One, Two, Three …

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Magpie_hopscotch.jpg
Image: Wikimedia Commons

It’s ironic that hopscotch has come to be known as a little girl’s game, because it couldn’t have a more masculine pedigree. The first hopscotch courts were used in military training exercises in ancient Britain during the early Roman Empire. Footsoldiers wearing field packs and full body armor ran through courts 100 feet long, much as football players run through truck tires today.

Imitating the soldiers, Roman children drew their own smaller courts and added a scoring system, which has been preserved remarkably well for more than a thousand years as the game has spread to France (where it’s called “Marelles”), Germany (“Templehupfen”), the Netherlands (“Hinkelbaan”), India (“Ekaria Dukaria”), and even Vietnam (“Pico”) and Argentina (“Rayuela”).

Today’s children still draw their hopscotch courts with the word “London” at the top, without knowing that they’re representing the Great North Road, a 400-mile Roman road from Glasgow to London that was frequently used by the Roman military.

| History

Rimshot

After years of work, some programmers unveil a new supercomputer. They say it knows everything.

A skeptical man asks the computer, “Where is my father?”

The computer thinks, then says, “Your father is fishing in Michigan.”

The man laughs. “See? I knew this was nonsense. My father has been dead for 20 years.”

“No,” the computer says. “Your mother’s husband has been dead for 20 years. Your father just landed a three-pound trout.”

| Humor

Commuting Times

Average travel time to work:

  • New York: 39.0 minutes
  • Los Angeles: 28.1 minutes
  • Chicago: 33.1 minutes
  • Houston: 25.9 minutes
  • Philadelphia: 29.2 minutes
  • Phoenix: 24.7 minutes
  • San Diego: 22.6 minutes
  • Dallas: 25.2 minutes
  • San Antonio: 21.5 minutes
  • Detroit: 24.2 minutes

The average U.S. commute is 24.3 minutes.

| Trivia

Speak Up, Please

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Jean_Paul_Laurens_Le_Pape_Formose_et_Etienne_VII_1870.jpg

The appropriate word here is “Bleeaagh.” In 897, Pope Stephen VI dug up the decomposing body of his predecessor and put it on trial for violating church law. Formosus, who had been dead for nine months, was found guilty and buried again. Rome turned against Stephen, who was eventually strangled in prison. It’s known as the cadaver synod or, in Latin, the “synodus horrenda.”

| Death · Oddities · Religion

Snake Oil

Contents of Stanley’s Snake Oil, produced by “Rattlesnake King” Clark Stanley in 1917, as determined by the federal government:

  • mineral oil
  • 1% fatty oil (presumed to be beef fat)
  • red pepper
  • turpentine
  • camphor

I.e., no actual snake oil. But it’s pretty close to modern-day capsaicin-based liniments, so it may still have worked pretty well as intended.

| Hoaxes

PWEEN!

Sound effects created by MAD cartoonist Don Martin:

  • CHONK KRAKLE GLUK: man eating glass
  • FFFFOOOOOOOO: Frankenstein exhaling
  • FIDIP-FIDIP: ant boxing a cow’s udder
  • FLIFFLAFF: Dracula opening his cape
  • FLOON: atomic blast at Ground Zero
  • FOOWOOM: flamethrower scorching condemned man
  • FWAP: construction worker slapping sign out of a hippie’s hand
  • FWEE: hat flying off the head of a man reacting to a horror comic
  • FWUMP: werewolf being caught by a dogcatcher
  • GARUNK GASPLOOSH GARUNK GASPLOOSH: Indian pumping water out of cactus
  • GEEEN: Plasticman giving a guy on the 32nd floor the finger
  • KLANG: water skier’s head hitting armored truck
  • KLOONK KA-DOONK: blind man and seeing eye dog walking into pole
  • KOONG: man getting hit in head with wheelbarrow full of cement
  • KWONK: Mary Worth getting punched out for not minding her own business
  • NOT-A-SOUND: Indian running through woods
  • ZWEECH: The Phantom closing the zipper on his purple bodysuit

PITTWEEN SPLATCH THORK BLOOF THLIK GLITCH GLUTCH PITTWOON PLAF PLOOF SPLITCH THUK THAP PLOOP is the sound of a bullet ricocheting off a ceiling, through six heads, off a wall, then through six more heads.

| Humor