> These are actually interesting and worth
> reading...read the last one!
>
> 1. In Shakespeare's time, mattresses were secured on
> bed frames by ropes.
> When you pulled on the ropes the mattress tightened,
> making the bed firmer to
> sleep on. That's where the phrase, "goodnight, sleep
> tight" came from.
>
> 2. The sentence "The quick brown fox jumps over the
> lazy dog."uses every
> letter in the alphabet. (developed by Western Union
> to test telex/twx
> communications).
>
> 3. The only 15 letter word that can be spelled
> without repeating a letter is
> 'uncopyrightable'.
>
> 4. When opossums are playing 'possum, they are not
> "playing." They actually
> pass out in terror.
>
> 5. The Main Library at Indiana University sinks over
> an inch every year
> because when it was built, engineers failed to take
> into account the weight
> of all the books that would occupy the building.
>
> 6. The term "the whole 9 yards" came from W.W.II
> fighter pilots in the
> Pacific. When arming their airplanes on the ground,
> the .50 caliber machine
> gun ammo belts measured exactly 27 feet, before
> being loaded into the
> fuselage. If the pilots fired all their ammo at a
> target, it got "the whole 9
> yards."
>
> 7. The phrase "rule of thumb" is derived from an old
> English law which
> stated that you couldn't beat your wife with
> anything wider than your thumb.
>
> 8. When Heinz ketchup leaves the bottle, it travels
> at a rate of 25 miles per
> year.
>
> 9. The name Jeep came from the abbreviation used in
> the army for the
> "General Purpose" vehicle, GP.
>
> 10. Ten percent of the Russian government's income
> comes from the sale of
> vodka.
>
> 11. On average, 100 people choke to death on
> ball-point pens every year.
>
> 12. No NFL team which plays it's home games in a
> domed stadium has ever won a
> Super Bowl.
>
> 13. The first toilet ever seen on television was on
> "Leave It To Beaver."
>
> 14. Only one person in two billion will live to be
> 116 or older.
>
> 15. In Cleveland, Ohio, it's illegal to catch mice
> without a hunting license.
>
> 16. It takes 3,000 cows to supply the NFL with
> enough leather for a year's
> supply of footballs. (And you thought they were
> pigskins!)
>
> 17. Thirty-five percent of the people who use
> personal ads for dating are
> already married.
>
> 18. There's an average of 178 sesame seeds on
> McDonald's Big Mac bun.
>
> 19. The world's termites outweigh the world's humans
> 10 to 1.
>
> 20. The 3 most valuable brand names on earth:
> Marlboro, Coca-Cola, and
> Budweiser; in that order.
>
> 21. In 10 minutes, a hurricane releases more energy
> than all the world's
> nuclear weapons combined.
>
> 22. It was the accepted practice in Babylon 4,000
> years ago that for a
> month after the wedding, the bride's father would
> supply his son-in-law with
> all the mead he could drink. Mead is a honey beer,
> and because their calendar
> was lunar based, this period
> was called the "honey month" or what we know today
> as the "honeymoon."
>
> 23. In English pubs, ale is ordered by pints and
> quarts. So in old England,
> when customers got unruly, the bartender would yell
> at them to mind their own
> pints and quarts and settle down. It's where we get
> the phrase "mind your
> P's and Q's."
>
> 24. Many years ago in England, pub frequenters had a
> whistle baked into the
> rim or handle of their ceramic cups. When they
> needed a refill, they used the
> whistle to get some service. "Wet your whistle," is
> the phrase inspired by
> this practice.
>
> And last but not least.
>
> 25. In ancient England a person could not have sex
> unless you had consent of
> the King (unless you were in the Royal Family). When
> anyone wanted to have a
> baby, they got consent of the King & the King gave
> them a placard that they
> hung on their door while they were having sex. The
> placard had F.U.C.K.
> (Fornication Under Consent of the King) on it. Now
> you know where that came
> from.


=====
Thank You Kindly,

Dennis