That sounds like a great slang term for a Singles Bar.
Yesterday I learned that it’s a lot harder to get detergent out of a washing machine than it is to pour it in. It wouldn’t start because apparently the water sensor was broken or something.
I just learned there’s a Las Vegas, New Mexico. It predates that other one in Nevada by about 70 years.
Also, 1 in 5 Koreans have the surname “Kim.” For most of Korean history only the aristocracy had surnames, and they adopted surnames that suggested their families originated in China. Around the 10th century commoners began to take surnames, and they emulated their social betters by taking their “noble” names, which at the time were dominated by “Kim” and “Park.” Later “Choi” and “Lee” became prominent.
I recently learned why, a few years ago, issues of Popular Mechanics mysteriously began appearing in my mailbox. Now, I suppose it shouldn’t have been all that hard to work out that a snafu involving my similarly named father’s subscription was the reason. I had always assumed that someone had bought me a gift subscription, albeit someone who doesn’t really know me that well, because nothing about my behavior especially suggests that Popular Mechanics would be the mag for me.
But did you know that this used to be quite the problem in finding a suitable marriage mate?
Please, God, don’t open this wound again.
That’s weird. I thought he chose 119 because it’s the emergency fire number in Afghanistan.
Stopped into a church
I passed along the way
Got down on my knees
And I pretend to pray
?? Why the change in tense? I’m sticking with “began” if only because it’s grammatical. And it doesn’t make a lot of sense as “pretend”. I guess the 60s were a crazy time.
I recently learned the noise my Yorkie makes is not a snort or a snore…but a reverse burp! Hmm!
Actually, the word “condor” comes from a native Peruvian language - Quechua - ‘kuntur’ which was used to describe the Andean Condor. When European naturalists arrived in the 1700s, they classified the Andean Condor and the California Condor in the same genus, Vultur. In the mid-1800s, the common name of the California Condor became more frequently used than the earlier ‘California Vulture,’ or ‘Royal Vulture.’
While it’s possible this shift in terminology is due to the rarity and an attempt to protect the bird, it’s classification and similarities with the Andean Condor may be enough to explain the name change - this is only 60 years after the birds were described. Conservation efforts to protect the California Condor were not common at the time, but by 70 years later in the 1920s it would be recognized that the population was less than 100 birds. By 1987 it would be extinct in the wild and only revived through a breeding program in captivity. It may be that the timing of the name change is too early to explain by using conservation motives.
I got a text today that mentioned “water bears” (Tardigrades). I’d never heard of these, so Googled. Absolutely fascinating indestructible little creatures that probably everyone knows about except me.
Can’t imagine how they escaped my attention for so long.
I learned about those things from the Cat in the Hat cartoon when my daughter was about 2 years old!
http://www.mainestatemuseum.org/exhibits/malaga_island_fragmented_lives_-_educational_materials/explore_malaga_island/the_history/
I learned about this ,I saw it on Chronicle a few days ago.
I adore tardigrades (before they were cool.)
I have a friend who does biologically accurate marine art. He has a piece called “life in a drop of pond water” which features a tardigrade, and which I have framed in my bathroom. He also wrote an illustrated children’s book for his son about a tardigrade who wears a little backpack and explorer’s cap.
I learned yesterday of the existence – in British English anyway – of the word “widdy”, meaning a hangman’s rope. It’s somewhat old-fashioned, and colloquial-ish; but it’s allowed in Scrabble.
I just learned about vinegaroons thanks to a reference in a SD BBQ Pit post. Rather cool member of the arachnid family.
Listening to music one enjoys releases dopamine into your blood steam.
It makes sense, but I just hadn’t thought of it in that way before.
However, one can “overdose” on a particular song. When Cream put out *Sunshine of *your Love, it was a huge hit and I really enjoyed listening to it, but I heard it the other day and it didn’t feel like I got even a small drop of dopamine.
The best is when one hasn’t heard a certain song that you really enjoyed in the past and suddenly it comes on. It seems to release an extraordinary amount of dopamine. The latest case for me was not hearing Hold Me Now, the 1984 hit by the Thompson Twins for years. Gave me a good rush.
Vitamin C didn’t survive in Lime Juice. The British continued to have problems with scrurvy until they started using steam ships (which required frequent port stops to refuel).
“Lime” was a language misunderstanding: it was a word which was used to describe what we would call a lemon. “Acid” was just ignorance: at the time, scientists didn’t understand that there was a difference between ascorbic acid (vitamin C) and acetic acid (vinegar). The lime cordial provided to the sailors was prepared by ??? boiling ??? the limes, which destroyed the vitamin C.
The Irish IRA in the '70s too. We used to get Irish youth here in Aus on working visas. One of the reasons for comeing to Aus on a working visa was because you’d come to the attention of the security services, and wanted to go somewhere else with less heat. Another reason was because you’d been dealing dope without being a member of the IRA, and wanted to go somewhere with less heat…
Blue whales and fin whales are well known. What is a blue finned whale?