Dolphins sleep with one eye open.

The favorite horses of both Alexander the Great (Bucephalos) and Julius
Caesar both had atavistic mutations- extra toes.  Horses normally have
only one toe per foot, but are descended from horses with three or four
toes on each limb.

The cruise liner, Queen Elizabeth II, moves only six inches for each
gallon of diesel that it burns.

Soap Operas are so called because they were originally used to advertise
soap powder.  In America in the early days of TV, advertisers would
write stories around the use of their soap powder.

Most people know that the legendary trumpet player Louis Armstrong was
nicknamed Satchmo.  However, did you know that Satchmo was short for
Satchel Mouth?

66% of Japan is covered in forest!

It was in 1752 when the modern world changed New Year's Day to January
1st.  It had previously been March 25th.  Before the Calendar Adjustment
Act of 1751, Great Britain and it's U.S. colonies celebrated New Year's
Day on March 25th because it is Lady Day and the Feast of Annunciation.
For some nations, New Year's has been celebrated on January 1 ever since
1752.

The world's smallest mammal is the bumblebee bat of Thailand, weighing
less than a penny.

A Tezcucan myth of why the Moon isn't bright as the Sun.  The Sun and
Moon were originally equally bright.  But the gods did not think this
was very good, so they decided to stop it at once.  One god took a hare
and threw it at the face of the moon.  The hare struck the moon, and
made a dark blotch that dimmed the Moon's brightness forever.

Heating oil creates the hottest flame of any home heating fuel.  It's
400º hotter than natural gas or propane and makes electric heat and heat
pumps shiver in comparison.  Because it's so hot, your home heats up
faster, needs less fuel, maintains your desired temperature better, and
just feels more comfortable.

Giant flying foxes that live in Indonesia have wingspans of nearly six
feet

Medieval Jewish mystics practiced rolling in the snow to purge
themselves from evil urges.  They were the first snow angels.

The tallest mountain in the world from base to summit is located on the
island of Hawaii.  The dormant volcano Mauna Kea measures over 30,000
feet tall when measured from its ocean base to summit, several hundred
feet higher than Mt. Everest in the Himalayas.

A whale's penis is called a dork.

Armadillos have four babies at a time and they are always the same sex.

Armadillos are the only animal besides humans that can get leprosy.

The "L.  L." in L. L. Bean stands for Leon Leonwood.

Recreational boaters spent about $17.7 billion on boats, motors,
trailers and accessories in 1996.

The Church regarded the knight as her defender against evil.  The dragon
was often seen as the symbol of evil, so many stories of this period
told of brave knights doing battle with dragons.

In 1938, Chester Carlson invented xerography out of two natural
phenomena already known:  materials of opposite electrical charges are
attracted, and certain materials become better conductors of electricity
when exposed to light.  By combining these phenomena in a unique way, he
was able to create a new process for making cheap, fast, good copies on
plain paper.

The famous split-fingered Vulcan salute is actually intended to
represent the first letter ("shin," pronounced "sheen") of the word
"shalom."  As a small boy, Leonard Nimoy observed his rabbi using it in
a benediction and never forgot it; eventually he was able to add it to
"Star Trek" lore.

Most people think of the Meridian Line as a solid fixed point.  However,
in reality it is simply a north/south line which would move whenever the
astronomer altered the position of his meridian telescope.  The Ordnance
Survey used Bradley's Meridian in its charts, although we are more
familiar with Airy's line.

The image of the knight in shining armor was largely a myth.  Many
knights in the crusades proved themselves to be greedy and cruel, and
the women of the Middle Ages were as tough and capable as any.

In the Brazilian jungle, women of the Apinaye tribe bite of portions of
their mates eyebrows during intercourse.

Pretoria, city in north-eastern South Africa, in Gauteng Province, on
the Apies River.  Pretoria is the administrative capital of South Africa
and a major commercial, manufacturing, transportation, and cultural
centre.  Principal products include iron and steel, processed food,
ceramics, and chemicals.

The Ramses brand condom is named after the great pharaoh Ramses II who
fathered over 160 children.

The Eiffel tower grows six inches every year.  In the summer the metal
expands to make the tower grow but also in the winter the metal
contracts to shrink the tower back down.

Al Capone's business card said he was a used furniture dealer.

Electrical storms will make a person dream more frequently in sleep.

Mexican free-tailed bats sometimes fly up to two miles high to feed or
to catch tail-winds that carry them over long distances at speeds of
more than 60 miles per hour.

Mr. Rogers is an ordained minister.

"Flow Control" is the way your computer and your modem manage the speed
of the incoming data.  If the data comes into the modem so fast that the
computer cannot read it correctly, the computer needs a way to tell the
modem to pause, and a way to tell it to resume.  Also, if the computer
can accept data faster than it is arriving, it needs to tell the modem
that it's ok to send faster.  This mechanism is flow control.

During the Middle Ages, very few people--including the average
knight--could read or write.  Since the Church played such a large role
in medieval life, learning took place in the monasteries, where books
were written and the first libraries were kept.

Becoming a knight was no easy matter.  The process began at an early
age, as there were many things to learn--not only about arms and
welfare, but about courtesy as well.  At age 7, a boy would be sent away
to begin his training--to learn the use of arms, to practice wrestling
and leaping into the saddle in full armor.  By age 14, he became a
squire, learning good manners and the meaning of honor.  He learned
about hunting and taking care of his lord's armor, brushing it and
repairing it when necessary.  Finally, when the time came for him to be
made a knight, the squire would be ceremonially bathed and dressed in
white robes, then spend the night in prayer with his sword and armor on
the chapel altar.  The following morning, he would make an oath in
church to devote his life to the service of God and chivalry.

Moses Maimonides, 12th century physician to the Egyptian Khalif,
prescribed snow as a cure for the hot Cairo summers.

The two suspects had been apprehended and now sat in a courtroom at the
defendants table.  A witness was on the stand being asked questions by
the prosecutor.  "And ma'am you say you were robbed of your purse on the
street?"  Yes sir, the witness answered.  "And the two men who robbed
you, are they here in the courtroom today?"  Before the witness could
answer both defendants raised their hands.  The judge and jury laughed
openly.

The word calendar comes from Latin and means 'to call out.'

Pope Stephen II (March 24, 752) had the shortest reign of any pope, only
two days.  No, he did not die, he stepped down two days after the
cardinals selected him.

Sir Isaac Newton was an ordained priest in the Church of England.

Dueling is legal in Paraguay as long as both parties are registered
blood donors.

Of the entire Hebrew scriptures, the Book of Job contains the most
references to snow.  Hence the expression, "snow Job."  .

The Mad Hatter in Alice in Wonderland was a symbolic character for the
hat makers in towns of the late 1800's.  The large felt hats of the day
had supports made out of mercury.  The mercury caused a organic form of
psychosis (brain damage) to develop in the hat makers causing them to be
declared crazy.

GMT entered British homes by way of the BBC which broadcast the chimes
of Big Ben to greet New Year 1924.  The "pips" were the brain-child of
Frank Dyson, who discussed the idea with Frank Hope-Jones, who favoured
a "5 pip" signal.  In February 1924, Dyson broadcast to the nation,
inaugurating the service.  Later he presided over a dinner when
Hope-Jones was guest of honour.  A guest remembered Hope-Jones' link
with time signals and handed him 6 orange pips on a plate.  Hope-Jones
then made a flamboyant presentation of the 6th pip to Dyson.

Male bees will try to attract sex partners with orchid fragrance.

In a recent survey of newborn babies, researchers have determined the
most popular boys' names.  They include Michael, Matthew, Sean, Brendan,
and Brian.  Interestingly enough, for the third year in a row, the LEAST
popular boy's name was "Lumpy".

Medieval banquets were spectacular occasions announced with trumpets.
The host and chief guests sat at the high table and washed their hands
in basins of water scented with rose petals.  Lesser guests sat,
according to rank, at tables down the hall.

The typical termite colony is composed of members showing structural
characteristics that scientists use to classify the termites.  The four
groups of termites, workers, soldiers, immature individuals, and
reproductives each have particular roles in the colony.  The workers,
which are sterile, blind, and wingless, tend the eggs, feed the soldiers
and the young, and maintain the nest.  Protozoans living in the termites
digestive tract convert wood to sugars that the termites can use for
nourishment.  Without these one celled animals, the termites would
starve.  Soldiers' sole purpose in life is to defend the colony against
intruders.  The variety of these defense mechanisms that have been
evolved in different species will be discussed later.  A young
individual will develop into a winged reproductive, soldier, or a worker
depending on the current needs of the colony.  Reproductives obviously
supply the colony with new individuals.  Only one pair of active
reproductives exists in a colony.  The king and queen are usually sealed
into a chamber where they are tended by workers.  The queen also
circulates different chemicals among the workers for stimulating the
transformation of immature termites into soldiers, workers, or
"secondary" reproductives - members who will develop wings and found new
colonies.  When a worker feeds the queen, the queen immediately knows if
a particular group needs replenishing.  For example, if a large number
of soldiers were killed while repelling an enemy, the queen intercepts
this information from the chemicals transferred from a worker.  The
queen then circulates a greater amount of "soldier chemical" in the
colony by exuding the chemical from its body.  Workers tending the queen
take the chemical to other members and the young who will eventually
develop into soldiers.

Although the cast of "The Facts of Life" went from 9 girls down to 4
throughout its seven year run on television, amazingly enough, the net
weight of the cast members remained the same.

A pig's orgasm lasts for 30 minutes.

If your eyes are six feet above the surface of the ocean, the horizon
will be about three statute miles away.

Only two people signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4th, John
Hancock and Charles Thomson.  Most of the rest signed on August 2, but
the last signature wasn't added until 5 years later.

Some biblical scholars believe that Aramaic, the language of the ancient
Bible, did not contain an easy way to say "many things" and used a term
which has come down to us as 40.  This means that when the bible -- in
many places -- refers to "40 days," they meant many days.

Hydroxydesoxycorticosterone and hydroxydeoxycorticosterones are the
largest anagrams.  (An anagram is a word formed by reordering the
letters in another word.)

Sailors on board a ship, even when out at sea, can feel earthquakes.

When Ronald Reagan was President and he got his first hearing aid, the
sale of hearing aids went up in the United States by 40%.

Frog-eating bats identify edible from poisonous frogs by listening to
the mating calls of male frogs.  Frogs counter by hiding and using
short, difficult to locate calls.

2 out of 5 husbands tell their wife daily that they love them.

Physicist Murray Gell-Mann named subatomic particles known as quarks for
a random line in James Joyce's Finnegan's Wake, "Three quarks for Muster
Mark!"

Playing cards were issued to British pilots in World War II.  If
captured, they could be soaked in water and unfolded to reveal a map for
escape.

The quantity of consonants in the English language is constant.

John Lennon was born to Julia Lennon after 30 hours of labor on October
9, 1940.

In the movie "Dances with Wolves", not one animal was injured during its
filming, although there was a horse named "Dutch" who came down with a
nasty case of the runs.

For the courtly knight and his lady, fashion was very important because
fine dress was a mark of status.  The nobility spent large sums of money
on imported cloth, such as silk from Italy and velvet from France.
Ordinary people wore simple garments, often made of rough wool, which
were designed for useful wear.  Babies were wrapped in swaddling bands
with the mistaken idea that this would give them straight limbs.

The "L.  L." in L. L. Bean stands for Leon Leonwood.

The Hawaiian Archipelago consists of over 130 scattered points of land
stretching some 1,600 miles in length from the Kure Atoll in the north
to the Island of Hawaii in the south.


In 1984, when Michael Jackson was on American TV advertising Pepsi, his
commercials were included in the TV listings and often attracted a
larger audience than the programmes they interrupted


The Astronomer Royal was supposed to make his findings known to the
scientific community.  He was often reluctant to do so and information
was sometimes forcibly taken from him.  This led to conflicts between
such luminaries as Newton & Halley.


If someone were to visit all the Smithsonian museums and read all of
their plaques for only a second each, that person could not read every
piece of information that the Smithsonian holds.

Ben and Jerry's send the waste from making ice cream to local pig
farmers to use as feed.  Pigs love the stuff, except for one flavor:
Mint Oreo.

If you toss a penny 10,000 times, it will not be heads 5,000 times, but
more like 4,950.  The head picture weighs slightly more, so it ends up
on the bottom slightly more often.

Only one person in two billion will live to be 116 or older.

A new film producer was having trouble with a visual gag.  It was during
the days of silent cinema and he wanted to show a man slipping on a
banana skin.  He asked the advice of Charlie Chaplin.  "Do I show the
man first and then the banana skin, or the skin first and then the man?
Whichever way I do it, it won't be new to the audience because they've
seen it all before." before."  Chaplin thought about this for a while
and then replied, "First, show the skin, then show the man, then show
the skin once again.  Then show the man stepping over the skin and
falling down a manhole!"

Women, according to the U.S.  National Health Survey team, have more
headaches than men.

When the divorce rate goes up in the United States, toy makers say the
sale of toys also rises.

Paul McCartney wrote the song Lovely Rita, Meter Maid for the album
Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band after getting a parking ticket
from a female warden in Abbey Road

The original story from Tales of 1001 Arabian Nights begins, "Aladdin
was a little Chinese boy."

Michigan has the most registered boats in the USA - 947,601 - and
American Samoa, with 153, has the least.

At an international conference in 1884, 25 countries met to fix a
standard world meridian.  Many countries expressed their opposition to
Greenwich Meridian Line becoming the world standard, since a large
number of countries had their own lines.  Greenwich was finally chosen,
mainly because 72% of ships used charts showing the Greenwich Meridian
and the American railway system also recognised Greenwich.  Algeria, a
French dependent, made its point by insisting that GMT be expressed as
"Paris Mean Time diminished by 9mins 21secs" which amounts to GMT but
avoids use of the word Greenwich.

Midwives played a central role in female health and healing during the
Middle Ages.  Herbs were an important part of their practice.
Participating in a rich oral culture, they passed down the secrets of
herbal lore from woman to woman over hundreds of years.  The cravings of
pregnancy were very different for the medieval mother-to-be:  unlike the
modern yen for pickles and ice cream, she'd seek to have potter's earth
or chalk or coals.  Yum!  Medieval recipe for cure of acne:  "the rout
of dragons made clean and cut into thin roundels" and steeped for nine
days in white wine.

In a recent interview with 10 prominent sex therapists, the question was
posed, "What is the most important aspect in love making?"  One said
'relaxation', Three said 'honesty', and a whopping Six out of Ten said
'staying awake'.

Goethe couldn't stand the sound of barking dogs and could only write if
he had an apple rotting in the drawer of his desk.

If you are locked in a completely sealed room, you will die of carbon
dioxide poisoning first before you will die of oxygen deprivation.

Dr.  Miles Compound Extract of Tomato, a patent medicine, went on the
market in the 1830s - it was ketchup.

New York, Marriott Marquis hotel.  One potential reveler from upper New
York state began trying to make a reservation for New Year's Even 1999
in 1983-- before this luxury hotel was even built.  "As a boy, this
gentleman spent New Year's in New York," explains Molly Dwortzan, a
senior manager at the Marriott Marquis who declined to release the man's
name for privacy reasons.  Apparently he was so moved by his youthful
experience, he decided to spend the last New Year's of the 20th century
in the Big Apple.  To reward his sincerity, the hotel chain is giving
him a complimentary room overlooking Times Square for his entire family
on Dec. 31, 1999.


Winston Churchill, who claimed that he could remember life inside his
mother's womb, was born in the ladies toilet at a society ball.


The original nomenclature of mental deficiency should be kept in mind
when used in everyday conversation.  For instance, an "idiot" is
classified as a feeble-minded person who performs at the potential age
of 3 years; an "imbecile" displays a mental age of 3 to 7 years; a
"moron" has the potential age of between 8 to 12 years; and a "dufus"
has no specific limitations in mental capacity but is aware of the
subtle themes in "Baywatch".

The wettest spot in the world is located on the island of Kauai.  Mt.
Waialeale consistently records rainfall at the rate of nearly 500 inches
per year.

Worldwide, bats are the most important natural enemies of night-flying
insects.

A single little brown bat can catch 600 mosquitoes in just one hour.

The average person, some experts estimate, speaks about 31,500 words per
day.

SHAKESPEARE:  Although universally regarded as a genius, William
Shakespeare was the son of a globemaker and was given only an average
education.  Always intensely curious about the world around him,
Shakespeare would later rely on scenes remembered from his childhood,
common country customs and superstitions, fairs and other popular
entertainments as raw material for his plays.

Ballroom dancing is a major at Brigham Young University.

Over 355 bird species live in Alaska.  In the Inside Passage and
South-central, bald eagles follow the salmon runs.  In December, eagles
concentrate in Pasagshak and Kodiak.  Up to 3,500 bald eagles feed on
late runs of salmon in the Chilkat River near Haines.  Between May and
August, the Nome area hosts a variety of Asian birds, shore birds, and
raptors.


More than 50% of American bat species are in severe decline or already
listed as endangered.  Losses are occurring at alarming rates worldwide.

George Eastman, inventor of the Kodak camera, hated having his picture
taken.

Margarine was developed in the 1800s by a Frenchman who was searching
for a substitute for butter, which was costly and scarce at the time.
First called "oleomargarine," derived from the Greek word margarites
(meaning pearl) and the Latin term oleum (meaning oil), "oleomargarine"
first came to the U.S. in the late 1800s.  Today, the term oleomargarine
has been shortened by common usage to "margarine."


Between the years of 1988 and 1991, the most commonly stolen car in the
United States was the 1986 Chevrolet Camaro.  In fact, 1 out of every 5
Camaros built in the year of 1986 ended up being stolen.  This is in
sharp contrast to the least stolen car of the same period - The Dhaitsu
Shanker.  Of the 243 Shankers manufactured in that 4 year period, none
of them were stolen.  Although one was left in front of a K-mart for 5
straight hours with the engine running, and the words "Take me for a
free test drive" spray-painted in red on the hood.

"Three dog night" (attributed to Australian Aborigines) came about
because on especially cold nights these nomadic people needed three dogs
(dingos, actually) to keep from freezing.

The phrase "back to square one" (or "back at square one", which was the
original way of saying it) comes from football radio commentaries from
the 1930s.  There being no picture, these live reports would explain the
position of play by dividing the football pitch into numbered grids and
"square one" was just in front of the goal ...... so, when a ball went
out of play and resulted in a goal kick, the play was "back at square
one".


In England, the Speaker of the House is not allowed to speak.

Alaska is a land of almost unimaginable scale.  Stretching across
586,000 square miles of untamed wilderness, Alaska is one-fifth the size
of the contiguous United States.  It contains the tallest mountain in
North America, Mt. McKinley, which many Alaskans simply call "the
mountain."  And of course, the Land of the Midnight Sun has longer
summer days than any other state.  This majestic landscape borders two
oceans and three seas, with a 47,300 mile coastline.  Alaska boasts over
three million lakes, 3,000 rivers, 1,800 islands, and more than 100,000
glaciers.

The "Secret Treaty of London" enabled Italy to enter World War I

Diamond is the hardest naturally occurring substance, and is also one of
the most valuable natural substances.  Diamonds are crystals formed
almost entirely of carbon.  Because of its hardness, the diamond is the
most enduring of all gemstones.  They are among the most costly jewels
in the world, partly because they are rare, Only four important diamond
fields have been found - in Africa, South America, India, and the Soviet
Union.

The Baby Ruth candy bar was actually named after Grover Cleveland's baby
daughter, Ruth.

The can-can was originally performed by French prostitutes.  The idea
was that they danced with no underwear on, thereby displaying their
"wares" for potential customers.


Men working on railroad track repair groups are called "gandy dancers."

More than 5 million West Africans speaks the language of Twi-Fante.

Shakespeare's tombstone in Stratford's Holy Trinity Church bears this
inscription, said to have been written by him:  Good friend, for Jesus'
sake forbear to dig the dust enclosed here.  Blest be the man that
spares these stones, and curst be he that moves my bones.

In the U.S. there is, on average, three sex change operations per day.

With the help of a 1000 member marching band, the mayor of New York
City, Rudolph Guiliani kicked off the 1000 day countdown to the new
millennium on Sunday April 6th.  Times Square is often called the soul
of any New Year's Eve celebration.

The release of Star Wars in 1977 was beset by many problems, not the
least being lack of enthusiasm by the film's distributors.  In fact, so
sure were they that the film would not appeal to a mass audience they
wanted to split it into 20 minute segements and release it as a kids'
Saturday morning serial.

The band Duran Duran got its name from an astronaut in the 1968 Jane
Fonda movie "Barbarella."

Cleo and Caesar were the early stage names of Cher and Sonny Bono.

Ben and Jerry's sends the waste from making ice cream to local pig
farmers to use as feed.  Pigs love the stuff, except for one flavor:
mint Oreo.

The most popular name for a boat in 1996 was Serenity.


The first Asian American in the U.S.  Senate was Hawaii's Hiram Fong.
Descended from Chinese immigrants, Fong was elected to the Senate in
1959.


Alaska is so big it encompasses dozens of ecosystems.  In a place of
such enormous variety; don't be surprised to find the unusual - like a
desert of sand dunes in Kobuk Valley National Park.


The earliest Polynesians crossed over 2,000 miles of open ocean to find
Hawaii without the aid of navigational instruments.  Relying on keen
observations of nature, Polynesian navigators could direct their large
double hulled ocean canoes across the Pacific to accurate landfalls.
Polynesian voyagers were navigating long distance runs in the Pacific
almost 1,000 years before Columbus.

The Kentucky Derby Glass made its debut in 1938.  First used as a water
glass for the track restaurant, the mint julep glass has been a part of
the Derby tradition for nearly 60 years.

Experienced waitress say that married men tip better than unmarried men.

Moose are the most anti-social animal, they do not hang out with other
moose.  The procreation ritual is simple, the female moose calls out,
male moose come running, the female picks, and within a few moments they
all go on their way.

Playing cards were issued to British pilots in WWII.  If captured, they
could be soaked in water and unfolded to reveal a map for escape.

It only takes a male horse 14 seconds to copulate.

Maine is the only state that borders only one state.

Choroti women, of the same area as the Siriono, are expected to spit in
their partners faces during sex.


Glue on Israeli postage stamps is certified kosher.

The debate will no doubt continue, but the experts are pointing to
Caroline Island in the country of Kiribati where one can see the first
light from land (6:  05 GMT+14).  If you're out at sea, that's a whole
different story.  Caroline Island has no real population to speak of.
The next closest place with any type of civilization is London,
Christmas Island, also in Kiribati (6:  29 GMT+14).

The state fruit of New York is the apple..  The apple was adopted as the
State fruit in 1976.  Apples are sweet and crisp.  They come in many
varieties, such as Golden Delicious, McIntosh and Winesap.

In 1996, over 87 million Americans participated more than once in some
type of recreational boating activity (fishing, sailing, motorboating,
water skiing, canoeing, etc.).

Organizers of Times Square 2000 want to be the crossroads of the world
during New Year's Eve 1999.  They hope to broadcast images of people and
their cultures from each of the world's 24 times zones for 24 hours,
culminating with the dropping of the Times Square Ball.

An ostrich's eye is bigger than it's brain

The last Royal Hawaiian flag to be defended during the U.S. led coup
d'etat of 1893 was aboard a Japanese gunboat.  The Japanese Imperial
Navy gunboat Naniwa refused to strike the Royal Hawaiian flag from it's
mast during it's anchorage in Honolulu Harbor . After firmly resisting
all threats from the newly installed rebel government, the Naniwa was
finally ordered to lower the colors by the Japanese government.  The
captain of the Naniwa later went on to become the greatest naval
commander in the history of Japan.  Capt.  Heihachiro Togo is credited
with destroying the combined Russian Baltic and Pacific fleets in a
single battle during the Russo-Japanese War, thus galvanizing Japans
status as a world power in the early 20th century.


Studies show that if a cat falls off the seventh floor of a building it
has about thirty percent less chance of surviving than a cat that falls
off the twentieth floor.  It supposedly takes about eight floors for the
cat to realize what is occurring, relax and correct itself.

Dinah Washington holds the record for the longest gap between charting
records in the UK.  Her first single, September In The Rain, last
appeared in the charts in January 1962.  She charted again with Mad
About The Boy in April 1992 - an incredible 30 years later!

The word gem comes from the Latin gemma meaning bud.  The story of the
precious stones is much like that of the blooming of flowers.  Like tiny
buds that burst into beautiful blossoms, dull lumps of mineral matter
can be cut and polished into brilliantly flashing or beautifully glowing
gems.

Rubies are more valuable than sapphires because they are more rare.  The
best come from Burma.  Opals are valued for their color flashes.  The
finest opals in the world come from Australia.

Actress Sissy Spacek got so into the part of Carrie that she slept with
fake pig's blood all over her to ensure continuity.

Hawaii was originally called the Sandwich isles.  The great English
navigator Capt.  James Cook so named the islands in 1778 in honor of his
patron the Earl of Sandwich ( who is also credited with creating the
edible type sandwiches).

A pregnant goldfish is called a twit.

All doors exiting a public building must swing outwards.  That way if
there is a fire, or something else to cause a stampede, no one will get
crushed, by everyone else trying to get out, while they are trying to
pull the door open.

Tropical rain forests throughout the world are being cut down at the
rate of 3000 acres per hour.

Germany holds the title for most independent inventors to apply for
patents.

The average cost of having a recreational boat towed if it breaks down
on the water is $263.

Ivory bar soap floating was a mistake.  They had been overmixing the
soap formula causing excess air bubbles that made it float.  Customers
wrote and told how much they loved that it floated, and it has floated
ever since.

More people are killed annually by donkeys than die in air crashes.

Diamonds have great power to reflect light, bend rays of light, and to
break light up into all the colors of the rainbow.  But to produce the
greatest possible brilliance in a diamond, many tiny sides, or facets,
must be exactly the right size and shape and must be placed at exactly
the right angle.  Most finished diamonds have 58 facets.  The cut of the
diamond affects its value, because a stone that is not properly
proportioned does not have as much brilliance as a stone that is well
cut.  The cut also refers to the shape.  Diamonds are cut into a number
of different shapes depending on the nature of the rough stone and the
position of the inclusions.

A group of unicorns is called a blessing.  Twelve or more cows are known
as a "flink."  A group of frogs is called an army.  A group of rhinos is
called a crash.  A group of kangaroos is called a mob.  A group of
whales is called a pod.  A group of geese is called a gaggle.  A group
of ravens is called a murder.  A group of officers is called a mess.A
group of larks is called an exaltation.  A group of owls is called a
parliament.

Money isn't made out of paper, it's made out of cotton.

During the California Gold Rush of 1849 miners sent their laundry to
Honolulu for washing and pressing.  Due to the extremely high costs in
California during these boom years it was deemed more feasible to send
the shirts to Hawaii for servicing.

The words for north, south, east and west are the same in English as in
Chinese and Brazil's Tupi Indians.

10 Celebrities Who Have Seen UFOs

   1.The Missing Thumb - In July 1991 Robert Lindsey was boating at a reservoir in
     Green River, Wyoming. A friend's daughter fell into the water and he dived after
     her. The boat ran over him, cutting off three of his fingers, two of where were
     found and reattached. Nearly seven months later a fisherman hooked a lake
     trout that contained a severed thumb. The count coroner was contracted. Said
     Lindsey, "As soon as I saw it, I was pretty sure it was mine." He added, "I'll
     probably just put it on a shelf to show people."

   2.Reunited - Twenty-one-year-old Tammy Harris had spent nearly a year
     searching for her biological mother, while Joyce Shultz had spent twenty years
     trying to find her daughter. The woman lived two blocks from each other and
     worked together at a convenience store. One day, Shultz overheard Harris
     talking about her quest, and said she "might know somebody who can help."
     Harris lent her a baby picture, which Schultz compared with photos of her
     daughter. After keeping quiet for three days, Shultz confided the truth to the
     store manager, and mother and daughter were ecstatically reunited.

   3.Sailfish vs. Sculpin - On May 23, 1939, the newly built submarine USS Squalus
     sank off the eastern seaboard. A sister ship, the USS Sculpin, sped to the
     rescue, and saved more than half of the fifty-six-man crew. The Squalus was
     salvaged and renamed the Sailfish. In 1943 the Sculpin was sunk by the
     Japanese who took forty-two crew members prisoner, and placed half of them
     on board the aircraft carrier Cuyo. As it approached Japan, the Cuyo was
     torpedoed by the Sailfish and went down with all hands. The crew of the
     Sailfish rejoiced at their victory - unaware that they had just killed half the
     survivors of the sub that had come to their rescue four years earlier.

   4.Writer's Intuition? - When author Norman Mailer began his novel Barbary
     Shore, there was no Russian spy in it. Over time, he added such a character in a
     minor role. As the novel progressed, the spy became the main character. After
     the book was completed, the immigration service arrested a man living one flight
     below Mailer. He was Colonel Rudolf Abel, the top Russian spy in the United
     States.

   5.Destined to Dine - As a child in school, French poet Emile Deschamps shared a
     table with a M. de Fortgibu. The man offered Emile his first taste of a novel
     dessert, plum pudding, which M. Fortgibu had acquired a taste for in England.
     Ten years later Deschamps passed a restaurant and saw a plum pudding being
     prepared inside. He entered and asked for a slice, but the pudding was being
     saved for someone - who turned out to be M. de Fortgibu. Man years later, at
     a dinner party where plum pudding was being served, Deschamps, about to
     have this dessert for the third time, told his amusing story. And lo and behold,
     Fortgibu arrived at the door! He too had been invited to dinner, to another
     apartment in the same building, and had lost his way. Said Deschamps, "My hair
     stood up on my head."

   6.Jailed by Jaws - In 1799, an American privateer, the Nancy, sailing in
     Caribbean waters, was being pursued by a British warship. Before he was
     captured, the Yankee skipper, Thomas Briggs, managed to throw the ship'
     American papers overboard and to replace them with forged Dutch papers. He
     was taken to Jamaica, where he was placed on trial for running a British
     blockade during wartime. But it appeared he would go free - the court was
     faced with having to dismiss the case for lack of evidence. During the trial,
     another British ship, the HMS Ferret, arrived in port and produced the damning
     papers. The Ferret had captured a large shark off the coast of Haiti which,
     when opened, revealed the evidence. These documents were used to convict
     Briggs and his entire crew, and are on display today in the Institute of Jamaica,
     Kingston.

   7.Mystery Twins - On February 20, 1947, two pregnant women were examined
     by their interns in a hospital in Ogden, Utah. Each doctor thought he heard
     double heartbeats - an indication of twins - and was surprised when each
     woman had a single birth, within five minutes of each other. The mothers
     remained strangers until three years later, when the Hendersons built a home
     next door to the Ritters. Within a few days, a comedy of errors was occurring -
     both sets of parents confused little Joyce with her identical three-year-old
     neighbor, Jean. The girls became friends, and found they like the same foods,
     the same sports, and the same music. Their voices sound alike, and when there
     were five, they lost their baby teeth one by one within hours of each other. Their
     teachers had trouble telling them apart, but, said one, "It doesn't matter. They
     always get the same marks anyway."

   8.A Trio of Tragedies - Abraham Lincoln's eldest son, Robert Todd Lincoln, had
     the singular misfortune to be at the scene of three presidential assassinations. On
     April 14, 1865, he rushed to Ford's Theater, where his father lay fatally
     wounded, In 1881 he was a President Garfield's side just seconds after the
     president was shot. Twenty years later, he was about to join President
     McKinley at the Pan American Exhibit when he learned that McKinley was the
     victim of an assassin's bullet. Lincoln might never have witnessed these tragedies
     if he himself had not been a narrow escape in this youth. While standing on a
     crowed railroad platform, he tripped and nearly fell onto the tracks. He was
     pulled to safety in the nick of time by Edwin Booth - brother of John Wilkes
     Booth.

   9.Reunion #2 - In 1975 John Starr left his wife and three-year-old son in Illinois
     and headed for the East Coast . After seventeen years of drifting using the name
     John McDaniel, he wandered into the Wayside Cross Rescue Mission in
     Aurora, Illinois, Meanwhile, his son, John Earl, had grown up and led a life
     similar to that of his father. Down on his luck, with a wife and child back in
     Texas, he wound up in the Wayside Cross Rescue Mission. One day, Mr. Starr
     stepped outside for a smoke and struck up a conversation with John Earl. Soon
     there were chatting about local acquaintances, and John Earl asked Starr if he
     know a man named John McDaniel. Starr answered, " I sure do. That's me." To
     which John Early replied, "I think you're my father." The younger man's first
     reaction was anger, but over time father and son have begun to mend fences.



  23 Prominent People Who Died of AIDS

   1.The Only President to Get Stuck in the White House Bathtub - William Howard
     Taft., U.S. president from 1909 until 1913, weighted more than 300 pounds.
     Once, after getting stuck in the White House bathtub, he ordered a new one
     installed, large enough for four men. At a dinner in the Panama Canal Zone
     engineers built him a dining room chair reinforced with steel. Jokes about Taft's
     size ere common and he took them with good humor. According to Paul L.
     Boller, Jr., in Presidential Anecdotes, Taft was swimming off Cape Ann,
     Massachusetts, when tow neighbors walked by and said, "We'd better wait.
     The president is using the ocean."

   2.The Only President to Weigh Under 100 Pounds - James Madison, the fourth
     president of the United States (1809-1817), stood five feet four inches and
     weighed ninety-eight pounds. Had he lived in the twentieth century he probably
     could not have gotten elected - although the average American male is 5 feet 9
     inches tall, the last twenty-two presidential elections have been won by a
     candidate who was taller than the average.

   3.The Only Foot Deodorant Elected to Public Office - In the early 1970s, during
     an election campaign in Ecuador, a foot deodorant manufacturer used the
     advertising slogan "Vote for any candidate, but if you want well-being and
     hygiene, vote for Pulvapies." The day before the election, the manufacturer
     distributed a leaflet reading "For Mayor: The Honorable Pulvapies." Voters in
     the coastal village of Picoaza (pop. 4,100), unimpressed with the alternatives,
     elected Pulvapies by a clear majority.

   4.The Only English Monarch Never to Set Foot in England - Berengaria, the
     daughter of King Sancho VI of Navarre, married King Richard the
     Lion-Hearted and was crowned queen - in Cyprus - I 1911. She never visited
     England and spent most of hear eight-year reign in Italy and France.

   5.The Only Bone in the Human Body Not Connected to Another - The hyoid is a
     V-shaped bone located at the base of the tongue between the mandible and the
     voice box. Its function is to support the tongue and its muscles.

   6.The Only 7-Letter Word That Contain All 5 Vowels - The word is sequoia,
     referring to the giant trees of California. The sequoia is named after the
     Cherokee Indian scholar who created a written alphabet for the Cherokee
     language.

   7.The Only Baseball Player to Get a Hit for 2 Different Teams in 2 Cities on the
     Same Day - Joel Youngblood began August 4 1982, as the starting right fielder
     for the New York Mets in their game against the Chicago, Cubs. He singled in
     the third inning, but was immediately pulled from the game and told that he had
     been trade to the Montreal Expos. Youngblood flew to Philadelphia, took a taxi
     to Veteran's Stadium, put on a Montreal uniform, and entered the game in the
     sixth inning. In his only at-bat, he singled again.

   8.The Only Nonhuman Land Animal that Commonly Mates Face to Face -
     Two-toed sloths typically mate vertically while hanging by their arms from a tree
     branch.



  9 Actresses Who Won Beauty Contests

   1.Entire World Population Except Noah and 7 Relatives (Genesis 6, 7) -
     Transgression: Violence, corruption and generalized wickedness. Method of
     execution: Flood.

   2.Entire Populations of Sodom and Gomorrah Except Lot, His Wife, and Their 2
     Daughters (Genesis 19) - Transgression: Widespread wickedness and lack of
     respect for the deity. Method of execution: Rain of fire and brimstone.

   3.Lot's Wife (Genesis 19) - Transgression: Locked back. Method of execution:
     Turned into a pillar of salt.

   4.ER (Genesis 38) - Transgression: Wickedness. Method of execution: Unknown


   5.Onan (Genesis 38) - Transgression: Refused to make love to his brother ER's
     widow. Method of Execution: Unknown.

   6.All the Firstborn of Egypt (Exodus 12) - Transgression: Egypt was cruel to the
     Jews. Method of Execution: Unknown.

   7.Pharoah and the Egyptian Army - Transgression: Pursued the Jews. Method of
     execution: Drowned.

   8.Nadab and Abihu (Leviticus 10) - Transgression: Offered strange fire. Method
     of Execution: fire.

   9.Korah, Dathan, Abiram, and their Families (Numbers 16) - Transgression:
     Rejected authority of Moses and started own congregation. Method of
     execution: Swallowed by earth.

  10.250 Followers of Korah (Numbers 16) - Transgression: Supported Korah.
     Method of execution: Fire.

  11.14,700 Israelites (Numbers 16) - Transgression: Murmured against Moses and
     his brother Aaron following execution of Korah and his supporters. Method of
     execution: Plague

  12.Unknown Number of Retreating Amorite Soldiers (Joshua 10) - Transgression:
     Fought the Israelites. Method of execution: Hailstones.

  13.Uzzah (2 Samuel 6) - Transgression: Touched the ark of God after oxen shook
     it while pulling it on a cart. Method of Execution: Unknown.

  14.70,000 People (2 Samuel 24) - Transgression: King David ordered a census of
     the population. Method of Execution: Plague.

  15.102 Soldiers of King Ahaziah (2 King 1) - Transgression: Tried to capture
     Elijah the Tishbite. Method of execution: Fire.

  16.Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5) - Transgression: Land Fraud.. Method of
     Execution: Unknown.



  Madame Tussaud's Most Hated and Feared, Most Heroic, and Most Beautiful

   1.Among the Many Dangers of the Material World - A Brink's amored-car
     guard, Hrand Arakelian, thirty-four, of Santee, California, was crushed to death
     by $50,000 worth of quarters. Arakelian was guarding a load of
     twenty-five-pound coin boxes in the back of a truck traveling down the San
     Diego Freeway on February 3, 1986, when the driver braked suddenly to
     avoid a car that had swerved in front of him. when he pulled over to check on
     this partner, he found Arakelian completely covered by boxes of coins.

   2.Drowned at a Lifeguards' Party - On August 1, 1985, lifeguards of the New
     Orleans recreation department threw a party to celebrate their first
     downing-free season in memory. although four lifeguards were on duty at the
     party and more than half the 200 party-goers were lifeguards, when the party
     ended, one of the guests, Jerome Moody, thirty-one, was found dead on the
     bottom o the recreation department pool.

   3.Strangled by a Garden Hose - Thirty-five-year-old Richard Fresquez of Austin,
     Texas, became drunk on the night of May 7, 1983. He tripped on a garden
     hose, became tangled in it, and strangled to death while trying to break free.

   4.Fatal Cure for Hemorrhoids - Norik Hakpisan, twenty-four-year-old music
     student of Sloane Terrace, Chelsea, in London, was found dead on October 5,
     1982, after being caught in a flash fire while trying to relieve a bad case of
     hemorrhoids with gasoline, The fumes from an open bottle of petrol had been
     ignited by a hot plate. Hakpisan's brother, Hiak, said that relieving hemorrhoids
     with paraffin was an old family remedy, but that Norik had apparently used
     petrol instead.

   5.Killed by a Waterbed - Donald King, twenty-eight, of Stockton, California,
     was smothered to death by a waterbed mattress on the night of August 20,
     1983. King fell asleep next to the bed while waiting for it to fill with water. The
     mattress overfilled, burst its wood frame, and rolled on top of him.

   6.Perfect Re-creation) - On April 27, 1991, Yooket Paen, fifty-seven, of
     Angthong, Thailand, slipped in some mud, grabbed a live wire, and was
     electrocuted. Later that day, her fifty-two-year-old sister, Yooket Pan, was
     showing some neighbors how the accident happened while she slipped, grabbed
     the same live wire, and was also electrocuted.

   7.Killed by Art - In 1991 Bulgarian environmental artist Christo erected 1,760
     yellow umbrellas along southern California's Tejon Pass and another 1,340 blue
     umbrellas I Ilbaraki Prefecture north of Tokyo. Each of the umbrellas weighed
     488 pounds. On October 26, Lori Jean Keevil-Mathews, a
     thirty-three-year-old insurance agent, drove south to Interstate 5 to view the
     California umbrellas. Shortly after Keevil-Mathews and her husband got out of
     their car, a huge gust of wind tore one of the umbrellas loose from its steel
     screw anchors and blew it straight at Keevil-Mathews, crushing her against a
     boulder. Chriso immediately ordered the dismantling of all the umbrellas in both
     countries. However, on October 30, another umbrella-related death occurred
     when fifty-seven-year-old crane operator Wasaaki Nakaruma was electrocuted
     by a power line in Japan as he prepared to take down one of the umbrellas.

   8.Self-Induced Capital Punishment (Leviticus 10) - Michael Anderson Godwin
     was convicted of murder and sentenced to the electric chair, but in 1983 his
     sentence was changed to life in prison. On March 5, 1989, Godwin,
     twenty-eight years old, was trying to fix a pair of earphones connected to the
     television set in his cell at the Central Correctional Institution in Columbia, south
     Carolina. While sitting on a steel toilet, he bit into a wire and was electrocuted.

   9.The Bowling Ball from Nowhere - Thomas Hart, thirty, and his wife, Linda,
     were driving home in suburban Detroit I the early morning of December 4,
     1982, when out of the darkness a fourteen-pound burgundy bowling ball
     bounced on the hood of their car, crashed through the windshield, and struck
     Hart in the head. He was pronounced dead the following day.

  10.Among the Many Dangers of the Spiritual World - John Edward Blue,
     thirty-eight, of Dorchester, Massachusetts, was being baptized in Natick's Lake
     Cochiuate o August 13, 1984, when he and the minister performing the baptism
     slipped and fell backward into deep water. The minister survived, but Blue
     drowned.

  11.The Perils of Politics - Nitaro Ito, forty-one, a pancake-shop operator in
     Higashiosaka City, Japan, concluded that he needed an extra edge in his 1979
     campaign for the House of Representatives. He decided to stage an attack ion
     himself and then draw sympathy by campaigning from a hospital bed. Ito's
     scheme was to have an employee, Kazuhiko Matsumo, punch him in the face
     on the night of September 17, after which Ito would stab himself in the leg.
     After Matsumo had carried out his part of the plan, Ito stabbed his right thigh.
     Unfortunately, he cut an artery and bled to death before he could reach his
     home fifty meters away.

  12.Killed by a Robot (Joshua 10) - Ford Motor Company's casting plant in Flat
     Rock, Michigan, employed a one-ton robot to fetch parts from a storage rack.
     When the robot malfunctioned on January 25, 1979, twenty-five-year-old
     Robert Williams was asked to climb up on the rack and get the parts. While he
     was performing the task, the robot suddenly reactivated and hit Williams in the
     head with its arm. Williams died instantly. four years later a jury ordered Unit
     Handling Systems, the manufacturer of the robot, to pay Williams's family $10
     million. Williams is believed to have been the first person killed by a robot.



  Top 15 Celebrity Q Scores

   1.John Wilkes Booth (1838-1865 - Twelve days after he assassinated Abraham
     Lincoln, Booth himself was shot to death. His body was transported to
     Washington D.C., and secretly buried under a flagstone floor in the Washington
     Arsenal Prison. Two years later it was exhumed and stored I a pine box in a
     warehouse. In 1869 President Andrew Johnson ordered the box moved to a
     funeral home, where it was claimed by Booth's brother, the famous actor Edwin
     Booth. Finally, on June 26, 1869, it was reburied in an unmarked family plot in
     Greenmount Cemetery in Baltimore, Maryland.

   2.Pablo Casals (1876-1973), Spanish cellist - When he left Spain in 1939, as the
     Fascist dictator Francisco Franco took power, Casals swore he would return
     only when democracy was restored. He died before that happened and was
     buried in Memorial Cemetery in Caroline, Puerto Rico. His will contained the
     request that his body be buried in Spain whenever it would be possible. That
     time came with the change of government in 1979. Casal's coffin was put on
     display in Barcelona and then reburied in the church cemetery of Vendrell, the
     village where he was born and raised.

   3.Charlie Chaplin (1889 - 1977), British actor - Chaplin was buried in the village
     cemetery of Corsier, Switzerland. On March 1, 1978, Galtcho Ganav of
     Bulgaria and Roman Wardas of Poland dug up his grave, stole the body, and
     hid it in a field ten miles away. After the grave robbers were arrested, Chaplin's
     body was recovered and reburied - this time in a vault surrounded by cement.

   4.Christopher Columbus (1451-1506), Spanish explorer - Originally, Columbus
     was buried in the Franciscan monastery of Valladolid, Spain. A few years later
     his body was transferred to the Carthusian monastery in Las Cuevas. In 1541
     his remains were put on a ship and sent across the ocean to be buried in a
     cathedral in the Dominican Republic. However, in 1795 Spain ceded the island
     of Hispaniola to France, so Columbus was moved to Havana, Cuba. Then, in
     1898, Spain lost the Spanish-American War and had to give up its West Indian
     colonies. So Columbus's remains were shipped back across the Atlantic Ocean
     and once again enshrined, this time in a cathedral in Seville, where they rest
     today. It is worth noting, however, that 19 1877 a vault in the Cathedral of
     Santo Domingo was opened and a casket was discovered that many scholars
     believe to contain the real bones of Columbus.

   5.Arthur Conan Doyle (1854 - 1930), British author - The creator of Sherlock
     Holmes died sitting up in an armchair and was buried in the garden of his estate
     in Windlesham, Sussex. In 1955 the family sold Windlesham (which was turned
     into a hotel), and the bodies of Conan Doyle and his wife, Jean, were
     transported in a laundry van to their new resting place.

   6.F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896 - 1940), U.S. author - Fitzgerald had hoped to be
     buried in his family's plot in the graveyard of St. Mary's Roman Catholic church
     in, Maryland. But when he died he was refused a Catholic burial because, in the
     words of a Baltimore diocesan aide, he " had not performed his Easter duty and
     his writings were undesirable.: It was discovered that a single plot remained in
     the nondenominational Rockville Union Cemetery, and he was tnterred there
     instead. by 1975 Fitzgerald had regained his lost fame, and the authorities at St.
     Mary's had a change of heart. On November 7 Fitzgerald and his wife, Zelda,
     were reburied in the Catholic cemetery.

   7.Frederick II, King of Prussia (1712 1786), German military leader - In his will,
     Frederick the Great asked to be buried beside his greyhounds on the grounds
     of the palace of Sans Souci in Potsdam. He got his wish, but it took 205 years
     and six stops along the way. When he died, his successor, Frederick Williams
     II, thought it too undignified to bury Frederick with his dogs, so he had the great
     leader entombed instead with his father, Frederick Wilhelm I (who had once
     imprisoned Frederick and whom Frederick hated), in the Garrison church of
     Potsdam. In February 1945, as Allied bombs edged closer to Potsdam, Adolf
     Hitler had the two bodies moved to the Luftwaffe bunker of Hermann Goring.
     A few weeks later there were surreptitiously transferred to a salt mine in
     Thuringia. six weeks after that, American troops found the sarcopagi and seized
     them. Frederick and his father were buried again, this time at a church in the
     town of Marburg. In 1952 Prince Louis Ferdinand had his ancestors moved to
     the crypt at the Hohenzollern castle in Hechingen and was then in Communist
     East Germany. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, Louis Ferdinand saw his chance.
     On August 7, 1991, with great pomp and ceremony, not to mention antimilitarist
     protests, Frederick the Great was finally laid to rest alongside his greyhounds
     and separated at last from his father, who was interred elsewhere on the palace
     grounds.

   8.Joseph Haydn (1732 - 1809), Austrian Composer -Haydn was originally
     buried in the Hundsthiron Cemetery in Vienna. When his body was exhumed in
     1820 for reburial in the Bergkirche on Prince Nicolaus Esterhazy's Eisenstadt
     estate, it was discovered that two fiends of Haydn's, Carl Rosenbaum and
     Johann Peter, had bribed the grave digger to let hem steal Haydn' head "to
     protect it from desecration." Rosenbaum produced a bogus skull, which was
     buried with Haydn's body. From 1895 to 1954, the real skull was kept in the
     museum of the Vienna Academy of music, after which it was reunited with
     Haydn's skeleton and reburied in the Bergkirch.

   9.John Paul Jones (1747 - 1792), Scottish-born U.S. naval officer - One of the
     heroes of the American Revolution, Jones died a lonely death in Paris and was
     buried in a cemetery for foreign Protestants. In 1899 the U.S. ambassador to
     France, General Horace Porter, initiated a search for Jones's grave. It was
     finally located and his body was exhumed in 1905 and carried back to the
     United States. Because of bureaucratic red tape, it was not until January 26,
     1913, that John Paul Jones's body was laid to rest in a tomb on the grounds of
     the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland.

  10.Imre Nagy (1896-1958), Hungarian political leader - As Hungary's premier,
     Nagy led the revolted against Stalin that prompted the Soviet Union to invade
     Hungary in 1956. Nagy was hanged as a traitor on June 16, 1958. thirty-one
     years later to the day, Nagy and four aides were exhumed from their unmarked
     graves and reburied after an emotional memorial services attended by 100,000
     people and televised live for nine hours. Also buried was a sixth empty coffin
     which symbolized the hundreds of other Hungarians who were executed for
     their part in the 1956 uprising.

  11.Zintkala Nuini (Marguerite Colby) (1890-1919), Lakota Indian - When
     soldiers of the U.S. 7th Cavalry massacred hundred of unarmed Lakota Sioux
     Indians at Wounded Knee Creek in South Dakota on December 29, 1902, a
     four-month-old baby girl was found alive, lying underneath the body of her dead
     mother. She was adopted by Brigadier General Leonard Colby and raised by
     Colby's suffragette wife, Clara. For a time Marguerite worked in buffalo bill
     Cody's Wild West Show. She died at the age of twenty-nine and was buried in
     Hanford, California . French-Canadian author Renee Sanson-Flood traced the
     story of Marguerite Colby, located her grave, and arranged with leaders of the
     Lakota community to have her reburied. The Lakota renamed her Zintkala
     Numi - Lost Bird - and on July 12, 1991, following a symbolic
     freeing-of-the-spirit ceremony, she was laid to rest near the mass grave at
     Wounded Knee that included the body of her mother.

  12.Eva Peron (1919 - 1952), Argentine First Lady - When she died, the popular
     second wife of President Juan Peron was embalmed, but not buried. After
     Peron was overthrown in 1955, Eva's body was kidnapped and smuggled out
     of the country. She was buried in the Musocco Cemetery in Milan under the
     name of Maria Maggi to discourage potential grave robbers. In 1971 her body
     was transferred to Madrid, where Juan Peron was living in exile. Two years
     later, Peron briefly returned to power. Upon his death, his third wife, Maria
     Estela, became president. In an attempt to link herself with Eva Peron's
     popularity, she brought Eva's body back to Argentina on November 17, 1974.
     Id didn't help. Maria Estela was deposed by a coup in March 1976. In October
     of that year, Eva was buried in an armored vault in the Recoleta Cemetery of
     Buenos Aires.

  13.Haile Selassie (1892 - 1975), Ethiopian dictator and military leader - Emperor
     Haile Selassie died mysteriously a year after being overthrown by Mengistu
     Haile Mariam, who had him buried deep in the ground under a latrine in
     Mengistu's office at the grand palace. According to Ethiopian state radio, the
     new dictator "chose this site to see that the body did not rise from the dead."
     When Mengistu himself was overthrown in May 1991 the new government
     approved plans to exhume Haile Selassie's body. It took workers three days of
     digging to reach the body. On July 23, 1992, the one hundredth anniversary of
     the emperor's birth, he received a formal burial in Trinity Church in the presence
     of family members and former supporters.

  14.James Smithson (1765 - 1829), British founder of the Smithsonian Institution -
     Smithson died in Italy and was buried in Genoa's English cemetery. By 1900 it
     became clear that nearby quarrying would require the transfer of all graves to a
     new location. British authorities, aware of American interest in Smithson, wrote
     to officials of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., asking if they
     would like to take charge of his body. In December 1903, a mission headed by
     the inventor Alexander Graham Bell arrived in Genoa and oversaw the
     disinterment of Smithson's body and its transfer by ship to the United States. If
     now rests in a tomb in the institution that bears his name.



  Bottom 9 Celebrity Q Scores

   1.Babe Ruth's Last Home Run - Ruth hit his 714th and last major-league hoe run,
     a towering out-of-the-park drive off a Pittsburgh Pirates' pitcher Guy Bush, on
     May 25, 1935. However, eleven years later the owner of the Veracruz Blues of
     the Mexican League hired the famous slugger for $10,000 to come and bat
     once in a game against the Mexico City Reds. The pitcher, Ramon Brazanak
     threw three balls and was removed from the games. A reliever was brought in
     ad threw his firsts pitch straight down the middle. The fifty-one-year-old Ruth
     hit it deep into the right-field bleachers, much to the delight of 10,000 Mexican
     fans.

   2.The Last American Killed in the Vietnam War - Kelton Rena Turner, an
     eighteen-year-old Marine from Los Angeles, was killed in action on May 15,
     1975, two weeks after the evacuation of Saigon, in what became known as the
     Mayaguez incident. His body was never recovered.

   3.The Last Victim of Smallpox - On October 26, 1977, Ali Maow Maalin, a
     hospital cook in Somalia, became the last person to contract smallpox through
     natural transmission when he chose to tend an infected child. The child died but
     Maalin survived. In September 1978, Janet Parker, an English medical
     photographer, was exposed to smallpox as the result of a laboratory accident.
     She subsequently died. The virologist in charge of the lab felt so guilty that he
     committed suicide. On May 8, 1980, the World Health Organization declared
     smallpox eradicated. However, some samples remained in laboratories in
     Atlanta and Moscow. If scientists go ahead with a plan to destroy the samples,
     the smallpox virus would become the first life form intentionally eliminated from
     the earth.

   4.The Last Playboy Club in America - The final day of business for the Lansing,
     Michigan, Playboy Club was July 30, 1988. Four clubs remained in Japan and
     one in Manila.

   5.The Last Crank Phone in the United States - On July 12, 1990, America's last
     hand-cranked, party-line telephone system was replaced by private-line,
     touch-tone technology. The system had serviced the eighteen year-round
     residents of Salmon River Canyon, near North Fork, Idaho.

   6.The Last Miss Canada - In 1991 women's groups successfully lobbied to have
     the Miss Canada contest canceled, claiming that is was degrading to women.
     The last Miss Canada, Nicole Dunsdon, completed her reign in October 1992.



When Leo Tolstoy and his brother were children, they created a club with
a peculiar, almost impossible initiation ceremony.  In order to become a
member, one had to stand in a corner for a half an hour and not think of
a white

Because of the rotation of the earth, an object can be thrown farther if
it is thrown west.

Mrs. Caroline Squires of Cincinnati filed for a divorce from her husband
in 1949 on grounds of desertion.  She testified he'd stepped out "for a
beer" on the Fourth of July, 1917, and had never come back.

The French national anthem, "La Marseillaise," derived its title from
the enthusiasm of the men of Marseilles, France, who sang it when they
marched into Paris at the outset of the French Revolution.  Rouget de
l'Isle, its composer, was an artillery officer.  According to his
account, he fell asleep at a harpsichord and dreamt the words and the
music.  Upon waking, he remembered the entire piece from his dream and
immediately wrote it down.

Most elephants weigh less than the tongue of the blue whale.

A law passed in Nebraska in 1912 really set down some hard rules of the
road.  Drivers in the country at night were required to stop every 150
yards, send up a skyrocket, then wait eight minutes for the road to
clear before proceeding cautiously, all the while blowing their horn and
shooting off flares.

Birds do not sleep in their nests.  They may occasionally nap in them,
but they actually sleep in other places.

The formula for cold cream has hardly changed at all in the 1,700 years
since it was originally made by the Roman physician Galen.

George Lumley, aged 104, married Mary Dunning, aged 10, in Nortallerton,
England on August 25, 1783.  She was the great-great granddaughter of
the woman who'd broken her engagement to Lumley, eighty years before.

Caesar salad has nothing to do with any of the Caesars.  It was first
concocted in a bar in Tiajuana, Mexico, in the 1920's.  Crocodiles and
alligators are surprisingly fast on land.  Although they are rapid, they
are not agile; so if you ever find yourself chased by one, run in a
zigzag line.  You'll lose him or her every time.  After Albert Einstein
had been at Princeton for some months, local news hounds discovered that
a twelve-year-old girl happened to stop by the Einstein home almost
every afternoon.  The girl's mother hadn't thought to ask Einstein about
the situation until the newspapers reported it, but when she got the
opportunity after that she did so.  What could her daughter and Einstein
have in common that they spent so much time together?  Einstein replied
simply, "She brings me cookies and I do her arithmetic homework."

When the French Academy was preparing its first dictionary, it defined
"crab" as, "A small red fish which walks backwards."  This definition
was sent with a number of others to the naturalist Cuvier for his
approval.  The scientist wrote back, "Your definition, gentlemen, would
be perfect, only for three exceptions.  The crab is not a fish, it is
not red and it does not walk backwards.  "Louis XV of France really was
as an unpleasant a fellow as he's been depicted.  In 1674, when he was
visiting a school at Clermont, he heard from the school's authorities
that one of the children, a nine-year-old Irish lad named Francis
Seldon, had mad a pun about the king's bald head.  Louis was furious.
He had a secret warrant drawn up for the child's arrest, and young
Seldon was thrown into solitary confinement in the Bastille.  His
parents, members of one of Europe's richest merchant families, were told
simply that the child had disappeared.  Days turned to months, months to
years, and Louis himself passed away.  But Francis spent sixty-none
years "in the hole" for making fun of the king's baldness.

One of the movie moguls the Marx Brothers had to deal with was Irving
Thalberg of MGM. Purposefully or not, Thalberg had the annoying habit of
making people wait outside his office for extended periods of time.  One
time he kept the Marx Brothers longer than they liked.  When he finally
got around to seeing them, he discovered they were stark naked outside
his doorway, roasting potatoes in the lobby's fireplace.  It was the
last time he kept them waiting.

Abraham Lincoln had no love for favor seekers, especially when they took
his time away from the duties of the presidency during the Civil War.
On one occasion, he gathered together a number of would-be-office
holders and told them this story:  "There was once a King who wished to
go out hunting, so he asked his minister if it was going to rain.  The
minister assured him that it would not.  On the way to the woods, the
King passed a farmer who was working the land with his donkey.  The
farmer warned the King that it would rain soon, but the King just
laughed and continued on.  A few minutes later it was pouring, and the
King and his companions were soaked to their skin.  Upon return to the
castle, the King dismissed his minister and sent for the farmer.  He
asked the man how he knew it was going to rain.  ""It was not me, your
Majesty.  It was my donkey.  He always droops one ear when it is going
to rain."  "So the King bought the donkey from the farmer and gave him
the position of minister at court.  This was where the King made his
mistake."  "How was that," asked several people in the audience.
"Because ever since then," Lincoln continued, "every jackass wants an
office.  Gentlemen, leave your credentials and when the war is over
you'll hear from me."  In 1500 B.C. in Egypt a shaved head was
considered the ultimate in feminine beauty.  Egyptian women removed
every hair from their heads with special gold tweezers and polished
their scalps to a high sheen with buffing cloths.

In ancient China and certain parts of India, mouse meat was considered a
great delicacy.

In ancient Greece, where the mouse was sacred to Apollo, mice were
sometimes devoured by temple priests.

In 1400 B.C. it was the fashion among rich Egyptian women to place a
large cone of scented grease on top of their heads and keep it there all
day.  As the day wore on, the grease melted and dripped down over their
bodies, covering their skin with an oily, glistening sheen and bathing
their clothes in fragrance.In the United States, a pound of potato chips
cost two hundred times more than a pound of potatoes.

Half the foods eaten throughout the world today were developed by
farmers in the Andes Mountains.  Potatoes, maize, sweet potatoes,
squash, all varieties of beans, peanuts, manioc (manioc?), papayas,
strawberries, mulberries and many other foods were first grown in this
region.A giraffe can go without water longer than a camel can.

Blue whales weigh as much as 30 elephants and are as long as 3 Greyhound
buses.

According to tests made at the Institute for the Study of Animal
Problems in Washington, D.C., dogs and cats, like people, are either
right-handed or left-handed --- that is, they favor either their right
or left paws.

A person cannot taste food unless it is mixed with saliva.  For example,
if a strong-tasting substance like salt is placed on a dry tongue, the
taste buds will not be able to taste it.  As soon as a drop of saliva is
added and the salt is dissolved, however, a definite taste sensation
results.  This is true for all foods.  Try it!

In eighteenth-century England, women's wigs were sometimes 4 feet high.
These remarkable head-dresses were dusted with flour and decorated with
stuffed birds, replicas of gardens, plates of fruit, or even model
ships.  Sometimes the wigs were so elaborate they were worn continuously
for several months.  They were matted with lard to keep them from coming
apart, which made mice and insects a constant problem.  Special pillows
had to be constructed to hold these giant creations, and rat-resistant
caps made of wire were common.  The wig craze died out quite suddenly in
1795, when a hair-powder tax made their upkeep too expensive.

In the marriage ceremony of the ancient Inca Indians of Peru, the couple
was considered officially wed when they took off their sandals and
handed them to each other.

Experiments conducted in Germany and at the University of Southampton in
England show that even mild and incidental noises cause the pupils of
the eyes to dilate.  It is believed that this is why surgeons,
watchmakers, and others who perform delicate manual operations are so
bothered by noise.  The sounds cause their pupils to change focus and
blur their vision.

The Inca Indians of Peru considered bridges to be so sacred that anyone
who tampered with one was put to death.  Among the most impressive Inca
bridges were the chacas, or rope bridges, that spanned great distances
over gorges and rivers.  They were made of braided grasses woven
together into a single cable as thick as a man's body, and they
sometimes were 175 feet long.  It took as many as a thousand people to
build such a bridge, and many of these remarkable structures lasted more
than 500 years.

According to acupuncturists, there is a point on the head that you can
press to control your appetite.  It is located in the hollow just in
front of the flap of the ear.  (Try it!)

Tibetans, Mongolians, and people in parts of western China put salt in
their tea instead of sugar.

In 1976 a Los Angeles secretary named Jannene Swift officially married a
50-pound rock.  The ceremony was witnessed by more than 20 people.

In the early 19th century the words "trousers" and "pants" were
considered obscene in England.  Woman referred to trousers as
"inexpressibles" or "a pair of dittoes."  Later in the century the taboo
was carried to such lengths that piano legs were covered up because they
reminded people of their human legs.  In 1836 Charles Dickens wrote the
following lines in Oliver Twist:

" ' I tossed off the clothes, got safely in bed, drew on a pair of
________' "

" ' Ladies present, Mr. Giles,' murmured the tinker.

" ' _________ of shoes, Sir,' said Mr. Giles, laying great emphasis on
the word."  Ninety percent of all species that have become extinct have
been birds.  There is approximately one chicken for every human being in
the world.

Sports fans in Brazil sometimes become so excited that it was necessary
to build a wide moat around the playing field of Rio's 180,000-seat
Maracarña Stadium.  The moat keeps the crowd from running onto the
field, molesting the players and attacking the referees.

According to many language experts, the most difficult kind of phrase to
create is a palindrome, a sentence or group of sentences that reads the
same backward and forward.  A few examples:

Red rum, sir, is murder.

Ma is as selfless as I am.

Nurse, I spy gypsies.  Run!

A man, a plan, a canal - Panama.

He lived as a devil, eh?

The first automobile race ever seen in the United States was held in
Chicago in 1895.  The track ran from Chicago to Evanston, Illinois.  The
winner was J. Frank Duryea, whose average speed was 7½ miles per hour.

In the memoirs of Catherine II of Russia, it is recorded that any
Russian aristocrat who displeased the queen was forced to squat in the
great antechamber of the palace and to remain in that position for
several days, mewing like a cat, clucking like a hen, and pecking his
food from the floor.

The outdoor temperature can be estimated to within several degrees by
timing the chirps of a cricket.  It is done this way:  count the number
of chirps in a 15-second period, and add 37 to the total.  The result
will be very close to the actual Fahrenheit temperature.  This formula,
however, only works in warm weather.  (Try it!)

At any given time, there are 1,800 thunderstorms in progress over the
earth's atmosphere.

Lightning strikes the earth 100 times every second.  The average lead
pencil will draw a line 35 miles long or write approximately 50,000
English words.  More than 2 billion pencils are manufactured each year
in the United States.  If these were laid end to end they would circle
the world nine times.

The Pekingese dog was considered sacred among Chinese royalty.  At the
court of Li Hsui, one of the last Manchu queens, all court Pekingese had
human wet nurses.  Each dog had its own human guard to protect it from
other dogs; some even had private palaces, complete with servants.

A rainbow can be seen only in the morning or late afternoon.  It can
occur only when the sun is 40 degrees or less above the horizon.

During a severe windstorm or rainstorm the Empire State Building may
sway several feet to either side.

In Calama, a town in the Atacama Desert of Chile, it has never rained.

An eighteenth-century German named Matthew Birchinger, known as "the
little man of Nuremberg," played four musical instruments including the
bagpipes, was an expert calligrapher, and was the most famous stage
magician of his day.  He performed tricks with the cup and balls that
have never been explained.  Yet Birchinger had no hands, legs, or
thighs, and was less than 29 inches tall!

The star Antares is 60,000 times larger than our sun.  If our sun were
the size of a softball, the star Antares would be as large as a house.

In Elizabethan England the spoon was such a novelty, such a prized
rarity, that people carried their own folding spoons to banquets.  (This
was true, however, for only the people who were invited to banquets.)

Ants stretch when they wake up.  They also appear to yawn in a very
human manner before taking up the tasks of the day.

Bees have 5 eyes.  There are 3 small eyes on the top of a bee's head and
2 larger ones in front.

In Gulliver's Travels Jonathan Swift described the two moons of Mars,
Phobos and Deimos, giving their exact size and speeds of rotation.  He
did this more than 100 years before either moon was discovered.  It
costs more to buy a new car today in the United States than it cost
Christopher Columbus to equip and undertake three voyages to and from
the New World.

One-fourth of the world's population lives on less than $200 a year.
Ninety million people survive on less than $75 a year.

In ancient China doctors were paid when their patients were kept well,
not when they were sick.  Believing that it was the doctor's job to
prevent disease, Chinese doctors often paid the patient if the patient
lost his health.  Further, if a patient died, a special lantern was hung
outside the doctor's house.  At each death another lantern was added.
Too many of these lanterns were certain to ensure a slow trade.

Butterflies taste with their hind feet.

Only female mosquitoes bite.

Mosquitoes are attracted to the color blue twice as much as to any other
color.

If one places a tiny amount of liquor on a scorpion, it will instantly
go mad and sting itself to death.

Every night, wasps bite into the stem of a plant, lock their mandibles
(jaws) into position, stretch out at right angles to the stem, and, with
legs dangling, fall asleep.

During the time of Peter the Great, any Russian man who wore a beard was
required to pay a special tax.

It is illegal to hunt camels in the state of Arizona.

In the country of Turkey, in the 16th and 17th centuries, anyone caught
drinking coffee was put to death.

A raisin dropped in a glass of fresh champagne will bounce up and down
continually from the bottom of the glass to the top.

Celery has negative calories!  It takes more calories to eat a piece of
celery than the celery has in it to begin with.

In eighteenth-century English gambling dens, there was an employee whose
only job was to swallow the dice if there was a police raid.

There are no clocks in Las Vegas gambling casinos.

The opposite sides of a dice cube always add up to seven.

The human tongue tastes bitter things with the taste buds toward the
back.  Salty and pungent flavors are tasted in the middle of the tongue,
sweet flavors at the tip.  (Try it!)

A sneeze can travel as fast as 100 miles per hour.

It is impossible to sneeze and keep one's eyes open at the same time.
(Try it!)

A Virginia law requires all bathtubs to be kept out in the yards, not
inside the houses.

"Breath," by Samuel Beckett, was first performed in April, 1970.  The
play lasts thirty seconds, has no actors, and no dialogue.

In 1778, fashionable women of Paris never went out in blustery weather
without a lightning rod attached to their hats.

In the Balanta tribe of Africa, a bride remained married until her
wedding gown was worn out.  If she wanted a divorce after 2 weeks, all
she had to do was rip up her dress.  This was the custom until about 20
years ago,anyway.

Marie de Medici, a member of that famous Italian family and a
17th-century queen of France, had expensive tastes in clothes.  One
special dress was outfitted with 39,000 tiny pearls and 3,000 diamonds,
and cost the equivalent of twenty million dollars at the time it was
made in 1606.  She wore it once.

The eccentric and paranoid American recluse Langley Collier met his
untimely end in 1947.  While he was bringing food to his equally odd
brother Homer, who lived as a total hermit, Langley tripped on a wire to
one of his own booby traps and was crushed beneath a suitcase filled
with metal, a sewing machine, three breadboxes, and several bundles of
newspapers.  Homer starved to death, and their bodies were undiscovered
for three weeks.

Here is the literal translation of one of the standard traffic signs in
China.  It reads:  "Give large space to the festive dog that makes sport
in the roadway."

Ralph Graves entered a doughnut shop with a gun and demanded money from
the cashier.  A customer recognized him, however, when Graves lifted up
a corner of his pillowcase mask to find his way out the door.  Graves
had forgotten to cut eyeholes.

A burglar entered the home of Tom Schimmel in Tawas City, Michigan;
collected valuables; fixed himself a bowl of cereal; laid down in
Schimmel's bed and fell asleep.  When Schimmel returned to his house and
discovered the crime, he called police.  Officers investigated,
completed their reports, and departed.  When Schimmel noticed the
sleeping burglar several hours later, he summoned the police again.
They awakened the man and identified him as the thief.

In 1968, a convention of beggars in Dacca, India, passed a resolution
demanding that "the minimum amount of alms be fixed at 15 paisa (three
cents)."  The convention also demanded that the interval between when a
person hears a knock at his front door and when he offers alms should
not exceed 45 seconds.

A San Antonio wife, filing for divorce, described her husband as "a
bore."  "Just what is a bore?" asked the judge.  She thought about it,
then quoted, "A person who deprives you of solitude without providing
you with company."  The record shows the judge regarded that as
sufficient grounds and granted her the divorce.

Larry Lewis ran the 100-yard dash in 17.8 seconds in 1969, thereby
setting a new world's record for runners in the 100-years-or-older
class.  He was 101.

Yes, it's against the law to:
1. Doze off under a hair dryer in Florida
2. Slap an old friend on the back in Georgia
3. Play hopscotch on a Sunday in Missouri.


At age ninety, Peter Mustafic of Botovo, Yugoslavia, suddenly began
speaking again after a silence of 40 years.  The Yugoslavian news agency
quoted him as saying, "I just didn't want to do military service, so I
stopped speaking in 1920; then I got used to it."

Cows burp a lot, but until recently no one paid much attention.  Now
researchers at the Texas Department of Highways in Fort Worth are
sitting up and taking notice.  Each year the cow population of the
United States burps some fifty million tons of valuable hydrocarbons
into the atmosphere.  If they could only be captured and efficiently
channeled, say the researchers, the accumulated burps of ten average
cows could keep a small house adequately, if indirectly,heated and its
stove operating for a year.

California woman who was thrown in jail not long ago for disrobing in a
grocery store and sitting on some pheasant eggs in an effort to hatch
them.

Warning:  THE PRACTICIONER, a British medical journal, has determined
that bird-watching may be hazardous to your health.  The magazine, in
fact, has officially designated bird-watching a "hazardous hobby," after
documenting the death of a weekend bird-watcher who became so immersed
in his subject that he grew oblivious to his surroundings and
consequently was eaten by a crocodile.

The coastal town of Picoaza, Ecuador, was in the midst of avery boring
election campaign when a foot deodorant manufacturer came out with the
slogan "VOTE FOR ANY CANDIDATE, BUT IF YOU WANT WELL-BEING AND HYGIENE,
VOTE FOR PULVAPIES."  Then on the eve of the voting, a leaflet reading:
"FOR MAYOR:  HONORABLE PULVAPIES" was widely distributed.  In one of the
great embarrassments of democracy, the voters of Picoaza elected the
foot powder by a clear majority; Pulvapies also ran well in outlying
districts.

THE MOST UNUSUAL CANNONBALL On two occasions, Miss 'Rita Thunderbird'
remained inside the cannon despite a lot of gunpowder encouragement to
do otherwise.  She performs in a gold lamébikini and on one of the two
occasions (1977) Miss Thunderbird remained lodged in the cannon, while
her bra was shot across the River Thames.

THE NOISIEST BURGLAR.  A burglar in Paris set new standards for the
entire criminal world, when, on November 4, 1933, he attempted to rob
the home of an antique dealer.  At the time he was dressed in a
15th-century suit of armour which dramatically limited his chances both
of success and escape.  He had not been in the house many minutes before
its owner was awakened by the sound of the clanking metal.  The owner
got up and went out on to the landing where he saw the suit of armour
climbing the stairs.  He straightaway knocked the burglar off balance,
dropped a small sideboard across his breastplate, and went off to call
the police.  During police questioning a voice inside the armour
confessed to being a thief trying to pull off a daring robbery.  "I
thought I would frighten him," he said.  Unfortunately for our man, the
pressure of the sideboard had so dented his breastplate that it was
impossible to remove the armour for 24 hours, during which period he had
to be fed through the visor.

During Abraham Lincoln's campaign for the presidency, a dyed-in-the-wool
Democrat named Valentine Tapley from Pike County, Missouri, swore that
he would never shave again if Abe were elected.  Tapley kept his word
and his chin whiskers went unshorn from November 1860 until he died in
1910, attaining a length of twelve feet six inches.

For a while Frederic Chopin, the composer and pianist, wore a beard on
only one side of his face.  "It does not matter," he explained.  "My
audience sees only my right side."

1930: Photo flashbulbs replace dangerous flash powder.

1930: "Golden Age" of radio begins in U.S.

1930: Lowell Thomas begins first regular network newscast.

1930: TVs based on British mechanical system roll off factory line.

1930: Bush's differential analyzer introduces the computer.

1930: AT&T tries the picture telephone.

1931: Commercial teletype service.

1931: Electronic TV broadcasts in Los Angeles and Moscow.

1931: Exposures meters go on sale to photographers.

1931: NBC experimentally doubles transmission to 120-line screen.

1932: Disney adopts a three-color Technicolor process for cartoons.

1932: Kodak introduces 8 mm film for home movies.

1932: The "Times" of London uses its new Times Roman typeface.

1932: Stereophonic sound in a motion picture, "Napoleon."

1932: Zoom lens is invented, but a practical model is 21 years off.

1932: The light meter.

1932: NBC and CBS allow prices to be mentioned in commercials.

1933: Armstrong invents FM, but its real future is 20 years off.

1933: Multiple-flash sports photography.

1933: Singing telegrams.

1933: Phonograph records go stereo.

1934: Drive-in movie theater opens in New Jersey.

1934: Associated Press starts wirephoto service.

1934: In Germany, a mobile television truck roams the streets.

1934: In Scotland, teletypesetting sets type by phone line.

1934: Three-color Technicolor used in live action film.

1934: Communications Act of 1934 creates FCC.

1934: Half of the homes in the U.S. have radios.

1934: Mutual Radio Network begins operations.

1935: German single lens reflex roll film camera synchronized for flash bulbs.

1935: Also in Germany, audio tape recorders go on sale.

1935: IBM's electric typewriter comes off the assembly line.

1935: The Penguin paperback book sells for the price of 10 cigarettes.

1935: All-electronic VHF television comes out of the lab.

1935: Eastman-Kodak develops Kodachrome color film.

1935: Nielsen's Audimeter tracks radio audiences.

1936: Berlin Olympics are televised closed circuit.

1936: Bell Labs invents a voice recognition machine.

1936: Kodachrome film sharpens color photography.

1936: Co-axial cable connects New York to Philadelphia.

1936: Alan Turing's "On Computable Numbers" describes a general purpose
computer.

1937: Stibitz of Bell Labs invents the electrical digital calculator.

1937: Pulse Code Modulation points the way to digital transmission.

1937: NBC sends mobile TV truck onto New York streets.

1937: A recording, the Hindenburg crash, is broadcast coast to coast.

1937: Carlson invents the photocopier.

1937: Snow White is the first feature-length cartoon.

1938: Strobe lighting.

1938: Baird demonstrates live TV in color.

1938: Broadcasts can be taped and edited.

1938: Two brothers named Biro invent the ballpoint pen in Argentina.

1938: CBS "World News Roundup" ushers in modern newscasting.

1938: DuMont markets electronic television receiver for the home.

1938: Radio drama, War of the Worlds," causes national panic.

1939: Mechanical scanning system abandoned.

1939: New York World's Fair shows television to public.

1939: Regular TV broadcasts begin.

1939: Air mail service across the Atlantic.

1939: Many firsts: sports coverage, variety show, feature film, etc.

What U.S. president was assassinated after only four months in office?
James Garfield

What was the Allied code name for President Franklin D. Roosevelt during World
War II?
Cargo

What significance does Chester Arthur have in U.S. history?
Arthur was the 21st president of the United States

From what nation did Angola win its independence in 1975?
Portugal

Who became president after Abraham Lincoln was assassinated?
Andrew Johnson

To what political party did George Washington belong?
Federalist

What piece of land did 89 Native Americans occupy in 1969?
Alcatraz Island (They declared it to be their property)

Who was the first woman in space?
Valentina V. Tereshkova (USSR, 1963)

What American president once got married at Forest Lawn Cemetery?
Ronald Reagan (married Jane Wyman)

Who wrote "Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to decieve"?
Sir Walter Scott (not Shakespeare)

Who was known as the man who shot Dillinger?
FBI agent Melvin Purvis (Purvis never actually shot at John Dillinger in the famous
1934 shootout, but he did direct the trap that pointed Dillinger out to other agents and
police)

Who was the first British royal baby in three centuries to be born in Scotland?
Princess Margaret (1930)

How long did it take America's
Pony Express riders to deliver the mail?
A little over a week

Orders for what two stocks set in motion the great crash of 1929?
General Motors and Kennecott Copper (two orders for 20,000 shares each)

What was the name of Franklin D. Roosevelt's Georgia retreat where he died?
Warm Springs

The oldest known goldfish lived to 41 years of age.  Its name was Fred.

In Kentucky, 50% of the people who get married for the first time are
teenagers.

If an orangutan belches at you, watch out.  He's warning you to stay out
of his territory.


Einstein couldn't speak fluently when he was nine.  His parents thought
he might be retarded.

In Los Angeles, there are fewer people than there are automobiles.

About a third of all Americans flush the toilet while they're still
sitting on it.

In 1984, a New Jersey man opened a summer camp for Cabbage Patch dolls.

You're more likely to get stung by a bee on a windy day that in any
other weather.

How can you tell when a gorilla is angry?  It sticks its tongue out.

In 1976, a Los Angeles secretary formally married her 50-pound pet rock.

In 1980, the Yellow Pages accidentally listed a Texas funeral home under
frozen foods.

1,200 college students streaked at the same time in Boulder, CO in 1974.

In 1977, a 13-year-old boy discovered a tooth growing on his left foot.

In 1983, a Japanese artist made a copy of the Mona Lisa completely out
of toast.

In the early '80s, a toad was discovered that meows instead of croaking.

In 1984, a Canadian farmer began renting ad space on his cows.

About 96% of all American children can recognize Ronald McDonald.

An average person laughs about 15 times a day.

Research indicates that mosquitoes are attracted to people who have
recently eaten bananas.

Penguins can jump as high as 6 feet in the air.

The most money ever paid for a cow in an auction was $1.3 million.

The average person is about a quarter of an inch taller at night.

A sneeze zooms out of your mouth at over 600 m.p.h.

Watch out for flying hockey pucks - they travel at up to 100 mph.

America's first nudist organization was founded in 1929, by 3 men.

98% of American drivers think they drive better than anyone else.

In 1681, the last dodo bird died.

A Saudi Arabian woman can get a divorce if her husband doesn't give her
coffee.

The Neanderthal's brain was bigger than yours is.

Donald Duck comics were banned from Finland because he doesn't wear
pants.

The average bank teller loses about $250 every year.

Howdy Doody had 48 freckles.

What color was Christopher Columbus's hair?  Blonde.

In 1980, there was only one country in the world with no telephones -
Bhutan.

The most extras ever used in a movie was 300,000, for the film Gandhi in
1981.

Every person has a unique tongue print.

Your right lung takes in more air than your left one does.

Women's hearts beat faster than men's.

When Bugs Bunny first appeared in 1935, he was called Happy Rabbit.

Pollsters say that 40% of dog and cat owners carry pictures of the pets
in their wallets.


Bubble gum contains rubber.

You can only smell 1/20th as well as a dog.

In high school, Robin Williams was voted "Least Likely to Succeed."

Only 55% of all Americans know that the sun is a star.

The sound of E.T. walking was made by someone squishing her hands in
Jello.

Even if you cut off a cockroach's head, it can live for several weeks.

Most American car horns honk in the key of F.

The world population of chickens is about equal to the number of people.

Every time Beethoven sat down to write music, he poured ice water over
his head.

In 75% of American households, women manage the money and pay the bills.

A monkey was once tried and convicted for smoking a cigarette in South
Bend, Indiana.

About 70% of Americans who go to college do it just to make more money.
[The rest of us are avoiding reality for four more years.]

It's against the law to catch fish with your bare hands in Kansas.

Some toothpastes contain antifreeze.

Sigmund Freud had a morbid fear of ferns.

Millie the White House dog earned more than 4 times as much as Pres.
Bush in 1991.

Bird droppings are the chief export of Nauru, an island nation in the
western Pacific.

There are more plastic flamingos in America than real ones.  [And most
of them are in Parma!]

Most lipstick contains fish scales.

Lee Harvey Oswald's cadaver tag sold at an auction for $6,600 in 1992.

Mosquitos have teeth.

Spotted skunks do handstands before they spray.

Hypnotism is banned by public schools in San Diego.

The three best-known western names in China:  Jesus Christ, Richard
Nixon, and Elvis Presley.

When snakes are born with two heads, they fight each other for food.

Most cows give more milk when they listen to music.

Captain Kangaroo won five Emmy awards.

27% of U.S. male college students believe life is "a meaningless
existential hell."

In 1980, a Las Vegas hospital suspended workers for betting on when
patients would die.

Aztec emperor Montezuma had a nephew, Cuitlahac, whose name meant
"plenty of excrement."

Thomas Edison was afraid of the dark.

"Kemo Sabe" means "soggy shrub" in Navajo.

Sting got his name because of a yellow-and-black striped shirt he wore
until it literally fell apart.

Every photograph of an American atomic bomb detonation was taken by
Harold Edgerton.

The topknot that quails have is called a hmuh.

Dr.  Samuel A. Mudd was the physician who set the leg of Lincoln's
assassin John Wilkes Booth ... and whose shame created the expression
for ignominy, "His name is Mudd."

The longest recorded flight of a chicken is thirteen seconds.

The muzzle of a lion is like a fingerprint -- no two lions have the same
pattern of whiskers.

There is a type of parrot in New Zealand that likes to eat the rubber
strips that line car windows.

New Zealand is also the only country that contains every type of climate
in the world.

Cockroaches' favorite food is the glue on envelopes and on the back of
postage stamps

Q and Z are the two letters not on a touch tone phone.

In 1969, the last Corvair was painted gold.

Ralph Kramden made 62 dollars a week.

The only way to stop the pain of the sting of the flathead fish is by
rubbing the slime of the belly of the same fish that you were stung by
on the wound that it inflicted upon you.

Elephants are the only animal with four knees.

The very first bomb dropped by the Allies on Berlin during World War II
killed the only elephant in the Berlin Zoo.

The real name of the "I've fallen and I can't get up" lady is Edith
Fore.

Anne Boleyn, Queen Elizabeth I's mother, had six fingers on one hand.

Ancient Romans ate flamingo tounges and considered them a delicacy.

Betsy Ross was born with a fully formed set of teeth.

Betsy Ross's other contribution to the American Revolution, beside
sewing the first American flag, was running a munitions factory in her
basement.

The only real person to be a Pez head was Betsy Ross.

Devo's original name was going to be De-evolution.  They shortened it to
Devo.

Steely Dan got their name from a sexual device depicted in the book 'The
Naked Lunch'.

Bob Dylan's real name is Robert Zimmerman, he changed it in honor of
Dylan Thomas.

Andy Warhol created the Rolling Stone's emblem depicting the big tongue.
It first appeared on the cover of the 'Sticky Fingers' album.

Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr were the two left-handed Beatles.

Chris Ford scored the first ever NBA three-point shot.

Maine is the only state that borders only one other US State.

Of all the East Coast States, New Hampshire has the shortest coastline,
about fourteen miles.

New Hampshire is also the only State name the has four consecutive
consonants in it (in the same word).

Ontario is the only Canadian Province that borders the Great Lakes.

Alaska has the longest border with Canada of all the fifty states.
Montana has the longest border with Canada of the lower forty-eight
States.

Montana also borders the most Canadian Provinces of all the fifty
states.  It borders three of them.

Arkansas is the only US State that begins with "a" but does not end with
"a".  All the other States that begin with "a", Arizona, Alabama and
Alaska, also end with "a".

Only three angels are mentioned by name in the Bible:  Gabriel, Michael,
and Lucifer.

Dr.  Seuss pronounced "Seuss" such that it rhymed with "rejoice."

Wilma Flinestone's maiden name was Wilma Slaghoopal, and Betty Rubble's
Maiden name was Betty Jean Mcbricker.

Lenny Kravitz's mother played the part of "Helen" on "The Jeffersons"?

The term "devil's advocate" comes from the Roman Catholic church.  When
deciding if someone should become a saint, a devil's advocate is always
appointed to give an alternative view.

Compact discs read from the inside to the outside edge, the reverse of
how a record works.

The term "Mayday" used for signaling for help after (SOS), it comes from
the French term "M'aidez" which is pronounced "MayDay" and means, "Help
Me"

Grapes explode when you put them in the microwave.

The Great Chicago Fire of 1871 did start in a barn belonging to Patrick
and Katherine O'Leary.  The O'Leary's house was one of the few that
survived the fire.  The O'Leary's house had to be guarded by soldiers
for weeks afterwards, however, because many enraged residents wanted to
burn it down.

The biggest bell is the "Tsar Kolokol" cast in the Kremlin in 1733.  It
weighs 216 tons, but alas, is cracked and has never been rung.

A pregnant goldfish is called a twit.

The smallest mountain range in the world is outside of Marysville,
California and is named the Sutter Buttes.

111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321

The Ramses brand condom is named after the great phaoroh Ramses II who
fathered over 160 children.

In the upper right-hand corner of a US dollar bill, on Washington's
side, there is a tiny spider.  The spider is in the upper left-hand
corner of the "1" encased in the "shield."

Many species of bird copulate in the air.  In general, a couple will fly
to a very high altitude, and then drop.  During their descent, the birds
mate.  Sometimes the couple gets too involved and SPLAT!

If NASA sent birds into space they would soon die, they need gravity to
swallow.

There is a seven letter word in the English language that contains ten
words without rearranging any of its letters, "therein":  the, there,
he, in, rein, her, here, here, ere, therein, herein.

You would have to count to one thousand to use the letter "A" in the
English language to spell a whole number.

The guards of some of the emperors of Byzantium were Vikings.

Canola oil is actually rapeseed oil but the name was changed in Canada
for marketing reasons.

The only member of the band ZZ Top to not have a beard has the last name
Beard.

Ants cannot chew their food, they move their jaws sidewards, like a
scissor, to extract the juices from the food.

The letters H I O X in the latin alphabet is the only ones that look the
same if you turn them upside down or see them from behind.

When your sink is full, the little hole that lets the water drain,
instead of flowing over the side, is called a "porcelator".

When the University of Nebraska Cornhuskers play football at home, the
stadium becomes the state's third largest city.

In Casablanca, Humphrey Bogart never said "Play it again, Sam."

Sherlock Holmes never said "Elementary, my dear Watson."

Captain Kirk never said "Beam me up, Scotty," but he did say, "Beam me
up, Mr. Scott".

Duelling is legal in Paraguay as long as both parties are registered
blood donors.

More people are killed annually by donkeys than die in air crashes.

The metal part of a lamp that surrounds the bulb and supports the shade
is called a harp.

The metal part at the end of a pencil is twenty percent sulfur.

John Larroquette of "Night Court" and "The John Larroquette Show" was
the narrator of "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre."

Raw cashews are poisonous and must be roasted before they can be eaten
(this is probably one reason that you can't buy cashews in the shell)

Meursault, the title character in Albert Camus' famous novel The
Stranger, had a first name, Patrice, which was mentioned only in Camus'
personal journals.

Vietnamese currency consists only of paper money; no coins.

During his entire life, zBod Van Gogh sold exactly one painting, Red
Vineyard at Arles.

The floral emblem of Western Australia is Mangles' Kangaroo Paw; the
state animal is the numbat; and the state bird is the black swan.

A pig's orgasm lasts for 30 minutes.

A pig's penis is shaped like a corkscrew.

It is physically impossible for pigs to look up into the sky.

Skin is thickest is at the back -- 1/6 of an inch.

The most sensitive finger is the forefinger.

Alaska is the most northern, western and eastern state; it also has the
highest latitude,the most eastern longitude and the most western
longitude.

Some of Beethoven's symphonies were performed in Kentucky before they
were performed in Paris, France.

Cinderella's slippers were originally made out of fur.  The story was
changed in the 1600s by a translator.

A large flawless emerald is worth more than a similarly large flawless
diamond.

The word denim comes from 'de Nimes', or from Nimes, a place in France.

Dublin comes from the Irish Dubh Linn which means Blackpool

The word brachiate means your elbows (or knees) bend the opposite to the
way human's do.

Scottish is the language called Gaelic, whereas Irish is actually called
Gaeilge.

The characters Bert and Ernie on Sesame Street were named after Bert the
cop and Ernie the taxi driver in Frank Capra's "Its A Wonderful Life"

A penguin only has sex twice a year.

Mr. Spock's (of Star Trek) blood type was T-Negative

The Dutch town of Abcoude is the only reasonably sized town/city in the
world whose name begins with ABC.

A dragonfly has a lifespan of 24 hours.

A goldfish has a memory span of three seconds.

New Jersey has a spoon museum featuring over 5,400 spoons from every
state and almost every country.

Eleven square miles of southwest Kentucky (Fulton County) is cut off
from the rest of the state by the Mississippi River.  If you wish to
travel from this cut off section to the rest of the state or vice-versa,
you must first cross a bordering state.

Point Roberts in Washington State is cut off from the rest of the state
by British Columbia, Canada.  If you wish to travel from Point Roberts
to the rest of the state or vice versa, you must pass through Canada,
including Canadian and U.S. customs

There are 118 ridges on the outside of a dime.

The dot above an 'i' is called a tittle.

The only city in the United States to celebrate Halloween on the October
30 instead of October 31 is Carson City, Nevada.  October 31 is Nevada
Day and is celebrated with a large street party.

There is actually a word for a 64th note -- a hemidemisemiquaver.

Carnegie Mellon University offers bagpiping as a major.  The instuctor
is James McIntosh, who is a member of the Most Excellent Order of the
British Empire, and who began bagpiping at age 11.

A peanut is not a nut; it is a legume.

It's impossible to sneeze with your eyes open.

"Evian" spelled backvards is naive.

The plastic things on the end of shoelaces are called aglets.

Maine is the toothpick capital of the world.

"Bookkeeper" is the only word in the English language with three
consecutive double letters.

Paul McCartney's mother was a midwife.

Marcel Proust have had a swordfish at home.

It was the left shoe that Aschenputtel (Cinderella) lost at the
stairway, when the prince tried to follow her.

The flag of the Philippines is the only national flag that is flown
differently during times of peace or war.  A portion of the flag is
blue, while the other is red.  The blue portion is flown on top in time
of peace and the red portion is flown in war time.

The phrase "sleep tight" originated when mattresses were set upon ropes
woven through the bed frame.  To remedy sagging ropes, one would use a
bed key to tighten the rope.

It was discovered on a space mission that a frog can throw up.  The frog
throws up it's stomach first, so the stomach is dangling out of it's
mouth.  Then the frog uses it's forearms to dig out all of the stomach's
contents and then swallows the stomach back down again.

The A&W of root beer fame stands for Allen and Wright.

A baby eel is called an elver, a baby oyster is called a spat.

Bingo is the name of the dog on the Cracker Jack box.

The arteries and veins surrounding the brain stem called the "circle of
Willis" looks like a stick person with a large head.

Welsh mercenary bowmen in the medieval period only wore one shoe at a
time.

On a trip to the South Sea islands, French painter Paul Gauguin stopped
off briefly in Central America, where he worked as a laborer on the
Panama Canal.

Lake Nicaragua boasts the only fresh-water sharks in the entire world.

The gene for the Siamese coloration in animals such as cats, rats or
rabbits is heat sensitive.  Warmth produces a lighter color than does
cold.  Putting tape temporarily on Siamese rabbit's ear will make the
fur on that ear lighter than on the other one.

There are only 12 letters in the Hawaiian alphabet.

Charles de Gaulle's final words were, "It hurts."

The words 'sacrilegious' and 'religion' do not share the same
etymological root.

"John has a long moustache" was the coded-signal used by the French
Resistance in WWII to mobilize their forces once the Allies had landed
on the Normandy beaches.

Gatorade was named for the University of Florida Gators where it was
first developed.

Brooklyn is the Dutch name for "broken valley"

There are four states where the first letter of the capital city is the
same letter as the first letter of the state:  Dover, Delaware;
Honolulu, Hawaii; Indianapolis, Indiana; and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

There are four cars and ten lightposts on the back of a ten-dollar bill.

Venetian blinds were invented in Japan.

The Battle of Bunker Hill was fought at neighbouring Breed's Hill.

Former US Senator Barry Goldwater attended the opening night ceremonies
and festivities at Bugsy Siegel's famous Las Vegas casino.  They left
him out of the movie Bugsy.  He is pissed.

Armored knights raised their visors to identify themselves when they
rode past their king.  This custom has become the modern military
salute.

ABBA got their name by taking the first letter from each of their first
names (Agnetha, Bjorn, Benny, Anni-frid.)

The first electric Christmas lights were created by a telephone company
PBX installer.  Back in the old days, candles were used to decorate
Christmas trees.  This was obviously very dangerous.  Telephone
employees are trained to be safety concious.  This installer took the
lights from an old switchboard, connected them together, strung them on
the tree, and hooked them to a battery.

What five digit number, when multiplied by the number 4, is the same
number with the digits in reverse order? 21978; 21978 x 4 = 87912.

A robin's (the bird) egg is blue, but if you put it in vineger for
thirty days it turns yellow.


White Out was invented by the mother of Mike Nesmith (Formerly of the
Monkees)

The "huddle" in football was formed due a deaf football player who used
sign language to communicate and his team didn't want the opposition to
see the signals he used and in turn huddled around him.

There is no such thing as naturally blue food, even blueberries are
purple.

It was illegal to sell ET dolls in France because there is a law against
selling dolls without human faces.

In the 1983 film "JAWS 3D" the shark blows up.  Some of the shark guts
were the stuffed ET dolls being sold at the time.

Walt Disney had wooden teeth.

The hundred billionth crayon made by Crayola was Perriwinkle Blue.

Montana mountain goats will butt heads so hard their hooves fall off.

Spider Monkies like banana daquiries.

The coast line around Lake Sakawea in North Dakota is longer than the
California coastline along the Pacific Ocean

Sylvia Miles had the shortest performance ever nominated for an Oscar
with "Midnight Cowboy."  Her entire role lasted only six minutes.

Kitsap County, Washington, was originally called Slaughter County, and
the first hotel there was called the Slaughter House.

Seattle, Washington, like Rome, was built on seven hills.

Dinosaur droppings are called coprolites, and are actually fairly
common.

The legbones of a bat are so thin that no bat can walk.

The U.S.  Naval Observatory declares American time.

School busses in the United States are Chrome Yellow and used to be
Omaha Orange.

The Beatles song "Dear Prudence" was written about Mia Farrow's sister,
Prudence, when she wouldn't come out and play with Mia and the Beatles
at a religious retreat in India.

The tailless dinner jacket was invented in Tuxedo Park, New York.  Thus
it is called the "tuxedo dinner jacket" and is named after the
town...not the other way around.

The state of Maryland has no natural lakes.

Cranberries are sorted for ripeness by bouncing them; a fully ripened
cranberry can be dribbled like a basketball.

The giant squid has the largest eyes in the world.

Rhode Island is the smallest state with the longest name.  The official
name, used on all state documents, is Rhode Island and Providence
Plantations.

The chemical formula for Rubidium Bromide is RbBr.  It is the only
chemical formula known to be a palindrome!

St.  Paul, Minnesota was originally called Pigs Eye after a man who ran
a saloon there.

The first letters of the months July through November, in order, spell
the name JASON.

The first letters of the names of the Great Lakes spell HOMES.

The numbers '172' can be found on the back of the U.S.  $5 dollar bill
in the bushes at the base of the Lincoln Memorial.

Soldiers from every country salute with their right hand.

Moisture, not air, causes superglue to dry.

Charles Lindbergh took only four sandwiches with him on his famous
transatlantic flight.

Sarsaparilla is the root that flavors root beer.

The U.S.  Mint in Denver, Colorado is the only mint that marks its
pennies.

A full moon always rises at sunset.

Goethe couldn't stand the sound of barking dogs and could only write if
he had an apple rotting in the drawer of his desk.

The "R" in Dean R. Koontz's name stands for Ray.

If you are locked in a completely sealed room, you will die of carbon
dioxide poisoning first before you will die of oxygen deprivation.

Moon was Buzz Aldrin's mother's maiden name.  (Buzz Aldrin was the
second man on the moon in 1969.)

The only two Southern state capitals not occuppied by Northern troops
during the American Civil War were Austin, Texas and Tallahasse,
Florida.

Rabbits love licorice.

Ogdensburg, New York is the only city in the United States situated on
the St.  Lawrence River.

Rene Descartes came up with the theory of coordinate geometry by looking
at a fly walk across a tiled ceiling.

Who's that playing the piano on the "Mad About You" theme?  It's Paul
Reiser himself.  And Greg Evigan sang the "My Two Dads" theme.

Kelsey Grammar sings and plays the piano for the theme song of Fraiser.

Alan Thicke, the father in the TV show Growing Pains wrote the theme
song for The Facts of Life.

If a statue in the park of a person on a horse has both front legs in
the air, the person died in battle; if the horse has one front leg in
the air, the person died as a result of wounds recieved in battle; if
the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural
causes.

A Macintosh LC575 has 182 speaker holes.

In 1963, baseball pitcher Gaylord Perry remarked, "They'll put a man on
the moon before I hit a home run."  On July 20, 1969, a few hours after
Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon, Gaylord Perry hit his first, and
only, home run.

The language Malayalam, spoken in parts of India, is the only language
whose name is a palindrome.

Panama hats come from Ecuador not Panama.

Urea is found in humna urine and dalmatian dogs and nowhere else.

Human birth control pills work on gorillas.

The Earl of Condom was a knighted personal physician to England's King
Charles II in the mid-1600's.  The Earl was requested to produce a
method to protect the King from syphillis.(Charles the II's
pleasure-loving nature was notorious.)  The result should be obvious.

There is no word in the English language that rhymes with orange.

Cheryl Ladd (of Charlie's Angels fame) played the voice, both talking
and

singing, of Joise in the 70s Saturday morning cartoon "Josie and the
Pussycats."

Lynyrd Skynard was the name of the gym teacher of the boys who went on
to form that band.  He once told them, "You boys ain't never gonna to
nothin'."

M & M's were developed so that soldiers could eat candy without getting
their fingers sticky.

Richard Nixon's favorite drink was a dry martini.

The Grateful Dead were once called The Warlocks.

The license plate number of the Volkswagon that appeared on the cover of
the Beatles Abbey Road album was 281F.

Pinocchio was made of pine.

An ant lion is neither an ant nor a lion.

Jethro Tull is not the name of the rock singer/flautist responsible for
such songs as "Aqualung" and "Thick as a Brick."  Jethro Tull is the
name of the band.  The singer is Ian Anderson.  The original Jethro Tull
was an English horticulturalist who invented the seed drill.

Gilligan of Gilligan's Island had a first name that was only used once,
on the never-aired pilot show.  His first name was Willy.

The skipper's real name on Gilligan's Island is Jonas Grumby.  It was
mentioned once in the first episode on their radio's newscast about the
wreck.

The Professor's real name was Roy Hinkley, Mary Ann's last name was
Summers and Mrs. Howell's maiden name was Wentworth.

Neck ties were first worn in Croatia.

A banana tree is not a tree; it is an herb.

Alma mater means bountiful mother.

A Holstein's spots are like fingerprints -- no two cows have the same
pattern of spots.

Glass flutes do not expand with humidity so their owners are spared the
nuisance of tuning them.

Jersey (in the Channel Islands, UK) was the only place that the Nazi's
occupied in Great Britain during World War II.

Top English soccer club Liverpool were formed because their local
enemies, Everton, couldn't pay the rent for their stadium.  Therefore,
Liverpool took over at the stadium (Anfield) and became England's top
soccer team ever.

The male gypsy moth can "smell" the virgin female gypsy moth from 1.8
miles away.

In England, the Speaker of the House is not allowed to speak.

Playing cards were issued to British pilots in WWII.  If captured, they
could be soaked in water and unfolded to reveal a map for escape.

The "Hallelujah Chorus" fits into the Easter portion of Handel's
Messiah, not Christmas.

Over 30 million people in the US "suffer" from Diastima.  Diastima is
having a gap between your front teeth.

In 1976 Sarah Caldwell became the first woman to conduct the
Metropolitan Opera in New York City.

Carnivorous animals will not eat another animal that has been hit by a
lightning strike.

Reindeer milk has more fat than cow milk.

The "L.L." in L.L.  Bean stands for Leon Leonwood.

Libya is the only country in the world with a solid, single-colored flag
-- it's green.

Seoul, the South Korean capital, just means "the capital" in the Korean
language.

Ivory bar soap floating was a mistake.  They had been overmixing the
soap formula causing excess air bubbles that made it float.  Customers
wrote and told how much they loved that it floated, and it has floated
ever since.

The original fifty cent piece in Australian decimal currency had around
$2.00 worth of silver in it before it was replaced with a less expensive
twelve sided coin.

"Studies show that if a cat falls off the seventh floor of a building it
has about thirty percent less chance of surviving than a cat that falls
off the twentieth floor.  It supposedly takes about eight floors for the
cat to realise what is occuring, relax and correct itself.  At about
that height it hits maximum speed and when it hits the ground it's rib
cage absorbs most of the impact.  So throw your cat off a building
today!"

There are eight different sizes of champagne bottle and the largest is
called a

Nebuchadnezzar (after the Biblical king who put Daniel's three friends
into the oven).

The letters KGB stand for Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti.

The female ferret is referred to as a `jill'.

The word rodent comes from the Latin word `rodere' meaning to gnaw.

Australian Rules Football was originally designed to give cricketers
something to play during the off season.

Alexander the Great was an epileptic.

Elizabeth Bacon Custer, wife of "The Boy General" is one of the few
women buried at the U.S.  Military Academy at West Point, New York.

The lead singer of The Knack, famous for "My Sharona," and Jack
Kevorkian's lead defense attorney are brothers, Doug & Jeffrey Feiger.

"Freelance" comes from a knight whose lance was free for hire, i.e. not
pledged to one master.)

The only bone not broken so far during any ski accident is one located
in the inner ear.


The name for Oz in the "Wizard of Oz" was thought up when the creator,
Frank

Blum, looked at his filing cabinet and saw A-N, and O-Z, hence "Oz."

There are ten human body parts that are only three letters long:

Eye, Ear, Leg, Arm, Jaw, Gum, Toe, Lip, Hip and Rib.

Michigan was the first state to have roadside picnic tables.

Elvis had a twin brother named Garon, who died at birth, which is why
Elvis' middle name was spelled Aron; in honor of his brother.

Fitchburg, Massachusetts is the second hillest city in the US.

During WWII the city of Leningrad underwent a seventeen month German
seige.

Unable to access the city by roads, the Russians built a railroad across
the ice on Lake


Lagoda to get food and supplies to the citizens.

The microwave was invented after a researcher walked by a radar tube and
a chocolate bar melted in his pocket.

Thomas Edison got patents for a method of making concrete furniture and
a cigar which was supposed to burn forever

Elton John's real name is Reginald Dwight.  Elton comes from Elton Dean,
a

Bluesology sax player.  John comes from Long John Baldry, founder of
Blues Inc.  They were the first electric white blues band ever seen in
England--1961

Elton John's uncle was a professional soccer player.  He broke his leg
playing for Nottingham Forest in the 1959 English FA Cup Final.

The saying "it's so cold out there it could freeze the balls off a brass
monkey" came from when they had old cannons like ones used in the Civil
War.  The cannonballs were stacked in a pyramid formation, called a
brass monkey.  When it got extremely cold outside they would crack and
break off...  Thus the saying.

Horses cannot vomit.

Rabbits cannot vomit.

The word "Boondocks" comes from the Tagalog (Filipino) word "Bundok,"
which means mountain.

Your stomach has to produce a new layer of mucus every two weeks
otherwise it will digest itself.

The "chapters" of the New Testament were not there originally.  When
monks in medieval times translated it from the Greek, they numbered the
pages in each "book."

Coca-Cola contains neither coca nor cola.

Yucatan, as in the peninsula, is from Maya "u" + "u" + "uthaan," meaning
"listen to how they speak," what the Maya said when they first heard the
Spaniards.

The term, "It's all fun and games until someone loses an eye" is from
Ancient Rome.

The only rule during wrestling matches was, "No eye gouging."
Everything else was allowed, but the only way to be disqualified is to
poke someone's eye out.

The original plan for Disneyland included a Lilliputland.

S.O.S. doesn't stand for "Save Our Ship" or "Save Our Souls" -- It was
just chosen by an 1908 international conference on Morse Code because
the letters S and O were easy to remember and just about anyone could
key it and read it, S = dot dot dot, O = dash dash dash..

The word "moose" was originally Algonquin.

The Sanskrit word for "war" means "desire for more cows."

The "ZIP" in Zip Code stands for "Zone Improvement Plan."

Pocahontas appeared on the back of the $20 bill in 1875.

When a female horse and male mule mate, the offspring is called a mule,
but when a male horse and female donkey mate, the offspring is called a
hinny.

The way to get more mules is to mate a male donkey with a female horse.

A donkey will sink in quicksand but a mule won't.

Crickets hear through their knees.

Turnips turn green when sunburnt.

Pigs, walruses and light-colored horses can be sunburned.

A type of jellyfish found off the coast of England is the longest animal
in the world.

When Voyager 2 visited Neptune it saw a small irregular white cloud that
zips around

Neptune every sixteen hours or so now known as "The Scooter".

Crows have the largest cerebral hemispheres, relative to body size, of
any avian family.


Martha's Vineyard once had its own dialect of Sign Language.  One deaf
person arrived in 1692 and after that there was a relatively large
genetically deaf population that had their own particular dialect of
sign language.  From 1692-1910 nearly all hearing people on the island
were bilingual in sign language and English.

Mr. Rogers is an ordained minister.

Hugh "Ward Cleaver" Beaumont was an ordained minister.

St.  Bernard is the patron saint of skiers.

The Old English word for "sneeze" is "fneosan."

John Lennon's first girlfriend was named Thelma Pickles.

Of all U.S.  Presidents, none lived to be older than John Adams, who
died at the age of 91.

The most common first name for a president is James or some variation of
it.  (In order:  James Madison, James Monroe, James Polk, James
Buchanan, James Garfield, Jimmy Carter)

All U.S.  Presidents have worn glasses, some of them just didn't like to
be seen with them in public.

Andrew Jackson was the only U.S.  President to believe that the world is
flat.

President John Quincy Adams owned a pet alligator which he kept in the
East Room of the White House.

President Taft got stuck in his bath-tub on his Inauguration Day and had
to be pried out by his attendants.

Abe Lincoln's mother died when the family dairy cow ate poisonous
mushrooms and Ms. Lincoln drank the milk.

George Washington's false teeth were made of whale bone.

Gerald Ford was the only man who held both the Presidency and the Vice-

Presidency but who was not elected to either post.

John Tyler, Andrew Johnson, Millard Fillmore and Chester Arthur did not
make Inaugural Addresses.

Gerald Ford was once a male model.

Gerald Ford was born Leslie Lynch King, Jr.

Harry Truman's middle name was just 'S.'  It isn't short for anything.
His parents could not decide between two different names beginning with
S.

James Madison lived at Montpiellier (tall mountain); Thomas Jefferson
lived at Monticello (little mountain.)

President James Garfield could write Latin with one hand and Greek with
the other.

The Panama Canal was excavated from the coasts inland; the final short
segment was cleared by explosives detonated by President Woodrow Wilson,
who sent the signal by wire from New York City.

George Washington was deathly afraid of being buried alive.  After he
died, he wanted to be layed out for three days just to make sure he was
really dead.

According to the ceremonial customs of Orthodox Judaism, it is
officially sundown when you cannot tell the difference between a black
thread and a red one.

A 'jiffy' is an actual unit of time for 1/100th of a second.

In Kenya they don't drive on the right or left side of the street in
particular, just on whichever side is smoother.

Woodpecker scalps, porpoise teeth and giraffe tails have all been used
as money.

The Utah State Bird is the California Seagull and the Utah State Tree is
the Colorado Spruce.

Cyano-acrylate glues (Super glues) were invented by accident.  The
researcher was trying to make optical coating materials, and would test
their properties by putting them between two prisms and shining light
through them.  When he tried the cyano-acrylate, he couldn't get the
prisms apart.

Most of the little schoolhouses in the U.S. of yesteryear were painted
red because red was the least expensive paint color.

Elizabeth I of England suffered from anthophobia, a fear of roses.

Almost half the bones in your body are in your hands and feet.

A flamingo can eat only when its head is upside down.

Dalmatian dogs are born pure white, they don't start getting spots until
they are three or four days old.

The growth rate of some bamboo plants can reach three feet (91.44 cm)
per day.

The Los Angeles Rams were the first U.S. football team to introduce
emblems on their helmets.

South America has three time zones.

The average person falls asleep in seven minutes.

The average garden variety caterpillar has 248 muscles in its head.

An elephant can be pregnant for up to two years.

The two quickest goals scored in the NHL were three seconds apart.

Certain frogs can be frozen solid then thawed, and continue living.

Dartboards are made out of horsehairs.

Your left lung is smaller than your right lung to make room for your
heart.

'Crack' gets it name because it crackles when you smoke it.

Heroin is the brand name of morphine once marketed by Bayer.

Marijuana is Spanish for 'Mary Jane.'

One of the many Tarzans, Karmuela Searlel, was mauled to death on the
set by a raging elephant.

Slinkys were invented by an airplane mechanic; he was playing with
engine parts and realized the possible secondary use of one of the
springs.

U.S.  Interstates which go north-south are numbered sequentially
starting from the west with odd numbers, and Interstates which go
east-west are numbered sequentially starting from the south with even
numbers.

Today's cattle are descended from two species:  wild aurochs -- fierce
and agile herd animals that populated Asia, North Africa and Europe --
and eotragus -- an antelope-like, Asian forest creature.

Ballroom dancing is a major at Brigham Young University.

Professional ballerinas use about twelve pairs of toe shoes per week.

The anteater, aardvark, spiny anteater (echidna), and scaly anteater
(pangolin) are completely unrelated - in fact, the closest relatives to
anteaters are sloths and armadillos, the closest relative to the spiny
anteater is the platypus, and the aardvark is in an order all by itself.

There are 336 dimples on a regulation golf ball.

Octopi have gardens.

The Beatles song "Martha My Dear" was written by Paul McCartney about
his sheepdog Martha.

"Ever think you're hearing something in a song, but they're really
singing something else?  The word for mis-heard lyrics is 'mondegreen,'
and it comes from a folk song in the '50's.  The singer was actually
singing "They slew the Earl of Morray and laid him on the green," but
this came off sounding like 'They slew the Earl of Morray and Lady
Mondegreen.'"

A walla-walla scene is one where extras pretend to be talking in the
background -- when they say "walla-walla" it looks like they are
actually talking.

The phrase "rule of thumb" is derived from an old English law which
stated that you couldn't beat your wife with anything wider than your
thumb.

The youngest letters in the English language are "j," "v" and "w."

The Australian $5, $10, $20, $50 and $100 notes are made out of plastic.

Cranberry Jello is only sold in November and December, and is the only
jello flavor that comes from real fruit, not artificial flavoring.

The oldest exposed surface on earth is New Zealand's south island.

John Lennon's assassin was carrying a copy of "The Catcher in the Rye"
when he shot the famous Beatle in 1980.

Don MacLean's song "American Pie" was written about Buddy Holly, The Big
Bopper, and Ritchie Valens.  All three were on the same plane that
crashed.

A game of pool is referred to as a "frame."

Impotence is legal grounds for divorce in 24 American states.

The Declaration of Independence was written on hemp paper.

Some biblical scholars believe that Aramaic (the language of the ancient
Bible) did not contain an easy way to say "many things" and used a term
which has come down to us as 40.  This means that when the bible -- in
many places -- refers to "40 days," they meant many days.

101 Dalmatians and Peter Pan (Wendy ) are t