I have always been extremely interested in the origination of words and phrases but, if you’ve read the previous Tuesday Trivia posts; that’s something you might have already noticed. In a post last week I mentioned that I’d include the derivation of the phrase “cut the mustard” in this weeks edition of Tuesday Trivia; and so I will - kind of. But I’ve included 9 other bits of useless information that are a little more cut and dried (yeah, I’ll get around to digging up the story behind that phrase one of these days). Here goes!
- I’ve always been somewhat curious about the phrase “cut the mustard” because I’ve never found cutting mustard to be particularly challenging. So I did some research. According to most word etymologists the “cut” in the phrase “cut the mustard” refers to “making the cut”; being good enough to qualify. About “the mustard” though there seems to be much disagreement. I’m inclined to believe it came from an old cowboy phrase, “the proper mustard”, that alludes to the many recipes used to make mustard and refers to the preferred variety of any given population. Almost all agree, however, that the first use of the phrase is by O Henry in a 1907 story called The Heart of the West: “I looked around and found a proposition that exactly cut the mustard”.
- The name of Wyoming comes from a Native American word meaning “mountains and valleys alternating.”
- Montana got its name when then territorial governor J. M. Ashley picked a Latinized Spanish word meaning “mountainous” out of a Latin dictionary.
- In 1945 Ruth & Eliot Handler, along with Harold “Matt” Matson, founded the Mattel Toy Company. Ruth and Eliot had two children named…what else…Barbara (nicknamed “Barbie”) and Kenneth. Hmmm…wasn’t the Ken doll supposed to be Barbie’s boyfriend?
- Barbie’s full name is Barbara Millicent Roberts and she lives in the fictional town of Willows, Wisconsin.
- Roman soldiers were paid in salt. The Latin word salarium means “salt as pay” or “pay specifically for the purchase of salt”. Hence, the modern word salary.
- There are no direct descendants of George Washington.
- Tim Berners-Lee and not, to my amazement, Al Gore is commonly credited with inventing the Internet.
- U.S. Patent #D219,584 was issued in 1970 to veteran movie actor Steve McQueen. What did he invent? Why, the Bucket Seat, of course.
- Clock hands move “clockwise”, from left to right, because clocks were invented by northerners mimicking the movement of the sun which, from their perspective, moved from left to right. This is also why the hands are straight up at noon; the time when the sun should be directly overhead. Don’t ask me any embarassing questions about why they’re also straight up at midnight; okay?
Well, that’s it for this week. If you know any interesting trivia tidbits, more interesting than the drivel I just gave you, leave it in the “comments” section. See ya later.
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That’s really random information…but you know damn well that the next time someone mentions a Barbie doll we’re all going to ask them if they know where Ken and Barbie are from!