Strange BUT TRUE

• It was Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in Europe during World War II and the 34th president of the United States, who made the following sage observation: “I would rather try to persuade a man to go along, because once I have persuaded him he will stick. If I scare him, he will stay just as long as he is scared, and then he is gone.”

• The biggest polar bear ever recorded weighed a whopping 2,209 pounds — roughly the weight of 12 adult men.

• Russian health authorities are very familiar with cold-weather injuries — and fatalities. For instance, every winter, about 100 Russians are killed by falling icicles.

• Noon and midnight are the only times that have their own names. The origin of the term “midnight” is obvious, since it occurs in the middle of the night, but how did 12 p.m. come to be called noon? The word itself is derived from the Latin word “nono,” which means “nine.”

Still doesn’t seem to make sense? Here’s how lexicographers trace the evolution of the word: If hours are counted from dawn — roughly 6 a.m. — instead of midnight, nine hours into the day would be 3 p.m., or midafternoon. Lacking accurate portable timepieces, ancient Romans used the term “nono” to refer to the midafternoon in a general sense. Over time, as the pronunciation of the word shifted to “noon,” the meaning of the word shifted to “midday.” Once society began to be run according to the accuracy of clocks, noon was pinpointed as 12 p.m.

• Some police departments in Canada are known for giving out “positive tickets” — citations for doing something good in public.

Thought for the Day:

“Few things are harder to put up with than a good example.”

— Mark Twain