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During the French Revolution, being guillotined was referred to as ‘being given the patriotic haircut’, ‘sticking your head through the cat-flap’, ‘poking through the window’, and ‘sneezing into the basket’.
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The first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary included the word ‘cock’, but excluded ‘condom’. The male genitals were not considered taboo, but contraception was a subject ‘too utterly obscene for the Dictionary’.
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Ethiopian languages have a punctuation mark for sarcasm. It is called ‘temherte slaq’ and looks like an inverted exclamation mark.
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Word of the Day: VILLAINSPLAINING (neologism) — endless monologuing by a movie baddie about the specifics of their evil scheme.
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For every degree of global heating, there is a 12% increase in lightning strikes.
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Pond Square, North London is said to be haunted by a chicken that Francis Bacon tried to preserve in ice in 1626.
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"That seems to point up a significant difference between Europeans and Americans. A European says: 'I can't understand this, what's wrong with me?' An American says: 'I can't understand this, what's wrong with him?'" TERRY PRATCHETT
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In 2011, the Romanian government started requiring witches pay taxes on their earnings.
Witches promptly cursed the government.
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In 1850, a cult gave 600 acres in Pennsylvania to God.
It was later repossessed by the state because God did not pay his taxes.
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Word of the day: ROGITATE - to ask the same question over and over again; particularly beloved of toddlers
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In the 16th century, Danish king Christian IV required captains of ships passing by Denmark to pay taxes.
They were allowed to declare their cargo at whatever value they chose, without further audit, but the king reserved the right to buy the cargo at that price.
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On average, tall people are smarter than short people.
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Word of the day: BARAGOUINER (French) - to speak a language extremely badly
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In 1871, lawyer Clement Vallandigham was defending a client accused of murder.
In demonstrating how the victim might have accidentally shot himself, he accidentally shot himself.
He died. His client was acquitted.
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"In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is." JAN VAN DE SNEPSCHEUT
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A FIT OF THE CLEVERS is 19th-century Scots for a sudden burst of activity when you realise how much work you have to do.
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The gravestone of Merv Griffin, a talk show host and the creator of TV shows ‘Jeopardy!’ and ‘Wheel of Fortune’, says ‘I will not be right back after this message’. [📷: Ben Churchill.]
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Research shows that heterosexual men who learn to play extreme metal guitar are mostly motivated to do so in order to impress other heterosexual men.
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Word of the Day: CERVANTHROPY — a delusional belief that you are a deer.
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When Prince officially changed his name to an unpronounceable symbol in 1992, Warner Brothers had to send floppy disks containing a new font to the press so that they could type the artist’s name. (Image: @anildash)
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Word of the day: HOMOPHOBIAPHOBIA - fear or dislike of homophobes
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Unhappy people tend to daydream about the past, but happy people tend to daydream about the future.
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A study of 7000 US adults has found that after the COVID-19 pandemic, people have become less extroverted and less agreeable.
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The oldest known D20 is from 300 BCE.
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A SKUNKED TERM is a word that is difficult to use because it is transitioning from one meaning to another.
For instance, "it's all downhill from here" once meant "to become easier" but is now widely used to mean "to become more difficult".
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A Quite Interesting Twitter feed from the team behind the BBC TV show QI.
linktr.ee/TheQIElves