Well, Whadya Know

Why do we say that someone who has withdrawn a statement has
"recanted?"

Those of us who admire the grape know the word "decant" as a
fancy-shmancy way to say, "pour the wine." And I must tell
you that I've said a lot of things after I've decanted that I
had to recant - put them back in the bottle, so to speak.

But the meaning under intense scrutiny today has to do not
with sipping but with singing. It's based on the Latin
cantare, "to sing." The sense conveyed by recant is that you
have sung out certain things you should not have, and now you
must take them back. I've tried to picture this and I always
come up with an image of someone literally eating his or her
words.
[source: Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins by William and
Mary Morris]

The fastest wind speed ever recorded is 318 mph in one of the May 3,
1999 Oklahoma tornadoes?
[source: USA Today]

The shortage of affordable housing in New York City has often
forced people to accept living quarters far short of ideal.
But the house at 75 ½ Bedford Street in Greenwich Village,
really takes the cake: it's 9 ½ feet wide.

The dimensions may have created some problems, but at least
it hasn't induced narrow-mindedness. Residents have included
poet Edna St. Vincent Millay and actor John Barrymore.
[source: The Book of New York Firsts]