Meme Kidnapped from scarlettina

[gnomi]

In the comments below, share a factoid or a bit of info that other people can learn about from you (so no making stuff up that isn't true)... advice, educational stuff, whatever. However, do not repeat knowledge on a subject that has already been commented on, and if you see something you didn't know about before make sure to let the person know.

As scarlettina did, I'll start with a randomness:

Until 1698, when the Virginia governor specified that Capitol would be the name of the planned statehouse in a village then known as Middle Plantation, the word capitol had been used only as the name of the great Roman temple at Rome.

(quoted from Garner's Modern American Usage, p. 127. Garner cites Mitford M. Mathews, American Words, pp. 62-63 (1959; repr. 1976))

Comments

[celli]

The Enron 401(k) "lockout" is now famous, but slightly mis-represented in articles and books about the company's crash. The pension plan lockout (they were changing plan administrators and for administrative reasons didn't want to allow changes) was supposed to last longer than it did. The ban was lifted because the stock was tanking so badly, but a large number of Enron employees chose to stay with the stock or even buy more. They believed that strongly that the company would rebound.

(From Kurt Eichenwald's Conspiracy of Fools: A True Story)

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

a large number of Enron employees chose to stay with the stock or even buy more

That happened at a company I used to work for, as well. People had a lot of 401(k) money in the company's stock, and despite the fact that it tanked and lost them lots of money, they not only stuck with it, some even purchased more, at the very, very low stock price.

I didn't understand the logic then, and I don't understand it now.