Why did he-men of old often wear earrings?

In the days of the wooden sailing ships,
there was no certainty that sailors setting out on a long voyage
would ever see their homeland again. To prepare for the worst,
sailors took to wearing gold earrings so that if there was an
accident and their bodies were found washed ashore on some
foreign beach, the gold in the earrings would be used to pay
for a decent burials.

Why do quarters,dimes,and half-dollars have
notched edges and nickels do not?

The U.S. Mint began putting notches on the
edges of coins containing gold and silver to discourage holders
of such coins containing gold and silver from shaving off small
quantities of the precious metals. Before coins were notched, shaving
was a common practice, and at one point the problem was so bad that
merchants refused to accept coins without first weighing them to
determine their true value. Notching the coins corrected the problem
since any attempt to shave a notched coin could be easily detected.
Dimes, quarters, and half- dollars are notched because they contain
silver. There is no need to notch pennies and nickels since the metals
they contain are not valuable enough to make shaving worthwhile.

Why are dark spots called Beauty Marks?

The idea of the beauty mark began during the
smallpox epidemic of the 1600's, which left many European women
marred with little scars caused by the diseases blisters. To divert
attention from these blemishes, women began wearing small beauty
patches to decorate their faces with small, pencil marks, which
they called beauty marks. Today almost any dark spot on a woman's
face might be called a beauty mark.

Why is when admitting your wrong said to be
"Eating Humble Pie?

When a deer was killed in the eleventh-century
England, it was customary to give the deer's best and tenderest parts
to the hunter who killed it, his eldest son, and his best male friends.
To the wife, children, and other friends of the hunter were left the
less desirable parts--the heart, kidneys, entails, etc. These parts
were called the deers "umbles", and to improve their taste they were
usually cooked in pie. Eating pie was clearly a sign of lower status,
so if someone committed an error and had to apologize, it was jokingly
suggested that until he learns better, he should be "eating umble pie".
Over time "umble pie" somehow became "humble pie".

Why are so many umbrellas black?

When umbrellas first came into wide use
during the 1700's, they were made of oil-soaked cotton cloth
stretched over whalebone. The purpose of the oil was to make
the cotton cloth waterproof, but it also gave the cloth a
blackish color. This type of umbrella was, in fact very water
proof but not very durable. Soon, newer and better umbrellas
were developed, and since the color black had come to be
associated with the effective waterproofing, most of the
newer models were dyed black.