Friday, January 29, 2021

The Slice Of Pie Is Getting Larger

At the end of the day today Hubby Tony crossed Day 61 off on his retirement countdown calendar. He's now forty percent of the way to being done with punching the time clock.
To celebrate the milestone, I sent him an email from the folks at Reader's Digest, which offered 9 Fascinating Facts About the Number 40 You Never Knew (And we went out for ice cream after dinner.)
  1. Forty is the only number in English which has its letters in alphabetical order.
  2. Minus 40 degrees, or “40 below”, is the only temperature that is the same in both Fahrenheit and Celsius.
  3. When the bubonic plague gripped Europe during the Middle Ages, ships would be isolated in harbours for 40 days before passengers could go ashore. The word quarantine originates from the Venetian dialect form of the Italian quaranta giorni, meaning “40 days”.
  4. There are 40 spaces on a Monopoly board. Proving that life is a gamble, the game gives players equal chances (one in 40) of going directly to jail or winning the Free Parking prize.
  5. Forget “nine months” – a typical pregnancy actually lasts 40 weeks.
  6. It took chemists 40 attempts to develop the magical spray we knew as … wait for it … WD-40 (full name: Water Displacement, 40th formula).
  7. In literature, 40 is the number of thieves Ali Baba clashes with in the “Arabian Nights” tale.
  8. Also, 40 is the number of winks Dr William Kitchiner suggests taking for a perfect nap in his 1821 guide.
  9. In religion, 40 seems to be shorthand for “a long time.” Jesus spent 40 days fasting in the wilderness being tempted by the devil; the great flood lasted 40 days and 40 nights; the Jewish people wandered the desert for 40 years.
Five years ago: Kale, Yeah!

14 comments:

  1. Interesting facts. Getting this close to retirement do you think your hubby may get bored after he has been off of work for a while or does he have a list a mile long of things he would like to do?

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    1. I think he'll do a good job of keeping himself busy.

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  2. this is amazing how you and your hubby look at the things ,just like comment above i too wonder about my own husband waht he will do when he is retired as he is kind of workaholic lol
    thank you for sharing interesting knowledge about number "40" ,i learnt new things :)
    best wishes for you and family for the days ahead !

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    1. From what I've heard it sounds like people that have a specific plan for their time don't have much of a problem transitioning into the 'no job' phase of their life.

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  3. I remember when we were counting down to my husband's retirement. I believe he retired at 66. We both grew up poor, and right up to the time he retired, he refused to believe he would ever be able to retire. The only income we have is our two Social Security benefits, and mine isn't very much; but we have more funds to do things now than we ever did when he was working. We paid all loans off before he retired and now pay off our credit cards in full each month. My husband has been retired for 10 years and still can't believe we're making it just fine.

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    1. It sounds like you have things under control/

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  4. Fun way to celebrate 40. I knew about Ali Baba, but not much else on your list.

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    1. So now you have some extra trivia facts for the next time you actually get to go to a cocktail party :-)

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  5. Those are fun facts for sure about 40. Especially now knowing how WD 40 got its name.

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  6. Every house should have at least one can of WD 40.

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