- Q is the only letter that does not appear in any U.S. state name.
- 6455 = (64 – 5) × 5
- North Dakota’s record high temperature (121°F) is higher than Florida’s (109°F).
- UNNOTICEABLY contains the vowels A, E, I, O, and U in reverse order.
- “An odd thought strikes me: We shall receive no letters in the grave.” — Samuel Johnson
Language
Anagrams
SOFTHEARTEDNESS = OFTEN SHEDS TEARS
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE = I’LL MAKE A WISE PHRASE
ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON = OUR BEST NOVELS IN STORE
HORATIO NELSON = ON, THEN, O SAILOR
SAINT VALENTINE’S DAY = NAY, A LASS INVENTED IT
THE UPHOLSTERERS = RESTORE THE PLUSH
TO CAST PEARLS BEFORE SWINE = ONE’S LABOR IS PERFECT WASTE
ANIMOSITY = IS NO AMITY
PRINCESS DIANA can be rearranged to spell ASCEND IN PARIS.
In a Word
abuccinate
v. to announce with a flourish of trumpets
Certainly, Officer
It’s said that police sergeants in Leith, Scotland, used this tongue twister as a sobriety test:
The Leith police dismisseth us,
I’m thankful, sir, to say;
The Leith police dismisseth us,
They thought we sought to stay.
The Leith police dismisseth us,
We both sighed sighs apiece;
And the sigh that we sighed as we said goodbye
Was the size of the Leith police.
If you can’t say it, you’re drunk.
In a Word
picqueter
n. one who arranges artificial flowers for a living
Arnold Bennett was surprised to find no fresh flowers in George Bernard Shaw’s apartment.
“But I thought you were so fond of flowers,” he said.
“I am,” Shaw replied, “and I’m very fond of children too, but I don’t chop their heads off and stand them in pots about the house.”
A Field Guide
Medieval sportsmen invented collective nouns for everything from owls to otters. Less well known are the terms they invented for people — this list is taken from Joseph Strutt, The Sports and Pastimes of the People of England, 1801:
- a state of princes
- a skulk of thieves
- an observance of hermits
- a lying of pardoners
- a subtlety of sergeants
- a multiplying of husbands
- an incredibility of cuckolds
- a safeguard of porters
- a stalk of foresters
- a blast of hunters
- a draught of butlers
- a temperance of cooks
- a melody of harpers
- a poverty of pipers
- a drunkenship of cobblers
- a disguising of tailors
- a wandering of tinkers
- a malapertness of peddlers
- a fighting of beggars
- a blush of boys
- a nonpatience of wives
- a superfluity of nuns
- a herd of harlots
In a Word
clinomania
n. an excessive desire to stay in bed
“The happiest part of a man’s life is what he passes lying awake in bed in the morning.” — Samuel Johnson
In a Word
hallelujatic
adj. containing hallelujahs
Hmm
This Sceptred Isle
There was a young fellow named Cholmondeley,
Who always at dinner sat dolmondeley.
His fair partner said,
As he crumbled his bread,
“Dear me! You behave very rolmondeley!”
Said a man to his spouse in east Sydenham:
“My best trousers! Now where have you hydenham?
It is perfectly true
They were not very new,
But I foolishly left half a quydenham.”
A young Englishwoman named St John
Met a red-skinned American It John
Who made her his bride
And gave her, beside,
A dress with a gaudy bead Frt John.
There was a young vicar from Salisbury
Whose manners were quite halisbury-scalisbury.
He went around Hampshire
Without any pampshire
Till his bishop compelled him to walisbury.
(Thanks, Gavin.)