A rapists?

Ok one ticket to hell please. Nice one subby

"I said rape? Twice? My words."

The tale about the Germans laughing at "Ich bin ein Berliner" is a falsehood. I wonder what other entries there are anecdotal.

One German dish that never caught on in America is the berliner, a type of doughnut, from Berlin. That's why President Kennedy caused such hilarity among Germans when he visited Berlin in 1963, and said: 'Ich bin ein Berliner'.

Aww jeez, not this shiat again (new window)

Early explorers in the Americas saw flocks of turkeys singing in the magnolia forests, for the turkey is native to America.

You know how I know you've never seen a real live turkey?

This article is largely nonsense.

puckrock2000: One German dish that never caught on in America is the berliner, a type of doughnut, from Berlin. That's why President Kennedy caused such hilarity among Germans when he visited Berlin in 1963, and said: 'Ich bin ein Berliner'.

Aww jeez, not this shiat again (new window)

Early explorers in the Americas saw flocks of turkeys singing in the magnolia forests, for the turkey is native to America.

You know how I know you've never seen a real live turkey?

British editorial standards strike again!- That should be a Daily Mail headline.

"All medieval French gamblers needed for a good day's sport was a pot, a few stones and a chicken."

All modern gamblers need for a good day's sport is some pot to get stoned, and some chicken.

/Coincidence?

Evildog: This article top selling book is largely nonsense.



FTFY.


/Ahhh, the Brits. What won't they believe?!

I call bullshiat.

I haven't done any research and I know people were using farking cranes for MILLENIA before this Derrick guy came along.

This is probably a case of nomitive determinism, if anything.

I used to love reading stuff like this when I was a kid. It was a long time before I discovered that most of it was complete hogwash. Now whenever someone repeats a "fun fact" I usually think "Are you sure?" rather than "that's neat."

Thanks for the snopes link about the Berliner speech. I guess I'm still not cynical enough.

Snopes is actually wrong on this. JFK actually did say "Ich bin ein Berliner" and hence called himself a doughnut. Obviously the crowd knew exactly what he meant to say, and cheered wildly when he said it. But linguistically speaking, he callled himself a doughnut.

Also, there are any number of American doughnuts nearly identical to a Berliner. OTOH, the Herms have a pastry callled an Amerikaner which is completely unknown in the States.

Hey Subby!

FTFA:That rapist was Derrick. He turned out to be a very original hangman, developing a sophisticated new gallows. Rather than just slinging the rope over a beam, he invented a complicated system of ropes and pulleys; and it was by this method that, in 1601, he executed his old boss, the Earl of Essex, for treason.

His rope system began to be used for loading and unloading
goods at the docks; and that's why modern cranes still have a derrick - named after a rapist.

How the Romans gave us text messages

It's all thanks to Quintilian, the great 1st century Roman orator. In
his book on speeches, Quintilian said that, after you have chosen your
words, they must be weaved together into a fine and delicate fabric - and
the Latin for fabric is textum.

Quintilian's metaphor has clung on for 2,000 years. We still weave
stories together, embroider them and try never to lose the thread of
the tale. Later classical writers took up text to mean any short passage
in a book.

More recently, we started using text to mean anything that was written
down; and then somebody invented the SMS message, borrowing
Quintilian's metaphor in the process.

...they must be weaved together into a fine and delicate fabric...

...borrowing Quintilian's metaphor in the process.

...they must be weaved together into a fine and delicate fabric...

...borrowing Quintilian's metaphor in the process.

...a fine and delicate fabric...

...borrowing Quintilian's metaphor in the process.

...fine and delicate...

...borrowing Quintilian's metaphor in the process.

...fine...

...borrowing Quintilian's metaphor in the process.

...delicate...

...

The Romans did NOT give us text messaging.

You... FAIL.

I enjoy stories like these. yeah, fact checking doesn't always happen. Fact checked on that is cool:Earl Grey Tea named after an Earl last name of Grey who had a hand outlawing slavery in England in 1832. My wife's ancestor left England about that time. He was a black slave. She is white with only the nose suggesting otherwise. History is fun for me.

This is pretty interesting stuff, but since it's from the Daily Fail I'm just assuming most of it is bull shiat.

Example: The earl of Essex was not hanged by the pardoned rapist. He was beheaded. For farks sake Daily Fail, this is the stuff you guys should have learned in grade school. If you can't keep simple facts straight, how is anyone supposed to believe the rest of it?

/I still might read the book though

And in other history. Rape used to mean sowing seed into the ground/dirt. It had nothing to do with forcing a woman at all.

Gunny Highway: "I said rape? Twice? My words."

Three times, actually.

He *really* likes rape.

Jim.Casy: This is pretty interesting stuff, but since it's from the Daily Fail I'm just assuming most of it is bull shiat.

Example: The earl of Essex was not hanged by the pardoned rapist. He was beheaded.

Once you start tinkering with pulleys and weights, these are not mutually exclusive. It's only after the proper ratios are achieved can one be said to be "well hung". This fact should also have been included in TFA.

Textum is the transitive form of TEXO, which means to build, weave, make, contrive. so f(_)ck the author. he is clearly an asinius foramen....

Also the latin word for wool is LANA not burra, burra is not a latin word, at all in anyway. why do people get away with this kinda of farkin lie? Julius Caesar must be rolling in his sepulchrum.

I feel like they stole all of those anecdotes from pocketninja.

Interesting fact I've noticed connected to the turkey/Turkey thing: the French call them d'Inde (i.e. "of India") and in Portuguese it's peru (i.e. "Peru"). Anyone know any other examples of that? Does anyone not name them after a country?

Wow the word "crane" came from the word "derrick" subby?

Write "rape" more, THAT you are good at, moran.

Not in any way surprised that TFA is a badly written list of lies, outright lies, apocrypha and poor journalism, I'm just amazed that any Farker mistakes the Daily Fail for a reputable news source.

Foreground My Ass: [img809.imageshack.us image 600x428]

tarnok: I used to love reading stuff like this when I was a kid. It was a long time before I discovered that most of it was complete hogwash. Now whenever someone repeats a "fun fact" I usually think "Are you sure?" rather than "that's neat."

Thanks for the snopes link about the Berliner speech. I guess I'm still not cynical enough.

Ah, little known facts, the domain of the Dave Barrys of the world. As you can see, he's getting more paid pageviews on his books than we ever will!

Carlip: Also the latin word for wool is LANA not burra, burra is not a latin word, at all in anyway. why do people get away with this kinda of farkin lie? Julius Caesar must be rolling in his sepulchrum.

Burra is a Latin word, and it does indeed mean a woolen garment. Go on, look it up, I'll wait. It's not the Latin of Caeser's time, but still standardized Latin. Contrary to popular belief, Latin did evolve internally for centuries before fragmenting and becoming the romance languages.

Also, the entire book was apparently composed by thumbing through dictionaries and weaving stories around any interesting-looking etymologies. I wonder if I could get published for doing the same, especially if I Dan Brown it up a bit.