Karen Hill

The average American now watches an amazing four hours of television each day! That doesn’t mean that every person in this country watches four hours of TV. Some people may watch one hour, some may watch seven hours, but on the average, Americans stare at a TV screen for about four hours a day. If … Read more

Siamese twins are twins whose bodies are joined together at birth. Sometimes they are joined only by the skin and can be easily separated. But other times, they share a vital organ, and then they must spend their entire lives joined together. Siamese twins can be born anywhere. They are called Siamese twins because the … Read more

There really is no such fruit as the prune. A prune is a kind of sweet plum that can be dried out without removing its pit. These plums make good dried fruits because they’re high in iron and vitamins. Most of the plums that are to become prunes are grown in California and other western … Read more

One of the most famous paintings in history, now called Night Watch, was painted in 1642 by the Dutch artist Rembrandt. But Rembrandt never called the painting by that name. It was originally known as The Shooting Company of Captain Frans Banning Cock, and showed 29 civic guards leaving a building in bright sunlight. But … Read more

Eggplants are neither oval-shaped like an egg, nor white. So how did it happen that these vegetables were given a name with the word egg in it? Eggplants came from Asia, and were popular in the Near East long before they reached Europe. Then, in the Middle Ages, traders brought a certain kind of eggplant … Read more

Gems are valuable, but some are much more valuable than others. Such gems as topaz, aquamarine, and garnet are called semi-precious, and cost much less than precious gems. There are only four minerals that are considered precious gems today: diamond, emerald, and two forms of corundum, ruby and sapphire. Pearl, which is not a mineral … Read more

The largest raw gem ever taken out of the ground is a topaz that weighed 596 pounds, that’s 1,380,000 carats! This huge gem was found in Brazil, but is now in the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. Although it’s the largest gem, it’s also a poor quality topaz, so it’s rather … Read more

The weight of a gem, such as a diamond, is always given in carats, instead of ounces, grams, or grains. In former times, gem traders weighed a gem by putting it on a balance scale and then putting a number of small carob beans on the other side of the scale. Carob beans come from … Read more

Of all the men elected to the American presidency, William H. Harrison had the shortest reign. Harrison was elected the ninth president in 1840, and inaugurated on March 4, 1841. Although there was a driving rainstorm in Washington, D.C., that day, Harrison rode through the streets for the inaugural parade, and caught a cold. The … Read more

That may sound like a foolish question. But the Canary Islands, which are located in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Africa, were not named after the yellow finches called canaries, they were named after dogs! When the ancient Romans first reached these islands, they found many wild dogs running loose. So, they called … Read more

George Washington never set foot in the White House as the President of the United States. Construction of the executive mansion in Washington, D.C., did not begin until 1792, three years after Washington took office. It was finished in 1800, and John Adams, America’s second president, moved in towards the end of his term. The … Read more

Rabies is caused by a virus. The rabies virus is present in the saliva glands of infected animals, and if an infected animal bites a person or another animal, the rabies virus will be passed on through the saliva. Many people associate rabies with dogs. But any warm-blooded animal can get rabies, including foxes, skunks, … Read more

Not really. Chinese uses a writing system called logographic that is very different from our writing system. Each symbol, or letter, in our writing stands for a sound; one or more symbols put together form a word, and we can form any word in our language using just our 26 letters. But in Chinese, each … Read more

The five English words that are used more than any others in the language are, in order: the, of, and, to, a. The second five most common words are: in, that, is, I, and it. But the most common word in conversation is, I, of course! The letter e is the most common in our … Read more

Our alphabet, called the Roman alphabet, was based on the older Greek alphabet. In Greek, the letter z is the sixth letter. But when the Romans borrowed the Greek letters to form their own alphabet, they didn’t need the z, because they didn’t have a z sound in their language. Later, many Greek words came … Read more

The alphabet we use today, the Roman, had only capital letters for many centuries after it came into use in ancient Rome. But those big, angular letters were not good for writing quickly with a pen. So by the 4th century, scribes had developed another set of letters, called uncials, that were smaller and more … Read more

Orchestras vary in size, according to the piece of music they’re playing. But in general, a modern orchestra has about 100 instruments, divided into four sections. The string section includes 34 violins, 12 violas, ten cellos, eight double basses, and two harps, for a total of 66 instruments. The woodwind section includes three flutes, three … Read more

When American Indians were showing European settlers how to smoke from a calumet, or peace pipe, they handed the white men the calumet and said, “Tobacco, tobacco!” This was the Indian word for the “tube of the pipe,” which the Indians wanted the strangers to put into their mouths. The Europeans thought that the Indians … Read more

A few centuries ago, many people who used tobacco didn’t smoke it in a pipe or a cigarette. Instead, they took snuff, a powdered tobacco that was inhaled through the nose. The nicotine in the tobacco was absorbed by membranes inside the nose, and then entered the blood stream. Snuff was first used in England … Read more

During the 16th century, silver coins made in St. Joachimsthal, a town in Bohemia, a part of Czechoslovakia, were thought to contain the purest silver. This prized coin became known as the Joachimsthaler, a word that was shortened to thaler. In some places in Europe, the word became daler. This was the name of certain … Read more

During the Middle Ages, most people in Europe used silver coins. The English used silver pennies; each weighed 1/240 of a pound, and was called a sterling. The basic unit of money in England became the pound of silver, which was equal to 240 sterlings. So this unit was and still is called the pound … Read more

In the early days of our country, there were many different kinds of coins in use. In the southwestern parts of the United, States close to Mexico, the Mexican peso was common, and so was a small Mexican coin called the real, which was worth 12.5 cents. When the 25-cent piece, or quarter, came into … Read more

The so-called copper penny is not pure copper, and the nickel is not pure nickel! A United States penny is 95 percent copper and five percent zinc. A nickel is three- quarters copper and only one- quarter nickel. The dime, quarter, half-dollar, and dollar coins that are minted today do not contain silver. They are … Read more

No one knows for sure, but one explanation traces this superstition back to World War I. During that war, soldiers spent a lot of time in trenches, watching for an enemy attack and for enemy snipers. Soldiers believed that by lighting a match at night and using it to light three cigarettes, they were giving … Read more

If you’ve ever tried to swat a fly with your hand or with a book, you’ve probably found that the pesty insect takes off before you can strike it. Flies have sensory hairs over their bodies, and these hairs can feel slight changes in air pressure. A moving hand pushes the air down on the … Read more

Delos is a small Greek island in the Aegean Sea. According to Greek myth, the island floated through the sea until the god Zeus secured it as a birthplace for the gods Apollo and Artemis. Therefore, Delos became a holy island to the Greeks, and a religious festival was held there every few years. During … Read more

In French, a sabot is a wooden shoe. Many people believe that the word sabotage originated in the 1800s, when French workers threw their wooden shoes into machinery in order to shut down factories. But sabot was also used for the attachments that hold railroad rails to the wooden cross ties. During a railroad strike … Read more

Sometimes food that’s been in your refrigerator for a long time may become covered with a colored fuzzy substance. This fuzzy stuff is actually made up of tiny fungi called molds, which grow on most foods. Certain types of molds are also responsible for the blue parts of the cheese we call blue cheese. Blue … Read more

Right here in the United States! The tomato, which is so common in this country today, didn’t become a popular food here until just about a century ago. Before that, many people believed that a raw tomato was poisonous! But in America, people were afraid to eat raw tomatoes until 1830, when a man named … Read more

Right now, there are more than 7,000 newspapers published around the world, and about a quarter of them are American papers. Each day, Americans buy some 61 million copies of their favorite papers! The largest-selling paper in the United States is the New York Daily News, which sells about two million copies each day. The … Read more

The United States is not the only country with stars on its flag. In fact, about 50 other countries have at least one star on their flag, making the star the most common symbol on the flags of the world. The second most popular symbol is the crescent, which appears on nine flags.

In this country, the most common last name is Smith. About 2,400,000 people in the United States are Smiths, or about one in every 100 persons! There are another 800,000 Smiths in England, and many more in other English-speaking nations. But the most common last name in the world is Chang. About ten percent of … Read more

The real name of the Wild West showman named “Buffalo Bill” was William Cody. When Cody was 21 years old, he was hired by a company that was building a railroad. His job was to kill buffalo to provide food for the men working on the railroad. In a period of 17 months, Cody earned … Read more

Christopher Columbus was looking for a faster route to the East Indies when he set out on the trip that would end in the discovery of America. One of the main reasons he wanted to find a fast way to the Indies was to bring back spices cheaply. Did you ever wonder why anyone would … Read more

Though Americans often call a sweet potato a yam, the two vegetables are not the same. Sweet potatoes are grown in the United States and in many other countries. But a real yam grows only in the tropical regions of Africa, and is almost never seen in America. So the next time you enjoy “candied … Read more

To ostracize someone means to exclude him from a group, or to send him away as a punishment. Amazingly enough, this word comes from the word oyster! The ancient Greeks often ate oysters. They also used oyster shells for casting certain votes. In an election, voters scratched the name of their favored candidate on the … Read more

There are many stories about the men who carried mail across America by the Pony Express, but the Pony Express really didn’t last very long. It began in 1860, carrying mail between Missouri and California by horseback. Stations were set up along the route, about 15 miles apart, where fresh horses were kept for the … Read more

Ebony is a hard black wood that is often used for furniture and for the black keys of a piano. It comes from a tree that grows in the tropical regions of Asia and Africa. Ebony wood is usually brown, with black stripes, but most ebony comes only from the center of the tree, where … Read more

There’s really no such fish named “sardine”! This word is used for any small, thin-boned fish that is packed in oil inside tins. Most of the fish found inside tins of “sardines” are herrings or pilchards. A single tin of sardines may even contain more than one kind of fish!

Most paperback dictionaries contain about 50,000 words, and the average home dictionary has about 100,000 words. The biggest dictionary in America, Webster’s Third International, contains over 400,000 words. But the biggest dictionary in the world is the Oxford English Dictionary, a 12-volume work that contains more than 415,000 words, with not only their meaning, but … Read more

It may sound impossible for a country to move from one continent to another, but it did happen once, at least on maps. In 1821, when the Central American country of Colombia won its independence from Spain, the country we now call Panama was part of Colombia. Since Colombia is in South America, Panama was … Read more

So many different terms are used today for the place most of us call England that it can get downright confusing! The British Isles are a group of islands off the coast of Europe. The two biggest islands are called Great Britain and Ireland. The United Kingdom is the name of the country that includes … Read more

Late in the 16th century, an architect building an underground water main in southern Italy came upon the buried ruins of an old city under 30 to 50 feet of ashes, stones, and mud as hard as concrete. The city was Pompeii, a flourishing town during the days of the ancient Romans that had “disappeared” … Read more

Amber is a hard yellow substance that is usually considered a semi-precious gem. But amber is not a mineral; it’s the remains of trees that lived millions of years ago! In prehistoric times, sap leaked to the ground from pine trees. Some of this sap, or resin, became buried under the ground or under water, … Read more

The expensive delicacy called caviar is made from the roe, or eggs, of a big fish called the sturgeon. These fish live mostly in salt-water lakes in certain parts of Europe and Asia. Sturgeon leave their lakes to lay their eggs in river beds, and when they do, fishermen catch the fish and put them … Read more

That may sound like a foolish question. But the people who are known as the Pennsylvania Dutch aren’t Dutch at all. They came to America from Germany, and at first were called Pennsylvania Deutsch, the German word for Germany is Deutschland, and German people are Deutsch. Since that word sounded to most Americans like Dutch, … Read more

A chamois (pronounced sham-ee) is a kind of very soft cloth often used to polish automobiles, furniture, and other smooth surfaces, because it never scratches them. Originally, this cloth was made from the skin of a goatlike antelope, the chamois, that lives in Europe. The chamois is now rare, and lives only in the Alps … Read more

Natural mineral water comes from springs deep in the ground, and contains large amounts of mineral salts or gases. Some mineral water looks like ordinary tap water, but some has bubbles in it just like club soda. This is called carbonated water, for these bubbles are bubbles of carbon dioxide gas. These bubbles form when … Read more

Marshmallow is a soft, spongy white candy made from sugar, corn syrup, and gelatin, with perhaps egg whites and flavoring. Sometimes it’s covered with sugar, chocolate, or coconut. Before this kind of candy was invented, people in England sometimes ate a candy made with the root of a plant called the marsh mallow. This plant … Read more

Marble is a white mineral which, because of its great beauty and sheen, is often used for buildings and sculpture. It is actually limestone that was turned into crystals by millions of years of pressure under the earth. Sometimes, impurities in the limestone produce colored marble, such as pink, red, or green marble, or marble … Read more

Centuries ago, the Romans built a temple on a hill in Normandy, France, a few miles from the English Channel. Later, monks replaced the temple with a chapel. Then, in the year 725, an earthquake struck the area, and the waters of the English Channel surged inland, covering the farmland that surrounded the hill. The … Read more

We sometimes say “jade green” to mean a certain kind of green color, and indeed most jade is green. But not all, for pure jade is actually white! Jade is found in two different minerals, jadeite and nephrite. Pure jade in either form is white, but other substances mixed into the mineral give it its … Read more

When the ancient Greeks watched athletes competing in sports events, they thought the rippling motions of a man’s muscles looked like a little mouse running up and down under his skin. This idea was passed on to the ancient Romans, who coined the word musculus, “little mouse.” This word eventually became our word muscle!

The minotaur was a fabulous creature from Greek mythology, a monster with the body of a man and the head of a bull. According to myth, the minotaur was born to the queen of the Greek island of Crete. The king of Crete put the beast inside a huge maze, called the labyrinth, that was … Read more

In Greek myth, Echo was a beautiful young maiden. But she angered one of the gods by talking too much, and was ordered never to speak again, except to repeat the last words that she had heard. Then Echo fell in love with a youth named Narcissus. When he failed to return her love, she … Read more

During the Middle Ages, wealthy people in Europe thought that it was better not to bathe than to be clean. They believed that only poor people who worked in the fields all day needed to bathe, and that not taking a bath was a sign of wealth. Many rich people bragged that they had never … Read more

Richard I, also called Richard the Lion Hearted, was King of England during part of the Crusades. He married his queen, Berengaria, in 1191, while he and his troops were on the island of Cyprus. Then Richard left on a Crusade to the Holy Land. His queen spent the rest of her life in Palestine, … Read more

Everybody knows that an A.M. hour is a morning hour and a P.M. hour is an afternoon or evening hour. But did you ever wonder what A.M. and P.M stand for? Meridies was the Latin word for “midday” or “noon.” Since noon is the moment when the sun is directly overhead, it was natural to … Read more

Centuries ago, people said “of the clock” when they told someone the time, as in “six of the clock.” Then in the 17th and 18th centuries, this phrase was shortened to “of clock” or “a clock.” Finally, in the early 18th century, these terms were shortened still further to “o’clock.”

Almost all Americans would say that the clock atop the tower of the English House of Parliament in London is called Big Ben. But the clock is actually known as Westminster Clock. Then what is Big Ben? That’s the name of the 13- ton bell inside the tower! Big Ben was named after Sir Benjamin … Read more

Americans might guess that football, baseball, or basketball is the most popular sport in the world. But more people play and watch soccer than any other sport, it’s played under the same rules in more than 140 nations! Soccer matches draw the biggest crowds of any sport. In 1937, almost 150,000 people watched a match … Read more

In 490 B.C., an army from Persia invaded Greece, landing on the plain of Marathon, near Athens. The soldiers from Athens wanted to inform their allies in Sparta of the invasion, so they sent a young man named Pheidippides with the message. Pheidippides ran all the way from Marathon to Sparta, a distance of 140 … Read more

Truffles hold that honor. Like the mushroom, the truffle is a fungus. Some truffles are just the size of a pea, while others are as big as an orange. These black fungi grow in parts of France and Italy. They are used most often in small amounts to give a flavor to certain dishes, especially … Read more

Do you like fried chicken? Well if you do, you’re in big company. The most popular home cooked main dish in America is, by far, fried chicken. Roast beef is second, followed in order by spaghetti, turkey, and baked ham. How about the second five most popular dishes? They are, in order: fried shrimp, beef … Read more

Spices are much cheaper today than they were centuries ago, but some spices are still quite costly. The most expensive spice of all is a certain kind of saffron, which sells for over $800 a pound! It takes about 32,000 saffron flowers to make just one pound of saffron. The cheapest spices in the world, … Read more

Bicycle racing is a big sport in many countries. And if there is a world champion bicycle racer each year, it would have to be the winner of a race called the Tour de France, the most important bicycle race in the world. Almost every year since 1903, bicycle riders from all over Europe have … Read more

Antonio Stradivarius was a violin maker who lived in Cremona, Italy, around 1700. Today, Stradivarius’ violins are regarded as the best ever made because of their beautiful tone, and no one, even in modern times, has been able to make a violin equal to a Stradivarius. Many people have tried to find out what made … Read more

We have Daylight Savings Time for the very reason its name suggests, to save daylight. When Daylight Savings begins in the spring, we turn the clock back an hour, so that “clock time” is one hour later than “sun time.” Instead of the sun’s setting at 7:30 or so, it goes down at 8:30, giving … Read more

Our calendar comes from the ancient Romans, and is based on the sun. But before the Romans began to use their solar calendar, they used a lunar calendar, based on the moon. A real month is the time it takes the moon to go around the earth, about 29.5 days. So the Romans gave their … Read more

Today the “Kremlin” means the Government of the Soviet Union, the same way that the “White House” means the President of the United States. The Kremlin is actually a medieval fortress, and there were once many kremlins in Russia! A kremlin is a walled fortress within a Russian city, where local rulers once lived. Within … Read more

Today, we use the word spa for a resort with a natural spring, such as Hot Springs in Arkansas, while a health spa is an exercise club with a pool and a gym. But there was once only a single place in the whole world called a spa, the city of Spa, Belgium. A mineral … Read more

Before people used the word handkerchief, the word kerchief alone was common. This term came from two French words: couvrir, which means “to cover,” and chef, which means “head.” In the time of ancient Greece and Rome, handkerchiefs were often used the way they are today. But in the Middle Ages, kerchiefs were usually used … Read more

During the Middle Ages, only wealthy people in Europe had chairs. Everyone else had to sit on benches or stools. And even rich people usually had only one chair in their house! This chair was reserved only for the lord of the house. The lord sat at the table on his chair, while the rest … Read more

Centuries ago, many of the hats that were worn by European women came from the Italian city of Milan. A person who lives in Milan is a Milaner, and traders who sold hats made in Milan came to be known as Milaners too. Gradually, this word became milliner, and women’s hats are still called millinery. … Read more

There are many names for different teas, but there are really only three different kinds of tea. Black tea, the kind we usually drink in America, is fermented and roasted before it’s packaged. Green tea, enjoyed by the Japanese, is steamed but not roasted, and it’s not fermented. A third kind of tea, oolong tea, … Read more

The Cape of Good Hope is a hilly point of land at the southern tip of Africa. The sea off the Cape is often rough and stormy, so the Cape’s name doesn’t really describe it. In 1488, when Portuguese explorer Bartholemeu Diaz became the first European to sail around the southern end of Africa, he … Read more

It’s not the drum or the guitar or any kind of horn. The piano is by far the most popular instrument in the United States, and in many other countries as well. Each year, over 750,000 new pianos are made around the world. About 21 million Americans play the piano, that’s about one in every … Read more

One of the most famous battles of the War of 1812 was the Battle of New Orleans, in which General Andrew Jackson and his troops defeated a larger British army. The battle was fought on January 8, 1815, 15 days after a peace treaty between the United States and England had been signed in Europe. … Read more

We celebrate New Year’s Day on January 1 because it is, of course, the first day o our year. But people in some other countries start their year on different days, and they have a different New Year’s Day. The ancient Egyptians and Persians began their year on September 21, when the length of the … Read more

Since the American Indians were known to be good horsemen, many people think that they had been riding horses for many centuries before Europeans arrived in the New World. Actually, the Indians never saw a horse before the Spaniards arrived in the 1500s! In very ancient times, some horses from Asia crossed to North America, … Read more

Each summer, there are three races for thoroughbred horses that are more important than any others run during the year. Only three-year-old horses are allowed to run in these races. The first is the Kentucky Derby, held in Louisville, Kentucky. The second is the Preakness, held in Baltimore, Maryland. And the third is the Belmont … Read more

In Switzerland, people don’t call the cheese with holes in it “Swiss” cheese, as we do. They call it Emmentaler cheese. Three kinds of bacteria help to ripen Emmentaler, and one of them eats away holes in the cheese when it begins to ripen. These holes are small at first, but when the cheese begins … Read more

The term proof that is found today on every bottle of liquor dates back centuries. In earlier times, there was no scientific way to find out how much alcohol was in liquor. So dealers who bought and sold liquor tested the products by soaking gunpowder in the beverage and then lighting it. If the gunpowder … Read more

Aside from Olympic competitions, the world’s most important ice-skating race is held annually in The Netherlands. This race, called the Elfstedentocht, or “Tour of the Eleven Towns,” has been held almost every year since the 18th century. The route winds its way over rivers, lakes, and canals for a distance of 124 miles, making it … Read more

In ancient Greece, the stadion was a unit of measurement equal to 600 Greek feet, or about 607 of our feet. The Greeks thought this was a perfect distance for a foot race. So they came to use the word stadion for an arena built around a foot-race track, which was originally one stadion long. … Read more

Some people may have, but that’s not how the room got its name. The term drawing is actually a shortening of withdrawing. The withdrawing room was the room to which guests “withdrew” after dinner. It later became the name of the room where guests were received and entertained.

Have you ever wondered if a “17-jewel watch” contains real jewels, or if “jewel” is only the name of some mechanical part of the watch? The jewels in jeweled watches are real jewels, and they’re inside the watch, not on the dial. Sometimes these jewels are merely little bits of gem-like stones, but at one … Read more

Many stories have been told to explain how Mother Goose became associated with nursery rhymes and children’s stories, but most of them are untrue. There was never a person named Mother Goose, and no one person wrote all the stories that are now part of Mother Goose collections. In 1696, a French writer named Charles … Read more

We associate Halloween with witches, goblins, ghosts, and other spooky things. But the word Halloween actually means “holy evening.” Centuries ago, Celtic people in Europe celebrated a festival on October 31, which was the last day of their year and the end of their harvest season. Many Celts believed that on this night, the spirits … Read more