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Post by goodgrief on Mar 4, 2015 14:15:21 GMT -5
An Army vs. Navy football game around the turn of last century, Navy was a heavy favorite. The night before some enterprising cadets decided to capture the Navy mascot. The next morning, the midshipmen went to feed the mascot, and he was gone. In a panic they started looking for the mascot, and telling their supporters to help them look. It was to no avail. Army defeated the heavily favored but demoralized Navy team. That is why, to this day, you never want to let anyone "Get your goat." Never heard that one before yogi thank you.
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Post by goodgrief on Mar 12, 2015 12:39:19 GMT -5
CURFEW
The word "curfew" comes from the French phrase "couvre-feu", which means "cover the fire". It was used to describe the time of blowing out all lamps and candles. It was later adopted into Middle English as "curfeu", which later became the modern "curfew". In the early American colonies homes had no real fireplaces so a fire was built in the center of the room. In order to make sure a fire did not get out of control during the night it was required that, by an agreed upon time, all fires would be covered with a clay pot called-a "curfew".
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Post by goodgrief on Mar 15, 2015 11:43:02 GMT -5
An Army vs. Navy football game around the turn of last century, Navy was a heavy favorite. The night before some enterprising cadets decided to capture the Navy mascot. The next morning, the midshipmen went to feed the mascot, and he was gone. In a panic they started looking for the mascot, and telling their supporters to help them look. It was to no avail. Army defeated the heavily favored but demoralized Navy team. That is why, to this day, you never want to let anyone "Get your goat." More more Yogi. I have about run out.
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Post by Schmoopy1000 on Mar 15, 2015 13:20:23 GMT -5
An Army vs. Navy football game around the turn of last century, Navy was a heavy favorite. The night before some enterprising cadets decided to capture the Navy mascot. The next morning, the midshipmen went to feed the mascot, and he was gone. In a panic they started looking for the mascot, and telling their supporters to help them look. It was to no avail. Army defeated the heavily favored but demoralized Navy team. That is why, to this day, you never want to let anyone "Get your goat." More more Yogi. I have about run out.
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Post by goodgrief on Mar 22, 2015 10:50:08 GMT -5
The youngest US serviceman in WWII was 12 year old Calvin Graham, USN. He was wounded and given a Dishonorable Discharge for lying about his age. His benefits were later restored by act of Congress.
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Post by goodgrief on Mar 23, 2015 9:44:43 GMT -5
At the time of Pearl Harbor , the top US Navy command was called CINCUS (pronounced 'sink us'); The shoulder patch of the US Army's 45th Infantry division was the swastika. Hitler's private train was named 'Amerika.' All three were soon changed for PR purposes.
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Post by Yogisd1 on Mar 26, 2015 6:16:48 GMT -5
This comes to us from the pirates of Port Royal,Jamaica. Having only single shot black powder pistols and cutlasses, they would carry as many of these as they could. In addition they would carry a knife in their teeth, hence the phrase "Armed to the teeth".
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Post by goodgrief on Apr 1, 2015 12:48:55 GMT -5
HOT OFF THE PRESS
As the paper goes through the rotary printing press friction causes it to heat up. Therefore, if you grab the paper right off the press it is hot. The expression means to get immediate information.
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Post by goodgrief on Apr 7, 2015 15:04:37 GMT -5
In WW11 it was a common practice on USA fighter planes to load every 5th round with a tracer round to aid in aiming. This was a big mistake. Tracers had different ballistics so (at long range) if your tracers were hitting the target 80% of your rounds were missing. Worse yet tracers instantly told your enemy he was under fire and from which direction. Worst of all was the practice of loading a string of tracers at the end of the belt to tell you that you were out of ammo. This was definitely not something you wanted to tell the enemy. Units that stopped using tracers saw their success rate nearly double and their loss rate go down.
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Post by goodgrief on Apr 26, 2015 9:19:49 GMT -5
During WWII German Me-264 bombers were capable of bombing New York City , but they decided it wasn't worth the effort.
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Post by goodgrief on May 6, 2015 11:12:37 GMT -5
Manure... An interesting fact Manure: In the 16th and 17th centuries, everything had to be transported by ship and it was also before the invention of commercial fertilizers, so large shipments of manure were quite common. It was shipped dry, because in dry form it weighed a lot less than when wet, but once water (at sea) hit it, not only did it become heavier, but the process of fermentation began again, of which a by product is methane gas of course. As the stuff was stored below decks in bundles you can see what could (and did) happen. Methane began to build up below decks and the first time someone came below at night with a lantern, BOOOOM! Several ships were destroyed in this manner before it was determined just what was happening After that, the bundles of manure were always stamped with the instruction 'Stow high in transit' on them, which meant for the sailors to stow it high enough off the lower decks so that any water that came into the hold would not touch this volatile cargo and start the production of methane. Thus evolved the term 'S.H.I.T', (Stow High In Transit) which has come down through the centuries and is in use to this very day. You probably did not know the true history of this word. (Not too positive on the factual content on this one) Update: Story too good to be true. Here is what snopes has to say. www.snopes.com/language/acronyms/shit.asp
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Post by goodgrief on May 7, 2015 10:28:49 GMT -5
The use of hello as a telephone greeting has been credited to Thomas Edison; according to one source, he expressed his surprise with a misheard Hullo. Alexander Graham Bell initially used Ahoy (as used on ships) as a telephone greeting. However, in 1877, Edison wrote to T.B.A. David, the president of the Central District and Printing Telegraph Company of Pittsburgh:
Friend David, I do not think we shall need a call bell as Hello! can be heard 10 to 20 feet away.
What you think? Edison - P.S. first cost of sender & receiver to manufacture is only $7.00.
By 1889, central telephone exchange operators were known as 'hello-girls' due to the association between the greeting and the telephone.
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Post by goodgrief on Jul 26, 2015 10:54:29 GMT -5
YOU KNOW YOU ARE LIVING IN 2014 when... 1. You accidentally enter your PIN on the microwave. 2. You haven't played solitaire with real cards in years. 3. You have a list of 15 phone numbers to reach your family of three. 4. You e-mail the person who works at the desk next to you. 5. Your reason for not staying in touch with friends and family is that they don't have e-mail addresses. 6. You pull up in your own driveway and use your cell phone to see if anyone is home to help you carry in the groceries... 7. Every commercial on television has a Web site at the bottom of the screen 8. Leaving the house without your cell phone, which you didn't even have the first 20 or 30 (or 60) years of your life, is now a cause for panic and you turn around to go and get it.! 10. You get up in the morning and go on-line before getting your coffee 11. You start tilting your head sideways to smile. 12 You're reading this and nodding and laughing. 13. Even worse, you know exactly to whom you are going to forward this message. 14. You are too busy to notice there was no #9 on this list. 15. You actually scrolled back up to check that there wasn't a #9 on this list . ~~~~~~~~~~~AND FINALLY~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ NOW you're LAUGHING at yourself.! Blessed are they who can laugh at themselves, for they shall never cease to be amused.!" (Unknown Author)
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Post by goodgrief on Mar 5, 2016 11:54:27 GMT -5
In Shakespeare’s time, mattresses were secured on bed frames by ropes. When you pulled on the ropes, the mattress tightened, making the bed firmer to sleep on. Hence, the phrase...’Goodnight , sleep tight'
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Post by goodgrief on Mar 10, 2016 17:07:00 GMT -5
It was the accepted practice in Babylon 4,000 years ago that for a month after the wedding, the bride’s father would supply his son-in-law with all the mead he could drink. Mead is a honey beer and, because their calendar was lunar based, this period was called the honey month, which we know today as the honeymoon.
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