Number 13 - Ooo Triskadekaphobia?

Triskaidekaphobia - the fear of the number 13, but you knew that already!(fear of Friday the 13th is Friggatriskaidekaphobia or paraskavedekatriaphobia)
Allegedly there are fewer accidents on a Friday the 13th - one theory is coz everyone is too terryfied to venture out on that day. Weird!!

Some other number facts that I have picked up
-40 is the same in celsius and fahrenheit (and also bloody cold)
496 is a perfect number (my brain melted when I tried to research what a perfect number is)
666 is the human number associated with the beast according to the bible (incedentally the fear of this number is the tongue-destroying hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia! Catchy!)

Number 12 - Go figure!

Simon Cowell has heard of Chris Cornell! And an arrangement of Billie-Jean that I can listen to without gouging my eyes out or tearing my ears off. No, I personally don't like Michael Jackson songs. So there.

Number 11 - Saxomophone, alcomahol and hey-diddly-ey via Tmesis!!

God bless our English language! Its so complex and inference can hang on the position of a simple comma. So, even as a fluent English speaker (will I ever be fluent??) I'm still learning brand new things about my mother tongue. I took French at A-Level and was shocked at how hard it was...you needed a degree in English first to understand the majority of it. If you a a tad shaky on what a past participle or what the third person present indicitive is or even what a conditional or imperitive verb is. So at last an easy thing to understand! The infix. The infix is a distant relative of the prefix and the suffix (even I know what they are!!) except the infix goes inside the word, not before or after it. The infix is rare in English and often get mixed up with the tmesis! Tmesis is the process of slipping a word into another. Your friend and mine Ned Flanders uses Tmesis all the time "Wel-diddly-elcome". Although this is groovy - I prefer expletive infixation "ABSO-BLOODY-Lutely" or "Fan-SMEGGING-tastic"! The expletive infixation is most useful when trying to make a word sound more HEAVY METAL simply take any word: "Primrose" for example. Split it at the syllable insert a naughty word (you know the one I mean, its got seven letters and starts with F and ends with "ing") and hey presto "Prim-f*****g-Rose" - How heavy metal is that!! Go on try it yourself - the expletive infixation and tmesis - make your English more interesting!

Number 10 - Eins, zwei, drei

I read a lot of history books when I was growing up - an unhealthy interest in the second world war I suppose. Anyway, there was a term that kept cropping up that I always took for granted "the Third Reich". I dunno why I never questioned it. I know that the second world war was so called because it was the SECOND, World War. Only recently, since I started my hunt for knowledge, have I paused and thought: "so does that mean that there was a first and second reich?" Turns out yes there was! Awesome - some more knowledge!! The first Reich is a term used to describe the Holy Roman Empire and lastest (a really really uber long time) from 962 - 1806 ad. The second Reich was a tad shorter, from 1871 - 1918. And the third Reich lastest Even shorter (1933 - 1945) and yes the Nazis were RUBBISH!! So I wonder if Chancellor Merkel fancies going for a Forth Reich??! Reich by the way means "Empire". Another word to add to my limited German Vocab, admittedly most of my German comes from Rammstein lyrics so I don't know if "fürchtet euch fürchtet euch nicht" (be afraid, don't be afraid) would ever come in handy anywhere outside a Rammstein gig!

So there you go - 1,2,3 Reichs!

Number 9 - Plutonian

Astrologically, ignoring whether Pluto is a planet or not (it shoots the old rhyme in the foot: Seven Mild Vicars Eating Jam Sandwiches Under Nine.....under nine what - I think either a new rhyme or leave Pluto where it is!!) it does interest me, with it being so far away from the Sun. It amazes me that we know more about the surface of the moon than the bottom of the ocean. (why??) Anyway I have learned that Pluto has 3 moons (or satellites to give them proper designation) Charon (discovered in 1978) Nix and Hydra (discovered 2005). The most amazing thing apart from their names, which do sound strangely like Gladiators, is the fact that the Romans knew about Jupiter and Saturn 2000 years ago and I doubt that they used anything more than "damn good eyesight" and maybe the hand used as a sunshading tool (we've all done it!!) and now with Hubble Telescopes et al. we are finding out so much more to add to our knowledge. It begs the question what else we find...before you ask no I don't believe in UFOs or ETs yet but I am open minded. Bring on the KNOWLEDGE!!

Number 8 - Crash Bang Wallop

As an educator I am constantly asking questions designed to challenge the youths to further themselves. I am also used to fielding various strange questions posed by the kiddies too. So imagine my surprise at being flumoxed by a question recently.
Me :"Yes small child A"
Small Child A: "Y'know Onomatopoeia?"
Me :" Yes - the word that describes the sound that it makes"
Small Child A: "Yeah like Boom and SQUELCH."
Me: (thinking) "Are you stalling to get out of doing the focused task that I have set you?"
Me: (talking) "Yes, do you understand what I've asked you to do?"
Small Child A: "Oh yes, I know what onomatopoeia is, but what does it mean?"
Me: "It means the sound..."
Small Child A: "No, I mean the word O-N-O-M-A-T-O-P-O-E-I-A. Its not English, so what does it mean"
Me "GET ON WITH YOUR WORK!!" (this last bit is just fiction - secretly I was fumbling for an answer, anything - C'mon rudimentary Latin lessons from 10 years ago - Do I know any Greek? Is it Welsh? Aggghhhh!!

Genuinely stumped, I congratulated the child on his ability to bamboozle the teacher and proceed on a quest to locate the eytomology of this complex word. So it is Greek...
onoma meaning "name" and poeia "I create". So Onomatopoeia means I create a name...further thought reveals it to mean "I create a name for this sound!"

A genuine new learn!

And something to share with the Small Child A who I hope will appreciate the answer! :)

Number 7 - A quick half

Belgium is home to 115 breweries that produce about 500 beers - Wow!! And I've only sampled about 20 of them! There is much I need to achieve and suddenley I feel an urge to visit Belgium with a straw, a notepad, a sleeping bag and enough Euros to fund a binge of Belgian proportions!! No wonder the Belgians are quite chilled!