For Your Education

For Your Education> >:
>
> >> Why do men’s clothes have buttons on the right while women’s clothes
>
> >> have buttons on the left?
>
> >> :
>
> >> When buttons were invented, they were very expensive and worn primarily
>
> >> by the rich. Since most people are right-handed, it is easier to push
>
> >> buttons on the right through holes on the left. Because wealthy women
>
> >> were dressed by maids, dressmakers put the buttons on the maid’s right!
>
> >> And that’s where women’s buttons have remained since.
>
> >>
>
> >> 2. WHY:
>
> >> Why do ships and aircraft use ‘mayday’ as their call for help?
>
> >> BECAUSE:
>
> >> This comes from the French word m’aidez – meaning ‘help me’ – and is
>
> >> pronounced, approximately, ‘mayday.’
>
> >>
>
> >> 3. WHY
>
> >> Why are zero scores in tennis called ‘love’?
>
> >> BECAUSE:
>
> >> In France , where tennis became popular, the round zero on the
>
> >> scoreboard looked like an egg and was called ‘l’oeuf,’ which is French
>
> >> for ‘the egg.’ When tennis was introduced in the US , Americans
>
> >> (naturally), mispronounced it ‘love.’
>
> >>
>
> >> 4. WHY:
>
> >> Why do X’s at the end of a letter signify kisses?
>
> >> BECAUSE:
>
> >> In the Middle Ages, when many people were unable to read or write,
>
> >> documents were often signed using an X. Kissing the X represented an
>
> >> oath to fulfill obligations specified in the document. The X and the
>
> >> kiss eventually became synonymous.
>
> >>
>
> >> 5. WHY:
>
> >> Why is shifting responsibility to someone else called ‘passing the
>
> >> buck’?
>
> >> BECAUSE:
>
> >> In card games, it was once customary to pass an item, called a buck,
>
> >> from player to player to indicate whose turn it was to deal. If a
>
> >> player did not wish to assume the responsibility of dealing, he would ‘pass
>
> >> the buck’ to the next player.
>
> >>
>
> >> 6. WHY:
>
> >> Why do people clink their glasses before drinking a toast?
>
> >> BECAUSE:
>
> >> In earlier times it used to be common for someone to try to kill an
>
> >> enemy by offering him a poisoned drink. To prove to a guest that a
>
> >> drink was safe, it became customary for a guest to pour a small amount of his drink into the
> glass of the host. Both men would drink it
>
> >> simultaneously. When a guest trusted his host, he would only touch or
>
> >> clink the host’s glass with his own.
>
> >>
>
> >> 7. WHY:
>
> >> Why are people in the public eye said to be ‘in the limelight’?
>
> >> BECAUSE:
>
> >> Invented in 1825, limelight was used in lighthouses and theatres by
>
> >> burning a cylinder of lime which produced a brilliant light. In the
>
> >> theatre, a performer ‘in the limelight’ was the centre of attention.
>
> >>
>
> >> 8. WHY:
>
> >> Why is someone who is feeling great ‘on cloud nine’?
>
> >> BECAUSE:
>
> >> Types of clouds are numbered according to the altitudes they attain,
>
> >> with nine being the highest cloud. If someone is said to be on cloud
>
> >> nine, that person is floating well above worldly cares.
>
> >>
>
> >> 9. WHY:
>
> >> In golf, where did the term ‘Caddie’ come from?
>
> >> BECAUSE:
>
> >> When Mary Queen of Scots went to France as a young girl, Louis, King of
>
> >> France, learned that she loved the Scots game ‘golf.’ He had the first
>
> >> course outside of Scotland built for her enjoyment. To make sure she
>
> >> was properly chaperoned (and guarded) while she played, Louis hired cadets
>
> >> from a military school to accompany her. Mary liked this a lot and when
>
> >> she returned to Scotland (not a very good idea in the long run), she
>
> >> took the practice with her. In French, the word cadet is pronounced
>
> >> ‘ca-day’ and the Scots changed it into caddie.
>
> >>
>
> >> 10. WHY:
>
> >> Why are many coin collection jar banks shaped like pigs?
>
> >> BECAUSE:
>
> >> Long ago, dishes and cookware in Europe were made of dense orange clay
>
> >> called ‘pygg’. When people saved coins in jars made of this clay, the
>
> >> jars became known as ‘pygg banks.’ When an English potter misunderstood
>
> >> the word, he made a container that resembled a pig. And it caught on.
>
> >

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