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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I read em all!!And golly if there weren't a lot of repeats.
And partially or utterly incorrect info.
I apologize in advance, I'm anal like that. (been keeping notes of stuff to correct as I read along)
The main reason that American English spells things differently than the folks in the UK has it's roots in Noah Webster, father of the modern dictionary. He thought that some of the British spellings were confusing, or useless (The U in colour really isn't necessary, now is it?) and he desired to simplify things. Someone mentioned Theodore Roosevelt earlier. He isn't the force behind these much earlier changes, but he did try to simplifiy things even further (knife would be nife, ect.) by executive order, but pretty much no one agreed with him, and he really pissed off Congress by doing so without working through them to legislate the change. His efforts failed, but he did continue to use Simplified English in his personal correspondence, I believe for the rest of his life.
(, Sun 20 Mar 2005, 6:46, Reply)
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