Random facts, just for fun and curiosity

[ChrissyRyan]

Chinese fortune cookies did not originate in China.  They may have Japanese origins. 
They were popularized in California restaurants.

[ChrissyRyan]

Golf balls have over 300 dimples.



The Eiffel Tower was originally proposed for Barcelona, but the city rejected Gustave Eiffel's design, considering it an eyesore.  @Devlyn

[Lori Dee]

The umbrella originated in China around the 4th century.

Umbrellas were only used by women as a sunshade and were considered effeminate.

In England, at least, the man credited with ushering in a new age of gender-neutral weather protection was merchant and philanthropist Jonas Hanway. Having spotted the umbrella put to good use during his many travels, Hanway took to carrying one through rainy London in the 1750s, a sight met with open jeering by surprised onlookers. The greatest abuse apparently came from coach drivers, who counted on inclement weather to drive up demand for a dry, comfy ride. But Hanway took the derision in stride. Shortly after his death in 1786, an umbrella advertisement surfaced in the London Gazette, a harbinger of sunnier days to come for the accessory's reputation as a rain repellant for all.

Source Link

[ChrissyRyan]

Umbrellas can also be used as a portable or as a fixed location (patio table) sunshade.

So you can use them rain or shine.


I suggest you consider not using them on very windy days.

[Northern Star Girl]

Hmmmm....
 
    Why would one "park" on a  DRIVEWAY
       
                          and

    "drive" on a PARKWAY   
               
           

[ChrissyRyan]

Rolls Royce cars have a hole in a door's side opening to contain a long umbrella.

[ChrissyRyan]

Magnets are in lots of things.

There are sometimes fun to play with too.

[ChrissyRyan]

Ham comes from the leg of a pig.  The thinner part of the leg is called the shank, its short end piece (the hock) is removed from the ham.  The wider part is called the butt.  The meat is cured with water, sugar, salt, and maybe other spices, to give the ham its usual color and flavor.  Then it is smoked to cook it.

Usually hams with the bone still in it are more flavorful than hams without the bone.

[ChrissyRyan]

Stainless steel was invented in the early 1900s, and has as its key ingredient chrome.
This chrome forms a protective oxide film on its surface.

[Lori Dee]

I have been mining gold in the Black Hills of South Dakota for about ten years. But the gold I dig up is not "Black Hills Gold," as that is a trade name for a specific type of jewelry.

There was a time when all Black Hills Gold jewelry was sourced from the Black Hills of South Dakota. After the closing of the Homestake Mine (one of the largest gold producers in the U.S.), the gold is now sourced from just about anywhere. However, by law, the jewelry piece must be crafted in the Black Hills to be called Black Hills Gold, and the piece must be marked with a trademark stamp to verify this.

Black Hills gold jewelry is noted not by a single color or type of gold but by the unique design of the pieces, typically handcrafted to depict leaves, grape clusters, and vines. Black Hills gold pieces are easily recognizable for their distinctive colors and are often made with gold colored in more than one tone.

Black Hills gold jewelry is made with alloys of gold, with standard yellow gold as well as green and pink gold. Silver is alloyed with yellow gold to produce 14-karat green gold, while copper is alloyed with yellow gold to create 14-karat red or pink gold.

These alloys are then molded, assembled, and handcrafted into a beautiful finished piece.

https://www.google.com/search?q=black+hills+gold+jewelry&udm=2&dpr=3

[davina61]

Cornish pasty is a protected name, you may only call a pasty Cornish if made in Cornwall.

[ChrissyRyan]

Doughnuts used to be called oily cakes because they were deep fried in pork fat.

[ChrissyRyan]

Doughnuts used to be ball shaped.  Then it was discovered that they could cook much more evenly if they removed dough from their middles.

Doughnuts were brought to the American continent by the Dutch.

The two basic types of doughnuts are the yeast doughnuts and the cake type doughnuts.

[ChrissyRyan]

Charcoal briquettes were invented in 1897.  "Hotter interest" did not arise until the 1920s.  That is when automaker Henry Ford decided to recycle wood scraps from automobile manufacturing to make charcoal briquettes.

[ChrissyRyan]

Many of those crosswalk buttons do nothing to activate the walk signal, so I hear.  It is for psychological comfort and potential signal activating if traffic management people want to set it up.

[MaryT]

Budweiser is a type of beer named after the town in which it is produced, Budweis in German or České Budějovice in Czech.  Adolphus Busch admitted that the American product was an attempt to recreate the quality of the beer made in Budweis but Anheuser-Busch trademarked the name, preventing Budweiser made in Budweis from being called Budweiser in the USA.  In fact, according to Wikipedia, it has so far resulted in over 100 lawsuits worldwide since 1907.  In Britain we can drink both American Budweiser and Czech Budweiser Budvar.  My work colleagues used to agree that Budvar was the superior product but that may have been out of sympathy for the underdog.  I am not a beer connoisseur myself. 

Cornish pasty is a protected name, you may only call a pasty Cornish if made in Cornwall.

If Hamburger, Frankfurter, Wiener, Vienna, Berliner, Steak Canadienne and French Fries become protected names, I might starve to death.

If President Trump really wants to annoy the British, he could to a Budweiser and trademark Cornish Pasty.

[ChrissyRyan]

Anheuser-Busch, the company that makes Budweiser, is wholly owned by a Belgium based company.

[MaryT]

Anheuser-Busch, the company that makes Budweiser, is wholly owned by a Belgium based company.

It's true what they say, then - what goes around comes around.

[ChrissyRyan]

Those big metal shipping drums were first manufactured for the oil industry in the late 1800s.

Oil companies were using wooden barrels, which leaked.  The first metal drums leaked too.  After they started to weld the drums the leaks stopped.

Now these drums are used to contain all kinds of things.

[ChrissyRyan]

Those ice cream cones you fill up with ice cream originated over a hundred years ago.
The first ones were waffle cones.

Note that those pointy end cones you see may be either a waffle cone or a sugar cone.  There is a difference.
Sugar cones are stronger than waffle cones and may be more appropriate to use with hard ice creams.

The cones that are not shaped like cones with the pointy ends are likely cake cones.  These cones have flat bottoms are less sugary and more flakey than the waffle or sugar cones. 

That's the scoop on ice cream cones!