Friday Factoid: Literature-oids
Welcome to another Friday Factoid!
Today, I'm taking a random dive deep into the underworlds of literature...
Starting with that great American classic, Gone With The Wind...
Based on the actual battles mentioned, it's calculated that gentle Melanie's pregnancy actually took 21 months -- as opposed the slightly more traditional nine.
Books can be strange like that.
And authors can be even stranger.
It's said that Ian Fleming gave the name "James Bond" to his famed detective after seeing it on the cover of a book of West Indian birds, by ornithologist James Bond.
Tsk, look that one up on Amazon.
And did you know that Mr Fleming also wrote the fantasmagorical Chitty Chitty Bang Bang too?
Talking of airborne vehicles, remember Jules Verne?
He was the French author that wrote Around the World in 80 Days, Journey to the Centre of the Earth, 20,000 Leagues -- and many others.
And yet he was only ever aloft once. In a version of the hot air balloon, way back in 1873.
But British authors are usually the worst for peculiarities.
Agatha Christie claimed to have received most of her inspiration whilst eating applies in the bath. Hmmm.
And Lewis Carroll, author of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, was always known to be a little random.
He actually invented the world "chortle" - amongst others - which came from combining the words "chuckle" and "snort."
But at least that English curiosity actually made it into the public domain...
In 1967, the American Typers' Association made a new punctuation mark called an interrobang. It was a combination of a question mark and an exclamation mark, used to amplify the exclamation.
(A bit like saying "Oh my gosh!?" - apparently.)
But, unlike the irony mark, this new addition from the ATA was scrapped the very same year.
What a random collection of literary craziness.
Happy Friday! :)
(PS. Visit http://www.karlforum.com/ to share YOUR factoids!)
Labels: factoids
by Karl
2:14 AM
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3 Comments:
Very interesting bits of info :D
By
Kara, at
9:03 PM
I never did like that silly Melanie!
By
Skittles, at
9:34 PM
Wow! You have an awesome blog. I'll have to make this a regular stop. And I'll admit: Love that English accent. Love your broadcast for writers.
By
The Gatekeeper, at
10:15 PM
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