Poet Laureate

No U.S. poet laureate served longer than Joseph Auslander, who filled the honorary position from 1937 to 1941. The second-longest serving poet laureate, Robert Pinsky, filled the post from 1997 to 2000.

Mmm

On television's "The Simpsons," Homer Simpson's favorite phrase, "Mmm," has been used in response to the following: doughnuts, money, the Land of Chocolate, invisible Cola, free goo, caramel, organized crime, unprocessed fish sticks, a foot long chili dog and hog fat.

The Id

Sigmund Freud first referred to the unconscious mind as "es," the indefinite pronoun "it" in German. But translators believed the English word "it" was too vague, which made Freud's idea sound unscientific, so they changed it to "id."

Tupperware

The first piece of Tupperware, a bathroom cup, was created by Earl D. Tupper in 1942. It was introduced to department stores in 1945. Tupper later created the home party in order to increase sales of his popular plastic products.

Cutting

Although the fine diner might carve a roast, other meats require other cutting terms. For instance, the true gourmet would thigh a pigeon, chine a salmon, culpon a trout, tranch a sturgeon, tame a crab, barb a lobster, wing a partridge, frusche a chicken, rear a goose or break a deer.

Panama Hats

Panama hats are so named because the popular headgear was frequently shipped from Panama during the 19th century. But the hats, woven from the leaves of the Carludovica palmate tree, are actually made in Ecuador.

Other

In the 1990 U.S. Census, almost 10 million respondents reported their race as "other." In follow-up questionnaires, 59 percent of those same respondents reported being white.

Washington's Birthday

For the first 19 years of his life, George Washington celebrated his birthday on February 11. But when the British Parliament replaced the Julian calendar with the Gregorian calendar in 1752, Washington moved the annual observation of his birthday 11 days later to February 22.

Edith Roosevelt

A lifelong Republican, Edith Roosevelt, who hated making public statements, broke her ban on public speaking in order to speak out against her cousin, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and in support of his opponent, Herbert Hoover.

Play It Again

Humphry Bogart is widely believed to have said, "Play it again, Sam," or something like it in the movie "Casablanca." The truth, however, is that he didn't. Ingrid Bergman comes the closest with her own line in the film: "Play it, Sam."

Groundhogs

Researchers found that over a 60-year period in which groundhogs were used to predict the weather, the North American mammals were right only 28 percent of the time.

Evolution

The first comprehensive theory of evolution couldn't possibly have been created by Charles Darwin. Why not? Because he'd only just been born. French naturalist Jean-Baptiste Lamarck formulated his theory on evolution in 1809, roughly 50 years before Darwin published his own book "On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection."

Family Photos

In America's family photos, Mom is in the picture more than three times as often as is Dad. On a weekly radio quiz program, one contestant suggested this may be because Dad is usually the family member taking the picture. If true, this would explain why even the family dog is featured 25 percent more often than is Dad.

Souvenirs

First Lady Caroline Harrison (1832-1892) occupied herself while living in the White House by producing souvenir china for tourists. She even designed a line of china for the Harrison administration that was used for serving food at state functions.

Badger Forecast

German immigrants to Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, brought with them to America an old tradition in which badgers predict the weather. As it turns out, however, in Punxsutawney, groundhogs are easier to find.

Paparazzi

Paparazzi are the hordes of aggressive photographers that closely follow every celebrity move. But the Italian word used to describe these journalists actually means mosquitoes.

Mayan Calendar

The Mayans had a civil calendar or Haab that used 18 months of 20 days with a 5-day period at the end of each year, called Uayeb. The South American culture also had a divinatory calendar or Tzolkin, which had days numbered 1 to 13 and also named days in a cycle of 20 names. The sequence started over every 260 days and synchronized with the Haab every 52 Haab years, a time at which the Mayans believed the world might end. The master Mayan calendar, which purportedly counts down from the beginning of the world, is set to finally reach zero in December 2012.

The Commandments

As usual, Hollywood didn't get it quite right. In "The Ten Commandments," starring Charlton Heston, Moses goes up Mount Sinai twice. In the biblical book of Exodus, however, Moses climbs Mount Sinai at least seven times.

Tourism

France remains the world's most popular tourist destination with a little more than 10 percent of the world's travelers each year. The country of Spain is the second most popular travel spot.

Queen Victoria

A total of eight geographic locations have been named for Queen Victoria: Victoria, Australia; Victoria, British Columbia, Canada; Victoria Falls on the Zambezi River at the borders of Zambia and Zimbabwe; Victoria Island (off northern Canada); Lake Victoria in Africa; Victoria Land, a row of mountains in Antarctica; Victoria Nile in Uganda; and Victoriaville, Quebec, Canada.