I hardly read anymore...I think it's the effect of having so many other options for entertainment -- surfing the web, reading blogs, watching TV, getting outside and enjoying the beautiful weather, etc...

Books sit next to my bed for ages, while I read a few pages at a time. But a couple of days ago, I picked back up a book which a friend had given me earlier about the history of the French language, and read a few more pages.

I found out some nice factoids.

One thing about standard French is that counting is just plain odd. I mean, who in their right mind would say "four-twenty-ten" ("quatre-vingt-dix") to mean 90??? But that's standard French! All the numbers from 70 to 100 are a bit odd to my English-speaking ears.

Do you know how much trouble it causes for a native English speaker to say the year "1996?" How about "thousand nine hundred four-twenty-sixteen" -- "mille neuf cent quatre-vingt seize."

But I found out that Belgian French and Swiss French have pretty much standardized the numbers, so they follow a pattern! And it seems so much easier!!!

Standard French -- "quarante, cinquante, soixante, soixante-dix, quatre-vingts, quatre-vingt-dix" ("40, 50, 60, 70 (sixty-ten), 80 (four-twenties), 90 (four-twenty-ten)").

Belgian French -- "quarante, cinquante, soixante, septante, huitante, nonante" ("40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90"). Notice how the numbers from 70 - 90 follow the pattern of the earlier numbers!


Of course, as an English-speaker, who am I to talk about standardization, right? Here's a partial list of English homonyms (some of these are not homonyms to me -- depends on your accent) --

aisle I'll isle
aweful awful offal
aye eye I
bailee bailey bailie
bailer bailor baler
baize bays beys
bald balled bawled
bases basis basses
bel bell belle
bight bite byte
boar boor bore
bole boll bowl
born borne bourn
buy by bye
call caul col
carat caret carrot karat
cay key quay
censer censor sensor
cent scent sent
cents scents sense
cere sear seer sere
chord cord cored
cite sight site
cited sighted sited
cites sights sites
dew do due
do doe dough
does doughs doze
ewe yew you
ewes use yews
fir fur furr
flew flu flue
for fore four
frees freeze frieze
gild gilled guild
gnu knew new
haut ho hoe
heigh hi hie high
hoard horde whored
holey holy wholly
idle idol idyl
knot naught not
knows noes nose
lays laze leis
lea lee li
lochs locks lox
mall maul moll
marc mark marque
meat meet mete
oar or ore
pair pare pear
palate pallet pallette
peak peek pique
pincer pincher pinscher
poor pore pour
praise prays preys
precedence precedents presidents
psi sigh xi
rain reign rein
raise rays raze
rapped rapt wrapped
read rede reed
rheumy roomie roomy
rho roe row
right rite wright write
road rode rowed
seas sees seize
sew so sol sow
slew slough slue
tea tee ti
teas tease tees
tern terne turn
their there they're
to too two
toad toed towed
vain vane vein
vial vile viol
wail wale whale
ware wear where
way weigh whey
weald wheeled wield
weather wether whether
we're were whir
whined wind wined
yore you're your

http://www.fun-with-words.com/nym_homonyms.html

I was taking a pleasant (and very much needed) nap on the couch this afternoon while half way watching a nature TV show.

On the show, I heard that a tiger's penis has spines (thought to induce ovulation), which causes pain to the female and explains the noise she makes while they are copulating.

The brief act of copulation occurs continually for a five day period. Tigers are induced ovulators, and must be stimulated through frequent copulation in order to become pregnant. To help stimulate ovulation, the male tiger's penis has spines. This explains in part why the female roars and lashes out at the male immediately following copulation.

http://user.aol.com/tigertrail/mating.htm