Why do magicians like to say "abracadabra"?

We all know how magicians saw people in half, but why do they say "abracadabra"? Many have wondered, and while theories abound, none definitively solve the mystery.

According to World Wide Words, the term first appeared during the second century in the Latin medical poem "De medicina praecepta." Apparently the poem's author, a physician named Quintus Serenus Sammonicus, believed the word could heal the sick when inscribed on an amulet and spoken in a particular way. Start with "abracadabra," then say "abracadabr," then "abracadab," and so on. Sort of like the kiddie ditty "B-I-N-G-O"--but in reverse.

As for how the word went from medical to magical, The ES Press believes abracadabra may have come from the Hebrew phrase "abreg ad habra," which means "strike dead with thy lightning."

Another theory argues the phrase comes from the Aramaic phrase "avrah kedabra," which translates to "I will create as I speak." Given magicians' flair for the dramatic, that makes sense to us.

Source: http://ask.yahoo.com/20060720.html

Unusual Facts About Theodore Roosevelt

While I was searching on the web for interesting and unusual facts about presidents, I stumbled across this small list of unusual facts about Theodore Roosevelt. I'm sure you'll find it interesting.

UNUSUAL FACTS ABOUT THEODORE ROOSEVELT

1. The Teddy Bear is named after Teddy Roosevelt. While hunting in Mississippi during his presidency, a few of the men in Roosevelt's party treed a small black bear and summoned Roosevelt so that he could take the shot. Roosevelt decided that killing the young, trapped bear was not sporting, and spared it. A New York toymaker heard the story, and asked Roosevelt's permission before styling a child's stuffed toy bear as the "Teddy Bear". Roosevelt gave his permission, noting that he did not expect many sales.

2. Maxwell House coffee once asked the President what he thought of their product. He responded: "I'ts good to the last drop". Sound familiar?

3. Once while preparing to give a speech in the Milwaukee during a campaign, a crazed man attempted to assassinate Roosevelt, and shot him with a pistol at nearly point blank range. Roosevelt declared "it will take more than that to kill a bull moose!" and finished the lengthy speech before visiting a hospital.

4. After Roosevelt retired from politics, he led an expedition in South America to find the source of a river known as "the River of Doubt". Most of the party died, and Roosevelt caught the fever yet survived. The river is now named "Rio Roosevelt."

5. Roosevelt won the Nobel Peace prize for mediating the Russo-Japanese war. Although an aggressive president when it came to military matters, he is the only president to have been awarded the honor while President of the United States.

6. After he left office in 1909, Roosevelt went on an African safari that netted many of the specimens that now stock the Smithsonian Institute.

7. Roosevelt welcomed "the strenuous life"--engaging in daunting physical tests and venturing into hostile locations, even though, taking inflation into account, he was likely the richest president in history due to his family's estate.

8. Most of the original National Parks and the National Park system were created by Roosevelt.

9. Roosevelt was the first to dub the executive mansion "The White House".

10. Roosevelt authored over 25 books.

11. Roosevelt garnered a larger portion of the popular vote as a third-party candidate (the Bull Moose Party) than anyone in U.S. history.

Source: http://www.teddyroosevelt.com/amazing_teddy_roosevelt_facts.htm

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Celebrity Interesting Facts

Here are some list of interesting facts on some celebrities. I got these from Hunt Famous. I think you might want to see this interesting celebrity facts that's why I decided to post it here. Enjoy!


LIST OF SOME INTERESTING CELEBRITY FACTS

Tommy Lee Jones and Al Gore were freshman roommates at Harvard.

Actor Richard Gere attended the University of Massachusetts on a scholarship for gymnastics.

Billie Jean by Michael Jackson was the first video to air on MTV by a black artist.

Brad Pitt is banned from entering China because of his role in Seven Years in Tibet.

Julia Roberts is the highest paid actress in film history.

Actor Richard Gere attended the University of Massachusetts on a scholarship for gymnastics.

George Clooney says he will never get married, nor have any children.

Tom Cruise once enrolled in a seminary to become a priest but dropped out after only one year.

The longest Oscar acceptance speech was made by Greer Garson for 1924's Mrs. Miniver. It took an hour.

Nicole Kidman is scared of butterflies.

MGM star Spencer Tracy won consecutive Best Actor Oscars in the late 1930’s for his appearances in Captains Courageous in 1937 and Boys Town in 1938. This wouldn't happen again until Tom Hanks won back-to-back Oscars in the 1990s for Philadelphia in 1993 and Forrest Gump in 1994.

Actress Demi Moore is totally blind in her left eye after undergoing an operation to correct a squint when she was a child.

Christina Ricci was turned down for two roles opposite Leonardo DiCaprio including Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, and Rose in Titanic.

1,400 actresses were interviewed for the part of Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind.

Aerosmith's Dude Looks Like a Lady was written about Vince Neil of Motley Crue.

Zsa Zsa Gabor wins the list of most married female celebrities with a record 9 husbands

Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Kurt Cobain and Jim Morrison were all 27 years old when they died.

The title role of the 1971 movie Dirty Harry was originally intended for Frank Sinatra. After he refused, it was offered to John Wayne, and then Paul Newman, before finally being accepted by Clint Eastwood.

Lisa Kudrow has a degree in Sociobiology. She originally planned to be a doctor.

Many of the sweaters worn by Mr. Rogers on the popular television show, Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood, were actually knitted by his real mother.

For the blockbuster movie The Terminator, O.J. Simpson was considered to play the role of the Terminator, but producers rejected him as they thought he would not be taken seriously.

Barbara Streisand has waxed more gold and platinum albums than any other solo female artist.

When Tom Cruise was seven years old, he was diagnosed as dyslexic. He claims Scientology helped him overcome it.

Christian Brando, Marlon Brando's son, murdered his pregnant, mentally disturbed sister's boyfriend in a drunken rage. Brando and prosecutors reached a plea and Brando pled guilty to voluntary manslaughter and was sentenced to 10 years in prison. EDIT: MARLON BRANDO HAD A CRAZY ASS DAUGHTER AND MARLONS SON SHOT HER CRAZY ASS BOYFRIEND. END OF STORY.

Oprah Winfrey's production company Harpo is Oprah spelt backwards.

Sheryl Crow's front two teeth are fake -- she had them knocked out when she tripped on the stage earlier in her career.

Julia Roberts lies on her back to have her make-up applied before going onto a film set. She insists it gives her a relaxed look.

Actress Sissy Spacek got so into the part of Carrie that she slept with fake pig's blood all over her to ensure continuity.

Zsa Zsa Gabor is the great aunt of Paris Hilton.

As a teenager, actor-writer Matt Damon, earned extra cash by being a sidewalk break-dancer.

Jamie Lee Curtis says plastic surgery makes her look weird and claims it is the worst thing she’s ever done.

A childhood virus left Rob Lowe completely deaf in his right ear. "No stereo for me" he says "It's a mono world".

Madonna is related to both Gwen Stefani and Celine Dion. Gwen's great aunt's mother-in-law shares the same last name as Madonna Ciccone and an ancestor of Madonna's mother was married to a distant relative of Celine's dad.

Julia Roberts' left eye tears up when she gets nervous.

Jack Black and Jon Favreau both auditioned for Philip Seymour Hoffman’s role as Lester Bangs in Almost Famous.

Matthew Perry is missing part of his middle finger on his right hand due to a door-shutting accident.

Musician Eric Clapton grew up thinking his mother was his sister.

At age 37 Jack Nicholson discovered that the woman he'd always thought his sister was actually his mother.

The actor who played Wedge in the original Star Wars trilogy has a famous nephew: actor Ewan McGregor, who plays the young Obi-Wan in the new Star Wars film.

Jim Morrison (of the 60's rock group The Doors) was the first rock star to be arrested on stage.

American Beauty star Thora Birch's mom acted in 21 adult films including Deep Throat under the name Carol Connors before retiring in 1993.

Grey's Anatomy star Patrick Dempsey began his career as a juggling unicycle-riding clown.

Angelina Jolies uncle, Chip Taylor, wrote the song "Wild Thing"

Christina Applegate attended the 1989 MTV Movie Awards with Brad Pitt, but dumped him at the event and left with someone else.

Keira Knightley was Queen Amidala's decoy in Star Wars: Episode 1 though the film was promoted as if Natalie Portman played both roles.

Sean Connery wore a Toupee in every James Bond movie he was in.

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Unusual Facts About Shakespeare

Shakespeare... William Shakespeare, what other things can you think other than that of what you already know about this genius bard.

Well here are some unusual and interesting facts about William Shakespeare which you might want to know.






UNUSUAL|INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT SHAKESPEARE

Shakespeare was buried in the Holy Trinity Church, Stratford-upon-Avon. He put a curse on anyone daring to move his body from that final resting place. His epitaph was:

Good friend for Jesus' sake forbear,
To dig the dust enclosed here:
Blest be the man that spares these stones,
And curst be he that moves my bones.

Though it was customary to dig up the bones from previous graves to make room for others, Shakespeare's remains are still undisturbed.

Shakespeare's works contain over 600 references to birds of all kinds, including the swan, bunting, cock, dove, robin, sparrow, nightingale, swallow, turkey, wren, starling, and thrush, just to name a few!

Few people realise that apart from writing thirty-seven plays and composing one hundred and fifty-four sonnets, Shakespeare was also an actor who performed many of his own plays as well as those of other playwrights, for example, Ben Jonson.

Richard II and King John are the only two Shakespearean plays containing no prose.

As an actor performing his own plays, Shakespeare performed before Queen Elizabeth I and later before James I who was an enthusiastic patron of his work

Macbeth is thought to be one of the most produced plays ever, with a performance beginning somewhere in the world every four hours!

London football club Tottenham were formed in 1882, and originally named after Harry Hotspur - one of Shakespeare's characters in Henry IV

Rodgers and Hart's popular musical, The Boys from Syracuse (first presented on Broadway in 1938) is based on Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors.

Most academics agree that Shakespeare wrote his first play, Henry VI, Part One around 1589 to 1590 when he would have been roughly twenty-five years old. If you are thirteen you will think he was ancient but if you are twenty-six you will probably be thinking about where your life is going!

From 1788 to 1820, performances of King Lear were prohibited on the English Stage due to the insanity of the reigning monarch, King George III.

Shakespeare's life lasted for fifty-two years. It is known that he was born in April 1564 and that he died on 23rd April 1616. We know that he was baptised on 26th April 1564 and scholars now believe that he was born on April 23rd . He therefore died on his fifty-second birthday, coinciding with St George's Day. How fitting that the great English writer is so closely identified with the patron saint of England!

Shakespeare uses "dog" or "dogs" over two hundred times in his works. He also was the first writer to use the compound noun "watchdog", in The Tempest (1.2.390).

During his life, Shakespeare wrote 37 plays and 154 sonnets!

Shakespeare's primary source for The Winter's Tale was the prose romance "Pandosto", written in 1588 by Robert Greene. Incidentally, Greene's reference to Shakespeare in his autobiography, Greene's Groatsworth of Wit (1592), was the first literary reference to Shakespeare on record.

Shakespeare's friend and fellow actor, Richard Burbage, amazed and delighted audiences with his stirring interpretation of the outrageous villain, Richard III. On March 13, 1602, a lawyer and diarist named John Manningham recorded a now-famous anecdote about Shakespeare and Richard Burbage:

"Upon a time when Burbage played Richard the Third there was a citizen grew so far in liking with him, that before she went from the play she appointed him to come that night unto her by the name of Richard the Third. Shakespeare, overhearing their conclusion, went before, was entertained and at his game ere Burbage came. Then, message being brought that Richard the Third was at the door, Shakespeare caused return to be made that William the Conqueror was before Richard the Third."

Sources:
http://www.nosweatshakespeare.com/resources/shakespeare-facts.htm
http://shakespeare.about.com/library/weekly/aa073101a.htm

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Interesting Facts About Napoleon Bonaparte

Napoleon Bonaparte... The good old Sir Napoleone Bonaparte. Strong, arrogant, ambitious, and secretly... A man suffering from hemorrhoids. Yes you heard me, that disgusting hemorrhoid that's sticking between your soft bouncing butt =).

Year 2001 when it was first identified by Dr. Paul Wolf. The great Napoleon Bonaparte could have won the Battle of Waterloo if not only with that hemroid he had. He could have the chance and advantage from the British by attacking earlier in the day, but Napoleon Bonaparte delayed his attack because he suffered greatly from hemroid pain that morning. By the time the afternoon came, the weather and so on, comes their disadvantage. And comes the British advantage.

Napoleon Bonaparte suffered greatly from hemroid pain during many of his battles, as the tension of battle apparently caused his sphincter muscles to tighten horrendously on his hemroids, thereby generating massive pain and discomfort for him. Bad hemroid!

Napoleon Bonaparte used bathing to help control his hemroid pain, but during the battle of Waterloo he was having a hard time dealing with constipation, which made his discomfort and possibly his pain much worse and, he had no time to sit in a bath to ease his miserable state.

Poor Napoleon Bonaparte. The greatest French general of all time - who is having a fight with his own hemroid, as persisting as him. =)

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