BY JAMES K. WHITE | MARCH 13, 2013
Why America is called America
America is called America because in 1507 a mapmaker named Martin Waldseemüller thought Amerigo Vespucci had discovered the continent now named South America. The name America was indelibly attached to both North and South America even though a revised 1513 map by Waldseemüller had removed the America reference entirely.
According to an article in the February issue of Smithsonian (page 24), the grammar rule forbidding the ending of a sentence with a preposition is entirely a myth. That is one correction I had never heard of.
The city of Lima, Peru has a population of almost 8,000,000. Historians claim that Lima was founded in 1535 by Francisco Pizarro. I can find no records indicating how old Lima was when Pizarro found it.
Sales data indicate that women purchase more than 93% of all greeting cards sold in the U.S.A.
The average depth of the Java Sea is 151 feet. On the opposite end of the ocean/sea spectrum: the Arctic Ocean has an average depth of 3,407 feet.
After careful scientific study, research indicates that the regulation PBA bowling pin requires a tilt of almost exactly 7.5 degrees away from vertical in order to fall. I often get stuck with a faulty lane that seems to slant towards at least one gutter.
Many folks have their cheese favorites. For centuries cheese makers have used this general rule: Ten pounds of whole milk will be consumed in the production of one pound of cheese, regardless of the variety. I once asked my children to name their favorite cheese. Response: “The powdery kind they put on popcorn.” We have always been a highly cultured family.
The original (1953) name of “Burger King” was “Insta-Burger King.” The name changed in 1954.
Folk medicine in England once included a cure for male baldness that consisted of variations on a mixture of hedgehog urine and bear grease. Some “patients” claimed to have been successfully treated. Earlier, Julius Caesar temporarily used a daily rub of bear grease and powdered horse teeth. It is recorded that he experienced no success in treating his androgenic alopecia. It was widely rumored that bears hated both of those remedy recipes. Speaking of bears (fresh from my junior high joke book): What would one call a grizzly with no teeth? A gummy bear. Well, if you recently purchased a greeting card, I know what you are likely to be – and I wish you an exhilarating week
James White is a retired mathematics teacher who enjoys sharing fascinating trivia. He can be reached at jkwhite46@gmail.com.
