Well, Whadya Know

Why does the word "gauntlet" describe both what one runs and what can be thrown down as a challenge?

Although the words are coincidentally the same in each sense, they derive from different languages. The expression running the gauntlet (or gantlet) entered English in the 17th century. This military punishment, in which a soldier had to run between parallel lines of men who beat him as he passed by, comes from the Swedish word gantlope, which means a path or course (not a mammal with horns or a melon.)

On the other hand, throwing down the gauntlet (a glove), originally a challenge from one knight to another is from the Old French word, gantelet, or small glove.

[source: Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable]

Are there any animals that never sleep?

Dolphins can't go to sleep. They are mammals, need to surface to breathe and will drown if they doze off. For eight hours a day dolphins are fully awake, but the rest of the time they're on cruise control. In those 16 hours, half of their brain is asleep for one eight-hour stretch, while the other half snoozes during the next eight-hour shift.

[source: Do Fish Drink Water? By Bill McLain]

Where did people first eat chocolate, and when?

Ccivilization as we know it began about the year 1000 AD in South America when several cultures started to use a bitter concoction made from the cocoa bean in important rituals. Columbus, who also discovered America, made a significant contribution to European culture when he brought this liquid back from the New World. Sweetened, it became "cocoa." By the 17th century, cocoa was the cat's meow among the nobility and was spreading to the lower classes.

Chocolate remained a drink exclusively until the middle of the 19th century, when chocolate candy was developed in Europe. Now if we can just figure out how to smoke it…

[source: Panati's Browser's Book of Beginnings by Charles Panati]