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Strange and Basically Useless Information
Mihailo Tolotos, a Greek monk who died in 1938 at the age of 82, was perhaps the only man never to have laid eyes on a woman. Milhailo's mother died when he was born, and the infant was whisked away the following day to a monastery atop Mount Athos. Tolotos spent the remainder of his life among the monks - completely isolated from female society. Women and even female animals were prohibited from entering the monastery, a tradition dating back to the founding of the retreat more than nine centuries earlier.
To decide. The term comes from the Latin decidere meaning "to cut away" and one method of arriving at a decision is by "cutting away" and eliminating all but one possibility - by "cutting away" all that's worthless.
Don't let this happen to you. The eccentric and paranoid American recluse Langlay Collier met his untimely end in 1947. While he was bringing food to his equally odd brother Homer, who lived as a total hermit, he tripped on a wire to one of his own booby traps and was crushed beneath a suitcase filled with metal, a sewing machine, three breadboxes, and several bundles of newspapers. Homer starved to death, and their bodies were undiscovered for weeks.
Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea. Most people believe that this means "between Satan and the bottom of the ocean." However, devil, in this case, has nothing to do with the ruler of the kingdom of evil. The "devil" is a seam in a wooden ship's hull that is very difficult to access, so called "the devil to get at" when caulking.
re. This is not, as often thought, an abbreviation for "regard" or "reference" when used in a business lettre. It's the ablative of the Latin "res", meaning "thing" or "matter".
The children's game "Ring Around the Rosey" and the words that accompany it ("Ring around the rowy, pocket full of posy, ashes, ashes, all fall down") derive from the medieval practice of scattering rose petals in a circle around one's bed ("rihg around the rosy") and carrying small bouquets ("pocket full of posy") as protection against the Black Plague ("all fall down").
The coastal town of Picoaza, Ecuador, was in the midst of a listless election campaign when a foot deodorant manufacturer came out with the slogan "Vote for any candidate, but if you want well-being and hygiene, vote for Pulvapies." Then on the eve of the voting, a leaflet reading "For Mayor: Homorable Pulvapies" was widely distributed. In one of the great embarrassments of democracy, the voters of Picoaza elected the foot powder by a clear majority; Pulvapies also ran well in outlying districts.
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