* A watch ticks about 157,680,000 times a year. * A queen bee has a lifespan of 4 to 5 years. * A chameleon's eyes can move without synchronization. * Pandas are related to raccoons. * The F117, a stealth plane is made of a composite plastic and glass material instead of metal. * Ben Franklin wanted our national bird to be the turkey. * An adult gorilla is strong enough to bend steel bars 2 inches thick. * Your body is about 70% water. * Christopher Columbus discovered the sweet potato. * Every 2.7 seconds, a tupperware party begins. * The radius of the sun is about 432,500 miles, or 109 times that of earth. * The core of the sun is about 27,000,000 degrees Fahrenheit. The corona (atmosphere) of the sun is about 3,600,000 degrees. * Despite the corona's high temperature, it is not dense enough to generate alot of heat to burn up an asteroid or other space object passing through it, like earth's atmosphere. * The sun is considered a yellow dwarfstar. * The sun was the center for many ancient religions, and some religious practices were caused by fear of it. * Our sun (and the solar system) is moving toward the constellation Hecules at a rate of 12 miles per second. * There are about 178 seeds on a McDonald's Big Mac. * The top 4 news stories of 1995 were: 1. Oklahoma City Bombing 2. The former Yugoslavia 3. O.J. Trial 4. Rabin Assassination * Birds, like people, develop regional accents that would distinguish them from the same bird in another area. (i.e., a southern or Australian accent.) * Giant Squid have a strong ammonia flavor. Facts about: The Earth * The world's largest solar collector is the ocean, which collects 37 trillion (that's 37,000,000,000,000) kilowatts annually. This is 4,000 times the amount people use. A typical square mile of ocean contains more energy than 7,000 barrels of oil. * The wind energy released at the height of a typical hurricane is equal to the amount of power produced by all the electric producing power plants in the world at any one time. * Australia's Great Barrier Reef is 20 million years old. * The average pressure at the bottom of the Marianas Trench in the Pacific Ocean is 18,000 psi. (that's pounds per square inch) * Only 5% of the ocean floor has been mapped as precisely as the surface of the moon. * The sea level would rise 200 feet if the Antarctic ice cap melted. The ice cap also contains 70% of the world's fresh water supply. * Australia is moving at a geologically pace of 2 inches a year toward California. It probably will not reach, though, as another gigantic crustal plate southwest of California will push it away in a few million years. * The fastest moving land mass in the world is the Tongan Island of Niuatoputapu, in the South Pacific. This tiny island races along at 10 inches a year! * Scientists have calculated that the Earth can comfortably support a human population of 2 billion. * Last month, coffee sales were at a 19 month low. * In computer terms, the memory capacity of the human brain is estimated by scientists to be between 1 and 10 trillion bytes, or terabytes. This is equivalent to 1,000 gigabyte hard drives! * In 1994, 38 million appliances were recycled in the U.S., yielding 1.9 million tons of steel. Enough steel was recovered to make 21 bridges the size of San Francisco’s Golden Gate bridge. Why does toast always land butter side down? Research has shown (yes, they researched this, that’s why there’s a trillion dollar deficit) that because of the height of our tables, the toast can flip over only once when it falls. That’s why toast always lands butter side down. Facts about: Bugs * There are over 600,000 species of bugs on our planet, half of which are beetles. * There are so many bugs, in fact, that for every pound of human flesh, there are 300 pounds of bugs. * The density of a locust swarm ranges from 100 to 500 million bugs per square mile. An average swarm covers 400 square miles, and can contain up to 50 billion bugs. * A stand of spider silk is stronger than a piece of steel of the same dimensions. * Dragonflies have been clocked at speeds of up to 60 mph. This is because they move their wings in opposite directions, which creates more lift for their weight than the most efficient airplanes. * Cockroaches are unique in the fact that they are one of the few insects that can be taught to run mazes. To top it off, they can also learn it without their heads! It takes a headless cockroach 30 minutes to learn a maze when electric shocks are used. The headless roaches live for several days, until they die of starvation. * There are over 2,000 species of fleas. The chances of you dying in a plane crash are the same as you getting struck by an asteroid and killed. * If you run 110 watts of AC current through an ordinary pickle, it glows yellow. * Poker anyone? Here’s your chances of: Royal Flush.............................. 649,739 : 1 Straight Flush........................... 72,192 : 1 Four of a Kind......................... 4,164 : 1 Full House............................... 693 : 1 Flush........................................ 508 : 1 Straight.................................... 254 : 1 3 of a Kind.............................. 46 : 1 2 Pair....................................... 20 : 1 1 Pair....................................... 1.37 : 1 Big Nothing.............................. 1 : 1 * The #1 roadkill animal in the U.S. is none other than our lovable grey squirrel, with birds as #2. * In Omaha, Nebraska, the residents receive free cable TV. The U.S. is the largest exporter of frozen french fries in the world, with about 360,184 tons leaving our country last year.: Emperor Penguins * There are 17 species of penguins, with the Emperor penguin being the largest. * Emperor penguins have (on average) 80 feathers per square inch. * The typical height of an Emperor penguin is about 4 feet. Their typical weight is about 70 pounds for males, slightly less for females. * When traveling across the frozen tundra that they call home, these penguins average a speed of 1/2 m.p.h. * They are capable of diving up to 1, 750 feet underwater, where they hunt fish. When they leave the water, they are capable of "jumping" out and reaching heights of about 7 feet. * The typical lifespan of an Emperor penguin is about 20 years. You can melt down a penny and sell the copper in it for 4 cents. * Approximately 5 million people visit the Grand Canyon every year. * How much water is used to manufacture a new car? 39,090 gallons * In every presidential election year since 1972, whenever the score of the NCAA men’s basketball finals has been won with a 10 or more point difference, a Democrat has won the election. (Curse you, Kentucky!) * See if you can answer this question! Q - Which president’s face is on the 100,000 dollar bill? A - Woodrow Wilson * The five most common U.S. surnames are: 1. Smith 2. Johnson 3. Williams 4. Jones 5. Brown * 10,000 people were employed as Santa Claus in 1994. If the advances in the computer industry were made in the auto industry, the ordinary cars we drive today would cost under $10,000, get hundreds of miles to the gallon, cruise at 500 mph, and provide room for 30 people. Man-Made Structures * New York City has about 6,200 miles of sewer tunnels. This is equivalent to a round - trip drive from Boston to San Francisco. * Until the 1980’s, tourists could take subterranean boat tours of Parisian sewers. Quite a romantic night, wouldn’t you say? * The Manhattan Bridge rises and falls up to 9 feet under heavy traffic. * The 2 towers of the Verrazano - Narrows Bridge are 1 5/8 inches farther apart at the top because of the curvature of the Earth. Each tower contains 3 million rivets and 1 million bolts. There is enough concrete in the bridge to make a single - lane highway from New York to Washington, D.C. * Each of the 2 cables supporting the Golden Gate Bridge weigh 7,125 tons and is more than a yard thick. * The first underwater tunnel was constructed in 2160 B.C.. Built of brick and tar, the tunnel connected the two fortified halves of the ancient city of Babylon. When Francis Reichert of Stuart, Florida was 8 years old, he stuck cherry pits up his nose to impress his friends. Well, one of them got stuck. For 50 years, this cherry pit remained stuck in his nose until, on a visit to a doctor, it dropped into his mouth. The doctor thinks it may be the oldest thing found in anyone’s nose. Michael Jordan's basketball uniform is worth $16,000. * Superman made his debut in 1938. * If you counted 1 number every second, it would take you 32 years to count to a billion. * The first anti-bacterial soap was invented in 1945. * Of the 5.7 billion people in the world, 1.1 billion smoke. * May 26th was the 100th anniversary of the coronation of Nicholas II, Russia's last czar. * Chemicals in cow's breath attract mosquitoes. Light * Light Travels one (1) foot in a nanosecond, which is one billionth of a second. * The atomic clock at the national Institute of Standards and Technology is the most accurate clock in the world, with an official degree of uncertainty of 1.0 X 10-14. * A second is defined as 9,192,631,770 periods of specific radiation emitted by a cesium atom.. * A clock flown around the worldon an airplane will show a different time at the end of the trip thenone on earth because of the difference in the forces acting upon them. * A leap second is added or subtracted from our clocks to keep them within .9 seconds of astronomical time. The first leap second was added on June 30, 1972. The most recent one was on December 31, 1995. There have been 20 seconds added so far, but none subtracted. * The former Soviet Union spanned 11 time zones. * A picosecond is one trillionth of a second. * A century year is a leap year only if it is divisible by 400. So 2000 is a leap year but 1900 and 1800 were not. * Arizona, Hawaii, and a small section of Indiana do not observe daylight savings time. * Bullfrog tadpoles are the only tadpoles that take 2 years to mature. * Every 2.7 seconds, a tupperware party begins. Tupperware was invented in 1938. * Sperm whales have the largest brain of any creature on Earth. * Blue Whales are the loudest animals on Earth. Their songs can be heard for hundreds of miles. * Spaghetti was originally invented in China. * The Great Wall of China is the only man-made object able to be seen from space. (besides pollution) * The world record for hot dog eating was set this year on July 4th, when Ed Krachie ate 22 franks in 12 minutes. This meal contained 6,820 calories!(the normal calorie intake for a day is 2,000 - 2,500!) * Pine bark and chicken manure, when stuffed into a smokestack, greatly reduces pollution. Chemicals inside them decompose the pollutants into such products as water and carbon dioxide. * J.S.Bach, the famous composer, once stabbed a choir member who talked back to him in rehearsal. * Lightning is responsible for the Earth being hit by 1 trillion volts each day. * At any given moment, there are 2,000 thunderstorms passing over the Earth, generating a total of 100 lightning strikes per second. * The frequency of thunderstorms gets less as you move north and west of Florida, the thunderstorm capital. Florida averages 90 storms per year, while Maine averages 20 and California averages 5. * Standing with your legs flat against a wall, it is impossible to touch your toes. * On average, a car will produce it’s own weight in carbon dioxide each year. * A perfectly cut diamond is invisible in water. * A tiger is most likely to attack the third person in line. * Fireflies are actually beetles. * Here's what happens to a barrel of crude oil: Gasoline..................................... 45.7% Jet Fuel / Kerosene.................... 10.1% Heat / Diesel.............................. 22.3% Industrial Fuel Oil....................... 5.7% Wax, Grease, Lubrication........... 1.3% Petroleum Coke......................... 4.3% Asphalts..................................... 3.1% Gas (Vapor).............................. 4.2% Other......................................... 3.3% * The surface of the sun is 5,600oC. * There are 4,600 known species of mammals. * It would take 1 million firemen (using regular hoses, etc.) 54 years to fill the Great Lakes. * There is 22,680,000,000,000,000 liters of water in the Great Lakes. This is enough to fill 62,000,000,000,000 bathtubs. It would give everyone in North America 9 baths a day for life. * Ben Franklin invented the rocking chair. * Eskimos use refrigerators to keep their food from freezing. * A mosquito has 47 teeth. * Isaac Newton (the guy who got knocked on the head with an apple) served on Parliament. The only recorded thing he said was a request to open a window. * The hardness of ice is similar to concrete. * New York City has 570 miles of shoreline. * Einstein's last words will never be known. He spoke them in German, and the nurse attending to him didn't understand them. Halloween * During the first Halloweens (back when it was called All Saint's Day) turnips were used for jack o' lanterns instead of pumpkins. * The Celts believed that all those who had died in the previous year assembled on October 31, the last day on their calendar, to choose the body of a person or animal they would inhabit the next year. To frighten the spirits away from themselves, they would dress up as demons, hobgoblins, witches, etc. * On October 31, in 1517, Martin Luther started the Reformation with the publication of his 95 theses. * The origins of Trick or Treating still remain mysterious. One theory refers to an Irish practice of asking for donations to hold a feast. Blessings were assured to the charitable, threats were voiced to the miserly. * Irish immigrants brought the idea of mischevious fairies who appeared on Halloween. The idea caught on in America, resulting in many practical jokes, like building a fence across a road or switching street numbers. Bat Picture - The picture of the bat on every bottle of rum produced by Bacardi is there because, in Cuba when Bacardi was founded, they wanted to brand their special white rum. Since most of the population could not read, they chose a picture. The bat was used because every morning when they started work making rum, the workers first had to fish the drunken bats out of the open vats of rum. It seems that the bats that lived at the factory had quite a fondness for rum. Ancient - The oldest document know to man is an ancient clay tablet depicting the preparation of beer for sacrificial purposes. This document was inscribed in Babylonia around the year 3500 B.C. - 3000 B.C. Thanks for correcting the time line goes to Joe Zias, Curator of Archaeology/Anthropology Israel Antiquities Authority. 6 Unusual - Cocktails are Courvoisier and coke, Peppermint schnapps and coke, Gin and root beer, Amaretto and tab, Scotch and Kahlua, and last but not least Chivas and grape tang Air Space - Between the top of the wine and the bottom of the cork is know as a ullage. Rum - The first known rum was produced in Barbados. Carrie Nation - Her birthday is November 25, 1846. She was famous for smashing saloons with an axe. There is a monument to her in Madison Kansas. Free Beer - 5000 men, women and children were trampled to death in a rush to get free beer at the coronation of Czar Nicholas II of Russia. St. Adrian - Now you know. The patron saint of beer was put to death on March 3, 303A.D. Aluminum - That beer can we know so well was introduced by the American can co. and the Kreuger Brewing co. on January 24th 1935. In Oklahoma, its against the law to give liquor to a fish. Longevity - Waiters, bartenders and newspaper reporters do not rank particularly high on the longevity roster. They don't live as long, on the average, as college professors, mathmaticians and social workers. In fact they barely tend to outlive miners, who as a group don't outlive anybody, hardly. Why waiters, bartenders and newspaper reporters seem to survive about equally unwell is not known. But statistics indicate such. Hangover Cure - How do Hungarians fight a hangover. They put a slice of salami over a shot glass of vodka and then sip the vodka through the salami. Whiskey - Why is whiskey so called? It comes from the Irish usquedaugh meaning "water of life." Wine Glass- Asked one fellow bartender how should I hold my glass? By the stem or by the bowl.? Chilled white wine by the stem. Room temperature red wine by the bowl. Asked a second fellow he said "Right in the middle so the bottle won't slip out of the paper bag." Bitters - Angostura bitters have been around since 1824. A german doctor that lived in Venezula prepared it as a tonic for his sick wife. He reportedly learned the recipe from some sailors, who added bitters to rum as a cure for seasickness and a host of other ailments. When it became a part of the Old Fasioned cocktail, its place behind the bar was established. Booze - This word does not ,as widely belived, come from a liquor bottle named E. C. Booz. The word is quite old, originating perhaps from the Dutch word buyzen, "to tipple," or the Middle English bouse, "to drink deep." Champagne Bottles - The terms jeroboam, rehoboam, methuselah, salmanazar, balthazar, and nebuchadnezzar not only stand for the sizes of the champagne bottles but they have something else in common. They are all named for an ancient king or patriarch. Kettle or Screw - Irish innkeppers of yesteryear use this expression when inquiring which refreshment the patron favored. Kettle meant hot punch and screw meant wine. Drunk - We all recognize such words as plastered, under the table, soused, tipsy and bombed as slang for being drunk. How about these that have been dropped from the language bungey, nimptopsical, cherry-merry and as stiff as a ringbolt. The Manhattan Cocktail - Introduced by Lady Randolph Churchill at a party for the newly elected governor Samul Tilden at New York's Manhatten Club. Oh yea she was Winston's mother. Spirited History - Almost every country in the world utilizes some native product to make an alcoholic beverage. Asian liquors, disstilled from rice, from millit or from palm sap originated around 400 b.c. and their names - sautchoo, arrach, arika, and skhou. Around the year 300 Ireland brewed up some usquebaugh from oat and barley beer. Around the year 900 Italy began distilling grapes to produce brandy. Around 1500 the Scots got the hand of making whiskey from malted barley. In 1750 France distilled cognac from grapes. Nevada - The state of Nevada allows the sale of liquor 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. The drinking age is 21 years. Seven Years Old - If your favorite whiskey is marked "seven years old" , you can be sure that it hasn't been aging in that bottle for seven years. The age of the whiskey refers to the time before it was bottled. Liquor does not improve in any way once it has been bottled. Smallest - The smallest bottles of liquor sold contained 1/20 of a fluid ounce and in 1979 retailed for the equivalent of 64 cents which included the match box in which it was packaged. The scotch whiskey was marketed by the Cumbrae Supply Co. of Scotland. Biggest Round - The largest round ever recorded was for 1,222 people shouted by Jack Amos in Newcastle upon Tyne, England in October, 1974, at the conclusion of the Jack o'Clubs road show. Alcoholic ? - It is reported that a hard drinker named Vanhorn (1750 - 1811) born in London, England, averaged more than four bottles of ruby port per day for 23 years prior to his death at age 61. That adds up to 33,580 bottles. Not counting leap years. 1.The Biggest Dog in the world is named Zorba. He is an Old English Mastiff. He is 343 lbs., 37 inches at the shoulders, and is 8 ft. 3 in. Nose to tall!! 2. The highest flying bird was a vulture, which was spotted flying at 37,000 ft. above the earth!! It was killed by a plane. 3.The longest earthworm was measured at 22 foot long!! 4. The biggest hairball was found in a human stomach, it weighed 5 lbs. 3 oz.!! 5. The biggest concert ever was in East & West Berlin. It included a stage that measured 551' x 82' and the concert had 600 performers. The Group was of course Pink Floyd, The Wall!!! 6. The longest english word is "pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicouotcanoconiosis" That is 45 letters and it means silica dust in the human lungs. Most obese pets are owned by obese people. English novelist H. G. Wells was not particularly good-looking, but literary historians say women seemed to find him irresistible, because of his natural body odor. Numerous references to it exist. Evidently, he exuded an earthy fragrance that stirred desire. Wells died in 1946. A few scent scientists since have been dabbling with formulas suggested by what's known of Wells' diet. Did I mention the first thing a giraffe does is fall on its head? * 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, and 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. * There is no record of the ASPCA coming to the aid of a Eureks, 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. * 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. * 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." More True Stories --------------------------------------------------------------------------- It is or was at one time a crime to do these following things: Carry a fishing tackle into a cemetery in a Muncie. Ind. Bathe less than once a year in Kentucky, and more than once a week in Boston. Insert a penny in your ear in Hawaii. Go to a public dance without a corset on if you are a girl in Norfolk, Virginia. Shoot off a policeman's tie in Frankfort, KY. Catch mice in Cleveland without a hunting license. Tie a giraffe to a telephone pole in Atlanta. Throw a reptile at someone in Toledo, Ohio. Whistle underwater in Vermont. And this last one is one to remember, In Michigan, it is illegal to put a skunk in your boss' desk.