Why are there seven days in a week?
Days, months and years all have an obvious astronomical basis, but why have a seven-day week? Early civilisations realised it would be useful to have a regular measure of time longer than a day but shorter than a month – to schedule market days, for example. Various different-length weeks have been used; the seven-day week was fi rst recorded in ancient Hindu culture. Babylonian astronomers developed the same system, based on the seven known planets. Each planet was thought to rule over a particular day, and these planetary names remain today: Sun-day, Mo(o)n-day and Satur(n)-day are obvious, while the rest are based on the equivalent Norse gods Tiw, Woden, Thor and Freya. In French, these are Mardi (Mars), Mercredi (Mercury), Jeudi (Jupiter) and Vendredi (Venus). The two-day weekend dates from the 1930s, when high unemployment led to limits on working hours. The revolutionary three-days-on, four-days-off week is etc.’s own invention, but we think it would catch on.
When did the EU ban bent bananas?
Never. Although there are regulations for the size and quality of fruit and vegetables traded internationally, nobody ever decreed that all bananas must be straight. This is one of the many myths about ‘barmy Brussels bureaucrats’ invented by certain British newspapers. You might also have read that Europe has banned lollipop ladies’ lollipops, firemen’s poles and shepherds’ crooks, not to mention corgis, cheddar cheese, smoky bacon crisps, milk bottles, mushy peas, swings and rocking horses. All lies. Nor has the EU ever told tightrope walkers to wear hard hats or lorry drivers to eat muesli for breakfast, suggested that Trafalgar Square and Waterloo Station are renamed to save offending the French or that mountains have warning signs saying ‘High Up’, or claimed that kilts should be labelled ‘women’s wear’.
Lipstick lunches
Apparently, the average woman will eat around 3kg of lipstick over the course of her life. Blimey. And it doesn't even taste that nice in the first place…
