"That's very interesting, Steve"

[Mark One]

A tiger has striped skin.

[acute]

Icelandic musician Björk's surname is Guðmundsdóttir.

[Black Monk]

The average woman uses her height in lipstick every five years.

[acute]

Some traditional dialects in Britain are barely intelligible to other English speakers, but these are now either extinct or confined to older speakers.

As recently as 1981, audiences at the New York Film Festival struggled to understand a film called 'Looks and Smiles' set in Sheffield, England.

[Black Monk]

36 minutes ago, acute said:

Some traditional dialects in Britain are barely intelligible to other English speakers, but these are now either extinct or confined to older speakers.

As recently as 1981, audiences at the New York Film Festival struggled to understand a film called 'Looks and Smiles' set in Sheffield, England.

Some British dialects are barely intelligible to other Britons.

[Black Monk]

At 6.30pm on 16 January 1749, according to an advertisement in London newspaper the General Advertiser, the most amazing magician would appear at the Theatre Royal. The conjuror would perform such feats as giving the name of any masked member of the audience; he would play music on an ordinary walking stick; he would turn himself into any person, dead or alive; and finally, he would climb into an ordinary-sized wine bottle.

By 7pm the theatre was packed out, with crowds still trying to get in. At this point, they were told that the magician hadn’t turned up and that they could get their money back. A riot ensued when it dawned on them that they’d been made fools of.

In the shadows, the Duke of Montague looked on with a certain amount of pleasure; he’d just won a bet with Lord Chesterfield that he could fill a theatre by promising the public the impossible.

Edited February 20, 2018 by Black Monk

[acute]

28 minutes ago, Black Monk said:

Some British dialects are barely intelligible to other Britons.

I am one mile from the border with the Black Country, and no way can I understand an old Dudley dialect!

This is a relatively mild one (from Tipton) but it's the best I've been able to find:

Yo cor oonderstond a waird! 

Edited February 20, 2018 by acute

[Black Monk]

22 hours ago, acute said:

I am one mile from the border with the Black Country, and no way can I understand an old Dudley dialect!

This is a relatively mild one (from Tipton) but it's the best I've been able to find:

Yo cor oonderstond a waird! 

The Manchester accent is different from the Bolton one even though it's just ten miles away.

I think the accents in North East England, like Geordie, are descended from the Vikings. The Liverpool accent comes from Irish settlers.

[Black Monk]

The present (second) Waterloo Bridge in London opened in 1942 and was mostly built by women. It is the only Thames bridge to have been damaged in WWII bombing.

[Matt221]

Every year more than 2500 left-handed people are killed from using right-handed products

[Space Commander Travis]

13 hours ago, Matt221 said:

Every year more than 2500 left-handed people are killed from using right-handed products

what kind of products do they use that are so lethal? 

[acute]

3 hours ago, Vlad the Mighty said:

what kind of products do they use that are so lethal? 

Right-handed forks. 

[Matt221]

7 hours ago, Vlad the Mighty said:

what kind of products do they use that are so lethal? 

Dunno dangerous stuff 

[Black Monk]

King Henry II of England (reigned 1154-1189) had a jester called Roland le Farter whose only job was to entertain the king at Christmas by performing one jump, one whistle and one fart.

Edited February 22, 2018 by Black Monk

[Matt221]

A sheep, a duck and a rooster were the first passengers in a hot air balloon

[Eldorado]

17 minutes ago, Black Monk said:

King Henry II of England (reigned 1154-1189) had a jester called Roland le Farter whose only job was to entertain the king at Christmas by performing one jump, one whistle and one fart.

I heard his act stank.

[Black Monk]

King Ælla of Northumbria was executed by the Vikings in a gruesome and bizarre manner.

Swedish-Danish Viking leader Ragnar Lothbrok invaded the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Northumbria, ruled by King Ælla , who took the throne after deposing King Osbehrt in the 860s.

Ælla capturec Ragnar and had him put to death in a pit of snakes in 865.

In 866, in retaliation for this, the Vikings sent over what the Christian Anglo-Saxons called the Great Heathen Army, led by the brothers Ivar the Boneless, Halfdan Ragnarsson, Björn Ironside and Sigurd Snake-in-the-Eye.

The Great Heathen Army, composed mostly of Danish Vikings, landed in Northumbria in mid-866 and had captured its capital city of York by 21 November, with Ælla eventually being captured.

According to Viking accounts, the Vikings then executed Ælla in the Blood Eagle method: He would have been tied up and offered to the Norse god Oden. He then had his back cut open and his ribs and lungs pulled out and spread like the wings of an eagle. 

Edited February 23, 2018 by Black Monk

[Ozymandias]

The English Tory party have an Irish name. 'Tory' is the Middle Irish word 'tóraidhe', Modern Irish 'tóraí', meaning a fugitive or outlaw.

 

[Black Monk]

In 1950s Britain, pizza was known as "Italian Welsh rarebit."

[Matt221]

In Iceland, it’s hard to come up with a creative name for a newborn. A government committee prevents parents from giving babies names it deems too weird the committee's name is Mannanafnanefnd

[Black Monk]

The Bank of England was founded by a Scotsman in 1694.

The Bank of Scotland was founded by an Englishman in 1695.

[Space Commander Travis]

Talking of a pit of snakes, do you know what the only poisonous snake in Britain is? I know, you say, it's the Adder isn't it. No, it's the Grass Snake. But all the reputable books say that the Grass Snake is harmless to Humans, you protest. Ah, I said poisonous, not venomous. It would be poisonous if one was foolish enough to bite it, as its skin secretes a that's poisonous should anyone, as I said, be foolish enough to try to bite one. Something is venomous if it bites you. 

[Black Monk]

14 hours ago, Vlad the Mighty said:

Talking of a pit of snakes, do you know what the only poisonous snake in Britain is? I know, you say, it's the Adder isn't it. No, it's the Grass Snake. But all the reputable books say that the Grass Snake is harmless to Humans, you protest. Ah, I said poisonous, not venomous. It would be poisonous if one was foolish enough to bite it, as its skin secretes a that's poisonous should anyone, as I said, be foolish enough to try to bite one. Something is venomous if it bites you. 

In Britain it's illegal for a human to kill an adder.

But, rather unfairly, it's not illegal for an adder to kill a human.

The word "adder" comes from the Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "nædre", which means "snake", "serpent".

It eventually became "a nadder", but in the 14th Century it was rebracketed to become "an adder" - just like "a napron" became "an apron" and "a nompere" became "an umpire".

Edited February 25, 2018 by Black Monk

[acute]

US gun sales are currently in decline.

[Ozymandias]

42 minutes ago, Black Monk said:

In Britain it's illegal for a human to kill an adder.

But, rather unfairly, it's not illegal for an adder to kill a human.

The word "adder" comes from the Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "nædre", which means "snake", "serpent".

It eventually became "a nadder", but in the 14th Century it was rebracketed to become "an adder" - just like "a napron" became "an apron" and "a nompere" became "an umpire".

The word adder is older than Anglo-Saxon. It is an Indo-European word - maybe even Proto-Indo-European - as it appears in all of the Celtic languages as well as the Germanic. In Old Irish it was spelt 'nathir', modern Irish 'nathair', and that is true despite the myth that St. Patrick banished them from our little island. He didn't, but that leads to a whole other debate about whether there ever were snakes in Ireland.