious destruction called “vandalism”? A vandal mindlessly defaces public property. During the fifth and sixth centuries the Vandals, a Germanic warrior race, expanded south from their Baltic base. They would go beyond defeating their enemies by desecrating their cultural symbols in an effort to humiliate as well as conquer. When in 455 they overwhelmed and then sacked Rome, the Vandals continued to deliberately mutilate public and religious monuments, an act that to this day bears the name “vandalism.” Where do we get the expression “Batten down the hatches”? “Batten down the hatches” is a traditional naval order to securely cover the openings or hatches to the hold on the deck of a sailing ship. Batten is the key word and comes from the same root as the French word baton, like the one used by an orchestra conductor or in a relay race. A batten is a strip of wood, which in this case was used to nail down a tarpaulin over the ship’s hatches during a storm. Why do we call an unstable person a “basket case”?

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A “basket case” is a derogatory reference to someone considered unstable and has a very sad origin. During the First World War, because some soldiers were so badly maimed or shell-shocked that a stretcher wouldn’t hold them, they were carried off the field in wicker baskets. In 1919, after the war, the dark expression “basket case” began being cruelly applied to anyone with an impairment, either physical or mental. How did crossing a line in the sand become a military challenge? The concept of a literal “line in the sand” was first created by a lone Roman senator who rode out to meet a Macedonian king at the head of an army poised to invade Egypt, a Roman protectorate. The king balked until the senator drew a circle around him in the sand and demanded that he order a withdrawal before stepping out of that circle or face the wrath of Rome. The king paused and then complied. This account has been verified by contemporary historians. The senator was Popillius Laenas. Why is an exact likeness called a “spitting image”? A boy who looks like his dad is sometimes said to be a spitting image of his father. There is another expression — “spirit and image” — but it isn’t related. At the apex of the glory that was the British Empire, just about every man was familiar with the spit and polish discipline of military life. When a man polished his boots, he used saliva to bring them to where he could see his own reflection, and that is the origin of “spitting image.” 386

Why are deadly hidden devices called “booby traps”? The English word boob, meaning “stupid” or “dunce,” first appeared in 1599 and comes from the Spanish word bobo, also meaning “stupid,” which came from the Latin balbus. While a booby prize is awarded to the supreme loser, it was during the First World War that the nineteenth-century booby trap changed from being a harmless practical joke to its deadly modern wartime meaning of laying explosive traps for enemy soldiers. The term “boob tube” refers to television, and is synonymous with “idiot box.” Why is someone of little importance called a “pipsqueak”? The Allied soldiers came up with the perfect synonym for “non-threatening” during the First World War. The Germans had brutal artillery, but they also had a smaller gun that stood out from the other incoming rounds by its unimpressive squeaking noise. It struck with a sound more like “pip” than “boom.” The boys in the trenches called them “pipsqueaks,” and after the war, they transferred the meaning as a description of someone of little significance. Why is there a saddled, riderless horse in a military funeral? The riderless horse in a military funeral was an ancient custom practised by the Romans. A soldier and his horse trained to fight as one unit in battle, making it almost impossible for the animal to have another master. If a soldier retired, so did his horse. For the same reason, if the soldier 387

died in combat, the horse followed his coffin to the cemetery to be put down and buried with his companion. The two would ride together into the afterlife. The empty boots in the stirrups is a later tradition and signifies that no one else can ride that horse. Today it’s simply a ceremony, and the animal isn’t harmed. What’s the origin of the panic button? The first panic buttons were installed in bombers during the Second World War. If his plane was hit by enemy fire, a pilot could push a button that set off an alarm throughout the aircraft. The crew responded with a drill, which, in severe cases and if a crash was imminent, could lead to the entire crew bailing out. When too many chose to parachute when hearing the alarm even though the situation wasn’t critical, pilots were advised to think twice before “pushing the panic button.” What does it mean to be decimated? Around 1663, the word decimate began mean being destroyed through a catastrophe or severe loss, but the word originated as a disciplinary practice of the Roman army. Soldiers convicted of cowardice or mutiny were gathered into units of ten. Lots were drawn, and the loser was decimated (clubbed and stoned to death) by the remaining nine. Morale increased significantly after a Roman decimation. After a decimation, the remaining nine convicted soldiers were given rations of barley instead of wheat and forced to sleep outside of the army encampment.

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Although decimation inspired discipline and resolve, it was used sparingly because it significantly reduced troop strength. How did “diehard” come to mean resilient? “Diehard” was coined on May 16, 1811, by a British man, Colonel Inglis, who had gathered the men of his 57th Foot Regiment just before the battle of Albuera against Napoleon. The colonel ended his address with, “Die hard my lads, die hard” — and that they did. They were victorious, but only 1 of the 24 officers and 168 of the 584 men survived. Why do they fire a rifle volley over the grave of a fallen soldier? Military funerals are filled with traditions, but none as ancient as firing a volley over the deceased. During the Napoleonic Wars, hostilities were ceased to clear the dead from the battlefield. When finished, the detail would fire three shots into the air as a signal that they were ready to resume the fight. The tradition mirrors the ancient tribal practice of throwing spears into the air to ward off evil spirits hovering over the fallen. The caisson was the wagon used to carry the dead soldiers from the battlefield. Why do we describe a close contest as “nip and tuck”? A closely fought contest where the outcome is in doubt is said to be “nip and tuck.” It equates to the expression “blow for

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blow,” when the advantage keeps changing from one competitor to another. The answer is in the original aggressive meanings of the two words. A nip was (and still is) a bite, while a tuck was a small, narrow dagger used by artillerymen when overrun and forced into hand-to-hand combat. “Nip and tuck” literally means a vicious, life and death struggle. What’s the origin of the phrase “Don’t shoot the messenger”? “Don’t kill the messenger” was first expressed as long ago as 442 BC by Sophocles. “Kill” became “shoot” in the American West during the nineteenth century. The expression arose during a time when messages between opposing armies, such as terms for surrender, were delivered by hand. The angry reply was often the symbolic return to his own side of the murdered messenger.

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FOOD & DRINK

Why is someone who is dazed or confused said to be “groggy”? If you’re in a haze you might be groggy, but you’re more likely to be drunk because of the grog. Back in 1740, British Admiral E. Vernon changed the drinking habits of his sailors by issuing their rum ration diluted with water and lime juice to prevent scurvy (which is the origin of the label limey for an Englishman). The admiral always wore a grogram coat and was known to the men as “Old Grog,” which is why the word grog is used to describe rum.

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A grogram coat is made from a weave of a coarse waterproof fabric (from the French gros-grain) made from silk, mohair, and wool and stiffened by gum. Why is a cup of coffee sometimes called a “cup of joe”? Up until 1913, the United States Navy practised the British tradition of each sailor receiving a daily ration of rum. But that year, Secretary Joseph (or Joe) Daniels, a non-drinker, prohibited any alcohol on board any American vessel. This made coffee the strongest drink available to the disgruntled sailors, who began referring to their mugs of coffee as a “cup of Joe.” Why did diners name the best bargain of the day a “blue plate special”? The first fast food restaurants were mobile wagons, and they appeared during the late 1800s. They were called diners because they resembled railroad dining cars. These special cars introduced the blue plate special during the Great Depression of the 1930s after a manufacturer invented a dish with separate, sunken compartments for potatoes, meat, and greens. Disposable and available only in blue, these delicious, quick meals were promoted as the blue plate special. What is North America’s favourite snack food? North Americans devour 1.2 billion pounds of potato chips each year, making chips our favourite snack food. In 1852 at a resort in Saratoga, New York, Cornelius Vanderbilt sent his French fries back to the kitchen, complaining that they were too thick. Chef George Blum retaliated by cutting new 392

potatoes ridiculously thin, frying them, and sending them back to Vanderbilt — who loved them. Today, a pound of potato chips costs five hundred times more than a pound of potatoes. 93 percent of Americans snack: 50 percent do so two or three times a day, 40 percent four times a day, and 3 percent five or more times a day. Almost 90 percent of North American households buy potato chips about every three weeks; 76 percent buy tortilla chips once a month. 86 percent of American teenagers eat candy at least once a week. Why is there a chocolate bar named Sweet Marie? The Sweet Marie chocolate bar was inspired by a love affair. In 1893, after an evening stroll through the streets of London, Ontario, with his girlfriend Marie, author Cy Warman was so smitten that he sat down in a park and wrote a poem called “Sweet Marie.” When musician Raymond Moore read the poem he put it to music, and the song became a hit that inspired a chocolate company to create the Sweet Marie chocolate bar. Cy married his sweet Marie, and together they raised four children in London. Why do we say that someone we consider stupid “doesn’t know which side his bread is buttered on”? To not know which side your bread is buttered on comes from a Yiddish folk tale describing the stupidity of the men of

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Chelm in Poland. The story goes that one day, when someone dropped a piece of bread, the wisest men in town gathered to ponder why it landed butter side up. After weeks of deliberation they concluded that the bread had been buttered on the wrong side. Why are dishes served with spinach called “Florentine”? When cooked with spinach, Eggs Benedict become Eggs Florentine. When Catherine de Medici of Florence married Henry II of France, she brought with her several master cooks. Soon they were introducing France to new foods such as artichoke hearts, truffles, sweetbreads, and ice cream. When Catherine’s cooks served up dishes with the unfamiliar spinach, they were referred to as à la Florentine, after the queen’s birthplace. How did an ice cream dish become known as a “sundae,” and why is it spelled that way? In pious New England during the 1880s, the church convinced local councils to ban ice cream sodas on Sunday, because enjoyment of the flavoured treat overshadowed the reverence of the day. The soda fountains’ response was to simply hold back the carbonated soda from the syrup, fruit, nuts, and ice cream and change the name to sundae. The spelling was a clever way to legally promote the dish without referring to the Lord’s day.

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Why is a small restaurant called a “bistro”? Legend has it that when the Russian Cossacks occupied Paris in 1815, they were notoriously rude and demanded quick service from local restaurants and bars by shouting what the French understood to be “Bistro!” which sounds very much like a Russian word for “quickly.” The word bistro has no French root, and so the legend is plausible. Regardless, whether French or otherwise, a bistro promises intimate and rapid service.

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Where did the expression “Have your cake and eat it too” come from? Having your cake and eating it too is an idiom meaning that you want to do the impossible by disposing of or consuming something that you want to enjoy, while at the same time keeping it intact. It’s an attempt to overcome an either/or situation. It was first written down in 1562 as, “Would you both eat your cake and have your cake?” and somewhere along the line it became, “Have your cake and eat it too.” “Wolde ye bothe eate your cake, and haue your cake?” — A Dialogue Conteynyng Prouerbes and Epigrammes of 1562 by John Heywood. “Eat your cake and have it” — 1816 poem “On Fame” by John Keats. Why do we call outdoor cooking a “barbeque”? Barbeque is one of the first Native American words to enter our language. The Spanish borrowed barbacoa from the Arawak people of the Caribbean. The word described the large wooden frame that the Arawak used either to dry meat or to sleep on. Around 1661, this same framework was found to be excellent for supporting whole animals for cooking over a fire, and the barbecue was born. How did the caramel-covered popcorn Crackerjack get its name? Today a “cracker” is someone who breaks into your computer, but among other things, it also once meant

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something excellent or special. The “Jack” in Crackerjack is the sailor, and the little dog on the package is named Bingo. Trademarked in 1896, Crackerjack got lucky when Jack Norworth included it in his 1908 song “Take Me out to the Ball Game,” after which it became part of American culture. Jack and Bingo didn’t appear on the box until 1918, when returning First World War servicemen were very popular. Jack was a nickname for all sailors. Where did the drinking expression “Bottoms up” originate? “Bottoms up” means more than “lift your drink.” When press gangs cruised dockside English taverns preying on drunks for naval duty, one of their tricks was to drop a shilling into an unsuspecting target’s pewter ale jug. When the drink was empty, the gang would tell him that he had accepted the King’s shilling and then drag him off to sea. Wary drinkers began using glass-bottom tankards, and “bottoms up” meant to check for the shilling. Why are those tasty round pastries with holes in the centre called doughnuts? In 1809, Washington Irving’s Knickerbockers History of New York described small, tasty balls of fried dough that, because they resembled walnuts, were called Dough Nuts. The Dutch had introduced them as oil cakes and usually baked them as treats for holidays. After the introduction of baking powder and tin doughnut cutters, the hole was manufactured commercially around 1845. 397

What does the phrase “Eat, drink, and be merry” tell us? Today we use “Eat, drink, and be merry” as an invitation to party, but to be merry originally meant to be content or self-satisfied. The phrase is from a parable in the Bible that tells the tale of Epicurious, a man who worked hard all his life to accumulate goods and money and believed that he shouldn’t take time to “eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die.” When Epicurious died he was remembered as a fool because he did not live for anything but the material. The phrase also appears in Luke 12:19: “Soul, you have so many goods laid up for years to come; take your ease, eat, drink, and be merry.” Why is the word straw in strawberry? The Germans call them erdbeeren (“earth berries”) because they grow on the ground. The Romans called them fragaria (“fragrant berries”) because of their sweet smell. So how did these delicious treats become known in English as strawberries? It’s because the climate of both Britain and Ireland is very damp, and so to grow them, farmers needed to protect emerging berries from the muddy soil. They did this by spreading a layer of straw around each new plant. Why do we call those tasty sweet treats “candy”? The sweetness in candy and sugar was called saccharon by the Greeks and saccharum by the Romans, so it’s clear where we get the word saccharine. After conquering most of the southern Mediterranean around 1000 AD, the Arabs built the first sugar refinery on the Isle of Crete, which they had renamed quandi, meaning “crystallized sugar.” In English, 398

quandi became candy. Caramel was also invented by the Arabs. They called it kurat al milh, meaning, “ball of sweet salt.” What do we mean by, “The proof is in the pudding”? “The proof is in the pudding” means that the outcome is uncertain until the task is completed. The expression began as, “The proof of the pudding is in the eating.” Pudding wasn’t always exclusively a dessert. When the expression was coined, a pudding was any food presented in a solid mass and was often a main course, such as Yorkshire pudding. Popularized in 1605 by Cervantes in Don Quixote the saying has been traced back to 1300. Today, “the proof is in the pudding” means that you can’t tell the value of something simply by its appearance. What’s the origin of ketchup? In the 1690s the Chinese mixed together a tasty concoction of pickled fish and spices and called it ke-tsiap. By the early 1700s, the table sauce had made it to Malaysia, where it was discovered by British explorers, and by 1740, it had become an English staple. Fifty years later, North Americans added tomatoes to the Chinese recipe, and ketchup as we now know it had arrived. Tomatoes were considered poisonous for most of the eighteenth century because they’re a close relative to the toxic belladonna and nightshade plants. Why is an altered alcoholic drink called a “mickey”? A mickey is an alcoholic drink that’s been altered to incapacitate the person who drinks it. It’s become a very 399

dangerous idea, especially for young women, but it started out innocently enough in a Chicago bar owned by a man named Mickey Finn. Around the turn of the twentieth century, Finn discovered that he could get rid of an obnoxious customer by slipping a diarrheic into his drink. Within minutes the troublesome drinker would have urgently left the bar. If it wasn’t the French, then who invented french fries? The Belgians are crazy about french fries; as a matter of fact, fries are their national dish, and they’ve been eating them with buckets of mussels since the mid-1800s. The French also claim inventing fries, because to “french” any food means to cut it very thin. The problem is that the Belgian claim predates the French technique by about fifty years. Usually this discussion ignores the fact that 40 percent of Belgians speak French, so they can take the credit. The largest producer of french fries in the world is McCain Foods Limited, a Canadian company in Florenceville, New Brunswick. McCain has thirty potato processing plants on six continents around the world. Why do we call that delicious crustacean a “lobster”? The average lobster weighs about two pounds, and even though Shediac, New Brunswick, promotes itself as the Lobster Capital of the World, the largest lobster caught was in Nova Scotia and weighed 44.4 pounds. Before the twentieth century, eating lobster was a mark of poverty because to many people they resemble an insect, which is why their Latin name is locusta, meaning “locust,” which led to the name “lobster.” 400

Which restaurant meals do North Americans like best? North Americans eat about half of their meals away from home. 55 percent of the average diet is fast food or junk food, but at a sit-down restaurant, fried chicken is the most popular meal, followed by roast beef, spaghetti, turkey, ham, and fried shrimp. On the other hand, Kentucky Fried Chicken sells approximately eleven pieces of chicken annually for every man, woman, and child in both Canada and the United States. How did the eggplant get that name? An eggplant is actually a fruit, but it is eaten like a vegetable. Originally from Southeast Asia, the eggplant was taken to Africa by the Persians. In the eighth century AD, the eggplant was introduced to Europe through Spain by the Arabs. It was given its name by Europeans in the middle of the eighteenth century because the plant they knew had white or yellowish fruit the same shape and size as goose eggs. How did marmalade get its name? Legend has it that whenever the French-speaking Mary, Queen of Scots, wasn’t feeling well, she would insist on a medicinal concoction made with boiled oranges. The orders the kitchen received were that Marie was malade, which is French for “sick,” leading to “Marie malade,” or marmalade. This, of course, is untrue. Marmalade is from the Portuguese word for the orange jam, which is marmelada, and it was popular long before the Scottish queen was born.

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ANIMALS

Why does shedding crocodile tears mean that you’re faking sadness? Crocodiles have a nasty habit of sounding like a baby crying, which can attract naive human prey. While lying motionless in the sun, often hidden by tall grass, a crocodile waiting for lunch might leave its mouth open, which puts pressure on its tear glands, causing the illusion of crying. Like their phony human counterparts, they shed tears without any sense of contrition or sadness. How did an American bird get named after the distant country of Turkey?

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In 1519, conquistador Hernando Cortez returned to Spain with a bird introduced to him by the Native Americans of Mexico. The peculiar bird confused all of Europe. The French thought it was from India and so named it dindon (from pouletes d’Inde). Although the Germans, Dutch, and Swedes agreed that the bird was Indian they named it kilcon after Calcutta. By the time the trend reached England, rumour had it that the bird was from Turkey, and so that became its name. How are things going if you’re living “high on the hog”? Living high on the hog meant originally that you ate what were regarded as the superior cuts of meat, the ones on the higher parts of the animal — pork chops, hams, etc. — as against the belly, feet, knuckles, jowls, and the like. Someone who lives high on the hog is therefore, in the extended sense, pretty well off. Why is someone worn out “at the end of his rope”? This expression evolved from the phrase “at the end of his tether.” Such a phrase would have been used to describe a dog or a horse being tied or tethered. The old phrase was meant to convey a sense of self-restraint, while the new suggests that one has reached or exceeded one’s defined boundaries. Is there a difference in the quality between brown and white chicken eggs? Chickens need between twenty-four and twenty-six hours to produce one egg. After a half-hour rest, they start the process over again. Occasionally they will stop laying and rest from 403

between three to ten days. The colour of the eggs’ shells has nothing to do with their quality. Brown eggs come from hens with red feathers and red earlobes, while white eggs come from chickens with white feathers and white earlobes. What do chickens have to do with chicken pox? Chickens have nothing to do with chicken pox. It was so named to distinguish the weaker form of the highly contagious but usually nonfatal pox from the dreaded and extremely deadly form of smallpox. Because smallpox was named first, doctors needed a timid name for its less lethal cousin. To make it clear, they chose the unscientific but unassuming chicken.

Where did we get the saying “Not enough room to swing a cat”?

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This colourful phrase evokes strange images of feline cruelty. In fact, it has nothing to do with cats, but the real story is at least as cruel. The “cat” is a cat-o’-nine-tails, a type of whip used to discipline sailors on old sailing ships. The cat-o’-nine-tails has one handle attached to nine thin strips of leather, each perhaps three feet long. The cat-o’-nine-tails would be used to administer lashings that would sting and leave welts on the recipient. The whippings would take place on the deck, because below deck there was not enough ceiling height to swing a cat (o’-nine-tails). Why does March come “in like a lion and out like a lamb”? When March weather roars “in like a lion,” the adage suggests that the end of the month will leave like a lamb. This is because during early March, the constellation Leo is rising in the east, crossing the meridian on March 20. Therefore, the lion is associated with spring. At the same time the constellation Aries the ram (or the lamb) is setting in the west. So every March is “in like a lion and out like a lamb.” Why is a leader of a trend called a “bellwether”? The metaphorical use of bellwether to mean a human leader dates back to the fifteenth century; its modern use usually means a company that sets an industry standard. A wether is in fact a castrated ram or male sheep, and a bellwether is the leader of the flock. He knows the routine, and he wears a bell so that the shepherd knows where his sheep are, because all the others will follow the bellwether anywhere without hesitation.

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Why are Dalmatians used as mascots by firefighters? Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs show Dalmatians running with chariots. In Britain, they were used to escort carriages over hundreds of miles before standing guard while travellers stopped to eat or rest. Throughout the centuries the breed developed an affinity with horses, which is why they were a natural for early firefighters. The Dalmatians ran with the fire wagon and then kept the horses in line while the firefighters fought the blaze. Dalmatians are from Dalmatia in a region of what is now Croatia. They were spread across Europe by the Roma people. Endurance, strength, and loyalty are their greatest characteristics. Why do geese fly in a V formation? When geese fly in either a V formation or a single line, they are drafting off the one in front in the same way that racecar drivers use each other to pick up speed. The lead or dominant bird, which is always a female, begins a turbulence wave that helps lift the birds behind her. The farther back in the flock, the less energy they need to fly. The lead bird rotates position to fight exhaustion. The Wright brothers were inspired by the same principle of flight! What part did Newfoundland play in naming the penguin?

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The now extinct great auk of the North Atlantic was a large bird with small wings, making it very similar in appearance to the Antarctic penguin that we know today. Because of these underdeveloped wings, the auk was called a “pin-wing,” and so in 1578, when the first description of the bird came out of Newfoundland, it was written as it sounded in the local dialect. Pin-wing became penguin. The name and the spelling were then given to the auk’s southern look-alike. Coincidentally, the auk’s Latin name is pinguinis. Why are long, rambling, and unfunny stories called “shaggy dog stories”? A shaggy dog story usually takes forever to tell and has a clever (if not funny) ending. The joy is found within the skill and craft of the narrator. During the 1930s and ’40s a series of such jokes involving shaggy dogs circulated as a fad. A collection of these stories was published in 1946. Today, any rambling story ending in a pun is called a “shaggy dog story.” Here’s one of the original shaggy dog stories: A grand householder in Park Lane, London, lost his very valuable and rather shaggy dog. The owner advertised repeatedly in the Times, but without luck, and finally he gave up hope. When an American in New York saw the advertisement, he was moved by the man’s devotion and took great trouble to seek out another dog that matched the one in the advertisement. He found a perfect match. During his next business trip to London, he sought out the grieving owner’s impressive house, where he was received in the householder’s absence by a very English butler, who glanced at the dog, bowed, and exclaimed, in a horror-stricken voice, “But not so shaggy as that, sir!” 407

If you’re wrong, why do we say you’re “barking up the wrong tree”? “Barking up the wrong tree” comes from hunting raccoons. Hunters use dogs to track down the little masked bandits, who will run into underbrush and, if cornered, climb a tree. When the dogs find that tree, they park under it barking and baying until the brave human arrives with the gun, only to often find that the raccoon has outsmarted the dogs by crossing the branches to another tree and freedom. When we want a dog to attack, why do we say, “Sic ’em”? Dogs are descended from wolves and interact with humans the same as they would with other dogs within a pack. They are protective of their family or pack and instinctively attack only when hunting or frightened. This behaviour can be altered in some dogs through aggressive training. Guard dogs have to learn to attack on command from the human alpha dog, their trainer. “Sic ’em,” a very old command, is an abbreviation of “seek him.” Why do we say that a new subject is “a horse of a different colour”? “A horse of a different colour” is a separate issue from the business at hand and comes from horse trading. When horses are born, their official registration includes a record of their colour. To make sure they were buying the horse pedigree as advertised, traders learned to check this registration to ensure that the colt’s colour was the same as the one for sale, otherwise they were being cheated with a “horse of a different colour.” 408

Why is the height of a horse measured in hands? For five thousand years, the height of a horse has been measured in hands. Body parts were our first points of reference for measurement. For example, a foot was exactly that: the length of a Roman foot. A hand was measured with the thumb curled into the palm, a distance now standardized as four inches. A horse’s height is measured in a straight line from the ground to the withers (the top of the shoulders between the neck and the back). A horse of 15.2 hands measures 15 times 4 inches, plus 2 inches, or 62 inches. It’s important to keep in mind that you can have 15.3 hands, but after the next full inch the height is taken as 16 hands, not 15.4. The hand is a tradition of British measurement. In the rest of Europe a horse’s height is measured in metres and centimetres. In some places, like Europe and South Africa, they measure in both hands and centimetres.

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HOLIDAYS

What is the religious significance of Groundhog Day? February 2 is an ancient Christian holiday celebrating Mary’s purification and is known as Candlemas Day. Christians believed that if the day dawned sunny, crop planting would have to wait because winter would last six more weeks. During the 1880s, a few friends in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, went groundhog hunting every Candlemas Day. They became known as the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club, with a mascot named Phil.

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Who receives the most Valentine’s cards? Valentine’s Day is second only to Christmas as the largest annual card-sending holiday. One billion cards are sent each year! Women purchase 85 percent of all Valentine’s cards, so men receive more, but then 15 percent of women send themselves flowers on February 14. In order of popularity, the cards are sent to teachers, children, mothers, wives, and sweethearts. As well, 3 percent of all Valentine’s cards are sent to pets. What are the origins of Ash Wednesday?

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At the beginning of Lent, which always falls on a Wednesday, Catholics mark their foreheads with a cross made of ashes to symbolize their commitment to Christ. The ashes are from burned palm fronds used in the previous year’s celebration of Palm Sunday. In ancient times, when someone died, it was a mourning custom to sit inside and cover one’s head and body with dust and ashes as a mortal reminder that we are all “from ashes to ashes and dust to dust.” Why is the season of Easter fasting called “Lent”? Lent begins on Ash Wednesday and is the forty-day fast that precedes Easter. The forty days are an imitation of Christ’s preparation for his ministry, which reached its climax with the crucifixion and resurrection. The word Lent has no religious significance whatsoever. It comes from the Old English word Lencten, which was the Anglo-Saxon name for the season we now call spring, within which Easter is celebrated. In all languages other than English, the season of Easter fasting has a name derived from the Latin term Quadragesima, or “the forty days.” How did the white trumpet lily become the Easter lily? During the 1880s, while in Bermuda, Mrs. Thomas Sargent became enamoured with the beautiful white Bermuda trumpet lily. She took its bulbs back to Philadelphia, where it caught on among local florists. Since it blooms in spring, the flower soon became known as the “Easter lily,” and its popularity spread. The lily had been introduced to Bermuda from its native Japan and is now grown primarily on North America’s Pacific coast. 412

Why do Orthodox and Catholic churches celebrate holy days on different dates? By the mid-sixteenth century the Julian calendar was out of whack with the lunar calendar by eleven full days. In 1582, Pope Gregory XIII made an eleven-day adjustment so that October 4 was followed by October 15. A system of leap years was designed to keep the calendar in line. Catholics adopted the Gregorian calendar, while the Orthodox Church continued using the ancient Julian calendar for celebrations of Christmas and Easter. Eastern Orthodox churches continue to use the Julian calendar today. It is currently thirteen days later than the Gregorian calendar. Since 1923, the Romanian Orthodox and Greek Orthodox churches have adopted the Gregorian calendar. However, they continue to use the Julian calendar for Easter calculations. The gap between the two calendars continues to grow. Most Greek Orthodox churches currently celebrate Christmas on January 7 and New Year’s Day on January 14 (according to the Gregorian calendar). This gap generally places Easter celebrations on the same Sunday in the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches only once every three to four years. During non-leap years, Orthodox Easter is delayed by one, four, or five weeks. Why do Canadians celebrate Victoria Day? To most Canadians, May 24 signals the start of gardening season, but it’s also a memory of what was once called 413

Empire Day, when the people living on 20 percent of the Earth’s land surface owed allegiance to the British Crown. For sixty-four of its three hundred years, the Empire was presided over by Queen Victoria. Canada has celebrated Victoria Day on May 24 since 1845. Nowadays, the May 24 holiday celebrates the birthday of the current monarch. Why do we refer to the celebrants of the first Thanksgiving as “Pilgrims”? The New World settlers from the Mayflower weren’t called Pilgrims until two hundred years after their 1620 arrival at Plymouth Rock. It was Daniel Webster, in a bicentennial celebration of their landing, who first described them as “Our Pilgrim Fathers.” The word comes from a Latin derivative meaning a traveller. Perager became pelegrin, then pilegrim in English, evolving into pilgrim. “Pilgrim” was first used to describe Christians who made a journey of religious devotion to the Holy Land. How did bobbing for apples become a Halloween tradition? Halloween was the Celts’ most significant annual holiday. After the Romans invaded Britain, they respected and adopted a few of the Celtic practices, and during the first century AD, the two cultures began integrating their late autumn rituals. In October, the Romans celebrated Pomona, the goddess of fruit and trees. Her symbol was an apple, which is how that fruit, whether bobbing for it or otherwise, became symbolic of Halloween. Why do children ask us to shell out treats on Halloween? 414

As a challenge to Halloween, the Roman Catholic Church placed All Saints Day on November 1. On that day, Christians went from village to village begging for soul cakes, a mixture of bread and currants. One cake bought one prayer for the souls of the donor’s departed relatives. The phrase “shell out” as a demand for payment comes from the shelling of dried peas or corn, once a currency of commercial exchange among the poor. How did the poinsettia, a Mexican weed, become associated with Christmas? One hundred years ago, Dr. Joel Poinsett, the American ambassador to Mexico, introduced the plant to the rest of North America. A Mexican legend has it that two poor children had nothing to offer the baby Jesus during the Christmas festival, so on their way to church they picked some green weeds from the road side. When they placed them at the nativity the green petals turned a bright red in the shape of a star. Is Xmas a disrespectful commercial abbreviation of Christmas? Xmas has its roots legitimately grounded in the Greek word for Christ, which is Xristos. In the sixteenth century, Europeans adopted the first letter from Xristos as an initial for Christ’s name, and even though the practice had been common among the early Christians, some North Americans, not understanding the Greek language, mistakenly took the X as a commercial insult. When exactly are the twelve days of Christmas? 415

The twelve days of Christmas are the days separating December 25 and the Epiphany, or the date of Christ’s baptism, which is January 6 — the legendary date that the three Wise Men visited the stable with their gifts. It was once the custom to pile up gifts on December 25 and then distribute them over the days leading to January 6. In North America, the tradition is now only a memory through the carol “The Twelve Days of Christmas.” How did Christmas cake become a tradition? A dish of porridge that once ended the fast on Christmas Eve evolved into a pudding with dried fruits and spices as a tribute to the Wise Men. By the sixteenth century, the pudding had become a fruitcake, served during the parish priest’s home blessings on Twelfth Night. In 1870, after the protestant Queen Victoria banned Twelfth Night celebrations because they were “unchristian,” clever confectioners began selling their fruitcakes as “Christmas cake.” Why are fruits and nuts offered over Christmas? December 21 is the day of the winter solstice: the year’s shortest day and longest night. It’s known as St. Thomas Day, commemorating the last apostle to be convinced of Christ’s resurrection. On this day a bowl of nuts and fruits is put on display to ensure prosperity in the new year, and by sharing these, the wish is extended to friends and neighbours. Failure to share this providence could mean a lean crop in the following seasons. Why do we hang stockings at Christmas? 416

According to legend, the very first gifts St. Nicholas gave were to three very poor girls who needed money for their wedding dowries. On Christmas Eve they hung their stockings to dry by the fireplace. St. Nicholas slipped in at night and left gold coins in each of their stockings so they could marry the men they loved. Until recently, Christmas stockings were filled with nuts and fruit. The Italians introduced giving a lump of coal to naughty children. What’s the story behind “O Little Town of Bethlehem”? In 1865, inspired by a horseback trip from Jerusalem to Bethlehem, Reverend Philip Brooks of Philadelphia composed a poem, which he eventually showed to Lewis Redner, the organist at the Church of the Holy Trinity, wondering if he could put the words to music. Redner was stumped — that is, until Christmas Eve, when it came to him in a dream. The next morning, the carol we know as “O Little Town of Bethlehem” was born. What’s the story behind “Silent Night”? On Christmas Eve in 1817, when Father Joseph Mohr of St. Nicholas Church in Arnsdorf, Austria, found that a mouse had chewed through the bellows of his church pipe organ, he rushed to the home of music teacher Franz Gruber. The two men quickly wrote a musical piece, hoping it would save the Christmas Mass. With Father Mohr playing guitar, they sang their song in harmony to a small Austrian congregation who became the first to hear the most beloved carol of them all — “Silent Night.”

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“Silent Night” was performed by troupes of Tyrolean Folk Singers, but by 1848, when Father Mohr died penniless at fifty-five, “Silent Night” had fallen into obscurity. In 1854, King Frederick William IV of Prussia heard the song and was so moved, he became responsible for its revival. Why is Christmas referred to as “the Yuletide”? The ancient Germanic peoples celebrated the winter solstice with a feast day for the pagan sun god Jul, which is still the preferred Scandinavian reference to Christmas and survives in our Yule log. Fearing the sun god had disappeared during the year’s longest night, a vigil was held from dusk to dawn and the Yule log was lit to encourage the sun’s return and to discourage evil spirits returning to the Earth’s surface. It was Pope Gregory I who suggested that missionaries not challenge the northern pagan practices and traditions, but rather transfer their meaning to Christianity. The Yuletide covers all December feast days, including Chanukah. How was the date of Christmas established? Early scholars believed that prophets died on an anniversary of their birth. Once they established Good Friday as either March 25 or April 6, they reasoned that Christ’s incarnation was nine months later, which would be either December 25 or January 6. The choice was not simply to comply with pagan superstitions; in 386 AD, when the date was established, any date would have collided with pagan rituals because they filled the calendar year. 418

Neither the date of Christ’s birthday nor that of his crucifixion is given in the Gospels. Why do we light the Christmas tree? In the sixteenth century, Germans began decorating fir trees with ribbons, flowers, apples, and coloured paper. Inspired by the reflection of stars off branches in the forest, Martin Luther placed lit candles on his indoor tree. After three hundred years of candles, Edward Johnson introduced electric Christmas lights outside his Fifth Avenue home in New York in 1882. Johnson also worked on the invention of the light bulb with Thomas Edison. Which Jewish celebrations?

tradition

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influences

Christmas

The celebration of Christmas begins with Midnight Mass, and the calendar date is December 25, but every Christian knows that the reverence begins on Christmas Eve. Christmas Eve comes directly from the Jewish custom of beginning religious rituals with ceremonies starting at sundown the evening before the holy day with candles and prayers lasting until the following sundown — in this case, Christmas Day. Considering his workload, how much time does Santa spend at each child’s home? Travelling at about a thousand miles a second, or 3.6 million miles an hour, Santa covers 111 million miles in 31 hours. Within one second he must visit 500,000 homes, which is why we seldom see him. Of course he does have help, and in

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some cases he delivers presents before Christmas or even works on Boxing Day, but it’s still very hard work. When is the proper time to take down the Christmas tree? From the very beginning of Christmas traditions, January 6 — the day of the Epiphany — was the official end of gift giving, and the most popular day of the celebration. Some people still celebrate the Epiphany as being more important than Christmas Day. Regardless, January 6 is the last day of the festival, and that is the day to take down the tree and decorations. To do otherwise is bad luck. What’s the story behind Chanukah? The word Chanukah means “rededication.” Over 2,300 years ago, the Syrians occupying Judea were overthrown by a Jewish army led by Judah Maccabee. The Syrians had desecrated the Jerusalem Temple with their own gods; while cleaning and reclaiming the temple, the Israelites found enough oil to light the eternal lamp for only one day, but incredibly the flame flickered for eight days, a miracle celebrated to this day as the “Festival of Lights.” The Syrians, led by King Antiochus, had ordered the Jewish people to reject their God and customs and replace them with Greek symbols and deities. The rededication of the temple was on the twenty-fifth day of the ancient month of Kislev (scholars are uncertain whether this was in the new calendar months of November or December).

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The Jewish army fought for years, led by Judah Maccabee and his four brothers. Maccabee means “hammer.” Judea was in, part, what is now Israel. What’s the story behind Kwanza? Kwanza is a seven-day celebration beginning the day after Christmas. It was created in 1966 by Maulana Karenga, chairman of African studies at California State University, and is based on an African winter harvest. Kwanza means “first fruits” in Swahili and celebrates African heritage. On each night of Kwanza, one of several candles is lit and gifts reflecting creativity and community are exchanged. Kwanza is based on seven principles: umoja means unity, kujichagulla means self-determination, ujima means collective work and responsibility, ujamaa means cooperative economics, nia means purpose, kuumba means creativity, and imani means faith. Why do the Chinese name each year for an animal? The Chinese have tied animal names to calendar years for centuries. According to the myth, Buddha invited all the animals on Earth to visit him on New Year’s Day, but only twelve arrived. They were the rat, the ox, the tiger, the hare, the dragon, the snake, the horse, the sheep, the monkey, the rooster, the dog, and the pig. As a reward, Buddha honoured each of these twelve with a year of its own.

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Why is New Year’s Eve celebrated with noisemakers and kissing strangers? New Year’s Eve is the night of Holy Sylvester, the Pope who converted the Roman Emperor Constantine to Christianity. With the Emperor’s conversion, pagan gods fell from favour but fought back through the souls of the living. To combat their return, during the darkness of New Year’s Eve, people wandered the streets shouting to strangers, frolicking with noisemakers, and generally acting foolish — a custom that resurfaces every New Year’s Eve. Pope Sylvester I (314–335 AD) cured the Emperor Constantine of leprosy. Some New Year’s Eve revellers disguised themselves as mummers so that the demoted gods couldn’t identify and punish them as they wandered the streets.

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HEALTH

Why do doctors on television use the word stat in an emergency? It was the Romans who gave the practice of medicine its prestige, and consequently, other than the church, no other profession is still as influenced by Latin. When a doctor says, “Stat!” he is abbreviating statim, meaning “immediately.” The use of the word stands out from “Quickly!” or “Hurry!” and conveys urgency; and yes, it’s still used by real doctors outside of television. Why do we say we are “under the weather” when we get sick?

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When the weather turned bad at sea, the constant rolling of the rough water caused a rocking motion that brought on seasickness. Those passengers affected were taken below deck, because the sway diminishes the lower you get on the ship (especially down near the keel). Those taken below deck because of seasickness were brought “under the weather.” Why is the word quarantine used to describe enforced isolation of contagious diseases? Before the age of modern epidemiology, attempts to control the outbreak of a contagious disease included an arbitrary forty days of enforced confinement. New and strange diseases were often carried from abroad by ships, so a quarantine of crew and cargo helped discourage epidemics. Forty days was chosen because of its prominence in the Bible. Quarante is the French for forty, and quarantine literally translates to “forty-ish.” Why, after a routine medical checkup, do we say we’ve received a “clean bill of health”? If you say a doctor has given you a clean bill of health, you’re using a nautical expression from the days when sailing ships were required to obtain a document from local officials at every port of call declaring that they had not been exposed to any epidemic or infectious disease. If they didn’t have this bill of health, the next port would quarantine the ship, crew, and cargo for forty days. Why is a terrible or fake doctor called a “quack”?

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The first reference to a healer as a quack goes back into the sixteenth century, when it was common for dubious medicine men to travel from town to town dispensing their miracle cures from the back of a horsedrawn wagon. The quack refers to the meaningless sound of a duck, which had the same validity as the claims made by the medicine men that their salves or ointments had healing powers. Today’s quacks still dispense bad medicine.

Why is reconstructive surgery called “plastic”? Plastic surgery was first practiced in India around 600 BC when noses that had been amputated as punishment for criminals were reconstructed with skin from the forehead. The word plastic is from the ancient Greek word plastikos, which means “to mold into shape.” The plastic arts include sculpting and ceramics. The modern term “plastic surgery” came from a surgical handbook published in 1838.

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The word plastique for reconstructive surgery was introduced in 1798 by a French surgeon named Desault. Why do we get sweaty palms when we’re nervous? If your palms sweat when you’re nervous, you can blame evolution. The inside of your hands have more sweat glands than any other part of your body. This is because tens of thousands of years ago, when our primal ancestors were threatened by savage carnivores, the quickest exit was the nearest tree. Stress caused their palms to sweat, and the moisture gave them a better grip on the branches and vines they were climbing. What is the history of Aspirin? Aspirin is the most successful pharmaceutical drug ever produced. Its main ingredient is found in the bark of the willow tree and was known as a pain reliever in 1500 B.C. In 1828, the ingredient salicin was isolated. In 1897 chemist Felix Hoffman developed a synthetic form, known as acetylsalicylic acid, at the Bayer factory in Germany; it was referred to as “Aspirin” for the first time in 1899. The word salicin, the compound in the willow bark that relieves pain, is derived from salix, the Latin word for “willow tree.” North American Indians used birch bark to make salicylate pain remedies. 137 million Aspirin tablets are taken every day. In 1915, Aspirin became available without prescription.

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Bayer® produces 50,000 tons of acetylsalicylic acid each year — enough to produce 100 billion tablets. If these tablets were laid side by side they would form a line stretching to the moon and back.

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AMERICANS & CANADIANS

What do the images on the American flag represent? The American flag has changed twenty-six times since the first official design was approved by the Continental Congress on June 14, 1777. Today it consists of thirteen horizontal stripes, seven red alternating with six white. The stripes represent the original thirteen colonies, while the stars represent the fifty states of the Union. The colors of the flag are symbolic as well: red represents hardiness and valour, white represents purity and innocence, and blue represents vigilance, perseverance, and justice.

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How did the American flag come to be known as “Old Glory”? This famous name was coined by Captain William Driver, a shipmaster of Salem, Massachusetts, in 1831. As he was leaving on one of his many voyages aboard the brig Charles Doggett — one that would climax with the rescue of the mutineers of the Bounty — some friends presented him with a beautiful flag of twenty-four stars. As the banner opened to the ocean breeze for the first time, he exclaimed, “Old Glory!” How many former American presidents are not buried in the United States? As of 2005, there are five former American presidents not buried in the United States. Ulysses S. Grant is not buried but is entombed in New York (a body is only buried when it’s placed in the ground and covered with dirt). The others are Presidents Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, and the current president’s father, George Herbert Walker Bush, who are all still alive. Why does “Hail to the Chief” introduce the American president? When the American President enters a room, “Hail to the Chief “is preceded by a fanfare of four drum and bugle ruffles and flourishes. The number of ruffles and flourishes indicates the importance of the person being introduced — not “Hail to the Chief,” which is from the English dramatization of Sir Walter Scott’s poem “The Lady of the Lake” and which became a popular 429

band number for introducing any important person around 1812. As a fanfare, four ruffles and flourishes is the highest American honour. President Carter did away with “Hail to the Chief” for a time during his term. Because it was a popular melody commonly used for dignitaries, there is no record of when “Hail to the Chief” made the transition into a signature for the president. It just evolved. In 1810, James Sanderson wrote to a friend that Scott’s “The Lady of the Lake” was being made into a play in London. Soon after, Scott received a note from an army officer friend including the music for the Boat Song, now known as “Hail to the Chief.” Why was George M. Cohan forced to rewrite “It’s A Grand Old Flag”? In 1906, George M. Cohan was forced to change one word in his anthem to the American flag, which begins, “It’s a grand old flag/it’s a high flying flag…” Though today it’s sung as a tribute to Old Glory, if Cohan hadn’t made the change, the song probably would never be sung. Cohan’s original lyrics started with, “It’s a grand old rag …” Why are Americans called “Yankees”?

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It’s said that Yankee comes from an English pirate reference to the Dutch, who were known for their diet of cheese, which in their own language is Kaas. The Christian name Jan tied to the word Kaas, or Jan-Kaas (pronounced “yan-kas”), was a derogatory English reference to the Dutch who settled New York. However, it’s more likely that Yankees evolved from yengees, an early Native American pronunciation of Anglais, the French word for the English who had settled the northeast. Why do Americans call Canadians “Canucks”? The word canuck first appeared in 1835 as a derogatory American reference to French Canadians working in the lumber camps of Maine. Today it means any Canadian and is no longer an insult unless used by non-Canadians to describe our French brothers. It’s most likely a combination of the French word for canoeman, canaque, with the “uk” exaggerated from a very common ending to Indian nouns like Tuktoyuktuk. But the word could also be from Canada/Kanata (the name derived from a First Nations word meaning “a collection of huts”), abbreviated with “uk” as a suffix. Over a million French Canadians migrated to New England during the second half of the nineteenth century. Jack Kerouac’s family was among them. Johnny Canuck, the cartoon character, dates from 1869 and was used for propaganda during the Second World War. Is it proper to call Canada’s northern Natives Eskimo or Inuit? 431

Legend has it that the word Eskimo was picked up from the Abenaki by European explorers as meaning “eaters of raw meat,” but the word was originally ayashkinew and referred to the way they tied their snowshoes. It is not a derogatory word, although erroneously believing this and responding to demands from Eskimo political associations, Canada replaced Eskimo with Inuit, meaning “human being,” in the 1970s. Outside of Canada, Arctic Natives are still called Eskimo. The Eskimo are the native inhabitants of the seacoasts of the Arctic and sub-Arctic regions of North America and the northeastern tip of Siberia. Their habitation area extends over four countries. The term Eskimo is still used in Alaska, whether or not they are Eskimos culturally or linguistically. For example, while the Yupik people prefer to be called Yup’ik, they do not generally object to being called Eskimo, but they do not consider themselves Inuit. The Inuit Circumpolar Conference meeting in Barrow, Alaska, in 1977 officially adopted Inuit as a designation for all Eskimo peoples, regardless of their local usages.

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HISTORY Why do most spiral staircases ascend in a clockwise direction? Spiral staircases originated as a defence mechanism in medieval castles because all knights were right-handed. Southpaws were considered under the Devil’s influence and were automatically disqualified for knighthood. While ascending a clockwise spiral staircase backwards with a sword in his right hand, the defending knight could freely swing his sword arm, while the attacker was neutralized by the wall blocking his own right arm. Why is the night shift called “the graveyard shift”? During the Victorian era — before embalming — there was a great fear of being buried alive. Wealthy men and women arranged to have a string tied to their hands that ran from the buried coffin to a bell on the surface, so that if they awoke they could sound the alarm. The cemetery was busy during the day, but someone was needed to wander the grounds and listen for the bells during the night. This was called the graveyard shift. Why do American broadcasting stations use the call letters K and W? During the 1920s, while radio was in its infancy, the FCC assigned the letter K to all stations west of the Mississippi and the letter W to all those east of the river. Exceptions were

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made for stations with established call signs, like KDKA in Pittsburgh, and those affiliated with a network. The other three letters are the broadcaster’s choice. Why is a dicey situation considered a “hazard”? A potentially dangerous situation was first called a hazard by the western European Crusaders after returning from the Holy Land, where they encountered and were fleeced by unscrupulous local gamblers using loaded or doctored dice. “Hazard” is how they pronounced al zahr, which is the Arabic word for dice. In time hazardous, like dicey, became a reference to anything associated with risk. What does the “post” mean in “post office,” and what is the “mail”? In medieval Europe, a system of roads was built to speed messages from the heads of state to all corners of the realm. These were called post roads because riders on horseback were “posted” at intervals in a relay system copied by the Pony Express to speed the delivery of the mail. Mail is what they called the pouch that carried the letters. Urgent messages were marked “post-haste.” Did St. Patrick rid Ireland of snakes? And what is a leprechaun’s profession? There were never any snakes in Ireland. The story of St. Patrick banishing snakes from Ireland is a metaphor for the eradication of paganism during the fifth century. St. Patrick did, however, superimpose a circle representing the sun, a 434

powerful pagan symbol, on what is known as the Celtic cross. As for leprechauns, these two-foot-tall creatures are employed as shoemakers for other fairies. What medieval profession would you have if you heard the “highly strung Mr. Stringer tell Mr. Archer point-blank to brace himself for a quarrel”? If you heard Stringer tell Archer point-blank to brace himself for a quarrel, you were probably an archer. Surnames taken from archery include Stringer, Bower, Fletcher, Abbott (meaning, “at the butts”), and of course Archer. Point-blank is the bulls-eye on a French target. “Brace yourself” meant prepare to shoot, while a quarrel is an arrow shot from a crossbow. Archery was taken so seriously that Henry I of England passed a law that dismissed any punishment for anyone who killed someone while practising. Where did our last names come from? In the Middle Ages, most common people didn’t have a last name. Many of our familiar surnames came from the necessity to distinguish between two people with the same first name by adding their occupation, location, or a physical characteristic. William the tanner and William the blacksmith became William Tanner and William Smith. Poor country people who worked the land took the name of their land lord, so a regal surname usually doesn’t mean regal ancestry. Other occupational last names:

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Taylor — makes or repairs clothing Carter — makes or repairs carts Miller — ground flour from grain Wainwright — wagon builder Bishop — worked with a bishop Last names with geographic origins: Atwood — one who lives near the forest Eastman — one who is from east of here Westwood — one who is from the western forest Dunlop — from the muddy hill Churchill — lives near a church on a hill What is the origin of nicknames? Nicknames are usually pet names of endearment or affection and are derived from a distinct characteristic of or the appearance of the subject. The source is the Old English word eke, which means “as well as” or “in addition to.” The linguistic transition to nick, meaning “devilish,” came later. To a stranger a nickname signalled the kind of person they were dealing with by exaggerating either the person’s good or bad characteristics.

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Does every family have a coat of arms? There is no such thing as a family coat of arms. They were granted only to individuals, and those individuals were exclusively men. A coat of arms can only be used by the uninterrupted line of male descendants of the person to whom it was granted and is a privilege of nobility. The heraldic symbol was emblazoned on a warrior’s shield and was also added to the fabric coat worn on the outside of his armor, which is why it’s known as a coat of arms. Heraldry is the language of symbols or emblems and is the lone surviving custom from the romance and barbarism of feudal times. Blazoning is the heraldic term to describe a coat of arms. The unique colour, shape, and design emblazoned on the warrior’s shield all distinguished him as friend or foe on the battlefield. Why do we refer to a single item of clothing as a “pair of pants”? Pants is short for pantaloons, and the item only became a single garment late in its history. Up until the seventeenth century, the legs were covered with two separate sleeves of fabric called “hose,” which were tied to a belt with braces. The open crotch was covered with breeches and a long tunic. The plural reference to a single unit as a “pair of pants” is extended to trousers, slacks, and shorts.

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Pantaloons came from the comic wardrobe of a stock character in the Commedia dell’Arte. Why do we say that someone snooping into our lives is “digging up the past”? When someone is “looking for dirt,” or scavenging for scandal in another’s earlier life, if they dig long enough they’re bound to find something. Of course if you’re scrounging through an attic trunk or old scrapbooks, you too are “digging up the past.” The expression logically comes from the science of archeology, where people make a profession of “digging up dirt” to understand the present by looking into the past. Why are inappropriate actions called “taboo”? If something is unacceptable, it’s considered “taboo.” When Captain James Cook visited the Friendly Islands in 1777, he noted in his diary that the Polynesians used the word taboo to signify that a thing was forbidden. Cook and his men carried the word to the rest of the English-speaking world, not realizing that it also means “go away,” which is what the Islanders were telling him when he landed. How do they calculate shoe sizes? Roman shoemakers had discovered that the length of three barleycorns equaled one inch, so they used one kernel, or a third of an inch, as a measurement for shoe size. In 1324, King Edward of England decreed that three barleycorns was indeed one inch. In the seventeenth century, children’s shoe sizes were deemed to be less than, and adult sizes more than, 438

thirteen barleycorns. (Size zero was a baby’s size, and the shoes went up in one-barleycorn increments to a children’s thirteen, after which adult’s sizes started again at one.) That calculation is still used to determine shoe sizes to this day. Why is the telling of a tall tale said to be “spinning a yarn”? If someone is “spinning a yarn” they are exaggerating the truth. First printed about 1812, the expression is nautical and has nothing to do with domestic spinning. Sailors were required to spend long tedious shifts working in pairs, spinning fibers into the endless miles of rope needed to keep their sailing ship sound. To pass the time, they entertained themselves by telling tall tales, or “spinning yarns.”

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POP CULTURE

Was cocaine ever an active ingredient in Coca-Cola? When Coca-Cola was introduced in 1886 it was sold as a cure for sore throats, nervousness, headache, colds, neuralgia, and sleeplessness, and like other patent medicines of the time, its formula did include a secret amount of cocaine as well as an extract of cola leaves and kola nuts. As knowledge about the dangers of cocaine became known in the new century, the drug was reduced and eventually eliminated in 1929. After spending $120 for supplies and advertising in their first year, Coca-Cola sold twenty-five bottles. Coke® went public in 1919, and one share from that time is currently worth close to $100,000.

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Who or what were the inspirations for naming the Baby Ruth chocolate bar, the Tootsie Roll, and Hershey’s Kisses? Confectioner Leo Hirschfield created the Tootsie Roll. He named his chewy chocolate treat after his daughter Clara, whose nickname was Tootsie. The Baby Ruth chocolate bar was named in honour of President Grover Cleveland’s baby daughter, Ruth. Hershey’s named their chocolate treats Kisses because in the factory the machine that dispenses them kisses the conveyor belt. How did the bobby pin get its name? The bobby pin got its name in the 1930s, but the inexpensive little wire gadget had become popular with flappers during the “Roaring 20s.” A short haircut for young women came in vogue for the first time in history, and the bobby pin helped keep its shape. The bob in “bobby pins,” like the one in “bobby socks,” means “to cut short,” and was previously used to describe the cropped or bobbed tail of a horse. Who qualifies as a “metrosexual,” and where did the term originate? The word metrosexual was coined in 1994 by writer Mark Simpson. However, it was Simpson’s 2002 article in Salon concerning soccer star David Beckham that introduced metrosexual to everyday use. A metrosexual is a straight but fastidious and style-conscious urban male whose self-indulgence never keeps him far from his true love — himself.

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What does the title refer to in the book The Lord of the Flies? When William Golding published his classic novel in 1954, he chose a title suggesting a powerful, malevolent, supernatural presence, which he called the Lord of the Flies. Translated into Hebrew, “Lord of the Flies” is Ba’al zebhubh, which, since the twelfth century in English has been rendered as “Beelzebub,” a Catholic reference to the Devil. Therefore, the Lord of the Flies is the Devil.

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Why, during a time of million-dollar prizes, do we still say, “That’s the $64 question”? In 1941, Bob Hawk emceed a radio quiz called Take It or Leave It. Chosen from a live studio audience, the contestants went through seven levels of difficulty, starting at $2 and culminating with a chance at $64. The show’s success inspired a dozen imitators, but the original gave us the expression that stuck: “That’s the $64 question.” What is the true inspiration for paranormal movies about men in black? Since the start of the UFO phenomenon in 1947, many who experienced sightings have reported visits from men in black. After approaching Washington claiming that he had proof that flying saucers exist, Albert Bender was visited by three men dressed in black, after whose visit he became gravely ill and refused to elaborate. These men in black, who inspired the popular movies, have only been seen in America. Why are coming attractions called “movie trailers”? Movies used to be shown continuously without a break between features. If someone arrived late for a show they would simply sit and watch for where they came in before leaving. To catch this crowd, and to signify an end to the film as well as chase as many people as possible from their seats for a new audience, coming attractions were spliced onto the end of the first showing as a “trailer,” even though it preceded the next screening.

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Why did Sinatra and the rest of the Rat Pack call women “broads”? In the eighteenth century, poker cards were called broads because they were wider than those used for other card games. Around 1912, because they resembled poker cards, tickets of admission, meal tickets, and transit tickets were being called “broads.” By 1914, because they were a different kind of “meal ticket,” pimps began calling their prostitutes “broads.” Soon the term entered the underworld and was eventually picked up by entertainers. Why are celebrity photographers called “paparazzi”? The word paparazzi as a tag for pushy celebrity photographers comes from Frederico Fellini’s 1960 film La Dolce Vita and first appeared in its current use around 1968. In the movie, the character Signor Paparazzo (the singular of paparazzi) was an obnoxious, creepy little man who was despised by the stars. Before Fellini used it, the word papparazzo was a word in an Italian dialect for “buzzing insect.” Why does deadpan mean an expressionless human face? The word deadpan was first used in print by the New York Times in 1928 as a description of the great silent film comic Buster Keaton, who was also known as “The Great Stone Face.” The theatrical slang use of pan for face dates to the fourteenth century. Dead, of course, means it’s not moving, or it’s expressionless.

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Pancake makeup for an actor’s pan was introduced in 1937 by Max Factor. Why are the Sesame Street characters called Muppets? The Muppets, who’ve had their own television show as well as a series of movies, are best known for their roles on Sesame Street, which first appeared in 1969. After 4,100 episodes, Sesame Street is the longest running television show in history and has received more Emmy Awards than any other show. The Muppets were Jim Henson’s idea, and he named them by combing the words marionette and puppet. What are the odds of winning on a Lotto 6/49 ticket? The odds of winning on a Lotto 6/49 are 1 in 13,983,816, because that’s how many different groups of six numbers can possibly be drawn. This means the odds of winning are about the same as flipping a coin and landing on heads twenty-four times in succession. The odds of winning second place are 1 in 2,330,635. A recent Gallup Poll showed that 57 percent of North Americans have bought a lottery ticket in the last twelve months The odds against hitting the jackpot on a slot machine are 889 to 1. If you add together all the numbers on a roulette wheel (1 to 36), the total is the mystical number 666, often associated with the Devil.

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Why is the mystical board game called a “Ouija board”? The Ouija board has been around since the fourth century, but the first patent was obtained by a German professor of music in 1854. Parker Brothers purchased the rights in 1966 and published the Ouija board game in 1967. The game begins by asking if any spirits are present, and the desired answer is in the name: Ouija is a compound of oui, which is “yes” in French, and ja, which is “yes” in German, so Ouija means “yes, yes.”

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WORDS

Why is spring both a season and fresh water from the ground? Spring is a season, but it’s also part of a mattress, an underground water supply, and a surprise attack. Spring derives from sprengh, an ancient Indo-European word for “rapid movement.” It was around 816 AD when spring was first used to mean “rising up,” or the beginning of something. By the fourteenth century the first of the four seasons became the spring of the year. .

Why is abduction for ransom called “kidnapping”? The word kidnap was first recorded in 1666 and referred to the criminal practice of enticing children or apprentices to

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come away and be sold to sea captains who took them to British colonies to be sold as slaves, labourers, or indentured servants. Kid was an underworld reference to a child, while nap, a variation of nab, means to seize or steal. Today, kidnap means to abduct either a child or an adult. A kid is a young goat, and that is the origin of the word’s slang use for a child. “Kidding around” is acting childish. What is the origin of the word tip, as in “tipping a waiter”? Tip is not an acronym for “To Insure Promptness.” In the 1800s a tip was understood to be a bribe. As insider information, tip first appeared in the seventeenth century and derives from the Low German word tippen, which means “to touch discreetly.” A tip is something confidential, whether given or received — either from a stockbroker or to a waiter. Why are both a published periodical and a place to house ammunition called a “magazine”? The word magazine is from the Arabic word makhzan, meaning “a place to store arms and ammunition.” The word entered English to describe a munitions warehouse or the chamber that holds bullets in a loaded gun. In 1731, the word took on its new meaning with the publication of The Gentlemen’s Magazine, so called because it held an assortment of articles of different shapes and sizes.

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Why are men who “longshoremen”?

work

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The title longshoreman goes back to a time when there was very little mechanical help to unload a great sailing vessel, and often there were no port or docking facilities either. Everything was done by hand. Unloading the big ship into smaller rowing boats, then unloading these onto the shore, was hard work and needed a lot of strong men. Because these men would line up on the water’s edge, they were called “along the shore men” which in time became simply “longshoremen.” Why are young women and girlfriends sometimes referred to as “birds”? Referring to young women as birds dates back to the Anglo-Saxons, who used the endearment brid, meaning “baby animal.” Brid is the derivative of bride, and over time, the term created a number of similar words, all of them having to do with young women. During the 1920s, the flapper look was named after a baby duck. The cancan, popular in France in the 1890s, took its name from canard, which is French for duck. When they danced, the girls displayed their tail feathers. The original dancers wore no underwear.

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The computer terms byte, pixel, and modem are abbreviations of what combinations of words? Each word is a contraction of two words. Byte is a contraction of the words by eight and means eight bits. Half a byte is four bits (or a nibble, depending how you look at it). The word pixel is an abbreviation of picture cell, while modem is a combination of the first letters in the words modulate and demodulate. Why does long mean length, distance, and an emotion? Longing for someone evolved from long, as in length, around 1000 AD. Around 1300 AD, long began to define a period of time because it seemed forever for someone to travel a great distance when a donkey cart was rapid transit. In this day of jet travel, yearning or longing for someone who is far away isn’t the same, because you can always call long distance.

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Why is the entrance to a house called a “threshold”? Today, crossing the threshold signifies a figurative beginning, but a thousand years ago, a threshold was just the floorboard in the doorway of a country cottage. Threshing is the process of separating wheat from the straw. While the wheat was stored, straw, among other things, was used to cover both slate and dirt floors. The board in the doorway that held the straw inside was called the threshold — holder of the straw. What do the words hunky-dory and honcho have in common? If everything is great then it’s hunky-dory, while a honcho is a big shot, and both words come from Japan. During the First World War, American sailors on leave discovered a Yokohama street named Huncho-dori that provided all the facilities for carnal pleasure. They brought home the name and the good feeling as hunky-dory. Honcho came out of the Second World War and is Japanese for “squad leader.” Where did the word gimmick come from? Gimmick or gimac — either way it’s spelled, a gimmick is a gadget or idea that gives you an advantage. The second spelling is an anagram of magic; the word comes from the language of professional magicians and means a small, secret device, like a mirror or sliding panel, that makes an illusion possible. Carnival barkers picked up gimac in the 1920s as a reference to a hidden control over their wheels of chance that ensured the wheel would stop when the barkers wanted it to stop. Today, a gimmick is most often used in advertising or selling, but it’s still part of an illusion. 451

Why are slaves to substance abuse called “addicts”? After the Romans conquered most of Slavonia, the word Slav became synonymous with subjugated people. Slav gave us the word slave. Slavs were given as rewards to Roman warriors and were known by the Latin word for slaves — addicts. If your life is controlled by anything other than your own will, you are a slave to those circumstances. Eventually a person who was a slave to anything was called an addict. What does whelm mean in overwhelmed? An author facing writer’s block is overwhelmed by indecision. The word started out in the 1300s as whelm, meaning to overturn or cover. For example, food was preserved by whelming it with another dish, or a capsized ship had been whelmed by the ocean. In the 1600s, over was added to intensify the meaning. Overwhelm then became figurative for being drowned by circumstances. What’s the purpose of a catchword? Catchword is from the world of print. Two hundred years ago, the last word on a page to be turned began being routinely repeated at the top of the next page to smooth the transition. Newspapers followed by repeating the last word of an article when it was picked up deeper into the paper. In the theatre, a catchword is the cue for the next actor to start his lines. A catchphrase is a political or commercial slogan. The first use of catchwords in a printed book was Tacitus, by John de Spira (1469). 452

If someone fails to perform under pressure, why do we say he “choked”? To choke is to restrict airflow, whether to human lungs or the carburetor of a car. In ancient times, the guilt or innocence of an accused robber was established by making him swallow a piece of barley bread over which a Mass had been said. He had to do this while repeating words from that Mass. If he swallowed without choking, he was innocent, but if he choked he was pronounced guilty. This gave us the expression “choking under pressure.” Legend has it that the Earl of Godwin died while choking on a piece of bread during this legal process. What does monger mean in words like hate-monger or gossipmonger? There are gossipmongers, warmongers, scandal-mongers, hate-mongers, and many others to whom we show extreme disrespect by adding the perceived curse monger to their action; yet when the word stands alone it isn’t that severe. From the old English word mangian, mong simply means “to peddle, sell, or barter,” so a fishmonger sells fish, while a hate-monger peddles hate.

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EXPRESSIONS

Where do we get the saying “Think outside the box”? The phrase is an allusion to a well-known puzzle where one has to connect nine dots, arranged in a square grid, with four straight lines drawn continuously without pen leaving paper. The only solution to this puzzle is one where some of the lines extend beyond the border of the grid (or box). This puzzle was a popular gimmick among management consultants in the 1970s and ‘80s as a demonstration of the need to discard unwarranted assumptions (like the assumption that the lines must remain within the grid).

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If we want the truth, why do we say, “Read between the lines”? Sometimes the truth is obscured within the written text of a letter, and so we must “read between the lines.” Centuries ago it was discovered that by writing a secret message between the lines of a normal letter with lemon juice, the real message would stay transparent until the document was heated over a flame, which causes the juice to become discoloured, revealing the intended message written between the lines of the ruse. If your reputation is ruined, why is your name mud? After John Wilkes Booth assassinated President Lincoln at the Ford Theatre, he broke his leg while leaping from the balcony 455

and onto the stage. During his escape, Booth stopped in at the home of a country doctor for treatment. That doctor’s name was Mudd. Although he claimed no knowledge of Booth’s crime, Dr. Mudd was sent to prison, and in America, his name became unfairly synonymous with disrepute. If someone’s running from punishment, why do we say he’s “on the lam”? Being “on the lam” means to be on the run and became popular in the American underworld near the end of the nineteenth century. Lam is from the Viking word lamja meaning “to make lame” and was used in England during the sixteenth century as “a sound beating.” The words lame and lambaste are related. If someone hit the road because staying would result in severe punishment, they were “on the lam” or on the list for a beating (or worse). Baste is from a Nordic word meaning “thrash” or “flog,” so lambaste is an even more severe beating. If people hide their past, why do we say they have “skeletons in their closets”? The expression about skeletons in a closet comes from a fairy tale about Bluebeard the pirate, who, legend has it, murdered all his many wives. When he gave his new wife the keys to the house, he forbade her to open a specific closet at the end of a long hall — which, of course, she did the moment he left on business. When she unlocked the door and looked inside, she was horrified to find all the skeletons of Bluebeard’s previous wives.

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Why, under urgent circumstances, do we say we have to “strike while the iron is hot”? To strike while the iron is hot means to act quickly before an opportunity is gone. In medieval Europe, blacksmiths worked red-hot iron by hand from a forge. They shaped the heated metal with a hammer before it cooled, so they needed to work quickly, because as the iron cools it becomes brittle and impossible to work with. If the moment is missed, the metal has to be reheated and the process started over. Why do we say that someone who is sharp is “on the ball? To be “on the ball” means to be at the top of your game. We have all heard a pitcher’s excuse of not having his “stuff” after a bad outing and wondered how that excuse would work with our bosses if we had a bad day. From the early days of baseball, when a pitcher couldn’t find the spin and lost control, it’s been said he had “nothing on the ball” which gave us “on the ball” as meaning “he’s in control.” Why do we say that someone in control has “the upper hand”? Someone with the “upper hand” has the final say over a situation. When a group of youngsters gather to pick sides at a game of sandlot baseball, the two captains decide who chooses first when one of them grasps the bat at the bottom of the handle. The captains take turns gripping the bat one fist over the other until there was no more room. The last one to fully grip the bat handle has first choice. He has the upper hand.

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Why do we say, “Take a powder” when we want someone to leave? “Take a powder” is a tough way of telling someone to get lost or get out of here and began as a rude dismissal of women. It was popularized in the gangster movies of the 1930s; when a tough guy was having a private conversation that he didn’t want a woman to overhear, he would use the phrase that the girls used when they excused themselves to use the washroom or refresh their makeup. They’d say they were “taking a powder.” Why do we say that something flawed “isn’t all it’s cracked up to be”? If something isn’t all it was cracked up to be, then it’s less than advertised, it’s a disappointment. Crack began as the verb “to praise or boast” in the fifteenth century and today is often used as a noun. For example, you might be cracked up by a good wisecrack. In the South, a cracker is a feeble-minded braggart. And if you’ve lost it, you’ve gone crackers. No matter how you look at it, if it isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, you’ve been had. Why is a swindle called a “double-cross”? If you cross someone, you’re cheating him. A double-cross means you are cheating both your employer and the one you’ve been hired to deceive. In the 1800s, Thackeray described a fixed horse race in Vanity Fair where the jockey who was prearranged to lose was instead allowed to win, costing the gamblers a fortune. Because the fixer had crossed

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or cheated both parties for a huge profit, the win was called a “double-cross.” Why is an alley with only one exit or entrance called a “blind alley”? Have you ever heard the Biblical quotation about how a rich man’s chances of getting to heaven are about the same as a camel passing through the eye of a needle? An eye is an ancient reference to an opening in a wall or a gate, because you could see through it. If there is an obstruction (or in the case of the alley, a wall), then there is no “eye” to see or escape through — it is a blind alley. Why do we describe an upset person as being “beside himself”? If someone is beside himself, he is extremely distraught. You might even say he is out of his mind, because the ancients believed that under extreme distress the soul left a man’s body and stood beside the human form, which left the subject literally “beside himself.” This absence of the soul gave the Devil an opportunity to fill the void. Extreme pleasure could also cause this condition. The Greek word ecstasy means “to stand out of the body.” What’s the story behind the expression “It’s a dog-eat-dog world”? In the year 43 BC, Roman scholar Marcus Tarentius Varro observed humanity and remarked that even “a dog will not eat dog.” His point was that humans are less principled in the matter of destroying their own 459

kind than other animals. By the sixteenth century, the phrase became a metaphor for ruthless competition, and during the Industrial Revolution the expression “It’s a dog-eat-dog world” became commonplace.

Why, if you’re insincere, do we say you’re “talking through your hat”? Saying something without conviction might be called a lie, or you could be accused of “talking through your hat.” Around 1850, an Englishman refused to kneel before sitting in a

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church pew, a serious breach of religious etiquette. Instead, he whispered a prayer while covering his mouth with his hat before sitting down. This shocked the other worshippers, and although many copied him, “Talking through your hat” took on the meaning of false and irreverent. Why do we say that something very obvious is “as clear as a bell”? In a simpler time when birds could be heard above traffic or construction noise, a single clear note sounded by a church bell could be heard over a wide area and was used to communicate time, to announce a celebration or important event, or even to warn of an impending attack. When the bell sounded, everyone heard the message as clear as a bell. Why do we call the conclusion of anything unpleasant “the bitter end”? “The bitter end” has been used to describe the conclusion of something distasteful since the mid-nineteenth century. It’s a play on the word bitter, as in “sour,” and the nautical bitters, the posts on a ships deck where cables and ropes are wound and tied. When securing the ship to the dock, or while at anchor, the very end of the rope or cable holding the vessel secure is called the bitter end. Why are unrealistic fantasies called “pipe dreams”? Pipe dreams are often schemes that just won’t work. Like daydreams, pipe dreams dissolve like smoke rising into the air — which is appropriate, because the metaphor comes from smoking opium. It can be traced to print in the late nineteenth 461

century, when it was fashionable for hedonists and the upper classes to escape reality through an opium pipe. Those “on the pipe” were experiencing opium-induced “pipe dreams.” Why does “to bear the brunt” mean “to take the heat”? “To take the heat” is the literal translation of “to bear the brunt,” because brunt and burn mean the same thing. From the Anglo-Saxon word brenning, or burning, brunt was a vivid reference to the hottest point of conflict during a battle. It took on a more general meaning to describe contentious domestic and business issues, but it always means the utmost pressure within a circumstance, or the point of greatest fury. What are the meaning and the origin of the expression “The be-all and end-all”? Shakespeare introduced the expression, meaning “the ultimate or most important solution,” as dialogue for Macbeth, who thinks about killing Duncan and wonders “that this blow might be the beall and the end-all” (MacBeth I vii. IV). Macbeth then says he would risk his status in the afterlife if it were true. Today, Shakespeare’s second “the” is usually dropped but “the be-all and end-all” still means “the ultimate.” How did the expression “dead as a doornail” originate? When metal nails were introduced to construction, they were hand tooled, which made them very rare and equally expensive. When an aging house or barn with metal nails was torn down it was important to collect and reuse the nails. Because previous carpenters had bent the 462

sharp end of the doornails for safety and to stabilize them against constant opening and closing, they were useless for recycling, which made them “dead.” Where did the expression “I’ve got to see a man about a dog” originate? It’s the room we most often frequent, but good manners dictate that we avoid direct references to the toilet at all costs. It’s a restroom, a powder room, a washroom, and a loo, which is derived from the French word l’eau for water, as in water closet. “Seeing a man about a dog” comes from the 1866 play Flying Scud where a character says, “Excuse me Mr. Quail, I can’t stop; I’ve got to see a man about a dog” meaning he needs to leave the room — and fast. Flying Scud was written by Irish-born playwright Dion Boucicault. If someone lacks confidence, why do we say that he’s “selling himself short”? If someone sells himself short, he’s probably nervous about the future, and for good reason. The expression comes from the stock market. “Selling short” means that you’re selling shares you don’t yet own. If an investor believes a stock is on the decline, he might gamble by selling it before purchasing it in the future at a lower price. The difference is his profit; unless the stock goes down, he pays the consequences of selling short. What does it mean to be footloose and fancy-free?

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To be footloose and fancy-free means to be free from any responsibilities, or in other words, to be single. The expression started appearing in print around 1700 with footloose simply meaning your ankles were unshackled so you could go anywhere you wanted. Fancy was a sixteenth-century word for being attracted to someone of the opposite sex. If you weren’t in love, you were “fancy-free.” What’s the origin of the expression “Put on your thinking cap”? Teachers will often tell students to “put on their thinking caps” when they want them to take time to think things over. Caps have been associated with academics, jurists, scholars, and clerics for centuries. One of the most familiar of these caps is the mortarboard worn at graduation, so called for its similarity to the instrument used by bricklayers. In the seventeenth century, English judges wore a “considering cap” while pondering a sentence. Why, when abbreviating something, do we say, “In a nutshell”? “In a nutshell” indicates a drastically reduced summary. Long before modern electronics, a few scholars made attempts at condensing massive literary works so they could be more easily stored. It became an obsession to some to see just how small they could write. For example, a copy of the Qur’an was reduced on a parchment measuring four inches by half an inch. These copies were so small it was said they could be stored in a nutshell. What do I mean by saying, “If I had my druthers”? 464

“If had my druthers” means, of course, “If I had my way.” Druthers is always plural and indicates that there are a number of options other than what is offered. It’s rural American slang; it began as “I’d rather,” which, when shortened by dropping the “I” becomes “drather.” With a country accent, “drather” becomes “druther,” which when pluralized and extended becomes “druthers” meaning “choices.” When being dismissive, why do we say, “Go fly a kite”? Flying a kite is a good way to see which way the wind is blowing. In the nineteenth century, when a man was looking for employment or searching for investors, he would send out letters to strangers in much the same way as people send out resumes today. “Go fly a kite” meant “I can’t help you, but keep sending out those letters.” Why do “guts” and “pluck” mean courage? Having “guts” or “pluck” means having courage or backbone, while having neither means lily-livered cowardice, and they are all references to intestinal fortitude. Guts, of course, are internal organs while pluck is collectively the heart, liver, and lungs. Lily-livered comes from the belief that fear drains blood from the liver, making it white. It was once believed that these internal organs, specifically the heart, were the source of a person’s character. In the eighteenth century, the pluck contained the heart, liver, lights, melt, and skirt (lights were lungs, melt was the collected blood, and the skirt was the diaphragm). 465

CHILDHOOD

What is the origin of the children’s rhyme “Eeney, meeney, miney, moe”? “Eeney, meeney, miney, moe” is a children’s rhyme where, with each word, the person counting or reciting points at one of a group of players to establish who will be “it.” The ritual was handed down from the Druids, who used the same counting formula to choose human sacrifices. The precise meanings and origins of the words eeney, meeney, miney and moe are unknown. The theory that the rhyme is from an ancient Anglo-Saxon, Celtic, or Welsh numbering system can’t be proven. The rhyme was first written down in 1855 along with several other versions, for example, “Hanna, mana, mona, mike.”

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Why is rolling head over heels called a “somersault”? A somersault is a stunt in which a person tumbles head over heels; it can be very difficult, as when performed by a circus acrobat, or very simple, as when performed by a child on a front lawn. The word has two Latin derivatives, supra, meaning above and saltus, meaning “leap.” It entered England from France as sombresault. One of the word’s alternate spellings was used to name the English county of Somerset. The word somersault first appeared in English around 1530 as sobersault, and by the nineteenth century it was sumersault. What are the origins of the merry-go-round? When medieval noblemen were looking for a sport to replace their brutal jousting tournaments, they turned to a training exercise of catching rings from horseback, known in Spanish as carossela, meaning “little war.” Carossela gave us carousel. In time, live horses were replaced with hanging revolving seats, which in turn gave way to painted wooden horses, and from this evolved the merry-go-round.

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Where did the game hopscotch come from? Hopscotch was brought to Britain by the Romans, who used it as a military training exercise. The courts were one hundred feet long, and the soldiers ran them in full battle gear to improve their footwork. Children copied the soldiers by scratching out small courses of their own and creating rules and a scoring system. The scotch in hopscotch refers to the markings scored onto the ground. As in butterscotch toffee, scotch means scored or notched into squares.

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What’s the origin of the phrase “goody two-shoes”? A “goody two-shoes” is an unbearably self-centred little girl and comes from a nursery rhyme, “The History of Little Goody Two-shoes.” “Goody” was a common nickname for married women and came from the word goodwife. In the nursery rhyme, Goody owned only one shoe. When given a pair, she ran around showing them to everyone, even those less fortunate than she, smugly announcing, “Look! Two shoes.” The phrase came to mean a self-centred brat. “The History of Little Goody Two-shoes,” inspired by an actual person, was written by Oliver Goldsmith and published in 1765 by John Newberry. The real Goody’s full name was Margery Meanwell, and she lived in Mouldwell. “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” shares a melody with three other nursery rhymes, but which two classical composers also used the melody? In 1806, Jane Taylor published “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” simply as “The Star.” The tune was already in use for “Baa Baa Black Sheep” and the Alphabet Song. The melody for all three came from a French rhyme called “Ah! Vous dirais-je Maman” (1765). Both Mozart and Haydn have incorporated the melody into two of their classical compositions: Haydn in “Surprise” Symphony No.94 and Mozart in Theme and Variations K265. Why does the childhood word dibs mean “It’s mine”? To put “dibs” on something, like a piece of cake (or Dad’s car), is to express first claim to a share of that object. The 469

word dates from before 1700 and comes from a very old children’s game called dibstone, a forerunner to marbles, which was played with either sheep knuckles or small stones. The object was to capture an opponent’s stone by declaring, “I dibs!” meaning, “It’s mine!” The plural of the word was dubs. Why when lifting a young child, might you say, “Ups-a-daisy”? Whether it’s “Ups-a-daisy,” “Whoops-a-daisy,” or “Oops-a-daisy,” you are speaking loving nonsense, usually to a child. “Up-a-dazy” dates back to 1711, and by 1862 it had mutated into “Up-a-daisy,” spelled the same as the flower. The original meaning was an encouragement for a child to get up, and dazy was an endearing reference to lazy, an abbreviation of lackadaisical. What’s the meaning behind “Pop Goes the Weasel”? The old song, with every verse ending in “Pop goes the weasel,” is a tale of Victorian London working-class poverty. The Eagle of the lyrics was a famous pub. The City Road still exists. “Pop” means to pawn something for cash, while a “weasel” in cockney rhyming slang is a coat. After spending his money on rice and treacle, followed by a visit to the pub, the man in the song is forced to visit the pawnshop for more money — thus selling his belongings, or “Pop goes the weasel.”

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TRIVIA

How did the Swedish company IKEA get its name? Born in 1926 in the Swedish village of Agunnaryd, Ingvar Kamprad got his start by riding his bicycle from farm to farm selling wooden matches. Once everyone had a supply of matches, Ingvar wisely decided to diversify his offerings and soon was pedaling around the countryside delivering Christmas tree ornaments, ballpoint pens, and, though it must have been a bit awkward, fresh fish. By age seventeen, Ingvar had formed his own company and named it IKEA, an acronym made up of his own initials, the name of his family’s farm (Elmtaryd), and the village of his birth. Delivering his products (which now included picture frames, watches, and jewellery) by bicycle was no longer practical, so

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Ingvar transformed IKEA into a mail-order operation; by 1948 he was also selling furniture produced by local artisans. So successful was his low-priced but sturdy furniture that by 1951 he had dropped all his other products and decided to concentrate on inexpensive but stylish home furnishings. What is the chief difference between a limited company (Ltd.) and one that’s incorporated (Inc.)? A company name ending in Ltd. means that the amount of risk or liability for its shareholders for any corporate failure or debt is limited to the amount of their personal investment in that company. In an incorporated company or corporation (Inc.), the business is recognized as a single entity, and the personal assets of its principals are protected from creditors if the business fails. Only stockholders risk losing the amount of their investment. Why is something or someone of superior quality called “a cut above”? “A cut above” dates from the eighteenth century and literally means the quality of the cutting or fashioning of a person’s clothing. The superior appearance or station in life of someone with a good tailor or milliner is obvious when compared with a common man or woman, making them a “cut above” the ordinary. The phrase is related to the nautical phrase “The cut of her jib,” meaning the style or cut of a ship’s sails. You can also be a “cut below,” as in “The girl herself is a cut below par” (A.B. Walford, 1891). Why is it bad luck to whistle backstage in a theatre?

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Whistling backstage became bad luck during a time in England when stagehands were most often sailors without a ship. The curtain, flies, and props were moved manually by a system of ropes, so the sailors communicated as they did at sea: by whistling. If someone not involved in the intricate backstage manoeuvres were to whistle, a stagehand might take it as a cue, which could be disastrous for the production. What was the original meaning of “stem the tide”? The general (yet incorrect) use of “stem the tide” is to deflect a serious problem, but tides can’t be deflected. A stem is the upright beam at the fore of the ship where the hull timbers form the prow. The nautical manoeuvre against a surging tide is the same as against an angry sea. The ship is turned to stem the onslaught. To “stem the tide” means that to overcome serious problems, you must face them head-on. What is the origin of the thimble? A thimble is more than a token in a Monopoly game. Its true name is thumb-bell, and before the seventeenth century, when it was invented in Holland, pushing a sewing needle through skins or fabric often required the use of a small block of wood or bone. Thimbles have a romantic history, and during the Victorian era thimbles were often love tokens. They were even used to measure drinks, which gave us the expression, “Just a thimble-full.” A person who collects thimbles is a digitabulist. Why does “XXX” warn us about sexually explicit material? 473

The first use of the X brand was on casks of English beer and indicated that the contents had been properly aged and had passed government approval after paying a ten-shilling duty, illustrated by the Roman numeral X. Some brewers added extra Xs to suggest a more potent content, and smut peddlers followed suit. When something is X-rated by the censors, its naughtiness is enhanced if more Xs are added. Why are the contorted faces and heads around roofs called “gargoyles”? Ancient Celtic warriors used to place the severed heads of their enemies around the top of their fortresses as a warning. In time these inspired architects to add the twisted faces of gargoyles to prominent buildings. Gargoyles had the practical purpose of collecting rainwater and dropping it clear of the walls through their throats. In ancient French, gargouille means “throat.”

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Why do doors generally open inward on a house and outward on public buildings? Doors generally open outward on public buildings as a precaution against fire. If dozens of people have to rush for the exit, they won’t have to fight to pull the door inward against the crush. The exceptions are those institutions fearing robbery, which have doors opening inward to delay the getaway and, like the doors of your home, to keep the hinges on the inside so that burglars can’t simply remove the door. On a standard computer or typewriter, which hand controls the most keys?

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When a typists hands take the standard position taught around the world, the left hand controls fifteen letters, including the most frequently used, E, A, T, R and S, while the right hand controls only eleven, although it also controls the comma and the period. The left hand makes about 56 percent of the strokes leaving 44 percent for the right. Reverberates, effervesce, and stewardess can be typed entirely with the left hand. Monopoly, homonym, and lollipop can be typed using only the right hand. The delete/backspace keys come under the right, which equalizes the workload between the two hands for an average typist.

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QUESTION LIST Customs Why is marriage called “wedlock”? Why is it bad luck for the groom to see his bride before the ceremony on their wedding day? How did wedding cakes become so elaborate? Why do women cry at weddings? Why does the groom crush a glass with his foot at a Jewish wedding? Why do Jews place stones on a grave when they visit a cemetery? What is the difference between a parlour and a drawing room? What are the subtleties hidden in the Japanese custom of bowing? What’s the difference between an epitaph and a cenotaph? What is the origin and meaning of the Latin male gesture of kissing the fingertips? Why does the audience stand during the Hallelujah Chorus?

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Beliefs & Superstitions What’s the origin of the parting wish “Godspeed”? Why do we say that someone who’s finished or fired has “had the biscuit”? Where did we get the expression “For the love of Pete”? Why shouldn’t you say, “holy mackerel,” “holy smokes,” or “holy cow”? How did Pat Robertson’s television show The 700 Club get its name? Why do most flags of Islamic countries have the same basic colours, and what is the symbolism of the crescent moon and star? What is the Holy Grail? Why is unconsummated love called “platonic”? Where else, other than on a Friday, is the number thirteen considered unlucky? Do people really fear Friday the thirteenth? Games & Entertainment Why is a skin-tight garment called a “leotard”?

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What are the chances of winning one thousand dollars at a casino game of craps? Why do we judge someone by how they act when “the chips are down”? How many five-card hands are possible in a deck of fifty-two, and what is a dead man’s hand? If its symbol is in the shape of a black clover, why do we call the suit of cards “clubs”? What Biblical curiosities are in a deck of cards? What are the names from history of the jacks and queens in a deck of cards? The kings in a deck of cards represent which real leaders from history? Why are there jokers in a deck of cards? How many ways can you win on a ninety-number bingo card? What are the origins and military significance of the phrase “Go for broke”? Why do we say, “Make no bones about it” when stating an absolute fact? Why do we say that the person in charge “calls the shots”?

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Why does coming in “under the wire” mean you’ve just made it? Why is a gullible shopper called a “mark”? People How many people live on Earth? Why does the term barbarian refer to a rough or wild person? Why do some women wear beauty marks? How did the expression “barefaced lie” originate? Why do some men call a special buddy a “sidekick”? How did street riff-raff get to be called “hooligans”? Where did the word tomboy originate? Why is a vulgar woman called a “fishwife” while a respectable married woman is a “housewife”? Why are attractive but intellectually challenged women called “bimbos”? Who were the first people to establish a legal drinking age and why? Why do we call someone too smart for his or her own good a “smart aleck”?

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Where did the words steward and stewardess originate? Why is a perfectionist called a “stickler”? Why is a practice session called a “dry run”? Why is a negative perception of someone called a “stigma”? What colour is “Alice Blue”? Why is a middleman called a broker? Why is the person who fixes your pipes called a “plumber”? Sports Why did it take forty-eight years for a particular Canadian woman to win an Olympic race? What do the five Olympic rings and their colours represent? In golf, you know about eagles and birdies, but what is an albatross? Why are golfer’s shortened pants called “plus fours”? Where did we get the phrase “Down to the short strokes”? Why do we refer to golf courses as “links”? Why does the winner of the Indianapolis 500 drink milk in Victory Lane? How did tennis get its name? 481

What is the origin of the hockey puck? Where did the New Jersey Devils get their name? How did the Boston hockey team get the name “Bruins”? Why is street hockey called “shinny”? Why is three of anything called a “hat trick”? How did the Detroit Red Wings and the New York Rangers get their names? How did the stadium phenomenon called “the wave” get started? How many teams in the four major North American professional sports leagues have names not ending in the letter S? How did rhubarb become baseball slang for a fight or argument? Why don’t baseball coaches wear civilian clothes like those in every other sport? What do the record books overlook about the home run records of Hank Aaron, Roger Maris, and Babe Ruth? Why is someone out of touch said to be “out in left field”? Americans and Canadians play the same football game, but why are the rules so different?

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How did the NFL’s Ravens, Bears, and Packers get their names? How did the Anaheim Angels, the Indiana Pacers, and the Los Angeles Lakers get their names? How did the New Jersey Nets get their name? Why do North Americans call the international game of football “soccer”? Why are extra seats in a gymnasium or open-air benches in a stadium called “bleachers”? Why is spinning a ball called “putting English on it”? Why is an exercising weight called a “dumbbell”? Why is a sure winner called a “shoo-in”? Why is an underdog victory called an “upset”? Why do we say that someone who has an advantage has “a leg up”? Places Why is Earth the only planet not named from Greek or Roman mythology? Why is the city of New Orleans called “The Big Easy”?

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Why is Boulder City the only city in Nevada where gambling is illegal? Who coined the phrase “a New York minute”? What are the Seven Seas? Where did we get the expression “down in the boondocks”? What’s the difference between the United Kingdom and Great Britain? Why is a burial ground for the poor called “Potter’s Field”? Why are prestigious hotels and apartment buildings sometimes known as “Arms”? Why do the countries Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, and others all end in “stan”? Money & Numbers If both the United States and England were $1 billion in debt, which country would owe the most money? Why is an English pound sterling called a “quid”? Why are subjects of human experiments called “guinea pigs”? Why is a differing opinion called “your two cents’ worth”? Why is being called “a lucky stiff” an insult?

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If something sounds honest, why do we say it “rings true”? Why are we warned not to take any wooden nickels? Why is money called “cash”? Where did the word dollar come from? If gold is so rare, why does there seem to be so much of it in circulation? What’s the difference between yellow and white gold? Why is the discovery of riches called “the motherlode”? Why is the furthest we can go called the “nth degree”? Why is the last minute before a deadline called “the eleventh hour”? Why are a group of thirteen things called “a baker’s dozen”? If you have a myriad of choices, exactly how many choices do you have? Why do they count down backwards to a rocket launch? How did the numbers eleven, twelve, and thirteen get their names? Travel & Distance

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What’s the difference between a truck, a tractor semi-trailer, and a full tractor-trailer? How did the famous Italian automobile brands FIAT and ALFA get their names? Where did the term “drag racing” originate? If you’re abandoned and alone, why do we say you’ve been “stranded”? How far is a league as mentioned in The Lord of the Rings? Why is a country mile considered a greater distance than the average mile? How long is a “rod”? Politics & the Law Why do Conservatives call Liberals “bleeding hearts”? Why are Conservatives called “Tories”? Why is someone you don’t want to hear from told to “take a back seat”? Why are British police officers known as “bobbies”? Why are police vans called “paddy wagons”? How did a broken straw come to stipulate the end of a contract?

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Why does “pony up” mean “show us your money”? What does it mean to give someone power of attorney? What is a “grand jury”? Why is private property called our “bailiwick,” and how does it concern the sheriff? War & the Military Where did we get the expression “Over the top”? Why do we pronounce colonel with an R and spell it with an L? When something is over why do we say, “That’s all she wrote”? Why do yellow ribbons symbolize fidelity? Why is a dismissive final remark called “a parting shot”? Why is malicious destruction called “vandalism”? Where do we get the expression “Batten down the hatches”? Why do we call an unstable person a “basket case”? How did crossing a line in the sand become a military challenge? Why is an exact likeness called a “spitting image”?

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Why are deadly hidden devices called “booby traps”? Why is someone of little importance called a “pipsqueak”? Why is there a saddled, riderless horse in a military funeral? What’s the origin of the panic button? What does it mean to be decimated? How did “diehard” come to mean resilient? Why do they fire a rifle volley over the grave of a fallen soldier? Why do we describe a close contest as “nip and tuck”? What’s the origin of the phrase “Don’t shoot the messenger”? Food & Drink Why is someone who is dazed or confused said to be “groggy”? Why is a cup of coffee sometimes called a “cup of joe”? Why did diners name the best bargain of the day a “blue plate special”? What is North America’s favourite snack food? Why is there a chocolate bar named Sweet Marie?

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Why do we say that someone we consider stupid “doesn’t know which side his bread is buttered on”? Why are dishes served with spinach called “Florentine”? How did an ice cream dish become known as a “sundae,” and why is it spelled that way? Why is a small restaurant called a “bistro”? Where did the expression “Have your cake and eat it too” come from? Why do we call outdoor cooking a “barbeque”? How did the caramel-covered popcorn Crackerjack get its name? Where did the drinking expression “Bottoms up” originate? Why are those tasty round pastries with holes in the centre called doughnuts? What does the phrase “Eat, drink, and be merry” tell us? Why is the word straw in strawberry? Why do we call those tasty sweet treats “candy”? What do we mean by, “The proof is in the pudding”? What’s the origin of ketchup?

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Why is an altered alcoholic drink called a “mickey”? If it wasn’t the French, then who invented french fries? Why do we call that delicious crustacean a “lobster”? Which restaurant meals do North Americans like best? How did the eggplant get that name? How did marmalade get its name? Animals Why does shedding crocodile tears mean that you’re faking sadness? How did an American bird get named after the distant country of Turkey? How are things going if you’re living “high on the hog”? Why is someone worn out “at the end of his rope”? Is there a difference in the quality between brown and white chicken eggs? What do chickens have to do with chicken pox? Where did we get the saying “Not enough room to swing a cat”? Why does March come “in like a lion and out like a lamb”?

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Why is a leader of a trend called a “bellwether”? Why are Dalmatians used as mascots by firefighters? Why do geese fly in a V formation? What part did Newfoundland play in naming the penguin? Why are long, rambling, and unfunny stories called “shaggy dog stories”? If you’re wrong, why do we say you’re “barking up the wrong tree”? When we want a dog to attack, why do we say, “Sic ’em”? Why do we say that a new subject is “a horse of a different colour”? Why is the height of a horse measured in hands? Holidays What is the religious significance of Groundhog Day? Who receives the most Valentine’s cards? What are the origins of Ash Wednesday? Why is the season of Easter fasting called “Lent”? How did the white trumpet lily become the Easter lily?

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Why do Orthodox and Catholic churches celebrate holy days on different dates? Why do Canadians celebrate Victoria Day? Why do we refer to the celebrants of the first thanksgiving as “Pilgrims”? How did bobbing for apples become a Halloween tradition? Why do children ask us to shell out treats on Halloween? How did the poinsettia, a Mexican weed, become associated with Christmas? Is Xmas a disrespectful commercial abbreviation of Christmas? When exactly are the twelve days of Christmas? How did Christmas cake become a tradition? Why are fruits and nuts offered over Christmas? Why do we hang stockings at Christmas? What’s the story behind “O Little Town of Bethlehem”? What’s the story behind “Silent Night”? Why is Christmas referred to as “the Yuletide”? How was the date of Christmas established?

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Why do we light the Christmas tree? Which Jewish celebrations?

tradition

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influences

Christmas

Considering his workload, how much time does Santa spend at each child’s home? When is the proper time to take down the Christmas tree? What’s the story behind Chanukah? What’s the story behind Kwanza? Why do the Chinese name each year for an animal? Why is New Year’s Eve celebrated with noisemakers and kissing strangers? Health Why do doctors on television use the word stat in an emergency? Why do we say we are “under the weather” when we get sick? Why is the word quarantine used to describe enforced isolation of contagious diseases? Why, after a routine medical checkup, do we say we’ve received a “clean bill of health”?

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Why is a terrible or fake doctor called a “quack”? Why is reconstructive surgery called “plastic”? Why do we get sweaty palms when we’re nervous? What is the history of Aspirin? Americans & Canadians What do the images on the American flag represent? How did the American flag come to be known as “Old Glory”? How many former American presidents are not buried in the United States? Why does “Hail to the Chief” introduce the American president? Why was George M. Cohan forced to rewrite “It’s A Grand Old Flag”? Why are Americans called “Yankees”? Why do Americans call Canadians “Canucks”? Is it proper to call Canada’s northern Natives Eskimo or Inuit? History

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Why do most spiral staircases ascend in a clockwise direction? Why is the night shift called “the graveyard shift”? Why do American broadcasting stations use the call letters K and W? Why is a dicey situation considered a “hazard”? What does the “post” mean in “post office,” and what is the “mail”? Did St. Patrick rid Ireland of snakes? And what is a leprechaun’s profession? What medieval profession would you have if you heard the “highly strung Mr. Stringer tell Mr. Archer point-blank to brace himself for a quarrel”? Where did our last names come from? What is the origin of nicknames? Does every family have a coat of arms? Why do we refer to a single item of clothing as a “pair of pants”? Why do we say that someone snooping into our lives is “digging up the past”? Why are inappropriate actions called “taboo”?

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How do they calculate shoe sizes? Why is the telling of a tall tale said to be “spinning a yarn”? Pop Culture Was cocaine ever an active ingredient in Coca-Cola? Who or what were the inspirations for naming the Baby Ruth chocolate bar, the Tootsie Roll, and Hershey’s Kisses? How did the bobby pin get its name? Who qualifies as a “metrosexual,” and where did the term originate? What does the title refer to in the book The Lord of the Flies? Why, during a time of million-dollar prizes, do we still say, “That’s the $64 question”? What is the true inspiration for paranormal movies about men in black? Why are coming attractions called “movie trailers”? Why did Sinatra and the rest of the Rat Pack call women “broads”? Why are celebrity photographers called “paparazzi”? Why does deadpan mean an expressionless human face?

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Why are the Sesame Street characters called Muppets? What are the odds of winning on a Lotto 6/49 ticket? Why is the mystical board game called a “Ouija board”? Words Why is spring both a season and fresh water from the ground? Why is abduction for ransom called “kidnapping”? What is the origin of the word tip, as in “tipping a waiter”? Why are both a published periodical and a place to house ammunition called a “magazine”? Why are men who work on the docks called “longshoremen”? Why are young women and girlfriends sometimes referred to as “birds”? The computer terms byte, pixel, and modem are abbreviations of what combinations of words? Why does long mean length, distance, and an emotion? Why is the entrance to a house called a “threshold”? What do the words hunky-dory and honcho have in common? Where did the word gimmick come from? Why are slaves to substance abuse called “addicts”? 497

What does whelm mean in overwhelmed? What’s the purpose of a catchword? If someone fails to perform under pressure, why do we say he “choked”? What does monger mean in words like hate-monger or gossipmonger? Expressions Where do we get the saying “Think outside the box”? If we want the truth, why do we say, “Read between the lines”? If your reputation is ruined, why is your name mud? If someone’s running from punishment, why do we say he’s “on the lam”? If people hide their past, why do we say they have “skeletons in their closets”? Why, under urgent circumstances, do we say we have to “strike while the iron is hot”? Why do we say that someone who is sharp is “on the ball? Why do we say that someone in control has “the upper hand”?

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Why do we say, “Take a powder” when we want someone to leave? Why do we say that something flawed “isn’t all it’s cracked up to be”? Why is a swindle called a “double-cross”? Why is an alley with only one exit or entrance called a “blind alley”? Why do we describe an upset person as being “beside himself”? What’s the story behind the expression, “It’s a dog-eat-dog world”? Why, if you’re insincere, do we say you’re “talking through your hat”? Why do we say that something very obvious is “as clear as a bell”? Why do we call the conclusion of anything unpleasant “the bitter end”? Why are unrealistic fantasies called “pipe dreams”? Why does “to bear the brunt” mean “to take the heat”? What are the meaning and the origin of the expression “The be-all and end-all”?

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How did the expression “dead as a doornail” originate? Where did the expression “I’ve got to see a man about a dog” originate? If someone lacks confidence, why do we say that he’s “selling himself short”? What does it mean to be footloose and fancy-free? What’s the origin of the expression “Put on your thinking cap”? Why, when abbreviating something, do we say, “In a nutshell”? What do I mean by saying, “If I had my druthers”? When being dismissive, why do we say, “Go fly a kite”? Why do “guts” and “pluck” mean courage? Childhood What is the origin of the children’s rhyme “Eeney, meeney, miney, moe”? Why is rolling head over heels called a “somersault”? What are the origins of the merry-go-round? Where did the game hopscotch come from?

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What’s the origin of the phrase “goody two-shoes”? “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” shares a melody with three other nursery rhymes, but which two classical composers also used the melody? Why does the childhood word dibs mean “It’s mine”? Why when lifting a young child, might you say, “Ups-a-daisy”? What’s the meaning behind “Pop Goes the Weasel”? Trivia How did the Swedish company IKEA get its name? What is the chief difference between a limited company (Ltd.) and one that’s incorporated (Inc.)? Why is something or someone of superior quality called “a cut above”? Why is it bad luck to whistle backstage in a theatre? What was the original meaning of “stem the tide”? What is the origin of the thimble? Why does “XXX” warn us about sexually explicit material? Why are the contorted faces and heads around roofs called “gargoyles”?

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Why do doors generally open inward on a house and outward on public buildings? On a standard computer or typewriter, which hand controls the most keys?

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Now You Know Volume 4

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Preface

When I was a young man, someone I worked for told me, “You think too much.” “There’s no such thing,” I replied. Then he fired me. I still believe I was right, and working on the Now You Know series has reaffirmed that conviction. We may not need to know much more than how to catch a bus or start a car to get to work, but when we get there, it’s a good idea to have an idea (even if your boss doesn’t).

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The “Almighty” has generally allocated three original ideas for each human being, so learn how to use them well. All of life is an internship: watching, learning, and then challenging. As children, we live within dreams, and though these can be either woven or altered by adults, they can never be totally destroyed. It is through this time of innocence that we discover all that will ever be important to us — our minds. You don’t live in a nice house, a rundown apartment, or even a mansion; you live in your mind! All around us, and yes, even within each of us, is the living evidence of the great minds from history. It’s in the architecture and monuments, the libraries and galleries, and the marvels of our electronic conveniences. It’s in the decaying isolated homes of early settlers and in the walls of ancient forts and castles. It’s in our fairy tales, our fashion, our customs, and our art, but most important, it’s within our languages, our everyday speech. This book is the fourth in which I have explored everyday language and customs, and those who have become collectors of these volumes will notice a subtle expansion in content and format. For example, interspersed throughout this book are short features that I call “Odds & Oddities,” which present the odds or chances of something. Also scattered throughout the book in relevant places are what I call “Quickies,” bite-size bits of information taking the form of “Did you know …?” And from time to time you’ll encounter other boxed items such as bumper stickers for baby boomers. Lastly, at the end of this volume, I’ve answered a selected sample of questions posed by readers of my books.

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All of these new elements stay true to the theme of this book’s predecessors and comply with my editorial criteria: if it interests me, if it’s fun, then it will hopefully amuse and interest you. Once again I remind you that each gem in this book has been thoroughly researched and is intended to entertain anyone of any age, and who knows, maybe you’ll learn something. I did! Doug Lennox Toronto, Ontario June 2006 www.douglennox.com

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Words & Expressions

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What are the most common words in the English language? The most common word used in written English is the, followed in order of use by of, and, to, a, in, that, is, I, it, for, and as. The most common spoken English word is I. The most common word in the King James Bible is the. Why is relaxing a tense situation called “breaking the ice”? Overcoming an awkward moment in either business or social circles sometimes requires a little levity to “break the ice” in order to make progress. The expression originally meant to 509

smash the melting ice that hindered commerce during the long winter freeze. It was first used literally in its figurative modern way in 1823 when, in Don Juan, Lord Byron (1788–1824) wrote in reference to the stiff British upper class: “And your cold people are beyond all price, when once you’ve broken their confounded ice.” How did “hightailing it” come to mean a rushed exit? When people leave in a frantic hurry, they are “hightailing it.” The expression grew out of America’s Old West after cowboys noticed that both wild horses and deer would jerk their tails up high when frightened as they dashed to safety. The lifting of the tail by both animals was a signal to the rest of the herd that humans, and therefore danger, were near and that the creatures needed to run for their lives. What is the origin “hail-fellow-well-met”?

of

the

expression

“Hail-fellow-well-met” is an archaic reference to someone who is always cheerful but who is perhaps overdoing his or her enthusiasm. The expression began pleasantly enough as the medieval Scottish greeting hail, which is how the Scots pronounced heal. “Hale fellow” meant “health to you, friend.” In the sixteenth century, the expression became associated with the words buddy or mate. “Well met!” followed, meaning, “It’s good to meet you!” The two expressions became combined in a fuller phrase, “Hail-fellow-well-met,” in the late sixteenth century and is used today to suggest that a person’s exuberance is perhaps exaggerated.

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Exactly What Is a Proverb? A proverb is an ancient expression of practical truth or wisdom. Proverbs existed before books, were the unwritten language of morality, and are treasures of the oral tradition of all mankind. They offer a deep insight into the everyday domestic life of the culture of their origin and resonate as truth through all time. Japan:

“Learning without wisdom is a load of books on the back of a jackass.”

Japan:

“Unpolished pearls never shine.”

England:

“The difference is wide that the sheets cannot decide.”

Italy:

“Better alone company.”

China:

“One picture is worth 10,000 words.” Greece: “He who marries for money, earns it.” Greece: “If you sleep with dogs, you will arise with fleas.” France: “He who makes excuses, accuses himself.” Germany: “He who remains on the floor cannot fall.” Poland: “The voice is a second face.”

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than

in

bad

Ireland:

“A smile is the whisper of a laugh.”

Native American: “Don’t judge someone till you’ve walked a mile in their moccasins.” Why do we say that something likely to happen soon is “in the offing”? Something “in the offing” isn’t about to happen in the present, or even soon, but it will certainly happen before too long. Offing is an early nautical term that describes the part of the ocean most distant from the shore but still visible. So someone who is watching for a ship would first see it in the “offing” and realize that its arrival was imminent. The phrase “in the offing” was first used during the sixteenth century and began as offen or offin. Why is a couched compliment”?

insult

called

a

“backhanded

A compliment intended as an insult is termed a “backhanded compliment” and is directly tied to the ancient belief that the left side of the body was under the influence of the devil. A backhanded slap would generally come from the right hand of the majority of people. It is similar to the backhand stroke of tennis players who must reach across their bodies to deliver blows from the left (or evil) side. Anything delivered from the left, including a compliment, was considered sinister or devious.

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The word sinister comes from sinestra, Latin for left. Seven percent of the world’s population is left-handed. Among the forty-three American presidents, the percentage of lefties is higher (12 percent). Bill Clinton (1946– ), George H.W. Bush (1924– ), Ronald Reagan (1911–2004), Gerald Ford (1913– ), and Harry Truman (1884–1972) are or were left-handed. James Garfield (1831–1881) and Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) were reportedly ambidextrous. What is the meaning of “cut to the quick”? “Cut to the quick” is employed in two ways. It sometimes means (a) “get to the point,” or “cut to the chase,” but more often it implies (b) “causing deep emotional pain.” The quick in both cases is the flesh of the finger beneath the nail. Either way the expression means cutting through the inconsequential to the meaningful. An example of (a) would be a combatant cutting through an opponent’s armour or clothing to get to the flesh (or point of consequence), while the meaning when used as (b) would be to cut deeply or stab through the superficial exterior (the skin) to a vulnerable part of the body. “Cut to the quick” is related to the phrase “the quick and the dead.” Quick here comes from an old English word, cwicu, which meant “living.” Where did the expression “bite the dust” come from? We have probably all heard “bite the dust” for the first time while watching an old western B movie when a cowboy hero does away with a pesky varmint to impress the schoolmarm. The phrase was first used in English literature in 1750 to

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imply wounding or killing by satirical novelist Tobias Smollett (1721–1771) in Adventures of Gil Blas of Santillane, his translation of the original French novel by Alain-René Lesage: “We made two of them bite the dust and the others betake themselves to flight.” The inspiration for the expression can be traced back to the Bible in Psalm 72: “They that dwell in the wilderness shall bow before him and his enemies shall lick the dust.” QUICKIES Did You Know … that caucus, a closed meeting of a political party to decide on policy, comes from the Algonquin word caucauasu, which means “counsellor”? that toboggan is from the French Canadian tabagane, which is a translation of the Algonquin tobakun, meaning “sled”? that winnebago has the same aboriginal meaning as Winnipeg, the capital of Manitoba, and that both mean “dirty water?” that “down the hatch” is a sailor’s drinking expression and refers to freight disappearing in volume through the hatch leading to the storage area below a ship’s deck? that queue is the only English word that is pronounced the same with or without its last four letters? Why do we say “A is for effort” if effort starts with e?

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When someone is given “A for effort,” it is usually a backhanded compliment meaning “even though what you did sucked, we know you gave it your best!” In elementary schools, “A for effort” is used so as not to discourage failing students or their parents. The reason A is used instead of E is found in the common A-F school grading system where there is no E: A = excellent; B = good; C = fair or average; D = poor, but just barely passing; and F = failure. Why do we say someone is “head over heels” when in love? When people fall “head over heels” in love, their world has been turned upside down by romance. The word fallen suggests helplessness, and the metaphorical “head over heels” is intended to expand the illusion. However, consider that having your head over your heels is, in fact, the normal standing position! You can blame American frontiersman, U.S. congressman, and Alamo martyr Davy Crockett (1786–1836), among others, for turning the phrase around. When the expression first appeared around 1350, it was “heels over head.” In his 1834 autobiography, Crockett wrote: “I soon found myself ‘head over heels’ in love with this girl.” So the phrase has been “head over heels” ever since. What are the meanings of common Yiddish words? Some familiar Yiddish words are: chutzpah, “audacity or boldness”; schmuck, “a jerk or a foolish idiot” (literally meaning schmok, “penis” or “family jewels”); klutz, “a clumsy person”; putz, “an unclean, stupid person”; mensch, “a good and decent human being”; l’chaim, “joyful toast to life”; schlemiel, “an inept or incompetent person”; goy, “a Gentile, 515

a person who is not Jewish”; tochis, “rear end,” “butt”; pisher, “a male infant, a little squirt, someone of little significance” (yes the word comes from what it sounds like); shiksa, “a Gentile woman” (originally this word meant “an abomination”); and schmooze, “small talk,” usually meaning “sucking up.” Yiddish is a Germanic language and is spoken by about three million people throughout the world. Although the word Yiddish is, in fact, Yiddish for “Jewish,” it is most likely from the German word jiddisch, an abbreviated form of yidish-taytsh or “Jewish German.” The word came to North America and entered English with immigrants from Central and Eastern Europe at the beginning of the twentieth century. Mazel tov is well-known for its use at the end of a Jewish wedding ceremony. Often it is thought to be Yiddish, but actually it comes from mazz l, which means “star” in Hebrew. Mazel tov is used as “congratulations,” but literally means “may you be born under a good star.” After telling someone mazel tov, it’s customary to shake hands. Lofty Origins of Overused Phrases “Where there’s life there’s hope.” — Marcus Tullius Cicero (106 BC–43 BC) “Time is more valuable than money.” — Theophrastus (circa 372 BC–circa 287 BC) “A man’s home is his castle.”

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— Sir Edward Coke (1552–1634) “Thirty days hath September, April, June, and November…” — Richard Grafton (died circa 1572) “Cleanliness is next to Godliness.” — Charles Wesley (1707–1788) “The good die young.” — William Wordsworth (1770–1850) “Hell is paved with good intentions.” — Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) How did the word moron come to mean “stupid”? We have all been called a moron at one time or another and understood it to mean we’ve done something foolish. The reason is that in 1910 Dr. Henry H. Goddard (1866–1957) proposed the word to the American Association for the Study of the Feebleminded to describe an adult with the mental capacity (IQ below 75) of a normal child between eight and twelve years of age. A moron was, in fact, the highest proposed rating of a mentally challenged person. The two lowest ratings suggested were imbecile and idiot. These categories have been dropped by the scientific community and are no longer in use — except as an insult!

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Moron is from the Greek moros, meaning “stupid” or “foolish.” Why does the word bully have both good and bad meanings? Today a bully is generally a description of a brute who intimidates someone weaker or more vulnerable, but in the United States the positive power of the presidency is often referred to as the “bully pulpit.” In the 1500s, the word in its positive sense entered English from the Dutch boel, meaning “sweetheart” or “brother,” but by the 1700s, the word’s meaning deteriorated when it became the popular description of a pimp who protected his prostitutes with violence. In North America, distanced by the ocean, the word stayed closer to its positive origins and gave rise to the expression “bully for you,” meaning “admirable or worthy of praise.”

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Why are rental accommodations called “digs”? Digs comes from Australian gold prospectors who used the word diggings to describe their mining claims, which usually included makeshift lodgings. In 1893 digs first appeared as a slang term for rooms and small apartments in boarding houses that were strictly supervised by landladies who usually forbade visits by the opposite sex. Students have since adopted the word to describe the humble temporary places they call home. Why do we say that somebody who speaks nonsense is “babbling”? To babble means to speak foolishness. It is a verb rooted in the French and Scandinavian languages and was used to describe baby talk in the months leading up to a child’s first words. Babble has many different forms and circumstances, for example, squabble, blather, and charlatan, all of which, to some degree, mean “chattering and prattling nonsense.” The Latin for babble is blatire. Babble or blatire is the word that blatant is derived from. It was coined by English poet Edmund Spenser (1552–1599) in The Faerie Queene in 1596 to describe a thousand-tongued beast representing slander.

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Arts & Entertainment

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Why do we refer to a tired story or joke as an “old chestnut”? If a joke or expression works, especially for a comic or a public speaker, it is usually overused and is consequently called “an old chestnut.” The expression comes from a British play, The Broken Sword, or The Torrent of the Valley, written by William Dimond (1780–1837) and first produced in 1816 at London’s Royal Covent Garden Theatre. Within that play a principal character continually repeats the same joke about a cork tree, each time with a subtle variation, including changing the tree from cork to chestnut. Finally, tiring of the joke, another character, Pablo, says: “A chestnut! I’ve heard you tell that joke twenty-seven times and I’m sure it was a chestnut!” The impact moment when the phrase likely entered the English language was during a dinner party somewhat later in the nineteenth century. At the dinner the American actor William Warren the Younger (1812–1888), who at the time was playing the part of Pablo, used the “chestnut line” from the play to interrupt a guest who had begun to repeat an old familiar joke. Coincidentally perhaps, the younger Warren’s father, also named William, was an actor, too, who for a time was associated with Philadelphia’s Chestnut Street Theater. Why is an artist’s inspiration called a “muse”? Many great artists have been influenced by a muse, a person whose very existence inspires them to reach beyond themselves. It literally means the inspiration a man receives from a special woman. The word muse, as it is used in this case, comes from any of the nine beautiful daughters of 522

Mnemosyne and Zeus, each of whom in Greek mythology presided over a different art or science. Muse is the derivative of such words as music, museum, and mosaic. The Greek Muses also gave us the English word muzzle, because before muse entered English around 1380 it was known in Old French as muser, “to ponder or loiter,” usually with your nose in the air (something all artists are familiar with). Before that the derivative in Gallo-Romance was musa or “snout.” Muse

Art or Science Symbol

Calliope

Epic poetry

Tablet and stylus/scroll

Clio

History

Open chest of books

Erato

Love and poetry Lyre

Euterpe

Lyric poetry

Flute

Melpomene

Tragedy

Tragic mask

Polyhymnia

Sacred poetry

None; she sits pensively

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Terpsichore

Choral song and Lyre dance

Thalia

Comedy

Comic mask/ wreath of ivy

Urania

Astronomy

Staff pointing to a globe

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Why is making it up as you go called “winging it”? “Winging it” usually implies the same thing as having your first swimming lesson by being thrown into the deep end of a pool. It takes courage and sometimes ability you didn’t know

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you had. It’s an exercise familiar to good salespeople. The expression derives from an unprepared stage actor standing in the “wings” and cramming desperately before hearing a cue that will force him onstage. QUICKIES Did You Know … that playing cards in Spanish are called tarjeta, meaning “little shields”? that “no dice,” meaning “no deal,” comes from a time when dice were tossed during a game and either didn’t land flat or were thrown out of play? that “egg on your face” means to look foolish or embarrassed and comes from bad actors having eggs thrown at them by the audience? that “one potato, two potato, three potato, four,” the children’s counting-rhyme, originated in Canada around 1885? How did “Greensleeves” become a Christmas song? The ballad “Greensleeves” was first published in 1580, but no doubt had been known long before that. One early lyric (“Lady Greensleeves”) was a love song to a well-dressed woman, possibly a prostitute. The music’s first application to Christmas appeared in New Christmas Carols of 1642 and was entitled “The Old Year Now Is Fled.” William Dix, a British insurance agent, wrote a poem in 1865 entitled “The

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Manger Throne.” In 1872 a publisher took three of the poem’s many verses, set them to the “Greensleeves” melody, and published the resulting song as “What Child Is This?” Contrary to a popular legend, England’s King Henry VIII (1491–1547) did not write the music for “Greensleeves.” The song has been around for 500 years and has been used to cover a myriad of lyrics within almost as many different theatrical productions and has even been referenced by William Shakespeare (1564–1616). Its most successful modern secular rendition was as the theme for the 1962 John Ford (1895–1973) movie How the West Was Won. Why do jazz musicians call a spontaneous collaboration a “jam”? All musicians refer to an informal and exhilarating musical session as “jamming,” but the term first surfaced in the jazz world during the 1920s. “Jam” in jazz is a short, free, improvised passage performed by the whole band. It means pushing or “jamming” all the players and notes into a defined free-flowing session. And just like the preserved fruit “jammed” into a jar, a musical jam is sweet! Preserved fruit was first called jam during the 1730s simply because it was crushed, then “jammed” into a jar. To be “in a jam” has the same origin and means to be pressed into a tight or confining predicament. Jamming radio signals is a term from World War I and means to force so much extra sound through a defined enemy channel that the original intended message is incoherent. All this is from jam, a little

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seventeenth-century word of unknown origin that meant to press tightly. Who is the “Thinker” in Auguste Rodin’s famous statue? The French sculptor Auguste Rodin’s statue commonly called The Thinker (Le penseur) is one of the best-known pieces of art in the world. Yet when Rodin (1840–1917) first cast a small plaster version in 1880, he meant it as a depiction of the Italian poet Dante Alighieri (circa 1265–1321) pondering his great allegorical epic The Divine Comedy in front of the Gates of Hell. In fact, Rodin named the sculpture The Poet. It was an obscure critic, unfamiliar with Dante, who misnamed the masterpiece with the title we use today — The Thinker. Rodin’s statue is naked because the sculptor wanted a heroic classical figure to represent Thought as Poetry. How did the Romans use “thumbs up” and “thumbs down” in the Coliseum? Ancient Roman spectators in the Coliseum did use their thumbs to show their decisions on whether a losing gladiator should live or die, but not in the manner we see expressed today. It was the movies that gave us the simple “thumbs up or thumbs down.” The thumb symbolized the weapon of the victor. “Up” meant “lift your sword and let him live.” But if the verdict was death, then the thumb was thrust forward and downward in a stabbing motion. What is the weight of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ prized Oscar?

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Recipients of the Academy Award, commonly known as the Oscar, always seem to be surprised at its weight. The Oscar was designed in 1928 by Cedric Gibbons (1893–1960), Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s chief art director. The statuette depicts a knight standing on a reel of film and holding a crusader sword. Originally, Oscar was made of gold-plated bronze. Today the base of the twenty-four-karat gold-plated britannium statuette is black marble. Oscar is 13.5 inches tall and weighs 8.5 pounds. Why is a glitzy sales presentation called a “dog and pony show”? In the late 1800s, shows featuring small animals began touring little North American farming towns that weren’t on the larger circuses’ itineraries. These travelling shows were made up of dogs and ponies that did tricks. Some, like the Gentry Brothers Circus, were very successful, using up to eighty dogs and forty ponies in a single show. Over time the expression “dog and pony show” became a negative description for anything small-time and sleazy, like a low-budget sales presentation that’s heavy on glitz and light on substance. How did the Ferris wheel get its name? The first Ferris wheel was built by and named after George Washington Gale Ferris (1859–1896) and was constructed as an attraction for the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Ferris had set out to build a structure that would rival the Eiffel Tower built four years earlier for the Paris Exposition. The two towers that supported the wheel were 140 feet high, the wheel itself was 529

250 feet across, and the top of the structure was 264 feet above the ground. It held more than 2,000 passengers, cost $380,000 to build, and earned more than $725,000 during the fair. Unlike the Eiffel Tower, which survived plans for its demolition when it proved useful as a communications tower, the first Ferris wheel was destroyed in 1906. What is unique about the Beatles song “Yesterday”? “Yesterday” has had more airtime than any other song in history. The Beatles’ Paul McCartney (1942– ) said the song came to him in a dream. While writing it he used the working title “Scrambled Eggs.” When McCartney recorded the song in 1965, none of the other Beatles were in the studio. He was alone with his guitar and a group of string musicians. Since the release of “Yesterday,” more than 3,000 versions of it have been recorded. Why were teenage girls once called “bobbysoxers”? Frank Sinatra (1915–1998) was the first pop singer to experience primal teenage female screaming and tearful shrieking during a musical performance. These legions of young women and girls were called bobbysoxers because they were the first generation to wear short or cutoff stockings, leaving their nubile bare legs to disappear beneath a shorter rather than longer skirt. “Bobby socks” or “bobbed socks” first appeared in the 1930s and were so called because they had been cut short. “Bobbed” meant “cut short” like the tail of a “bobtailed nag” or a woman’s “bobbed hair.”

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Teenager was a new word during the time of the bobbysoxers. Nubile had always meant “marriageable” until 1973 when it came to mean “sexually attractive.” Why is the children’s play kit known as LEGO? LEGO is a trademark name for a child’s plastic construction set derived from a 1934 invention by a humble and struggling Danish carpenter named Ole Kirk Christiansen (1891–1958). The company name LEGO comes from the Danish words leg godt, meaning “play well.” There is a myth that Christiansen didn’t realize that lego in Latin means “I assemble.” In fact, the word in Latin means “I read” and has nothing to do with the legend or the truth of the play kit or the company’s name. The motto on the wall of Christiansen’s carpentry workshop was Only the Best Is Good Enough. Why is foolish behaviour called “tomfoolery”? A buffoon was first called a “Tom fool” in 1650 because Tom was a nickname for a “common man.” Although fool once meant “mad” or “insane,” by the seventeenth century it was a reference to a jester or a clown. The name Tom became influenced by “Tom the cat” in the 1809 popular children’s book The Life and Adventures of a Cat. Tom the cat was quite silly and was a promiscuous night crawler. This all led to tomfoolery becoming a word for crazy behaviour. Another Tom phrase was “Tom o’ Bedlam,” the nickname given to the insane men who, because of overcrowding and 531

spiralling costs, had been released from London’s Bethlehem or “Bedlam” Hospital for the Insane and were given a licence to beg on the streets. (The term is also a dig at the Irish). Bedlam is a cockney pronunciation of Bethlehem. Where does the Sandman come from? The Sandman is an elf who sprinkles sand in children’s eyes to make them sleepy. The character is derived from the remarkable mind of Hans Christian Andersen (1805–1875), the Danish writer famous for his fairy tales. Andersen’s Sandman was a device to explain to children the reason for the grit or “sleep” in their eyes when they woke up in the morning. The Sandman is found in Andersen’s 1850 story “Ole Lukoie,” which means “Olaf Shuteye.” Olaf carried two umbrellas. Over good children he held an umbrella with pictures that inspired beautiful dreams. Over bad children he held the other umbrella, which had no pictures and caused frightful dreams. Andersen was born in the slums of Odense, Denmark, and his incredible life story is well worth reading for inspiration.

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Fashion

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Why does “lace” describe an ornamental fabric and a string for tying shoes? The word lace began its route into thirteenth-century English as the Latin word lacere, which means “to entice.” On its way through Spanish and French, lace became a hunting term meaning “rope net,” “snare,” or “noose.” In 1555, because fancy lace reminded someone of a hunting net, the word lace was employed to describe an ornamental netted fabric pattern and, shortly after, as a cord for tying, such as a shoelace. As its use in hunting diminished, lace or “netting” took on the primary meaning of “ornamental trim.”

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The expression “to lace a drink” by adding a dash of liquor derived from the new habit of adding sugar to coffee or tea during the seventeenth century, and also meant “ornamental trim.” The Spanish word for a “hunting lace” or a rope was lazo, which gave cowboys the lasso. “Laced mutton” was an old expression for a prostitute. Why do we call women’s underwear “bloomers”?

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In the mid-nineteenth century, Mrs. Elizabeth Smith Miller (1822–1911) revolutionized women’s wear by designing and wearing a clothing style that did away with voluminous dresses and tightly laced corsets. She suggested that women wear a jacket and knee-length skirt over a pair of trousers tucked into boots. The cause was taken up by magazine editor and feminist Amelia Jenks Bloomer (1818–1894) and was given a boost by the new pastime of bicycling. There was a lot of resistance before the new dress

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became acceptable and took the name of its most visible advocate, Amelia Bloomer. Bloomers soon became applied to just the trousers and eventually to any sort of long underwear. Why is a light, short overcoat called a “jacket”? A short coat is called a jacket for the same reason that Jack is used generically to mean any male stranger (“hit the road, Jack”). It was the French who began using Jacques this way as a reference to any common or unsophisticated male. The word took on the meaning of a peasant or ordinary man’s outerwear in France and spread throughout Europe, arriving in England as jacket during the thirteenth century. As a nickname for John, Jack is used as an endearment like “buddy” or “mate” and has been since the days of Middle English. During this same time, Dicken became popular as the original nickname for Richard until it evolved into Dick, while Robin was an endearment for Robert before it became Rob. Why do we say that someone well dressed wore his or her best “bib and tucker”? In the seventeenth century, bibs were introduced to protect men’s clothing from the consequences of their own bad table manners. Women did the same, but their bibs were fancier and were made of lace or muslin with frills to frame their faces. Because these bibs were tucked into the tops of low-cut dresses, they were called tuckers. On special occasions both men and women brought their own bibs and tuckers to the 538

banquet and, just like their clothing, these made a fashion statement. How did the bowler hat become an English icon? The caricature of an Englishman used to include an umbrella, a briefcase, and a bowler hat. Although this is an outdated image, it still recalls a class system that defines the British character. The first bowler was designed in the mid-1800s by London hatters James and George Lock as a protective riding hat for Thomas William Coke. The headgear became synonymous with property owners and consequently the gentry or well-to-do. The hat got its name from Thomas and William Bowler, the hat-makers who produced Coke’s prototype. Americans call this hat a derby, probably because it was so prevalent within the wealthy compound at major horse races. Winston Churchill (1874–1965) was one of the last of his generation to make the bowler high fashion. London’s trademark black high-roofed taxicabs were designed so that gentlemen wouldn’t have to remove their bowlers. Why is a type of woman’s underwear called a “G-string”? Although our prehistoric ancestors wore leather loincloths that have been excavated from more than 7,000 years ago, underwear as we know it didn’t become “normal” until the thirteenth century when it was tied at the waist and knees. The ancient Greeks didn’t wear underwear, though their slaves

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sported a kind of loincloth. The G in G-string stands for “groin” and was first used to describe the loincloths worn by North American Natives. As women’s wear, G-strings first appeared in the 1930s when they were the exclusive attire of strippers.

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Law & Order

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Why is a lie or a deception called a “falsehood”? A falsehood is a lie or a distortion of the truth and derives from a time before men wore hats. They used hoods to cover their heads from the elements, and these hoods were designed with fur or something else to indicate an individual’s rank within the community. If a con man wished to deceive you, he put on a hood designed to be worn by a person of substance such as a doctor or a lawyer. This tactic enabled him to gain enough trust to set up an illegal scam. The con man did this by wearing a “false hood.” Why do we say someone has been “fired” when he or she is forced out of a job? 543

Being fired is usually unpleasant, and even though it’s sometimes a disguised blessing, it never reaches the cruelty of its medieval Celtic origins. If a clan leader wanted to get rid of a petty criminal without killing him, or if someone was found guilty of stealing from his employer, especially from the mines, he was taken to his home along with all his tools and placed inside after which the house was “fired” or set on fire. If he escaped, he was banished from the clan. Why is a useless conclusion to an argument called “moot”? If, after an argument, it is concluded that the point made is irrelevant, it’s called moot. Moot is an Old English word that means “an assembly of the people for making judicial or political decisions.” That’s how the word took on the meaning of a discussion or a debate. By the sixteenth century, moot had developed the specific meaning within the legal profession of a “hypothetical discussion on a legal point as an intellectual exercise.” Just as arguments at an original moot or town meeting were of little consequence, the conclusions of an academic exercise among lawyers carries no weight in the real world and so it, too, is irrelevant or moot. What is “trial by combat”? Today “trial by combat” is generally used as a reference to lessons learned through experience, such as a soldier who has seen action, but the term was, in fact, from a legitimate legal process also known as “judicial combat.” In medieval Christian cultures it was agreed that God decided the outcome 544

of trials, a belief that rooted such proceedings in the legal theory of “ordeals”: torture tests that God would see you through if you were innocent. Trial by combat was practised by the nobility and by military courts under the guise of chivalry while commoners were tried by ordeal. The court determined a just outcome by sentencing the plaintiff and defendant to a trial by combat, a legal fight, often to the death, with the survivor or victor to be chosen by God. Trial by combat, or judicial combat, was usually the settlement of one man’s word against that of another. Most of these duels were fought over a question of honour and were most frequently performed in France up until the late sixteenth century. In 1833, twenty-three-year-old John Wilson killed nineteen-year-old Robert Lyon of Perth, Ontario, in what was the last recorded mortal duel in Canada. Wilson later became a judge in the Ontario Supreme Court.

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Why do we sometimes say “fork it over” in place of “hand it over”? The expression “fork it over” has a connotation of urgency to it and is often used dramatically during a criminal holdup. In fact, the expression does have origins in a long-forgotten underworld. Of course, the phrase can also be employed with humour when asking for a financial payment for goods or services rendered or for the repayment of a loan. The “fork” in question is a reference to “fingers,” which were the original dinner forks, especially for thieves and other low-lifes. Why is a monetary deposit for freedom from prison called “bail”? A bailiff is a sheriff’s deputy, a subordinate magistrate with jurisdiction over a strictly defined area. He or she has responsibility over the custody and administration of prisoners. To the early English, bailiff meant “village” and derived from bail, which described the palisade or wall around a community or castle. Bailey came to mean any wall enclosing an outer court, and because the Central Criminal Court in London stood within the ancient bailey of the city wall, it took the name Old Bailey. Monetary bail for restricted freedom is simply a reference to the bailiff’s office. Bail, the root for bailiff, originally meant a “horizontal piece of wood affixed to two stakes,” as in the case of the wicket in the game of cricket. Why is support paid by one former spouse to another called “alimony”? 546

The court often orders the chief provider of a divorcing couple to pay an allowance to the other. This sum of money is called alimony because it literally keeps the recipient alive. In Latin alimony means “nourishment” or “sustenance.” The term palimony was coined in 1979 to apply to the separation of film star Lee Marvin (1924–1987) from a long-time live-in lover. Palimony applies the same rules to an unmarried couple who have coexisted equally and contributed to the couple’s success. Why is land called “real estate”? Real estate is a piece of land that includes the air above it, the ground below it, and any buildings or structures on it. The term was first used in 1666 England. In 1670 the word realty surfaced to mean the same thing. Real means “actual” or “genuine,” and estate, of course, means “property.” Real estate became a legal term to identify a royal grant of estate land from the king of England. In England a real-estate broker or realtor is called a land agent. ODDS & ODDITIES The odds of being the victim of a serious crime in one’s lifetime are 20 to 1. The odds of being murdered are 18,000 to 1, with the chance of being the victim of a sharp or blunt instrument being six times greater than from a gun for which the odds against that occurring are 325 to 1.

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The chance of dying from an assault of any kind is 1 in 16,421. The odds of getting away with murder are 2 to 1. Why are private detectives called “gumshoes”? Around the beginning of the twentieth century a popular casual shoe was manufactured with a sole made of gum rubber. They were very quiet and were favoured by thieves who used them during burglaries and other crimes and consequently became required footwear for the detectives hunting them down. The term gumshoe stuck with private detectives as it aptly described the stealthy and secretive nature of their work. Why are informers called “whistle-blowers”? A whistle-blower is an insider who secretly reveals nefarious or scandalous wrongdoing by an organization or a government. The reference is, of course, to a referee or umpire who calls a foul during a sporting event. It was introduced to our vernacular in 1953 by the American writer Raymond Chandler (1888–1959) in his Philip Marlowe detective novel The Long Goodbye. The most famous whistle-blower of the twentieth century was Deep Throat, who revealed the criminal inner workings of the administration of President Richard Nixon (1913–1994) during the Watergate break-in affair. In 2005 the identity of Deep Throat was finally made public. He was W. Mark Felt (1913– ), the former assistant

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director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation during Nixon’s presidency. Why do we threaten to read the “riot act” to discipline children? In law a riot is “a violent disturbance of the public peace by twelve or more persons assembled for a common purpose” and may be committed in private as well as public places. The Riot Act, which carried real weight and is the one we still refer to in the expression, became law in England in 1714. It authorized the death penalty for those who failed to disperse after the act had been formally read to those assembled. Thankfully, there have been modern revisions to that act, though the consequences to those who disobey the order to disband can still be severe. Children beware!

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War & The Military

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What is the unique story behind the Victoria Cross? The United Kingdom’s Queen Victoria created the Victoria Cross in 1856 to recognize individual acts of gallantry by soldiers and sailors of the British Empire. The new medal came on the heels of, and was inspired by, the heroics of the Crimean War fought by Britain, France, the Kingdom of Sardinia, and the Ottoman Empire against Russia between 1854 and 1856. To this day each Victoria Cross is forged from the melted-down metal of Russian cannon captured during the Crimean War. Unlike some other British medals, the Victoria Cross can be awarded to any member of the military regardless of rank. To date, at the time of this writing, 1,355 people have received the medal. 552

Who were the first and last Canadian recipients of the Victoria Cross? On August 9, 1945, navy pilot Lieutenant Robert Hampton Gray became the ninety-fourth, and last, Canadian to win the Victoria Cross. He was awarded the medal posthumously for bravery during an attack on a Japanese destroyer on the final day of World War II. The first Canadian to receive the medal was Lieutenant Alexander Roberts Dunn, who won his for bravery during the Charge of the Light Brigade in 1854 at the Battle of Balaclava in the Crimean War. Canada’s last living Victoria Cross recipient was Ernest Alvia “Smokey” Smith, who died at his home in Vancouver in August 2005. Smith, who won his medal in Italy in October 1944, single-handedly saved his company from a German counterattack by three tanks, two self-propelled guns, and thirty infantrymen. Why is someone of key importance to a team leader called a “right-hand man”? The term right-hand man refers to someone indispensable to the person in charge and derives from the military. Today, when soldiers line up on a parade square, they are copying the alignment employed when armies used to face, then approach, each other in lines for mortal or pitched combat. The tallest or “right-marker” is the first called into position, and all others line up in a sequence of diminishing height to his left. The right-marker is the anchor and reference for all verbal commands off whom the other soldiers react both on the parade square and during battle.

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A line of soldiers is called a “pitch.” Why, when we want someone to hurry, do we say “on the double”? In civilian life “on the double” means to do something in a hurry. In the military, where the expression originated, it is usually a clear command most commonly barked by a drill sergeant ordering his men to do a task “on the double,” meaning to “stop walking and start running.” Just as bugles were used to relay drills to soldiers in the field, drums were utilized on ships to summon sailors to their battle stations. Double was an early reference to increase the drumbeat appropriately to convey urgency to all hands. What is a “Mexican standoff”?

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The classical Mexican standoff occurs when three people level guns at one another in such a way that if one gunman shoots a member of the trio the person not being shot at will in all likelihood kill the first shooter. In other words, a stalemate ensues. It’s a no-win situation. The expression’s roots are in the American West where conflicts with the original Mexican settlers were often resolved with guns and even war, which is how Texas, New Mexico, and California became part of the United States. The term Mexican standoff came out of these struggles as an ethnic slur, just as gringo arose as an epithet for the other side. Why is a lightning-quick military attack called a “raid”? A sudden “raid” is usually over quickly, with the attackers strategically withdrawing as soon as their mission is completed. It’s always a surprise attack. Consider that the words road and rode both come from ride, as in horseback riding, and then consider that lightning-quick surprise attacks resulted from horsemen charging down a road. Rade, “a riding, journey,” is the Old English and Scottish derivative word for raid. When a hostile incursion came galloping down the road, the cry of “Rade!” went up, which easily became “Raid!” when retold in literature. Where in the world were highways designed to be emergency “landing strips” during war? Some highway systems are designed for use as landing strips, but they aren’t in North America. There is a legend that the Eisenhower Interstate System in the United States requires one mile in every five to be straight so that it can be used as 555

an airstrip during wartime, but no such law exists either in the United States or Canada. However, the highway systems of South Korea and Sweden have been designed with air war in mind. Why do we say that someone is too old to “cut the mustard”? The phrase “too old to cut the mustard” was popularized by a hit song during the 1940s when military expressions were uppermost in the minds of returning servicemen. Simply put, it means that one’s “salad days” are in the past. Mustard is a mispronunciation of the military word muster, which means “inspection.” If a soldier doesn’t “cut or pass muster,” he or she doesn’t make the grade. In effect, the soldier fails to pass inspection. Why is a military dining hall called a “mess”? A mess hall is what military types call their dining halls. The term’s origins go back to the Middle Ages when British sailors began calling their meagre, often grub-infested meals a mess, which they clearly were. Mess originally meant the food for one meal. It has since evolved to signify a specific area where sailors, soldiers, and aircrew gather to eat, drink, and socialize. In order to maintain discipline, there are usually three levels of mess: officers, non-commissioned officers (sergeants), and rank-and-file soldiers. Why do we say it’s a “siege” when an army surrounds a fort or town? 556

The word siege conjures up visions of intense combat, with one force attacking a surrounded enemy with total and absolute ferocity. So it’s interesting to note that siege means “sit.” This origin is illustrated in the Arthurian legends where the “siege perilous” was a vacant seat at the Round Table. The seat was supposed to be fatal to any except the knight destined to find the Holy Grail. Since the thirteenth century, the military sense of siege has meant an army “sitting down” around a fortress to wait for those inside to surrender. Siege came to English through Old French as sege, meaning “seat” or “throne,” and originated with sedere, the Latin word for sit. Siege is also related to sedentary. What do “razor” and “raze” have in common? When a man shaves, he uses a razor, so why when soldiers destroy a town do we say they “razed” it to the ground? Raze is often employed to describe the results of a fire, not because it has anything to do with flames but simply because there’s nothing left. The term’s origins began in the fourteenth century when the French word raser entered English to describe the morning ritual of shaving. The word meant to scrape, slash, or erase the hair from one’s face, just as when an army razes a town it knocks down all of the buildings and levels the settlement to the ground. An anonymous quotation from the Vietnam War puts raze into context: “It takes a village to raise a child, but it takes a B-52 to raze a village.” Who first said “damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!”? A torpedo can be a number of things, but it’s best known as a self-propelled armed tube fired from a submarine. The word 557

was first recorded as an explosive device for blowing up ships in 1776. The word torpedo derives from the Latin torpere, which means “to numb.” During the American Civil War, while he was attacking the Confederates at Mobile Bay, Alabama, in 1864, Admiral David G. Farragut (1801–1879) had his lead ship sunk by a floating mine. In the ensuing confusion, he uttered the famous words: “Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!” What is the meaning of the word Humvee? Humvee is a trademark for a durable wide-bodied military vehicle with four-wheel drive that was developed by American Motors in 1983 to replace the Jeep. The name Humvee is a rough military acronym that came out of the 1991 Gulf War. It means high-mobility multipurpose wheeled vehicle. Substantially larger than the Jeep, the Humvee was able to replace several other vehicles, as well. Since 2000, General Motors has been selling civilian versions of the vehicle. Why, after a close call, do we say someone has “dodged a bullet”? You can’t get much closer to danger than “dodging a bullet.” At close range nobody dodges a bullet, or so it would seem. The expression derives from soldiers in World War I who talked about artillery shells that could be avoided because they arced through the air slowly enough to be seen. The odds of getting out of the way of rifle fire improved as the distance increased, because if you saw the muzzle flash, you had a second or two to move before the bullet got to you. Light travels faster than a bullet! 558

How close do you have to be before seeing the “whites of their eyes”? “Don’t shoot till you see the whites of their eyes” has echoed through history as an order for soldiers to hold their fire and their nerve until the last minute. At the Battle of Bunker Hill in June 1775 during the American Revolution, a U.S. colonel named William Prescott said it to his men. Before then Prince Charles of Prussia issued the order at the Battle of Jägerndorf in 1757, and Frederick the Great (1712–1786) said it at the Battle of Prague the same year. At the Plains of Abraham in Quebec in 1759, General James Wolfe (1727–1759) told his men not to fire until they saw the whites of their eyes, which meant “hold” until the enemy was fifteen or twenty paces away, a distance of thirty to forty feet. Why is the truth referred to as “the real skinny”? The word skinny came to mean “emaciated” around 1605, and during World War II, it began to suggest something that was true. The expression means “let’s cut to the bare bones of a situation without any embellishment.” In combat there is no time for anything except the “naked truth,” so eventually a creative and expedient new slang, “the real skinny,” arose. “Skinny-dip” has the same derivative as “the real skinny” and first appeared in the 1950s. Where do we get the expression “bang for the buck”? “Bang for the buck” means getting the most for the amount you have paid. The phrase is a Cold War military expression 559

with sinister suggestions of atomic and other explosive devices. Before the Berlin Wall came down in 1989, the United States and its allies in the West were engaged in a series of confrontations and skirmishes with the former Soviet Union and its satellite states. “Bang for the buck” described how efficiently the American defence (and offence) budgets were being spent. As poet and playwright T.S. Eliot (1888–1965) wrote in “The Hollow Men” in 1925, “This is the way the world ends/Not with a bang but a whimper.” What are you doing when you “pillage and plunder” while “ransacking” a village? The Vikings were good at “ransacking” during raids on Britain and other countries, so they gave us the word ransack, which started out meaning to search a house, legally or otherwise, for goods, stolen or otherwise. Pillage and plunder are almost interchangeable, with pillage strictly referring to searching a home for booty, while plunder denotes removing what you find. Whether your home has been searched by the police or a burglar, or a Viking, it’s bound to be a mess because it’s been ransacked. Why is a risky mission said to be flown “on a wing and a prayer”? If someone is operating “on a wing and a prayer,” whatever they are doing involves serious risk. The expression became 560

popular with fliers on dangerous missions during World War II and was derived from the song “Comin’ in on a Wing and a Prayer,” which tells of landing a damaged aircraft. The tune was written in 1943 by Harold Adamson (1906–1980), who also penned “A Lovely Way to Spend an Evening,” “Winter Wonderland,” and the theme song for the television sitcom I Love Lucy. The lyrics of “Comin’ in on a Wing and a Prayer” include the title line, which was taken from an actual cockpit transmission from a damaged bomber attempting to land.

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People

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Why is an important person called the “big cheese”? The “big cheese” is the person with the authority and responsibility for everything within an organization. In this case, cheese is an Anglicization of chiz, the Urdu word for thing. In colonial India, the natives picked up the pre-existing English idiom “the real thing” and made it “the real chiz,” which in turn was carried home by the British where to homeland ears chiz sounded like cheese. In the United States, the “real cheese” was converted to the “big cheese” to describe the most important person in a group. Who, by profession, make the best tippers?

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A recent survey of North American service workers rated the best tippers in this order: (1) Other restaurant workers (2) Regular customers, especially cigarette smokers (3) Young male “wannabes” (4) Small business owners (5) Tavern owners (6) Hairdressers (7) Liquor salesmen (8) Taxi drivers (9) Salesmen (10) Musicians. The same survey identified these categories as the worst tippers: (1) Senior citizens (2) People between twenty-one and twenty-four years old (3) Tourists (4) Teachers (5) Women (6) Lawyers (7) Doctors (8) Computer nerds (9) Bankers (10) Pipe smokers. Waiters, waitresses, and bartenders identify good tippers from best to worst by what they drink in the following order: (1) Vodka (2) Rum (3) Beer (4) Tequila (5) Bourbon (6) Scotch (7) Wine (8) Gin (9) Whiskey (10) Non-alcoholic and creamy or fancy drinks with umbrellas, or frozen, layered, or flaming drinks. How valid is the theory of six degrees of separation? Six degrees of separation is the theory that anyone on Earth can be connected to any other person on the planet through a chain of five acquaintances. The phrase was inspired by an article in Psychology Today that reported a 1967 study by Stanley Milgram (1933–1984), an American social psychologist who tested the theory by having strangers randomly send packages to people several thousand miles away with only the intended recipient’s name and occupation as an address. They, in turn, were instructed to pass the package on to someone they knew on a first-name basis who was most likely personally familiar with the target. 565

That person would do the same and so on until the package was delivered to the intended recipient. The result was that it took between five and seven intermediaries to get a package delivered. The theory was first proposed by Hungarian writer Frigyes Karinthy (1887–1938) in a 1929 short story called “Chains.” After a twenty-year study begun in 1950, mathematicians from IBM and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology were unable to confirm the theory to their own satisfaction. In 2001, Duncan Watts of Columbia University researched the “six-degree” theory using email as the “package.” When he reviewed the data collected by 48,000 senders and nineteen targets in 157 countries, Professor Watts found that the average number of intermediaries was, in fact, six. In 1990 the American playwright John Guare had his play Six Degrees of Separation produced on Broadway. Starring Swoozie Kurtz and Courtenay B. Vance, it dramatized the true-life story of a young black man who conned upper-middle-class couples in Manhattan into believing he was the son of actor Sidney Poitier. The story was later turned into a movie starring Donald Sutherland and Will Smith. Around the same time a trio of college buddies, inspired by the six-degree theory, dreamed up Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, the vastly popular trivia game.

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Why do we say people showing their age are no “spring chickens”? To say someone is “no spring chicken” is to suggest he or she is past his or her physical prime. This expression grew from a time in New England before raising chickens had become the cruelly sophisticated industry it is today. Chickens came from free-range family farms with no incubators or warm henhouses, which meant baby chicks couldn’t be hatched or raised in the winter. The prime price for chickens sold during the summer was for those born the previous spring. Anything older and less succulent that was pawned off as part of the

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spring crop was quickly identified by shrewd shoppers as “no spring chicken,” or not as young as what was being presented. Why are homosexual men sometimes called “fags”? “Faggot,” the cruel label for homosexuals, actually began as a contemptuous slang word for a woman, especially one who was old and unpleasant. The reference was to a burden that had to be carried in the same manner as baggage and harks back to the word’s original meaning. In the thirteenth century, a faggot was a bundle of wood or twigs bound together, such as the ones carried by heretics to feed the fires that would burn them at the stake. Heretics who recanted were required to wear an embroidered figure of a faggot on their sleeves. It wasn’t until 1914 that the slang word faggot first appeared in the United States as a reference to a male homosexual, probably derived from the earlier reference to an annoying woman. The abbreviation fag surfaced in 1921. There is a misconception that male homosexuals were called faggots because they were burned at the stake, but this notion is an urban legend. Homosexuals were sometimes burned alive in Europe, but by the time England made homosexuality a capital offence in 1533, hanging was the prescribed punishment. The Yiddish word for male homosexual is faygele, which literally means “little bird.” The English word faggot is derived from the Latin fasces via the French fagot, meaning “a bundle of wood.” 568

Why do the Scots refer to girls as “lassies” and boys as “laddies”? Both lassie and laddie are reminders of the Viking raids and temporary conquest of parts of Britain in the Dark and early Middle Ages. Lass began as the Scandinavian word loskr and meant someone light or slight. Around 1725 the word evolved into lassie, Scottish for an unmarried woman or girl. To the Vikings, lad was ladde and meant a boy or young man who was led, such as a foot soldier or a male servant. The word became laddie around 1546. Extensions to pet and proper names, such as the ie in laddie or lassie, or the y in names like Robby or Donny, surfaced in Scotland around 1400 and became popularized as endearments by the poems of Robert Burns (1759–1796). Where did the Hells Angels get their name? The outlaw motorcycle gang known as Hells Angels grew from a small group of post–World War II servicemen who longed for the danger, excitement, and comradeship they had experienced in the wartime military. Fuelled by movies during the 1950s and media hype and their own sense of rebellion and outrageous behaviour, the Hells Angels have gone off track and grown into an international underworld organization. The motorcycle gang took its name from a famous American B-17F bomber whose heroic crew of six named themselves and their Flying Fortress Hell’s Angels. The aircrew, in turn, was inspired by the title of the 1930 Howard Hughes film that introduced and starred the legendary Jean Harlow. 569

In Fontana, California, on May 17, 1948, two small biker gangs joined to form the first Hells Angels Motorcycle Club. The initial membership was twenty-five. The bomber crew known as Hell’s Angels became famous when after flying forty-eight missions its members toured the United States, pointing out the combat scars and patches that covered their “fort.” While flying a bombing run, the famous B-17’s Captain Baldwin first suggested over the interphone that his men name the plane and themselves after the Hughes film. One of Baldwin’s crew, remarking on the mission being flown, replied, “Why not? This is the closest to hell that angels will ever get!” How old are baby boomers? The baby-boom generation is different in some countries because it is defined as those children born to families of servicemen returning home after World War II and for the eighteen years following. It was decided that in North America this term included people born between 1946 and 1964. In 2006 there were about seventy-six million baby boomers in the United States and about 9.8 million in Canada. In that year the boomers began turning sixty, with the youngest, of course, being forty-two. BABY BOOMER BUMPER STICKERS WHERE THERE’S A PILL THERE’S A WAY DOWN WITH HOT PANTS SUPPOSE THEY GAVE A WAR AND NOBODY CAME

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LOVE THY NEIGHBOUR BUT DON’T GET CAUGHT SUPPORT YOUR CHURCH — PLAY BINGO BAN THE BOMB — SAVE THE WORLD FOR CONVENTIONAL WARFARE CUSTER WORE AN ARROW SHIRT TRUST GOD! SHE PROVIDES IF YOU DON’T LIKE THE POLICE, NEXT TIME YOU’RE IN TROUBLE CALL A HIPPIE VIETNAM — LOVE IT OR LEAVE IT CLEAN AIR SMELLS FUNNY LIVE DANGEROUSLY — TAKE A BREATH HONK IF YOU LOVE JESUS HONK IF YOU LOVE CHEESES LADY GODIVA WAS A STREAKER A PILL A DAY KEEPS THE STORK AWAY EAT BEANS — AMERICA NEEDS GAS NURSES ARE PANHANDLERS UNEMPLOYMENT ISN’T WORKING

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I OWE, I OWE, SO OFF TO WORK I GO EX-HUSBAND IN TRUNK MY WIFE RAN OFF WITH MY PICKUP TRUCK AND I MISS IT GIVE ME A BREAK, I HAVE TEENAGERS BAN BUMPER STICKERS What dates define Generation X, Generation Y, and the Echo Boomers? For those people born after the post–World War II baby boomers, advertisers have created labels to define their targets. Within that industry, those born between 1964 and 1983 are known as Generation X. Echo boomers, or the children of the baby boomers, were born between the late 1970s and the early 1990s. Generation Y’s members are the children of Generation X and were born after 1983. The confusion lies in the use of the word generation by advertisers and the media. For marketing purposes, an echo boomer can also be part of both Generations X and Y. Historically, a “generation” of humans was defined as the average interval of time between the birth of parents and their offspring — in other words, about twenty-five years. What do European Jewish names have in common with those of Scotland?

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In the sixteenth century, when surnames became necessary so that governments could enforce taxation and conscription, census-taking was introduced. This development meant that everyone needed a last name, something that was against the traditions of both the Gaels of Scotland and the Jews of Poland. Both had survived for centuries with traditional name forms such as “son of …” (Mac or Mc in Scotland and Ben in Jewish Europe). After Russia, Prussia, and Austria partitioned Poland in the eighteenth century, Jews, like the Scots, took the names of their hometowns or that of their noble landowners. In Prussia and Austria, the governments went one step farther and decreed that all Jewish surnames would be decided by the state. In the first few years of the nineteenth century, E.T.A. Hoffmann (1776–1822), a Prussian administration clerk in Warsaw, Poland, amused himself by handing out insulting Jewish surnames according to his own whims, which is why so many Jewish immigrants to North America changed their names as soon as they landed. Shmiel Gelbfisz arrived in North America from Warsaw at the turn of the twentieth century as Samuel Goldfish. He legally changed his name by keeping “Gold” and adding the last syllable of his friend Archibald Selwyn’s last name. Shmiel went on to become the movie mogul Samuel Goldwyn, one of the founders of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer or MGM. Besides being responsible for forcing unwanted surnames on Polish Jews, E.T.A. Hoffmann was also a writer of fantasy 573

fiction whose short story “Nutcracker and Mouse King” inspired the ballet The Nutcracker by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840–1893). Why is a clever child called a “whiz kid”? Since the early twentieth century, a clever or remarkable person of any age has often been referred to as a whiz. The word is a shortened form of wizard. “Whiz kid” derives from a 1930s takeoff of the popular radio show Quiz Kids. A whiz in this application means anyone who has a remarkable skill. If you’re wondering why going to the bathroom is called “taking a whiz,” it’s because whiz has a cousin with another meaning. A whizz is a hissing sound made by an object speeding through the air. Why is an effeminate man called a “sissy” or a “priss”? Since 1887, when a male is unwilling or fails to meet the challenges of being a robust young man, he has sometimes been called a sissy. The word sis is an abbreviation of sister. Sissy was often used as an endearment for a female sibling. On the other hand, priss is a 1895 merger of the words precise or prim and sis. Why do we call tearful, overly sentimental people “maudlin”? A lot of drinkers are referred to as “maudlin” when they become weak and overemotional and “cry in their beer.” The word is a common British alteration of Magdalene, the surname of Mary, the woman who repented and was forgiven

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by Jesus Christ in Luke 7:37. In medieval paintings, as a sign of repentance, Mary Magdalene is most often shown with eyes swollen from weeping. The use of her name in terms of being maudlin, meaning “tearful sentimentality,” was first recorded in 1631. ODDS & ODDITIES The chance of giving birth to a genius is 1 in 250. The odds of dating a supermodel are 88,000 to 1. The odds of dating a millionaire are 215 to 1. The odds of becoming a saint are 20,000,000 to 1. The odds that a first marriage will survive without separation or divorce for fifteen years are 1.3 to 1. The chance of being audited by the tax department is 1 in 100. Why is a wise counsellor called a “mentor” or a “guru”? The original Mentor was the name of a wise and trusted counsellor in Greek mythology who was Odysseus’s friend and a trusted teacher of Telemachus, Odysseus’s son. Mentor was often the goddess Athena in disguise. The word guru has the same meaning as mentor because it is the Hindi word for “honoured teacher.” Guru was first used this way in 1966 by Canadian communications theorist Marshall McLuhan (1911–1980).

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The derivative men in mentor is the same as that in mental and means “to think.” Why are inhabitants of the Appalachian and Ozark mountains called “hillbillies”? The term hillbilly generally describes an uneducated or rough-hewn inhabitant of the Ozark and Appalachian mountains of the United States. Hillbillies are a proud culture unto themselves with amazing music that reflects their harsh, isolated existence and the origins of their forefathers. The first hillbillies were the Scots-Irish followers of Britain’s King William III (1650–1702) whose Protestant Orangemen defeated the Roman Catholic allies of the former British king James II (1633–1701) at the Battle of the Boyne in Ireland in 1690. William III’s followers were known as Billy Boys, and many of them immigrated to the hills of Appalachia before the American Revolution. It was during this time that British soldiers gave these people the name hillbillies, an informal reference to their previous history as supporters of King William of Orange. In 1900 an article in the New York Journal described a hillbilly as a “free and untrammelled white citizen of Alabama who lives in the hills, has no means … drinks whiskey … and fires off his revolver.” In many remote Ozark areas, it is still possible to find people who speak English with a dialect that can be traced back to pre–American Revolution days. Who were the first “rednecks”?

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The concept of a redneck being a poor white farmer or labourer from the U.S. South dates back to the late 1800s, but 200 years earlier Scottish and Northern Irish Presbyterians were also known as rednecks. To show their rejection of the Church of England, they wore red cloths around their necks. The South African Boers called British soldiers rednecks for the same reason Southerners got the title. Only the fair skin of their necks was exposed to the burning sun.

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Sailing & The Sea

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Why is someone lost in boredom said to be at “loose ends”? The origin of this phrase is nautical and refers to the ends of the countless number of ropes on early sailing ships. These “ends” needed to be bound tightly to prevent unravelling, which could cause disaster at sea. Whenever a captain noticed that his men had too much time on their hands, which could lead to trouble, he would order them to check the ropes and repair any “loose ends.” Why did sailors begin wearing bell-bottom trousers?

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British sailors started wearing bell-bottom trousers near the end of the eighteenth century. Before then they wore “slops,” a loose-fitting mid-calf-length pant. “Bells” were only worn by “swabs,” or regular seamen, and not by officers. Regulation dictated that the bells be made of wide cuffs large enough to roll up to the thigh during wading or deck swabbing. Although most eighteenth-century sailors couldn’t swim, they were taught to pull up and tie the bells of their pants, creating air-filled life preservers if they fell overboard. U.S. sailors stopped wearing bell bottoms around 1998 when they became part of the dress (formal) uniform only. However, when the supply ran out in 2000, bell bottoms in the U.S. Navy disappeared altogether. Why is a person facing serious trouble said to be in “dire straits”? Strait is a Middle English word that was used by sailors to describe a narrow or tight and difficult-to-manoeuvre channel of water such as the Straits of Gibraltar or the Bering Strait. The word comes from the Latin strictus, meaning “to bind tightly.” Dire also has a Latin root and means “terrible” or “fearsome.” Although “dire straits” now signifies any serious day-to-day problem, it originally meant facing an obstacle so difficult to overcome that the odds against navigating through it successfully were overwhelming. Why do we say that someone burdened by guilt has an “albatross” around his or her neck?

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An “albatross” is a figurative stigma for shame. It refers to a guilt that never leaves you and becomes the defining characteristic of a moral burden. The albatross is a bird that symbolized good luck to sailing ships because it signalled that land was nearby. The bird’s change in fortune resulted from Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s 1798 poem “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” which tells of a captain who killed an albatross after which there was a prolonged calm that stranded his ship. As a consequence, the captain was forced by the crew to wear the dead bird around his neck. Coleridge (1772–1834) himself had his share of dire straits, battling drug addiction, marital difficulties, and personal setbacks through much of his middle years. Why is the residue of a shipwreck called “flotsam and jetsam”? “Flotsam and jetsam” is sometimes used broadly as “odds and ends,” but its origin dates back to the late sixteenth century as a description of debris left after a shipwreck. Flotsam is whatever is left of the cargo or ship that is found floating on water. Jetsam is cargo or parts of the ship thrown overboard to lighten the ship in an emergency and which subsequently sinks or is washed ashore. Today the expression might also be used to describe debris from a plane wreck. Flotsam came to English through the Old French verb floter, meaning “to float.” Jetsam is an alteration of jettison. Valuable items thrown into the sea but attached to a buoy so they can be recovered after the ship goes down are called “lagan.” 582

What is the meaning of the nautical phrase “before the mast”? In his book Two Years Before the Mast, the American lawyer and author Richard Henry Dana (1815–1882) reveals his experiences as a young man at sea aboard the brig Pilgrim in 1834. The mast of a sailing ship was the boundary between the quarters of officers in the rear and the crew in front. Dana kept a diary of the wretched treatment and conditions experienced by a common seaman living “before the mast,” and from his notes he compiled his book, published in 1840. Why do we say that somebody who is being treated badly has been “hung out to dry”? Discipline on early British sailing ships was necessary but often extreme. The lash or cat-o’-nine-tails left sailors scarred for life, but the act of keel hauling — tying a victim with rope and pulling him under the ship, sometimes more than once — was the discipline feared most. If the prisoner survived drowning, he was suspended from the yardarm where he was left hanging or “hung out to dry” for a predetermined period of time, then cut down to contemplate his misdemeanours.

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Why were sailors so superstitious? Life-and-death situations always give rise to superstitions, so early sailors took no chances and followed many good-luck rituals beyond prayer. One such ritual was to raise or “step” the main mast on a silver coin from the year a ship was built to keep the wind “happy.” As a backup, horseshoes were nailed to the mast to keep storms at bay. Sighting a dolphin brought good luck, but killing them could be disastrous. Killing a gull was unforgivable, since it was believed that these birds carried the souls of sailors lost at sea. Why do sailors sing “shanties”?

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Sea shanties are the songs sung by sailors working on the great sailing ships of a more romantic time. A shanty man leads the songs. He chants a line, and the sailors respond within the rhythm of their work. Shanties take different forms, depending on the labour being done. There are short-haul shanties and long-haul shanties for operating the sails. There are shanties used to raise and lower the anchor, and there are shanties whalers used to sing. Around 1867, sea songs or “chanties” became known as shanties, from the French chantez, meaning “to sing.” The word shanty, “a small, crude cabin,” is French Canadian and has a different root. The term shanty town was first recorded in Canada in 1876. The designation Shanty Irish was inspired by the title of a 1928 book by hard-boiled American writer Jim Tully (1886–1947). What makes a ship a “tramp steamer”? Today a “tramp steamer” is more accurately described as a “tramp freighter,” since steam engines have long been replaced by diesels. In either case, just like human “tramps” who wander the streets, these ships navigate the oceans of the world without a fixed schedule, looking for ports of call that will offer the best price for their cargoes. Tramp steamers were often the way adventurous people got to exotic places during the first half of the twentieth century. A number of famous writers, American playwright Eugene O’Neill (1888–1953) and British novelist Malcolm Lowry (1909–1957) to name two, shipped aboard tramp freighters when they were young and later wrote about their experiences. 585

How do large ships anchor in deep water? Because of the oceans’ depth, a harbour anchor is of no use to a ship at sea. In its simplest form, a sea anchor is a canvas sack attached to a metal ring. Tying it to the stern of a boat and dragging it through the water creates resistance, which slows the boat down. In a strong gale, sea anchors can make the difference between life and death. QUICKIES Did You Know … that blue blazers originated as military jackets worn by British sailors on the nineteenth-century ship HMS Blazer? Why do sailors call the bottom of the sea “Davy Jones’s locker”? “Davy Jones” seems like such a nice normal name, but this mythical creature struck terror into the hearts of ancient mariners. Going to his locker meant you were a man overboard and destined to die because the locker was at the bottom of the sea where biblical images of Jonah and the whale came into play. Davy Jones presided over all evil spirits in the sea and could shape-shift into hideous forms, often perching on the riggings during hurricanes or shipwrecks. Davy Jones first appeared in literature in 1751 in The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle by British novelist Tobias Smollett.

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There is a colourful legend that Davy Jones was a pub owner who would get young men drunk and then confine them in a “locker” where he stored his beer until he could sell them to a ship short of hands. What is the origin of the word squeegee? A squeegee brings to mind either spring cleaning or an annoying panhandler at a traffic light. The word probably had an equally unpleasant effect on the sailors who gave the scraping instrument its name. Squeege was an eighteenth-century alteration of squeeze or press and was the inspiration for the name of a tool used for scraping the decks of ships. In Moby Dick, American author Herman Melville (1819–1891) called the tool a “squilgee,” but other sources indicate that squeegee was a nautical term for the instrument as early as 1844. Why does “careen” describe dangerous driving? We describe a “careening” car as one that lurches or swerves from side to side in a dangerous manner, because the word careen is the nautical term for keel. Sailing ships leaning precariously while sailing into the wind must careen or steer from side to side. These ships needed to have their bottoms repaired regularly and scraped to rid them of barnacles. When no dry dock was available, the captain would find a suitable beach, then run his ship aground at low tide. The vessel was then “careened” or tipped over, exposing the keel and allowing sailors to clean and restore one side of the hull. Once both sides were finished, and the tide returned, the ship would float off the beach and sail back to sea.

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Why are windows in ships and planes called “portholes”? Openings on the sides of a ship have been called portholes since 1243. The word port comes from the Latin porta, which means “door” or “gate.” Because steering apparatus or the “steerboard” was on the right, ships of the time docked on their left, which was originally known as the “larboard” side because it’s the loading side. In the sixteenth century, “larboard” gave way to “portside” to avoid confusion with the similar-sounding “starboard” or right side. Portholes are most commonly used to describe windows on both sides of airplanes and ships, but the term comes from the openings on the portside to load cargo onto ancient ships. When is a flag flown upside down a signal of distress? The use of flags to signal distress is a very old naval tradition, but flying the national flag upside down isn’t one of them. From a distance it’s hard to read whether a flag is or isn’t upside down. The rule was that when you needed help, you drew attention to your ship by doing something unusual such as arranging the sails in an un-seaman-like manner or by flying the ensign upright but in an unusual place. The most commonly agreed-upon distress signal in Britain’s Royal Navy was to tie an ensign into a “wheft” or a “knot” and fly it from the foretop-gallant masthead. The word wheft is a variant of waif, which literally means “unclaimed property.” An ensign is a national flag displayed on ships and aircraft, while an insignia is a badge or emblem indicating rank, unit membership, or nationality. A flag is a cloth ensign and derives from flagstone because it is square and flat. On land an ensign tied 588

in a wheft and flown upside down over a fort was sometimes a signal of distress, but the knot was still the key. Today there are sixteen standardized international naval distress signals. Why is someone standing apart said to be “aloof”? If someone is emotionally or physically reserved, we say they are “aloof.” This remoteness is sometimes interpreted as being regally snobbish or simply shy. Aloof is derived from the nautical word loof, which in early sixteenth-century English meant “windward direction” or “the weather side of the ship.” The helmsman directed the ship into the wind to keep from being blown onto coastal rocks. He was ordered to keep his distance from the shore with the order “Hold a-loof,” which is how aloof took on the general meaning of “keeping clear.” Why is a gentle wind called a “breeze”? In 1626 in a guide for young seamen, the English captain and explorer John Smith (1580–1631) recorded the first use of the word breeze in a list of winds in order of their severity. These included a calm, a breeze, a gale, a gust, a storm, a spout, a tornado, a monsoon, and a hurricane. Captain Smith spelled breeze as brese and had taken it from the Spanish word briza, meaning a light wind.

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Health

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Why do we say that someone in good physical condition is as “fit as a fiddle”? If you are “fit as a fiddle,” you are in great shape. When the early North American settlers gathered for a barn dance, it was often an all-night session of dancing and romancing for the hard-working and socially starved farmers. The local band of amateurs was led by the fiddler who needed great endurance and stamina to play until the cows came home. This gave us the expression “fit as a fiddler,” which evolved into “fit as a fiddle.” How do we avoid trouble by keeping “danger at bay”?

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ODDS & ODDITIES The chance of drowning in one’s bathtub is 1 in 685,000. A person is more than twice as likely to drown in a swimming pool than in a lake, ocean, or river. The odds against fatally slipping during a bath or shower are 2,232 to 1. The chance of being struck by lightning in the course of a year is 1 in 240,000, while in one’s lifetime it is 1 in 3,000. The odds against being killed by lightning are 2,320,000 to 1. The odds against dying from an insect, snake, or spider bite are 100,000 to 1. The chance of dying from choking on food is 1 in 370,035. The chance of dying from food poisoning is 1 in 3,000,000. The chance of dying from a shark attack is 1 in 300,000,000. Keeping danger at bay obviously means to take action to protect your interests, but how does bay figure into it? The ancients believed the bay tree had mystical powers because it seemed never to be struck by lightning. The Greeks and Romans wore its leaves during thunderstorms as protection, and wreaths were made from bay leaves to symbolize invincibility for athletes and victory for warriors. During epidemics and plagues such as the bubonic horror in London, many people carried bay leaves, hoping to keep the sickness “at bay.” What causes “goose bumps” on our skin when we are frightened?

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Fear not only causes goose bumps, but it also makes our hair stand on end, and both reactions are related. When we are frightened, our bodies draw blood away from our extremities (like skin) and redirect it to support our vital organs. As a defence against this tendency, our very hairy primitive ancestors developed an evolutionary response to keep the body warm. When blood is drawn away from the skin, it triggers tiny muscles that tighten the skin and force body hair to stand up to trap heat. This reaction causes stiffening where we once had a lot more body hair, and because the raised flesh looks like the skin of a plucked goose, we call the result goose bumps. Why is rabies sometimes called “hydrophobia”? It was once believed that dogs with rabies were afraid of water, which isn’t the case, but in Greek, phobia means “fear” and hydro is “water,” which is why the disease was called hydrophobia. To be made raving mad from rabies surfaced in 1804 as rabid. It’s from the Latin word rabere — “to be raving mad.” In the Welsh and Breton languages, the belief that the relationship between dogs and the rage of rabies and hydrophobia was so strong that their words for hydrophobia are compounds based on their words for dog, which in Welsh is cynddaredd, and in Breton, kounnar. Enrage, on the other hand, is Old French for “to be made rabid.” Why is the vehicle that takes people to the hospital called an “ambulance”?

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The French began treating wounded soldiers in the field in 1809 by bringing the hospital to the injured. Those who could walk or be carried on a stretcher were taken to a tent or field hospital and treated immediately. The French verb for to walk is ambulare, which gave us the English word amble. In 1242 the word hospital, like hospitality, first took the meaning of “a shelter for the needy” and began referring to an “institution for sick people” in 1549. So the literal translation of ambulance is “a place to which the needy can walk or be carried.” During the Crimean War in the mid-nineteenth century, the term ambulance was transferred to horse-drawn vehicles that for the first time conveyed the wounded from the field to the hospital. Canada’s first hospital was a “sick bay” at Port Royal in Acadia between 1606 and 1613. It was run by two male attendants from the Order of St. Jean de Dieu. Canadian doctor Norman Bethune (1890–1939) introduced delivering blood to the battlefield using a battered old station wagon during the Spanish Civil War in 1936 and then later improved his battlefield ambulance service while in China, where he died himself from septicemia contracted during the course of his work as a surgeon. QUICKIES Did You Know … that on the human hand the middle finger is exactly as long as the hand is wide?

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that of the 206 bones in the human body, one-quarter of them are in the feet? How did Queen Victoria revolutionize childbirth? Britain’s Queen Victoria (1819–1901) was very familiar with the discomforts of childbirth. During delivery of the first seven of her nine children, Her Majesty suffered a lot of pain. This agony made her very interested in the discovery of chloroform, which became available as an anesthetic early in her reign. Despite protests against the practice from the Church of England and the medical establishment, she allowed her doctor to administer chloroform during the delivery of her eighth child, Prince Leopold, in 1853. The success of that delivery led to anesthetics quickly gaining popularity among England’s influential upper classes. The queen was so impressed with the benefits of chloroform that she knighted one of her physicians, Dr. James Simpson (1811–1870), who was the first to use it as an anesthetic in 1847. How are “burn degrees” assessed? The seriousness of a burn is assessed in degrees depending on the number of layers of skin involved. A sunburn, or a red mark on a finger touched to an iron, is a first-degree burn. A second-degree burn blisters. Third-degree burns mean that all skin is destroyed right down to the layer of tissue under the skin. Burns on faces, hands, and feet can be more serious than a wound on the thigh, for example, because of the importance of these body parts. Burns to the genital area are also more dangerous because they are vulnerable to infection. 596

Second- and third-degree burns always require immediate medical attention (the first thirty seconds are crucial) to remove the cause of the burn, cool the skin, and protect against infection. ODDS & ODDITIES The chance of having a stroke is 1 in 6. The chance of dying from heart disease is 1 in 3. The chance of getting arthritis is 1 in 7. The chance of getting the flu in the course of a year is 1 in 10. The chance of contracting the human version of mad cow disease is 1 in 40,000,000. The chance of dying from any kind of fall is 1 in 20,666. What are “patent medicines”? All new inventions, including medicines, require a patent; that is, their components must be revealed. The word patent means an “open letter” and is a grant made by a government that confers upon the creator of an invention the sole right to make, use, and sell that invention for a set period of time. During the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, travelling medicine shows sold what they called “patent” concoctions, claiming cures for all manner of illnesses. They got around the open-letter concept of a patent and kept their ingredients secret by taking a patent out on the shape of the bottle or its label instead of the formula inside. The patent medicine industry began a slow decline in 1906 after years of critical newspaper articles led to the passage of the U.S. Pure Food and Drug Act, which required ingredients to be listed on labels.

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Patent is from the Latin patentum, meaning “lying open.” Many brand names that started as patent medicines are still with us, including Absorbine Jr., Bromo-Seltzer, Pepsi-Cola, and Coca-Cola. Why is an unstable person called a “crackpot”? A crackpot is an irrational person. Crackpots have always been with us, but the word only came into use in the late 1800s. The term plays on the obsolete use of the word pot to describe a skull. It suggests that the person in question has a cracked skull, which is causing him or her to behave in a mad, foolish, or eccentric manner.

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Travel

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Why are traffic lights red, green, and yellow? Red, green, and yellow traffic lights developed directly from the trial and error of controlling railways during the nineteenth century. Trains needed advance warning to prevent fatal accidents and collisions. The first choice was red for stop, which was logical because red had symbolized danger for thousands of years. During the 1830s, engineers tried using green for caution and clear for go, but sunlight reflecting off clear lights gave false signals. So engineers solved the problem by introducing yellow for caution and making green stand for go. The very first traffic light using this system was introduced in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1914.

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What city first used stop signs? Stop signs first showed up in Detroit, Michigan, in 1915. They were black on white and smaller than modern signs. Until then traffic-control devices were generally manual, using semaphores (flags), policemen in traffic towers, and hand-turned stop-and-go signs. In the 1920s, black-on-yellow signs were introduced, while white-on-red signs appeared in 1954. Mounting height has also evolved. Early signs were about three feet off the ground. Modern signs are more than six feet high. What does “MG” stand for on the classic British sports car? The MGB is the best-known classic British sports car and was introduced in 1962 as an update of the original MGA, which first appeared in 1955. There were approximately 375,000 MGBs built before the company went out of business in 1981. The MG stands for Morris Garages, a retail outlet that was established in 1911 and that began selling MG-badged Morris Specials in the 1920s. Why is the last car on a freight rain called a “caboose”? Up until the 1980s, laws required freight trains to have a caboose. It was a little shack on wheels and served as an office, a kitchen, and a bedroom for the crew. The caboose was also an observation deck from which brakemen could watch the train for shifting loads, overheating wheels, and other problems. The first such 602

shanties were set up as tents on flatcars as early as 1830. Caboose is from an ancient German sailing term, kabhuse, a temporary kitchen set up on the deck of a ship. Some of the nicknames used by rail crews for the caboose were “clown wagon,” “hack,” “brain-box,” and “palace.” ODDS & ODDITIES The odds of being killed during the course of a year in any sort of transportation accident are 77 to 1. The chance that one’s next car ride will be one’s last is 1 in 4,000,000, while the odds of being killed on a five-mile bus trip are 500,000,000 to 1. The odds of being killed while riding a horse are six times greater than the odds of meeting one’s demise on a bus trip. The chance of dying from a car accident during one’s lifetime is 1 in 18,585. Walking is safer. The one-year chance of dying while a pedestrian is about 1 in 50,000. The chance of dying in an airplane accident is 1 in 354,319. The odds of being killed in any sort of non-transportation accident are 69 to 1. The chance of being killed in a terrorist attack while visiting a foreign country is 1 in 650,000. The chance of dying from parts falling off an airplane is 1 in 10,000,000. Why is a carrying bag called a “tote bag”?

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During the seventeenth century, American slaves did most of the heavy lifting in the U.S. South. Most of these slaves were from West Africa and still spoke their native Bantu languages. Tota is the Bantu word for “lifting” or “carrying.” From these slaves and then through the plantation owners, tota entered English as tote. The term tote bag was derived from tote and popularized around 1900. Why do we say we’re “stumped” if we can’t proceed? We have all been stumped at one time or another, whether by a private or professional circumstance or perhaps by a mathematical or legal problem. Stumped, as in unable to proceed, comes from the first crude highways built by the early settlers in North America. It was the law that when trees were felled the stumps had to be at least fifteen inches high. That was fine until it rained and the ground turned muddy. The wheels on the wagons using the road would often sink until the axles got caught on tree stumps. The wagons couldn’t move forward because they had been “stumped.” Why is something incredibly impressive called a “real doozy”? A “real doozy” may be an old-fashioned expression, but it still means something remarkable. It was used to describe one of the most impressive cars ever made. Built between 1920 and 1937, the Duesenberg was the best and most expensive American car ever built. During the Great Depression, and at a time when a Ford sold for $500, a top-of-the-line Doozy retailed for $25,000. With a custom-built body and a high-horsepower engine, the Duesenberg quickly became a 604

favourite vehicle of the rich and famous. It still is! As one of the most collectible cars in the world, Duesenbergs in mint condition have sold for millions of dollars. Now that’s a doozy! What happened to the “station wagon”? A station wagon was originally a horse-drawn carriage. The name transferred to cars in 1904, and in 1929 the first modern station wagon was manufactured. It referred to a car big enough to haul people and luggage to and from railway stations. Prior to the 1930s, most automobile makers used hardwoods to frame the passenger compartments of their vehicles, but when steel took over, designers extended a wood-panel finish to the exterior of multipurpose passenger-and-cargo cars. These became the classic station wagons that grew in popularity with suburban families after World War II. Station wagons were largely replaced by minivans or sport-utility vehicles (SUVs) during the 1980s and 1990s and have all but disappeared from the world’s roads. Where did the Rolls-Royce automobile get its name? Charles Rolls (1877–1910), a salesman, and Henry Royce (1863–1933), an electrical engineer, got together in 1906 to produce a car that would be sold exclusively by Rolls. They agreed the car would be called a Rolls-Royce. The first model was the Silver Ghost, which they produced until 1925. The company continued in private ownership until 1971 when financial problems in its aircraft division led to a takeover by the British government. Today Rolls-Royce is owned by the

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German automobile maker Bayerische Motoren Werke (BMW). Rolls-Royce is highly regarded for its engines. They powered many of the Spitfires and Hurricanes used in the Battle of Britain during World War II. Why is “thumbing a ride” called “hitchhiking”? Hitchhiking is a combination of two words. The term has two origins that collided in 1923 as an inexpensive way of travelling. Hiking means to “walk vigorously” and has been around forever. In 1578 the word hitch surfaced as a nautical description of “fastening with a hook” but eventually gained broader use as in “hitching a team of horses to a wagon” or “hitching a trailer to a car.” Hitchhike was first employed in 1880 to describe hitching a sled to a moving car. The use of the thumb by someone looking for a ride is a symbolic “hook” to signal the hitch-hiker’s wish to become attached to a passing car.

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Food & Drink

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Why is a certain kind of bread roll called a “bagel”? Many North Americans associate bagels with breakfast, but few people realize they were originally a homage to a Polish king who saved Vienna, Austria, from a Turkish invasion in 1683. A local Jewish baker thanked the king by creating a special hard roll in the shape of a stirrup to commemorate the Polish cavalry. One word used to describe a stirrup in Austria is beugel. In Yiddish, bagel means a “ring,” often a bracelet. Sprinkled with onions, a bagel is called a bialy, for the Polish city Bialystock.

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Why is chocolate-flavoured coffee called “mocha”? Mocha coffee got its name around 1773 when Ethiopian beans shipped from the Yemeni port city of Mocha became the most popular coffee in Europe. In the mid-nineteenth century, Americans began adding chocolate to mocha coffee as a flavouring, but it wasn’t until recently when boutique coffee shops coined the term that mocha coffee took on the meaning of “chocolate-flavoured.” Mocha coffee’s primary definition is still officially “a pungent, rich Arabian coffee.” Who invented the Caesar salad? In the beginning, a Caesar salad was made with whole leaves of romaine lettuce, tossed at the table, and eaten with the fingers. It was intended as an entrée. Today, served at restaurants of every type, it is a salad of convenience and often includes chicken or beef. When the salad was first introduced, though, the non-vegetable ingredients were strictly seafood such as anchovies and shrimp. The salad was created in 1924 by Caesar Cardini (1896–1956) at his Italian restaurant in Tijuana, Mexico. Why do we say that someone well off is living “high on the hog”? “High on the hog” is a recent expression that dates back only to the mid-1940s. It means you can afford to eat well. The best pork cuts (chops, hams, roasts, et cetera) are found higher on the pig than those traditionally prepared and eaten by the less affluent. Of course, being poor doesn’t mean you can’t eat well. Delicious meals have been made from those areas 610

“low on the hog” (feet, belly, knuckles, and jowls). These meals were eaten by fieldhands and hard labourers who had worked up a hearty appetite, so being hungry might have made these dishes even more enjoyable to them than those eaten by the overfed upper classes. Why is a party bowl of mixed drinks called “punch”? Punch is usually a mixture of fruit and soda drinks combined with alcohol and served at large gatherings. It originated from the British colonization of northern India after the colonizers discovered a refreshing native drink made from five ingredients: rice alcohol blended with tea, sugar, and lemon, then diluted with water. The Hindi word for five (the number of ingredients) is punch. Why are sausages and mashed potatoes called “bangers and mashed”? “Bangers and mashed”’ is a traditional English meal of sausages, mashed potatoes, gravy, and very often pork and beans. Nothing could be more working-class or middle-class comforting than this dish. Banger, as slang for sausage, dates from 1919 and refers to the noise made when the skin of a frying sausage explodes in the pan. It literally “bangs.” Why was a prospector’s credit line called a “grub stake”? The first thing most poor gold prospectors needed to keep going was food and supplies. They would make a deal to share their future success with a general store or a wealthy acquaintance in exchange for credit to buy food, shovels, picks, and a pan to sift the gravel of a stream for nuggets. 611

This credit was called a “grub stake.” Grub, in this case, is a reference to shallow digging, as in “grubbing around.” Grub can also mean “food.” Why is a long drinking spree called a “bender”? A “bender” is a prolonged, irresponsible, and dangerous bout of drinking and took its name from the patrons of London, England, alehouses during the 1850s. To promote drinking, it was common for a tavern to offer patrons all they could drink for a tuppence a day, so sixpence was good for three days. The sixpence coin, which was worth about a quarter, was nicknamed a “bender” because if it wasn’t phony it could be easily bent. Since this bendable coin guaranteed three days of libation, the subsequent binge became known as a “bender.” QUICKIES Did You Know … that chowder derives from the French Canadian settler’s word chaudière, a catch-all cooking pot for stews and soups made from whatever was at hand? that potato comes from the Haitian aboriginal word batata through the Spanish patata for sweet potato? that Daiquiri is the name of a village in eastern Cuba? that tequila is a liquor named after a town in west-central Mexico?

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that the word rum is an abbreviation of rumbullion? that whiskey, as a word, comes from Gaelic and literally means “water of life”? that the word aquavit is derived from the Latin aqua vitae and also means “water of life”? that the word vodka in Russian literally means “little water”? that the word gin is a shortened form of the Swiss city Geneva, which in Middle Dutch is Geniver, which is also a name for the juniper tree that grows the berries that give the liquor gin its flavour? that the word lager in German means “storehouse,” therefore lager beer means “beer brewed for keeping”? How did “allspice” get its name? Allspice is not a combination of spices; it is one spice with a flavour that hints at several others. Europeans discovered allspice in Jamaica where, because its berry looks like a peppercorn, it is called Jamaica pepper. The other spices its flavour emulates are cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg. Who invented Smarties? Smarties are a British invention. In 1937, Rowntree of the United Kingdom introduced a line of chocolate beans that, a year later, were given the name Smarties. Packaged in cylindrical tubes, the original eight colours were red, yellow, orange, green, mauve, pink, light brown (coffee centre), and

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brown (chocolate centre). In 1989 the brown was replaced by blue. Rowntree merged with the British candy-maker Mackintosh in 1969, and in 1988 the Swiss food-and-beverage conglomerate Nestlé took over Rowntree Mackintosh. Nearly 16,000 Smarties are eaten every minute in the United Kingdom. Each day about 570,000 tubes of Smarties are made at Nestlé’s York factory and shipped to the Middle East, Far East, and South America. Smarties are also manufactured in Canada by Nestlé, but are not available in the United States because another candy producer has trademarked that name. How did Pepsi-Cola get its name? During the 1890s, Caleb Bradham (1867–1934), a pharmacist in New Bern, North Carolina, invented a drink for sale to his customers. At first it was only available at his store, so people called it Brad’s Drink. Bradham preferred to call it Pepsi-Cola because he claimed it aided digestion by relieving dyspepsia, a gastric problem, and it tasted a lot like a more established product named Coca-Cola. In 1902, Bradham patented the drink, and his company was successful until 1923 when the high price of sugar forced him into bankruptcy. The company started up again shortly afterwards under new owners. However, Bradham never got back into the business. He died in 1934, owning less capital than he had when he started Pepsi.

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Some people argue that pepsin, an enzyme good for treating stomach upset, not dyspepsia, was the source of Pepsi’s name, but others say pepsin wasn’t part of the original recipe. Cola comes from the West African Mandingo word kolo, a type of tree that grows the leaves that provide a key ingredient for Pepsi-Cola and Coca-Cola. Where does the expression “bumper crop” come from? A “bumper crop” is a result of extraordinary abundance. You can have a bumper business, bumper crowds, or bumper crops. This ancient use of bumper comes from a drinking goblet called a “bumper,” which was filled to the brim when used for toasts. While quaffing a bumper of ale, drinkers touched (or bumped) these goblets against one another during a festive or celebratory occasion such as an excellent harvest, business growth, or full houses at theatrical performances. How were “licorice allsorts” invented? Licorice has been popular in Britain since the Middle Ages when the Crusaders returned with the plant it is made from. Many different candies have evolved that contain licorice, including varieties that surround or layer the licorice with coconut paste. In 1899 a sales representative named Charlie Thompson for the Bassett Company accidentally dropped a tray holding samples of licorice candies in front of a customer. As Thompson picked them up off the floor, the customer asked if he could order them all as a mixture, and “licorice allsorts” were born. Why is an easy task called a “piece of cake”? 615

Nothing could be more immediately rewarding than a piece of cake, and to indicate delight, we sometimes say a chore was a “piece of cake.” The expression first appears in English literature in a 1936 Ogden Nash (1902–1971) poem called “Primrose Path.” During World War II, the phrase was adopted by British pilots to describe a target that was easy and fun to attack or destroy, and from there the expression graduated into everyday English.

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What is “Yorkshire pudding”?

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The eating customs of the poor from all over the world were intended to fill stomachs with little cost. Yorkshire pudding is one of England’s answers to this culinary problem. Although we think of pudding as a dessert, Yorkshire pudding is quite different. It can be eaten as a dessert with the addition of toppings, but it is a savoury dish that really shines when it is eaten with meat. The recipe is similar to pancakes, but the batter is cooked in an oven. Traditionally, the batter would be showered with the drippings of a leg of mutton. Today it is more often cooked with the fat from roast beef. Cooked properly, it rises in airy majesty out of its pan and spills over the sides. A popular variation on Yorkshire pudding is toad in the hole, which is made by roasting sausages in the Yorkshire pudding batter. Known as “drippings pudding” since the Middle Ages, Yorkshire pudding got its current name from Hannah Glasse, an eighteenth-century cook from northern England who included the formula in a popular book of recipes. Why do we look wistfully back upon our “salad days”? Salad days are the “green” days of our youth. William Shakespeare refers to “salad days” negatively when he has Cleopatra mention them in his play Antony and Cleopatra, where she claims that her youthful naïveté led to her love affair with Julius Caesar. Since then the phrase has come to mean “youthful good times that are fondly remembered.” Curiously, the word salad comes from a Latin word meaning “salted vegetables.”

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Why is a dried grape called a “raisin”? A raisin is, of course, a dried grape, and like two-thirds of the English language, the word raisin comes from Old French, where it means “grape,” shrivelled or otherwise. The word grape also comes from Old French and means “bunch of grapes.” Sultanas and Thompson seedless grapes are the two varieties commonly enlisted to make raisins. Sultanas are used to create golden raisins, while Thompsons fashion dark ones, or they are lightened with sulfur dioxide to turn them golden. A raisin is a “worried” grape. Why is a type of beer called “India pale ale”? India pale ale dates from the late eighteenth century and was developed by the Hodgson’s Company to solve the problem of getting fresh-tasting beer to soldiers and sailors in India and other British colonies in sailing ships that had to navigate hot, tropical waters. Unlike most British beers of the time, India pale ale had a very high hop and alcohol content, which countered bacteria that made beer taste sour. The original India pale ale was copper-coloured. It was called pale because it was lighter than brown, porter, or stout ales. The servicemen appreciated no longer having to drink “skunky” beer. What is the difference between brandy and cognac? There is no difference in formula. Brandy is an abbreviation of brandywine and is any spirit distilled from either wine or fermented fruit juice. Cognac is also a brandy but is so called 619

because it is exclusive to the Cognac region of France. The word brandywine comes from the Dutch brandewijn, which means “burnt wine,” because the drink is distilled. All brandywine or brandy is “burnt” or “distilled wine.” Some types of brandies are: ouzo, flavoured with anise and originating in Greece; grappa, distilled from the crushed residue from wine-making and originating in Italy; kirsch, distilled from cherries and originating in Germany; slivovitz, produced from crushed plums and originating in the Balkans; and calvados, created from fermented apple cider and originating in France.

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Customs

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Why is a husband-to-be called a “groom”? Bride comes from the Old English word bryd, while at the same time the word guma simply meant “a young man.” The two together, brydguma, referred to a suitor looking for a wife. This compound changed in the sixteenth century when groom evolved within folk language to take over from guma as a description of a young man, boy, or lad who was commonly hired to work the stables and groom horses among other chores but who was still seeking a wife. How important is the colour in a gift of flowers?

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Throughout time flowers sent as gifts have had unspoken meanings and are steeped in centuries of tradition. For example, red flowers represent love, respect, passion, and courage. Pink flowers express perfect happiness, grace, thankfulness, and admiration and are an appeal for trust. Yellow flowers mean friendship, joy, jealousy, and an appeal for affection. White flowers signify innocence, purity, secrecy, or silence, while those that are peach or coral send a message of enthusiasm, desire, joyful modesty, and shyness. Purple is a declaration of passionate hope and fidelity. Different kinds of flowers also send the recipient a personal message. Roses say “know that I love you.” Carnations affirm “you are beautiful and I am proud of you.” Daffodils insist “you are a brave and good person.” Chrysanthemums proclaim “I am faithful to you.” Gladioli admit “I admire your character.” Irises inform “I send my compliments and congratulations.” Orchids declare “you are in my heart.” Snapdragons reveal “I desire you.” Sunflowers broadcast “my thoughts are pure.” Tulips announce “I am declaring that I love you.” Who started the custom of giving a dozen roses to a lover? It was the Persians (Iranians) who initiated the idea of communicating through flowers, and the custom was introduced to Europe courtesy of Sweden’s King Charles XII (1682–1718), who lived as an exile in Turkey in the early eighteenth century. In Persia every flower had a meaning. This notion captured the hearts of Europeans, who began carrying out complete conversations by exchanging different kinds of flowers. In the language of flowers, roses are said to

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communicate love and passion, so a dozen is like shouting out loud! As important as roses are to Valentine’s Day, the real flower of the day ought to be a violet. Legend says that violets grew outside the window area of the prison cell occupied by St. Valentine prior to his martyrdom in 269 AD. It was said that he crushed up the petals of the violets to make ink for writing letters. Why do humans kiss? The average person spends two weeks kissing during his or her full lifetime. The romantic or erotic kiss is a sensual genetic memory search for compatibility, whether on the lips or elsewhere, and is revealed to the brain through smell and taste. Kissing originated from prehistoric mothers breast-feeding, then chewing and pushing food into their infants’ mouths with their tongues. Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) described the kiss as “an unconscious repetition of infantile delight in feeding.” Smell is the primary ingredient of the kissing ritual for some cultures such as the Inuit (Eskimos), who believe that exhaled breath reveals a person’s soul. Exchanging breath in this sense is a spiritual union. This concept has a parallel in Christian dogma (Genesis 2:7), which reveals that God infused the spirit of life into his creatures by breathing into them. Hygiene has a lot to do with the success of a romantic kiss. In medieval England, it was common during a town fair for a young woman to pick an apple and fill it with cloves. She 625

would then approach a man she had chosen for romance and offer him the apple. After he ate it, the man would have his breath sweetened by the cloves, making a kiss from him at least palatable. Of the many different kinds of kisses (for friends, family, or babies), one of the most interesting is the ceremonial kiss. This type is common in European countries or high society where state dignitaries offer each other a quick kiss on each side of the face. This custom isn’t simply good manners; it’s an ancient political gesture symbolizing goodwill between different peoples or tribes. Finally, there is the Mafia kiss of death, which was inspired by the New Testament and is related to the kiss Judas gave to Jesus Christ when he betrayed him to the authorities. Why do the British excuse bad language with “pardon my French”? To the English, “pardon my French” usually means “you can put it where the sun doesn’t shine.” It’s a non-apologetic apology. The expression is as old as the historic wars waged between France and Britain, and we can be certain the French have similar expressions about the English. Hatred aroused during war frequently leads to bigotry that instills a necessary passion within those who do the killing. There are dozens of English expressions defaming the Dutch and Scots for the same reason. To say “pardon my French” means “I’m about to say something vulgar … like something you would expect from a Frenchman.”

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Examples of French customs that the British found revolting are: French kissing (kissing with the tongue) and French lessons (a euphemism for prostitution — oral sex). What are the traditional and modern anniversary gifts? Anniversary

Traditional

Modern

First

Paper

Clocks

Second

Cotton

China

Third

Leather Crystal

Fourth

Fruit or Flowers Appliances

Fifth

Wood

Silverware

Sixth

Candy

Iron Wood

Seventh

Wool or Copper Desk Sets

Eighth

Bronze or PotteryLinens or Lace

Ninth

Pottery

orGlass

Leather

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Tenth

Tin or Aluminum Diamond Jewellery

Eleventh

Steel

Fashion Jewellery

Twelfth

Silk or Linen

Pearls

Thirteenth

Lace or Textiles Furs

Fourteenth

Ivory or Gold

Jewelry

Fifteenth

Crystal

Watches

Twentieth

China

Platinum

Twenty-Fifth

Silver

Silver

Thirtieth

Pearl

Diamond

Thirty-Fifth

Coral

Jade

Fortieth

Ruby

Ruby

Forty-Fifth

Sapphire

Sapphire

Fiftieth

Gold

Gold

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Fifty-Fifth

Emerald

Emerald

Sixtieth

Diamond

Diamond

Diamonds are appropriate from this point on.

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History & Politics

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What does the French and Québécois symbol fleur-de-lis represent? The English translation of fleur-de-lis is “flower of the lily.” The Québécois and French symbol is a stylized depiction of a lily or a lotus flower and was adopted and used by French royalty to signify perfection, light, and life. Legend has it that an angel presented Clovis I (circa 466–511 AD), the Merovingian king of the Franks, with a golden lily as a symbol of his purification when he converted to Christianity. Another legend claims that Clovis adopted the symbol after water lilies showed him shallow water where he was able to cross a river with his army and win a major battle. 632

Why is a small personal case for mementos called a “locket”? Lockets are usually worn on chains around the neck and carry small personal items, photos, or memories of a loved one. They are the reason a small clipping or tress of hair is called a “lock of hair.” The word locket probably arrived in England in 1066 with the invasion of William the Conqueror (circa 1028–1087), who would have used the Old French word loquet to describe a small lock or latch. The small ornamental case with a hinged cover and latch, as we know it today, surfaced in 1679. Where did the expression “don’t count your chickens before they hatch” originate? “Don’t count your chickens” is a commonly used saying similar to New York Yankees catcher Yogi Berra’s warning that “it ain’t over till it’s over.” First written in the sixth century BC, it is a quotation from one of Aesop’s fables, called “The Milkmaid and Her Pail.” It means “don’t get ahead of yourself, because life is full of uncertainties.” Aesop began life as a slave but was freed because of his wit and wisdom. “Don’t count your chickens before they hatch” was first recorded in English in the late sixteenth century. Why is a receding hairline said to reveal a “widow’s peak”? A widow’s peak is hair that comes to a point at the top of the forehead. Today the term generally applies to men with receding hair, but it began as a reference to women with just such a pointed hairline. The reason it is called a widow’s peak 633

is because it resembles the pointed crest of a sixteenth-century mourning hood worn by widows when their husbands passed away. It was believed that if a woman developed a hairline resembling the front of that mourning hood, her husband would soon die. For a time, similar hair growth on a man was called a widower’s peak and was equally bad news for the wife. The mourning hood was called a biquoquet. What is the difference between the words bickering and dickering? Even though they both involve a disagreement, there is a dramatic difference between bickering and dickering. Bickering now means to quarrel, but the word began as bicken, Dutch for “an attack involving a misunderstanding by slashing or stabbing.” Dickering came from the Roman habit of packaging units of ten hides for bartering or haggling with barbarians. These packets were called decuria from decem, meaning “ten,” and gave English the word dicker. What is the origin of the word maroon? Maroon is a dark reddish colour or a chestnut flavour. As a verb, the word means “to be put ashore on a deserted island” or “to abandon someone in isolation.” However, the obscure use of maroon as a reference to slaves who escaped or were set free in the seventeenth century is lesser known. These runaway slaves lived in the mountains of the West Indies. At times they fought guerrilla wars against the Spanish, French, and British colonists. Jamaican maroons were among the first slaves to be proclaimed free by the British in 1715. Some were brought to Canada where they settled in Preston near 634

Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, but the resettlement didn’t go well, so most were relocated to Sierra Leone in West Africa, near where their ancestors had originally been captured. Maroon, as it is used in reference to runaway slaves, is a corruption of the Spanish word cimmarón, which means “wild, untamed.” Over time it came to signify lost in the wilderness and gained its association with desert islands from stories such as the novel Robinson Crusoe by the English writer Daniel Defoe (1660–1731). Why do people throw coins into a fountain? There are thousands of fountains around the world inviting passersby to toss in coins for good luck, but they have all been inspired by the romance of the legend behind Rome’s famous Trevi Fountain (Fontana di Trevi). Built over a thirty-year period in the mid-eighteenth century, the Trevi became the focus of a legend that said throwing a coin over one’s shoulder and into the fountain meant one would visit Rome again. Pitching two coins ensured that the thrower would fall in love with someone from Rome, while tossing three coins signified the thrower would marry that someone. Rome has 289 fountains. The Trevi Fountain was built from money raised by taxes on wine. It is located in Piazza di Trevi, which was erected to commemorate the completion of the Aqua Vergine in 19 BC. What is a “Sphinx”? Although the statue at Giza in Egypt is the most famous Sphinx, there is another. According to Greek mythology, the 635

original Sphinx was a female winged creature with the body of a lion that attacked travellers near Thebes and then strangled and devoured those who couldn’t answer her riddle: “What creature has one voice yet becomes four-footed, then two-footed, then three-footed?” Eventually, Oedipus defeated the Sphinx with the answer to the riddle: “A human crawls on all fours when a baby, walks on two feet when grown, and uses a staff when old.” In Egyptian mythology, the Sphinx is just as nasty but is wingless and male with the body of a lion. Sphinx is the Greek word for “strangler.” Why when we know the outcome do we say “it’s all over but the shouting”? If the outcome of a circumstance is known during a procedure is ended, we say “it’s all over but the shouting.” The expression comes from a widespread practice in early England. For centuries, when a straightforward public issue was to be decided, an assembly of townspeople was called for an informal election that was settled by shouting out a voice vote rather than by ballot. These assemblies were called “shoutings.” When there was no doubt about the result even before the vocal vote was called, it was considered to be “all over but the shouting.” Why are unelected advisers to government leaders called a “kitchen cabinet”? Most government leaders have unofficial non-elected advisers outside their legitimate cabinet and these people have been labelled a “kitchen cabinet.” The expression was coined in 636

1832 when Andrew Jackson (1767–1845) was president of the United States. He used to hold frequent unofficial private meetings with three close friends, and in order to avoid scrutiny or criticism, they entered through the back door of the White House and then through the kitchen. From that time on the press referred to the president’s inner circle as the “kitchen cabinet.”

Why are heads of governments, cabinet chiefs, and church leaders called “ministers”? The notion of the “prime” or first minister as the leader of government was introduced to Great Britain in 1646. Cabinet members or departmental ministers have been selected from elected representatives within that parliamentary system since 1625, but the reference to those holders of high office of the state as “minister” began in 1916. In this case, the word minister means “servant.” They are servants to the crown, not their constituents. In the

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religious world, minister means a servant of the church hierarchy, not the congregation, and dates back to 1315. Robert Walpole (1676–1745) is usually considered to be the first “prime minister” of Britain. However, he was not actually called that. In Britain the term did not become official until 1905. When addressing a “prime” or “cabinet” minister, it is inappropriate to prefix the greeting with “mister” as in “Mister Prime Minister” or “Mister Minister,” which is a common mistake in the American media and sometimes in Canada when used by uninformed reporters. The word minister is correct in itself, and adding mister is redundant. The U.S. prefix mister, as in “Mister President,” is correct when greeting that country’s president or his cabinet because they head a republic and not a crown state.

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Sports

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What is the “taxi squad” on a football team? A “taxi squad” is made up of those professional football players who are under contract but not dressed for a game. They are four extra players beyond the roster limit who are only eligible to play on short notice as a substitute for an injured player if the team is shorthanded. The name “taxi squad” originated with the National Football League’s Cleveland Browns, who at one time because the team couldn’t put all its players on the forty-man roster found these extra players work as part-time taxi drivers. What designates a colt, a filly, a mare, and a gelding in the world of Thoroughbred horses? 640

The official birth date of all Thoroughbred racehorses is January 1 of the year they were born regardless of the actual birth date. All horses are “foals” until they are a year old. Between the ages of two and five, males are called colts while female horses are fillies. Beyond the age of five, male horses are simply called horses while females are mares. A male horse that has been neutered is referred to as a gelding while one preserved for breeding purposes is a stallion. These designations are important because Thoroughbred racing uses age to determine equitable divisions for competition. Gelding is from the Viking word geldr, which means “barren.” Why is an athletic supporter called a “jock strap”? It is difficult to imagine men competing in today’s high-contact sports without that essential piece of equipment informally referred to as a “jock.” Officially known as an athletic supporter, the device was introduced in 1874 to protect bicycle riders, who were called “bicycle jockeys,” from hurting themselves on the crossbar after slipping off the pedals while navigating cobblestone streets. Who was the first “cheerleader”? Cheerleaders have become a major attraction at football and basketball games thanks to the enthusiasm of University of Minnesota student Johnny Campbell, who stood during a football game in November 1898 and started leading the crowd in “rah, rah, rah” cheers. Since then the culture of cheerleading has often become larger than the game. Today cheerleaders don’t just wave pompoms and lead cheers. They also perform difficult individual and synchronized gymnastic exercises. 641

Although the first cheerleader was a man, the vast majority since have been women. President George W. Bush (1946– ) was a college cheerleader. ODDS & ODDITIES The chance of hitting a hole-in-one in golf is 1 in 15,000. The odds of becoming a professional athlete are 22,000 to 1. The odds of catching a ball at a major-league baseball game are 563 to 1. What is a “masse” pool shot? A “masse” shot in pool is required when a ball is between the cue ball and the one a player is required to hit. To strike the target ball, a spin on the cue ball is necessary to curve around the obstruction. This procedure is accomplished by hitting the cue ball with the cue stick held nearly vertically and is known as a masse shot. The word masse derives from a description of a club used in medieval jousting tournaments. Why do we call a person who show-jumps a horse an “equestrian”? Equestrian is a word used to describe a competitive horseback rider and entered English in 1656 as meaning a “knight on horseback.” The horse has evolved over fifty million years to become the majestic animal exhibited at

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various competitions today. Equestrian is from the Latin word for horse, which is equus. QUICKIES Did You Know … that the Detroit Tigers baseball team acquired its name in 1901 when the club’s ball players wore yellow-and-black socks? Sports editor Philip Reid thought the socks were similar to those worn by the Princeton University Tigers football team. that the New Jersey Nets basketball team chose its name because the word rhymed with the names of other professional sports teams in New York, namely the Mets baseball club and the Jets football team? Why is a determined person said to be “hell bent for leather”? It is a good idea to stay out of the way of anyone “hell bent for leather.” The word bent has meant a mental inclination other than straight since 1586 and resurfaced as “bent out of shape,” meaning “extremely upset or weird,” during the 1960s. “Hell bent” means the disturbed subject is in a big hurry and extremely determined to achieve a goal. The “for leather” part derives from an 1889 reference to horseback riding, with the leather being the bridal and saddle. The expression then meant “riding very fast” and began as “hell for leather.”

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Hell is often used in association with speed, for example, “go like hell” or “run like hell.”

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Work & Money

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Why do we say that someone has “knocked off work” for the day? To “knock off work” might be for any length of time, but it usually means for the day. The expression certainly had significance to those who first used it, because they were the oarsmen of a slave galley. To keep the ship on course, the slaves were kept rowing in unison by a drumbeat pounded out rhythmically on a block of wood. Different beats had different meanings, such as the left or right side only or altogether. These beats also signalled rest breaks and the end of a shift when the slaves were “knocked off” for the day.

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Why is a serious response to a desperate situation called “fighting fire with fire”? “Fighting fire with fire” means to meet a challenge with measures at least equal to the problem being confronted. The expression originates from a method still used to fight forest fires and serious grass fires. Settlers in the New World learned quickly to set fire to a strip of land in the wind path of an advancing prairie fire. By the time the wild fire reached the now-barren burned-off strip, it was stopped when it had nothing to feed on. This procedure is very dangerous when not practised by an expert. American writer Samuel Clemens (1835–1910), better known as Mark Twain, reported hearing the phrase during the 1850s. Why is a useless project called a “boondoggle”? The word boondoggle was first used in 1935 to describe “make-work” projects during the New Deal of American President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882–1945). It meant any useless task created simply to give men employment during the Great Depression. Surprisingly, the word comes from the Boy Scouts whose braided leather lanyard is simply cosmetic with no real purpose. It was named a “boondoggle” by R.H. Link after the leather frills worn by American frontiersman Daniel Boone (1734–1820). The word survives with the contemptuous political meaning of money wasted on unimportant or meaningless projects. Why is buttering up a boss said to be “currying favour”? If you are trying to get on someone’s good side with insincere behaviour, your actions are “currying favour” from that 648

person. Curry is a horse-grooming term for cleaning and rubbing down an animal. Within this expression, favour was originally Favel, the name of the half-man, half-horse centaur in the fourteenth-century satire Le Roman de Fauvel. Fauvel or Favel was very evil and cunning, and it was a good idea to get on the centaur’s good side. You could do this by pampering or grooming or “currying Flavel.”

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How do the left and right sides of the brain influence a person’s choice of career? Most people tend to emphasize characteristics of the left side of the brain, which controls verbal and analytical skills such as speech, language, and grammar. Lawyers, accountants, 650

politicians, business executives, salespeople, and teachers depend on these skills. On the other hand, the right brain is visual; it jumps easily to conclusions and it gets the big picture. Artists tend to exploit their right brains, while architects, engineers, and doctors effectively utilize both the left and right sides of their brains. The fact that creative writers use language (governed by the left brain) for their artistic expression doesn’t contradict that they are more influenced by the artistic right side. The American writer Mark Twain once sent a manuscript to his publisher with the following message: “Gentlemen: .......???’’’’’333.......,,,,,,,’’((((()))))!!!..;;;;:!” please scatter these through the attached according to your taste.” Why do men call a good friend their “buddy”? Buddy is a masculine term for a close companion who can be counted on in a crisis. In wartime males become buddies during combat or while watching each other’s back in a foxhole. The word originated with seventeenth-century Welsh and English coalminers who referred to a workmate with whom they shared the responsibilities of survival as a butty, which became buddy in North America. Why is the head office called the “flagship” of a corporation? We often use the word flagship to indicate the most important or largest component or unit within an industrial complex. This tendency derives from the navy where a flagship carried the admiral and flew his flag. The admiral’s ship was the largest in the fleet, and just like today’s CEO, the admiral 651

required larger quarters and rooms to conduct strategy meetings. What is the difference between a “job” and a “career”? The noun job as “a piece of work” was first recorded in the mid-sixteenth century. By the mid-seventeenth century, the word had also come to mean “continuous labour for pay.” The term began as jobbe, which is a variant of gob or lump and means specific work for money. Career, on the other hand, started out as the Latin noun carrus, or “chariot,” and evolved into several meanings, including “to speed.” Generally, during the Middle Ages, career was employed to describe a running course such as the sun’s transit across the sky or even a racecourse. In the sixteenth century, a track on a jousting field was called a career. In the early twentieth century, career began to mean the progression of “a life’s work,” while job remained a particular piece of work or a paid position of employment. Career can still mean a racecourse, only today it is run by rats. Why is a “touchstone” the standard against which things are measured? A “touchstone” is a figurative standard of value or quality against which something is measured. The word comes from ancient times when a special stone was used to guard against counterfeit money. The gold or silver content of coins wasn’t well governed, so phony money was often mixed with other metals and passed off as authentic. Merchants tested the purity of coins by rubbing them on a hard black stone. The colour of the streak left on the “touchstone” disclosed the coins’ true value. 652

Ultraviolet scanners provide a kind of touchstone for today’s paper money. Passing a bill under the scanner gives an instant indication of its authenticity based on a number of security features built into the bill. Who issued the first credit cards? There once was a time when people only used cash. Credit was a personal issue between the dealer and individual customers. In the 1920s, gas companies and hotel chains started issuing cards for credit exclusively for use in their own establishments. By the late 1930s, some of these firms began recognizing one another’s cards, but it wasn’t until 1950 that the Diners Club came out with a fee-based card to use with a large number of unrelated businesses. Soon after, American Express took a similar approach. BankAmericard, which became Visa, issued the first bank credit card in 1959. MasterCard appeared in 1966. Canadians own over fifty million Visas and MasterCards. Thirty percent of Canadian credit card holders don’t pay their full bill each month. Why are shares in a company called “stock”? The modern concept of sharing capital ownership was initiated by the Dutch East India Company in 1612, which raised money by selling pieces of the business to the public. This process gave the Dutch East India Company the ability to grow and share its profits with its “shareholders.” The original meaning of the word stock was the trunk of a tree. Like that trunk, “stock” to a corporation supplies the 653

necessities of life to the branches. This nourishment to any size company is “cash.” Stocks and shares are the same thing. Stock refers to an overall ownership in one or more companies within a portfolio. Shares signify ownership of one specific individual company. Today a “stock market” is a place where securities are bought and sold, but the first one in London, England, was a fourteenth-century fish-and-meat market and was so called because it had been built on a site formerly occupied by the “stocks” used for corporal punishment. What is the “grey market”? “Grey market” goods are legally sold through channels other than those authorized by the manufacturer. Unlike black market products, which may be counterfeits, grey market goods are the real thing. Entrepreneurs simply buy a product in one country where the item is significantly cheaper than another, then import it to the target market and legally sell the merchandise at a higher price. This situation commonly occurs with cigarettes and electronics, though importing legally restricted items leaves the “grey” and enters the “black” market. By avoiding the normal distribution fees or licences, consumers usually share in the profits of grey marketers through lower prices but are likely to discover that products acquired this way aren’t supported or warranted by the manufacturer. The existence of the grey market is an example of the economic practice called arbitrage. Grey market has a 654

different meaning on securities markets where the term refers to the buying and selling of securities to be issued in the future and, therefore, not yet circulating.

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Places

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How did England get its name? The country of England got its name from a Germanic tribe that migrated there in the fifth century AD. These Germans called themselves Anguls or Anglas, which became Angles around the fourteenth century. The Angle invaders called their new home Land of the Angles or Engla Land, which through time became England. The German invaders called themselves Anguls because they were from a district in Schleswig that was shaped like a fishing hook. Angul was derived from the Latin angulus, meaning “corner,” which originated in an earlier

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Indo-European word ank, or “to bend,” which had given the district and the people that name. The word angling, as in “fishing,” also comes from the Latin angulus and was a reference to a “bent” fish hook. How many cities are there with a population of a million or more? The United Nations Population Division has projected that the world’s population will become seven billion by 2013 and grow to 9.1 billion in 2050. Since most people continue to move to cities, the million-population club of urban centres grows ever more quickly. Rome, Italy, was the first city to reach a million in 133 BC, though after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, that city’s population declined so precipitously that it wasn’t until about 1930 that it again reached a million. London, England, achieved the million mark in 1810, and New York City attained it in 1875. In 2005 there were 336 cities in the world with populations exceeding one million. What is the population of the world’s largest cities? Population of the world’s cities is measured in two ways. One is by population within metropolitan boundaries. By that measure, Mumbai (formerly Bombay), India, is the world’s largest city with almost twelve million people. Measuring by urban agglomeration, which means the city plus surrounding communities, Tokyo, Japan, leads with a staggering thirty-five million people, sixteen million more than Mexico City, the second-largest.

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Measured as an agglomeration, Tokyo has a population of three million more inhabitants than all of Canada. Toronto, Canada’s largest city, ranks about fiftieth in the world as an agglomeration of around 4.5 million people. How did the city of Toronto get its name? There are those who say that “Toronto” was a First Nations chief, while others insist the name refers to a Native tribe. Still others contend the name was derived from the Huron word toronton, meaning “meeting place.” Research into early French explorers’ maps from the 1670s, however, has uncovered the truth. These maps show present-day Lake Simcoe, seventy-five miles north of Toronto, as Lac Taronto. In Mohawk taronto means “fish trap.” The French later applied the name to a trading post at the mouth of the Humber River, inside the boundaries of present-day Toronto. Besides the trading post, the French also had Fort Rouillé built inside the area of today’s Toronto. By the time the British captured the fort in 1760, it was generally known as Fort Toronto. In 1793 Lieutenant-Governor John Graves Simcoe changed Toronto’s name to York because he didn’t like aboriginal names. The name was changed back to Toronto in 1834. The Simcoe counties of Tay and Tiny were named after Mrs. Simcoe’s pet dogs. How did the city of Calgary get its name? In 1875, during trouble with the First Nations, the local North-West Mounted Police sent E troop under Inspector 660

E.A. Brisebois to erect a barracks on the Bow River. When Brisebois wanted to name the new structure after himself, his commander, Lieutenant-Colonel James Macleod, overruled him and named the settlement Fort Calgary, after the ancestral estate of his cousins, the MacKenzies, in Scotland. The Gaelic translation of Calgary is “clear running water,” which certainly describes the Bow River. The translation of the Blackfoot name for the area known as Calgary (briefly Fort Brisebois) was “elbow many houses.” The translated Cree name for the area was “elbow house.” Both Native references are to the Elbow River. QUICKIES Did You Know … that the eastern coast of Canada is closer to London, England, than it is to the country’s own West Coast? that in England the farthest one can get from the sea is sixty-five miles, while in Greece it is eighty-five miles? that the summit of Mount Irazú in Costa Rica is the only place on Earth where one can see both the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean? that at sixty-four million square miles the Pacific Ocean is twice as large as the Atlantic Ocean and covers a greater area than all the land mass on Earth combined? Why is a young rascal or rogue called a “scallywag”?

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A “scallywag” is usually a reference to a mischievous, youthful little scamp who seems to cause trouble continually. The original English spelling of scallywag was scalawag and is a reference to Scalloway, one of the Shetland Islands, where the famous Shetland ponies are bred. The word was created as an insult to the residents of Scalloway whose horses were so much smaller than the standard breeds. The hostile, damp, and chilly environment of the Shetlands is the major reason ponies bred there are so much smaller than standard horses. Their small stature helps them conserve body heat and huddle out of the wind behind low hills. Shetland ponies became extremely sought after in Britain during the nineteenth century when many thousands were used in coal mining to haul carts in the tunnels after a piece of legislation called the Mines Act banned children from working in the mines in 1847. Scallywag is also used in the United States to describe Southerners who collaborated with Union Reconstructionists after the Civil War. The word has also been employed to describe unscrupulous politicians and men who won’t work. Why did Cape Canaveral become Cape Kennedy and then Cape Canaveral again? Cape Canaveral, Florida, was named by the Spanish and began to appear on maps around 1564. After the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy (1917–1963) and because he had been such a driving force behind the space program, Jacqueline Kennedy (1929–1994), his widow, asked President Lyndon Johnson (1908–1973) to rename the space facility located there after her late husband. Instead Johnson 662

renamed not just the facility but the entire cape. The move was so strongly opposed by local residents that in 1973 the name Cape Canaveral was restored. The space facility is still named the Kennedy Space Center. Cañaveral means “canebrake” or “canefield” in Spanish, and Cape Canaveral is usually interpreted as “Cape of Canes.”

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Beliefs & Superstitions

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Why is the book of Christian scriptures called a “Bible”? The Christian book of scriptures was first called the Bible by the Greeks. The ancient Phoenicians had found a way to make a form of paper from the papyrus plant, which gave us the word paper. They had done this in the city of Byblos, which is why the Greeks called the new paper biblios, and a collection of related writings or a book was soon called a biblion. By 400 AD, the word Bible emerged to exclusively describe the Christian collection of scriptures. Byblos is now called Jubayl in modern Lebanon. The lowercase word bible now means any book of authority.

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What does the H in “Jesus H. Christ” stand for? The exclamation “Jesus H. Christ!” is often used as an attempt to avoid a blasphemous curse. Of course, even though it still takes the Christian Lord’s name in vain, it is usually accepted as a joke. The epithet is based on “HIS” or “IHC,” which is an abbreviation of Jesus’s name in ancient Greek and is common in the earliest versions of the New Testament. It is still found on Catholic and Anglican vestments. The exclamation came from the misconception that these were Jesus’s initials. Why is someone living a “good” life said to be on the “straight and narrow”? Someone on the “straight and narrow” is living a legal, moral, and disciplined life and was referred to in The Pilgrim’s Progress by English writer John Bunyan (1628–1688). In that inspirational book, Pilgrim, the representative of everyman, must follow the “straight and narrow.” The phrase has a biblical origin in Matthew 7:14: “Broad is the way that is the path of destruction but narrow is the gate and straight is the way that leadeth to the house of God.” Why is lighting “three on a match” considered bad luck? Lighting three cigarettes in a row with one match was common practice among smokers until the advent of lighters and was especially practical to outdoorsmen or soldiers who needed to ration their matches. “Three on a match” became bad luck during the Boer War (1899–1902) when Commonwealth soldiers discovered the hard way that an enemy sniper would train his 667

sights on a match when it was struck and then focus and fire by the time the third man lit his cigarette. What is the origin of the expression “it’s raining cats and dogs”? The general legend about “raining cats and dogs” relates to the thatched roofs of the Middle Ages and would have you believe that when it rained, all sorts of creatures, including cats and dogs, slipped and fell in such abundance that it gave rise to the expression, but that’s wrong! The truth is that the saying predates even the Dark Ages and goes back to a time when people believed that ghosts and goblins were around every corner. Cats and dogs had magical, mystical powers. Sailors believed that cats brought on storms and that witches rode those storms (with their cats). To the early Norsemen, dogs and wolves symbolized the wind, and the Viking storm god Odin was always shown surrounded by dogs. So during a violent rainstorm, an angry Odin’s dogs were set loose, and the cats, symbolizing the rain, caused people to say, “It’s raining cats and dogs.”

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The word cat is derived from the ancient Greek word catadupe and means “waterfall.” In Latin cata doxas means “contrary to experience,” or “an unusual fall of rain.” Why should heavy drinkers wear an amethyst?

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An amethyst is a pale blue to dark purple crystallized quartz and is a precious stone found in modern-day Iran, Iraq, Brazil, India, and some parts of Europe. It was worn on the breastplates of high priests because the ancients believed that wearing or even touching an amethyst kept people from getting intoxicated no matter how much they drank. In Greek the word amethyst literally means “not intoxicating.” How many saints are there? The first official canonization took place in 993 AD when Pope John XV (died 996 AD) declared Bishop Ulrich of Augsburg a saint. Butler’s Lives of the Saints, published in 1759, had 1,486 entries. The revised edition in 1956 listed 2,565. Currently, an up-to-date version of the book is in the works, so the exact number of saints is unknown. Pope John Paul II (1920–2005) canonized twelve people, which brought the total number of saints named during his pontification to more than 300, which is about half the number of saints named in the past 400 years. During the first 800 to 900 years of Christianity, there was no formal recognition of sainthood. The number of martyrs and others of exceptional faith from that time are the main reason for the Feast of All Saints or All Saints Day held on November 1 and the vigil of which is called All Hollows Day or Halloween. What is a “patron saint”? Patron saints are chosen as guardians or protectors over specific areas of life. These can be chosen by people or 670

groups without papal consent simply because the saint’s interest or life experience relates to a group or individual. The church has, however, chosen many patron saints such as the writer Francis de Sales, who was picked to be the patron saint of writers and journalists. Angels can also be named as patron saints. Who is Canada’s patron saint? Canada has two patron saints. Since French Catholics were the first Europeans to settle Canada, they brought their religion and customs with them, including the assignment of patron saints. St. Anne, the Virgin Mary’s mother, shares patronage of Canada with Mary’s husband, St. Joseph. St. Anne is also the patron saint of housewives, cabinet makers, and all women in labour. Her Roman Catholic feast day is July 26. St. Joseph shares his patronage of Canada with Mexico, China, Belgium, and carpenters. In 1870, Pope Pius IX (1792–1878) declared St. Joseph the universal patron of the church. St. Joseph’s feast day is March 19. What are “guardian angels”? A “guardian angel” is a heavenly spirit assigned by God to watch over each person during his or her individual life. The angel is part of the dogma of the Roman Catholic faith and is there to help guide people and keep them from evil or danger. The feast to honour guardian angels is on October 2. Like unidentified flying objects (UFOs), angels come in a variety of forms, depending on whose vision is believed. Moses was visited by an angel in the guise of a burning bush, while Jacob said that he saw wingless angels climbing a 671

ladder to heaven. Witnesses swore they saw angels in human form beside the tomb of Jesus. Ezekiel (of the wheel fame) boasted that he saw cherubim with four wings, while Isaiah outdid him by claiming to witness seraphim angels with six wings. After that the common image of an angel with two wings, as depicted by most artists to this day, was settled on. The English word angel is from the Greek angelos, meaning “messenger.” The Hebrew word for angel is malak, which also means “messenger.” In the Koran, angels are said to have two, three, or four pairs of wings or forelimbs, depending on how the Arabic word ajnihah is interpreted. Who gets to be a “martyr”? Martyrs are people who choose torture or death rather than renounce their beliefs or principles. The English word derives through Latin from the Greek martur, meaning “witness.” The first Christian martyr is said to have been St. Stephen, who was stoned to death after being convicted of blasphemy by a Jewish court around 33 AD. Jewish martyrs include a group of forty who died during the Crusades when they refused to renounce their faith and accept Christianity. In Islam the first martyr is said to be an old female slave named Sumayyah bint Khabbab, who was tortured and killed in front of Mecca by polytheists, people who believed in many gods. QUICKIES Did You Know …

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that “bad-mouth” came to English through African American slaves and means to utter a curse or cast a spell on someone? that the word Zounds is archaic British slang for “Christ’s wounds”? Why do Muslims pray five times a day? Muslims pray five times a day in response to an order from God. Prayers must be said just before sunrise, after the sun peaks at noon, in the late afternoon, just after sunset, and between sunset and midnight. The ritual of prayer involves a series of actions that go with the words of a prayer. Everyday thoughts must be put aside before praying, otherwise no benefit will be realized. Everyone from the age of seven is encouraged to take part in prayer. In the beginning, before life became too busy, Christians also prayed five times a day! Why is not eating called “fasting”? The original meaning of fast was “hold firmly,” as in “she held fast to her principles.” As a practice of not eating, fasting is all about maintaining firm self-control. Today fasting can take many forms and is practised by the religious and non-religious. As a protest, prisoners use it to demonstrate that their captors don’t control their will or bodies. As a religious exercise, it is a demonstration of a person’s steadfast allegiance to God. Some people fast simply to purge their bodies of its toxins.

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The word fast began in Old English as faest, meaning “firmly steadfast” or “mentally strong,” and has the same application to swiftness or running a long-distance race. Why is an excessive enthusiast called a “zealot”? A zealot is a supreme fanatic, often a bigot, and perhaps unfairly is best known in history as a radical Jewish political movement called the Zealots. This sect joined with several other Jewish groups to launch a rebellion in Palestine against the Roman Empire in the first century AD. Known for being aggressive, intolerant, and violent, the Zealots captured Jerusalem in 66 AD and held it for four years. When Rome finally recaptured the city, it was destroyed. The sect also captured the fortress of Masada and held it for several years against thousands of troops until the Romans set it on fire in 73 AD, leaving a handful of survivors to tell the tale. The word zealot comes from the Greek zēlMtēs, which means “a fervent follower.” It is a synonym of the Hebrew word kanai, which means “one who is jealous on behalf of God.” Why is an intolerant person called a “bigot”? A bigot is someone who is intolerant of any religion, race, group, or politics other than his or her own. The word began as a curse and was first recorded in English in 1598 as meaning “a superstitious hypocrite.” Bigot originated as bi got from a common Old French slur against the Normans that today would be translated as “By God!” with the intended meaning of “God damn it!”

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Legend has it that when the first duke of Normandy, Rollo, was ordered to kiss the foot of the French king, Charles III (879–929), he refused by uttering the curse “Bi got!” Why do we say that someone grieving is “pining”? If a person is “pining away,” he or she is tormented by longing or grief, because pine, in this case, has the same meaning as pain. In the early English language, Christians referred to pinian as the consequence of the tortures and punishment of Hell. Pinian became both pine and pain. As time went on, pine acquired a softer meaning, more associated with Purgatory, that suggested languishing or wasting away, while pain retained its “hellish” origins. Today pine usually has a romantic context such as “pining” for a lost love. Where do we get the expression “earn brownie points”? The original “brownies” are little Scottish elves (wee brown men) who are believed to fix things and help out around farms when everyone is asleep. They were the inspiration for the name Lord Baden-Powell’s sister, Agnes, gave to the branch of Scouts that serves younger girls from six through eight years of age. Brownie points are those accumulated by the girls for good deeds. Enough Brownie points earns a reward or significant badge of honour. The first modern use of “brownie points” was in 1951 when scoring them was offered as a strategy of good deeds for men to stay out of trouble with their wives.

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Fauna & Flora

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When and why do cats purr? One of the great and endearing mysteries about cats is their use of purring to show affection, but they also purr when in danger or while giving birth or dying. Feral cats will even purr during a standoff with another cat. Cats only purr in the presence of humans or other cats. Because they are born blind and deaf, kittens depend on feeling the purring of their mothers to find comfort and a place to nurse. The kittens themselves start purring at one week. The purring of all adult cats derives from this mother-kitten experience, a form of communication often accompanied by kneading the paws as they did while nursing. Purring is by choice and is exclusive to domestic cats in that it occurs uninterrupted both during 678

inhaling and exhaling. Big cats make a similar noise, but only while exhaling. Raccoons also produce a purring sound, but again only while exhaling. Cats choose to purr, but how is another question still a mystery to science. Why is a species of whales called “sperm whales”? The sperm in sperm whale is an 1830 abbreviation of spermaceti, which means “sperm of a whale.” It was once believed that the waxy, gel-like substance in the snouts of these aquatic mammals was the seed of the male whale. Spermaceti was prized for its medicinal properties and was also used for candle oil. The material is, in fact, used by the whale to cushion its sensitive snout as it dives and has nothing to do with the animal’s reproductive functions. In 1471 the English alchemist Sir George Ripley (circa 1415–1490) suggested in “The Compound of Alchemy” that drinking a mixture of “whale sperm” with red wine would fight the chronic ills of growing old. What does the “grey” mean in “greyhound”? Greyhound dogs have been bred for hunting and racing and have extremely keen eyesight. They are one of the fastest land mammals and can reach speeds up to forty-five miles per hour. They were introduced to England from Celtic mainland Europe in the sixth century BC. The dogs come in a wide variety of colours, which indicates that the “grey” in their name has nothing to do with their hue. Hound is from the Old English word hund, and grey derives from the Old Norse grig, which was

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used generically for any fair or light-coloured dog. Greyhounds make wonderful pets and have been nicknamed Forty-Five-Mile-an-Hour Couch Potatoes. All ancient variations of the word grey, as in greyhound, have the common meaning of “shine” or “bright.” Why do dogs circle so much before lying down? Dogs turn around several times before lying down. They appear to be trying to make themselves comfortable, though it has been facetiously suggested that “they are looking for the head of the bed.” The fact is that dogs have maintained this habit from their origins in the wild. Like their ancestors and cousins, such as wolves, coyotes, and foxes, domesticated dogs still turn circles to beat down a bed of tall grass. Why do we say a “leopard can’t change his spots”? Much like “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks,” we sometimes say “a leopard can’t change his spots” to underline that mature people can’t alter who or what they are. Such a person’s character is too indelible. The phrase about the leopard’s spots comes from Jeremiah 13:23 in the Bible: “Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots?”

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How did the beaver get its name? A beaver is an industrious little rodent whose fur was the foundation of an industry that helped create Canada. At a time in history when knights wore armour, the hinged bottom portion of the helmet was called the “beaver,” because when it was lifted for food or drink it revealed a man’s beard, which is how the word became synonymous with body hair. The helmet beaver derived its name from the Latin bevere, meaning “to drink.” The furry little creature got its name from the Welsh word befer, meaning “bear.” How many natural wild “rabbits” are born each year in North America? There are no rabbits native to North America and there never were. The North American animal is properly called a hare, so the answer to the above question is zero. Early North American settlers dropped the word hare from their 681

vocabulary. The American term jack rabbit is an abbreviation of the original name jackass-rabbit, so named because of its long ears. A “rabbit punch,” describing an illegal action in boxing, comes from a gamekeeper’s method of dispatching an injured rabbit by “chopping” it on the back of its neck with the side of the hand. Why are some schemes called “hare-brained”? The adjective hare-brained usually refers to a plan or action that is unexplainably preposterous. If there is any confusion about this word’s meaning, it lies in the sixteenth-century dual spelling as both hare-brained and hair-brained. In any case, the word is a reference to the wildly odd mating season practices of hares, which are so bizarre that they are the origins of the expression “mad as a march hare.” Why are Siamese cats so fussy? If you have ever wondered why Siamese cats are always “talking” or bossing you around, it may be because they are descendants of royalty. Cats were revered in Siam where they were often selected to become receptacles of the souls of departed royals and senior government officials. When such a regal person died, a chosen cat would be taken to a temple where priests and monks would attend to their every need. The first Siamese cats came to Europe and North America in the late nineteenth century from the Kingdom of Siam, which

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became Thailand in 1939. There are three popular lines of Siamese cats: seal points, chocolate points, and blue points. QUICKIES Did You Know … that even though the Jack Russell terrier’s pedigree is still not recognized, the dog was named in 1907 after its breeder, Reverend John Russell (1795–1883), of Devonshire, England? that cocker spaniels got their name from being bred to hunt peacocks? that lions are the only cats to hunt in packs (prides)? Why do we call a deliberately misleading story a “canard”? A “canard” is a story or a statement that is a hoax or a lie. Canard is French for duck, but in English the word refers to a deliberate falsehood and is based on a French proverb about cheating or swindling. Vendre un canard à moitié literally translated means “to half sell a duck.” However, the expression probably means “to sell half a duck.” Selling a bag containing a half duck as if it were whole at a busy farmers’ market would constitute a deliberate “lie” with the intention of cheating the purchaser. The U.S. reason for invading Iraq has been called a canard. What is the advantage of “sitting in the catbird seat”?

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“Sitting in the catbird seat” means you have an advantage over the opposition. The catbird is a thrush, and like its cousin, the mockingbird, perches among the highest branches of a tree and has a warning cry that resembles that of a cat. “Sitting in the catbird seat” originated in the U.S. South in the nineteenth century and was regularly used on radio by Red Barber (1908–1992), the Brooklyn Dodgers’ baseball announcer. Amused by the expression, Dodgers fan and humorist James Thurber (1894–1961) popularized the expression in a 1942 New Yorker story entitled “The Catbird Seat.” As Thurber wrote, “‘Sitting in the catbird seat’ meant sitting pretty, like a batter with three balls and no strikes on him.” Why do we say someone is “happy as a clam”? “Happy as a clam” seems to assume that the mollusk is indeed happy. This notion was probably inspired by the observation that if a clam is held sideways and looked at straight on it appears to be smiling. However, the expression is incomplete. It began as “happy as a clam at high tide.” High tide is, of course, the time when clams can feed. High tide is also a time when clams are safe from clam diggers which, obviously, would make them very happy. The word clam is derived from the same Scottish word that means “vise” or “clamp.” What makes a monarch butterfly unique? The monarch is the only North American butterfly known to migrate. Scientists believed monarchs migrated for quite a long time, but it wasn’t until 1975 that Cathy and Ken 684

Brugger found the butterfly’s wintering grounds in Mexico’s Sierra Madre. There they discovered that the aboriginal peoples who lived in the area thought the butterflies represented spirits of dead children or the souls of lost warriors. Logging and other kinds of human interference are threatening the survival of the Mexican monarch butterfly colonies. Climate change may be imperilling them, as well. Why are wild horses called “mustangs”? A mustang is a half-wild horse descended from the Arabian horses brought to the Americas by Spanish explorers in the sixteenth century. The word mustang comes from the Mexican-Spanish word mestengo, meaning “stray animals that are ownerless.” Today’s mustangs are the offspring of generations of runaways and those horses stolen or recaptured by aboriginals. By 1800 there were millions of mustangs on the North American prairies, but as European settlers moved west, they killed and stole from the aboriginal stock until today, because they are still hunted, there are fewer than a thousand of these magnificent living symbols of independence still running free. QUICKIES Did You Know … that the angle between the main vein and the smaller arteries of a leaf on a tree is exactly the same as the angle of the tree’s trunk to its branches?

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that broad-leaved deciduous trees (maple, beech, oak, et cetera) do not drop their leaves in the autumn because they die on their own? The trees cause their leaves to fall to save water during dry and cold spells. that evergreen trees have adapted their leaves (needles) to minimize evaporation so that by gradually dropping them throughout the year they are able to keep them during the winter? that the autumn splendour of dying leaves happens when sugar is converted into pigment? The more sugar trapped in the leaf, the more colourful the display, which is why the leaves of the sugar maple turn scarlet. that evergreen and deciduous trees have been known to change, one into the other, when transplanted to a new climate? It is bitterly ironic that after four decades the Mustang car has more respect than its living namesake. How did we get the expression “loaded for bear”? “Loaded for bear” means you are well armed to meet any problem. In the days of muskets, the gunpowder charge could be adjusted depending on the size of the animals you expected to encounter in the wilderness. So if you were hunting bear, or simply entering their territory, you went into the bush well armed with an extra charge loaded into your musket. This expression originated in Canada.

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Anyone familiar with Canadian wildlife knows that a simple walk in the bush can become a life-and-death confrontation with a dangerous animal. The bear is very territorial, viciously protective of its cubs, and extremely difficult to take down. Today “loaded for bear” means carrying a powerful rifle as well as a sidearm and a knife.

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Holidays

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Why is a major celebration called a “jubilee”? A jubilee is “a season of rejoicing” and comes from the ancient Hebrews. Fifty years after the Jews were freed from Egyptian bondage, they created a semi-centennial festival that lasted a full year within which all land would be left fallow and returned to its original owners. All debts were paid off and all slaves were emancipated. Declared a year of rest, the jubilee’s arrival every fifty years was announced by the trumpeting of rams’ horns throughout the land. A ram’s horn in Hebrew is yobhel, which led to the English word jubil or jubilee.

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Today there are silver jubilees (twenty-five years), golden jubilees (fifty years), diamond jubilees (sixty years), and platinum jubilees (seventy years). In 1897, Britain’s Queen Victoria celebrated her diamond jubilee throughout the British Empire. When is Mother-in-Law’s Day? According to a resolution passed by the U.S. House of Representatives in 1981, the fourth Sunday in October is set aside to honour mothers by marriage. Although the U.S. Senate hasn’t adopted the resolution making the occasion official, the greeting-card industry continues to lobby for Mother-in-Law’s Day and each year about 800,000 cards are sent to spouses’ mothers. When is Grandparent’s Day? In 1969 a sixty-five-year-old Atlanta man named Michael Goldgar returned home from visiting an aunt confined to a nursing home and realized that most of the elderly were treated as burdens by their children and grandchildren. He thought of earlier times when the elderly were a source of wisdom and the nucleus of a family. Goldgar began a seven-year campaign, including seventeen trips to Washington, D.C., at his own expense before President Jimmy Carter (1924– ) signed legislation making Grandparent’s Day the Sunday after Labour Day. As a result, more than four million cards are sent each year to grandparents. Why is a calendar book of predictions and trivia called an “almanac”? 690

An almanac is an annual publication forecasting weather and providing other miscellaneous information relative to a calendar year. The earliest almanacs were largely preoccupied with astronomical and astrological information as well as dates for feasts and festivals. The seventeenth century saw almanacs begin to broaden their scope to include stories, poems, remedies, statistics, and jokes. Well-known almanacs include the Farmer’s Almanac, which started publication in 1793, and The World Almanac and Book of Facts. Poor Richard’s Almanac, produced by Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790) in the eighteenth century, is a fixture in English literature. The word almanac came into English from Arabic through Spain in the fourteenth century as al-manakh, meaning “calendar.” How did pumpkin Thanksgiving?

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There was no pumpkin pie at the first Thanksgiving, but because the plant’s season coincides with the celebration and because it was Native Americans who taught the Pilgrims the pumpkin’s value, the melon has become a traditional Thanksgiving dish. At first pumpkin was customarily served stewed as a custard or sweet pudding and was presented in a hollowed-out pumpkin shell. The first reference to pumpkin pie appeared in a book entitled The History of New England written by Edward Johnson in 1654.

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Americans & Canadians

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What is the full text of the Statue of Liberty poem? The Statue of Liberty, formally called Liberty Enlightening the World, was a gift from the French to the people of the United States. It has stood since 1886 in New York City Harbour on Liberty Island. The famous poem engraved on a plaque at the base of the statue is a sonnet entitled “The New Colossus.” It was written by Emma Lazarus (1849–1887) in 1883 to assist in raising money for the statue’s pedestal. In 1903 the sonnet was engraved on a bronze plaque and put in place on a wall in the museum located in the statue’s base. The poem was never engraved on the statue itself as frequently portrayed in editorial cartoons. Today the poem sings as a beacon not only to new immigrants but to all who 694

seek to understand the human need for freedom and the original idea of the United States of America. Emma Lazarus was a child of very successful Jewish immigrants who extended her universal compassion beyond her own cultural heritage. The full text of “The New Colossus” is as follows: Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame, With conquering limbs astride from land to land; Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame. “Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

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I lift my lamp beside the golden door!” What Canadian resource do Americans need more — oil or water? The Alberta tar sands have attracted the interest of the United States, and though Canada already accounts for 16 percent of U.S. oil consumption, new technology may someday diminish the Americans’ need for carbon-based fossil fuels. Water is another matter. Each day 4,755 billion gallons of water are funnelled through water pipes, turbines, and irrigation systems in the United States. This massive activity represents about twelve times the average daily flow of the Mississippi River. The average per person need in the United States is 2,700 gallons, or 370 billion gallons in total each and every day. With American thirst for water increasing by 19 percent per year, Canada’s water will become more than a mirage, it will be a necessity.

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What colour is the Canadian flag — white or red? The Canadian flag is red. On February 15, 1965, when Canada’s new flag became official and flew over the country for the first time, the ceremonious proclamation read: “A red flag of proportions two by length and one by width containing in its centre a white square the width of the flag with a single red maple leaf therein.” When did the United States draw up modern-day plans for the invasion of Canada? In 1974 it became public that in 1930 the United States had drawn up a strategic plan that included a successful invasion of Canada. The scheme was called “Plan — Red.” It involved attacks on Montreal and Quebec, Winnipeg’s railway centre, Ontario’s nickel mines and power generation, and the Great Lakes. Naval blockades were to be set up on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, and Halifax was to be captured and occupied. This proposal was one of several contingencies that could be used if the United States went to war with Britain, Japan, Germany, or Mexico. The “Red” in the plan’s title actually refers to Britain (Canada, as part of the British Commonwealth, was usually scarlet on maps) and was part of a global strategy for war with that nation. Plots for war with Japan were coded “Orange,” war with Germany was “Black,” and Mexico was “Green.” A “White” plan was drawn up for a domestic insurrection, and a “Purple” proposal existed for war with a Central American country.

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The idea that war was possible with Britain may have stemmed from a treaty between Britain and Japan that ended in 1924. The treaty prompted the United States to come up with a “Red-Orange” strategy that considered the threat of a British-Japanese alliance. Of course, contingency plans are necessary, and as history from the time of World War I and World War II records, the Americans were very reluctant to go to war with anyone. When did Canada plan to invade the United States? It seems more than mildly absurd, but during the 1920s, while serving as the director of Canadian Military Operations and Intelligence, a man named James Sutherland Brown drew up “Defense Scheme Number One.” He had heard that the Americans had drafted a similar plan for Canada’s invasion, and as a descendant of United Empire Loyalists and because the United States had made several sorties into Canada during the nineteenth century, he didn’t trust his southern neighbours. The proposal would have mobilized Canadian forces to capture and establish bases in Seattle and Minneapolis, stalling the U.S. Army long enough for the British to come to Canada’s rescue. Considering modern-day circumstances, including the American interest in the Arctic and other Canadian resources, maybe Brown was ahead of his time.

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Baseball

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Why is the position between second base and third base called shortstop? Baseball began with four outfielders and only three infielders to guard the bases. In 1849, D.L. Adams (1814–1899) realized that three men could cover fly balls in the outfield and that by moving one of these outfield players to the infield he could keep a lot of ground balls from getting through by “stopping them short,” thus giving the new position its name of shortstop. Technically, this position is still an outfielder. Why is an easily caught pop fly in baseball called a “can of corn”?

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The legend is that in the days before supermarkets, small grocery store owners placed their tins of canned corn on the top shelves because they stored well and didn’t sell as quickly as fresh corn. For most customers this system put the cans out of reach. The store owner or clerk needed a broomstick to reach up and topple the can of corn from the shelf and easily catch it by hand or in an apron.

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Why are the pitcher and catcher collectively called “the battery”? A battery is a military term for artillery and its use in baseball to describe a pitcher and a catcher alludes to the fact that the battery is the principle attack force for the small army of nine players on a baseball diamond. There is also an earlier theory that the baseball term derives from telegraphy where the word battery (also borrowed from artillery) defines the sender (pitcher) and the receiver (catcher). How did the World Series get its name? There is a myth that the World Series was named after the New York World newspaper, which was established in 1860 and was sold in 1930 after merging with the Evening Telegram, becoming the New York World Telegram. However, the World had nothing to do with naming baseball’s annual classic. In 1884 a series of games between the National League and American Association champions was reported by the press as a contest to decide baseball’s “World Champions.” When the modern series began in 1903, the reference evolved (within all newspapers) into the “World Series” simply to hype the contest. Who introduced the first catcher’s mask? The first baseball catcher’s mask was a fencer’s mask introduced by Harvard University’s Fred Thayer in 1877. It wasn’t until 1890 that the major leagues adopted the idea that all catchers should wear protective masks. 704

Who invented baseball’s hand signals? In 1869 the Cincinnati Red Stockings began utilizing a system of hand signals based on military flag signals that soldiers had used while playing baseball during the Civil War. Baseball’s hand signals evolved from the earliest days of the game. Consequently, there are many moments and persons involved in their development, but none more important than a five-foot-four-inch, 148-pound centre fielder named William “Dummy” Hoy (1862–1961). Hoy was the first deaf baseball player to make the major leagues. One afternoon in 1889, as a centre fielder with the Washington Senators, Hoy set a major-league record by throwing out three base runners at home plate. His is a fascinating story, but although not recognized in baseball’s Hall of Fame, Hoy and his coaches and teammates developed an advanced system of hand gestures to overcome Hoy’s deafness, which was a key impetus in the hand-signals evolution. Even umpires started physically indicating the batting count to communicate with Hoy. He couldn’t hear the crowd, but Hoy’s legacy is a major part of each and every ball game played to this day. William Hoy played fourteen years in the majors, retiring in 1902 with a .288 lifetime batting average, 2,054 hits, and 726 runs batted in. His 597 career stolen bases still rank seventeenth in history. During a regular nine-inning baseball game, more than 1,000 silent instructions are given — from catcher to pitcher, coach to batter or fielder, fielder to fielder, and umpire to umpire.

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What is a “corked bat”? Some baseball players, like Sammy Sosa, believe that the spring from a “corked bat” adds distance to a struck ball. Even though physicists say this notion is nonsense, occasionally someone will try to use one. The basic method of corking a bat is to drill a straight hole into the top about one inch wide and ten inches deep. Then, after filling the cavity with cork, the player plugs the hole with a piece of wood and sands it smooth. A corked bat is illegal only if used in play.

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Science & Technology

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How were microwave ovens discovered? Masters of the culinary arts may have disdain for the microwave oven, but for most modern kitchens they are essential. The cooking use for microwaves was discovered by accident in 1945 when an American scientist named Percy Spencer (1894–1970) noticed that a candy bar in his pocket had melted while he was testing a magnetron, a tube that generates microwaves for use in radar systems. After experimenting with popcorn and a famous boiled egg, Spencer proved that microwaves could cook things. Percy Spencer worked for the Raytheon Company, and it was that firm that manufactured the first microwave ovens in 709

1947. They were mainly sold to restaurants because they were the size of small refrigerators and were too expensive for the general public. What was the initial purpose of the chainsaw? In unskilled hands, a chainsaw can be dangerous. It might even cut through an arm or a leg. Ironically, that was what the first chainsaw was invented for. A German named Bernard Heine (1800–1846) invented the chainsaw in 1830. It was called an osteotome. In those days before general anesthetics, surgeons depended on speed to shorten the suffering of patients. The chainsaw was designed to speed up amputations by cutting through bone more quickly than was possible with conventional methods. The device was operated by turning a crank manually, much like you would if you were using a hand mixer. A Swiss German, Andreas Stihl (1896–1973), patented and developed an electric chainsaw for cutting wood in 1926. Three years later he patented a gas-powered model. Stihl is generally regarded as the father of the modern chainsaw. How did the toilet get its name? Toilet seems an odd name for the bathroom’s chief plumbing fixture, but it makes sense when you consider that since the seventeenth century, “toilette” meant a lady’s dressing room. The chief purpose of the room was for cleaning up or changing clothes. The other business was done in an “outhouse.” When a lavatory became attached during the early nineteenth century, the room changed its main purpose and not only kept its name toilette but applied it to the regal new sitting 710

device. The beauty care and implements or “toiletries” assembled there were so named because they were placed on a fabric table cover called a toile. A toile, like a doily, is a netted decorative cloth. QUICKIES Did You Know … that Bic pens were invented by Hungarian Lazlo Biro but were named after the French Baron Biche who manufactured and marketed them? that the word blog is an abbreviation of weblog, an Internet site or “log” of items of interest to its author? that phishing is the act of getting personal details surreptitiously through fake emails or websites and is simply a variation of the word fishing? Why is aluminum also spelled aluminium? Aluminum is the most abundant metal in the Earth’s crust where it is principally found in combination with bauxite. In 1808 when the English scientist Sir Humphry Davy (1778–1829) was figuring out how to isolate aluminum, he first called it alumium. In 1812, though, he renamed the metal aluminum, which is how it is still known in North America. That same year, however, the British decided the metal should be called aluminium to conform to the ending of most other related elements that end in ium such as sodium, potassium, et cetera. In 1812, Britain’s Quarterly Review stated: “Aluminium, for so we shall take the liberty of writing

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the word, in preference to aluminum, which has a less classical sound.” What caused synthetic fibres to replace silk? Silk is a fine, lustrous, natural fibre made from secretions by very small silkworms to produce cocoons. The cultivation of silk began more than 5,000 years ago in China, and the process is very manual and expensive. In 1935, while China and Japan were at war and the silk supply to Western countries was interrupted, scientists at the chemical giant DuPont came up with the synthetic fibre nylon as a replacement. The first commercial nylon products were toothbrush bristles in 1938 and women’s stockings in 1940. Uses for the material expanded dramatically during World War II when it was substituted for silk in parachutes and replaced organic fibres in ropes, tents, ponchos, and many other products. The synthetic textile fibres Orlon and Dacron were introduced by DuPont in 1948 and 1951 respectively. The registered proprietary names of DuPont’s synthetic fibres begin with a random generic symbol such as nyl as in nylon and end in on from cotton. It took three years to come up with the name nylon. An early front-runner was “no-run,” which was abandoned because it wasn’t true. Some people think that the word nylon is a combination of the abbreviation for New York City, NY, and the first three letters in London, but DuPont denies that. Why is a manual counting board called an “abacus”?

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The abacus is an ancient counting device with movable counters strung on rods and is used to solve arithmetic problems. Computers and calculators have made the apparatus obsolete. The word abacus has Semitic roots and came to English through the Greek word abax, meaning “dust” or “sand.” Before the board with the beads, the ancients sprinkled a flat surface with fine sand for drawing geometric diagrams and solving mathematical problems. In 1387, written Middle English began referring to the sand-board calculator used by the Arabs by its Latin form abacus. Who coined the expression “garbage in, garbage out”? “Garbage in, garbage out” became famous when used by the brilliant lawyer Johnnie Cochran (1937–2005) during the O.J. Simpson trial. Its source is the computerese-abbreviated GIGO, which surfaced during the early 1960s. The acronym means that computers can only give you what has been put into them. Unfortunately, in spite of this shortcoming, some people insist on believing computers can’t be wrong, so we get the expression “garbage in, Gospel out.”

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Why is an alias or electronic nickname called a “handle”? An alias intended to conceal a user’s real name or identity within an electronic message is called a “handle.” Consider that handle is an extension of the word hand and is used to describe something you can get you hands on. Clearly, though an alias can be used to avoid revealing personal data, a figurative “handle” offers a way of getting hold of someone without disturbing that anonymity. The term was popular with ham radio operators and resurfaced during the CB radio craze of the 1970s and is now used on the Internet. In the jargon of the 1870s, titles such as “sir” or “madame” were introduced to common English as “handles.” Shortwave radio operators are called “hams” from the call letters of an amateur wireless station set up by three members of the Harvard Radio Club whose last names began with the letters H, A, and M. Why are the instruments used for sending and receiving sound called “radios”? The device we call a radio took its name from radio telegraphy and was commonly referred to as the wireless up until World War II when the military preference for radio caused that name to catch on to describe the revolutionary receptacle of sound. The word radio is derived from radius, Latin for “spoke of a wheel” or “ray of light,” because transmitted sounds travel out in all directions from a centre hub like the spokes of a wheel. ODDS & ODDITIES 714

The chance that Earth will experience a catastrophic collision with an asteroid in the next 100 years is 1 in 5,000. The odds of a meteor landing on one’s house are 182,138,880,000,000 to 1. The term radio was first used to describe sound-broadcasting medium as an industry in 1922.

the

How much space junk is orbiting Earth? The U.S. Air Force estimates that 9,000 pieces of space junk larger than ten centimetres across are currently orbiting the Earth with thousands of more smaller pieces. Space junk has only scored one confirmed hit on an active spacecraft. In 1996 a French military satellite was hit and knocked into a new orbit. The international space station has been forced to take evasive action on three occasions. Vanguard 1, a U.S. satellite launched in 1958, is the oldest piece of space junk still up there. Why is a black hole black? Black holes in space seem to be a recent phenomenon, yet Albert Einstein (1879–1955) predicted them in his theory of relativity in 1915. They are the incredibly dense centres of dead stars. Black holes appear black because their gravitational fields are so huge that even light can’t escape. We find and measure black holes by calculating the orbits and other behaviours of nearby stars or gas clouds. Black holes capture our imagination because we believe that should we fly a spacecraft anywhere near them they will capture us. The

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Hubble Space Telescope has taken pictures of many suspected black holes. One is the core of Galaxy NGC 4261. Why can’t you escape a black hole? There is no known escape from a black hole. To escape Earth, we have to travel at 25,000 miles per hour. If we go any slower, we won’t break the planet’s gravitational pull. When we run out of fuel, we will fall back to the ground. Black holes are even harder to escape. To get out of a black hole, you must go faster than the speed of light, and Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity says that is impossible.

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Now You Know Christmas 717

Preface Some Christmas books are fireside books. They’re written so that grownups can sit in their living rooms with their families, reading tales of holiday merriment beside a fireplace (often artificial nowadays). This is not one of those books. While the hope is that you will enjoy Now You Know Christmas tremendously, and that it will add a little something to your holiday, it was not written to be a “Christmas classic.” This book is for those who celebrate Christmas each year, and who every once in a while stop to wonder why we do some of the things we do and why we believe some of the things we believe. It is for people who wonder what lies beneath the most popular and celebrated holiday in the world.

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Why, for example, do we kiss under the mistletoe? It seems like a completely illogical tradition. Why do we say “Merry Christmas” instead of “Happy Christmas”? Why does an obese man come down our chimneys and stuff candies and toys in a sock? (Or for that matter, why would we eat candies we found in a sock?) And why would three supposedly wise men give a baby gold, frankincense, and myrrh — gifts that a baby couldn’t possibly have any use for? It’s a book for the curious. It’s a book for people like me. You can certainly sit in front of a fireplace — real or simulated — and read aloud directly from this book. But I have a hunch you’d much rather fill your head with some of these answers, hide the book underneath your mattress, and then entertain your friends and family at Christmas dinner with your astonishing knowledge of all things Christmas. Perhaps you can start by telling them how long you’ll be able to store that fruitcake Aunt Edna gave you as a gift. Doug Lennox, 2007

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Santa Claus, St. Nicholas & Other Gift-Bringers Who invented Santa Claus? “Santa Claus” is a figure who developed over the years, originally taking the form of St. Nicholas. But the Santa we know today largely developed under the guidance of a group of New York writers and historians known as “the Knickerbockers.” The group included Washington Irving, Clement C. Moore, and James Fennimore Cooper. The Knickerbockers played a major role in shaping the way Americans celebrated Christmas, and in the early 1800s, they went to work telling stories of a great gift-bringer who was considerably different from the St. Nicholas people had known. They drew on the Dutch

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tradition of Sinterklaas, and slowly evolved that name into “Santa Claus.” They also gave Santa many of the attributes we know today: the jolly demeanour, the plump belly, the fur suit. They also told us that Santa came down our chimneys and rode in a sleigh pulled by reindeer. Some have cynically suggested that the Knickerbockers and other social elites created Santa Claus so that poor people would stop knocking on their doors looking for handouts at Christmas, and would instead stay in their own homes staring at their fireplaces in greedy anticipation. But in reality, the group was eager to change Christmas from a time of drinking and carousing into a more family-centred holiday. They also wanted to create a distinctly American — or, more accurately, non-British — holiday. Is it true that a soft drink company created the modern image of Santa Claus? Many have credited the Coca-Cola Company with creating the modern image of Santa Claus in his red suit with white trim and black boots. Even Coca-Cola itself celebrated the seventy-fifth anniversary of its creation of the image in 2006. It all stems from a series of ads featuring illustrations by Haddon Sundblom used by the company between 1931 and 1964. In reality, the modern image of Santa Claus had been around for decades before Sundblom’s illustrations saw the light of day. Thomas Nast began illustrating Santa in the 1860s and depicted him as a jolly, rotund character in a red suit with white trim, with a big white beard. While the early Nast illustrations showed us an elf-like Santa, the figure later grew 721

to adult size. By the early 1900s, early filmmakers were presenting a Santa looking very much like our modern Santa in both costume and stature. And more than a decade before the Coca-Cola ads, Norman Rockwell’s Saturday Evening Post illustrations were showing us that the image of Santa we know today was already well on its way to being the standard. What Coca-Cola does deserve credit for is turning Santa into one of the greatest pitchmen in the history of advertising. While Santa had been used only sporadically in advertising until that point, Coca-Cola showed the world that the beloved figure could become a shameless huckster. In what country is the North Pole located? The true North Pole — the one at the top of the world — is located in international waters. Russia attempted to lay claim to the North Pole in 2001, but that claim was contested by several nations, and to date, no one has planted their flag on Santa’s front lawn. The magnetic North Pole — which is constantly moving — is currently located to the west of Canada’s Ellesmere Island. While few people outside Canada believe that this is Santa’s home, Canada Post accepts mail addressed to Santa care of “North Pole, Canada.” Two American towns have tried to attract the attention of Santa-seekers by adopting the name “North Pole.” North Pole, New York, did so hoping to entice tourists — and they’ve been successful thanks to the theme park “Santa’s Workshop.” And North Pole, Alaska, adopted its name in 1953 in the hopes that it would help attract a toy-maker to set 722

up shop in the community. To date, no toy company has grabbed that brass ring. Do all Christmas celebrants believe Santa lives at the North Pole? The notion that Santa Claus lives at the North Pole was popularized in the nineteenth century by writers such as Washington Irving and Horatio Algiers, as well as by artist Thomas Nast. But while most who have adopted Santa as their Christmas gift-giver believe his home is in the North Pole, the Finns would beg to differ. In the 1920s, Finnish radio star “Uncle Markus” Rautio declared that Santa lives on Finland’s Korvatunturi (“Mount Ear” or “Ear Fell”). This mountain is shaped like an ear and is said to be Santa’s ear, through which he listens to hear whether children are being naughty or nice. Finnish children immediately latched onto the proclamation, and soon other countries began accepting Santa’s Finnish citizenship. Who holds St. Nicholas as their patron saint? While best known as the patron saint of children — hence his association with Christmas gift-giving — Nicholas is also the patron saint of sailors, students, vagabonds, and pawnbrokers. The latter association ultimately led to the universal symbol of pawnbrokers: three gold balls hanging above a pawnshop’s door. The symbol represents three bags of gold, stemming from the legend in which Nicholas saved three young women

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from a life of prostitution by throwing bags of gold into their home. Did St. Nicholas ever celebrate Christmas? While legends of Nicholas’s generosity have been tied to Christmas and have been the basis for some of our holiday traditions, there is no evidence that Nicholas himself ever took part in Christmas celebrations. In fact, for most of his life, Christmas wasn’t even officially celebrated by the Church itself. The first recorded celebration by Rome was in A.D. 336, a mere seven years before Nicholas passed away. Even in death, Nicholas was not tied to Christmas until the eleventh or twelfth century. Is Nicholas still a saint? In 1968, the Roman Catholic Church removed forty saints from its roster. Nicholas was not among these decanonized saints. However, the Church did remove his feast from the universal liturgical calendar, meaning that celebrating Nicholas’s feast day was no longer required by Roman Catholic law. The Church took pains to emphasize that Nicholas and others who suffered a similar fate had not been demoted, saying “Saints who lost their places or whose feast days were demoted from universal to optional in the new edition of the liturgical calendar are still to be venerated as they were before the calendar’s updating.” Does Mrs. Claus have a first name?

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Yes. In fact, she seems to go by different names depending on where you live. In Switzerland, she is known as “Lucy.” In Austria, “Nikolofrau.” And in the Netherlands, “Molly Grietja.” Movies and stories have often given her a name. Angela Lansbury played her as “Anna” in the 1996 TV movie Mrs. Santa Claus, while Katherine Lee Bates (better known as the lyricist responsible for “America the Beautiful”) named her “Goody” in the story “Goody Santa Claus on a Sleigh Ride.” In the Rankin and Bass TV special Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town, Mrs. Claus answers to the name “Jessica.” Despite the many names she goes by, there appears to be only one Mrs. Claus, so there’s no need to worry about any indiscretions on the part of Santa. When did Santa first appear in department stores? J.W. Parkinson’s department store in Philadelphia was the first to invite Santa to make a personal appearance in 1841. It seems to have been an exclusive arrangement, because Santa didn’t appear at any other stores until 1890, when he graced the Boston Store in Brockton, Massachusetts. Since then, Santa has become a fixture at malls everywhere during the holiday season, taking gift orders from children and posing for pictures. How many letters to Santa does the post office process each year? Canada Post, claiming that Santa Claus lives near the magnetic North Pole, which lies within Canadian territory, 725

has a special postal code for Santa’s home: H0H 0H0. Approximately 1 million letters come to this postal code each year from Canada and around the world, and Canada Post claims that they answer each letter in the language in which it was written. Meanwhile, the post office in North Pole, Alaska, processes roughly 120,000 letters to Santa each year. U.S. numbers are more difficult to track, since post offices in different communities have their own letters-to-Santa programs. Gift-Bringers Not Named “Santa” While Santa Claus gets the most press in many countries around the globe, he doesn’t have a monopoly on gift-giving. The following are the gift-bringers in various countries: Brazil

Papai Noel

Denmark

Julemand

England

Father Christmas

Finland

Joulupukki

France

Pere Noel

Germany

Christkindl

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Netherlands

Sinterklaas

Italy

Old Befana

Phillipines

The Three Kings

Russia

Baboushka

Spain

The Three Kings

Sweden

Jultomten

But Santa isn’t the only gift-bringer with a lot of reading to do in December. In the United Kingdom, the Royal Mail receives 750,000 letters to Father Christmas. When did NORAD begin tracking Santa’s Christmas Eve journey? In 1955, NORAD began tracking Santa Claus as the result of an error in a newspaper ad. A Sears store in Colorado had printed an ad telling children that they could call their Santa Hotline in order to get an update on Santa’s progress in his journey around the world. Unfortunately, the phone number in the ad was wrong, and turned out to be the phone number for NORAD. Rather than rain on the kiddies’ Christmas parade, NORAD operators honed in on the big guy so that they could advise callers of Santas location.

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This began a Santa-tracking tradition, and extended beyond the telephone to include updates provided for television and radio stations. In recent years, NORAD has brought Santa into the Internet age with a website devoted to following his journey. Web-surfers visiting www.noradsanta.org receive frequent updates that include visuals of Santa as he visits countries around the world. How fast would Santa Claus need to travel in order to visit all the children in the world on Christmas Eve? If we assume Santa delivers presents at night — between 8 p.m. when kids go to bed and 6 a.m. when they’re banging on their parents’ doors begging to open presents — Santa has a ten-hour period in which to deliver the goods. However, if he plays his cards right and starts at the International Date Line and heads from east to west, he gains an extra twenty-four hours, for a grand total of thirty-four hours of delivery time. We’ll assume that there are 800 million homes to visit (2 billion children, with 2.5 children per household). He has 160 million miles to cover. We’re told that it’s impossible to travel at the speed of light, but it is theoretically possible to travel at just under the speed of light. If Santa travels at 99.99999999 percent of the speed of light, he can make it to every child’s home in around eight minutes and twenty seconds. That leaves him with thirty-three hours, fifty-one minutes, and forty seconds to put presents under trees, fill stockings, and consume his complimentary milk and cookies. He’ll have to work quickly, though, because that only leaves him with 0.0000000423 seconds at each house. 728

Now, at near-lightspeed, the reindeer would likely burst into flames, but presumably Santa has come up with some special protection to avoid this catastrophe. Where did the name “Kris Kringle” come from? Although “Kris Kringle” is a name now synonymous with “Santa Claus,” Kris Kringle’s origins predate the Santa tradition. “Christkindl” was an early gift-bringer who supplanted St. Nicholas in Germany, Switzerland, and Austria. But Christkindl differed from other gift-bringers in that he was the Christ Child himself. The name made it way across the Atlantic and morphed into “Kris Kringle.” As the various gift-bringers stepped aside in the face of the growing popularity of Santa Claus in the 1800s, “Kris Kringle” began to be another name for Santa. Which gift-bringer came first: Father Christmas or Santa Claus? The name “Father Christmas” predates “Santa Claus” by a fair margin. The earliest references to Father Christmas come from the fifteenth century, whereas Santa happened upon the scene in the early nineteenth century. In fact, Father Christmas may have existed long before those earliest records, as it’s been said that his origins were pagan. However, it’s worth noting that the Father Christmas we know today changed a great deal because of Santa’s

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influence. Where Father Christmas was once simply a symbol of Christmas merriment, the popularity of Santa Claus as a gift-bringer forced Father Christmas to carry a bag full of toys himself in order to maintain his popularity among British children.

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Trees & Other Decorations When did we start putting fir trees in our living rooms? The origins of the Christmas tree are murky and have been debated over the years, but we can say with certainty that Germany played a critical role in popularizing the tradition. The German tree seems to have stemmed from a European custom in the Middle Ages. The feast day of Adam and Eve was December 24, and medieval mystery plays marking the occasion featured a paradise tree. The paradise tree soon moved into homes. By 1605, we’d seen the first written description of a fully decorated, indoor Christmas tree in Strasbourg, Germany: “at Christmas they set up fir trees in the parlors and hang upon them roses cut from many-colored paper, apples, wafers, gilt-sugar, sweets, etc.”

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When were electric lights first sold to adorn Christmas trees? As lovely as earlier attempts to light Christmas trees were, candles and oil lamps presented obvious safety concerns. In 1882, three years after Thomas Edison invented the incandescent light bulb, one of his business associates, Edward Johnson, illuminated a tree in his home with eighty small bulbs, and invited the press to witness the historic event. The lights were first mass-produced by General Electric in 1890, and sold for what would have been a hefty sum in those days: twelve dollars a string. Biggest and Tallest • The world’s biggest Christmas stocking was made in 2005 by students at the University of Central Arkansas. It measured fifty-three feet long, and the distance from heel to toe was twenty-seven feet. • Bronner’s Christmas Wonderland in Frankenmuth, Michigan, is the world’s largest Christmas store, stocking fifty thousand items and featuring a half-mile “Christmas Lane.” • The world’s tallest Christmas tree was a eucalyptus tree in Tasmania that was decorated with more than three thousand Christmas lights by environmentalists looking to draw attention to the plight of Tasmania’s tall trees. It was eighty metres tall. How many trees are cut down each Christmas?

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In the United States, anywhere between 30 and 40 million trees are cut down for use as Christmas trees each year. In Europe, the number is between 50 and 60 million. While this apparent carnage has caused some to wonder if the use of real Christmas trees is an environmentally sound practice, the reality is that the overwhelming majority of modern holiday trees come from dedicated Christmas tree farms, and each tree that is harvested for Christmas is replaced by a newly planted tree. How many Christmas tree fires do firefighters respond to each year? According to the National Fire Protection Association, there are an average of three hundred Christmas tree fires in the United States annually. Of these, 40 percent are caused by electrical problems, 25 percent by a heat source too close to the tree, and 6 percent by children playing with fire. Christmas tree fires are particularly dangerous, as a tree can be fully engulfed within a few seconds and can lead to devastating consequences. Who was the first U.S. president to set up a tree in the White House? The White House was quick to join the Christmas tree craze when it hit America. Christmas trees had only emerged in the United States in the late 1840s, and by 1856, Franklin Pierce had set up a tree inside the White House.

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The tradition of displaying a tree on the White House lawn began many years later under Warren G. Harding in the 1920s. Not all presidents were so welcoming of the Christmas tree, however. Teddy Roosevelt, a noted conservationist, took a stand against the annual tree massacre by banning Christmas trees at the White House during his presidency. Why do we hang stockings on Christmas Eve? The tradition of the stocking stems from a legend associated with St. Nicholas. When Nicholas was Bishop of Myra in the early fourth century, he learned of a nobleman who had fallen on hard times. The man had three daughters, and the young women had no marriage prospects, as their father could offer no dowry. The only option the father could come up with was to sell his daughters into prostitution. Nicholas came by the family’s home one night and threw a bag of gold through a window — enough gold to serve as a dowry for one daughter. The next night, he threw a second bag of gold through the window. But on the third night, the window was closed, so instead Nicholas threw the third daughter’s gold down the chimney. According to the legend, the townspeople heard the story and hung stockings by their fireplaces at night in the hopes that they too would catch bags of gold coming down their chimneys. Where did the Advent calendar originate? Advent calendars are a relatively new Christmas tradition, originating in the mid-1800s in Germany and Scandinavia. 734

Early Advent calendars were homemade, and featured twenty-four small doors. From December 1 to 24, one door was opened each day to reveal a picture, toy, or candy. The Advent calendar remains to this day in homes around the world, most often taking the form of store-bought cardboard packages with fold-out doors revealing small pieces of chocolate. Are poinsettias really poisonous? While poinsettia plants may not make a tasty salad, they are, contrary to a popular belief, not toxic. The myth of the poison poinsettia seems to stem from the story of a two-year-old child in 1919 who reportedly died shortly after eating parts of a poinsettia plant. However, it was never established that the plant was to blame. Numerous tests have been done on poinsettia plants over the years, to the point that the American Society of Florists has said that no other consumer plant has ever been tested as much as the poinsettia. But fortunately for your children and your pets — and any drop-by holiday visitors with peculiar eating habits — the poinsettia is virtually harmless. Why do we hang wreaths? The Christmas wreath comes from pagan origins in Germany and other parts of Europe, where a wreath of evergreen was used to symbolize eternal life and the coming spring. This was adopted by Christians in the form of the Advent wreath, which differed from the modern Christmas wreath in that it contained candles that would be lit, one by one, as Christmas 735

approached. In the twentieth century, traditional wreaths made from real fir branches or holly were, for the most part, replaced by artificial wreaths. Why was tinsel once banned in the United States? Tinsel used to contain lead, and this presented health concerns. So, in the 1960s, it was banned by the United States government. Tinsel makers soon adapted, and removed lead from the decoration. Modern tinsel is made from plastic, which doesn’t hang as nicely from tree branches but is a lesser safety concern. When were Christmas tree ornaments first manufactured and sold? While it had been customary to decorate Christmas trees for a few centuries, the decorations tended to be handmade or took the form of candies, cakes, fruits, and flowers. It wasn’t until 1880 that the first manufactured Christmas tree ornaments were sold at the Woolworths department store.

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Customs & Traditions Why do we kiss under the mistletoe? In the Middle Ages, many homes in England displayed a hoop decorated with greenery (including mistletoe) with figures of the Holy Family in the middle. Over the years, the Holy Family disappeared, but the greenery display remained, and this was known as the kissing bough. It was customary to kiss or embrace under the kissing bough. As time went on, the bough got smaller and smaller until a bunch of mistletoe was all that remained. What is “wassailing”? Most of us only know the term wassailing from the song, “Here We Come a-Wassailing.” The tradition of wassailing

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has vanished over the years, leaving many to wonder what the song is referring to. The word wassail comes from the Anglo-Saxon phrase waes hael, meaning “good health” — a phrase offered as a toast when drinking. At Christmastime, wassailers would journey from door to door singing carols in exchange for drinks from a punch bowl. Another tradition had things working the other way around: the wassailers would carry a punch bowl from door to door, offering drinks in exchange for a monetary expression of appreciation. Either way, there was a great deal of drinking to “good health.” Why is the day after Christmas known as “Boxing Day” in many countries? England, Canada, and other Commonwealth countries celebrate December 26 as a legal holiday known as “Boxing Day.” The origins are a bit murky, but most believe that Boxing Day began as a tradition in which apprentices and assistants would, on the day after Christmas, visit their employers’ customers seeking monetary gifts as tips for their service throughout the year. They would carry boxes for the collection of these tips. Another theory has it that Boxing Day began when parish church alms boxes were opened and their contents distributed to poor members of the community. Whatever the origins, the Boxing Day tradition continues in name only, and has been distanced from its charitable origins. Now, Boxing Day has become the beginning of Boxing

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Week, a time when shoppers can find post-Christmas bargains at stores and malls. Quickies Did you know … • that in Poland in the Middle Ages it was believed that a child born on Christmas Day was likely to become a werewolf? • that Marquette, Michigan, is more likely to experience a white Christmas than Anchorage, Alaska, or Saskatoon, Saskatchewan? • that it’s considered bad luck to throw out the ashes from your yule log on Christmas Day? What is the oldest Santa Claus Parade in the world? In 1905, the world’s first Santa Claus Parade was held in Toronto. It was a small affair that year, amounting to a solitary Santa walking from the city’s Union Station up Yonge Street to the Eaton’s department store. The parade quickly grew and, despite financial difficulties that nearly derailed the event in the 1980s, the Toronto Santa Claus Parade is still a popular annual tradition that is broadcast around the world. When was the first Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade? The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade first made its way through the streets of New York in 1925. Since then, it has

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become the most famous of all the holiday parades, even figuring prominently in the film Miracle on 34th Street. The parade is best known for its giant balloons, many of which take the form of popular cartoon characters. How did the tradition of the Boar’s Head Feast originate? It is believed that the Boar’s Head Feast originated in pagan times when boars would be sacrificed in honour of the Norse fertility god Frey. The tradition was eventually adopted as a Christmas custom in the Middle Ages, though for the most part it died out over time. However, there are still pockets of Christmas celebrants who enjoy a Boar’s Head Feast every year. A less likely story — though infinitely more entertaining — tells us that a student at Queens College, Oxford, in England founded the feast by accident. During a stroll in Shotover Forest, he was chased by a boar. Having no other means of defence, he shoved his book of Aristotle’s writings down the boar’s throat. He soon realized that he was going to need his Aristotle back, and so he cut off the poor boar’s head and took it back to the college, where he and his fellow students cooked the head and had what was, supposedly, the first ever Boar’s Head Feast. While this story is almost certainly more fiction than fact, the feast tradition continues at Queen’s College to this day. Besides a lump of coal, what other consequences might naughty boys and girls face at Christmas? Kids should count themselves lucky if the punishment for naughty behaviour is a lump of coal at Christmas. In some 740

traditions present and past, corporal punishment has been in vogue. In most cases, Santa (or another gift-bringer) leaves the dirty work to someone else. In the Netherlands, St. Nicholas is accompanied by Zwarte Piet (“Black Peter”), who brandishes switches and threatens to tie children in a sack and haul them off to Spain. Pére Fouchette in France accompanies Pére Nöel and likewise threatens youngsters with switches. In Austria, Krampus threatens to beat naughty kids with a rod or whip and then stuff them in his basket. Santa doesn’t have a comparable helper in North American tradition, and so in Children’s Friend, an early book about the jolly man, we’re told that Santa leaves a “long, black birchen rod” that parents can use to beat their children. And apparently Santa couldn’t rely on parents to do the beatings themselves, for as we see in some of legendary Santa illustrator Thomas Nast’s artwork, Santa has been known to carry switches at times. Who invented the Christmas cracker? Tom Smith, a London confectioner, invented the Christmas cracker in 1847. The first crackers contained candy and a greeting, and made the familiar cracking noise when pulled open. He soon replaced the candy with toys and other prizes, and his invention quickly caught on. Today, the Christmas cracker is still a tradition in England and Commonwealth countries, and usually contains a toy, a joke, and a tissue-paper hat that revellers are expected to wear for Christmas dinner.

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Who began the tradition of the nativity play? A staple of school and church Christmas pageants today, the nativity scene was first staged in Greccio, Italy, in 1223 by St. Francis of Assissi. Nativity plays re-enact the birth of Jesus and typically feature the Holy Family, the Wise Men, the shepherds, and one or several angels. Who invented the pre-Christmas anti-holiday, Festivus? A 1997 episode of Seinfeld introduced the world to the pseudo-holiday of Festivus, and since then, the day has enjoyed a surprising and growing popularity. Celebrated on December 23, Festivus features an aluminum pole (in place of a Christmas tree) and such Festivus dinner activities as “the Airing of Grievances” and “the Feats of Strength.” (The latter tradition requires that a celebrant wrestle the head of the household to the floor and pin him or her.) Although it was Seinfeld that first brought Festivus to the masses, the holiday had been an annual tradition of the O’Keefe family for years. Reader’s Digest columnist Dan O’Keefe created Festivus in 1966. His son, Daniel, would grow up to become a writer on Seinfeld, and worked Festivus into a storyline. What is “Operation Santa Claus”? Since the 1920s, postal workers in New York City have volunteered to be a part of Operation Santa Claus. Letters written to Santa by American children are read by the

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workers, who then respond to as many as they can. Each year Operation Santa Claus volunteers respond to roughly two hundred thousand letters. Season’s Greetings! December Holidays The generic, politically correct phrase “Season’s Greetings” has become a common way of including all faiths and traditions in the merriment of December. The following is a list of holidays celebrated in December: St. Nicholas Day • December 6 Guadalupe Day • December 12 St. Lucia Day • December 13 Hanukkah • An eight-day celebration, the dates of which vary from year to year Christmas Eve • December 24 Christmas Day • December 25 Boxing Day • December 26 Kwanzaa • December 26 to January 1 New Year’s Eve • December 31 How did Vancouver’s “Carol Ships” tradition begin?

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The Carol Ships have brought the holidays to Vancouver’s Coal Harbour since the early 1960s. The tradition began in 1961 with a single ship, the SS Master, towing a scow that carried a Christmas tree. Since then, the festivities have expanded to the point where there are now eighty ships, decked out in coloured lights and decorations, carrying forty-five thousand carol singers. The parade of ships takes place each night from December 1 to 23, and is witnessed by two hundred thousand people annually. Why do some people celebrate Christmas in December, while others celebrate it in January? No one can say with certainty what date Jesus was born, and the various churches can’t seem to agree. While most of the world celebrates Christmas on December 25, notable exceptions are Armenia and the Ukraine. The Armenian Church puts greater emphasis on the baptism of Jesus than on his birth, and the date of his baptism is placed on January 6. The Armenian Church in Jerusalem celebrates Christmas thirteen days later, on January 19, because they adhere to the Julian calendar, which is currently thirteen days out of sync with the Gregorian calendar that most of the world follows. The Ukraine, meanwhile, uses December 25 as the date for Christmas, but because they also remain true to the Julian calendar, their December 25 occurs on our January 7. What is a “first-footer”?

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In many areas of Europe, tradition states that the first person to enter a home on Christmas or at New Year’s carries with them great fortune (or lack thereof). One of the most common English traditions says that the first person to enter a home in the new year should be a dark-haired male. (Although in some places, fair- or red-haired men — or women — are preferable.) In Greek tradition, the gender or hair colour of the first-footer is irrelevant, but it is felt that the first person to enter a home in the new year brings either good or bad luck. To ensure that it is good luck that they bring, the head of the house, upon the first-footer’s entrance, will distribute treats to those who are present. After all, if the first-footer’s arrival means that everyone gets treats, how can that be anything but an indication of good luck? How many times is Christmas celebrated in Bethlehem each year? Christmas is celebrated three times a year in Bethlehem. Catholic and Protestant festivities take place on December 24; Orthodox churches celebrate on January 7; and Armenian Christians in Jerusalem observe Christmas on January 19. When did the Salvation Army begin its kettle campaign? The sight of Salvation Army officers ringing a bell and standing next to a kettle — awaiting charitable donations — has taken on an iconic status in Christmas tradition. The first Salvation Army kettle was set up in San Francisco in 1891 by Joseph McPhee. 745

While many Salvation Army officers have abandoned the bell, the kettle remains and continues to help support Christmas charities. What is Advent? Advent (which takes its name from the Latin word adventus, or “coming”) is the period of preparation for the celebration of Christmas. How long Advent lasts depends on who you are. Followers of Eastern churches begin Advent on November 15. Followers of Western churches, meanwhile, begin advent on the Sunday nearest to November 30, which is St. Andrew’s Day. A more secular use of the word defines Advent as the period from December 1 to 24 — a period that has been nearly standardized thanks to mass-produced Advent calendars. Why do we say “Merry Christmas”? We don’t wish each other “Merry New Year,” “Merry Birthday,” or “Merry Easter,” so it strikes some as odd that we call out “Merry Christmas” in December. While the modern definition of the word merry suggests joy and celebration, back when the word was first applied to Christmas in the early nineteenth century, it meant “peaceful” or “blessed.”

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History Why do we celebrate Christmas on December 25? There are a number of competing theories as to how Christmas landed on December 25, but the one thing everyone agrees on is that it’s highly unlikely that Jesus was actually born on that date. Most now accept that the choice of December 25 was a response to the popularity of pagan gods who were celebrated on or around the same date. The feast of Sol Invictus, a Roman god, took place on that day, as did the feast of Mithras, an Iranian god whose influence was felt among Roman soldiers. Also, the festival of Saturnalia concluded the day before, on December 24. Quickies

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Did you know … • that between 1647 and 1660, the celebration of Christmas was officially banned by England’s Puritan Parliament? • that the USSR was replaced by the Commonwealth of Independent States on Christmas Day 1991? • that Brazilian law requires employers to pay their employees a Christmas bonus? Another theory points to a non-pagan reason for the dating of Christmas. It’s known that in the early centuries of Christianity, theologians thought there was a good deal of symmetry in the way the world unfolded. It was believed that the world was created on March 25. It was also believed that the Annunciation — the moment when the Virgin Mary learned she was going to give birth to the Son of God — took place on that same date. So, counting nine months from March 25 meant that Jesus was born on December 25. Why is “Xmas” a short form of “Christmas”? While many frown upon the use of “Xmas” as an attempt to remove the name “Christ” from the holiday’s name, the X actually stands for Christ himself. X is the Greek letter chi, and is the first letter in Xristos, the Greek word for “Christ.” The Greeks have long used X or chi as a symbol of Christ. When was Christmas first celebrated? Although December 25 was selected by theologians as the date of Christmas early in the second century, there’s no

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evidence that it was actually celebrated until at least the third century. Early Christians normally didn’t bother with celebrating any birthdays, and in the case of Jesus, they would have marked the most important event in his life — his death and subsequent resurrection — but not his birth. (Two of the four Gospels don’t even mention Jesus’ birth.) While there is some evidence that Christmas may have been celebrated in the late 200s, the earliest record we have of Christmas being officially celebrated come from Rome in A.D. 336. How to Make Sure Everyone Forgets Your Birthday… Famous people who were born on Christmas Day: 1818 • Clara Barton (founder of the American Red Cross) 1899 • Humphrey Bogart (actor) 1907 • Cab Calloway (singer) 1908 • Quentin Crisp (author) 1918 • Anwar Sadat (Egyptian president) 1921 • Steve Allen (comedian) 1924 • Rod Serling (creator and host of The Twilight Zone) 1925 • Carlos Castenada (author)

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1935 • Richard Penniman, better known as “Little Richard” (singer) 1940 • Phil Spector (music producer) 1946 • Jimmy Buffet (singer-songwriter) 1948 • Barbara Mandrell (singer) 1949 • Sissy Spacek (actress) 1954 • Annie Lennox (singer) 1958 • Rickey Henderson (baseball player) 1960 • Amy Grant (singer) 1965 • Dmitri Mironov (hockey player) Who was the “Virginia” of “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus”? And How NOT to Celebrate Christmas… Famous people who died on Christmas Day: 795 • Pope Hadrian 1635 • Samuel de Champlain (explorer) 1946 • W.C. Fields (actor) 1954 • Johnny Ace (singer)

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1961 • Otto Loewi (Nobel Prize winner, medicine) 1975 • Bernard Herrmann (composer) 1977 • Charlie Chaplin (actor-director-composer) 1989 • Nicolae Ceausescu (Romanian dictator) 1989 • Billy Martin (baseball player-manager) 1994 • Zail Singh (president of India) 1995 • Dean Martin (singer) 1996 • JonBenet Ramsey (child beauty queen) 1997 • Denver Pyle (actor) In 1897, Virginia O’Hanlon was an eight-year-old New York schoolgirl. That September, after debating the existence of Santa Claus with her friends, Virginia wrote a letter to the New York Sun, asking for a definitive answer on the existence of the jolly man. The Sun responded to her letter in the September 21 edition of the paper. Pointing to the goodness and generosity that existed in the world, and to the faith of children like Virginia despite the skepticism surrounding them, the Sun argued that yes, there was a Santa Claus. While the Sun’s reply was uncredited at first, the paper later identified Francis Church as the author of the now-legendary editorial.

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Did opposing soldiers really stop fighting during the First World War to celebrate Christmas together? Christmas truces have been common in history, but some of the most dramatic occurred during the first two years of the First World War, when battling armies put aside their differences in honour of the holiday. The most famous of these incidents took place at Christmas 1914 near Ypres, Belgium. German soldiers began singing Christmas carols in their trenches. Hearing the singing, British troops began singing as well, and soon the two sides left their trenches and met in no man’s land — the normally bloody zone between opposing trenches. The foes sang together and exchanged gifts of food and whiskey before returning to their respective positions. Where does the word yule come from? Scholars disagree over the origins of the word yule, but there are two main schools of thought. Many believe that the word derives from the Anglo-Saxon word Geol, a pre-Christian feast celebrating the winter solstice. The other main school of thought points to Scandinavian origins, this time from the word Juul, which also was the name for a feast at the winter solstice. How did the yule log originate? Those favouring Scandinavian origins for the word yule point to the bonfires that took place during the Juul festival. Over time, and the adoption of the tradition as part of the Christian

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celebration of Christmas, the bonfire shrunk to a single log on the fire. Is it true that suicide rates climb at Christmas? The “Christmas blues” are much talked about, and a popular belief is that suicide rates skyrocket during the holiday season. However, that appears to be a myth. A British study in the early 1980s examined a nineteen-year period and found that among men, there was no seasonal variation in the number of suicides, while among women, the suicide rate actually plummeted during December. Meanwhile, multiple American studies in the late 1980s and early 1990s demonstrated that the number of suicides and attempted suicides dips in December. And a 1994 study of suicide rates in Alberta, Canada, over a four-year period found that August was the most likely month for suicide, while December ranked ninth out of twelve months in the number of suicides. What was the “Bean King”? In the Middle Ages, it was customary to serve Twelfth Night celebrants cakes, one of which would contain a bean. The lucky person to find a bean in his cake would be named the “Bean King” for the evening. How did Christmas Island get its name? The island had appeared on British nautical charts since the early 1600s, but it wasn’t until Captain William Mynors of the British East India Company arrived on Christmas Day 1643 that it was finally given a name. Appropriately enough, Mynors’s ship was the Royal Mary. 753

The island has been the property of a number of countries since then: Great Britain, Malaya, Japan, and now Australia. Christmas Island boasts 1,600 residents. When did the first Christmas computer virus attack? Computer viruses are now commonplace and frequently are tied to significant dates in the calendar year. Christmas is no exception, and there have been a number of Christmas viruses that have given computer users fits in the Internet age. Back in 1987, however, computer viruses were virtually unknown to the mass public. But they became a stark reality for users of BITNET, an early communications network, when, at Christmas that year, the “Christmas Tree Virus” — the first ever Christmas-themed virus — infected 350,000 computers. The virus produced a digital Christmas tree and sent it to all of a user’s contacts. Infected computers were paralyzed by the attack. They Said What? Celebrity Quotes about Christmas “Adults can take a simple holiday for children and screw it up.” — Erma Bombeck “Is not Christmas the only occasion when one gets drunk for the sake of the children?” — James Cameron

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“Christmas in Australia is a gigantic mistake.” — Marcus Clarke “A Merry Christmas to all my friends except two.” — W.C. Fields “I stopped believing in Santa Claus when my mother took me to see him in a department store, and he asked me for my autograph.” — Shirley Temple “The prospect of Christmas appalls me.” — Evelyn Waugh “Christmas will soon be at our throats.” — P.G. Wodehouse

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Christmas in the Bible What was the Christmas Star? Trying to find a scientific explanation for the Christmas Star has been an obsession for many over the centuries. Dating Christ’s birth is a key to determining what the star was. Using clues from the Bible, the most common opinion seems to be that Jesus was born between 8 and 4 B.C. Also critical is an understanding that the “three kings” who follow the star in the Christmas story were likely not kings, but rather magi from the East, well-versed in astrology and the significance of the motions of celestial objects. One theory suggests that the star was a comet, such as the one that was reported in ancient Chinese star maps in 5 B.C. and was, apparently, visible for seventy days. Comets were thought to herald momentous events. Others have 756

speculated that a supernova — an exploding star — attracted the attention of the magi. Modern scholarship leans towards a conjunction of planets, particularly any conjunction involving the “royal star,” Jupiter. The leading candidate seems to be an event in 7 B.C. when Jupiter was eclipsed by the moon in the constellation of Aries — an unusual occurrence that would have had the magi giddy with excitement. Of course, through all the searching for a scientific explanation, many Christians have held to the belief that the star was a miracle from God, and that searches for a scientific explanation are pointless. Was Jesus really born in a stable? The Bible tells us that when Jesus was born, he was laid “in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.” We’ve assumed that the manger was in a stable, because that’s where mangers are kept. However, in ancient Israel, mangers were often kept in homes. The homes had two levels — an upper level, where the family dwelled, and a lower level, where animals lived and mangers were kept. The “inn” that had no room may have been the upper dwelling area. The Greek word that is used in the New Testament, katalyma, is a general word that can refer to a dwelling area, a guest room, or a lodging. It could be translated as “inn,” but when the word is used elsewhere in the New Testament, it is clearly referring to a guest room or other such area in a private home — not an inn.

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With all this in mind, we can see that it is very possible, if not probable, that what the Bible is telling us is that there was no room in the guest room or dwelling area of the home, and so Mary had to give birth to Jesus and put him in the manger in the area below where the animals were kept. Does the original manger where Jesus slept still exist? Most feel that it’s unlikely the manger Jesus was laid in after his birth was preserved. However, one church claims that it has the relic. The Church of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome displays five wooden slats every Christmas Eve. Made from sycamore, these slats, we’re told, were the framework for the original manger. What are swaddling clothes? The Bible tells us that when he was born, Jesus was wrapped in “swaddling clothes.” Swaddling clothes have been used for newborns for millennia — at least as far back as ancient Greece. The swaddling clothes Jesus was wrapped in would have been strips of cloth wrapped tightly around his body. The purpose of swaddling clothes was to immobilize a baby’s limbs and promote good posture. The practice began to be frowned upon in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and today it is uncommon in most of the world to use traditional swaddling clothes. Who were the Wise Men? While they came to be known as the “Three Kings” over the centuries, it is most likely that the Wise Men were Persian

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mystics, possibly originating in Babylon. Such mystics, or magi, would have been likely to find significance in stars, and would have been prime candidates for seeking out a new king of kings if the stars told them that king’s birth was coming. How many Wise Men were there? We’ve come to believe that there were three Wise Men, but the Bible never tells us how many Wise Men there were. In fact, early paintings and other images showed as few as two and as many as a dozen Wise Men. So how did we wind up with three Wise Men as the number of choice? Probably because, somewhere along the line, someone assumed that since there were three gifts — gold, frankincense, and myrrh — there must have been one Wise Man per gift. Why did the Wise Men bring gold, frankincense, and myrrh as gifts? At the time of Christ’s birth, myrrh were extremely rare and been fitting gifts for any king. But a story from Marco Polo suggests there may have been greater significance to the gifts. While travelling through Persia, he heard that presenting these three gifts to a newborn would tell you what greatness the child gold, frankincense, and valuable and would have possessed. If the child reached for the gold, it indicated that he was an earthly king. If he reached for the frankincense, it suggested he was a god. And if he reached for the myrrh, it suggested he was a mortal man. Reaching for all three 759

demonstrated that the child was a divine king, both god and human. Quickies Did you know … • that, despite what Christmas cards show us, the Bible never says there were animals present at the birth of Christ? • that the Wise Men didn’t arrive until up to two years after Jesus was born? How did the Wise Men get their traditional names — Melchior, Balthazar, and Gaspar? The Bible provides no names for the Wise Men, and so many attempts were made in the early centuries of Christianity to assign monikers. But it wasn’t until a sixth-century Greek text, translated into Latin as Excerpta Latina Barbari, that they were given the names Melchior, Balthazar, and Gaspar — the names that have endured to this day. What nativity story sites can be found in Bethlehem? The most famous nativity story site is the Church of the Nativity. The church stands on a site that early Christians claimed was the site of Jesus’ birth. When Rome began observing Christmas as a holiday, a church was built on the site. In addition, there are three different locations that are said to be the site of the field where the shepherds were visited by the

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Angel of the Lord and told of the birth of Jesus. All faiths agree the site was east of Bethlehem, but Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox churches can’t agree on which field is the field. What is the Epiphany? The Epiphany, no matter which branch of Christianity you ask, takes place sometime shortly after Christmas. But the Eastern and Western churches differ on what the Epiphany represents. For Eastern churches, the Epiphany represents the day on which Jesus was baptized. For Western churches, the Epiphany celebrates the arrival of the three kings. The exact day the Epiphany is observed varies. While the date of the Epiphany is January 6, the observation generally takes place on a Sunday. In the United States, the Epiphany is observed on the Sunday after the first Saturday in January; in England, it is observed on either January 6 or the Sunday between January 2 and 8.

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Movies, TV & Books What was the first Christmas movie? While it is difficult to know for certain what films may have been lost without a trace from the early days of film, the earliest Christmas-themed movie that we can point to was the 1897 film Santa Claus Filling Stockings. The film was a short one — mere minutes long — and the title also serves as a fairly thorough plot summary. But the film did end in spectacular fashion with Santa vanishing up a chimney — a special effect that would have amazed early filmgoers. Is it true that Clement C. Moore didn’t write “The Night Before Christmas”? Originally titled “A Visit from Saint Nicholas,” the classic poem first appeared in the December 23, 1823, edition of the Troy Sentinel. The newspaper claimed not to know who the 762

author was. In 1837 — after the poem had enjoyed fourteen years of immense popularity — Clement C. Moore took credit for its writing. Later, however, a woman who had been a governess at the Moore home claimed that she had received a handwritten copy of the poem from its true author, Henry Livingston Jr., and had given it to the Moore children. Today, most dismiss the governess’s story and accept Moore as the poem’s author, but there are still many people who support the Livingston claim. When was the first film version of A Christmas Carol made? Dickens’s classic novel first made its way onto the silver screen in 1901 with a British release, Scrooge: Or, Marley’s Ghost. The film was eleven minutes long and was directed by W.R. Booth, though little else is known about the production or the cast. The ghosts of Christmases Past, Present, and Yet to Come are not part of the film: Scrooge’s only ghostly visitor is Marley. Over the years, A Christmas Carol has been filmed and refilmed more often than any other Christmas tale. The best-known versions are the 1951 British version starring Alastair Sim and the 1984 made-for-TV American version starring George C. Scott. Other versions have featured dogs, Muppets, Disney characters, former Starship Enterprise commanders, and, on one occasion, impressionist Rich Little playing every single character.

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How many ghosts visit Scrooge in Charles Dickens’s novel A Christmas Carol? Strictly speaking, only four ghosts actually visit Scrooge. In addition to the ghosts of Christmases Past, Present, and Yet to Come, the ghost of Marley visits. But Scrooge also witnesses a legion of other spirits when Marley directs Scrooge’s attention to a poor woman and her child in the laneway, surrounded by lost souls who are trying to offer financial aid, but, being dead, failing in the effort. The Ghosts of Christmas Carols Past Some memorable movie versions of A Christmas Carol: 1901: Scrooge: Or, Marley’s Ghost (first film version) 1908: A Christmas Carol (Thomas Ricketts) 1935: Scrooge (Seymour Hicks) 1938: A Christmas Carol (Reginald Owen) 1951: Scrooge (Alistair Sim) 1962: Mr. Magoo’s made-for-TV)

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1970: Scrooge (Albert Finney, musical) 1975: The Passions of Carol (adult film)

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Carol

(animated,

1979: An American Christmas Carol (Henry Winkler, made-for-TV) 1983: Mickey’s Christmas Carol (animated, made-for-TV) 1984: A Christmas Carol (George C. Scott, made-for-TV) 1988: Scrooged (Bill Murray) 1992: A Muppet Christmas Carol (Kermit the Frog and Michael Caine) 1999: A Christmas Carol (Patrick Stewart, made-for-TV) 2004: A Christmas Carol: The Musical (Kelsey Grammer, musical, made-for-TV) How many Christmas books did Charles Dickens write? Charles Dickens was something of a Christmas nut, and wrote Christmas chapters and stories into many of his books. Three books, however, were devoted exclusively to the holiday season: The Chimes (1844), The Cricket on the Hearth (1845), and, of course, A Christmas Carol (1843). When did TV stations start broadcasting a burning log on Christmas Day? In 1966, WPIX in New York City came up with the idea of pre-empting regular broadcasting and instead showing a log burning in a fireplace. You’d never see the log burn to ashes — the station aired a continuous seventeen-second loop. WPIX ended the tradition in 1990.

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But it seems the public never stopped longing for the log, and over the next decade, log fans clamoured for its return. WPIX finally relented in 2001, and the log has been going strong ever since. In fact, it has spawned numerous imitators, with burning logs popping up on Christmas-morning television all over North America. Now, you can buy DVDs of burning logs, complete with crackling sounds and optional Christmas tunes. In recent years, one digital TV channel has begun broadcasting an interactive log that you can view from the angle of your choice. When did the British monarchy first broadcast their annual Christmas message? In 1932, George V finally accepted an invitation from the BBC that had been sent his way for nine years, and broadcast the first Royal Christmas Message on the radio. The King’s message that year was written for him by Rudyard Kipling. Ever since, every Christmas Day the reigning British monarch has delivered a message to the Commonwealth. The tradition moved from radio to television with Elizabeth II’s 1957 broadcast. While the messages were originally delivered live at 3 p.m. GMT, since 1960 they have been pre-recorded and aired at times chosen by individual broadcasters. Who wrote the story “A Child’s Christmas in Wales”? Dylan Thomas originally began the story that evolved into “A Child’s Christmas in Wales” as a 1945 radio broadcast for the BBC. Two years later, he wrote a piece called “A Conversation about Christmas” for Picture Post. Then, in 1950, he combined the two earlier stories into a piece for 766

Harper’s Bazaar. Eventually, even that version of the story was altered and broadcast on BBC Radio in 1952. This version was published as a book in 1954, a year after Thomas’s death, and is the version we know today. The story lives on, not only in book form, but in annual re-airings of Thomas’s 1952 broadcast and in a made-for-TV version co-produced by BBC and CBC, starring Denholm Elliott. When was Bing Crosby’s first Christmas special? Bing Crosby became associated with Christmas through movies and songs, but he became a holiday institution with his annual Christmas specials. The first specials were actually broadcast on radio in 1935. In 1962, things moved to television, and Bing continued to entertain viewers until the final special — pre-recorded earlier that year — aired in December 1977, two months after Crosby passed away. How many Christmas specials did Rankin and Bass produce? The creative team of Arthur Rankin Jr. and Jules Bass was responsible for numerous Christmas specials using both conventional animation and stop-motion animation with figurines. If we include Thanksgiving and New Year’s specials in our definition of “Christmas special,” the duo gave us a total of nineteen holiday treats. How many Christmas specials featured Charlie Brown and the Peanuts?

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The 1965 special A Charlie Brown Christmas spawned numerous TV specials and television series featuring Charlie Brown and the Peanuts. But it wasn’t until 1992 that we saw another Christmas-specific special: It’s Christmastime Again, Charlie Brown. After the death of Peanuts creator Charles M. Schulz in 2000, two more Peanuts Christmas specials were created and aired: Charlie Brown’s Christmas Tales (2002), and I Want a Dog for Christmas, Charlie Brown (2003). Rankin and Bass Christmas/Thanksgiving/New Year’s Specials: • Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964) • The Cricket on the Hearth (1967) • The Mouse on the Mayflower (1968) • The Little Drummer Boy (1968) • Frosty the Snowman (1969) • Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town (1970) • ’Twas the Night Before Christmas (1974) • The Year Without a Santa Claus (1974) • The First Christmas (1975) • Frosty’s Winter Wonderland (1976)

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• Rudolph’s Shiny New Year (1976) • The Little Drummer Boy, Book II (1976) • Nestor, The Long-Eared Christmas Donkey (1977) • The Stingiest Man in Town (1978) • Rudolph and Frosty’s Christmas in July (1979) • Pinocchio’s Christmas (1980) • The Leprechaun’s Christmas Gold (1981) • The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus (1985) • Santa Baby (2001) If we include Thanksgiving (1973’s A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving) and New Year’s (1985’s Happy New Year, Charlie Brown), the total Peanut holiday output comes to six. Quickies Did you know … • that A Christmas Story was the inspiration for the long-running television series The Wonder Years? • that the first episode of The Simpsons was a Christmas special?

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• that the classic 1970s television series The Waltons began as a one-off made-for-TV movie, The Homecoming? • that the first live broadcast from lunar orbit occurred on Christmas Eve 1968, when Apollo 8 circled the moon? • that Cary Grant was originally slated to star in It’s a Wonderful Life? • that The Polar Express was the first Christmas movie that had a 3D version? How many TV specials featured Dr. Seuss’s Grinch? While the Grinch is best known for his starring role in How the Grinch Stole Christmas (1966), he returned to television in 1977’s Halloween Is Grinch Night, and again in 1982’s The Grinch Grinches the Cat in the Hat. Who sang “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch” in the cartoon How the Grinch Stole Christmas? While Boris Karloff provided the narration and the voice of the Grinch in the 1966 animated holiday classic, the song “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch” was sung by voiceover veteran Thurl Ravenscroft. Although Ravenscroft had a good deal of success doing voicework for the Grinch special and for a number of Disney animated features, he is best known as the voice of Tony the Tiger, the cartoon frontman for Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes. What was the first one-off Christmas television special?

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On Christmas Day 1950, at 4 p.m., One Hour in Wonderland took to the airwaves. It was not only the first one-off Christmas special but also the first TV effort by Walt Disney. The special introduced us to members of Walt’s family and featured a guest appearance by Edgar Bergen with Charlie McCarthy. More than just a holiday offering, the special served as an opportunity for Disney to plug its upcoming animated feature Alice in Wonderland, which would be released in 1951. Was there really a Red Ryder BB gun? In A Christmas Story, young Ralphie’s “Holy Grail” of Christmas presents is the Red Ryder BB gun. Red Ryder was not a creation of the film’s makers; he was a popular comic book hero, and his BB gun, produced by the Daisy Manufacturing Company, was a major hit in the 1940s. However, the Red Ryder BB gun in A Christmas Story was actually invented for the film. Jean Shepherd, whose stories were used to create the script for the film, insisted that the Red Ryder BB gun he remembered had a sundial and compass on the stock. When the producers of the film asked Daisy to supply them with the gun, they were told that such a gun never existed. The sundial and compass were actually on another model, the Buck Jones Pump Gun. But the producers wanted the gun Shepherd had written — whether it had ever really existed or not — and so Daisy built a Red Ryder gun with the special Buck Jones features. Who were the Knickerbockers and how did they influence the celebration of Christmas?

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Formed in the early 1800s, the Knickerbockers were a patriotic group of American men of letters and included the likes of Washington Irving’, Clement C. Moore, James Fennimore Cooper, and John Pintard. Their name was derived from Irving’s book Diedrich Knickerbocker’s History of New York. The group took a particular interest in Christmas and made a largely successful attempt to influence an American version of Christmas that would be free from British trappings. Their most successful Americanization of the holiday was the creation of a new holiday gift-bringer: Santa Claus. Did the movie Holiday Inn inspire the hotel chain? While the Holiday Inn hotel chain owes its name to the 1942 Bing Crosby film, it would be inaccurate to say the real-life chain was inspired by the inn in the film. Kemmons Wilson, seeing a need for an affordable, quality, family hotel chain on America’s roadsides, launched Holiday Inn in 1952. The name was one that was only jokingly suggested to him by his architect in reference to the Crosby classic. Who wrote the original story of The Nutcracker? E.T.A. Hoffman, a nineteenth-century German writer and composer, wrote the story “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King” in 1816, introducing us to the nutcracker doll who magically comes to life and takes us to a world of living dolls.

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Tchaikovsky set the story to music for the ballet The Nutcracker in 1892, and today it is enjoyed by families around the world at Christmastime.

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Carols & Other Music Where does the word carol come from? The word carol first appeared in the English language in the fourteenth century. It is believed to have come from the Greek word choros, which refers to an activity involving singing and dancing in a circle. How the word became exclusively associated with Christmas songs is not known. How much would it cost to buy all the gifts in “The Twelve Days of Christmas”? PNC Wealth Management created its Christmas Price Index in 1985. The Christmas Price Index is a lighthearted annual report that updates us on the current cost of purchasing all the gifts listed in the song “The Twelve Days of Christmas.” In 2006, the total bill came to US$18,920.59. 774

This does not include the cost of housing and feeding the fifty humans and twenty-three birds that turn up under the unwitting recipient’s tree. It’s unlikely that pawning the five gold rings would cover such expenses. Presumably, “True Love” will be hearing about those costs for years to come. What are the twelve days of Christmas? The twelve days of Christmas are the twelve days between Christmas Day and the beginning of the Epiphany (which is either the day the Wise Men arrived or the day Jesus was baptized, depending on which branch of Christianity you ask). When the “twelve days” begin differs from country to country. Some countries begin the twelve days on Christmas Day, making the twelfth day the day before the Epiphany. Others exclude Christmas and begin counting on December 26, making the Epiphany the twelfth day. To add to the confusion, in England, January 5 is the twelfth day of Christmas, and yet, January 6 is celebrated as “Twelfth Night.” What is the song “I Saw Three Ships” about? “I Saw Three Ships” was written in the fifteenth century by an unknown author, and ever since, it has baffled anyone trying to determine what it is about. After all, it’s unlikely that three ships “sailed into Bethlehem” on Christmas Day as the song says, given that there are no seas around Bethlehem for ships to sail in on. The best guess seems to be that the song is a cryptic reference to the Three Kings — and, more specifically, the supposed 775

arrival of their bodies in Cologne. Remains said to be the bones of the Three Kings had rested in Milan since A.D. 344. Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa removed the remains and presented them to the Archbishop of Cologne in 1164. To this day, the remains are part of a shrine to the Three Kings at the Cologne Cathedral. Was “Jingle Bells” originally written for Christmas? Originally titled “One Horse Open Sleigh,” “Jingle Bells” is an unusual Christmas song in that it makes no mention of Christmas — it simply celebrates a wintertime sleigh ride. The song was written by James Pierpont for a children’s Sunday school pageant. But the occasion was not Christmas: it was a Thanksgiving pageant. The wintry theme ultimately tied it to Christmas, and it is now likely the best known of all Christmas songs. Interestingly, there has been some dispute over where Pierpont composed the tune. While Medford, Massachusetts, laid claim to the tune for many years, the residents of balmy Savannah, Georgia, claim that the wintry song originated in their city. We do know that “Jingle Bells” was copyrighted in 1857, when Pierpont lived in Savannah, but we don’t know for certain whether he wrote the song that year or many years earlier while living in Massachusetts. Who wrote “Do They Know It’s Christmas”? Bob Geldof, the lead singer of one-hit wonders the Boom-town Rats, rose from semi-obscurity to music legend by putting together Band-Aid, a collection of Britain’s most

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famous musical acts. Band-Aid recorded “Do They Know It’s Christmas” in 1984 to raise money to aid famine victim in Ethiopia. But while Geldof was the driving force behind the project, he was not the sole author of the song itself. Geldof co-wrote the tune with Midge Ure, best known for his work with the band Ultravox. Who was “Good King Wenceslas”? Wenceslas, as it turns out, wasn’t a king, but a Bohemian duke in the tenth century. Wenceslas was known for his good deeds and was canonized following his death. In 1853, one story of Wenceslas’s kindness inspired J.M. Neale to pen the lyrics for the classic carol. The story told of a night when Wenceslas and his page, in an effort to feed and warm a peasant, battled a raging snowstorm. When the page was unable to continue any further, Wenceslas advised him to walk in the duke’s footsteps. The “feast of Stephen” referred to in the song is St. Stephen’s Day, December 26. How many times did Bing Crosby sing “White Christmas” in a movie? Bing Crosby first brought Irving Berlin’s “White Christmas” to the big screen in the 1942 film Holiday Inn. The song went on to become the best selling Christmas recording of all time. He performed the tune again in the 1946 release Blue Skies. Then, in 1954, the studio clearly thought moviegoers had not had enough of the song, and Bing again sang his signature 777

ditty on screen — this time, they used the song’s name as the title of the film. Did King George really begin the tradition of standing for the Hallelujah Chorus of Handel’s Messiah? According to legend, the tradition of standing for the Hallelujah Chorus in Handel’s Messiah began when King George II was so moved by the emotional power of the music that he leapt to his feet, prompting all those in attendance to do the same. Strictly speaking, there’s no evidence that George ever attended a performance of Messiah. However, the legend continues, as does the tradition of standing. How long did it take Handel to compose Messiah? George Frideric Handel’s massive oratorio, when played in its entirety, runs for roughly three hours. But the task of writing Messiah took a surprisingly short period of time. Handel began work on Messiah on August 22, 1741, and finished on September 14 — a mere twenty-three days later. Quickies Did you know … • that since 2001, according to the American Society of Composers, Artists, and Publishers (ASCAP), the most-played Christmas recording on American radio is the Nat King Cole rendition of “The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire)”?

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• that according to ASCAP, the Christmas song that has been recorded more times than any in history is “White Christmas,” with more than five hundred versions? Interestingly, while Messiah has become a staple of the Christmas season, it was not meant for Christmas performance. Handel wrote it for Easter, and the first performance took place on April 13, 1742, at Neal’s Music Hall in Dublin, Ireland. What does “Auld Lang Syne” mean? Much of the planet sings “Auld Lang Syne” at Christmas and New Year’s without having a clue what the words auld lang syne actually mean. The lyrics for the song were written by Scots poet Robbie Burns, who wrote much of his work in Gaelic. The phrase auld lang syne directly translates to “old long since,” which can more accurately be read as “times gone by.” Who wrote the song “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”? Johnny Marks took the popular Christmas story and turned it into a song in 1947. For the next two years, however, he struggled to find a singer willing to record the song, until Gene Autry took a chance and turned “Rudolph” into a classic. Marks went on to write a number of popular Christmas songs, including “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” and “A Holly Jolly Christmas.”

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What was the best selling Christmas album of all time? With 12 million units sold worldwide, Mariah Carey’s 1994 album Merry Christmas has sold more than any other Christmas album in history.

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Gift-Giving & Cards When was the first Christmas card created? Christmas cards followed the lead of Valentine’s Day cards, which had become popular in the 1820s. The first known Christmas card appeared in 1843. Commissioned by Henry Cole and illustrated by John Calcott Horsley, the card showed a family enjoying their holiday punch. The simple inscription on the card said, “A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to You.” One thousand copies of the card were produced and sent to Cole’s friends and family. What was the first Christmas stamp? While Christmas stamps didn’t catch on worldwideuntil the middle of the twentieth century, the earliest Christmas stamp 781

was produced in Canada in 1898. The stamp featured a map of the world and the words “XMAS 1898.” How did the Christmas seals tradition begin? Christmas seals were the brainchild of postal clerk Einar Holbøll of Denmark, who had become dismayed at the number of children dying from tuberculosis. Seeing the large volume of mail coming through his place of work each day, he came up with the idea of selling seals to raise money to help eradicate the disease. The postmaster agreed, and the first Christmas seals were produced in 1904. Within a few years, the idea caught hold in the United States, where its cause was championed by Emily Bissell. How much does the average person spend on Christmas gifts? It’s no secret that Christmas is the biggest time of year for retailers, with many basing their entire year’s success or failure on Christmas revenues. As customers, we’re clearly doing our part to help them out. Recent studies have shown that in the United Kingdom, the average consumer spends £300 on gifts during the holiday season. In Canada, the number is close to C$700, and in the United States, US$800. How much online shopping do people do at Christmas? In the early days of Internet retailing, security concerns kept many people from sharing credit card information online. But in recent years, the ease of online shopping has led to a huge increase in Internet sales. In the period leading up to Christmas in 2006, Americans spent $24.6 billion online, up 782

26 percent over the previous year. In the U.K., £4.98 billion was spent — a 51 percent increase from 2005. Who spends more on gifts — men or women? In annual surveys conducted by Deloitte & Touche in the U.K., it has been shown that women will spend more overall on gifts, but there are differences in how each gender spends their money. Women tend to spend more money on clothes and, in the case of mothers, spend more money on their daughters. Men spend more money on socializing and on their partners. As far as receiving gifts goes, fathers and sons are left out in the cold, as more money is spent — by both genders — on mothers, daughters, and female partners. What was the best selling toy of all time? While there have been a number of toy crazes during the holiday season — from the hula hoop, to Cabbage Patch Kids, to computer gaming consoles — the best selling toy of all time is that maddening block of movable squares, Rubik’s cube. Rubik’s cube and its imitators have sold more than 300 million units globally since the puzzle was introduced in 1980. How many Christmas cards are sent each year? While there are no reliable estimates on the number of electronic greeting cards that are sent, the traditional Christmas card is thriving. In the United States, 2 billion cards are sent each year.

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Reindeer & Elves Are Santa’s reindeer male or female? If we believe the images of the reindeer on Christmas cards and in movies, then Santa’s sleigh is pulled by female reindeer. Reindeer are the only deer species in which both males and females have antlers. But Christmas falls just after the reindeer breeding season, and it’s at this time that the male antlers fall off. The poor males, tired from the business of breeding and the ritual fighting with other males over potential mates, find that hormonal changes lead to bone reabsorption at the base of their antlers, and the old antlers fall off, leaving the lads antlerless for about four months. When did we first hear the story of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer?

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In 1939, Montgomery Ward department store in Chicago was looking for a Christmas promotion. They asked staff copywriter Robert Lewis May to produce a children’s book that would be used as a giveaway. May came up with the story of an underappreciated red-nosed reindeer who became a hero on Christmas Eve. Originally, the reindeer was named “Rollo,” until May’s daughter suggested “Rudolph” would be a catchier moniker. The book was a hit that year, and the store continued to give it away each Christmas season. In 1949, the little story became a hit song when Gene Autry recorded the Johnny Marks tune. Who first named the reindeer? We first learned the names of Santa’s reindeer in a poem that is still one of the best-known pieces of Christmas literature: Clement C. Moore’s “A Visit from St. Nicholas” (now most commonly referred to as “The Night Before Christmas”). In the poem, we witness Santa calling out his reindeer’s names: Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donder, and Blitzen. Why is Santa’s seventh reindeer sometimes called “Donner” and sometimes “Donder”? In the original publication of the poem in 1823, the seventh reindeer was actually neither “Donder” nor “Donner.” He was “Dunder.” And the eighth reindeer was named “Blixem.” When an 1837 version of the poem was being prepared for printing, the publisher changed “Dunder” to “Donder,” and

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“Blixem” to “Blixen.” (The latter change was made because “Blixen” made for a better rhyme with “Vixen”) Then, in 1844, when Clement C. Moore was preparing the text for his publisher, he retained the earlier change to “Donder” and altered the eighth reindeer’s name to “Blitzen.” It’s this version of the poem that became the standard. Somewhere along the way, “Donder” became “Donner.” While it’s not quite clear when this change took place, many have pointed a finger at Robert L. May, the author of the original Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer story. Johnny Marks and Gene Autry continued with the new name in the introductory verse of the song version of Rudolph’s tale, and “Donner” soon became the standard. Reindeer purists tend to prefer Donder, however. When did reindeer first begin pulling Santa’s sleigh? We first learned that Santa’s sleigh was pulled by reindeer with the 1821 publication of The Children’s Friend: A New Year’s Present, to Little Ones from Five to Twelve. Old Santeclaus with much delight His reindeer drives this frosty night. O’er chimney tops, and tracks of snow, To bring his yearly gifts to you. The little book doesn’t tell us how many reindeer pull the sleigh, though the accompanying illustrations depict only one.

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The number of gifts Santa had to haul must have increased exponentially after the writing of the poem, because by the time “A Visit from St. Nicholas” was published just two years later, the team had expanded to eight reindeer. How many reindeer would be required to pull enough toys to satisfy all the children in the world? Assuming even a modest gift-giving season (each child receiving one two-pound gift), Santa’s sleigh would weigh roughly 500,000 tons, which seems like a hard night’s work for eight reindeer, even with Rudolph’s help. Reindeer are capable of pulling up to 300 pounds of toys (or other payloads), meaning that it would take 3,333,333 reindeer to pull Santa’s sleigh when fully loaded. And you thought remembering eight reindeer names was tough. What is the difference between reindeer and caribou? There are many who consider reindeer and caribou the same animal. And in fact, they share the same genus and species name: Rangifer tarandus. The distinction that is usually made is that reindeer are domesticated deer, while caribou are not. But those looking to make further distinctions point to a number of different traits. For example, reindeer are shorter and stouter than caribou. Also, reindeer have thicker fur than their caribou cousins. The naysayers attribute such differences to the domestication of reindeers and insist that while there are some differences, the two deer are virtually the same.

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When were elves first credited with making Santa’s toys? Elves have been with us for centuries, though originally they were nasty, spiteful creatures, even at Christmas. During the nineteenth century, that began to change. Santa himself was said to take the form of an elf (“A Visit from Saint Nicholas” refers to him as “a right jolly old elf”), and while he ultimately grew to full human size, the elf world was delighted to see that he didn’t abandon his roots. In the 1860s, illustrator Thomas Nast — whose work in Harper’s Weekly gave us much of our knowledge of Santa — depicted a North Pole workshop manned by toymaking elves. Who are some of Santa’s “helpers”? In North America, Santa Claus is known to be helped by an unspecified number of helpers. But around the world, Santa, in his different forms, has a variety of sidekicks. St. Nicholas, for example, is accompanied by Zwarte Piet in the Netherlands. Pelznickel is the helper of choice in Germany. And when Nicholas arrives in Austria, Klaubauf is by his side. These and other helpers tend to do Santa’s dirty work for him. They dole out punishment through nasty treats or threats of capture. However, in some areas of Europe, Santa / Nicholas is accompanied by the Christ Child (often portrayed by a young girl).

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Food & Drink When were candy canes invented? In the mid-seventeenth century, a choirmaster in the Cologne Cathedral was fed up with the noisemaking of children attending the church’s nativity scene. Pleas for silence were fruitless, and so he came up with a foolproof plan: he made candy sticks and distributed them to the children. Too busy licking the delicious gift, the children were unable to create their usual ruckus. In an inspired moment that would create a lasting symbol of the holiday season, the choirmaster curled the ends to make the candies resemble a shepherd’s crook. Candy canes underwent a dramatic change sometime around 1900. Prior to that time, the candies were

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completely white. In the early 1900s, stripes began to appear, and today, the idea of a candy cane without stripes is almost an abomination. When did turkey become the traditional food of the Christmas feast? Turkey, being a “new world” bird, has not always been tied to Christmas. But soon after William Strickland introduced the turkey to England in the sixteenth century, it began its rise to holiday prominence. Still, it was considered too expensive for most people, and roast beef and goose were more common. But towards the end of the nineteenth century, turkey took over as the traditional main course for Christmas dinners. Meanwhile in North America, the turkey’s native land, the turkey has always been the bird of choice. How many turkeys are consumed at Christmas? In the United Kingdom, 10 million turkeys meet their ultimate fate on the dinner tables of Christmas revellers each year. In the United States, 22 million turkeys become Christmas dinner. American turkeys have the misfortune of being hit twice at the end of the year, since turkey is also the traditional food of the Thanksgiving feast in late November. A whopping 46 million birds are consumed at American Thanksgiving dinners. How long can you keep a fruitcake? The polarizing fruitcake — loved by some and reviled by others — has some serious staying power. According to The

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Joy of Cooking, a fruitcake soaked in alcohol, buried in powdered sugar, and stored in an airtight tin can last up to twenty-five years. Does flaming your plum pudding cause the alcohol to burn off? The sight of a flaming pudding is one that many households are familiar with at Christmas. But unfortunately — or fortunately, depending on your penchant for spirits — only about 20 percent of the alcohol will burn off before the flame dies out. The notion that alcohol evaporates during any cooking process is also something of a myth. While it’s true that a good deal of alcohol does burn off in cooking — due largely to the low boiling point of alcohol — anywhere from one-twentieth to half of the original alcohol will remain, depending on the cooking process involved. When did the custom of leaving milk and cookies for Santa Claus begin? The exact point at which the cookies-for-Santa tradition began is impossible to trace, but it’s generally agreed that the custom began in the 1930s. Cookies were left both as a bribe (naughty boys and girls trying to sway Santa at the last minute) and a thank you (nice boys and girls expressing gratitude for the motherlode that would surely await them in the morning). What is the most popular cookie to leave for Santa Claus?

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There are no exact figures, and Santa isn’t saying, but it seems reasonable to conclude that Oreos are filling Santa’s ample belly more than any other cookie. Since hitting the market in 1912, Oreo cookies have been the most popular cookie in the world, with between 350 and 400 billion biscuits being sold over the years, at a rate of more than 9 million annually. It stands to reason, then, given the sheer number of cookies out there, that Oreos are waiting for Santa at more houses than other brands. At press time, there was no word on whether Santa eats the middles first. What is “nog”? In the nineteenth century, American soldiers discovered that a popular drink made with eggs and milk could take on a more festive feel with the addition of rum. The word nog, which was another word for “ale,” was applied to the concoction. Quickies Did you know … • that in the town of Oaxaca, Mexico, Christmas Eve is also known as “the Night of the Radishes”? Radishes are carved into various shapes and prizes are awarded. • that a ban on alcohol during the 1826 Christmas season at West Point military academy sparked a night of violence that

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became known as the “Eggnog Riot”? Among the rioters was Jefferson Davis, who later became the first and only president of the Confederate States of America. Is there really meat in “mincemeat”? While vegetarian versions of mincemeat have turned the traditional recipe into a relic of the past for many people, true mincemeat really does contain meat — usually beef, as well as beef suet. Mincemeat was first developed as a means of preserving meat without smoking or salting it.

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Copyright Copyright © Doug Lennox, 2013

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