FACTS OF THE MONTH:

If you feed a seagull Alka-Seltzer, its stomach will explode.

America only has 46 states. The other four--Virginia, Massachusetts, Kentucky and Pennsylvania--are technically not states but commonwealths. By this argument the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico could already be considered a state.

Tulsa, Oklahoma has the highest density of convenience stores per square mile in the United States.

America (or to be more precise, the American colonies) switched from the Julian Calendar to the Gregorian (the one we use today) in September of 1752. The day after Sept. 3 was Sept. 13. At the same time, New Years Day was moved to January 1. Previously the new year began on March 25. These two incidents made 1752 the shortest year ever, lasting less than nine months.

By sheer coincidence, California's Disneyland and Florida's Disney World are both located in Orange County.

Tigers have striped skin, not just striped fur.

David Prowse, the actor inside the Darth Vader suit in the Star Wars movies, actually spoke all of Vader's lines while filming, and didn't know he was going to be dubbed over by James Earl Jones until he saw a screening of the movie.

There are only thirteen blimps in the world, nine of them in the U.S. The Fuji blimp is the largest.

The only two days of the year in which there are no professional sports games (MLB, NBA, NFL, NHL) are the day before and the day after the MLB All-Star Game.

The calendar we currently use has no year 0, mistakenly jumping from 1 BC to 1 AD. For this reason the 21st Century will not begin until January 1, 2001.

In winter, ermines have a white coat and are known as ermines. In summer, however, their coats turn brown, and the animals become weasels.

Seattle, Washington, has placed limits on the size of a concealed weapon. It cannot be more than six feet in length.

The Brigham Young University football team of 1996-97 will be able to do something no other NCAA Division I-A school has done before: play 15 games in one season. [Eleven regular season games, the Kickoff Classic, The WAC Championship game, a bowl game, and an extra game because of a special NCAA rule that allows a team that plays a regular season game in Hawaii a bonus game as compensation for the added travel.]

The movie Oklahoma was filmed in Arizona because the producers felt Arizona looked more like Oklahoma than Oklahoma did.

The Swiss flag is square.

The last American President who was neither a Democrat nor a Republican was thirteenth President Millard Fillmore (1850-1853). Fillmore was from the Whig Party.