Irrelevant but interesting facts

These are very irrelevant, but I thought they were slightly interesting.

1. The Dutch word for eleven is elf.

2. The Dutch word for father is vader.

3. Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin were born on the same day of the same year; February 12, 1809. (interesting to compare the vastly different lives of these two very influencial historical figures)

Think of some more.

I'm a fountain of useless information. Today, I pointed out to a friend drinking Dr. Pepper that the drink got its name from the inventor's ex-girlfriend's father. Apparently he was a bit of a snob, and wouldn't let his daughter marry a poor soda salesman who never did anything worthwhile. The salesman invented a new drink, named it after the father, and when it became famous, Dr. Pepper decided that maybe he'd let his daughter marry the inventory after all. Strange but true!

I have many more, but I can't think of anything particularly interesting offhand.

If only I had a copy of L.M. Boyd's book "Boyd's Book of Odd Facts", I'd rule this thread. I would check the paper, but he retired last week.

I thought Dr. Pepper was named after the inventor who was a chemist.

Elf is eleven in German, too!

I am the reigning champion of German-class useless knowledge! (Not useless knowledge in German, but a contest between me and my classmate Sean through the use of useless-knowledge quizzes. I'm currenly about to be creamed when he makes up the next test)

--Capybaras are the only mammals that may be eaten during Lent
--Freya is the Norse goddess of love
--The cases in Latin are nominative, accusative, genitive, dative, ablative, and vocative (correct me if I'm wrong on that one, please)
--Constantine saw a flaming cross
--"tashi-delek" is Tibetan for "hello"

Those were some of the more interesting ones that I can remember

-The cases in Latin are nominative, accusative, genitive, dative, ablative, and vocative (correct me if I'm wrong on that one, please)

Well, as a Latin semi-expert (I've taken it for three years, and am fairly fluent), you're right, but the vocative is very rarely used. It's basically the same as the nominative, with a few exceptions. There's also the rarely used locative, but I won't get into that now.

The "Baby Ruth" candy bar wasn't named after the baseball player, but after President Grover Cleveland's baby daughter Ruth.

The popsical was going to be named the Epsical.

epsical......a frozen Eskomo?

kiwi fruit used to be called chinease goose berries

I just seared an eye of round roast in a hot skillet, seasoned it with garlic and onion salt and soy sauce and Liquid Smoke, pricked it and stuffed it with dried garlic, placed it in a crockpot with cream of mushroom soup and Knorr's Leek Soup mix, made a gravy from the skillet s****ings with some water and some heavy cream, poured the gravy over the roast, and turned the crockpot on "HIGH."

I am also hungry.

Sounds good!

Now I'm hungry too This thread reminds me of Cliff from Cheers Must go eat now.

Interstates in the US that run east and west are even numbers. Interstates running north and south are odd numbers. Two didit numbers run through cities, triple digits run around cities.

And Gil, no more talking about food without a warning next time (kinda like we do for spoilers). I just had dinner, yet I am hungry again.

[c] FOOD WARNING!!!![/c]

I nuked some vegetables, too. Green Giant's brocolli spears in butter and some canned sweet corn.

My secret to microwave cooking is to ignore the directions.

One small puncture or cut on the top face of the bag to release steam (and prevent messy explosions) and you can cut the time by two minutes.

I poured the corn in a bowl with garlic & onion salts and lots of butter. The bowl was placed in a plastic supermarket bag (which was closed and tucked underneath). This also traps a lot of steam and cuts down on lengthy microwave cooking times! (How's that for impatient, not to mention cheap?)

(Be careful removing the bagged bowl! HOT STEAM!!!!)

Store brand crescent rolls were rolled and placed on some aluminum foil in a preheated 400' F oven for about 10 minutes. (Excellent for sopping gravy!)

The Mrs felt the need to ingest two of her carbohydrate blocking herb pills before this feast, but was mighty glad she did! (Less guilt. Personally, I think the entire diet and clothing industry is a farce. Snake oil salesmen and fashion designers who prefer women who look like boys! Not a red-blooded Hobbit in the bunch!)

I hope you have found these facts interesting, and perhaps not completely irrelevant!

-Canada has been voted the best place in the world to live for 7 years in a row (unless there has been another vote which I haven't heard of.)

-Though bested in model of fighter plane, the Canadian pilots have always beaten the American pilots at mock dog-fighting competitions.

-Canadians don't live in igloos, and not all of us speak french, have a french accent, and we don't say "eh" every second word.

-One of my ancestors was consultant to Mary Queen of Scots, she didn't listen to him. It was because she did't listen that the whole persecution of the church happened, and she got into trouble.

-Another ancestor was a Scottish Earl, and a third the Scottish Marquis of Montrose. Some of us lived in Mugdock Castle, which was burned by the Campbells, though some of it still stands and is in a park in Scotland.

I don't believe the dogfighting one.

Nor do I believe that most Canadians don't say 'eh.

they don't, eh?

It's more or less a replacement for "Hey".

As in, I'm walking out in the snowdrifts, when I see someone I know.

Me: "Eh."
Them: "Eh."
Me: "This snow sucks, eh?"
Them: "Yeah."

Yes but see, no one says, "this snow sucks, hey". I say "hey" a lot when I am speaking, but I've never used "hey" at the end of a sentence.

To be honest, I like hearing people say , "eh".....I think it is cute for some strange reason.

Not all Californians say "like" in almost every sentence either, but the percentage is pretty high...

Another fact: My roommate is listening to very strange music, but I'm polite so I won't tell her so.