Talk Morgan Forums Community The Malvern Arms Trivia Corner

I hope this is classed as trivia K.. Harvested on FB this morning.

Before she became one of the world’s most famous movie stars, Marylin Monroe was a real-life Rosie the Riveter in WWII. During World War II, when she was 18-year-old Norma Jean Dougherty, and the wife of a United States merchant seaman assigned overseas, she worked 10 hours a day for $20 a week at the Radioplane company in Burbank, CA, reports The New York Times.

Anyone know the origin of “happy as Larry” I.e. who was Larry??

Cheers!

Robbie, a quick web search shows lots of answers. I quite like this one...

The phrase “as happy as Larry” originated from a character’s name, Larry. It was first used in a printed version by G. L. Meredith, a Kiwi in 1875. The first person here is plural and the phrase is used in its original form, “We would be as happy as Larry.” Another use has been found in Barrier Truth, a book written by a popular Australian, Tom Collins in 1903, “I was as happy as Larry.” While the name Larry has been a famous simile, there are two possible inspirations for the name and the phrase. Firstly, the word might have been derived from “larrikin”, a slang used in Australia for a person who is either careless or causes trouble. The second option might have been derived from the name of Larry Foley (1847-1917), an Australian boxer, who had never lost a fight.

I'm not sure whether it counts as 'Trivia', more like 'Sobering Fact':

If you have £3200 to your name, you are richer than 50% of the world's population.

And half of the world's net wealth belongs to the top 1% of the population and the top 10% of the population holds 85% of the worlds net wealth.

Here is a real bit of nonsense an annual event in a neighbouring village that attracts 100's each year for the madness.
Blackawton International Festival of Worm Charming - much alcohol is consumed I'm told..

I always wanted to visit this place but didn't achieve it , I only got to Pines Fall & Little Rock.
Toad Suck

Another bit of wealth trivia. Imagine you were the highest paid professional gladiator in ancient Rome at the time of the birth of Christ.

Imagine you were being paid what a top sportsman today earns - £10,000 per day. An absolutely huge amount by any normal standard.

Now let's imagine you are immortal, that you saved every penny you were paid, that inflation didn't exist, and you worked 7 days a week for the last 2000 years. 730,500 days. 28 or so lifetimes

You now have amassed a total wealth of £7,305,000,000. Over 7 Billion quid. And you're still not even in the top 300 of the world's richest people.

That would be American billions?

Both - the UK has used the US '1 billion = 1,000 million' since 1974