did you know the elephant shrew never closes it’s eyes
true or false?
did you know rats can’t be sick…
true or false??
did you know there’s no proper name for the back of the knees?
true or false?
Charles R. of Centralia, WA researched this question and reportedly found it to be false.
Nah, definitely false. See rat bacterial diseases, infectious agents of rats, and a few hundred other pages. Ever hear of a “lab rat”? If they couldn’t get sick, they’d be pretty useless as laboratory animals. Especially for testing the toxicity of things–“Well, we fed the new Arsenic-O’s breakfast cereal to rats, and they were OK, so go ahead and ship it to the grocery stores”.
He probably means that rats can’t vomit, which I was skeptical of the first time I heard it, but have heard confirmed more than once from decent-seeming sources. They can certainly get diseases and display other symptoms.
The inability of rats to vomit is why some sorts of poisons are particularly effective on them.
The original meaning of the word ham was “the back of the knee.” This meaning is now archaic, and the word more often means the thigh or the back of the thigh. The American Heritage Dictionary uses the phrase the ham of the knee.
In an old medical dictionary, I found poples (plural poplites) that means “the back of the knee,” but you won’t find it in most dictionaries. The adjective form popliteal is in most good dictionaries.
Rat & Mouse Gazette says
ok you chaps seem to know your stuff…
looks like i’ll have to think of something else…
chin chin…
I’ve always used the term ‘Kneepits’. My wife seemed amused. Maybe it’ll stick. Then again, how often do you need to refer to your kneepits?
Wasn’t there an episode of Ally McBeal that discussed kneepits? I think Ling’s were an erogenous zone for her…
This is not the “stump the teeming millions” forum! This is for legitimate questions you want answered. Kindly post this sort of stuff in MPSIMS next time.
Twenty three years later, I am here to tell you… @mescalito was referencing Viv Stanshall’s “Sir Henry At Rawlinson End”.