The eggplant was once known as the "love apple" in England because it was thought to possess aphrodisiac properties.
Botanists in northern Europe dubbed the eggplant mala insana, or "mad apple," because they thought that eating the fruit could result in insanity.
http://amazingfactsworld.com/how-did-the-eggplant-get-its-name
Specialists in brolliology, the study of the umbrella, that is, are reluctant to estimate the number of umbrellas in use throughout the world, but the country with the highest per capita use of the gamp is definitely England.
As late as 1954, 300,000 umbrellas were produced in the British Isles each month.
Today, most umbrellas are imported from Hong Kong and Japan.
And close to 75,000 umbrellas are lost each year on the bus and underground system of London alone.
The first house numbers appeared in 1463, on the Pont Notre-Dame in Paris.
Dubious Honor
In April of 1972, a little-known world title was lost at Beaver, Oklahoma.
Governor David Hall of that state, who a year earlier had hurled a hand-sized wad of cow dung a whopping 94 feet to win the World Dung-Throwing Championship, managed a throw of only 68 feet and was dethroned by former Governor Dewey Bartlett, who broke all records with a stunning toss of 138 feet.
