Trivial Pursuit
 

Esoteric Knowledge, like the Dude, abides. Post yer trivia here!

I'll start:

Toads drink through their skin.

The phrase "spitting image" is a slang of the phrase "Spirit and image", as in "He is the spirit and image of his father"

In Long Beach, the maximum number of cats you can own per household is five.

OOOH! I LOVE etymology (and I know Liz loves Entymology) ;)

The Phrase "Skid Row" which we associate with disreputable areas was originated from the term Skid Road which were the tracks that loggers used to slide (or skid) logs down. The surrounding area was inhabited by loggers first, then by hobos, hence the disreputable association. I *believe* the term originated in Seattle.

The proper Irish response to 'top of the morning to you' is 'and the rest of the day to yourself.'

The bone below your big toe underneath that large pad is one of several "sesamoid" bones in your body, named so because they are shaped like a sesame seed.

You are correct that it's from Seattle. The fact that they used fish oils to lubricate the logs and facilitate the skidding didn't help the area's reputation either.

The term "the whole 9 yards" came from WWII fighter pilots in the South Pacific. When arming their airplanes on the ground, the .50 caliber machine gun ammo belts measured exactly 27 feet, before being loaded into the fuselage. If the pilots fired all their ammo at a target, it got "the whole 9 yards."

Actually...

http://www.randomhouse.com/wotd/inde...?date=19971128

If you want to be specific, a "book" is any collection of written information. A scroll, a bundle of papyrus, accordian fold, you name it. What we Westerners think of as a book is technically called a "codex". A codex is a collection of papers bound on one side.