[Lady Sidhe]

Some more phrase origins:


"Big cheese" and "big wheel" are Medieval terms of envious
respect for those who could afford to buy whole wheels of
cheese at a time, an expense few could enjoy. Both these
terms are often used sarcastically today.

The word "toast," meaning a proposal of health, originated
in Rome, where an actual bit of spiced, burned bread was
dropped into wine to improve the drink's flavor, absorb
its sediment, and thus make it more healthful.

The nickname "Tinsel Town" was coined by Oscar Levant,
the pianist, composer who observed: "Strip the phoney
tinsel off Hollywood, and you'll find the real tinsel
underneath."


The term "the whole 9 yards" came from WWII fighter pilots
in the South Pacific. When arming their airplanes on the
ground, the .50 caliber machine gun ammo belts measured
exactly 27 feet, before being loaded into the fuselage. If
the pilots fired all their ammo at a target, it got "the
whole 9 yards."



You learn something new every day:

If a statue in the park of a person on a horse has both
front legs in the air, the person died as a result of
wounds received in battle; if the horse has all four legs
on the ground, the person died of natural causes.





Some interesting math I found:

111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321



Um, ew, and creepy, respectively....

During pregnancy, the uterus expands to 500 times its
normal size.

The human brain continues sending out electrical wave
signals for up to 37 hours following death.