Trivia of the Week: Night Falls, Dawn Breaks

If night falls, why is it dawn that breaks? This is a play on words. When night starts, we say that it “falls”. When dawn starts, we say that it “breaks” over the horizon. If a teacup falls off a table, it will break. But night does not break,...

Trivia of the Week: Get Back on the Horse

Popular wisdom is that when you fall off a horse, if you are not badly hurt, you should get back on and ride some more. This is so that you won’t develop a fear of riding horses. Falling off is scary, so if that is the last thing you remember about riding, you will be...

Trivia of the Week: Calculating distance to lightning

When lightning strikes, you see a flash of light. If you are lucky enough to be facing the right direction, you may see the lightning itself. Then, you hear the thunder. You can estimate how far away the lightning is by counting the seconds between the time you see...

Trivia of the Week: French fries vs chips

Long thin strips of potato that are fried are called “French fries” in American, but “chips” in England. French fries can be called “fries” for short. Once when the U.S. was angry with France, people tried to change the name to “freedom fries”. If fries are called...

Trivia of the Week: How to write a postcard

Picture postcards are sold in all kinds of vacation destinations. They usually have pictures of the area or its attractions and sometimes bear slogans like “Wish you were here.” These are for sending to your friends or family while you are on vacation. Of course, you...