The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho has sold more than 65 million copies since it was first published in 1988. The book was originally written in Portuguese but has since been translated in to 67 different languages, which is a record for a book by a living author. Reincarnation does not count, sorry Jesus.

Shocker! David Bowie, like many other performers, changed his name. He was born David Jones and originally performed under the name Davie Jones. In 1966 he changed his name to avoid confusion with Davy Jones of the Monkees. The name Bowie was taken from the American James Bowie who fought at the Alamo.

The name of the city Philadelphia comes from two Greek words. The first is philos which means love and the second is adelphos which means brother

The Swedish furniture giant IKEA actually takes its name from the name of the founder and the place where he grew up. The I and K stand for Ingvar Kamprad. The E stands for Elmtaryd, which is the farm where he grew up. The A stands for Agunnaryd which is a region of Sweden.

The terms right wing politics and left wing politics have become a standard part of the political lexicon. The origins of the terms are credited to the French National Assembly of 1791. At this time the assembly members that were more conservative in their views sat on the right side of the chamber and the more liberal politicians sat on the left. This distinction has remained ever since.

When professional football was still in its infancy professional baseball was by far the most popular professional sport in the United States. For this reason many of the teams chose names that sounded similar to the local baseball team. Some of these teams no longer exist but there are two teams that keep the tradition alive. The Chicago Cubs inspired the name for the Chicago Bears and the Detroit Tigers helped give the Detroit Lions their name. The other NFL team still owing their name to baseball is the New York Giants. The New York Giants football team actually outlasted its baseball counterpart which moved to become the San Francisco Giants in 1957.

It is weird to think of the English alphabet with less than 26 letters, but it was not always that way. The alphabet English speakers all know today is derived from Latin. Originally Latin had no J. It was not until about 500 years ago that the letter first entered the alphabet, before that time the sound was created by an I. Thankfully we now have what I consider to be one of the most important letters (along with A,M,E, and S).

If you have ever wondered what YKK stands for on your zipper, wonder no more. Like most products, zippers are stamped with a brand name. Since Yoshida Kogyo Kabushikikaisha is a little long to fit on a zipper the shorted YKK will have to do. The company was founded in 1934 by Tadao Yoshida and registered the YKK trademark in 1946. YKK group is now the world’s largest manufacturer of zippers.

The expression the whole nine yards is used when describing a situation in which something is done completely. Whether it be an effort to impress a date or get a job, when you do everything within your ability to succeed, you can say you went the whole nine yards. While there is some debate as to the origin of the expression many believe it is a reference to the Lancaster bombers used by the British in the second world war. The machine gun in the tail of the plane required a lot of ammunition in order to defend it from enemy fighters, so much ammunition that the rack holding it in place was nine yards long. So if the machine gunner really went all out to defend the plane he would use “the whole nine yards.”

The term cougar, as a reference to older women who enjoy the company of younger men, has become a part of popular culture. Like most slang there is debate about its exact origins but must call Vancouver the birthplace of the “Cougar”. The term was originally a derogative word used to describe older women who would hang out in certain bars a stock younger men as prey. Now for a 40 year old women to be called a Cougar can be a compliment, and heard regularly on TV and in movies. That said, you might still want to be careful who you call a Cougar.