And now : some ironies and funnies from life in general and the English language that we learned from the Internet. Some of these facts may make you say, “I didn’t know that!” And then you can immediately forget them:
- The word “listen” contains the same letters as the word “silent.”
- Funny oxymorons (a figure if speech in which opposite or contradictory ideas or terms are combined):
Open secret; found missing; small crowd; pretty ugly; original copy; ill health;
clearly misunderstood; sad smile; peace force (so often used in the Middle East);
and one of my favorites – deafening silence. - How do you make the number one disappear? Add a ‘g’ and it’s gone.
- The word ‘robot’ comes from the Czech word ‘robotnik’ meaning slave.
- ‘Nice’ is derived from the Latin “nescius” which meant ignorant, unaware or ‘not knowing’.
And you thought it meant cute or pretty. - The word ‘gauze’ is derived from Gaza (!) because this ancient city was known for making
very fine fabrics. - The name ‘gorilla’ is derived from the Greek ‘Gorillai’ meaning the ‘tribe of hairy women.’
- The word ‘wedding’ originates from the Anglo-Saxon word ‘wedd’ which meant a wager or
gamble. (Ho-boy! Isn’t that the truth!) - Of the more than 170,000 words in English 1,700 were invented by Shakespeare.
Not only were Donald Trump, George W. Bush, and Bill Clinton born in the same year…they were also born in consecutive months. - The sun can fit about a million Earths inside it.
- In a deck of cards, every king except for the king of hearts has a mustache.
- The lint that collects in the bottom of your pockets has a name — gnurr.
- Beethoven and George Washington were alive at the same time — in fact, George Washington was in his 40s when Beethoven was born. (There’s one to wow your musical friends.)
- There are more public libraries than McDonald’s in the US. (There’s hope for the education system yet.
- Every odd number has something in common: every odd number has an “e” in it.
- German chocolate cake is named after a guy named Sam German, not the country.
- The creature that kills the most people every year isn’t snakes, sharks, or even other humans — it’s the mosquito.
- There is an island in the Bahamas that’s inhabited only by swimming pigs.
- There are lower-case numbers in addition to lower-case letters. (But I don’t know what they look like.)
- There are trees that can grow more than one kind of fruit, and they’re called fruit salad trees.
- T-shirts were originally marketed to unmarried men who didn’t know how to sew buttons back on collared shirts by themselves.
My friends, I could go on and on. But I’ll stop here before I put you all to sleep. Below, on the next page, are our usual notes about things you should know. And with that I’ll sign off for the moment. Have a great 2025 and may we all have good tidings!