Trivia

I can’t guarantee the accuracy of all the points. :-)

Q: Why do men's clothes have buttons on the right while women's clothes have buttons on the left?

A: 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.

Q: Why do ships and aircraft use 'mayday' as their call for help?

A: This comes from the French word m'aidez -meaning 'help me' -- and is pronounced, approximately,’ mayday.'

Q: Why are zero scores in tennis called 'love'?

A: In France, where tennis became popular, round zero on the scoreboard looked like an egg and was called 'l'oeuf,' which is French for 'egg.' When tennis was introduced in the US, Americans (mis)pronounced it 'love.'

Q: Why is shifting responsibility to someone else called 'passing the buck'?

A: 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.

Q: Why do people clink their glasses before drinking a toast?

A: 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.

Q: Why are people in the public eye said to be ‘in the limelight’?

A: Invented in 1825, limelight was uses in lighthouses and theatres by burning a cylinder of lime which produced a brilliant light. In the theatrical performer 'in the limelight’ was the centre of attention.

Q: Why is someone who is feeling great ‘on cloud nine’?

A: 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. 

Q: In golf, where did the term ‘Caddie’ come from?

A: When Mary, Queen of Scots went to France as a young girl, Louis, King of France, learned that she loved the Scots game ‘golf’. So 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. In French, the word cadet is pronounced ‘ca-day’ and the Scots changed it to ‘caddie’.

Q: Did you ever wonder why dimes, quarters and half dollars have notches(milling), while pennies and nickels do not?

A: The US Mint began putting notches on the edges of coins containing gold and silver to discourage holders from shaving off small quantities of the precious metals. Dimes, quarters and half dollars are notched because they used to contain silver. Pennies and nickels aren’t notched because the metals they contain are not valuable enough to shave.

So there! Now you know!

Food For Thought

When you meet someone with good manners, you cannot know immediately if you are meeting a good person. You may not know for years, or ever. But you will know instantly that something is right about the person. - Unknown

The man who will not execute his resolutions when they are fresh upon him can have no hope from them afterwards; they will be dissipated, lost and perished in the hurry and scurry of the world, or sunk in the slough of indolence. - Unknown

The need to be focused is not because it guarantees success, but because a person only has so much time and energy to do a project well. Incidentally, it is mainly those who are focused who become most successful in life. - Unknown

Heart Warming Friendship/Relationship

Man befriends 38 lions

http://www.wimp.com/manbefriends/

Man reunites with Gorilla he raised as his son.

http://www.wimp.com/reunitesgorilla/

On Life

No matter how good things are in your life, there is always something bad that needs to be worked on. And no matter how bad things are in your life, there is always something good you can thank God for. - Rick Warren

Most men ebb and flow in wretchedness between the fear of death and the hardship of life; they are unwilling to live, and yet they do not know how to die. - Seneca

Appreciation of life itself, becoming suddenly aware of the miracle of being alive, on this planet, can turn what we call ordinary life into a miracle. - Dan Wakefield

Your living is determined not so much by what life brings to you as by the attitude you bring to life; not so much by what happens to you as by the way your mind looks at what happens. - Kahlil Gibran

We cannot tell what may happen to us in the strange medley of life. But we can decide what happens to us, how we take it, what we do with it, and that is what really counts in the end. - Joseph F. Newton

The secret of living a life of excellence is merely a matter of thinking thoughts of excellence. Really, it’s a matter of programming our minds with the kind of information that will set us free. - Charles R. Swindoll

A life lived with integrity – even if it lacks the trappings of fame and fortune is a shinning star in whose light others may follow in the years to come. - Denis Waitley

Live with intention. Walk to the edge. Continue to learn. Play with abandon. Choose with no regret. Laugh! Do what you love. Love as if this is all there is. - Mary Anne Radmacher-Hershey

It is sad indeed to die in your spirit while you live in your body. It is equally tragic to be asleep in life when you should be wide awake to this great world. - Unknown

Everything in life is temporary. So if things are going good, enjoy it because it won’t last forever. And if things are gong bad, don’t worry because it won’t last forever either. - Unknown

Blame - Quotes

A bad workman always blames his tools. - English Proverb

A person who blames others has not begun their lesson. A person who blames themselves has begun their lesson. A person who blames no one has finished their lesson. - Unknown

All blame is a waste of time. No matter how much fault you find with another, and regardless of how much you blame him, it will not change you. The only thing blame does is to keep the focus off you when you are looking for external reasons to explain your unhappiness or frustration. You may succeed in making another feel guilty about something by blaming him, but you won’t succeed in changing whatever it is about you that is making you unhappy. - Wayne Dyer

Blame is just a lazy person's way of making sense of chaos. - Douglas Coupland

Blame is not productive. Blame disguises and conceals. Blame alienates and separates. Blame is the killer of community, cooperation, and collaboration. - Peter Rouse

Blame is responsibility's arch-enemy. - Charles Stuart Platkin

Blame is the number one recipe for disaster in your home! You will not heal if you leave that word in your vocabulary. - Patrick T. Gorman

Blame is yet another way to refuse the truth looming large right in front of us. - Jeffrey Gardere

Blame the mirror if your face is ugly. - Chinese Proverb

Blameless people are always the most exasperating. - George Eliot

Don’t blame people for disappointing you. Blame yourself for expecting too much. - Unknown

He who blame others has a long way to go on his journey. He who blames himself is halfway there. He who blames no one has arrived. - Chinese Proverb

How wonderful to have someone to blame! How wonderful to live with one's nemesis! You may be miserable, but you feel forever in the right. - Erica Jong

I know I mustn’t blame anyone but sometimes it feels better to point a finger to someone else. - Unknown

It is easier to blame than do better. - German Proverb

It's too easy to criticize a man when he's out of favour, and to make him shoulder the blame for everybody else's mistakes. - Leo Tolstoy

Keep alive the light of justice, and much that men say in blame will pass you by. - Euripides

Never blame anyone in your Life. Good people give you Happiness. Bad people give you Experience. Worst people give you a Lesson, and Best people give you memories. - Unknown

Only losers and amateurs blame the cards. After all, cards don't care; they don't take sides, and they have no memory. They are blind justice holding her scales, and in the long run they'll tip evenly for the novice and the skilled alike. - Lou Krieger 

People blame their environment. There is only one person to blame – and only one – themselves. - Robert Collier

Sinful heart blames. - Toba Beta

Some blame themselves to extort the praise of contradiction from others. - Tyron Edwards

Success is never blamed. - Thomas Fuller

The absent always bear the blame. - Dutch Proverb

The cultured man always blames others; the semi-cultured man blames himself and the fully-cultured man blames neither. - Unknown

The job isn't done until you've blamed someone for the parts that went wrong. - Scott Adams

The search for a scapegoat is the easiest of all hunting expeditions. - Dwight D. Eisenhower

The search for someone to blame is always successful. - Robert Half

There is a luxury in self-reproach. When we blame ourselves, we feel that no one else has a right to blame us. - Oscar Wilde

There's nothing kills a man so soon as having nobody to find fault with but himself. - George Eliot

To err is human. To blame someone else is politics. - Hubert Humphrey

We go to the past to lay the blame – since the past can't argue. We go to our past selves to account for our present miseries. - Glen Duncan

What cannot be altered must be borne, not blamed. - Unknown

You can’t blame your opponents for applying a strategy that beats your brains out with regularity. - Bill Clinton

You could be good as gold and they’d still blame you. - Paolo Bacigalupi

You’ll never become who you want to be if you keep blaming everyone else for who you are now. - Unknown

Your life is the fruit of your own doing. You have no one to blame but yourself. - Joseph Campbell

Happiness

Happiness includes chiefly the idea of satisfaction after full honest effort. No one can possibly be satisfied and no one can be happy who feels that in some paramount affairs he failed to take up the challenge of life. - Arnold Bennett

Our happiness depends on the habit of mind we cultivate. So practice happy thinking every day. Cultivate the merry heart, develop the happiness habit, and life will become a continual feast. - Norman Vincent Peale

Such happiness as life is capable of comes from the full participation of all our powers in the endeavour to wrest from each changing situations of experience its own full and unique meaning. - John Dewey

It isn’t what you have, or who you are, or where you are, or what you are doing that makes you happy or unhappy. It is what you think about. - Dale Carnegie

The secret of happiness is this – let your interests be wide as possible, and let your reactions to the things and persons that interest you be as far as possible friendly rather than hostile. - Bertrand Russell

Happiness lives for those who cry, those who hurt, those who have searched, and those who have tried, for only they can appreciate the importance of people who have touched their lives.

Make it a habit to give – whether yourself, your time, your money, a word of encouragement, or a listening ear – and you will find peace and happiness that cannot be beaten. 

Of Blessedness / Blessings - Quotes

A contented mind is the greatest blessing a man can enjoy in this world. - Joseph Addison

Blessed are those who give without remembering. And blessed are those who take without forgetting. - Bernard Meltzer

Blessed is he who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed. - Jonathan Swift

Blessed is the person who is too busy to worry in the daytime and too sleepy to worry at night.  - Unknown

Blessings are everywhere. We just just need positive thoughts to notice them. - Unknown

Blessings go to the grateful hearts; they shun those who complain that they never get enough. - Unknown

Blessings sometimes show up in unrecognizable disguises. - Janette Oke

Count your blessings, and do not forget the small ones – small blessings add up to large ones. - Unknown

Count your blessings. Once you realize how valuable you are and how much you have going for you, the smiles will return, the sun will break out, the music will play, and you will finally be able to move forward with grace, strength, courage, and confidence. - Og Mandino

Do not indulge in dreams of having what you have not, but reckon up the chief of the blessings you do possess, and then thankfully remember how you would crave for them if they were not yours. - Marcus Aurelius

Forget the troubles that pass your way; but never forget the blessings that come each day. - Unknown

I’m just thankful for everything, all the blessings in my life, trying to stay that way. I think that’s the best way to start your day and finish your day. It keeps everything in perspective. - Tim Tebow

If we magnified blessings as much as we magnify disappointments, we would all be much happier. - John Wooden

If you have health, if you have people in your life to love, you are blessed. Slow down and enjoy the simple things in life. - Unknown

Men are slower to recognize blessings than misfortunes. - Titus Livius

Not what we say about our blessings, but how we use them, is the true measure of our thanksgiving. - W.T. Purkiser

Our real blessings often appear to us in the shapes of pains, losses and the disappointments; but let us have patience, and we soon shall see them in their proper figures. - Joseph Addison

Reflect upon your present blessings, of which every man has many – not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some. Be thankful for what you have, not sad about what you do not have. - Charles Dickens

Sit outside today for five or ten minutes, breathe deeply, and count your blessings. Your day will improve. - Unknown

That man is blest who does his best and leaves the rest. - Charles F. Deems

The great blessings of mankind are with us, and within our reach; but we shut our eyes and, like people in the dark, fall foul of the very thing we search for without finding it. - Seneca

The hardest arithmetic to master is that which enables us to count our blessings. - Eric Hoffer

Three meals plus bedtime make four sure blessings a day. - Mason Cooley

What seems to us as bitter trials are often blessings in disguise. - Oscar Wilde

When I start counting my blessings, my whole life turned around. - Willie Nelson

When we focus on how blessed we are, we tend to draw more blessings to us. When we focus on lack, we create more of it. - Brandon Bays

You never appreciate your blessings as much as when they are gone. - Unknown

Quote Worthy

We have to talk about liberating minds as well as liberating society. - Angela Davis

True independence and freedom can only exist in doing what’s right. - Brigham Young

Behind every successful man , there is an untold pain in his heart. - Bill Jacobs

Neither fire nor wind, birth nor death can erase our good deeds. - The Buddha

Take care to get what you like or you will be forced to like what you get. - George Bernard Shaw

They understand but a little who understand only what can be explained. - Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach

The patient is not likely to recover who makes the doctor his heir. - Thomas Fuller

Choose your friends carefully. Your enemies will choose you. - Yassir Arafat

Just remember, once you’re over the hill you begin to pick up speed. - Arthur Schopenhauer

Resolve to be thyself; and know that who finds himself, loses his misery. - Matthew Arnold 

We are so fond on one another because our ailments are the same. - Jonathan Swift 

We promise according to our hopes, and perform according to our fears. - Duc de La Rochefoucauld

It is easier to be wise for others than for ourselves. - Duc de La Rochefoucauld

Spiritual Thoughts

Whoever does not detach himself from the ego never attains the Absolute and never deciphers life. - Constantin Brancusi

As I make my slow pilgrimage through the world, a certain sense of beautiful mystery seems to gather and grow. - A. C. Benson

Nothing is more important than reconnecting with your bliss. Nothing is as rich. Nothing is more real. - Deepak Chopra

Myths and creeds are heroic struggles to comprehend the truth in the world. - Ansel Adams

Whatever the universal nature assigns to any man at any time is for the good of that man at that time. - Marcus Aurelius

How easy it is to repel and erase every impression which is troublesome or unwelcome, and immediately to be tranquil. - Marcus Aurelius

Separate we come, and separate we go, And this be it known, is all that we know. - Conrad Aiken

Let thine occupations be few, saith the sage, if thou wouldst lead a tranquil life. - Marcus Aurelius

Look within. Within is the fountain of good, and it will ever bubble up, if thou wilt ever dig. - Marcus Aurelius

It is a shameful thing for the soul to faint while the body still perseveres. - Marcus Aurelius

What springs from earth dissolves to earth again, and heaven-born things fly to their native seat. - Marcus Aurelius

A drop of water has the tastes of the water of the seven seas: there is no need to experience all the ways of worldly life. - Hung Tzu Ch'eng

Food For Thought

You are always a valuable, worthwhile human being – not because anybody says so, not because you're successful, not because you make a lot of money – but because you decide to believe it and for no other reason. - Wayne Dyer

The heart's affections are divided like the branches of the cedar tree; if the tree loses one strong branch; it will suffer but it does not die; it will pour all its vitality into the next branch so that it will grow and fill the empty place. - Khalil Gibran

It costs so much to be a full human being that there are very few who have the love and courage to pay the price. One has to abandon altogether the search for security and reach out to the risk of living with both arms. One has to embrace life like a lover. - Morris West