Sunday, July 11

Did You Know?

It takes 72 different muscles to produce human speech.

Cats have amazing hearing ability. A cat's ear has 30
muscles that control the outer ear (by comparison,
human ears only have six muscles). These muscles
rotate 180 degrees, so the cat can hear in all directions
without moving its head. (When I was a teenager, I might
have said that my mother had 60 muscles in her ears!)

Earth is estimated to be 4.5 billion years old and travels
through space at 660,000 miles per hour.

In the Middle Ages, young men and women drew the names
from a bowl to see who would be their Valentine. They would
wear this name pinned on their sleeves for one week. This was
known as "wearing your heart on your sleeve."

The oldest letter in the alphabet is "O", first used by the
Egyptians in 3000 BC.

A group of flamingos is called a "pat".

Ketchup/catsup was not made with tomatoes until Americans
tried their hands at it. The name comes from ke-tsiap, from
the Chinese who invented it as a pickled fish sauce.

Tiger urine smells like buttered popcorn.

The term "freelancing" dates from the twelfth century when
knights who lost employment with royal houses offered
themselves as mercenaries.

10 comments:

Tabor said...

I do not believe this about tiger urine having spent enough time at the zoo in the cat houses in the winter. The other facts are certainly interesting to mull over.

Pat said...

A group of flamingos is called a "pat".
Well I suppose I am pink and long-legged:)

Bobkat said...

You always have the most interesting bits and pieces to share : )

srp said...

Glad to hear your pressure washer fellow did a little better and I hope he follows through. I would imagine the wood would have to be dry before sealing.

Lots of facts here.... I only wish the cat's urine smelled like the tiger's. Wouldn't that be nicer?

Grannymar said...

Your mother had 60 muscles in her ears, mine had eyes in the back of her head! She must have had an extra pair of eyes because she always knew what we were up to without even looking.

D. Jean Quarles said...

Such a great post. Loved your bits of info.

Arkansas Patti said...

If it takes so many muscles to speak, why don't people who talk incessantly get tired? Must mean they are in great shape. Maybe if I talked more, I'd tighten up my chin line.

Jo said...

Omigosh, how fabulously interesting. I love facts like this.

My mother always said we had two ears and one mouth, so we could listen twice as much as we speak. :-)

Darlene said...

Well I, for one, and not going to test that statement about how Tiger urine smells.

Peter said...

I wonder who worked out the age of the Earth???