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 |  One hundred facts that are interesting but ultimately useless. |
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presenting: A Catalogue of Useless Facts - introduction - Whether I'm at work or out with friends, I have a reputation as the person who knows things. Not useful things, mind you; not once has it been profitable to know the reason why dogs have wet noses, or the meaning of the linguistic term "glottal stop", or the difference between a bug and an insect. If anything, all the aimless wandering on Wikipedia keeps me from finishing my other writing projects. But there is a purpose to this eclectic mishmash of trivia, and it ties into my own major philosophy: stuff is interesting. The world is often rough and depressing, but if I can find one neat little factoid, everything seems a little less meaningless. And this brings us to the point of this blog. Lately, it feels like my various newsfeeds are full to bursting with anger and bickering. As a generally positive person, I wanted to counteract this in some way -- only I'm not so adept with inspirational quotes or pithy wisdom. What I can offer, though, are useless facts. Over the past few months, instead of filing these accidental info-bits in some dusty corner of my brain, I've been taking notes. Before long, I had enough for a solid month of trivia. I collected a few more and thought instead I'd do a "Factoid Friday" every week for a year. But I'm a curious person by nature, and can't help but stumble on new things. Maybe I'm eating lunch one day, I suddenly wonder where ketchup comes from, and bam! I learn something new! So here come the facts. They may be short, or they may be long. They may cover language, biology, history, mythology, or any number of other subjects. Many of you may know some of these, and some of you may know many of these. But hopefully, at least once between now and the time my collection runs dry, you'll be inspired to say, "Huh! That's actually kind of interesting!" -BD Mitchell Blog is currently on hiatus. Blog Info ▼ Categories ▼
Comments, corrections, and suggestions are welcome at all times! |
"Hors d'oeuvre" - cuisine / etymology - The term "hors d'oeuvre" (a smaller food item usually served before the main meal) is comprised of three French words: "hors" ("outside" -- from Latin "foris" and a cognate of "foreign"), "de" ("of" or "from"), and "oeuvre" ("work" -- from Latin "opera" and cognate of "opus"). An hors d'oeuvre is literally something "outside of the work", and figuratively something prepared separately from the official courses of a meal. #090 |
| Cold Welding - physics - "Cold welding" is a process by which pure, non-ferrous metal can be fused to itself without the need for torches or solder. In a vacuum, when the target metal is subjected to enough pressure, the atoms will no longer differentiate between separate objects and will bond as if part of a single, continuous mass. Cold welding is practically impossible in an atmosphere, as the outer layer of most metals will oxidize and form a barrier. #089 |
Mondegreens - linguistics - A "mondegreen" is a linguistic phenomenon mainly associated with songs or spoken poetry. Coined by American author Sylvia Wright, the effect relies on a listener mishearing a line of a poem or a song lyric -- often due to garbling or other poor sound quality -- and then replacing the words with a reasonable alternative. Wright credits a Scottish ballad for the term, the first stanza of which ends with: "They hae slain the Earl o' Moray, And laid him on the green." As a child, though, Wright misunderstood the lines to read: "They hae slain the Earl o' Moray, And Lady Mondegreen." Perhaps a more famous example is the Iron Butterfly song "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida", whose title is a mondegreen for the originally intended title, "In The Garden of Eden". #088 |
"Sheriff" - etymology - The word "sheriff" is a compound of "shire" (Old English "scir", meaning "county" or "province") and "reeve" ("gerefa", meaning "steward"). A sheriff was originally an official who managed a territory on behalf of the ruling monarch. #087 |
| QWERTY - history / technology - There are several theories behind the original design of "QWERTY", the leading layout for Western typewriters and keyboards. The spread of the letters may have been intended to slow typists and protect the fragile equipment. The fact that the keys required for the word "typewriter" all sit on the same row could allow salesmen to impress prospective buyers with a quick demonstration. A new keyboard layout would have helped the inventors to dodge existing patents. The most widely-accepted reason, however, is that QWERTY was intended to separate letters commonly used in sequence, as two neighboring keys pressed simmultaneously had a high chance of jamming. While the advent of electronic keyboards has rendered this problem extinct, QWERTY remains the industry standard mainly due to inertia. #086 |
Malapropisms - linguistics - A "malapropism" is a linguistic effect where a speaker might replace one word in a phrase or sentence with a different word with a similar sound. In a true malapropism, the new word has a vastly different definition than the intended word, resulting in a phrase with no clear meaning. The term "malapropism" derives from "Mrs. Malaprop", a character in a 1775 play by British playwright Richard Brinsley Sheridan; the character would frequently utter nonsense phrases like "illiterate him quite from your memory" (instead of the intended "obliterate"). A few recent examples include "lavatories of innovation" (instead of "laboratories") and "electrical votes" (instead of "electoral"). Similar to a malapropism is an "eggcorn", which also features a soundalike replacement. Unlike a malapropism, however, an eggcorn will still make some degree of sense in context. Examples include "feeble position" (instead of "fetal position"), "bold-faced lie" (instead of "bald-faced lie"), and "eggcorn" itself (instead of "acorn"). #085 |
| The Caduceus - mythology / symbology - The Caduceus (a symbol depicting a winged staff encircled by two serpents) frequently appears as a medical emblem in the United States. This is considered an error, as the Caduceus was traditionally a sign of Hermes, the Greek god of messengers, thieves, tricksters, and travelers. It is often confused for the Staff of Asclepius, which portrays a single snake winding around an un-winged staff. As Asclepius was perhaps the most famous healer in Ancient Greece, his staff is arguably a more appropriate symbol for the field of medicine. This confusion may be due in part to the Caduceus' usage by early printers as an industry logo, likely a reference to Hermes' role as a messenger. By the 19th century in the United States, the symbol was largely associated with publishers of medical journals, and by extension the medical field in whole. #084 |
"Clone" - etymology - The term "clone" (referring to an identical copy -- especially a genetic copy of an organism) derives from the Ancient Greek word "klōn", meaning "twig". In the original context, it referred to a horticultural technique of growing a new tree or plant from a small piece (i.e. a twig) of an existing adult tree or plant. #083 |
"Robot" - etymology / literature / theatre - The first known usage of the term "robot" (referring to a programmable automated machine) is the 1920 play "R.U.R." ("Rossumovi Univerzalni Roboti", or "Rossum's Universal Robots"). Written by Czech author Karel Capek, the play features artificially-made humanlike workers called "roboti" who begin as little more than appliances, but end up overthrowing their makers and destroying nearly every human on the planet. The robots of "R.U.R." were not mechanical like later variations. They were still synthetically made, but with a mostly-organic makeup more akin to a clone than the modern idea of an automaton. The term itself comes from the Czech word "robota", meaning "serf labor" or "tedious work". #082 |
Panda Diets - biology - Despite a few adaptations, the giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) derives very little nutrients from its principle diet of bamboo. Though the panda is herbivorous in practice, its relatively-short digestive tract is more similar to a carnivore. It relies on intestinal microbes, a massive daily intake (20-30 lbs, or 9-14 kg), and a mainly sedentary lifestyle to survive on the nutrient-poor, cellulose-heavy bamboo. #081 |
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Initial posting ran from January 1 to April 10, 2017.
And as the sunsets, we bid adieu to Mitch the Elder 
Thank you for such a fun read.
Cool! I saw one once and wondered what on earth is was!!