Useless InformationDid you know that crabs wee through their eyes? That maidenhair moss is so called because Anglo-saxons thought it looked like pubes? That Albanians have 17 different words for moustache? Astound us with your utterly useless and obscure knowledge.
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chthonic, Thu 17 Mar 2005, 14:48)
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Americans, driving and spellingContrary to earlier posts, Americans did not choose to drive on the right or change their spelling to annoy the British.
In the early days of motoring when there were very few cars on the road, the steering wheel was always in the centre and cars would drive on the left. A particularly popular model came out (I forget the name) that had the steering wheel on the left, this encouraged people to drive on the right. By the time all the rules of the road were made, people were driving on the left.
The changes in spelling are the responsibility of one president (I'm guessing Teddy Roosevelt, but I'm probably remembering wrong). He started a campaign to remove superfluous letters (like the u in colour), standardise on one letter where two make the same sound (s and z in standardis(z)e), and simplify spelling in other ways. He wanted to go much further than he actually did, but he wasn't president long enough!
Fact!
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Silva, Fri 18 Mar 2005, 12:49,
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