{"id":49785,"date":"2016-11-13T11:23:07","date_gmt":"2016-11-13T19:23:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/?p=49785"},"modified":"2016-11-13T11:24:29","modified_gmt":"2016-11-13T19:24:29","slug":"weekly-wrap-volume-124","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/2016\/11\/weekly-wrap-volume-124\/","title":{"rendered":"Weekly Wrap Volume 124"},"content":{"rendered":"
This is a weekly wrap of our popular Daily Knowledge Newsletter. You can get that newsletter for free here<\/a>.<\/div>\n

\"gnats-340x226\"Why Gnats Swarm<\/a><\/p>\n

A common sight in the spring and summer, the seemingly unprofitable and pointless habit of gnats to hover in a cloud is, in fact, the single most productive thing they\u2019ll ever do with their short lives. Although there are a wide variety of non-biting, but eminently annoying, gnats and midges, their lifecycles are all pretty similar. Each begins as an egg, and, with some species, they lay thousands at a time. When they hatch (after a period of no more than a week), each enters a larval stage (lasting anywhere from 10 days to 7 weeks), followed by a pupae stage that lasts another 3 to 20 days, and then each emerges as an adult. And this is…(more<\/a>)<\/p>\n

\"gloria_steinem\"What Mrs. is Short For<\/a><\/p>\n

You may have wondered, if you\u2019ve ever thought about it, why there is an \u201cr\u201d in \u201cMrs.\u201d when it\u2019s generally spoken as \u201cmissus\u201d (also sometimes spelled \u201cmissis\u201d). \u201cMrs.\u201d first popped up as an abbreviation for \u201cmistress\u201d in the late 16th century. At the time, \u201cmistress\u201d didn\u2019t popularly have the negative connotation it often does today, namely referring to a woman other than a man\u2019s wife who he has an affair with. Instead, back then \u201cmistress\u201d, deriving from the Old French \u201cmaistresse\u201d (female master), was just the feminine form of \u201cmister\/master\u201d. \u201cMistress\u201d itself first popped up in English around the 14th century, originally meaning \u201cfemale teacher, governess\u201d. By the 16th century \u201cmistress\u201d referred to any woman, with neither \u201cmistress\u201d nor \u201cmister\u201d referencing one\u2019s marital status. It wasn\u2019t until around..(more<\/a>)<\/p>\n

\"wife-selling\"That Surprisingly Recent Time in British History When Husbands Sold Their Wives at Market<\/a><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s say you\u2019re an 18th-century British peasant, and you and your wife just aren\u2019t getting along anymore. What do you do? Divorce her? Too expensive. Kill her? Too risky. Oh, well, looks like you\u2019ll have to auction her off. Welcome to the wacky world of wife selling! (HARDY HAR-HAR) Hands up all of you who\u2019ve read Thomas Hardy\u2019s classic of 19th-century British misery, The Mayor of Casterbridge. You know, the one where everybody dies and life is shown to be a pointless parade of squalor, pain, and death? You haven\u2019t gotten around to reading it yet? Well, it\u2019s worth filling you in on a key plot point, namely, that the main character, Michael Henchard, sells his long-suffering wife at a public auction. Surely not, you cry! Not in civilized old England. Thomas Hardy must have…(more<\/a>)<\/p>\n

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