Sunday, September 17, 2006
In a few hours time I would be waking up and getting ready for a week of work. In a few hours time I would be dragging my sleepy body out of bed. Sigh* the week begins. Monday is not here but I am expriencing Monday Blues. Hmm* Here is alittle DID YOU KNOW Segment to kick start another long week....
Why is it called a "loo?"The British word for toilet, "loo", derives from the French "garde a l'eau!" In medieval Europe people had little conception of hygiene and threw the contents of their chamber pots out the window into the street below. In France the practice was preceded by "garde a l'eau!" ("watch out for the water!"). In England, this phrase was Anglicised, first to "gardy-loo!", then just "loo", and eventually came to mean the toilet/lavatory itself. The American word for toilet, "john", is called after the John Harington who in 1596 invented an indoor water closet for Queen Elizabeth I.
Why does water not calm the tongue after eating hot spicy food?The spices in most of the hot foods that we eat are oily, and, like your elementary school science teacher taught you, oil and water don't mix. In this case, the water just rolls over the oily spices.What can you do to calm your aching tongue? Eat bread. The bread will absorb the oily spices. A second solution is to drink milk. Milk contains a substance called "casein" which will bind to the spices and carry them away. Alcohol also dissolves oily spices.
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So is reading all this more interesting than reading about my sad sorry life?
Posted by jasmine at 7:34 PM