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FACTS OF THE MONTH:
The only member of ZZ Top that doesn't have a beard has the last name Beard.
A donkey will sink in quicksand but a mule won't.
If you stretch it a bit, the characters from "Gilligan's
Island" could represent the Seven Deadly Sins:
Gilligan--sloth
Skipper--anger
Mr. Howell--greed
Mrs. Howell--gluttony
Ginger--lust
Professor--pride
Mary Ann--envy
Snakes sleep with their eyes open because they have no eyelids.
The U.S. Patent Office has over 3000 patents on file for anti-snoring devices.
Thirty percent of American women dye their hair.
Women during the Middle Ages were encouraged not to have orgasms because they believed it prevented pregnancy.
The typical home contains eight clocks.
Until the age of 51, Abraham Lincoln was clean-shaven.
Only one out of four parents have ever visited their child's school.
Until 1817, U.S. Congressmen and Senators were only paid six dollars a day. And they were only paid for days that Congress was in session.
| from LOONEY LAWS WEEK: People in Kentucky must legally bathe at least once per year. In Arizona, it's illegal to hunt camels. Four hundred years ago, drinking coffee in Turkey was punishable by death. One form of punishment for women in medieval France convicted of adultery was to force her to chase a chicken through town naked. Only government officials are allowed to have colorful gondolas in Venice. All public gondolas must be black. Placing your thumb against the tip of your nose and wriggling your fingers as someone is an illegal act in New York City. It is illegal in the state of Vermont to whistle underwater. |
Sound travels almost five times faster through water than through air.
A research study suggests that 30% of all umpires need glasses.
Canadian Alex Trebek's first appearance in America was as host of the game show The Wizard of Odds in 1973. The show was created by another Canadian, actor-themewriter Alan Thicke. When William Peter Blatty won $10,000 on You Bet Your Life, host Groucho Marx asked him what he was going to do with the money. Blatty responded that he was going to live off it while writing a book. That book was The Exorcist. Perennial game-show host Bill Cullen is one of only two people to have hosted programs on each of the three major networks at the same time (Eye Guess on NBC, I've Got a Secret on CBS and the original Price Is Right on ABC). The other? Dick Clark ($25,000 Pyramid on CBS, American Bandstand on ABC and Bloopers and Practical Jokes on NBC) Everyone knows that The Price Is Right was television's first hour-long game show. What many don't realize was that the second was Wheel of Fortune. NBC tried the show in an hour-long format for a few months. It didn't work. Even though The Price Is Right is an hour long, as far as the Nielsen ratings are concerned, the show is actually two half-hour programs. The commercial breaks are designed for half-hour shows so that's how it is officially counted. The third hour-long game show was actually two shows smershed together, The Match Game/Hollywood Squares Hour. The MG part was hosted, as usual, by Gene Rayburn, while Jon Bauman, previously Bowser the bass singer from the group Sha Na Na, hosted the Squares portion. When one wasn't hosting, he was a panelist for the other. Hour Long Game Show #4: Family Feud Challenge. The winner of the first half would stay for the second half and meet the previous day's champion. This incarnation was deliberately designed so that any affiliate that wanted to could only show the second half of the hour, so no mention at all was made during that half of the beginning thirty minutes of the show. For years on Match Game, the contestant trying to win the big money prize would, 99 times out of 100 (maybe more), choose Richard Dawson to attempt to match. The producers, and most likely the other celebrities, got tired of this, so the Big Wheel was created. The contestant would spin the wheel and try to match whoever the wheel stopped on. The very first time it was spun, it landed on Richard. Disgusted, the other five celebrities left the stage.
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There is only one 'Pittsburgh' in America, the one in Pennsylvania. All the rest are 'Pittsburg's, without the h.
The only grain indigenous to the Western Hemisphere, corn is officially classified as a grass.
The parking meter was invented in North Dakota. It's first commercial use was in Oklahoma City.
If you are locked in an airtight room, you will die of carbon dioxide poisoning before you die of oxygen deprevation.
Australian Rules Football was originally created in order to give cricket players something to do during the off-season.
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from GAME SHOW WEEK: 
