50 Things I Didn’t Know

I saw another online columnist who started off each year by listing 50 “Things I Didn’t Know” that he had discovered in the previous year. Let me simply say I didn’t hit 50, but here’s my list:

1. The figure of speech "swan song" comes from the ancient Greek belief that swans sing only once, as they are dying.
2. Guns had not been invented at the time of the passage of the Second Amendment to the constitution, which is why that word does not appear in the text. The only such weapons then were single-shot "arms."
3. Cashews aren't nuts.
4. If you are three under par on a golf hole, you have shot an albatross.
5. Idiot is the same in French and English
6. There is a Peace Corps equivalent, the U.S. Digital Corps, for people who want to help the federal government improve its websites.
7. Before the bicycle, the median distance between spousal birthplaces was three miles; after, it was 20.
8. There is an antonym for Schadenfreude; Muditā. It means joy; especially sympathetic or vicarious joy, or the pleasure that comes from delighting in other people's well-being.
9. The game Monopoly originally had a companion version, played on the same board, in which prosperity was shared.
10. Major league baseballs are kept in humidors between games.
11. Double Stuf Oreos only contain 1.86 times the amount of creme in a regular Oreo
12. Racecar is a palindrome, the same spelled in either direction.
13. There are more francophones in Africa than in France.
14. Putting a slash through the downward stroke of a 7 is a European Seven.
15. Gene "Star Trek" Rodenberry was the first television writer to earn a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
16. It's as easy to be kind as to be cruel, and kindness doesn't cost any more.