December 2010
31 posts
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End of Smartest, Start of Stupidest Year?...
2010 was a great year for one reason only. This was the first year to completely take place in the third millennium! 2000-2009 took place in 2 different millennia.
So this is what living in the third millennium is like.
Blogs. No flying cars. No dinners in the form of capsules. I don’t have a robot wife. I don’t have a smart house. I had a blog.
Anyway, thanks for...
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Ornery (12/30/10)
The word “ornery” was originally a dialectal contraction of the word “ordinary.” Originally, “ornery” simply meant ordinary, or commonplace, but eventually evolved into meaning naughty or cantankerous.
Old people love that word.
And they love calling kids “ornery.”
Old person: “Hey, little kid. Santa won’t come this year, because...
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Golden Gate Bridge (12/29/10)
The official color of the Golden Gate Bridge is “International Orange.”
It sounds like a flavor of soda that might give me mercury poisoning.
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Delaware Lame (12/28/10)
Delaware is the only state without a national park.
I wasn’t del-aware of that.
I don’t know what’s worse. That pun. Or the post’s useless title.
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NBA Logo (12/27/10)
The silhouetted figure on the NBA logo is modeled after Jerry West, a long time guard and coach of the LA Lakers.
I don’t mean guard as in bodyguard. Although, nowadays that wouldn’t be a bad idea.
All teams should have a shooting guard. To prevent shootings.
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æ (12/26/10)
æ was a single letter in the Old English alphabet, and was known as the “ashtree.” Nowadays, it’s commonly referred to as the “ash.”
Because it’s definitely commonly referred to…..
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Grinch Song (12/25/10)
The song “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch” was performed by Thurl Ravenscroft, who was also the voice of Tony the Tiger.
Sorry about getting this one to you at the end of the Christmas season. You’ll just have to strike up conversation about Frosted Flakes, and try to work this one in backwards.
And one more thing…
Mr. Grinch…?
So Grinch was his last name? ...
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But are they losers? (12/24/10)
A study performed by social psychologists in 1995 showed that participants awarded bronze medals were happier than competitors that finished with silver medals. They were happy just to medal, while second place finishers were disappointed they didn’t win.
Thus, I refer to those who receive the bronze medal as “participants,” and those who get the silver medal as...
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Bronze Medals (12/23/10)
Bronze medals for third place first started being awarded in 1904 at the Olympics in St. Louis. Before then, only first and second places were awarded. Before 1904, we didn’t praise losers.
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Two Day Weekends (12/22/10)
Until the early 1930s, the only day of rest in America was typically the Sabbath (for Christians Sunday, for Jews Saturday). During the Depression there was a demand for “sharing the work,” which resulted in codes of fair competition, which created the 40-hour, 5-day work week. These codes were adopted in the National Industrial Recovery Act of 1933. This act was later deemed...
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Twas the Night (12/21/10)
The poem beginning, “Twas the night before Christmas…,” is titled A Visit from St. Nicholas, and was written in 1823 by Clement Clarke Moore. This poem largely standardized St. Nicholas as a fat man who flew around with reindeer.
It is quite remarkable that this caught on. It almost seems like Clement Clarke Moore combined all of the weirdest things he could possible imagine...
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MSNBC (12/20/10)
The cable news channel MSNBC gets its name from a combination of its two owners, Microsoft and NBC.
It’s motto, “Lean Forward,” makes it sound like a channel that should be locked by parental controls.
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Skivvies (12/19/10)
Why skivvies is slang for underwear is a little unclear, however, it was originally considered nautical slang. An earlier skivvy/skivey was also used in London as a slang word for a “female domestic servant.”
In Iran, “female domestic servant” is slang for “wife.”
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Unicorns (12/18/10)
In Medieval times, unicorns had strong connotations with virginity.
Some things never change.
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Starboard (12/17/10)
Starboard comes from the Old English steorbord, which literally means the side on which the boat is steered.
Sometimes etymology is what it is. Kinda lame. And self-evident.
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Ideomotor Effect (12/16/10)
The Ouija Board “works” due to the Ideomotor Effect, where your brain tricks your muscles into doing whatever your brain wants to happen.
It’s like how my brain tricks my muscles into opening the fridge when I’m hungry.
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Test Taking (12/15/10)
It is wrong to assume that your first answer is more likely the better answer. 60 studies consistently showed that going with your initial response or answer is not a good strategy if you start second guessing yourself. Typically, people who changed their answers more when they were unsure scored higher.
Apparently thinking with your brain is better than going with your gut. Wild.
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Cell Phones (12/14/10)
Cell phones cannot cause cancer. Only x-rays, UV light, and gamma rays are strong enough to break the covalent chemical bonds in your body.
But if you use a cell phone will getting x-rayed, or tanning, or floating around near a quasar, yeah, I guess you could get cancer.
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Mr. Clean (12/13/10)
In November 1962, Mr. Clean was assigned a first name, “Veritably Clean,” as a result of the “Give Mr. Clean a First Name” promotion. If “Veritably” won, I am guessing only one person entered the “Give Mr. Clean a First Name” contest. Someone named Veritably.
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Ping Pong (12/12/10)
Ping Pong originated in Britain during the 1880s as an after-dinner parlor game. It was then referred to as “wiff waff.” This is quite possibly the most pompous, snooty post-dinner party British name ever.
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Daddy Longlegs (12/11/10)
The claim that Daddy Longlegs are the most poisonous spiders (they supposedly don’t have a good means to transfer the potent venom) is false.
The fact that the name “Daddy Longlegs” gets creepier and creepier the more I think about it is true.
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Hamstring (12/10/10)
Etymologically “hamstring” comes from “ham” (the fat behind the knee) and “string” (a tendon). It’s all highly medical, science jargon. I can barely understand it.
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Stunting (12/9/10)
Often when a radio station changes ownership or format, they use Christmas songs, often out of season, to capture listeners’ interests.
Then the listener can make an active decision to avoid that particular station.
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Dubbing (12/8/10)
When a movie is aired on a TV station and a curse word is dubbed over with a more appropriate word, the new word is usually not spoken by the actual actor on screen. Just someone that sounds like him. I am doing 20 facts today. So to me, that counts as a fact.
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Dreadlocks (12/7/10)
Dreadlocks get their name because supposedly people with the hairstyle feel “dread.” But not in a bad way apparently; Rastafarian “dread” has a positive sense as in a “fear of the Lord.”
Which doesn’t sound very positive.
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Eskimos (12/6/10)
The term Eskimo typically umbrellas three groups: Yupiks, Inuits, and often the Aleuts.
So when people try to be super politically correct by calling all “Eskimos” Inuits. They’re just being doofuses.
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Christmas Creep (12/5/10)
The Christmas Creep is the phenomenon in which merchants and retailers exploit the commercialized status of Christmas by moving up the start of the holiday shopping season. One way they do this, is by playing Christmas music earlier and earlier.
I always thought the Christmas Creep was that one uncle that always goes for the kiss on the lips when you see him at holiday family gatherings.
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Rump Parliament (12/4/10)
The Rump Parliament was the name of the English Parliament after it took over the Long Parliament on December 6, 1648. Among many things, the puritanical Rump Parliament sought to abolish the celebration of Christmas. It’s just like a Christmas movie!
Except people died.
And of course something called the “Rump” Parliament would be miserable. This is just what you would...
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Lamarckian Inheritance (12/3/10)
Lamarckism or Lamarckian inheritance is the idea that an organism can pass on traits that have been acquired during its life to its offspring. This idea generally isn’t too popular anymore in terms of genetic evolution. I am really bored.
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Rasta (12/2/10)
The Rastafari movement is a monotheistic new religious movement that was started from Christian culture in Jamaica back in the 1930s. Its adherents worship Haile Selassi I of Ethiopia, the former emperor of Ethiopia, as a God incarnate.
I know I’ve personally always worshiped this particular emperor of Ethiopia, so it’s cool to know I’m not alone.
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Igloo (12/1/10)
In Inuit language, “igloo” or iglu means “house.” The term isn’t restricted to snow houses.
Because they have a million words for snow, but only one word for house apparently.
Also, I have a lot of trouble when deciding whether to use italics or quotation marks. You’d think I’d have that down by now.