Tuesday is for FUN FACTS!

Somewhere in my youth or childhood, I used to send emails full of fun facts to people I secretly loved. Since I secretly love everyone who reads my blog (Hi, Amy and Mari!), I am going to continue to tradition.

DID YOU KNOW? - 1/5/10 - Languate Edition

1. Yiddish, French, and the American Northeast (maybe elsewhere?) all share the fun feature of having a word that describes a comeback that you come up with too late. For the fFrench, it's "l'espirit d'escalier" which means something like "staircase cleverness." In Yiddish (at least according to Saul Bellow) it's "trepverter" which, like most Yiddish words, certainly means something. In New Hampshire, they call it after-wit.

2. In South Africa, kids watch Takalani Sesame instead of Sesame Street and they enjoy Kami, an HIV-positive monster, instead of Elmo. "Takalani" means "be happy."

3. The word "boycott" comes to us from Charles C. Boycott, a former British soldier who helped an Irish politician , Charles Parnell, test out some land reforms. Boycott bought out an estate and refused to lower rents to tenants. Parnell had his supporters give Boycott the cold shoulder and, unable to maintain his estate, Boycott fled. Parnell had initially wanted to call his new move "ostracization," but he thought that word might be too big for his constituents to wrap their tiny feudal minds around.

4. The name "Thomas" means "twin."

5. Kofi Annan means "born on a Friday."

6. Afghanistan means "Land of the Afghans." Now picture the blanket.

7. Today is the 12th day of Christmas. This isn't really part of this whole "language edition," but Did you Know?

8. The Pekingese lapdog, a Chinese breed, was bred to fit inside the sleeves of a man's robe and is one of the oldest dog breeds in the world. To keep them small (no more than 7 pounds, usually around 3 or 4 pounds) the Chinese employed methods such as feeding the dogs rice wine, squeezing newborns tightly for hours at a time, or putting the puppies into wire mesh waistcoats.

9. According to a surprisingly in-depth wikipedia entry on laps, lapsitting may occur in every day life between relatives, couples, and friends of all sexes. Although lapsitting is more common among women than men. Thanks, Wikipedia! The democratization of media is making big strides, guys!

10. Okay, so we've gotten a little far off the language trail. I leave you with this: In 1937, Paramount released the first (and, to my knowledge, only) all-Black western musical called Harlem on the Prairie. It was very successful.

Cheers!