Showing posts with label facts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label facts. Show all posts

Sunday, March 16, 2014

Can I Eat The Frozen Batteries?

I enjoy this dude's videos...



there's a buncha stuff I did not know...

Tuesday, July 2, 2013

Friday, December 23, 2011

Know Yr Xmas: Tree

beautiful-christmas-tree

According to the National Christmas Tree Association, Americans buy 37.1 million real Christmas trees each year; 25 percent of them are from the nation's 5,000 choose-and-cut farms.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
America's official national Christmas tree is located in King's Canyon National Park in California. The tree, a giant sequoia called the "General Grant Tree," is over 300 feet (90 meters) high. It was made the official Christmas tree in 1925.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Animal Crackers are not really crackers, but cookies that were imported to the United States from England in the late 1800s. Barnum's circus-like boxes were designed with a string handle so that they could be hung on a Christmas tree.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Christmas trees are edible. Many parts of pines, spruces, and firs can be eaten. The needles are a good source of vitamin C. Pine nuts, or pine cones, are also a good source of nutrition.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
The northern European custom of the candlelit Christmas tree is derived from the belief that it sheltered woodland spirits when other trees lost their leaves during winter.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Artificial trees are the most popular with 40,694,463 on display in comparison to real trees at 34,335,809
~~~~~~~~~~~~
For every real Christmas tree harvested, 2 to 3 seedlings are planted in its place.

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Know Yr Xmas: Games

Book1801b_1211443a

"Hot cockles" was a popular game at Christmas in medieval times. It was a game in which the other players took turns striking the blindfolded player, who had to guess the name of the person delivering each blow. "Hot cockles" was still a Christmas pastime until the Victorian era.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Shoeing the Wild Mare" is a traditional Christmas game that goes back to at least the early 17th century. Get a narrow(a few inches wide),strong wooden beam and suspend it from the roof with two even length ropes. The beam is the ‘mare’ of the title and should be level yet high enough above the floor so that a player’s feet are off-ground. A player ‘the farrier’ then sits on the ‘mare’ in the centre, a leg either side. This player has a hammer and has to give the underside of the beam “four time eight blows” at a designated spot. If he falls off, it is someone else’s turn.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Very popular from the 16th to the 19th centuries, "Snapdragons" (or Flapdragons) has explicably declined in popularity. Gather everyone around the dining room table, place a large flat dish in the centre. In the dish scatter a good handful of raisins then pour on top a layer of brandy or cognac. Set fire to the brandy and dim the lights. Players take it in turns to pluck a raisin out of the burning liquid and eat it quickly down. For a more competitive edge to the game use larger dried fruit such as apricots, one of which has a lucky sixpence stuffed inside.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
In Greek legend, malicious creatures called Kallikantzaroi (also spelled Kallikantzari) sometimes play troublesome pranks at Christmas time. According to the legend, to get rid of them, you should burn either salt or an old shoe. Apparently the stench of the burning shoe (or salt) drives off the Kallikantzaroi. Other effective methods include hanging a pig's jawbone by the door and keeping a large fire so they can't sneak down the chimney.

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Know Yr Xmas: Ukraine

ukraine-christmas-2009-12-28-12-10-46

At Christmas, Ukrainians prepare a traditional twelve-course meal. A family's youngest child watches through the window for the evening star to appear, a signal that the feast can begin.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
An artificial spider and web are often included in the decorations on Ukrainian Christmas trees. A spider web found on Christmas morning is believed to bring good luck.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Christmas Day in the Ukraine can be celebrated on either December 25, in faithful alliance with the Roman Catholic Gregorian calendar, or on January 7, which is the Orthodox or Eastern Rite (Julian calendar), the church holy day.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
In the Ukraine, a traditional Christmas bread called "kolach" is placed in the center of the dining table. This bread is braided into a ring, and three such rings are placed one on top of the other, with a candle in the center of the top one. The three rings symbolize the Trinity.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
The table for Christmas Eve dinner in the Ukraine is set with two tablecloths: one for the ancestors of the family, the other for the living members. In pagan times, ancestors were believed to be benevolent spirits who, when shown respect, brought good fortune.

Monday, December 19, 2011

Know Yr Xmas: Food

Christmas_Tableware_Dishes

A traditional Christmas dinner in early England was the head of a pig prepared with mustard.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
At lavish Christmas feasts in the Middle Ages, swans and peacocks were sometimes served "endored." This meant the flesh was painted with saffron dissolved in melted butter. In addition to their painted flesh, endored birds were served wrapped in their own skin and feathers, which had been removed and set aside prior to roasting.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
One notable medieval English Christmas celebration featured a giant 165-pound pie. The giant pie was nine feet in diameter. Its ingredients included 2 bushels of flour, 20 pounds of butter, 4 geese, 2 rabbits, 4 wild ducks, 2 woodcocks, 6 snipes, 4 partridges, 2 neats' tongues, 2 curlews, 6 pigeons, and 7 blackbirds.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
It is estimated that 400,000 people become sick each year from eating tainted Christmas leftovers.

Sunday, December 18, 2011

Know Yr Xmas: Dickens

christmas-carol-a

Before settling on the name of Tiny Tim for his character in "A Christmas Carol," three other alliterative names were considered by Charles Dickens. They were Little Larry, Puny Pete, and Small Sam.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Charles Dickens' initial choice for Scrooge's statement "Bah Humbug" was "Bah Christmas."
~~~~~~~~~~~~
After "A Christmas Carol," Charles Dickens wrote several other Christmas stories, one each year, but none was as successful as the original.

Saturday, December 17, 2011

Know Yr Xmas: Music

Christmas_sheet_music_with_bells

Christmas caroling began as an old English custom called Wassailing - toasting neighbors to a long and healthy life.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
The popular Christmas song "Jingle Bells" was composed in 1857 by James Pierpont, and was originally called "One-Horse Open Sleigh" and written for Thanksgiving.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Child singer Jimmy Boyd was 12 years and 11 months old when he sang the Christmas favorite, "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus." The song hit the top of the pop charts.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Silent Night was written in 1818, by an Austrian priest Joseph Mohr. He was told the day before Christmas that the church organ was broken and would not be prepared in time for Christmas Eve. He was saddened by this and could not think of Christmas without music, so he wanted to write a carol that could be sung by choir to guitar music. He sat down and wrote three stanzas. Later that night the people in the little Austrian Church sang "Stille Nacht" for the first time.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
If you counted all the gifts that were given in the song “Twelve Days of Christmas” you would realize that the number of gifts being presented were 364 in total, thus a gift was given for each day of the year.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Puritans forbade the singing of Christmas carols.

Friday, December 16, 2011

Know Yr Xmas: Shopping

christmas-shopping

Although many believe the Friday after Thanksgiving is the busiest shopping day of the year, it is not. It is the fifth to tenth busiest day. The Friday and Saturday before Christmas are the two busiest shopping days of the year.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
During the Christmas buying season, Visa cards alone are used an average of 5,340 times every minute in the United States.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
20% of Americans finish off their Christmas Shopping on Christmas Eve.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Approximately $2,255,750,000 is generated by photographs with Santa in shopping malls in the USofA.