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FACTS OF THE MONTH:
The calendar we use today was first conceived by the ancient Romans and contained only ten months. Since it was used for planting and harvesting, and January and February were the dead of winter, those months were skipped. The 'y' in signs reading 'Ye Olde...' is pronounced 'th'. The 'th' sound did not exist in Latin, so ancient Roman-occupied England used the rune 'thorn' to represent 'th' sounds. With the advent of the printing press the character from the Roman alphabet which closest resembled the thorn was used instead. That letter was 'y'. Ancient Romans ate flamingo tongues and considered them a delicacy. The average Ancient Roman was a few inches shorter than modern man and only lived to the age of 22. Much of the food we think of as Italian wasn't seen in Rome until Marco Polo brought them back from China in the 13th Century. The Colosseum in Rome had the ancient equivalent of a retractible dome. The canvas roof would be raised and lowered by Roman sailors and had a large hole center to admit more light. |
Approximately one tenth of the people who ever lived are alive today.
In 1988, champion swimmer Janet Evans set the Olympic record for the 400-meter freestyle: a time of 4 minutes, 3.85 seconds, more than a minute faster than the time Johnny Weissmuller took to swim the same length in his gold-medal performance in the 1924 Olympics. In fact, most of the women's swimming records today are faster than men's records of the 1950s.
The first Ford cars had Dodge engines.
Americans work an average of 35 hours a week. A century ago the figure was 73 hours a week.
The origins of the name "Wendy" can be traced back to "Peter Pan" and no further.
Only four percent of the energy put out by a light bulb is light. The rest is heat.
Seventy-five percent of the population of Detroit are black. Ninety-six percent of the people who go to Tiger Stadium are white.
The human aura cannot be photographed through polyester.
Excessive hairbrushing can cause premature baldness.
The Nullarbor Desert in Australia is Latin for "no trees."
By law, no elected official in Texas can be an atheist.
from SUPER BOWL WEEK: Of the 24 NFL/AFL teams in existence prior to the first Super Bowl season of 1966-67, four teams (Lions, Cardinals, Browns/Ravens, Oilers) have yet to reach the Big Game. However, all four reached the pre-Super Bowl Championship Game at one time or another. Of the six teams created since 1966, only Atlanta and New Orleans have failed to reach their conference championship game. To distinguish themsevles from their "National" counterparts, American Football League referees wore red-and-white striped uniforms and had the two-point conversion, while American Basketball Association balls were red, white and blue and had the three-point shot. The NFL's first expansion team was the Green Bay Packers, which started operations in 1921, the year after the formation of the American Professional Football Association, and the year before its name change to the National Football League. The only teams older than the Packers still in existence are the Chicago (now Arizona) Cardinals and the Decatur Staleys (now the Chicago Bears). The NFC has won 14 of the past 15 Super Bowls. The AFC/AFL had won 11 of the previous 13. The oldest NFL stadium, Soldier Field (built in 1924), has only been used by the Chicago Bears continuously since 1971. The oldest stadium in continuous use that is still in use is the Packers' Lambeau Field, Green Bay's home since 1957. Of the thirty most-watched television programs of all time, 14 of them were Super Bowls. The game with the largest television rating was 1982's Super Bowl XVI (Niners 26, Bengals 21), the only Super Bowl played in the northern U.S. (the Pontiac Silverdome in Detroit). The only programs with higher ratings were the last episodes of M*A*S*H and "Roots" and the "Who Shot J.R." episode of Dallas. This is Green Bay's third Super Bowl. They won their first two, also the first two SBs. New England lost to Chicago in their only previous appearance, Super Bowl XX. The Packers and Patriots have played each other five times before, New England leading the series 3-2 and winning in their last matchup, 17-16, in October 1994. *facts published prior to Super Bowl XXXI |
A cow can be coerced into going up a flight of stairs. Coming back down, however, is quite another story.
Cheryl Ladd (from "Charlie's Angels") did the voice of Josie in the 70s cartoon "Josie and the Pussycats." She is listed in the closing credits as Cherie Moor (short for her maiden name, Stoppelmoor).
The only city whose name can be spelled entirely with vowels is Aiea, Hawaii.
The White House was originally gray. It was painted white to cover burn marks made during the War of 1812. It was not officially called the "White House" until this century.
The U.S. has no such coin as a "penny". Officially, it's called a "cent".
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from ANCIENT ROME WEEK! 
