Illustration by Arnie Bermudez

· The following words were all invented by Americans in the past 125 years: apartment house, appendicitis, barroom, blizzard, bloomers, cocktail, coeducation, electrocute, filibuster, gangster, hydrant, moron, mortician, nickelodeon, realtor, saloon, and telegram. The following words are all 20th century creations: beautician; bromide; buildup; dust bowl; highbrow; sundae; superhighway; and the verbs to audition, to package, and to vacation. The following terms have become part of American usage since 1945: balding, baby- sit, cutback, free-wheeling, genocide, giveaway, name-calling, rat race, soap opera, spot check, stateside, tape recording and top secret.

· In most parts of the Middle East, men and women clean themselves after going to the toilet by splashing water onto themselves with their left hand. It is why it is considered the basest act conceivable in the Middle East to take food or drink with the left hand.

· During the Middle Ages in England and France, nobles, kings, and peasants has a custom called the droit du seigneur. When any of the subjects of a great lord married, the lord himself had the privilege of deflowering the bride. Although in the later Middle Ages this right was rarely exploited, it was a common part of the marriage ritual in earlier days. The practice, however, was not as prurient as it sounds today. During the Middle Ages, loyalty and complete obedience to one's lord was the single most important element of the feudal system÷ and there was no greater sign of this loyalty than the offering of one's bride.

· In the mountainous districts of Burma, a peculiar form of hospitality known as perah was practiced until the mid-20th century. Whenever an enemy was killed in battle, the blood was drained from his body, poured into a special bamboo reed, and set out in the open air to dry. When the victorious warrior wanted to treat friends and visitors to a great delicacy, he cracked open these reeds and allowed them to dine on the congealed blood.