Trivia Today

[historylover]

The animal shall not be measured by man. In a world older and more complete than ours, they move finished and complete, gifted with extension of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear. They are not brethren; they are not underlings; they are other nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendor and travail of the earth: Henry Beston.

RANDOM TIDBITS - Unusual Animals

The largest of all forest antelopes, the bongo is known for
its graceful, spiraled horns and beautiful striped hide.
Timid, well camouflaged, and mostly nocturnal, it is one of
Africa's most mysterious animals.

***

The spiny echidna is one of only two monotremes—egg-laying
mammals. It spends most of its time alone, burrowing in the
ground and catching insects with its long sticky tongue.
Echidnas grow about 18 inches long and have a simple oblong
shape. Found in Australia, New Guinea, and Tasmania.

***

A pangolin is a scaly, short-legged mammal that comes out
at night to search for bugs. It has no teeth, but its
sticky tongue can stretch two feet long. Shy and quiet, a
pangolin will curl into a ball when frightened. Found in
Africa and Asia.

***

The tarsier is a squirrel-sized primate most noted for its
huge round eyes. This animal is also notable for its night
vision and ability to turn its head almost all the way
around. It lives entirely in trees; on the ground it can
only hop. Found in Southeast Asia.

***

One look at the kiwi bird will tell you where the fruit
got its name. The kiwi bird itself was named for its
memorable call. A kiwi weighs from three to nine pounds,
depending on the species, and has a long beak with nostrils.
Found in New Zealand.

***

The world's largest rodent, the capybara is found in South
America. Its semi-webbed feet help make it a good swimmer,
and it spends much of its time around water or wallowing in
mud with other capybaras.

 

[historylover]

Without freedom, no art; art lives only on the restraints it imposes on itself, and dies of all others: Albert Camus.

RANDOM TIDBITS

Ascot, a village in Berkshire, England, is the home of a
famous annual horse race. During the 1700s, people who
attended the races wore a wide, loosely tied scarf, which
started a new fashion trend known as the ascot.

***

Bikini, a tiny coral island in the Pacific Marshall Islands,
is where the U.S. conducted atom bomb tests in the late
1940s. Four days after the A-bomb was exploded, a French
designer introduced a scanty, two-piece bathing suit and
called it the bikini. He believed it would cause a fashion
explosion, and indeed it did.

***

Cologne (in German spelled Koln), is the city in Germany
where cologne was first produced. Cologne is a scented
liquid made of alcohol and various fragrant oils, similar
to perfume.

***

Guernsey is one of the Channel Islands in the southwest-
central English Channel. A guernsey is a snug, knitted wool
shirt first worn by seamen in this area.

***

Nimes, France, is the source of denim. In French it was
called serge de Nimes, or “fabric from Nimes,” and de Nimes
became “denim.”

***

Tuxedo is in Orange County, north of New York City. The
tuxedo, a black formal men's dinner suit without “tails,”
was first worn here.

 

[historylover]

Medicine, the only profession that labors incessantly to destroy the reason for its own existence: James Bryce.

RANDOM TIDBITS

In 1628, William Harvey publishes An Anatomical Study of
the Motion of the Heart and of the Blood in Animals,
describing how blood is pumped throughout the body by the
heart, and then returns to the heart and recirculates. The
book is very controversial but becomes the basis for modern
research on the heart and blood vessels.

***

In 1747, James Lind , a Scottish naval surgeon, discovers
that citrus fruits prevent scurvy. He publishes his
Treatise of the Scurvy in 1754, identifying the cure for
this common and dangerous disease of sailors, although it
takes another 40 years before an official Admiralty order
dictates the supply of lemon juice to ships.

***

In 1842, American surgeon Crawford W. Long uses ether as a
general anesthetic during surgery but does not publish his
results. Credit goes to dentist William Morton.

***

In 1867, Joseph Lister publishes Antiseptic Principle of
the Practice of Surgery, one of the most important
developments in medicine. Lister was convinced of the need
for cleanliness in the operating room, a revolutionary idea
at the time. He develops antiseptic surgical methods, using
carbolic acid to clean wounds and surgical instruments. The
immediate success of his methods leads to general adoption.
In one hospital that adopts his methods, deaths from
infection decrease from nearly 60% to just 4%.

***

In 1901, Austrian-American Karl Landsteiner describes blood
compatibility and rejection (i.e., what happens when a
person receives a blood transfusion from another human of
either compatible or incompatible blood type), developing
the ABO system of blood typing. This system classifies the
bloods of human beings into A, B, AB, and O groups.
Landsteiner receives the 1930 Nobel Prize for Physiology
or Medicine for this discovery.

***

In 1953, James Watson and Francis Crick at Cambridge
University describe the structure of the DNA molecule.
Maurice Wilkins and Rosalind Franklin at King's College in
London are also studying DNA. (Wilkins in fact shares
Franklin's data with Watson and Crick without her knowledge.)
Watson, Crick, and Wilkins share the Nobel Prize for
Physiology or Medicine in 1962 (Franklin had died and the
Nobel Prize only goes to living recipients).

 

[historylover]

The minute you start talking about what you're going to do if you lose, you have lost: George Schultz. 

RANDOM TIDBITS

Objects used for a game similar to bowling, which date from
5200 BC, were found in the tomb of a young Egyptian boy. In
the third and fourth centuries, bowling in Europe was a
religious ceremony, participants tried to hit the pin, or
kegel (hence the word kegling for bowling) in order to be
judged free of sin.

***

Dutch colonists brought bowling to America in the 17th
century. The game consisted of 9 pins set in a triangle. It
was regularly played in an area of New York City still known
as "Bowling Green".

***

The Women's International Bowling Congress (WIBC) was
founded in 1916 and has grown to 3.5 million members. The
Professional Bowlers association was organized in 1958 to
promote exhibition and arrange major tournaments. Interest
in bowling, particularly in the United Slates, had its
major spurt after World War II.

***

The American Bowling Congress (ABC), founded in 1895, is
the governing body for tenpins. The ABC standardized rules
and the scoring method, and it also organized the fast U.S.
national bowling tournament, in 1901. Each year the ABC
sponsors nationals in singles, doubles and five-man team
competition for its members, whose numbers exceeds 5 million.

***

The introduction of the first automatic pinsetter in
Brooklyn, N.Y. in 1952 was responsible for much of the
increase in bowling popularity. Previously, pins were set
by young boys, and Bowling Alleys, as the establishments
were called, often had poor reputations.

***

The Italian version of bowling, Bocce, which is still played
today, is somewhat similar to "Lawn Bowling", an English
game originating over 800 years ago.

 

[historylover]

There are very few monsters who warrant the fear we have of them: Andre Gide

RANDOM TIDBITS

In 1832, U.K. representative B.H. Hodson, while living in
Nepal, claimed to have seen the Abominable Snowman attack
his servants. Hodson described the creature as a "wild man
... covered in long, dark hair, and had no tail". This is
generally considered the first report of the Abominable
Snowman made by a Westerner.

***

The National Hockey League's New Jersey Devils are named
after The Jersey Devil, a legendary creature who has
reportedly been sighted by numerous New Jersey residents
for almost three centuries, but whose description has
changed dramatically over the years. Originally described
as a demonic child with hooves, bat wings, a forked tail,
and the head of a horse, the creature has since been
described as a flying lion, a green alien-like monster,
and a faceless hairy creature.

***

In the summer of 1816, while visiting the poet Lord Byron
at his villa near Lake Geneva in Switzerland, Mary Shelley
created the character of the Frankenstein monster. During
this visit, stormy weather forced the party to spend most
of their time indoors. To pass the time, some of Byron's
other guests read from a volume of ghost stories. One
evening, Byron issued a challenge -- that each of his
guests should write a ghost story of their own. Mary's
story, which was inspired by a dream, eventually became
her most famous literary work -- the novel Frankenstein.

***

Famed Mexican cinematographer Gabriel Figueroa once told of
a legendary humanoid creature that supposedly lived in
South America. Producer William Alland overheard the story,
and it became the inspiration for The Creature From the
Black Lagoon (1954). The Creature is considered by many
critics to be Universal's last great classic monster, and
it spawned several sequels including Revenge of the Creature
(1955) and The Creature Walks Among Us (1956).

***

The Dracula legend is generally believed to have evolved
from the life of Vlad Tepes or Vlad the Impaler, a Prince
of Wallachia (in Romania) who lived from 1431 to 1476. Best
known for the cruelty of his reign, he was greatly disliked,
but he served as a sort of buffer between Europe and the
Ottoman invaders, and this made him key to the European
defense. He fulfilled this purpose well, killing so many
Turks that the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II laid siege on Vlad's
castle himself.

***

In Greek mythology, the story of Lycaon serves as one of
the earliest examples of the werewolf legend. According to
one version of the story, Lycaon was transformed into a
wolf as punishment for eating human flesh. According to
another version, he served up his own son Nyctimus, offered
the dish of human flesh to Zeus on the altar of mount
Lycaeus, and was immediately turned into a wolf by the
disgusted god. This gave rise to the legend that a man was
turned into a wolf at each annual sacrifice to Zeus Lycaeus,
but if he refrained from eating human flesh for ten years
he would regain his human form.

 

[historylover]

If you want to learn to swim jump into the water. On dry land no frame of mind is ever going to help you: Bruce Lee

RANDOM TIDBITS

Swimming as an organized activity goes back as far as 2500
B.C. in ancient Egypt and later in ancient Greece, Rome,
and Assyria. In Rome and Greece, swimming was part of the
education of elementary age boys and the Romans built the
first swimming pools (separate from bathing pools). The
first heated swimming pool was built by Gaius Maecenas of
Rome in the first century BC.

***

Ancient civilizations left ample evidence of their swimming
abilities. Bas-relief artwork in an Egyptian tomb from
around 2,000 B.C. shows an overarm stroke like the front
crawl. The Assyrians showed an early breaststroke in their
stone carvings. The Hittites, the Minoans, and other early
civilizations left drawings of swimming and diving skills.

***

The first municipal pool in the U.S. was built in Brookline,
Mass., in 1887. Soon after that, New York City built public
facilities, then called "baths."

***

In 1928, David Armbruster first filmed swimmers under water
to study strokes. The Japanese also photographed and
studied world-class athletes, using their research to
produce a swim team that dominated the 1932 Olympic Games.
This marked the beginning of research into stroke mechanics.

***
During the Middle Ages, people feared water because they
thought it contained diseases. Swimming was not again
appreciated until the nineteenth century when it became
popular in England. People felt they could finally trust
the water to be free of disease.

***

In 1946 war rationing of material inspired the invention
of the two piece bathing suite, called a "bikini." It was
named for a U.S. nuclear testing site in the South Pacific.

 

[gunslingingbird]

During the Middle Ages, people feared water because they
thought it contained diseases. Swimming was not again
appreciated until the nineteenth century when it became
popular in England. People felt they could finally trust
the water to be free of disease.

I still don't trust it. Hence the fact that I only bathe once a month, whether I need to or not. :thumbsup:

In 1946 war rationing of material inspired the invention
of the two piece bathing suite, called a "bikini." It was
named for a U.S. nuclear testing site in the South Pacific.

:bowdown:

 

[historylover]

If you don't try to win you might as well hold the Olympics in somebody's back yard: Jesse Owens

RANDOM TIDBITS

Created by Pierre de Coubertin in 1914, the Olympic flag
contains five interconnected rings on a white background.
The five rings symbolize the five significant continents
and are interconnected to symbolize the friendship to be
gained from these international competitions. The rings,
from left to right, are blue, yellow, black, green, and
red. The colors were chosen because at least one of them
appeared on the flag of every country in the world. The
Olympic flag was first flown during the 1920 Olympic Games.

***

The Olympic medals are designed especially for each
individual Olympic Games by the host city's organizing
committee. Each medal must be at least three millimeters
thick and 60 millimeters in diameter. Also, the gold and
silver Olympic medals must be made out of 92.5 percent
silver, with the gold medal covered in six grams of gold.

***

During the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, the
procession of athletes is always led by the Greek team,
followed by all the other teams in alphabetical order (in
the language of the hosting country), except for the last
team which is always the team of the hosting country.

***

In 1921, Pierre de Coubertin, founder of the modern Olympic
Games, borrowed a Latin phrase from his friend, Father
Henri Didon, for the Olympic motto: Citius, Altius, Fortius
("Swifter, Higher, Stronger").

***

James B. Connolly (United States), winner of the hop, step,
and jump (the first final event in the 1896 Olympics), was
the first Olympic champion of the modern Olympic Games.

***

In 490 BCE, Pheidippides, a Greek soldier, ran from Marathon
to Athens (about 25 miles) to inform the Athenians the
outcome of the battle with invading Persians. The distance
was filled with hills and other obstacles; thus Pheidippides
arrived in Athens exhausted and with bleeding feet. After
telling the townspeople of the Greeks' success in the battle,
Pheidippides fell to the ground dead. In 1896, at the first
modern Olympic Games, held a race of approximately the same
length in commemoration of Pheidippides.

 

[gunslingingbird]

The five rings symbolize the five significant continents

So why isn't Africa represented? :dunno:

The Olympic medals are designed especially for each
individual Olympic Games by the host city's organizing
committee. Each medal must be at least three millimeters
thick and 60 millimeters in diameter. Also, the gold and
silver Olympic medals must be made out of 92.5 percent
silver, with the gold medal covered in six grams of gold.

I wonder what the medals would look like if the host city were Compton or East L.A. :eek:

During the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, the
procession of athletes is always led by the Greek team,
followed by all the other teams in alphabetical order (in
the language of the hosting country), except for the last
team which is always the team of the hosting country.

What happens when the games are held in Greece?

In 490 BCE, Pheidippides, a Greek soldier, ran from Marathon
to Athens (about 25 miles) to inform the Athenians the
outcome of the battle with invading Persians. The distance
was filled with hills and other obstacles; thus Pheidippides
arrived in Athens exhausted and with bleeding feet. After
telling the townspeople of the Greeks' success in the battle,
Pheidippides fell to the ground dead. In 1896, at the first
modern Olympic Games, held a race of approximately the same
length in commemoration of Pheidippides.

Distance
Year Distance
(km) Distance
(mile)
1896 40 24.85
1900 40.26 25.02
1904 40 24.85
1906 41.86 26.01
1908 42.195 26.22
1912 40.2 24.98
1920 42.75 26.56
1924 onward 42.195 26.22

The length of a marathon was not fixed at first, since the only important factor was that all athletes competed on the same course. The marathon races in the first few Olympic Games were not of a set length, but were approximately 40 kilometres (25 mi),[10] roughly the distance from Marathon to Athens by the longer, flatter route. The exact length of the Olympic marathon varied depending on the route established for each venue.

The standard distance for the marathon race was set by the International Amateur Athletic Federation (IAAF) in May 1921[11][12] at a distance of 42.195 kilometres (26 miles 385 yards). Rule 240 of their Competition Rules specifies the metric version of this distance.[13] This seemingly arbitrary distance was that adopted for the marathon at the 1908 Summer Olympics in London. At a meeting of the International Olympic Committee in The Hague in May 1907 it was agreed with the British Olympic Association that the 1908 Olympics would include a marathon of about 25 miles or 40 kilometres.[14] In November 1907 a route of about that distance was published in the newspapers, starting at Windsor Castle and finishing at the Olympic Stadium, the Great White City Stadium in Shepherd's Bush in London.[15] There were protests about the final few miles because of tram-lines and cobbles, so the route was revised to cross the rough ground of Wormwood Scrubs. This lengthened the route, as did plans to make the start 700 yards (640 m) from Queen Victoria's statue by Windsor Castle, and it was decided to fix the distance at 26 miles (42 km) to the stadium, plus a lap of the track (586 yards, 2 feet),[15] using the Royal Entrance as the marathon tunnel, and finishing in front of the Royal Box. For the official Trial Marathon on 25 April 1908, organized by the Polytechnic Harriers, the start was on ‘The Long Walk’ – a magnificent avenue leading up to Windsor Castle in the grounds of Windsor Great Park. For the Olympic Marathon itself the start was on the private East Terrace of Windsor Castle, with the permission of King Edward VII, so that the public would not interfere with the start.[15] The Princess of Wales and her children drove from their home at Frogmore on the far side of Windsor Great Park to watch the start of the race.[15][16] Shortly before the Games opened it was realized that the Royal Entrance could not be used as the marathon entrance—it was raised to permit easy descent by the royal party from their carriages, and did not open onto the track—so an alternative entrance was chosen, diagonally opposite the Royal Box. A special path was made just outside the Franco British Exhibition ground so that the distance to the stadium remained 26 miles. The finishing line was left unchanged, but in order that the spectators, including Queen Alexandra, could have the best view of the final yards, the direction of running was changed to "right-hand inside" (i.e. clockwise). This meant the distance in the stadium was shortened to 385 yards, and the total distance became 26 miles 385 yards (42.195 km).[15]

For the next Olympics in 1912, the length was changed to 40.2 kilometres (24.98 mi), and changed again to 42.75 kilometres (26.56 mi) for the 1920 Olympics, until it was fixed at the 1908 distance for the 1924 Olympics. In fact, of the first seven Olympic Games, there were six different marathon distances between 40 and 42.75 kilometres or between 24.85 and 26.56 miles (40 km being used twice).

However, the dramatic finish of the 1908 Olympic marathon led to worldwide marathon fever. In a postcard sent at the time, an American spectator said he had "just seen the greatest race of the century."[17] The huge crowd, including Queen Alexandra, watched as the little Italian, Dorando Pietri, staggered round the final 385 yards (352 m), falling several times, and eventually being propelled by officials over the line as Irish-American Johnny Hayes got ever closer. Dorando was disqualified and Hayes was awarded the Gold Medal. However, Queen Alexandra was so moved by his plight that the very next day she presented Dorando with a silver-gilt cup.

Dorando and Hayes both turned professional and there were several re-matches, which had of course to be over the 26 miles 385 yards. Many other marathons were also held at that distance, including the important Polytechnic Marathon. The IAAF minutes are reportedly silent as to the reason the 26 miles 385 yards (42.195 km) was chosen in 1921,[18] so any conclusion must be speculative, but emotional attachment to the distance of the "race of the century" was clearly strong.

The 42.195 km and 26 miles 385 yards distances are identical to within half an inch (1.2 cm). The difference between the standard distance and the rounded figure frequently employed (as in the table), 26.22 miles, is slightly over two metres or 6 ½ feet.

Source

 

[historylover]

We hope that, when the insects take over the world, they will remember with gratitude how we took them along on all our picnics: Bill Vaughan.

RANDOM TIDBITS

Amazon ants (red ants found in the western U.S.) steal the
larvae of other ants to keep as slaves. The slave ants
build homes for and feed the Amazon ants, who cannot do
anything but fight. They depend completely on their slaves
for survival.

***

Australian termites have been known to build mounds twenty
feet high and at least 100 feet wide.

***

When ants find food, they lay down a chemical trail, called
a pheromone, so that other ants can find their way from the
nest to the food source.

***

Only female mosquitoes bite. Females need the protein from
blood to produce their eggs.

***

Mosquitoes dislike citronella because it irritates their
feet. There are more than 2,500 varieties of mosquitoes.

***

The world's smallest winged insect, the Tanzanian parasitic
wasp, is smaller than the eye of a housefly.

 

[historylover]

All one's inventions are true, you can be sure of that. Poetry is as exact a science as geometry: Gustave Flaubert.

RANDOM TIDBITS - PRODUCTS NAMED FOR REAL PEOPLE

Duncan Hines - While working as a traveling sales
representative for a Chicago printing company during the
1930s and 40s, Duncan Hines kept a diary of the restaurants
where he’d dined along the way. He and his wife compiled a
list of 167 restaurant reviews, which eventually caught the
eye of a manufacturer of pre-packaged foods who decided to
use Hines' name on their products.

***

Chef Boyardee - As Head Chef at Cleveland’s Hotel Winton,
“Hector” Boiardi featured a menu that emphasized the
traditional Italian cuisine he so loved, and it wasn't long
before people were asking for his spaghetti sauce recipe,
which he refused to share. He opened his own restaurant in
1924, and due to the large numbers of take-out orders, he
opened a separate factory that packaged his products for
sale in retail outlets. He decided on the phonetic spelling
of his name so there was no confusion as to how it was
pronounced.

***

CliffsNotes - The "Cliff" behind those yellow study guides
known as CliffsNotes is Clifton Hillegass, a graduate of
the University of Nebraska and an Army Air Corps veteran.
Hillegass published his first Cliff’s Notes in the basement
of his Lincoln home with the intent of enriching the
reader’s experience and pointing out plot subtleties, not
providing a “cheat sheet.”

***

Oscar Mayer - Oscar Ferdinand Mayer and his brother
Gottfried leased the Kolling Meat Market in Chicago in 1883.
Their homemade liverwurst, bratwurst and weisswurst soon
gained popularity, and by 1900, they had expanded to include
delivery service throughout the city. When the brothers
found out that Chicagoland residents were purchasing their
products and sending them to relatives outside of Illinois,
they began branding their meats.

***

Maybelline - Chicago chemist Thomas Williams had an older
sister named Maybel who liked a man who was in love with
someone else. When Tom noticed Maybel applying petroleum
jelly to her eyelashes and eyebrows to attract the man's
attention, Tom went to work in his laboratory to help her.
His formula of carbon dust added to petroleum jelly worked
to highlight the lashes and brows, and soon Tom was selling
eye makeup under a name inspired by his sister, “Maybelline.”

***

Vicks Vapo-Rub - Professional druggist Lunsford Richardson
thought there had to be an easier way to relieve cold
symptoms rather than the treatment at the time - placing a
poultice on the patient’s chest and then lighting a kerosene
vaporizer lamp. He eventually created a mixture of menthol,
camphor, oil of eucalyptus, and petroleum jelly that sold
itself once the first few customers tried it. He named his
invention Vicks Vapo-Rub after his brother-in-law.

 

[historylover]

Language is the blood of the soul into which thoughts run and out of which they grow: Oliver Wendell Holmes

RANDOM TIDBITS

> The "invention" of language is not known except for
> references in the Bible. It is not known what language Adam
> and Eve spoke. The first mention of different languages is
> the reference to the tower of Babel when different tongues
> were bestowed.

***

> The invention of writing, however, is credited to the
> Sumerians of Mesopotamia in the 4th millennium BC. Their
> descendants, the Sumero-Babylonians, developed the time
> system that we use today: an hour divided into 60 minutes,
> which are divided into 60 seconds.

***

> Today, there are more than 2,700 different languages spoken
> in the world, with more than 7,000 dialects. In Indonesia
> alone, 365 different languages are spoken. More than 1,000
> different languages are spoken in Africa.

***

> The most difficult language to learn is Basque, which is
> spoken in north-western Spain and south-western France. It
> is not related to any other language in the world. Mandarin
> is the most spoken language in the world, followed by
> English. But as home language, Spanish is the second most
> spoken in the world.

***

> The youngest language in the world is Afrikaans, spoken by
> South Africans. Dutch and German Protestants fled
> persecution from the Roman Catholic Church in the 17th and
> 18th century to settle in the Dutch colony of Cape of Good
> Hope on the southern point of Africa. By the early-20th
> century Afrikaans had developed from Dutch, German and other
> influences into a fully fledged language with its own
> dictionaries.

***

> The smallest country in the world is the Vatican. It also
> is the only country where Latin is the official language.

 

[gunslingingbird]

It is not known what language Adam
> and Eve spoke.

Oh, really? Ask any Southern Christian Fundamentalist and he will tell you that they spoke English.

> The most difficult language to learn is Basque, which is
> spoken in north-western Spain and south-western France.

Actually, the hardest language to master is Chippewa, which requires speakers to master the more than 2,000 verbal inflections to be considered fluent.

It is not related to any other language in the world.

Neither is Finnish.

> The youngest language in the world is Afrikaans, spoken by
> South Africans. Dutch and German Protestants fled
> persecution from the Roman Catholic Church in the 17th and
> 18th century to settle in the Dutch colony of Cape of Good
> Hope on the southern point of Africa. By the early-20th
> century Afrikaans had developed from Dutch, German and other
> influences into a fully fledged language with its own
> dictionaries.

What about Esperanto? Wasn't that created sometime in the 1920's?

 

[lurkingdirk]

What about Esperanto? Wasn't that created sometime in the 1920's?

did you know that william shatner once did an entire movie in esperanto?

and yes, it is made up. first showed up around 1887.

 

[gunslingingbird]

did you know that william shatner once did an entire movie in esperanto?

:bowdown: Is there anything that man hasn't given us? From sci-fi geeks, to one of the scariest movie murderer masks, to cheap airfare, we owe it all to William Shart-ner. :bowdown:

 

[historylover]

If you don't try to win you might as well hold the Olympics in somebody's back yard: Jesse Owens

RANDOM TIDBITS
>
> Created by Pierre de Coubertin in 1914, the Olympic flag
> contains five interconnected rings on a white background.
> The five rings symbolize the five significant continents
> and are interconnected to symbolize the friendship to be
> gained from these international competitions. The rings,
> from left to right, are blue, yellow, black, green, and
> red. The colors were chosen because at least one of them
> appeared on the flag of every country in the world. The
> Olympic flag was first flown during the 1920 Olympic Games.
>
> ***
>
> The Olympic medals are designed especially for each
> individual Olympic Games by the host city's organizing
> committee. Each medal must be at least three millimeters
> thick and 60 millimeters in diameter. Also, the gold and
> silver Olympic medals must be made out of 92.5 percent
> silver, with the gold medal covered in six grams of gold.
>
> ***
>
> During the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, the
> procession of athletes is always led by the Greek team,
> followed by all the other teams in alphabetical order (in
> the language of the hosting country), except for the last
> team which is always the team of the hosting country.
>
> ***
>
> In 1921, Pierre de Coubertin, founder of the modern Olympic
> Games, borrowed a Latin phrase from his friend, Father
> Henri Didon, for the Olympic motto: Citius, Altius, Fortius
> ("Swifter, Higher, Stronger").
>
> ***
>
> James B. Connolly (United States), winner of the hop, step,
> and jump (the first final event in the 1896 Olympics), was
> the first Olympic champion of the modern Olympic Games.
>
> ***
>
> In 490 BCE, Pheidippides, a Greek soldier, ran from Marathon
> to Athens (about 25 miles) to inform the Athenians the
> outcome of the battle with invading Persians. The distance
> was filled with hills and other obstacles; thus Pheidippides
> arrived in Athens exhausted and with bleeding feet. After
> telling the townspeople of the Greeks' success in the battle,
> Pheidippides fell to the ground dead. In 1896, at the first
> modern Olympic Games, held a race of approximately the same
> length in commemoration of Pheidippides.

 

[gunslingingbird]

If you don't try to win you might as well hold the Olympics in somebody's back yard: Jesse Owens

RANDOM TIDBITS
>
> Created by Pierre de Coubertin in 1914, the Olympic flag
> contains five interconnected rings on a white background.
> The five rings symbolize the five significant continents
> and are interconnected to symbolize the friendship to be
> gained from these international competitions. The rings,
> from left to right, are blue, yellow, black, green, and
> red. The colors were chosen because at least one of them
> appeared on the flag of every country in the world. The
> Olympic flag was first flown during the 1920 Olympic Games.
>
> ***
>
> The Olympic medals are designed especially for each
> individual Olympic Games by the host city's organizing
> committee. Each medal must be at least three millimeters
> thick and 60 millimeters in diameter. Also, the gold and
> silver Olympic medals must be made out of 92.5 percent
> silver, with the gold medal covered in six grams of gold.
>
> ***
>
> During the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, the
> procession of athletes is always led by the Greek team,
> followed by all the other teams in alphabetical order (in
> the language of the hosting country), except for the last
> team which is always the team of the hosting country.
>
> ***
>
> In 1921, Pierre de Coubertin, founder of the modern Olympic
> Games, borrowed a Latin phrase from his friend, Father
> Henri Didon, for the Olympic motto: Citius, Altius, Fortius
> ("Swifter, Higher, Stronger").
>
> ***
>
> James B. Connolly (United States), winner of the hop, step,
> and jump (the first final event in the 1896 Olympics), was
> the first Olympic champion of the modern Olympic Games.
>
> ***
>
> In 490 BCE, Pheidippides, a Greek soldier, ran from Marathon
> to Athens (about 25 miles) to inform the Athenians the
> outcome of the battle with invading Persians. The distance
> was filled with hills and other obstacles; thus Pheidippides
> arrived in Athens exhausted and with bleeding feet. After
> telling the townspeople of the Greeks' success in the battle,
> Pheidippides fell to the ground dead. In 1896, at the first
> modern Olympic Games, held a race of approximately the same
> length in commemoration of Pheidippides.

Hmm...

If you don't try to win you might as well hold the Olympics in somebody's back yard: Jesse Owens

RANDOM TIDBITS

Created by Pierre de Coubertin in 1914, the Olympic flag
contains five interconnected rings on a white background.
The five rings symbolize the five significant continents
and are interconnected to symbolize the friendship to be
gained from these international competitions. The rings,
from left to right, are blue, yellow, black, green, and
red. The colors were chosen because at least one of them
appeared on the flag of every country in the world. The
Olympic flag was first flown during the 1920 Olympic Games.

***

The Olympic medals are designed especially for each
individual Olympic Games by the host city's organizing
committee. Each medal must be at least three millimeters
thick and 60 millimeters in diameter. Also, the gold and
silver Olympic medals must be made out of 92.5 percent
silver, with the gold medal covered in six grams of gold.

***

During the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, the
procession of athletes is always led by the Greek team,
followed by all the other teams in alphabetical order (in
the language of the hosting country), except for the last
team which is always the team of the hosting country.

***

In 1921, Pierre de Coubertin, founder of the modern Olympic
Games, borrowed a Latin phrase from his friend, Father
Henri Didon, for the Olympic motto: Citius, Altius, Fortius
("Swifter, Higher, Stronger").

***

James B. Connolly (United States), winner of the hop, step,
and jump (the first final event in the 1896 Olympics), was
the first Olympic champion of the modern Olympic Games.

***

In 490 BCE, Pheidippides, a Greek soldier, ran from Marathon
to Athens (about 25 miles) to inform the Athenians the
outcome of the battle with invading Persians. The distance
was filled with hills and other obstacles; thus Pheidippides
arrived in Athens exhausted and with bleeding feet. After
telling the townspeople of the Greeks' success in the battle,
Pheidippides fell to the ground dead. In 1896, at the first
modern Olympic Games, held a race of approximately the same
length in commemoration of Pheidippides.

 

[historylover]

I get mail; therefore I am: Scott Adams.

RANDOM TIDBITS

In 1775, Benjamin Franklin was appointed first Postmaster
General by the Continental Congress.

***

Forty six percent of the world’s card and letter mail
volume is handled by the United States Postal Service.

***

Letter carriers and professional truck drivers drive an
average of 1.2 billion miles per year to deliver our mail.

***

667 million - Average amount of mail processed each day.
28 million - Average amount of mail processed each hour.
463,000 - Average amount of mail processed each minute.

***

Mail is delivered by bicycle in locations throughout
Arizona and Florida, reducing emissions and saving fuel.

***

1847 - U.S. postage stamps issued.
1855 - Prepayment of postage required.
1860 - Pony Express began.
1863 - Free city delivery began.
1873 - U.S. postal cards issued.

 

[historylover]

Grilling, broiling, barbecuing - whatever you want to call it - is an art, not just a matter of building a pyre and throwing on a piece of meat as a sacrifice to the gods of the stomach: James Beard.

RANDOM TIDBITS

The first barbecuers may well have been prehistoric cavemen.
Anthropologists say they may have started roasting meat
some 1.4 million years ago.Language development didn't
occur until 200,000 B.C. or later.Other sources say this
originated in the Caribbean where the native Indians used
wood gratings over a slow fire to cook strips of meat.

***

According to the Indiana Propane Company, the most common
barbecue items (beside ribs) are: hamburgers, steaks, hot
dogs, and chicken breasts.

***

Three out of 4 American households own a grill and they use
it on average of 5 times per month.

***

Lexington, North Carolina is known as the Barbecue Capital
of the World. October is Barbecue Month there, with a month-
long Annual Barbecue Festival. The city's first barbecue
restaurant opened in 1919; there are currently over 20
barbecue restaurants.


***

People in the Northeast U.S. are the heaviest barbecuers in
the nation. The next most frequent barbecues are in the
North Central region of the U.S., followed by the South and
then the Western U.S.


***

The word "barbecue" may have come from the French phrase
"barbe a queue" (from whiskers to tail-The term refers to
the original method in which a whole animal was cooked on
a spit over an open fire), or the Taino Indian word for
their method of cooking fish over a pit of coals (barbacoa).

 

[gunslingingbird]

The first barbecuers may well have been prehistoric cavemen.
Anthropologists say they may have started roasting meat
some 1.4 million years ago.Language development didn't
occur until 200,000 B.C. or later.

So what did they stand around bullshitting about while they were waiting for the meat to be done? They didn't have football back then, and I don't think Budweiser had started bottling beer yet.