Not Sweating the Small Stuff

Aetiology of Some Well-Known Phrases and Some Curious Facts

1. The Scottish game that was originally for 'Gentlemen Only, Ladies Forbidden' became known as 'Golf'.

2. Coca Cola was originally green.

3. It's (supposedly) impossible to lick your elbow. But can you, without dislocating your shoulder?

4. First novel written on a typewriter was 'Tom Sawyer'.

5. The kings in a set of playing cards represent real people - spades King David, hearts Charlemagne, clubs Alexander the Great, and diamonds Julius Caesar. And so called in a French deck - David, Charles, Alexandre and César.

6. Half of all Americans live within 50 miles of their birthplace.

7. If you spell out numbers from zero, you'd need to get to 'one thousand' before you'd find the letter 'A'.

8. The only food that doesn't spoil is honey.

9. The expression 'sleep tight' comes from the time of Shakespeare, when mattresses were secured onto beds with ropes, and, to make the bed firmer, you tightened these ropes.

10. 4000 years ago in Babylon, the bride's parents supplied the groom with mead, a honey-based beer, for a month after the wedding - so the 'honeymoon'.


So guys, which of the ten do you like best?

And how bout the elbow lick thing? Bet you tried to as you read that so-called 'fact!'