Today I’m sharing some fun and interesting trivia. Right after I put this cute cat meme up.
Now, on to more serious, or not so serious stuff.
I saw this at the Trivia Genius Website : “The alphabet hasn’t always been an A-to-Z affair. In fact, the very last letter added to the alphabet we use was “J,” back in the mid-1500s. In the Roman alphabet, “J” was essentially a fancier way of writing the letter “I,” known as a “swash.” “J” was primarily used at the end of a series of lower-case “i”s to depict numerals, like “xiij” for the number 13. “J” was also used interchangeably with “I” for both vowel and consonant sounds. But an Italian Renaissance grammarian named Gian Giorgio Trissino changed all that when he suggested, in 1524, that the letters “I” and “J” were indeed different. Were it not for him, the alphabet song just wouldn’t be the same.”
I enjoy wasting time, er, learning new things, so I play this trivia game frequently for ten minutes or until I miss a correct answer. Some sessions are very short. 🙂
And while I was at the website the other day, I found these interesting facts about women’s clothing and pockets. Mainly, why our pockets are smaller than those in men’s clothes, or not there at all. We have to go all the way back to the 1600s for the answer. “In the 1600s, women didn’t have pockets in their clothing at all — they had belts with attached pockets that they usually wore under their skirts and accessed via small slits that were meant to be essentially invisible. These were spacious enough to carry everything from fruit to gloves and were often as stylish as the purses of today. Purses themselves became more fashionable (and functional) as dresses got smaller and less conducive to covert storage, but it wasn’t until the late 18th century that pockets were regularly sewed directly into women’s clothing; for a time, most of them were even larger than men’s pockets.”
I’ve often wondered about that. Haven’t you? 🙂
For all the cat lovers who read my blog, you might enjoy some interesting facts that I found on the Litter Robot Blog. First is this one about catnip: Can the popular cat stimulants catnip and silver vine be used as mosquito repellents? Scientists recently concluded that cats are attracted to these plants for more than just their euphoric effects. In fact, cats have probably been using catnip and silver vine as mosquito repellents for hundreds, if not thousands of years!
This next one, also from Litter Robot, is about cat collars. A Facebook friend recently asked a group I belong to about getting a collar for her new kitty, and I wish I’d seen this article in time to send a link to her. It would have helped her make a decision. “Cat collars are adorable, there’s no denying it. But not every cat will tolerate wearing a collar. For those that do, breakaway cat collars are a must. Find out why breakaway cat collars are the safer option for your cat, and get answers to common collar questions: How tight should a cat collar be? And do cats like collars?”
By the way, I’ve never put a collar on any of my cats. Not since I found a poor kitty in my barn some years ago who was trying to get out of a collar and it got embedded in her pawpit ( the equivalent of a human armpit). It wasn’t a pretty sight. Thankfully, the cat healed up just fine after I got the collar off and cleaned out the wounds.
That’s it from me until after the weekend. I’ll be busy with some crafting things, as well as starting a new jigsaw puzzle. I’ll also finishing listening to Swan Peak by James Lee Burke. I do enjoy spending time with Dave Robicheaux and Clete Purcell now and then. And that sweet, slow Louisiana accent of the narrator is so perfect.
What do you have planned for the weekend? Are you reading a book that has you eager to get back to it? Do let me know in the comments. Whatever you have on tap, be safe, be happy.