Learn Something new everyday...ore every post

I think it would be fun if we put those little pieces of information or trivia that we have learned, that seemed engraved in our heads and we don't seem to find something useful to do with it... so I'm first.

Did you know that in Venezuela (my country) we have a tradition of eating 12 grapes during new year's day/eve???

P.S. you don't have to post it like questions

ETA: sorry for the typo in the title :P

Well I know i've got random bits of knowledge in my head but the authority of useless information in my family is Bib.

It's true, but there's far too much of it for me to pull it forth without someone asking me for it. For instance, last night one of the directors came over and asked me if I remembered my high school music teacher's phone number. (I've been out of high school for more than a decade now.) I did. But I wouldn't necessarily thought to remember it until someone asked me for it, you know? This is what makes me good at things like Trivial Pursuit and SceneIt

OMG! I come from Mexico Renald, and we do that too! Isn't each grape for every month of the new year and we make a wish for every grape we eat? lol, i remember two years ago my parents bought HUGE grapes and no one could finish theirs! lol

The markup on movie theater popcorn is something like 1300%.

#5- I think I knew that about the popcorn!

That is so interesting about the twelve grapes. My father's Puerto Rican and I've never heard of that. Do you have to eat the grapes one at a time or stuff them in all at once? What if you still want more grapes after your twelve? What if, as pico mentioned, you can't finish your grapes?

From taking yoga, I've learned that the knees are designed to fit into the armpits, your chin fits into the little soft spot between the collar bones and it is possible to fold yourself up and pack yourself into a suitcase. I wouldn't recommend doing it though. I've seen what luggage handlers do to people's bags.

Crepes are originally from Italy, not France. (at least according to Heat: An Amateur's!)

Did you know that Arkansas (my state) is the only diamond producing state in the U.S.? If you find one at the state park, you get to take it with you.

did you know the red thingy on a turkeys beak is called a wattle
I believe that wattle is also a flower in australia, correct me if I'm wrong

sure is. Can't see the connection, though.

#4: Picolina how cool it is that we share the same tradition and had a mental picture of a person eating twelve huge grapes and I laughed a lot and don't worry here we choke on them too :D

#6: JP we eat the grapes when it's twelve o'clock and the bell from the clocks ring supposedly you should eat one with every ring but it's too difficult to do it the right way (specially coz the grapes have seeds in them and those are the ones that they sell here so no seedless grapes) and you can have more but the tradition only says twelve grapes.

And to everybody how cool that you participate on my topic I thought you may like this topic's idea and I will give you another tradition when I log on LT later this evening :D

Why do I get this really silly sorta picture of JP trying to stuff 12 huge grapes in her mouth all at once and choking while making wishes and hearing the cheering in the background.

ETA: The cheering is for the New Year of course, not for JP choking. ;P

I'd cheer if i saw JP stuff twelve huge grapes in her mouth. And pat her on the back, if necessary.



Edited to make grapes appear.

KIK Jp: if you actually try the grapes thing you absolutely have to take a picture and post it around here so we can see it.

In the chinese culture it is tradition that the married couples give money in little red envelopes to single people. Inside the family of course not like just random people that you know, so imagine what am I going to spend the money on this year???

*coughs* books *coughs*

LOL I laughed so hard I got teary eyed.

wipes tears away

Some of you already know these...

Sign language sign-the-sames:
'2' and 'V'
'6' and 'W'
'9' and 'F'

Most people know a blue eyed, white-haired animal is more likely to be blind and deaf. It's far more comment when their eyes are two different colors.

more comment???? was that a mistake or my english is that bad at this time of night??

I think Kerian meant common, not comment. :o)

Yes I figured that out too but I wanted to point it out to anyone out there before she fixes it lol

ETA: I changed Kerian's gender thinks that maybe this comment *funny word now* may end in the rumour thread on HE Oh well

Opps! I'd edit my post, but it's kind of funny. For all you know I could be saying animals with two different color eyes talk more often. ;)

Btw, I am a 'she.'

The collective noun for geese in flight is different to when they're on the ground. I expect you all knoew that though.

Well, don't laugh, but until a few weeks ago I never knew that honey was really bee vomit. :/

Now, I will never forget it.

I just learned that reunion.com spams everyone in your address book. If anyone here didn't know about it, I suggest you ignore emails from this site.

Information here: http://consumerist.com/380751/reunioncom-will-scrape-your-address-book-then-spam...

Thx JP, for the heads up. I'll make sure to let my friends and contacts know that.

I learned this fact by watching How I Met Your Mother (HIMYM):

Karaoke is a Japanese word that derives from the words "kara", meaning empty, and "okesutora, meaning orchestra. Karaoke literally means "empty orchestra".

The little plastic or metal sheathes at the end of shoelaces and drawstrings are called aglets.

#15 jugglingpaynes - when we got 2 hamsters 4 years ago one of them scared us to death when it puffed up like that after we got it home - we thought it was dying. Turned out it was a piglet and stuffing its cheeks. We named it Puffer.

LOL! We have a chipmunk that lives in our yard that does that regularly, I just didn't feel like looking for the picture we've taken of him with "chipmunk cheeks."

#25 Renald, I love that show! It's one of the only TV shows I watch.

I used to have hamsters. Now I have 2 gerbils for classroom pets.

I had my youngest do some Christmas math. I'm sure you will be happy to know that the true love received 364 gifts during the twelve days of Christmas. We know how many of each gift she received as well, but I wouldn't want to deprive you of the joy of figuring it out for yourself!

#29 - I knew that, I knew that!! It was a question in a pub quiz once, and I was the only one who had the determination to work it out.

Now have her figure out how many total birds that poor woman has. Why would anyone want that many birds hanging around? And all the cows that come with the milk maids. And all those drums. That place must have been loud by Twelfth Night!

I pity the neighbours...

We have an old picture book of it that describes it like that! Jack Kent's Twelve Days of Christmas I think I'm the only one who has this book. At the end she runs off in a panic and he's chasing her with the partridge. So cute!

There's also a book (at least, if it's not a book in it's own right, it is in a Christmas collection), which has the letters written in response every day to each new gift that comes along. Can't remember what it's called though.... anyone?

I've seen that one! What was it called? *wracks brain trying to think*

*ruinnning back in after frantic search of the interweb*

Found it!

Twelve Days of Christmas: (Correspondence) by John Julius Norwich

Good Job!

Neat! I'll have to look for that one!

That's awesome! I am putting that on my paperbackswap wish list!

One time when I was oh maybe 9 or so i got bored and figured out all that...i like simple math, it's calming. So i know how many gifts, how many are birds, how many are people. The only non-living gift is the rings.

Also we had a "where's waldo" of the gifts so the first page you had to find a Partridge in a Pear tree, on the second page you had to find 2 Turtle doves and a Partridge in a Pear tree, and so on until the last page were you have to find all the items.

Did you know that adults have no understanding of Santa?

I told Cole that Santa would only bring him black rocks for Christmas if he wasn't a good boy. *I believe at the time he was trying to head butt the dog* A couple of days later, at the dinner table, Cole casts me a dirty look and says, "I won't get black rocks! I can't! Only toys!"
I, who knows that we have a whole closet full of Santa toys with not a piece of coal in sight, says, "Oh yeah you are only going to get black rocks! Especially if you don't quit using your fork as a catapult."
Cole, who when challenged can make Einstein feel stupid, crosses his arms, rolls his eyes and says, "He only has ONE bag! He can't carry black rocks AND toys!"
I, who is an authority on The BIG S.C. since I found his hat and foot prints at the knowledgeable age of 5, reply, "Oh please! Santa's bag is magic and can carry everything he needs."
Cole opens his cherubic mouth to reply when my other angel, Missie, pipes up with an even better eye roll than her brother, *and I quote* "Mmmmoooommmm, you're not being logical," big 7 year old sigh, "Santa's bag has a time warp in the bottom that the elves toss toys through from the time warp at their workshop. Magic isn't really that logical." *end quote*

....and I'm getting another one of these? What was I thinking?...obviously I wasn't being logical LOL

edited typo

My grandbabies are sooooo smart! i'm so proud!

LOL wow, what a little smarty. As a 7 year old I'd have been happy with "Santa's bag is magic"...just wow!

yes, at seven I had never even heard the term 'Time Warp"!

My ten year old brother insists that Santa has a TARDIS, or may in fact be the Doctor from Doctor Who. Keep in mind we live in New Jersey, and most of his friends stare blankly when he expounds that theory.

Mem, that's hilairious!!

Great Santa theories from smart kids, Mem!

*ponders staying up for Santa this year in hopes that the Doctor shows up*

Wow Mem. When I was 7, I would've been inexplicably excited to know Santa's bag was magical!!!! lol

I stole the kitchen timer at about that age and set it on a certain night to wake up every half hour. ;)

silly K, santa is too smart for that!

Yeahh he would have added more time on the timer and you wouln't have noticed :D and MEM yeah I know the kids nowadays always have the answers for everything...

LV- as a fellow Doctor Who lover and New Jersian, tell your brother i'm sure he is right!

I, too, completely believed in the magic of Santa's bag when I was younger but both of my kiddles are a bit cynical. I'm not sure what that says about my parenting skills because I work myself up into Christmas cheer every year for them. Seriously, I oooooze holiday goodness from Halloween on and this is how they respond. 8) Oh well, at least they are good about giving up some of their older toys to charity and coins for the Salvation Army folks so they aren't completely messed up. They just have to have every I and T dotted and crossed.
Missie, who lost both her front teeth this past month, also wanted me to Google the Tooth Fairy to see what she REALLY did with all the teeth. LOL It's just how my kids roll, I guess. 8)

Wait, wait I'm confused. Doctor? Doctor Who? someone explain.... 8)

LOL A timer! What a good idea! LOL I never would have thought of that 8) But I agree, with Mom and Renald, Santa would have got around that. 8) But how did it end? Did you just sleep through or did you find your living room covered in presents at some point?

MEM Doctor Who is a tv show but I'm not really a fan so I'm not the best person to explain what the show is about. And it's funny coz a friend who was sleeping in a room with her cousins woke up suddenly on christmas eve/day (she didn't mention the hour) and saw a shadow walk by the window and a minute later her parents and uncles starting shouting and calling the kids telling them santa had come and brought the presents and my friend later was telling everybody she had actually seen santa :D

#55 MEM:
I slept through it. Santa heard it go off and returned it to my grandmother's house where it belonged. ;)

Pablo Picasso's full name was "Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Martyr Patricio Clito Ruiz y Picasso." *but you can absolutely call him Steve* :D

That's gotta be hard when his mom is mad at him. He could get away before she spits out the whole name.

Reminds me of Tikki tikki tembo-no sa rembo-chari bari ruchi-pip peri pembo, which means "The most wonderful thing in the whole wide world!"

Oh, Oh, Oh! I love that book! I've always loved that book ever since our kindergarten teacher read it to us. When I was small, my parents and I would play hang-man and I'd always put that. After a while, it sorta became a habit :P

Every person has a unique tongue print. (Say "aaah")

everything about a person is unique

especially my smell.

Ohh polly that reminded me of a line that they said on pushing daisies and I loved it.

"What makes me unique's brought every person I love into my life"

And ewww MrA you can get Kerian's cats pine freshener kik

On this day in history, Jan 8th, 1790 - In the United States, George Washington delivered the first State of the Union address.

A fear of long words is, ironically, called "Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia"

Monkeys loose thier hair at the same pace as a human male.

There has not yet been an only child president of the U.S.A.

The guy who invented the telephones mother and wife were both deaf.

I didn't know those ones MrsG and I like the Alexander Graham Bell one (that was the guy you meant, right?)

Yes. Im just stupid so I dont know stuff like that. And I have a randdom facts page a day calender at my dads house.

You produce one cup of snot everyday.

Throughout your life you will swallow at least 2 spiders while sleeping.

You spend 1/4 of your life waiting at red lights.

It's ok I find some of these through internet and some of them I got them from conversations....

I found this one and it's really interesting since some HErs have been reading Lewis Carroll's books

Chortle was a word coined by Lewis Carroll in Through the looking glass in 1872. "'O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!' He chortled in his joy." Perhaps Lewis Carroll would chortle a bit himself to find that people are still using the word chortle, which he coined in Through the Looking-Glass, published in 1872. In any case, Carroll had constructed his word well, combining the words chuckle and snort. This type of word is called a blend or a portmanteau word. In Through the Looking-Glass Humpty Dumpty uses portmanteau to describe the word slithy, saying, "It's like a portmanteau—there are two meanings packed up into one word" (the meanings being "lithe" and "slimy").

I thought a portmanteau was a Chablis. :o)

50% of the world's forests have been lost over the last 300 years.
If you ever want to feel really depressed about the environment, I highly recommend Planet Earth: The Interactive DVD game.

I thought a portmanteau was a large suitcase?

I'm pretty confident I spend more then a 1/4 waiting at stop lights

I don't make the fact I just report them.

#72: polly it also means a large suitcase, and I got this definition from dictionary.com

Portmanteau

noun

A new word formed by joining two others and combining their meanings; "'smog' is a blend of 'smoke' and 'fog'"; "'motel' is a portmanteau word made by combining 'motor' and 'hotel'"; "'brunch' is a well-known portmanteau"

Ron, Ron, Ron. You need to recognize when we are having fun. :o)

I wrote about this on my blog, but I figured I would share it here too.
Pill bugs (rollie pollies) are not bugs. They are the only land dwelling crustaceans. They are related to lobsters, crabs, mussels, and crayfish. They breathe through gills and need a moist environment to survive.

And they roll up into balls if you poke them. Not surprisingly, their scientific name is Armadillidium vulgare. They are like teeny armadillos.

So miniature armadillos! That's what I'm going to start calling them instead of rolli pollies!

Surely you knew they roll up if you poke them. ;)

In case anyone wasn't in the know of these wonderful study aids, I am going to re-post something here...There are clear post-its and erasable highlighters!

The see-through notes come in all sorts of sizes and colors. Redi-tag is one of the brands that produce them.



With erasable highlighters, one end of each highlighter is clear. The downside is that once a highlighted mark with them is erased, you can never use erasable highlighters there again because they won't show any marks. I've only seem the ones pictured below but there are more out there.

I could use those to have my youngest trace map outlines. And we could make simple animations. *brain gears whirring*

My sisters enjoyed sneaking the highlighters from time to time to play with. I lost of few of them that way. ;)

I posted the links on the other thread.

Passes out from excitement.

You know, not once did it ever cross my mind that I could stop fretting over finding them in stores. *hits her head* I'm going to wait till I have classes before getting more, though. I still have some left.

Thank you, Kerian, for showing us those cool new tools! (I am out of touch.)

You're welcome! I really thought more people knew about them. I've mentioned them on LT before. I guess it's been awhile.

I'm so out of the loop, you know. ;-)

#76: Alright I'll try...and how do you take those pill bugs? my doctor hasn't metioned them....

I'm sure MrA will explain. I seem to remember a pill bug picture he once posted...

#87: Ok, I'll believe him and not my regular doctor coz everything I read on the internet must be true ;) and another question are the pill bugs like Tylenolflies or advilroaches?

ETA: fixed a typo

They're more like acetaminophenopods.

Statins (Cholesterol lowering drugs) also lower your ability to make vitamin D.

Does anyone know what can raise your blood pressure?

Stress.

ETA: and Mr A

Huh. I need more stress. *ponders* You know, I have high stress naturally, but my blood pressure's low. We thought raising it would help my dizziness fade, but I don't think I want extra stress right now. The dizziness has sort of been stressing me out. ;)

KIK! Your poor blood pressure, Donna!

Kerian, for me it's coffee.
When I gave blood once without having my morning cuppa, my blood pressure was 90/60. And that was with a good breakfast. I barely met the minimum requirement for giving blood.

The next time, I had my coffee with my breakfast and it was 110/80. So when I say I'm almost dead without my coffee, I'm not kidding.

The Guinness Book of World Records is the book that has been stolen more times than any other book from library's.

So does the fact that the book is the one which is stolen the most make a New Guinness worl record? 8)

k, salt. the other thing would be to get some cardiovascular exercise. something that raises your heart-rate. I know that's harder with your back, but maybe biking or swimming.

Coffee, salt, and swimming. Thanks!

Not all at once, though.

KIK! It's a good thing I wasn't drinking coffee just now, either.

K - have you actually gotten your blood pressure checked or are you assuming it is low blood pressure? It's always a good idea to get your iron levels checked if you are feeling dizzy and light headed (I only know this from experience).

also your blood sugar

#101 Donna:
I assume it's low since low is normal for me, but my mother wondered if it was extra low lately having to do with dizziness. She was concerned about how dizzy I was when I'd get up in the morning. I think it's going away, though. I got up just fine today. I'll make a note of iron levels, though.

#102 polly:
That one I know about. :)

low hydration levels can also make you dizzy and contribute to low blood pressure.

And spinning. Spinning can make you dizzy.

I knew I shouldn't have pre-paid for those Spinning classes at the gym!

And vampires. Vampires can contribute to low blood pressure.

Speaking of vampires...they now make Twilight perfume, which is supposed to look like blood. I'm of the opinion that this is going way too far with obsession...of course, since the books are in some ways about unhealthy obsessions...

It doesn't smell like blood, does it?

Apparently it smells like lavender and freesia.

I think I'd rather it smelt like blood....

#108: Bib is that the perfume? I'm asking coz my brothers and I bought that perfume (Nina by Nina Ricci) for my mom during christmas.....Sooo if I raise the price and sell it to a crazy Twilight fan then I will make a ton of money.....

Yep, it's being repackaged with Twilight movie junk all over it.

Only because I don't know where else to post this and it kind of made me laugh....

In the book I just finished there was actually a character named Espy. It was short for Esperanza and one of my Latina friends told me that that's actually a pretty common nickname (except in Spanish it's usually pronounced Es-pay).

It seems no matter what I do or read there is some reminder of the wonderful world of the HE! :)

The last ER book I got had a dog named "Cullen"
Needless to say everytime it mentioned the dog I started thinking about Twilight and got very distracted.

#107 MrA:
Of course! Why didn't I think of that? It must be the reason. The millions of spiders that kirby says are under my bed aren't spiders at all. It's a vampire that's under my bed.
*crosses her fingers that it's Edward Cullen*
KIDDING!

#111 LadyN:
Are you so sure? ;)

#112 Ron:
Smart thinking!

#114 el:
I'm trying to figure out which book it was you were reading now. I think I've read three books that the main character had that name.

#115 mindy:
Because of the punctuation quiz and that I was wearing a Twilight t-shirt the other day ("Bella" is spelled out with a swan beside the name), I started thinking about 'Cullen' as in colon. ;)

Haha... now I'm going to keep thinking that K!

Dr. Suess coined the word nerd in his book If I ran the circus.

#116 - The book was Elisha's Bones - (which refuses to touchstone). What other books have had Espy in them??

#119 el:
I wish I could remember the book titles! One is a children's book. There's a picture of a girl in a beautiful Mexican skirt that someone, I believe her mother, makes for her. Maybe foggi knows what it is. I would recognize it if I saw the cover.

Another is a book that was required reading for accelerated English at the high school in my city and had been challenged by parents who wanted to ban it. It's a nonfiction book that begins in Mexico and perhaps ends in New York. It tells the story of a girl growing up with many siblings in a poor family. Some of the time she seems to be with only one or two family members as the parents are apart and the family is slowly moved around different places. The main character rarely goes by the name Esperanza but usually different nicknames. It's a beautiful story. I'll have to ask my mother or sister what the title is. They've both read it, too.

I believe the one book whose author and title I can actually recall is Sandra Cisneros's Woman Hollering Creek.

Oooo, I think I've heard of that book K. Except I read the other one that the same author has written.

Ok, check this out. Apparently, there's this woman in California that gave birth to octuplets (all alive, all still alive) and already has 6 other kids at home. How's that for amazing huh?

totally amazing!

Whoa that's a lot of kids!

Okay, this is kinda gross. Did you know there was someone who died from pooping? There was an inmate that pooped on the floor. Then, after a little while he slipped on it and hit his head. That's crappy.
(hehe. pun.)

What a stinky way to go

Um. Technically, he didn't die from pooping, he died from improper potty training.

But if he hadn't pooped it wouldn't have been on the floor and he wouldn't have slipped in it and bumped his head and he'd be walking around today in his cell saying "Boy ,this stinks!"

*blatant attempt to change the subject*

In a study that looked at the happiness of nearly 5000 individuals over a period of twenty years, researchers found that when an individual becomes happy, the network effect can be measured up to three degrees. One person's happiness triggers a chain reaction that benefits not only their friends, but their friends' friends, and their friends' friends' friends. The effect lasts for up to one year.

ScienceDaily December 5, 2008

You're welcome. :o)

#127 that's pretty neato

cool I have made thousands happy

#129 oh! mom. Those weren't smiling people those were people grimacing in pain.

are you mad at me dear?

NOPE feeling pretty good actually
why?

just wondered

#121 pocolina:
Did you read The House on Mango Street? I read it for nineth grade English. Woman Hollering Creek was one I read on my own.

#127 JP:
Thanks for your smiley face as well. It may have brightened the friends of your friends as well. ;)
...An entire year! I wouldn't have guessed. That's pretty amazing.

So the variety of ecstatic posts, emails and phone calls I've made in the last 5 hours have given hundreds of people happiness? AWESOME!

The House on Mango Street is the third book I've encountered this week with Mango in the title.

The others were A Mango-Shaped Space and Monique and the Mango Rains.

K: No, I haven't read those. The one book I was talking about was the Esperanza thing. Would the title be Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz Ryan? Cuz if it is, then I've read Becoming Naomi Leon which is about a Mexican girl who lives in the US but then goes to Mexico and finds her father (she lives with her granny it think) and her father wants to take her and her brother back or something. Can't remember it very well.

Wow, I've been writing long posts tonight.

#136 el:
Glad to have helped you find at least one of them :)

#137 picolina:
I considered that after playing with touchstones but none of the bookcovers are right.

121> Apperently that lady isnt married, doesnt have a boyfriend, she lives with her mom and dad, they all live in a 3 roomed house, and she had all those kids so she could sell her story like that show Jon and Kate plus 8. No one in the household works except for the ladys dad and he has some long distant job in Iraq so hes not home for 6 months at a time. How sick is that? The lady wont do any interviews until she knows who is paying her.

Wow. There are easier ways to make a buck.

Like putting a dead finger in you french fries from Wendy's.

yesssss... a dead finger... that's where i went wrong.

Um - aren't you meant to be on the road?

It was a post for the road.

ROFL!!! I really need to stay up all night. Look at all I miss.

#120 Was it Esperanza Rising?
Never mind. Pico beat me to it. I'm pretty sure that's the plot to the book.

I loved Esperanza Rising. My 5th grade teacher let me borrow it so I could read it and I loved it. I just forget most of the story because it's been so long. But it's in my TBR pile.

I just learned that I never knew the last line of the chorus of The Devil Went Down to Georgia. (Take that, grammar police!)

And now I do know it.

Next I will learn the lyrics to King of Pain.