To not know which side your bread is buttered on comes from a Yiddish folk tale describing the stupidity of the men of Chelm in Poland.
The story goes that one day, when someone dropped a piece of bread, the wisest men in town gathered to ponder why it landed butter side up.
After weeks of deliberation they concluded that the bread had been buttered on the wrong side.
Related Posts
-
Why is the Right Side of a Boat Called “Starboard” and the Left Side Called “Port Side”?
In the primitive days of navigation, the helmsman stood at the stern of the ship, controlling the vessel's direction by hand with a rudder. The rudder was on the right side and called…
-
What Is the Difference Between the Near Side of the Moon and the Far Side of the Moon and Which Side Has Tides?
One unexpected difference is that there is only one major mare, named Moscoviense, on the far side, but there are many on the near side. Scientists hypothesize that just as the Moon's gravitational…
-
How Did Antibodies Help Paul Ehrlich Discover His Magic Bullets and Develop His Side Chain Theory?
In 1890, another German researcher Emil von Behring, discovered that the blood of animals infected with different diseases contained chemicals that attacked the disease cells. He called these chemicals antibodies and found that…
-
What Does The Far Side Of the Moon Look Like and Why Are There So Many Crater Impacts On the Far Side?
Until 1959, when the then Soviet Union sent the satellite Lunik 3 all the way around the Moon, we could only guess at what the far side was like. Scientists wrongly assumed that…
-
Why Do the British Drive on the Left Side of the Road and Americans Drive on the Right Side of the Street?
The British custom of driving on the left was passed down from the Romans. The chariot driver stayed to the left in order to meet an approaching enemy with his right sword hand.…
-
What Is the Difference In Function Between the Left Side of the Brain and the Right Side of the Brain?
Most people tend to emphasize characteristics of the left side of the brain, which controls verbal and analytical skills such as speech, language, and grammar. Lawyers, accountants, politicians, business executives, salespeople, and teachers…
