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FACTS OF THE MONTH:
May comes from the Latin Maiores (elders); this month was designed to celebrate the elderly.
Glass is not solid, it's an extremely viscous liquid. Gravity has caused many stained glass windows hundreds of years old to run, the effect being the windows are now thicker at the bottom than the top. Besides, if glass was a solid, you wouldn't be able to see through it.
Many are aware of the fourth Marx Brother, Zeppo. Some even know about the fifth brother, Gummo. What many don't realize, however, was that there was also a sixth Marx Brother, Frenchie.
President James Garfield could write Greek with one hand and Latin with the other--simultaneously!
The Grand Canyon gets more snow annually than Minneapolis, Minnesota.
After a near-fatal auto accident, Mel Blanc recorded his cartoon voices, including the first season of "The Flintstones", lying flat on his back, the microphone suspended over his bed.
Difference between a ship and a boat: a boat will fit on a ship, but not vice-versa.
Mary Tyler Moore was banned from "The Ed Sullivan Show" after her first appearance for lip-synching; Sullivan demanded all performances be live.
| from LOONIER
LAWS WEEK:
In Tennessee, it's illegal to take a fish off someone else's hook. Butchers in medieval Europe were not allowed to serve on juries. In California, it's against the law to set a mousetrap unless you have a hunting license. Employees at the various Disney theme parks, according to regulations, must be clean-shaven, including the ones in the animal costumes. Also, no one wearing one of those costumes is permitted to remove it in public, even if they have to vomit. There are many cities and towns within the United States where it is still illegal to operate "horseless carriages." Laws favoring horse-drawn vehicles written around the turn of the century have never been rescinded, making them still legal. A Connecticut statute makes it illegal to sell a pickle that will fall apart when dropped from a height of one foot. In Orlando, FL, if you tie an elephant to a parking meter you have to feed the meter. |
The pound cake got its name from the pound of butter it took to make it.
M&M candies were created so that soldiers in the field could eat candy without getting sticky fingers.
The oldest-known goldfish lived to the age of forty-one.
Of the six men who portrayed the Three Stooges at one time or another, three of them were real brothers (Moe, Curly and Shemp).
A hamburger costs more per pound than a new car.
The cigarette lighter was invented before the match.
The average Big Mac hamburger bun contains 178 sesame seeds.
Elephants are the only mammals that can't jump.
Azaleas love coffee.
| from "THAT'S
WHAT YOU THINK" WEEK:
A peanut is not a nut; it's a bean. Umbrellas were not designed for rain protection. The word is Latin for "little shaded area"; they were originally "made for the shade." The World's Columbian Exposition of 1893, celebrating the achievements of Christopher Columbus, was being held in Chicago. City residents were boasting about the Expo so much, and so often, that the New York press considered them 'a bunch of windbags'. As a result Chicago was given the nickname it's still known by today: The Windy City. It has nothing to do with breeze velocities. A four-leaf clover is lucky not because of its rarity, but because it resembles a cross. The rumor is that it's a sketch of Humphrey Bogart on Gerber baby food jars. Not true. The sketch was, however, drawn by Bogie's mother. Carbon-14 dating of the Shroud of Turin shows that the flax in the cloth was grown around the thirteenth century, which would make it impossible for it to be the burial shroud of Jesus. That "Do not remove under penalty of law" tag that appears on mattresses only applies to the person selling the mattress. Once you buy it you can do whatever you want to the tag. |
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