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Guess what, Will?

What's that, Mango?

So I just found out that the first surprise parties had nothing to do with birthdays or parties.

I don't really understand what any of this means, but go ahead and explain, please.

So apparently the earliest use of the term surprise party was in an 1840 novel by Irish writer Charles Lever.

And a surprise party was a squad of soldiers lying in weight and engaged in a sneak attack.

But what's interesting is that as weird as it might seem for surprise parties to have this,

you know, military origin, it actually kind of makes sense.

The word surprise is derived from this old French verb, Suprendre, which means to seize or to invade.

So from the very beginning, the word surprise had this military context, and that actually carried over to English in the 14th century.

Well, I'm curious, so when does the meaning change to more of what we think of as a surprise,

like something more pleasant?

So that doesn't emerge until about 100 years later.

Before that, the word was

used almost exclusively to refer to an unexpected attack on troops. In fact, it would have been

redundant to call something a surprise attack because back then, every surprise was an attack.

I'll be honest, though. That's kind of how I feel about surprise parties today. I mean, I know

you're joking, but there are definitely people who hate surprise parties. And there's actually a

scientific reason for that. The momentary shock from a surprise triggers the release of a stress

response hormone. It's called noradrenaline. And this is part of the body's fight or flight

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