a pineapple is neither a pine, nor an apple...?

So why is called a pineapple if its not an apple and doesn't grow on pine trees?

From Wikipedia:

The name pineapple in English comes from the similarity of the fruit to a pine cone.
The word "pineapple", first recorded in 1398, was originally used to describe the reproductive organs of conifer trees (now termed pine cones). When European explorers discovered this tropical fruit, they called them "pineapples" (term first recorded in that sense in 1664) because it resembled what we know as pine cones. The term "pine cone" was first recorded in 1694 to replace the original meaning of "pineapple".[1]



Kind of less interesting than I was hoping. Oh well. Its something that I had been wondering for quite a while now.

Bulgogi and Rice

A fine tune that only old ville rats would find funny:

come walk with me down to anjung-ri
so many wonderful sites to see
from prostitutes to DVDs
bling bling selling adashis
it's the first of the month and i just got paid
so tell those juicies i'm on my way
i'm wearing the suit that i just had made
it's guaranteed to get me laid
bulgogi and rice
bulgogi and rice
bulgogi and rice
it makes me feel nice
bulgogi and rice
and yaki-mandu
going down town to clear mind
because you can spell juicy without uic
chicken on stick makes my stomach turn
I can't wait till the next burger burn
we work real hard and now it's time to play
so all rally up down at IDK
let's kick our boot off and lets have some fun
and celebrate getting off G01
but let me warn you from the very start
don't ever start you night off with a ten man march
cause 20 shots later i'm on the floor
and my wingman draggin me out the door
i don't want to leave but i know i must
gotta catch the drunkbus
bulgogi and rice
bulgogi and rice
bulgogi and rice
it makes me feel nice
bulgogi and rice
It's OK
woke up the next morning at revelry
to run 3 miles for my PT
I like to stay strong and i like to stay fit
but nothing kills a hangover like the smell of PIG SHIT
so i show up to work at 9:02
with a half shaved face and reaking of booze
i sober up at half past four
it's almost time to go drink some more
bulgogi and rice
bulgogi and rice
bulgogi and rice
it makes me feel nice
bulgogi and rice
and yaki-mandu
i went up[ to Osan for a little change
i saw the same damn juicy with a different name
i bought a fake purse for my lovely wife
i got a air assault piston and a switch blade knive
i had so much fun it's hard to believe
i don't want to go
but i can't wait till leave
so if there is any one thing that you learn from me
it's enjoy yourself but stay away from kimchi
cause it will make you fart
it will make you itch
you'll be puking inside a binjo ditch
they make that stuff by letting it rot
it smells like garbage and tastes like snot
but the best thing to eat
just in case you forgot
bulgogi and rice
bulgogi and rice
bulgogi and rice
it makes me feel nice
bulgogi and rice
and yaki-mandu

http://mybeautifulkorea.com/index.php?blog=7&title=bulgogi_and_rice_song&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1

Orange: Fruit vs. Color - Which came first?

Are oranges called oranges because they are orange? Or is the color named after the fruit?

The color is named after the fruit.

From Wikipedia:

Orange derives from Sanskrit nāraṅgaḥ "orange tree", with borrowings through Persian nārang, Arabic nāranj, Spanish naranja, Late Latin arangia, Italian arancia or arancio, and Old French orenge, in chronological order. The first appearance in English dates from the 14th century. The name of the colour is largely derived from the fruit, first appearing in this sense in the 16th century.
The Emperor Baber, in his memoirs, mentions the "naranj" as one of the kinds of Citrus he found in India. ... He says little about the Indian oranges, but a good deal about those of Central Asia, and the N.W. frontier of India. He adds that in the latter part it is called narank. The kinds he alludes to are evidently sweet oranges of some sort (vide Baber's memoirs, Appendix No. 1(a)) Risso, in his monograph, gives "narandj" as the Arabic Synonym of the Citrus Bigaradia, the Seville orange, and Alphonse de Candolle credits the Arabs with having transported the bitter orange from Western India to Persia, Arabia, Syria, Northern Africa, and Spain. The Arab physicians are known to have used it in their pharmaceutical preparations. The Arab name naranj may or may not have been derived from nagrung, the supposed Sanskrit name for orange. Actually, the color orange came before the fruit because you cannot not call the tree orange unless orange already existed as a color.
—Bonavia, 1888[1]
Multiple sources conjecture that the Sanskrit word itself derives from an unknown Dravidian source, based on the historical spread of oranges through the world (cf. Tamil 'nram', Tulu 'nregi').
According to another source[citation needed], the name 'Orange' come from Tamil word 'Aru'('Or') meaning 'Six' + 'Anju' ('ange') meaning 'five'. The fruit typically has 11 pieces inside which when you cut into half has 6('Aru') pieces in one half and 5('five') pieces on the other.
There is disagreement as to whether the Old French borrowed the Italian melarancio (with mela "fruit", i.e. melarancio "fruit of the orange tree") as pume orenge (with pume "fruit") (deMause, 1998), or whether it borrowed Arabic nāranj, with no intermediate step (AHD, 2000). In any case, the initial n was lost before the word entered English.
The French shift from arenge to orenge may have been influenced by the French word or (gold) — in reference to the colour of oranges — or by the name of Orange, France, a major distribution point of oranges to northern regions. The name of the village did not derive from the word: in Old Provençal, it was known as Aurenja, with the initial sound later shifting (McPhee, 1975) (the original Roman name of the village was Arausio and came from a Celtic water god). The village name and fruit name thus converged coincidentally, one becoming associated with the other (conflation).
Later, the sovereign principality of Orange was the property of the House of Orange (later House of Orange-Nassau), which adopted both fruit and colour (already associated with the principality) as its symbols. Many things were in turn named after this royal House, which is the present ruling monarchy of the Netherlands.
In Dutch the fruit is known as Sinaasappel or Appelsien (both derived from "Chinese apples"), and words similar to Appelsien are found in a number of Germanic, Slavic, and Ural-Altaic languages. A few other Slavic languages use words derived from Latin "Pomum aurantium", which similarly meant "Golden apples" -- as did the Ancient Greek term, Chrisomilia. The modern Hebrew "Tapuah Zahav" means "Golden Apple" and is usually shortened to "Tapuz". Modern Greek, and many languages of the Middle East -- from Ethiopia to Azerbaijan to Romania -- use words derived from the country name "Portugal", at one time the major source of imported oranges in the Middle East. See this comprehensive discussion about the etymology of the word "Orange" in various languages.

Manila City vs. Manila Envelope

Today I was wondering to myself if manila envelopes were named for the city.

Here is the answer:

The ubiquitous and sturdy office folders owe their name to manila hemp or abaca, a type of fiber that comes from a relative of the banana plant. Commonly used for ropes, paper products, and coarse fabrics, manila hemp is indigenous to the Philippines and gets its name from the country's capital.
Abaca was first introduced in the West in the early 1800s and was primarily used for cordage. Until stronger synthetic fibers were invented, abaca was the primary source for marine ropes because of its strength, water-resistant properties, and lightness.
Today, those same qualities make it the perfect ingredient for durable paper products like currency notes, high-quality writing paper, and of course, the stack of folders sitting on your desk.

http://ask.yahoo.com/20031110.html

Astronaut Carving In Temple

From IndianPad via the Fortean Times:

Inside the splendid Ieronimus Cathedral, built by Episcope de Salamanca in 1102 A.D., among the fascinating carvings of mythical animals and saints, we find – NASA Astronaut…Maybe they entered some time portal while on the Moon, and ended up scaring medieval builders in Spain? Probably just a modern addition by the mischievous restoration team.

http://www.indianpad.com/story/167698

Scooter

Here is my cat.

Ken Kramer's About San Diego

Ken Kramer's "About San Diego" is one of the coolest shows on TV. I learn the coolest stuff when I watch the show. For example, Cowles mountain was named after a guy named Cowles who founded a small town called Cowlestown. He died, and his wife married a new man and re-named the city after her new husband, who's last name was Santee. Cowles mountain is named after Cowles. Most people pronounce the mountain "Cow-ls" but he pronounced his name like "Coals".

http://www.nbcsandiego.com/aboutsandiego/index.html

The show is fun and interesting. I love it.

Turtles Never Die Of Old Age

From "The Gullibility Test" at themuseumofhoaxes.com:

CLAIM: Turtles never die of old age.

ANSWER: TRUE. Turtles exhibit what is known as 'negligible senescence.' In other words, unlike humans, they do not continue to age once their bodies reach maturity. In theory, they might be able to live forever, though in practice this would never happen. Injury, predation, or disease eventually kill them. But turtles have been known to live beyond 150 years without exhibiting any signs of old age. Fish and amphibians also share this enviable characteristic.

That seems kind of impossible to me, but I'll take their word for it.

The Museum Of Hoaxes

http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/
The museum of hoaxes is a GREAT way to kill some time. Full of bizarre information. The site is run by a fellow San Diegan.
I just picked up his book, "Elephants On Acid" which is about strange experiments and a fun read.

Give The Gift Of Real Hustlers

Got a grea Christmas present from my friend Anna.


1 bottle of this:



Hunid Racks:

The Energy Drink for the Real Hustlers.

Respect The Name. Respect The Game.

Fish only have a 3-second memory?

I always thought that was true, but apparently fish can remember up to 3 months (From The Fortean Times):

The myth
Goldfish have a three-second (or seven-second) memory span.

The "truth"
Keeping a fish in a small bowl is clearly an act of monstrous cruelty, and so a myth has arisen which allows pet owners to feel less guilty: that fish - in most versions, specifically goldfish - can't remember anything which happened more than a few seconds ago, and therefore never get bored with their tiny homes. (The precise number of seconds varies, but is generally seven or three - as usual in matters mythconceptional).

Ichthyologists have known for a long time that this isn't true, and in 2003 Dr Phil Gee, of the School of Psychology at the University of Plymouth, published research which blew it out of the water. Fish have a memory span of at least three months, and can distinguish between different shapes, colours and sounds.

In the Plymouth experiments, goldfish were trained to press a lever to gain a food reward; when the lever was fixed to work only for an hour a day, the fish soon learned to activate it at the correct time. A number of studies have shown that farmed fish can easily be trained to feed at particular times and places, in response to an audible signal.

WOLF BOY!!!!!!!!!!

From dailymail.co.uk:

'Werewolf boy' - who snarls and bites - on the run from police after escaping Moscow clinic

Russian police are hunting a "werewolf boy" - who snarls and bites - after he escaped from a Moscow clinic just a day after being rescued from the wild.
Doctors expressed shock saying he was found living with a pack of wolves in a remote forest in the Kaluga region of central Russia.

He's clearly dangerous to other people," said a police spokesman yesterday.
"He's got typical wolf-like habits and behaviour.

"He has very strong and sharp teeth, which could really endanger someone if he bites."
The boy looks about ten - but after tests conducted by Moscow medics, they believe he maybe much older.

They are puzzled because he appears intelligent but does not seem to speak Russian or any other language. It is suspected he has been running wild for many years.

Such cases are not uncommon in Russia where there have been regular reports of 'Mowgli' children abandoned by their parents who are cared for by animals.

The boy moves around with his legs half bent, said Tvoi Den newspaper. "He was running with wolves and searching for food with them."

Villagers found this "wild creature" in a lair made of leaves and sticks in freezing temperatures and told the police who named him Lyokha, though his real identity is not known.

"He's dirty, hungry, and looked to have had a hard time," said the police spokesman. "We brought him to a clinic in Moscow.

"It was simply unbelievable. He doesn't react when we call to him." Medics gave him clothes and said that he sprang down the corridor, bursting into his room and devouring his food like an animal.

His nails on his feet were like claws.

After 24 hours he had evaded security men at the clinic and escaped. He is now believed to be on the loose in Moscow region.

"We didn't even manage to complete the proper medical checks. We only succeeded in giving him a shower, cutting his nails and took some blood and other tests," said a doctor.

"It's quite possible he is a dangerous with psychological problems but also a source of viruses and infections."

__________________________

Wolf Boys Are Awesome.

Word Origin - Chowder

So I got myself a Word Origins day calendar for my desk at work. Today's word was "chowder".

"The French-speaking inhabitants of what was once called Lower Canada liked to eat hot stews to ward off the winter cold, and the cooked the stews in cast-iron pots called chaudieres. When neighboring English-speaking New Englanders received the term, the pronounced it "chowder". It's been a regional specialty ever since."


I love this kind of stuff.