Uncle John’s 24-Karat Gold Bathroom Reader® (35 page)

“Opportunity is missed by most people because it comes dressed in overalls and looks like work.”

—
Thomas Edison

On hot days, a baseball travels farther than on cold days. (The air is thinner.)

MYTH-CONCEPTIONS

“Common knowledge” is frequently wrong. Here are some more examples of things that many people believe...but that, according to our sources, just aren’t true
.

M
yth:
Camels can go long periods without drinking water because they store extra water in their humps.
Truth:
The hump is a reservoir for fat, not water. In fact, a camel stores
most
of its body fat in its hump, unlike humans, who store it throughout their bodies. The lack of heat-trapping fat allows the camel to lose heat from the rest of its body without having to perspire, thus conserving water.

Myth:
The Statue of Liberty is in New York.

Truth:
It’s actually in New Jersey. The structure sits on Liberty Island, which is in New York Harbor, but technically within the territorial waters of Jersey City, New Jersey. An agreement between the two states gives New York control over—but not ownership of—Liberty Island. New York maintains the statue; New Jersey provides utility services.

Myth:
Panthers are a particular kind of wild cat.

Truth:
There is no species of cat called a panther. Leopards and jaguars that happen to have black coats are all labeled as “panthers.”

Myth:
Your ears sit on the outside of your head.

Truth:
Those things on the sides of your head are called
pinnae
, and they’re primarily made up of cartilage. Your ears are organs consisting of the inner ear, middle ear, and outer ear, some of which are inside your head. The pinnae enhance the hearing process by funneling sound to the inner ear. They also serve to protect the internal ear parts.

Myth:
Dixie, the nickname for the South, is derived from the Mason-Dixon Line, commonly thought to be the boundary between the North and the South.

The Olympic torch was carried to the top of Mt. Everest in 2008.

Truth:
There’s no evidence that Dixie is derived from Dixon (Mason and Dixon were two surveyors hired in the 1700s to settle a border dispute; their findings determined state lines later on). The term probably came from $10 bills issued in New Orleans in the mid-1800s that had the word
dix
printed on them. (
Dix
is French for “ten.”) The bills were nicknamed “dixies,” and the term caught on as shorthand for the whole of the South.

Myth:
White wine is made from green grapes, and red wine is made from red grapes.

Truth:
The color of wine doesn’t have much to do with the color of the grapes from which it was made—it has to do with how the skins are used. Both color grapes are used in winemaking, but if the skins are removed in the fermentation process, the wine turns out light-colored. If the skins are left on to ferment, the wine is redder.

Myth:
Legally speaking, murder is a premeditated act, while manslaughter is a crime committed in the heat of the moment.

Truth:
Murder isn’t always premeditated. Murder charges can be filed for a planned act of killing, but they can also be levied for a killing in the heat of the moment if it happened during the commission of another felony—shooting a guard during a bank robbery, for example. Manslaughter, on the other hand, is killing without malice (without intent to kill). Voluntary manslaughter
is
a heat-of-the-moment killing, such as self-defense or a crime of passion; it’s involuntary manslaughter if someone is killed while another, non-felony crime is being committed, such as misdemeanor reckless driving.

Myth:
Before you exercise or play a sport, you should stretch in order to prevent soreness and injuries.

Fact:
We’ve been told this ever since grade school, but recent findings have revealed that static stretching—in which you bend down and hold your toes for a length of time—will have little or no effect on how you perform or how you feel afterward. (If you stretch for too long, more than a minute, you could pull a muscle.) What your muscles need in order to warm up is movement—so wave your arms and run in place to get your blood flow going.

Pickles for the pickled? Polish hangover cure: dill pickle juice. German: pickled herring.

FAMILIAR PHRASES

Here are the origins of some common phrases
.

H
AVING KITTENS
Meaning:
To be extremely anxious
Origin:
“Dates back to the medieval belief in the power of witches. It was thought that witches could perform a spell on a pregnant woman by turning her baby into kittens that would scratch at her womb. It is possible to imagine the kind of fear that would have gripped the ‘victim’ in more superstitious times. However, as our superstitions have diminished, we have been left only with this strange image.” (From
March Hares and Monkeys’ Uncles
, by Harry Oliver.)

JUST DESERTS

Meaning:
A punishment or reward that is deserved

Origin:
“The phrase has its origins in the obsolete word ‘desert,’ meaning that which one deserves. In use since at least the 1300s, it is commonly seen in print as
just desserts
, as in the sweet final course of a meal. It is pronounced this way, but the spelling is incorrect.” (From
Exploring Idioms
, by Valeri R. Helterbran.)

GET THE SACK

Meaning:
To be fired from a job

Origin:
“In 17th-century France, mechanics traveling in quest of work carried their implements in a bag, or sack. When discharged, they were literally handed the sack so that they could put their tools in it and seek a job elsewhere.” (From
Dictionary of Phrase and Fable
, by Ebenezer Cobham Brewer.)

GOODY TWO-SHOES

Meaning:
An overly virtuous person

Origin:
“Goody Two-Shoes is the name of the main character in a children’s story called “The History of Little Goody Two-Shoes,” which was published in 1765 in London. She lived most of her life with only one shoe, but when she received a second shoe, she was so overjoyed that she ran around yelling ‘Two shoes! Two shoes!’ until nobody could stand the sight of her.” (From
Complete Idiot’s Guide to Weird Word Origins
, By Paul McFedries.)

Only 2 U.S. presidents, William Henry Harrison and Zachary Taylor, died in the White House.

SAVE ONE’S BACON

Meaning:
To prevent an injury or loss to oneself

Origin:
“The phrase arose as a metaphor from the necessity of keeping the household’s winter store of bacon protected from scavenging dogs. In this sense its meaning is to prevent a loss.” (From
Flying by the Seat of Your Pants
, by Harry Oliver.)

CUT TO THE CHASE

Meaning:
Get to the point

Origin:
“In the early days of film (late 1920s to 30s), the term meant to cut (edit out) the boring parts and get to the excitement: the chase scenes. By the late 1940s, the term had gone from an editing direction to a figure of speech.” (From
Let’s Talk Turkey: Stories Behind America’s Favorite Expressions
, by Rosemarie Ostler.)

BY THE SEAT OF YOUR PANTS

Meaning:
Without the necessary experience

Origin:
“Back when pilots didn’t have so many navigation instruments, they relied on feedback from the plane itself through the point of greatest contact: the pilot’s pants. British Royal Airforce pilots used the term ‘fly by the seat of your trousers’ in World War II and American pilots borrowed the phrase, switching ‘pants’ for those starchy British trousers.” (From
I Love It When You Talk Retro
, by Ralph Keyes.)

THE LUNATICS HAVE TAKEN OVER THE ASYLUM

Meaning:
Those who should be regulated are running the show

Origin:
“In 1918, three of film’s greatest stars—Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, and Douglas Fairbanks—together with director D.W. Griffith, founded a movie studio of their own, to be called United Artists. When the news reached the head of Metro Pictures Richard Rowland, his reaction was: ‘The lunatics have taken over the asylum.’” (From W
ho Said That First?
, by Max Cryer.)

A bottlenose dolphin’s outer skin replaces itself every 2 hours—9 times faster than a human’s.

SEE YOU AT THE IGLOO

Few sports fans call stadiums or arenas by their official names (Qualcomm Park? Really?) True fans use colorful, locally derived (and often derisive) nicknames...like these
.

S
TADIUM:
Minute Maid Park
HOME TEAM:
Houston Astros

STORY:
It was once called Enron Field, but Coca-Cola bought the naming rights when Enron famously collapsed in 2001. Coke then named it after Minute Maid, its subsidiary that primarily packages orange juice. Add to that the fact that the Astros wear orange uniforms, and the fact that the park is one of the smallest in Major League baseball, and you get...
The Juice Box
.

STADIUM:
Cleveland Stadium

HOME TEAM:
Cleveland Indians

STORY:
For years a rumor persisted that the stadium, which opened in 1931, was built to help persuade the International Olympic Committee to hold the 1932 games in Cleveland, but that clueless planners broke ground after Los Angeles had already been awarded the event. In truth the stadium, constructed near Lake Erie, was built for the Cleveland Indians, not the Olympics, and was meant to attract commerce to downtown Cleveland. Still, it’s never shaken its nickname:
The Mistake by the Lake
.

ARENA:
Verizon Center

HOME TEAM:
Washington Capitals

STORY:
Verizon, a cell-phone service provider, owns the naming rights to the arena, prompting fans to call the building
The Phone Booth
. That’s kind of ironic, because cell phones have actually brought about the widespread disappearance of phone booths.

ARENA:
Prudential Center

HOME TEAM:
New Jersey Devils

STORY:
Prudential Insurance, which is headquartered in Newark, New Jersey, and holds the arena’s naming rights, has been using the Rock of Gibraltar as its logo since the 1890s and introduced its most famous advertising slogan, “Get a piece of the rock,” in the 1970s. It makes sense that the Prudential Center’s nickname, then, would be
The Rock
.

Bestselling pharmaceutical drug worldwide: aspirin.

ARENA:
Civic Arena

HOME TEAM:
Pittsburgh Penguins

STORY:
The arena is round and painted white. And it’s filled with ice because a hockey team plays there. So despite the fact that real penguins live in Antarctica, while igloos are found only in the Arctic, the Mellon Arena is nicknamed
The Igloo
.

STADIUM:
Wrigley Field

HOME TEAM:
Chicago Cubs

STORY:
Cubs fans are among the most loyal in sports, despite the team not reaching the World Series in more than 100 years. And one of the most popular Cubs of all time was Ernie Banks, a Hall of Famer whose positive attitude (despite his team never winning a championship) earned him one of his nicknames, “Mr. Sunshine.” Banks gave the stadium its nice nickname,
The Friendly Confines
.

STADIUM:
Tropicana Field

HOME TEAM:
Tampa Bay Rays

STORY:
The NHL’s Tampa Bay Lightning played there in the 1990s. And the building is a dome, earning it humorous comparisons to the bloodsport arena from the 1985 movie
Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome
. So, since lightning goes with thunder, fans call it
The Thunderdome
.

STADIUM:
Lambeau Field

HOME TEAM:
Green Bay Packers

STORY:
One of the most famous games in NFL history, the “Ice Bowl,” was played there in December 1967: The Packers and the Dallas Cowboys played on frozen ground amidst frigid winds and a –15°F temperature.
Sports Illustrated
writer Tex Maule equated Lambeau Field with the Arctic tundra. But when the game was discussed in season highlight films for both teams, narrators referred to the field as
The Frozen Tundra
, and the nickname stuck.