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Now I Never Knew That

Just read this in the book i'm currently reading:

Bobby Moore is the only captain to ascend the Wembley steps on 3 consecutive years to lift 3 different trophies.

They were the 64 FA Cup, the 65 Cup Winners Cup and the 66 World Cup.

That's a great fact. Would be useful knowledge for a pub quiz, if such a thing were to ever happen again!
 
A few years ago I was in the lovely church in the middle of Nantwich. The guide pointed out to me a narrow stone ledge that ran along the side of the nave and explained what it was for.

Back in medieval times when the church was built - the poor would stand - only the wealthy sat. The ledge was there for any poor who were elderly, ill or infirm. or had to rest during the service - they would go to sit on the ledge. And that's why we talk of a weak business 'going to the wall' when it fails.

Now I never knew that...but that's how I now know...
 
The Great Barrington Declaration.

I only last week discovered that the Great in the Great Barrington Declaration is not quite as pompous as it makes the GBD sound. In fact the GBD is nothing to do with someone called Barrington and some thinking that the declaration he/she drafted is 'great' as in 'large' or 'important'. Rather I have learned that Great Barrington is a town in Massachusetts (well now that I realise it's a place it's not surprising to me that that place is in the US).

Now I never knew that. But as of last week I do.
 
The Great Barrington Declaration.

I only last week discovered that the Great in the Great Barrington Declaration is not quite as pompous as it makes the GBD sound. In fact the GBD is nothing to do with someone called Barrington and some thinking that the declaration he/she drafted is 'great' as in 'large' or 'important'. Rather I have learned that Great Barrington is a town in Massachusetts (well now that I realise it's a place it's not surprising to me that that place is in the US).

Now I never knew that. But as of last week I do.
I often pass Great Barrington on the way to my BIL's house near Burford in the Cotswolds.
 
The Great Barrington Declaration.

I only last week discovered that the Great in the Great Barrington Declaration is not quite as pompous as it makes the GBD sound. In fact the GBD is nothing to do with someone called Barrington and some thinking that the declaration he/she drafted is 'great' as in 'large' or 'important'. Rather I have learned that Great Barrington is a town in Massachusetts (well now that I realise it's a place it's not surprising to me that that place is in the US).

Now I never knew that. But as of last week I do.

More relevantly it is the HQ of The American Institute for Economic Research, a libertarian lobbying group (aka think tank), and they funded it.
 
I didn’t know political threads are banned from the forum.

I was gonna put my 2p in the trump-Biden debacle....

Bookies just made Biden fav,
(Not sure I can post this ?)
 
...that they knew for a long time that the answer to the longitude problem could be a timepiece - they just couldn’t make one to withstand the issues faced by seafarers travelling through stormy seas and all sorts of temperatures and that was accurate enough.

Then a Yorkshireman called Harrison came along mid 1700’s with his inventions and the term chronometer was coined to describe his ’time machines’.

This I now know as I am reading an account of the battle and race that Harrison had with the astronomers - the astronomers being convinced that solar/lunar/star constellations could provide the answer - to the Longitude Problem.

And I now know that chronometer is not simply a pretentious word for a fancy watch. It is a ‘fancy’ watch yes - but a chronometer is - or should be - a lot more.
 
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...that they knew for a long time that the answer to the longitude problem could be a timepiece - they just couldn’t make one to withstand the issues faced by seafarers travelling through stormy seas and all sorts of temperatures and that was accurate enough.

Then a Yorkshireman called Harrison came along mid 1700’s with his inventions and the term chronometer was coined to describe his ’time machines’.

This I now know as I am reading an account of the battle and race that Harrison had with the astronomers - the astronomers being convinced that solar/lunar/star constellations could provide the answer - to the Longitude Problem.

And I now know that chronometer is not simply a pretentious word for a fancy watch. It is a ‘fancy’ watch yes - but a chronometer is - or should be - a lot more.

If that is the one by Dava Sobel, it's a good read.
 
...that they knew for a long time that the answer to the longitude problem could be a timepiece - they just couldn’t make one to withstand the issues faced by seafarers travelling through stormy seas and all sorts of temperatures and that was accurate enough.

Then a Yorkshireman called Harrison came along mid 1700’s with his inventions and the term chronometer was coined to describe his ’time machines’.

This I now know as I am reading an account of the battle and race that Harrison had with the astronomers - the astronomers being convinced that solar/lunar/star constellations could provide the answer - to the Longitude Problem.

And I now know that chronometer is not simply a pretentious word for a fancy watch. It is a ‘fancy’ watch yes - but a chronometer is - or should be - a lot more.

Everybody knows that, at least everybody from Peckham.
 
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