Odds

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

Many people believe that Friday the 13th is an unlucky day, that the 13th floor of a building is unlucky, or that the number 13 in general is unlucky. No one seems to know exactly why this came to be so, but there are many possible explanations. One is that the superstition goes back to … Read more

The number one million has six zeroes, a billion has nine zeroes, and a trillion has 12 zeroes. The “tri” in trillion comes from the Latin word for “three.” By using the Latin words for the numbers from four to nine, we can provide names for all the numbers up to a nonillion, that’s a … Read more

The Isle of Man is an island in the Irish Sea, about halfway between Ireland and Great Britain. This 30-mile-long island is not part of the United Kingdom, but is actually a British dependency, or “British Crown Fiefdom,” with a good deal of self government. The people of the Isle of Man once had a … Read more

It’s gravity, of course, that makes things fall to the ground. But if there’s no air pressure, all things, no matter how heavy they are, fall to the ground at the same speed. Usually, air pressure pushes up more strongly against lighter objects or objects with a certain shape, and that’s why a feather or … Read more

Suppose you had a deck of cards, each of which contained the figure of a man with his arm in a slightly different position. And suppose you arranged this deck so that in the bottom card, the man held his hand at his side, and in each successive card, he lifted his arm until, at … Read more

In 1841, the London Times carried a most unusual classified ad. It was placed by a young woman interested in wallpapering her bedroom walls. And she wanted to do it with postage stamps! This young woman thus became the world’s first philatelist, or stamp collector. The millions of philatelists the world over who followed her … Read more

Historians are not certain how the United States began using the $ as a dollar sign. Some believe that it came from a design marked on old Spanish coins called pieces of eight. These pieces of eight were used by Americans as dollars before they coined their own silver dollars. A Spanish piece of eight … Read more

You’d probably like to have the government send it to you, naturally! But the Treasury Department has other ideas. Every day, it collects worn and dirty bills, 4-5 tons of them! Which are too old and worn to be used. These bills are destroyed in a machine called a macerator, which shreds $1,000,000 a minute … Read more

Perhaps you noticed that United States dimes, quarters, half-dollars, and silver dollars have ridges, or grooves, around their edges. They were not put there for decoration, but had a very important purpose at one time in history. During our country’s earlier years, all coins were made of gold or silver, and did not have ridges. … Read more

Surprisingly enough, the answer is 292 ways. If you used all the different American coins minted, pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters, and half-dollars, you could actually come up with these 292 different ways. There’s 100 pennies; 20 nickels; 10 dimes; 4 quarters; 2 half-dollars; 1 half-dollar and 2 quarters; 1 half-dollar and 5 dimes; 1 half-dollar, … Read more

Although most of the paper money issued by our government have portraits of presidents, not all do. The presidents who do appear on bills are: George Washington on the $1; Thomas Jefferson on the $2; Abraham Lincoln on the $5; Andrew Jackson on the $20; Ulysses S. Grant on the $50; William McKinley on the … Read more

If you started to count today and continued counting day and night, without stopping, for the rest of your life, you would never get to a last number, because there isn’t one. In the exploration of counting’s limits, we unravel the concept of the last largest number one can count to, delving into the complexities … Read more

Naturally, how long it takes depends on how fast you can count. But if you can count from 1 to 100 in one minute, and you keep counting every minute, without stopping, for eight hours every day (taking time off to eat, sleep, and go to school), you would reach 1 million in 20 days, … Read more

Sounds like some strange animal or a creature from outer space, doesn’t it? But it’s neither of them. A googol is a number, a very large number. You are probably familiar with numbers such as: 1 + 6 zeroes = 1,000,000, one million 1 + 9 zeroes = 1,000,000,000, one billion 1 + 12 zeroes … Read more

1,000,000 seconds equals 11.6 days. 1,000,000 minutes equals 1.9 years. 1,000,000 inches equals 15.7 miles. 1,000,000 feet equals 189.4 miles. 1,000,000 pennies, stacked one on top of another, reach almost one mile high. 1,000,000 dollar bills weigh 2,000 pounds!

The record for the longest letter was established in 1952, during the Korean War. A lady in Brooklyn, New York, wrote to her boyfriend, a private in the U.S. Army, serving in Korea. Instead of using regular writing paper, this ingenious lady used the narrow tape that is found on adding machines, 3,200 feet of … Read more

For the record of the world’s shortest letter, we have to travel back to 1862 in France. The noted writer Victor Hugo had just completed his latest novel, Les Miserables, and had gone away on a vacation. But he was most anxious to learn how the book was selling, so he wrote the following letter … Read more

Although you probably sang the nursery rhyme about London Bridge falling down when you were a child, the actual bridge never quite got that far. The London Bridge going across the Thames River was a stone structure built in the 12th century. At the time, it replaced a wooden one that had been built two … Read more

Long, long ago, people believed that toads used certain mushrooms to sit on. They also believed that toads were poisonous creatures and so the mushrooms they sat on were thought to be poisonous too. But we know today that toads are NOT poisonous creatures. And we also know that very few, if, indeed, any at … Read more

The confetti we throw today at newlyweds and returning heroes is a way of honoring them on special occasions or celebrating their accomplishments. But these little bits of colored paper did not begin as paper at all. Hundreds of years ago, the celebration of carnival days in Italy gave merrymakers an excuse for boisterous carryings-on. … Read more

When you speak or shout or sing or even whisper, the vibrations of your voice send sound waves through the air. These sound waves travel out from your mouth in all directions, out straight, to the right, to the left, and to all the places in between. But when you cup your hands around your … Read more

Many people learning English find it a very difficult language to pronounce and spell. Many writers, too, complain about this very same thing, since a sound can be spelled by several different letters, and a letter can have several different sounds. One very famous English writer, George Bernard Shaw, felt very strongly about this. One … Read more

The expression “slapstick comedy” today refers to low, rough humor, rather than the kind that uses words to put across a joke. Typical examples of slapstick are a comic fall and a custard pie in the face. The word “slapstick” goes back to the 17th century Italian pantomime theater. Because pantomine uses no words, the … Read more

Even though we call 365 days a year, the earth does not revolve around the sun in 365 days. Rather, it takes 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 46 seconds to do this. The extra time is made up by adding one extra day to the end of February every four years, EXCEPT in … Read more

All things made of wood, furniture, stairs, and all parts of houses, keep changing size because wood expands with heat and contracts with the cold. Wood also swells when the air is moist, then shrinks when the air is dry. So when you walk up stairs at night and you hear them creak, they probably … Read more

Lie detectors cannot actually identify lies; all they can do is detect certain activities of a person’s body that are usually associated with lying: abnormal perspiration and flushing of the face, rapid breathing, increased heartbeat, and excessive swallowing. Because this method does not actually guarantee the truth, the results are not generally accepted as evidence … Read more

The only country in the world today that can make such a claim is Israel. And the language is Hebrew. Here’s how it began. Thousands of years ago, Hebrew was the spoken language of the Jews in their homeland. But as cruel pharaohs drove them out and they scattered, the language slowly fell into disuse … Read more

You have probably seen and heard a great many words in the English language that end with “ology.” This is a suffix, which comes from a Greek word meaning “the study of.” Some of the more familiar words using this suffix are: anthropology, the study of man astrology, the study of the influence of the … Read more

The busts of four American presidents carved into the side of Mount Rushmore in the Black Hills of South Dakota hold the record as the world’s largest sculpture. The heads alone of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, and Theodore Roosevelt stand 60 feet high. Had their whole bodies been carved as well, each man … Read more

All your troubles would be over if you had a magic square! At least that’s what people believed long ago in China, India, Greece, and Rome. A magic square is an arrangement of numbers in the shape of a square. The numbers are arranged so that the sum of each horizontal row, each vertical column, … Read more

Although garlic is most often used today to season foods, it had many other uses, mostly superstitious, throughout history. The ancient Romans, for example, fed it to their soldiers because they believed it had the power to make the fighting men strong and courageous. In the Middle Ages, garlic was eaten as a defense against … Read more

Perhaps you thought it was John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York. Most people do! Back in the 1980s, the busiest airport in the entire world was Chicago International Airport, also called O’Hare Field. At O’Hare, planes took off and landed every 42.5 seconds around the clock. That means 85 take-offs and landings every … Read more

There is no such thing as an “air pocket.” When someone has been on an airplane trip and says, “We hit an air pocket and boy did we drop for a few seconds!” he is really talking about a downdraft. A downdraft is a downward current of air or wind. An “air pocket,” or a … Read more

Since the time of the ancient Egyptians, people have worn charms, or talismans, for two reasons, to ward off evil or disease, and to bring good fortune. Not only were these charms worn by living Egyptians, but they were also placed inside the coffins of mummies to assure them a happy afterlife. Among the most … Read more

Sailors making their first trip across the equator must take part in a special rowdy “first-crossing” ritual. An older, more experienced sailor acts the part of Neptune, King of the Sea, and directs other sailors in ceremonially dunking each of the first crossers into the water.

The annoying housefly “bugs” people living in all states, except Alaska. Because of Alaska’s cold climate, flies cannot breed there. However, some houseflies have been known to visit Alaska, coming in on planes and ships, but they live only a short time and cannot reproduce because of the cold.

Although most kids probably hate to take either, you might be interested in knowing that the bathtub in your house holds between 40 and 45 gallons of water. But when you take a shower, say for about five minutes, you are using only about 15 to 20 gallons of water. So if you are interested … Read more

A Chinese book written in 200 B.C. mentions a method of relieving pain and treating disease which was old even at that time. This ancient procedure, called acupuncture, is still practiced today, not only in China, but in many parts of the Western World as well. Acupuncture is based on the idea that everything in … Read more

In ancient times, the Greeks and Romans were fond of making lists of structures man had built, structures so big or so unusual that any traveler visiting a particular country would have to see them. The following seven structures, or wonders, are what these ancient people considered the biggest or most unusual in their time. … Read more

As usually described, the rope trick is performed in India by a fakir, a Muslim beggar who claims to perform miracles. The fakir begins to chant a story of what he is doing, as he takes out a rope, which rises and stiffens instead of falling down. Then the fakir bids a young boy, his … Read more

No! “Cat’s Cradle” is the name of a string game in which children loop string around their fingers. It is a game played by children everywhere today. Cat’s cradle did not originate as a child’s game; rather it goes back to adult uses of string all over the world. For example, in the Far East, … Read more

To understand the reason, we must consider two groups of believers. The first group says that all living things are somehow connected. In order to thrive, plants, just like animals and people, need to sense that they are loved. Thinking warm thoughts and saying encouraging things to a plant will have a good effect on … Read more

Although it may look like one, the ouija board is not considered a toy by many people who believe in its powers. A ouija board is a rectangular board containing an arch formed by all the letters of the alphabet. The words “yes” and “no” appear on either side, and the numbers 1 through 10 … Read more

In the Mid-East country of Iran, many villagers in outlying areas gather around a central dish of food on the floor for a community meal. They sit in a kneeling position, because according to the laws of their prophet, Mohammed, that position showed sympathy for slaves who had to kneel before their masters. After washing … Read more

If you ever get to attend a wedding feast of the Bedouin tribes of Africa, you will be served the largest single dish of food in the world. It is a whole roasted camel stuffed in an Amazing way. First, cooked eggs are stuffed into fish. Next, the fish are stuffed into cooked chickens. The … Read more

To civilized people, the practice of cannibalism, or eating human flesh, is a horrible thought! Yet it was practiced by many primitive tribes and may still be practiced in some parts of the world today. These tribes didn’t eat human flesh because they liked it; they did it because it was usually part of a … Read more

Some Eskimo tribes and some South Sea Island tribes consider belching at the end of the meal a form of politeness. It is their way of saying to a host, “Thank you. The food was excellent.”

Although the boy king, Tutankhamen, was a rather unimportant ruler 3200 years ago in Ancient Egypt, dying at the age of 18, the discovery of his tomb in 1922 gave the world its first “real-life” examples of these ancient peoples’ practice of burying their pharaohs with their treasures. Archeologist Howard Carter had been searching for … Read more