Did You Know? (8-24-07)

• The term, “It’s all fun and games until someone loses an eye” is from Ancient Rome. The only rule during wrestling matches was, “No eye gouging.” Everything else was allowed, but the only way to be disqualified is to poke someone’s eye out. (Unfortunately progesterone wasn’t available in Ancient Rome, so if you lost the match, you were still prone to eye gouging from the wife.)

• Jethro Tull is not the name of the rock singer/flautist responsible for such songs as “Aqualung” and “Thick as a Brick.” Jethro Tull is the name of the band. The singer is Ian Anderson. The original Jethro Tull was an English horticulturalist who invented the seed drill.

• Studies show that if a cat falls off the seventh floor of a building it has about thirty percent less chance of surviving than a cat that falls off the twentieth floor. It supposedly takes about eight floors for the cat to realize what is occurring, relax and correct itself. At about that height it hits maximum speed and when it hits the ground it’s rib cage absorbs most of the impact. (Don’t try this. Just take our word for it.)

• Ivory bar soap floating was a mistake. They had been over-mixing the soap formula causing excess air bubbles that made it float. Customers wrote and told how much they loved that it floated, and it has floated ever since.

• “Freelance” comes from a knight whose lance was free for hire, (i.e. not pledged to one master.)

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