Dorky, definitely dorky A collection of various trivia I've posted to Facebook over the last year. All facts are correct as far as I know. Feel free to quote at parties when you want to seem smart. I didn't realize until I collected them like this but I appear to like the historical oddities the best. Who knew?
Canada is legally an empire.
During the rule of Henry VIII an Act of Parliament declared that 'this realm of England is an Empire...governed by one Supreme Head and King having the dignity and royal estate of the imperial Crown of the same'. Since laws created before the Statute of Westminster apply to Canada (and every other realm) and since the Crowns being equal in status is a key point of constitutional theory ("equal in status, in no way subordinate one to another in any aspect of their domestic or external affairs, though united by common allegiance to the Crown, and freely associated as members of the British Commonwealth of Nations"), we are an empire. However, no imperial title was ever created.
That's the de jure reason. The de facto reason could include size, government type (federations being difficult to classify differently than empires), or simply the large number of ethnic groups in Canada.
Crusaders to the Holy Land could not go without the permission of the crusader's wife.
His long absence would deprive her of what was delicately called 'marital rights'.
Niccolò Machiavelli and Leonardo Da Vinci once teamed up to mess with Florence's rival, Pisa.
How? They planned to steal the Arno River and divert it completely into a massive canal network that would water Florentine crops. Sadly (?) 16th century technology was not up to the task. Given how valuable a river was to a city's
survival at the time it is probably the most trollish idea to come out of that period.
Machiavelli left politics soon afterwards and wrote 'The Prince' while Da Vinci went on to paint the Mona Lisa.
In 1987 7 million children disappeared in US (1 in 10) according to the IRS.
This is the first year the IRS started requiring proof that one had dependents.
The phrase "I don't give a damn" originates in the 'Dam', a unit of Indian currency.
Admittedly there is disagreement (slang not being a focus of scholarly attention until recently) and might also relate to the phrase "a tinker's damn". And yes, it may have been used as a convenient euphemism for 'damn' since it was a word that could not be printed.
The Bechdel Test is a litmus for female presence in fictional media and consists of three criteria to pass.
1. It includes at least two women,
2. who have at least one conversation,
3. about something other than a man or men.
A surprising percentage of mainstream media fails it. Note, this is not a 'feminism test' as it is entirely possible to have a show/movie/book pass it but be completely misogynistic. Likewise it is not a test of whether a particular media is 'good' or not. It is a test of whether an author can effectively write female characters. Unfortunately Hollywood fails this test a lot lately. (On a less interesting note a number of recent shows I've watched fail/almost fail the Reverse Bechdel Test).
Surprising Pass: Alien
Surprising failure: Mulan
Not-so-surprising failure: The Big Bang Theory (first season at least, may still be failing)
Roman statesman Cato the Elder is said to have ended nearly every speech with some variant of the phrase "Carthage must be destroyed".
While not an actual example it did get to the absurd level of: "I feel we should be allowed to eat our lunch in the Senate chamber on Mondays and alternate Tuesdays and furthermore CARTHAGE MUST BE DESTROYED!"
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Hope you have enjoyed this small collection of trivia and we'll see what I've collected by this time next year.
Canada is legally an empire.
During the rule of Henry VIII an Act of Parliament declared that 'this realm of England is an Empire...governed by one Supreme Head and King having the dignity and royal estate of the imperial Crown of the same'. Since laws created before the Statute of Westminster apply to Canada (and every other realm) and since the Crowns being equal in status is a key point of constitutional theory ("equal in status, in no way subordinate one to another in any aspect of their domestic or external affairs, though united by common allegiance to the Crown, and freely associated as members of the British Commonwealth of Nations"), we are an empire. However, no imperial title was ever created.
That's the de jure reason. The de facto reason could include size, government type (federations being difficult to classify differently than empires), or simply the large number of ethnic groups in Canada.
Crusaders to the Holy Land could not go without the permission of the crusader's wife.
His long absence would deprive her of what was delicately called 'marital rights'.
Niccolò Machiavelli and Leonardo Da Vinci once teamed up to mess with Florence's rival, Pisa.
How? They planned to steal the Arno River and divert it completely into a massive canal network that would water Florentine crops. Sadly (?) 16th century technology was not up to the task. Given how valuable a river was to a city's
survival at the time it is probably the most trollish idea to come out of that period.
Machiavelli left politics soon afterwards and wrote 'The Prince' while Da Vinci went on to paint the Mona Lisa.
In 1987 7 million children disappeared in US (1 in 10) according to the IRS.
This is the first year the IRS started requiring proof that one had dependents.
The phrase "I don't give a damn" originates in the 'Dam', a unit of Indian currency.
Admittedly there is disagreement (slang not being a focus of scholarly attention until recently) and might also relate to the phrase "a tinker's damn". And yes, it may have been used as a convenient euphemism for 'damn' since it was a word that could not be printed.
The Bechdel Test is a litmus for female presence in fictional media and consists of three criteria to pass.
1. It includes at least two women,
2. who have at least one conversation,
3. about something other than a man or men.
A surprising percentage of mainstream media fails it. Note, this is not a 'feminism test' as it is entirely possible to have a show/movie/book pass it but be completely misogynistic. Likewise it is not a test of whether a particular media is 'good' or not. It is a test of whether an author can effectively write female characters. Unfortunately Hollywood fails this test a lot lately. (On a less interesting note a number of recent shows I've watched fail/almost fail the Reverse Bechdel Test).
Surprising Pass: Alien
Surprising failure: Mulan
Not-so-surprising failure: The Big Bang Theory (first season at least, may still be failing)
Roman statesman Cato the Elder is said to have ended nearly every speech with some variant of the phrase "Carthage must be destroyed".
While not an actual example it did get to the absurd level of: "I feel we should be allowed to eat our lunch in the Senate chamber on Mondays and alternate Tuesdays and furthermore CARTHAGE MUST BE DESTROYED!"
---
Hope you have enjoyed this small collection of trivia and we'll see what I've collected by this time next year.
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