I was looking through one of my kids’ library books recently (I was bored and the kids were in bed, so they couldn’t mock me) about great inventions throughout the history of mankind. On one of the pages it mentions that the person that invented the first seed-drill was Jethro Tull. That was a strange moment, because I had always associated that name with Aqualung and Lcomotive Breath, not 17th century gentleman farmers.
Although you have to admit: with that wig, the original Jethro would have fit right into a 70’s rock group.
So, does anyone else have any things they learned recently that really surprised them?
I learned the origins of Jethro Tull’s name (the band) back in the days when you could still buy their albums on vinyl.
Jethro Tull had a rather rough start as a band. They were doing so miserably that they would constantly change their name so that the club owners wouldn’t recognize them and would hire them. While going through one of these many name changes, their agent (who had studied history) came up with the name Jethro Tull.
To their surprise, someone finally called to tell them that they liked their sound and wanted them to play again. The band was like hey, that’s great. Who were we?
I learned recently that great northern beans are the beans inside green bean pods.
I was completely flummoxed by this information. And yet, I can’t explain what I thought I was eating when I was eating green beans if not the pod of a bean.
My brother and sister (twins) were five when they found out that lima beans don’t have mashed potatoes inside of them. When my daughter was three I realized that she thought the same thing. Weird.
Me, I am a big fan of eighties alternative music, and have been all along. I keep realizing that the words I “figured out” way back when were totally (and obviously) wrong when I hear the songs today. For example, I just figured out the line from the Tears for Fears song is “Turn your back on mother nature”. I had been singing “turn your back above the nature” for years. Don’t know why it never occurred to me that it made absolutely no sense, but I had been singing that way for what? Nearly twenty years? There are TONS of songs that I have accidentally rewritten.
The Cincinnati Reds’ stadium is called the Great American Ballpark. I thought that was just bragging until I went there. On the way to the ballpark, we walked past the Great American Insurance building. I asked a cop outside the park. He laughed, and said, “yes, the name came from the insurance company.”
By the way, it really is a fine American ballpark.
A jewish woman invented distilling, apparently. Source: L. Sprague DeCamp’s… The Great Engineers?
Never been able to find out more, always wondered how they knew. Her name may have been Mary.
That could be awkward…particularly for Mr. Span…
Not the most surprising things but two surprising things I learned here, this week:
You can’t go back to Bombay, boys
Been a long time gone has Bombay (well ten years anyway)
It Mumbia now, not Bombay
Why did Bombay get the works?
That’s nobodies business but the Shiv Sena.
And
Bananas are asexual. Couldn’t tell by looking at them!
