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 you’ve been too ordinary!”

Classic old person.

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.

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.

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…..

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 “competitors.”  I bet the fourth place person is less happy than every one though.  Except for the second to last place finisher.  I would rather get dead last than second to last.  At least if you are second to last, you can say that you are the first winner.

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.

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 unconstitutional, but the practice remained.  In 1938 the Fair Labor Standards Act renewed the 40-hour week’s basis in law by stipulating that hours worked in excess of 40 were to be compensated at one and one-half times the normal rate.

Now I finally understand the lyrics of that one song…  “Everybody’s working for the weekend (thanks to the National Industrial Recovery Act of 1933, which, although unconstitutional, created the weekend that we are working for)!”

It’s in parentheses because only the background singers sing it.

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 and created an image of Santa.

It appears one night of aggressive moonshine binging gave us the endearing image we celebrate today!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.