progressive involvement

Random factoid

The State of Kansas has a law that prohibits anyone from mailing soil.

Random factoid

Aristotle was the first to write of the phenomenon known as "sun sneezing," i.e. sneezing in response to the sun's light.

Random factoid

In ancient Assyria, if during a quarrel a woman injured the testicle of a man, "one of her fingers they shall cut off". 

Random factoid

It was a capital offense to refer to the Roman Emperor Caligula as a goat, although he is said to have resembled one.

Random factoid

Ancient Alexandria was the first city to have numbered street addresses.

Random factoid

In 1797, President John Adams signed a bill that required all seamen to be covered by hospitalization insurance through their employer.

Random factoid

The color "blue" is not mentioned in the Hebrew text of the Old Testament.

Random factoids: royal edition

The first pledge of loyalty to newly-coronated Queen Elizabeth in 1953 came from her husband, Philip, who pronounced:

"I, Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, do become your liege man of life and limb, and of earthly worship; and faith and truth I will bear unto you, to live and die, against all manner of folks. So help me God."

It's all very medieval.  He'll pledge life and limb, even, as in some bodice-ripper, die for his lady.  

But then, there's that clunker-word "folks," a word which rarely appears outside a UCC hymnal.  Who came up with that line?

Random factoid

In the first century, about 4% of the Jewish boys in the middle east were named "Jesus."

Jesus' name was "Yeshua," of course, which is Joshua in English.  In 2011, about 7% of American new-born boys were named "Joshua."

Random factoid

At Dwight Eisenhower's 1953 inauguration ceremony "a musical portrait of Lincoln by Aaron Copland – a full orchestral piece with excerpts from his speeches – was dropped at the last minute as ‘un-American’."