The more I learn, the more I realise that I know nothing.
As another year draws to a close, its time for making of the lists. So without much of a preamble presenting the list of random, totally trivial, and mostly pointless, but fun (at least for me) stuff that I learnt through another year of trawling though the inter-webs and other such endeavors, and most importantly remembered to jot down,
- India’s first Christmas Cake was baked by Mambally Bakery in Kerala in 1883. (BBC)
- Hatsuyme – Japanese term for the first dream you have in the new year, which is said to predict how the rest of the year goes! (Kokoro)
- Returning Soldier effect – More boys are born during and after wars (Wikipedia). Given the multiple prolonged wars currently going on, could be another validation of this theory.
- Samosas are banned in Somalia, apparently because their triangular shape in Christian and it is a western food! (News18) Somalis are missing out on a delicacy.
- In 1976, Airbus managed to get an order of 3 A300s from Indian Airlines. The deal clincher – their Chief Executive Bernard Lathiere was born in Calcutta and showed a picture of himself when he was 3 years old with Gandhiji to the then Indian Airlines top boss, Air Chief Marshal PC Lal. (Source: Business Wars Podcast)
- Tennis Sets: 6-0 is bagel, 6-1 is breadstick, conceding 0 points – Golden Set, 1 point – silver & 2 points – Bronze Set (Macmillan Dictionary), (Wikipedia)
- In colonial times, the roads were illuminated by gas lights which were lit using kerosene. Hence kerosene became colloquially ghaslet.
- Skeumorph - a derivative object that retains ornamental design cues (attributes) from structures that were necessary in the original to to make something new feel familiar in an effort to speed understanding and acclimation. E.g. Floppy Disk as Save button, the telephone receiver as phone icons etc. (Wikipedia)
- Terminator Line – the line that divides the day & night sides of a planet. Also called twilight zone. (Wikipedia).
- Jasper & Jinx – that was the original name given to Tom & Jerry, which was actually the name of a drink! (Link)
- Batukeshwar Dutt, who alongwith Bhagat Singh, threw bombs in the Assembly, later co-wrote the movie Shaheed, based on Bhagat Singh’s life and received the National Award for Best Screenplay. (Wikipedia)
- Einstein Shape – A shape that can be arranged in a tile formations that never repeats! (Guardian)
- Jaquar brand is named after the founder’s grandmother Jai Kaur (Wikipedia)
- Cappuccino - means little hood and is named after the colour of the hood worn by the monks in Italy (The Coffee Universe)
- Emirp - A prime number whose digits when reversed is also a prime number, e.g., 17 & 71, 13 & 31. (Wikipedia)
- The term “mugger” comes from magarmachh! One of the collateral effects of colonization! (Merriam-Webster)
- Mickey Mouse has a sister – Mrs. Amelia Fieldmouse!
- Münchausen Numbers - They can be written as the sum of each of its digits raised to the power equivalent to the digit itself, resulting in the same number. e.g., 3^3+4^4+3^3+5^5=3435
- Capitonyms – Words which change their meaning if the first letter is capitalized. E.g. March & march; Lent & lent etc. (Wikipedia)
- The Hollywood Sign was originally “HOLLYWOODLAND” and as an advertisement for new property in the area.
- Letters to India’s Antarctic Station are routed through Panaji post office. Just who came up with this interesting idea of Goa & Antarctica sharing a pin code!
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