Picky Teens

A 2001 study of students at four urban schools found that the average adolescent picks his nose about four times a day.

Semantics

Chinese calligraphic characters can change their meaning when multiplied. The symbol for “horse,” drawn three times, means “gallop.” When “tree” is doubled, it stands for “forest.” And when the symbol for “woman” is drawn twice, it signifies a “quarrel.”

Mental Defective

Charles Addams, creator of “The Addams Family,” had a hint of the macabre in his own life. Addams replied to fan-mail with stationery that carried the title, “The Gotham Rest Home for Mental Defectives.” And his third marriage was held in a pet cemetery.

Doggone Blanket

Canadian artist and pioneer Paul Kane observed in 1847 that the Salish and Chinook people of Washington’s Puget Sound raised dogs for their wool. The tribespeople nurtured a “peculiar breed of small dogs with long hair,” Kane wrote. “The hair is cut off with a knife and mixed with goosedown and a little white earth.” The long, fine and compact fleece was used mostly for the making of blankets.

All in the Family

A 1991 study of convicted inmates in the United States, England and Wales found that one in three had a close relative — usually a sibling — who had also served time in prison.

Pancake Saleslady

Nancy Green, born a slave in Montgomery County, Ky., later became the world’s first living trademark. In 1890, the Davis Milling Company hired the 56-year-old Green to represent its Aunt Jemima Pancake Mix, a job she held until her death in 1923.

Pigs in America

Pigs know how to live off the land. When Hernando de Soto began his exploration of Florida in 1539, he brought with him close to 1,000 soldiers, a dozen priests and 15 pigs. By the time that de Soto reached the Mississippi, three years later, he had lost many men. But the pigs had flourished, swelling their ranks to more than 700.

Extreme Hunger

English colonists founded Jamestown, Va., in 1607, making it the country’s first, permanent settlement. But not all was well in the colonial village. The winter of 1610 was so harsh that several residents dug up the recent-dead in order to avoid starvation. One man went even farther, killing his wife while she slept. He “fed upon her until he had clean devoured all parts saving her head.”

Bowling vs. Gymnastics

In the United States, bowling and fishing are the top-two recreational activities. But neither is a uniquely American pastime. Take the island nation of Japan, for instance, where bowling is the second-most-popular sport, and fishing is third. What could they possibly enjoy more than fishing and bowling? Gymnastics.

The Landfill State

At last count, Alaska had 322 landfills — more than any other state. California was second with 188. Delaware and Connecticut had the fewest in the nation with six landfills between them.

What Are the Chances?

No matter how the game of Monopoly is played, each participant is more likely to land in jail (or Just Visiting) than on any other of the board’s squares. Illinois Avenue is the second-most-frequented location. The space marked “Chance,” between Oriental Avenue and Vermont Avenue, is the least visited spot on the board.

Best Friend

Experts on domesticated animals claim that canine bones found in European and Asian camp sites, thousands of years old, suggest that at one time man’s best friend was also his dinner.

Land Ho!

Christopher Columbus offered a reward to the first man to sight land during his famed voyage of 1492. But when Rodrigo de Triana did just that in the wee hours of the morning on Friday, October 12, Columbus saved his money by claiming he had spotted land at about 10 the previous evening.

War Tax

The U.S. income tax was first established in 1862 to support the Union efforts in the Civil War. Although the tax was discontinued in 1872, the government brought it back in 1894. The Supreme Court declared the tax unconstitutional the following year, but a constitutional amendment reestablished the income tax for good in 1913.

Washington's Birds

American admirers of gold pheasants know that President George Washington may have been the first U.S. citizen to keep the birds. But he didn’t keep them for long. Washington’s seven golden pheasants arrived in November 1786, a gift from the Marquis de Lafayette. The first of these magnificent birds died only three months later, and Washington reported in a letter that “I am afraid the others will follow him but too soon, as they all appear to be drooping.”

Forgotten Flight

Wilbur Wright may have proved the better pilot, but his brother, Orville, made the flight that has gone down in history. On December 17, 1903, the Wright brothers made four flights. Wilbur’s was the longest at 852 feet and 59 seconds. But Orville’s was the first.

Hot Dog Victory

Until Charles Feltman came along, the clam was king of Coney Island. But in 1871, Feltman started selling hot dogs from a small shore lot. He had 3,684 customers that year, and they loved Feltman’s sausage in a bun, spreading the news to their friends and neighbors. Word-of-mouth was all the advertising Feltman needed to grow his operation. By 1923, he had a chain of Coney Island restaurants that catered to the tastes of more than 5.2 million customers.

Population Growth

In the United States, there is one birth every 8 seconds, one death every 13 seconds and one migrant every 26 seconds. This means the country has a net population gain of one person every 12 seconds.

Competitive Romance

A male rhinoceros may seek out the dung piles that belong to the object of his affection, breaking them apart and flinging the pieces as far as he can. Biologists suggest this behavior prevents other male rhinos from finding and following the scent of that particular female.

Wild Popcorn

If you smell popcorn while traveling through a rain forest in Southeast Asia, the source of that scent may be a binturong, also called a bear cat. The popcorn-like aroma comes from a scent gland near the binturong’s tail.

Battery Bunny

The Energizer Bunny has appeared in more than 115 different commercials since first created in 1989. And he keeps going and going and . . .

Goat or Mouse?

The chevrotain, an animal with a name that means “goat kid,” has little relation to goats. Instead, the small Asian creature looks more like a small deer with its brown coat, speckled with white markings. That may be why some people refer to the animal — 13 inches high at the shoulder — as the “mouse deer.”

Sacred Tooth

When Buddha passed away, his four canine teeth were saved as relics and passed down through the ages. One of those teeth has its own temple, The Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic, in Sri Lanka. When the tooth first came to the country in the 4th century A.D., it was treated as a symbol of kingship for the nation’s rulers.

The Brain

Albert Einstein died and was cremated in 1955. But it was rumored that Einstein’s brain had been preserved. The rumor proved true in 1978 when an enterprising reporter tracked the brain to the home of Dr. Thomas S. Harvey in Wichita, Kan. Harvey, the pathologist, who performed the final autopsy on Einstein, had stored the scientist’s brain in two mason jars and kept it for future study. Smart move.

Virgin Birth

Virgin births may seem miraculous, but they’re not so rare among insects. Take aphids, for example. The females are born pregnant.

Franklin State

Tennessee became the country’s 16th state in 1796. But for many in the former territory’s eastern counties, this was not their first experience with statehood. Those counties had briefly seceded from North Carolina and declared themselves the State of Franklin in 1784, a government which stayed in place for almost four years.

Pissed

A male porcupine, trying to attract a potential mate, will douse a female porcupine with urine. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn’t.

Look Out Below

A 2-story outhouse might not seem like a very good idea, but several communities boast such structures, including Phelps, N.Y., and Silver City, Idaho. (The trick is to offset the two levels.) But Bryant Pond, Maine, puts them all to shame with what may be the nation’s only 3-story outhouse.

Canine Paradise

The Canary Islands are home to wild canaries, but the birds were named after the place, and the place was named after another animal entirely. It seems early Romans named the islands for the dogs that lived there. Canis is Latin for “dog.”

Silent But Deadly

Up to 97 million birds die each year in the U.S. and Canada as a result of colliding with windows. Experts say many of the deaths are caused by birds that mistake their reflections for another bird and then attempt to defend their territory from the imaginary foe.

Stress?

About 1 in 10 Americans develops an ulcer. Although doctors used to believe that ulcers were the result of stress, it is now known that at least 80 percent of such lesions are caused by infection from the H. pylori bacterium.

Elsie & Elmer

It has been estimated that more than 47 million children use Elmer’s glue each week that school is in session. Elmer, the bull on the front of each bottle, was created shortly after the 1939 New York World’s Fair. Borden’s spokescow, Elsie, was a big hit at the fair, so the company created her husband to help sell the corporation’s non-food products.

Puppet Government

Sesame Street’s Elmo may be the first and only puppet to have testified before Congress. He spoke to the Education Appropriations Subcommittee in April 2002 on the importance of music education.

Original Klingon

Serious Star Trek aficionados have translated portions of the Bible and other literary works into Klingon, which one organization refers to as “the galaxy’s fastest growing language.” But their crowning achievement, once completed, may be their restoration of the complete works of Shakespeare into the “original Klingon.” Well done (majQa’)!

Bibliophile

Abdul Kassem Ismael, the grand vizier of Persia, was an avid reader with a library of about 117,000 books. But Ismael, a frequent traveler, hated the idea of separation from his beloved collection, so he took it with him, using more than 400 camels to transport the literary works. To ensure that the needed book could be quickly found, the camels were trained to travel in alphabetical order.

Bachelor Tax

Missouri established a tax on bachelors in 1820. Single men between the ages of 21 and 50 had to hand over $1 each year to the state government or get married.