1. Each king in a deck of cards represents a great king from history: Spades - King David, Hearts - Charlemagne, Clubs - Alexander, the Great Diamonds - Julius Caesar
3. If a statue in the park of a person on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle. If the horse has one front leg in the air the person died as a result of wounds received in battle. If the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes.
4. Only two people signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4th, John Han**** and Charles Thomson. Most of the rest signed on August 2, but the last signature wasn't added until 5 years later. 5.It was the accepted practice in Babylon 4,000 years ago that for a month after the wedding, the bride's father would supply his son-in-law with all the mead he could drink. Mead is a honey beer and because their calendar was lunar based, this period was called the honey month we know today as the honeymoon.
6.In the heyday of sailing ships, all war ships and many freighters carried iron cannons. Those cannons fired round iron cannon balls. It was necessary to keep a good supply near the cannon, but they had to find a way to prevent them from rolling about the deck. The best storage method devised was a square based pyramid with one ball on top, resting on four resting on nine, which rested on sixteen. Thus, a supply of 30 cannon balls could be stacked in a small area right next to the cannon.
There was only one problem...how to prevent the bottom layer from sliding or rolling from under the others. The solution was a metal plate called a "Monkey" with 16 round indentations. But, if this plate were made of iron, the iron balls quickly would rust to it. The solution to the rusting problem was to make "Brass Monkeys."
Few landlubbers realized that brass contracts much more and much faster than iron when chilled. Consequently, when the temperature dropped too far, the brass indentations would shrink so much that the iron cannon balls would come right off the monkey.
Thus, it was quite literally, "Cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey".
7. Months that begin on a Sunday will always have a "Friday the 13th."
8. A ducks quack has no echo
9. Sherlock Holmes NEVER said "Elementary, my dear Watson", Humphrey Bogart NEVER said "Play it again, Sam" in Casablanca, James Cagney NEVER said "You dirty rat" in any of his movies and they NEVER said "Beam me up, Scotty" on Star Trek
10. The emu and the kangaroo cannot walk backward. One of the reasons why they appear on the Australian coat-of-arms. They represent progress and an unwillingness to back down
10. The emu and the kangaroo cannot walk backward. One of the reasons why they appear on the Australian coat-of-arms. They represent progress and an unwillingness to back down
no more binks
