'Everything You Think You Know is Wrong'

So. Hubs sent me this AMAZING book for Christmas, “The Book of General Ignorance.” It was put together by some of the writers for Q.I. and Not the Nine O’Clock News. I am only about 20 pages into it but spent the entire day cracking up and paraphrasing to my work cohorts, who were curious as to why I kept snickering in the corner. If you’re familiar with those shows, you can imagine the quick- and dry-witted humor that goes into the explanations, but I don’t have time to plagiarize pages on end. So here is a brief synopsis of my favorites so far.

 

-Whiskey was actually invented in Ancient China

-Chicken Tikka Masala is a British dish, not Indian, and has no standardized recipie

-Croatia means ‘tie land’ from Latin cravat, from Croatian hravat

-Marco Polo was a big liar, from Croatia [hey!] and also loosely translates to ‘Mark Chicken’ [lol]

-Rickshaws were invented by an American Missionary named Jon Scobie to drive his invalid wife down the streets in Japan [this one stood out to me because I grew up with a Great Dane named Scobie, but he was named after the astronaut. Who is ironically from Auburn, WA; which is only a hop skip and jump from where I live!]

-We can technically see 4 galaxies from earth, but only 2 at a time [2 per hemisphere]

-Ursus Arctos is not polar bear, but actually the brown bear, and translates via latin and greek respectively, into ‘bear bear’. The Arctic region is named for the bear, not the other way around; since Ursa Major points to the north, it is the ‘Land of the Bear’

-Also, bears are most closely related to dogs

-Chameleons are deaf! And do not change color for their surroundings, but instead due to their emotions, ie, fear.

-Male mosquitoes become “sexually enticed” by the note of a B-natural tuning fork

-Golfish have a memory of at least three months

-Female mosquitoes still kill one person every twelve seconds

-A blue whale’s esophagus is only about the size of a grapefruit. But its tongue weighs more than an elephant, and its heart is the size of a small sedan.

-The largest egg-to-bird ratio is the spotted kiwi, whose egg is 26% of its own weight; equivalent to a human woman birthing a six-year-old child o.O

-Antarctica is actually the world’s driest desert.