Wordology, Canuck

The term "Canuck" originated in 1869 from Johnny Canuck, a nationalistic symbol billed as a younger, simpler cousin to America's Uncle Sam or Britain's John Bull. During World War II, Johnny Canuck was used as a mascot in pro-Canadian propaganda as Canada's personal defender against the Axis Powers.

A Canuck is also a small or medium-sized hardy horse, common in Canada. In addition, it is the name of the NHL hockey team in Vancouver, Canada.

Uncle Sam

March 13 was Uncle Sam Day. On this day in 1852, the New York Lantern newspaper published an Uncle Sam cartoon for the first time from Frank Henry Bellew. Through the years, the caricature changed with Uncle Sam becoming symbolic of the U.S. Example of this symbolism were U.S. Army posters that portrayed Uncle Sam pointing and saying, “I want you!”

He always wore red, white, and blue with a hat of stars and he had stripes down both pant legs. How he became known as Uncle Sam has been lost, but one story was about a dock worker wondering what the words “From U.S.” meant on shipping crates.Someone said jokingly, “It is from your Uncle Sam.”

Show Me The Money

Every time we fill up our tanks, we wrestle with one of life’s thorniest mysteries: Why do gas prices end in 0.9 cents? Unfortunately, the origins of the increment are murky. Some sources attribute the practice to the 1920s and 1930s, when the gasoline tax was nine-tenths of a cent.

Stations would simply slap the extra 0.9 onto the advertised price of a gallon to give Uncle Sam his cut. Others theorize that slashing 0.1 cent off the price undercut competitors back in the days when gas was just a few cents per gallon.

Although most drivers simply ignore the extra 0.9 cents, oil companies certainly don’t. In 2009, Americans consumed 378 million gallons of gas per day, and that extra 0.9 cents per gallon was collectively worth nearly $3.5 million a day. On the flip side, you could also argue that customers collectively saved around $340,000 per day, thanks to stations’ reluctance to round up to the next penny.