120 Per Minute

Born Barbie Millicent Roberts, the all-American doll calls more than 140 countries home and is sold at the rate of 120 dolls per minute.

How’s it smell?

The word “jumentous” pertains to the smell of horse urine.

PLANT OR ANIMAL?

Although fungi are “rooted” like plants, they stiffen their cell walls with chitin, the same material that lobsters and beetles use to form their shells.

Worldwide, only about 1 in 90 births results in twins. Triplets are even more rare (1 in 9,000). But those figures don’t apply in America. U.S. women typically wait longer to have children, which makes multiple births more likely. In 1993, American women had twins at the rate of 1 in 43, while triplets arrived once in every 1,341 births.

By the end of the first millennium A.D., the world’s most cultured city was Cordoba in southern Spain. It had parks, palaces, paved roads, lighted streets, 700 mosques, 300 public baths and an extensive sewage system. But the city’s crown jewel was a library — the world’s largest — with close to half a million books, more volumes than could be found in most European nations of the time. But wait, there’s more. This particular library didn’t stand alone. It just happened to be the largest of about 70 such institutions in the city.

People who live alone don’t live as long. In fact, experts claim that people who live in community survive an average of four years longer than their peers.

CROCKETT CRAZE BOOSTS DEMAND FOR COONSKINS

The Davy Crockett craze of the 1950s boosted the demand for genuine coonskin caps to such an extreme that the price for raccoon skins skyrocketed from 25 cents a pound to nearly $8.

Americans take so many products for granted. Take alphabet soup, for instance. What does it look like in other countries? Does the product use the Cyrillic alphabet in Greece and Russia? What about France? Is there an accent over the e? Public relations staff at Campbell’s Soup report that no such issue exists because Campbell’s Alphabet Soup is only sold in North America.

Beavers are excellent loggers, but they can’t match a human’s ability to fell a tree in any particular direction. Instead, beavers gnaw a V-shaped notch completely around the tree. Eventually, the tree falls. Sometimes, it falls on the beaver.

Australian Aborigines use honey for a variety of ailments, including burns, lung complaints, sore eyes, vomiting and diarrhea.

Historians claim that the celebrity scientist Isaac Newton probably suffered from mercury poisoning in the later years of his life. Newton’s many letters reveal that he was suffering from severe insomnia, a loss of appetite, delusions of persecution, extreme sensitivity to remarks he viewed as implied criticisms and a loss of memory.

FRENCH HAIR MERCHANTS

In the late 17th century, French fashion demanded such large and complicated coiffures that hair stylists often had to add already-cut hair to the heads of their clients. Hair merchants sent professional cutters all over Europe to bring back pounds of human hair, all of which had to be 24 inches long. The Dutch were said to produce the finest hair. And the color of choice in France was ash-brown. Top-quality tresses fetched the equivalent of $7,500 per pound.

Disney’s “Toy Story II” reveals that Woody — the Western action figure who speaks in the voice of Tom Hanks — is actually a rare collectible from the 1950s. The movie stresses that Woody, in his hand-stitched vest and polyvinyl cowboy hat, is a perfect, museum-quality specimen of a 1950s toy. But there is one problem with this premise. In the movie, Woody’s holster is empty. No self-respecting 1950s boy would accept a toy cowboy without its corresponding gun.

Mockingbirds borrow material from other birds in order to expand their song vocabulary. Ornithologists have found that some male mockingbirds can perform up to 200 unique tunes. But these copycats don’t limit themselves to songs stolen from cardinals and Carolina wrens. They also impersonate washing machines and car alarms.

HOW LONG DOES A DOG LIVE?

A Danish study of 3,000 dogs found that the average dog can expect to live about 10 years. The most common cause of death, affecting 1 in 5 of the canines studied, was old age. The second most common cause of death was cancer, affecting 14.5 percent. Bernese Mountain dogs were the most cancer-prone with 34.4 percent succumbing to terminal cancer during the study.

Massachusetts was the first state to enact compulsory education laws. Children in that state must begin school by age 6 and may not leave school until age 16. Washington D.C. (1864) was second. Vermont (1867) was third. The last three states to require free, public education were Georgia (1916), Mississippi (1918) and Alaska (1929).

Many high school athletes have dreams of entering the pros, but competition is fierce. Only about 1 out of every 25 high school football players will play on an NCAA team in college. Of those, only 1 in 30 will get drafted. Once drafted, there still remains a 50 percent chance that the player won’t make the final cut for a professional football team.

Elected President in 1796, John Adams — a relatively short, fat man — was often referred to by political opponents as “His Rotundity.”

PROFESSIONAL SPORTS TEAMS COPE WITH WAR

A number of athletes were called up for duty during World War II, leaving professional teams with short rosters. In order to solve the problem, the Pittsburgh Steelers and Philadelphia Eagles combined forces in 1943 to become the Phil-Pit Steagles. But the agreement only lasted a year. Pittsburgh switched over to the Cardinals in 1944, becoming the Card-Pitts.

When San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge opened for business in 1937, the one-way vehicle toll was only 50 cents with an additional 5 cents charged if there were more than three passengers. That toll fell to 25 cents in 1955 but has since risen to $5. The larger toll — set in 2002 — only applies to southbound traffic, however. Northbound traffic is free.

When women received a constitutional right to vote in 1920, it wasn’t as revolutionary as it seemed. New Jersey’s state constitution had allowed women to vote as early as 1776. But it didn’t last. The state legislature rescinded woman suffrage in 1807.

The world of fashion, it seems, is not a place for equality. Experts say that women’s shoes, for instance, generally last only one or two years. But men’s shoes of reasonably good quality can be expected to endure at least three years of regular use.

CAMELS HAVE LESS BRAINPOWER

The brain of a camel weighs only about half as much as the gray matter of an adult human.

The Sargasso Sea has no coastline. That’s because the gold-flecked, blue waters lie in the center of the North Atlantic, surrounded by currents that move in a clockwise direction, defining its boundaries.

Marilyn Monroe’s classic skirt-blowing scene in “The Seven Year Itch” was first filmed on the corner of Manhattan’s Lexington Avenue and 52nd Street. But the footage wasn’t used. Director Billy Wilder found that he could get a better result, re-staging the scene in the studio.

The American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise estimates that there are 5.8 million Jews in the United States, almost a million more than are in Israel.

The Lincoln Memorial sits on more than 100 acres of Potomac Park, in Washington, D.C. But early supporters had hoped to see the monument built in Gettysburg, Pa., with a highway, linking the memorial to the nation’s capital.

A news organization compiled a list of first names among tennis professionals and found that the most popular names for male players are David, John and Michael. Female players are more likely to be called Andrea, Elena or Maria.

With a diameter of 680 feet, the Louisiana Superdome is the world’s largest such structure.

EVERYTHING BUT THE OINK

No part of a domesticated pig goes to waste. The animal’s bones and skin are used for glue, pigskin garments, gloves, shoes and footballs. Its hair is used for artist's brushes, insulation and upholstery. Fatty acids and glycerine are used for insecticides, floor waxes, weed killers, water-proofing agents, cement, rubber, crayons, cosmetics, chalk, antifreeze, plastics, putty, cellophane. Not only that, but pigs are a source of nearly 40 drugs and pharmaceuticals such as insulin.

The Federal Communications Commission reports that the average American child sees about 20,000, 30-second television commercials each year.

Historians claim that King Louis XIV owned 413 beds.

In ancient Babylon, it was common practice for the bride’s father to supply his new son-in-law with all the mead or honey-beer that he could drink for a month, following the wedding. Many amateur etymologists have made the claim that this is where we get the word “honeymoon,” but the word doesn’t even show up in print until Richard Huloet’s 1552 publication of “Abecedarium Anglico Latinum” in which he refers to the gentle diminishing of married love over the first lunar month, following the wedding.

President Theodore Roosevelt declared Devil’s Tower in Wyoming, the nation’s first national monument. The United States now has more than 70 such monuments.

CABLE CARS PREVENT ACCIDENTS

Andrew Smith Hallidie created San Francisco’s cable cars after witnessing a horrible accident. A team of horses had trouble keeping its footing while pulling a streetcar up a particularly steep slope. The weight of the vehicle, combined with wet cobblestones, dragged the five horses to their deaths. Hallidie immediately started work on his idea and by 1873 — only four years later — San Francisco had its first cable car.

The U.S. Census Bureau reported in 2003 that roughly 12 percent of the nation’s population is foreign born. These residents are most likely to live in the South and least likely to live in the Midwest.

A national boat graphics firm has been compiling lists of the most popular boat names since 1991. Last year, the most-requested name was “Aquaholic,” followed by “Island Time” and “Hakuna Matata.”

If you were to spell out numbers, you wouldn’t find the letter “A” until you reached 1,000.

When DuPont introduced its Kevlar fabric in the 1970s — now commonly used in bulletproof vests — the company intended the invention as a replacement for steel belting in vehicle tires.

The average honey bee makes about 1-1/2 teaspoons of honey in a lifetime of work. But the average American consumes more than 1.3 pounds each year.

ICE COLD SUNSHINE

Coca-Cola was sold in 1893 as “The Ideal Brain Tonic.” By 1908, the product was using a new slogan: “Good to the Last Drop.” The company tried out plenty of selling sayings over the years, including “Ice Cold Sunshine” (1932), “Americans Prefer Taste” (1955) and “I’d Like to Buy the World a Coke” (1971).

When “Amusement Business” released its list of the nation’s top 10 theme parks based on 2001 attendance figures, Disney owned and operated more than half of the destinations.

William Henry “Bill” Gates was born in 1955. His father was an attorney, and his mother was a teacher. Gates showed an early interest in computers, writing programs as early as age 13.

Uranus, the seventh planet from the sun and the third largest in the solar system, has at least 22 moons.

The Gottfried Krueger Brewing Company of Newark, NJ, was the country’s first brewer to sell canned beer. Krueger’s Finest Beer and Krueger’s Cream Ale both went on sale on January 24, 1935, in Richmond, Va.

At least 85 percent of all greeting cards sold in the United States are purchased by women. Even on Mother’s Day, 83 percent of all cards sent to Mom are selected and paid for by daughters.

SPINACH TOWNS REMEMBER CARTOON HERO

Chester, Ill., dedicated a Popeye statue in 1977 to honor hometown hero Elzie Segar, creator of the cartoon character. The town even has an annual Popeye picnic. But Alma, Ark., goes a step further, calling itself the “Spinach Capital to the World.” The town is home to Popeye Brand Spinach, and its Popeye statue stands in front of the Chamber of Commerce building. Not to be outdone, Crystal City, Tex., has two statues of Popeye.

Dr. Seuss’ first book for children, “And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street,” was rejected by almost 30 publishers before it finally found a home in 1937 at Random House.

The U.S. Nuclear Weapons Cost Study Project — completed in 1998 — reported that, from 1951 to the study’s release, the nation produced at least 67,500 nuclear missiles.

Almost 70 million U.S. citizens identify themselves as Roman Catholic.

Susan B. Anthony’s image was chosen for the one-dollar coin, minted in 1979, which made her the first woman, other than a mythical figure, to appear on U.S. currency.

The minting of each U.S. penny costs roughly 0.81 cent.

The Macadamia, an Australian native, was first introduced in Hawaii in 1881 as an ornamental plant and for reforestation of the islands.

ITALY’S MOST-BEAUTIFUL WOMAN

There once was a woman so beautiful that all of Italy’s most-eligible men desired her hand in marriage. But Vittoria’s choice, the Duke of Bracciano, was believed to have murdered his wife. Pope Gregory XIII intervened, confining Vittoria to Fort St. Angelo for a year in order to prevent the marriage. It seems, however, that these efforts to protect the maid were unnecessary. She could take care of herself. Vittoria married the Duke. He died a few months later.

If crowned king or queen in Great Britain, the only way to lawfully get out of the job is with the consent of both houses of Parliament.

Mythology makes the claim that the maritime town of Abdera was founded by Hercules. But historians give credit to Timesias Clazomenae.

In the late 19th century, it was considered common practice for wholesalers to grind up gypsum, mustard husks and starch, marketing the concoction as pepper.

In Ancient Greece, adultery was only considered a crime if a married woman was the offender.

North America’s geographic center lies in Osborne County, Kan. But the continental United States has its center in neighboring Smith County.

Barbie’s parents’ names are George and Margaret.

A single chocolate chip provides enough energy for a person to walk about 150 feet.

T-REX NOT SO BIG AFTER ALL

Early 20th century estimates placed the Tyrannosaurus Rex at more than 40 feet in length with a weight of up to 12 tons. But more recent discoveries of complete skeletons make it unlikely that the “Tyrant Lizard-King” ever reached lengths of much more than 38 feet.

Sundials use the shadow of an object, cast by the sun, to show the time. That center object is called a gnomon.

Elvis Presley left school to become a truck driver. He didn’t stick with it for long.

The National Weather Service issues a blizzard warning when a storm has sustained winds or frequent gusts of 35 miles an hour or more and enough falling or blowing snow to cut visibility to under 1/4 mile for at least three hours.

The Hawaiian Islands may be the world’s most isolated population center. California is 2,390 miles away, Japan is more than 3,800 miles, and the Philippines lie 5,280 miles distant.

Nearly 1 billion Barbie dolls have been sold since 1959. Placed head to toe, they would circle the world 3-1/2 times.

The heaviest known living snake — tipping the scales at 403 pounds — is Baby, a Burmese Python, who resides at the Serpent Safari Park in Gurnee, Ill.

THE ENVELOPE, PLEASE

The confidential envelope was first introduced as a part of The Oscars ceremony in 1941. That was the year that “How Green Was My Valley” beat out “Citizen Kane” and “The Maltese Falcon” for Best Picture.

The elephant is the only animal with four knees.

The British Film Institute reports that more films were created in that country in 1936 — 192 in all — than in any other year.

At least two films used chocolate to simulate blood: “Night of the Living Dead” and “Psycho.”

To make the unique roar for giant film ape “King Kong,” sound experts blended the recorded roars of a lion and a tiger and then ran the recording backwards.

The Southern University Agricultural Research and Extension Center reports that the average tree in a metropolitan area survives for only about eight years.

An acre of trees gives off about 4,280 pounds of oxygen each year.

Although the exact total is unknown, Canada has at least 31,752 inland waters and lakes, more than any other country in the world.

Bernard Lavery holds the world record for growing history’s heaviest cabbage. The vegetable weighed 124 pounds when it was harvested in 1989.

Olive trees have a life expectancy of about 500 years.

CELEBRATING A NON-HOLIDAY

Journalist Harold Pullman Coffin created National Nothing Day in 1973 as an occasion when Americans can “just sit without celebrating, honoring or observing anything.” The non-holiday is generally observed on Jan. 16.

Nearly 3,800 “citizens” or “contrabands” are buried in Section 27 of the Arlington National Cemetery. Each of these former slaves once lived in Freedman’s Village on the Arlington Estate. Their headstones are inscribed “civilian” or “citizen.”

South Korea, with a population of just over 48 million, has more than twice as many residents as its neighbor, North Korea (22.9 million).

A gram of carbohydrates contains four calories while one gram of fat has about nine. A single gram of alcohol carries seven calories.

On November 9, 1960, Robert McNamara became the first Ford Motor Company president, who was not a member of the Ford family. But McNamara had a higher calling. After less than five weeks on the job, he accepted President John F. Kennedy’s invitation to a position as Secretary of Defense.

The average human heart beats about 100,000 times a day.

There are roughly 1 billion red blood cells in two or three drops of blood.

African Elephants have only four toenails on their front feet. But Indian Elephants have five.

EIFFEL TOWER LOST TITLE IN 1930

The Eiffel Tower held a 41-year reign as the world’s tallest building from 1889 until 1930, when the Chrysler Building was constructed in New York City.

The weather forecast on April 3, 1974, called for showers on the East Coast and thunderstorms across the Midwest. Instead, the century’s second-worst storm on record unleashed 148 tornadoes in 24 hours, killing 315 and injuring more than 5,000.

The cost of a first-class U.S. stamp doesn’t always go up. In 1919, Congress lowered the rate from 3 cents to 2. The price didn’t go back up to 3 cents until 1932.

On his last day in office, President Richard Nixon had a breakfast of corned beef hash and a poached egg.

The climb to the crown of the Statue of Liberty takes 354 steps, the equivalent of about 22 floors.

Being the world’s fastest roller coaster is a fleeting honor. The $25 million Top Thrill Dragster opened in May 2003 at Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio. It reaches a top speed of 120 miles per hour. But the Jackson, N.J., Six Flags Great Adventure stole Sandusky’s thunder this year with the opening of The Kindga Ka, a roller coaster that hits speeds of up to 128 mph.

SUICIDE OF A GOURMAND

The Roman Apicius is often credited with writing the oldest existing cookbook, “De re coquinaria.” And historians hold that Apicius’ love of food may have led to his suicide. Apicius decided life was no longer worth living when he realized that so much of his fortune had been spent on his kitchen that he would not be able to long continue his luxurious way of life.

Etymologists have theorized that the Italian lasagna may have started as the Greek lagana or lasanon. Of these two, lagana, meaning ribbon, seems more likely. The older lasanon isn’t often used as a reference to food. It means chamber pot.

In Greek mythology, night gave birth to two sons. Hypnos is the god of sleep. His brother, Thanatos, brings death.

Forty percent of the world’s almonds and 20 percent of all peanuts are used by chocolate manufacturers.

Ray Harroun, who may have been the first winner of the Indianapolis 500 auto race, averaged a speed of 74.602 miles per hour in the 1911 contest.

The world’s fastest flying insect is the dragonfly, which can hit speeds of up to 60 miles per hour.

In a normal year, anywhere from 25 to 50 million Americans contract influenza.

HOW TO PICK A HAM

Bartolomeo Sacchi, a well-known 15th-century author, offered his readers simple advice for choosing the best quality ham: “Stick a knife into the middle of a ham, and smell it. If it smells good, the ham will be good; if bad, it should be thrown away.”

Pigeons in captivity have been known to live for up to 30 years.

Data from the Polar Psychology Research Stations suggests that the average human probably needs about 10 hours of sleep for each 24-hour day.

The leotard was named after Julius Leotard, a 19th-century French gymnast.

Abraham Lincoln’s mother, Nancy Hanks Lincoln, died when she drank the milk of a cow that had grazed on white snakeroot.

A number of Winston Churchill’s radio speeches were read by 37-year-old actor Norman Shelley, who impersonated Churchill’s voice.

Escherichia coli are capable of astronomical reproduction rates. Researchers estimate that the rod-shaped bacteria could multiply in three days to a mass greater than the earth if enough food were available.

Measles is commonly labelled the most infectious disease. Medical experts claim that if it weren’t for immunizations, every person alive would have had the measles.

Roman soldiers were sometimes paid in salt, the origin of the word salary.

THE TREE WITH ONLY 2 LEAVES

The Welwitschia, a tree found in Africa, grows only two leaves. Dendrologists have found living specimens that are more than 1,000 years old. But even these ancients of the species have only two leaves. And unlike other trees, the leaves are never replaced. They just keep growing.

Prosopagnosia is a dysfunction in which adults lose the ability to recognize faces, including those of their spouse and children.

Frank Lloyd Wright was actually born Frank Lincoln Wright. But the family changed Wright’s middle name in honor of his mother’s family, the Lloyd Joneses.

Biologists, studying mating behavior among wild tigers, have found that a tigress in estrus and her male consort mate with amazing frequency, sometimes more than 50 times a day for up to three days.

The best time to buy shoes is in the afternoon. That’s because the more time you’ve spent on your feet, the more likely they are to swell. Buy shoes in the morning, and chances are that they will be tight and uncomfortable later in the day.

SEARS TOWER IS THE TALLEST

The tallest building in the United States is Chicago’s Sears Tower, standing 1,450 feet.

Emergency room doctors say that if you could schedule a medical crisis, it would be best to aim for a Wednesday, Thursday or Friday morning. Emergency rooms are busiest from noon to midnight, and most surgeries and doctor’s appointments are scheduled early in the week, making it more difficult to get quick service and quality care on short notice.

Although born in 1867, Frank Lloyd Wright claimed for years that he hadn’t arrived in the world until 1869. At least one biographer suggests that the architect lied about his age in order to make it seem that he had been particularly precocious with impressive, early success in the 1890s.

The popularity of plastic Tupperware had grown to the point that by the year 2000, it was estimated that a Tupperware party started somewhere in the world about every three seconds.

Highbrow means cultured or intellectual, and its opposite is lowbrow. In 1925, the English humor magazine “Punch” offered a definition for a relatively new term — middlebrow: “It consists of people who are hoping that some day they will get used to the stuff they ought to like.”

A tiger’s roar may carry as far as three miles.

BUY JEWELRY IN THE SUMMER

Experts say that the best time to buy jewelry is during July or August when demand is relatively low, giving customers a better chance to bargain. That’s because the two summer months have no gift-giving holidays.

A penguin swims at a speed of approximately 15 miles per hour.

Among gelada baboons, a male’s dominance is dependent on his willingness to serve. If he has spent plenty of time, grooming each of the females in his group, they will stick with him when another male challenges his leadership. But if the male has been neglectful of his grooming duties, many of the females will refuse to stand by their man.

In 10th century England, a yard was defined as any measure that equaled the distance from the tip of King Edgar’s nose, along his outstretched arm, to the end of his middle finger.

The Romans separated kisses into three categories: the oscula for friendship, the basia for love and the suavia for passion. The crime of giving unwanted or unwelcome kisses was called crimen osculationis.

When Republicans nominated Barry Goldwater for President in 1964, they made good use of the slogan, “In your heart you know he’s right.” Democrats countered, “In your guts, you know he’s nuts.”

TIES ARE BIG BUSINESS IN MENSWEAR

More than $1 billion is spent each year on neckties in the United States.

In West Africa, red colobus monkeys can often be found in association with black and white dianas. That’s because chimpanzees prey on the red colobus, and the vigilant dianas are better at spotting chimpanzees than are their reddish-brown friends. It also helps that the two species don’t compete for food. Dianas eat fruit while the red colobus prefer leaves.

A well-known physician of ancient Greece, Galen, held that a drippy nose was evidence of a brain that was purging itself.

By 1914, the Ford Motor Company employed less than 20 percent of the country’s auto workers. But it was responsible for almost half of the nation’s cars.

Statistics from General Motors show that the average driver uses an airbag only once every 175 years.

Teflon, the nonstick material that is often touted as a result of the space race, was actually created in 1938, years before the U.S. put a man on the moon. And its invention was a lucky mistake. Roy Plunkett had been attempting to make a nontoxic refrigerant. Plunkett’s discovery was kept a military secret until 1946. The first nonstick cooking pans were produced by the Tefal company in 1956.

TALKING OUT OF YOUR STOMACH

Ventriloquism literally means “belly-talking.”

It has been estimated that when the “Titanic” went down, 29 third-class female passengers died for every dog carried by a first-class passenger into a lifeboat.

Plato, the well-known Greek philosopher, was born as Aristocles. And scholars have argued over the reason he took a new name, which when translated, means broad or flat. Some suggest it is because Plato had a broad forehead, indicating intelligence. Others claim Plato took the name because of his broad shoulders.

Before the debut of the Model T in 1908, the Ford Motor Company introduced a number of other models, including A, B, AC, C, F, K, N, R and S.

In 2003, American doctors performed 1.7 million cosmetic surgical procedures, a 5 percent increase from the previous year.

Among Madagascar’s black lemurs, only the males are black. The females are reddish-brown. And male lemurs are picky about the looks of a potential mate. They like the girls with the brightest fur. Biologists claim that males have this preference because dull fur color is a sign of parasites, so females with bright fur have the best chance of producing healthy offspring.

One bale of cotton can make 215 pairs of jeans.

BACK IN THE DAYS OF COMPETITION

Between 1895 and 1905, more than 3,000 different car companies were formed in the United States.

Fires raged for three days following the San Francisco earthquake of 1906, killing an estimated 200 people in addition to the 500 that died in the earthquake itself.

The potto, a slow-moving, African primate, doesn’t have proper scent glands, so the animal urinates on its hands and feet before starting a nightly tour of its range.

The English word “nostril” is an evolved form of the Old English “nosthyrel,” which means “nose hole.”

On the “Titanic’s” last day afloat, guests enjoyed a luncheon of grilled mutton chops, baked jacketed potatoes, salmon mayonnaise, Norwegian anchovies and corned ox tongue.

When a dispute arose between the colonial towns of Lyme and New-London, Conn., over a certain piece of property, the citizens of both communities agreed to a unique solution. Each town selected two champions — Griswold and Ely for Lyme, and Ricket and Latimer for New-London. The men met on a designated field for a fistfight. Griswold and Ely won the slugfest, so the town of Lyme took possession of the land in question.

Each breath includes about 76 percent nitrogen, 23 percent oxygen and 1 percent argon with other elements present in minute quantities.

MOTHER BABOON TRADES BABY FOR GROOMING

When a female chacma baboon has a baby, her peers will offer to groom her much more than they would a childless female. That’s because they want to buy access to the baby. New baboon mothers are reluctant to let others handle their offspring.

The duck-billed platypus experiences more rapid-eye movement during sleep than any other creature — up to eight hours per day.

Research into Africa’s huge baobab trees reveals that the plant does not grow consistently from year to year. Sometimes it shrinks. At least one tree, studied by forester G. L. Guy, measured 222 feet around in 1931. In 1946, the same tree had slimmed down to a girth of 212 feet.

A third-class ticket on the first voyage of the ill-fated “Titanic” cost $36. A one-way ticket for the ship’s most luxurious suite went for the equivalent of $4,200.

Etymologists theorize that “y’all” — a word popular in the American South — most likely originated in Ireland.

The Cadillac Motor Company originally was known as The Henry Ford Company. But Ford, who had been hired to create a lightweight car that could be sold for $1,000, neglected his duties and left the organization in 1902.

WHITE MAN POSED AS GAS MASK INVENTOR

Garrett Augustus Morgan’s invention of the gas mask saved the lives of 29 people, trapped in a tunnel under Lake Erie, after a 1916 explosion. But in spite of this dramatic success, Morgan had trouble selling his masks, especially in the South. The problem? Morgan was African American. So he hired a white friend to pose as the inventor in order to give the mask credibility.

The word radio comes from the Latin radius meaning ray or beam of light.

The Ford Motor Company, started in 1903, originally didn’t make its own engines. Instead, Henry Ford contracted with the best machine shop in Detroit. It was run by two brothers, Horace and John Dodge.

Isabel Peron, Argentine president Juan Peron’s third wife, became the first woman head of state in the western hemisphere in 1974.

Ring-tailed lemurs often compete by scent. Females deposit scent marks in hopes of attracting a mate. If a male finds the mark, he will cover it with his own scent in order to confuse potential rivals. Female ring-tails also will overprint scent marks left by other females in order to ensure that they find a mate.

The blink of an eye measures about one-sixth of a second.

MAIL LOST ON TITANIC

The R.M.S. — Royal Mail Steamer — “Titanic” carried 3,364 bags of mail or approximately 400,000 letters from Europe, bound for the United States.

In Early Modern English, the word “you” was generally used only when speaking to someone, who was socially superior or of higher status, although members of the upper class might also use it with each other as a form of polite address. The word “thou” was favored in all other exchanges.

Ebony weighs approximately 73 pounds per cubic foot, and mahogany weighs about 45 pounds per cubic foot. Cork, a much lighter wood, weighs only about 13 pounds per cubic foot. But balsa beats them all at 7 pounds.

Angelo Siciliano created a system of muscle building that he called “dynamic tension,” and the program worked so well that “Physical Culture” magazine dubbed Siciliano in 1922 the “World’s Most Perfectly Developed Man.” By that time, however, Siciliano had taken on a new name: Charles Atlas.

Thomas Edison designed a camera called the kinetograph. It was the world’s first machine, specifically designed to film motion pictures. Creating the camera required $24,000 worth of experimentation. But the risk paid off. By 1895, Edison had made $177,847 on sales of the cameras and films.

THE WORLD DRINKS COCA-COLA

About 13,000 Coca-Cola Company beverages are consumed every second of every day.

Mouse lemurs, the smallest of primates, double their weight during Madagascar’s wet season. They store most of the extra fat in their tails.

The Seychelles palm nut tree bares 30- to 40-pound nuts that take six years to ripen. The full-grown nut, up to 3-1/2 feet around, is the world’s largest seed.

The eyelid is only one millimeter deep, making it the thinnest skin on the human body.

Sixteenth-century Dutch humanist Erasmus offered this advice for blowing the nose: “to blow your nose on your hat or clothing is rustic . . . nor is it much more polite to use your hand . . . . It is proper to wipe the nostrils with a handkerchief and to do this while turning away, if more honorable people are present.”

Philadelphia’s Billy Carter, a first-class passenger of the “Titanic,” brought along his 35-horsepower Renault motorcar, packed away in the ship’s hold. Carter also brought 24 polo sticks, 60 shirts and 15 pairs of shoes for the voyage.

The first, solely English dictionary was published in 1604 by schoolteacher Robert Cawdrey. He called the completed work “A Table Alphabeticall.”

THE LAST WHITE HOUSE COW

Pauline, the last cow to live on White House grounds, moved to the neighborhood of 19th and B streets in 1911. But she retained special privileges at the President’s home, visiting there each morning to graze the White House lawn. She was returned home each day at twilight.

During the reign of England’s King Charles II, the cost of a merchant vessel was about £8 per ton. A warship cost about £15 per ton. Construction of the king’s yachts, however, required silk ceremonial flags, crimson damask, rich mahogany and other luxuries, which brought construction costs up to about £33 per ton.

The hole at the end of a hypodermic needle is called the lumen.

About 20 percent of a robin’s diet is made up of earthworms, and the red-breasted birds are quite adept at getting a meal. Ornithologists have observed robins that successfully captured earthworms at the rate of 20 per hour.

The state tree of Nebraska is the Cottonwood.

At least 17 different professional football teams have represented New York City. The first was Brickley’s New York Giants, founded in 1921.

Richard M. Nixon was only the country’s ninth President to ride to his inauguration in an automobile.

WHO'S THE BIGGER MAN?

When England’s George IV became Prince Regent in 1811 he had gained so much weight from his love of food and relaxation that he could not mount a horse without mechanized help. George was wheeled up a ramp in his chair and lowered by tackle onto the waiting steed.

Some beaver dams extend in length more than 1,500 feet.

Who decides where one ocean ends and another begins? The International Hydrographic Organization. And in 1999, that group became responsible for introducing the world’s newest ocean. All the water surrounding Antarctica, up to 60 degrees south, has been called the Southern Ocean.

Tanzania’s Mt. Kilimanjaro, Africa’s highest peak, stands 19,340 feet tall.

The New York Jets were first known as the New York Titans.

John F. Kennedy’s 1961 Lincoln Continental convertible came equipped with a rear seat that could be raised to a height, 10-1/2 inches from the floor. This allowed Kennedy to be more easily seen during parades.

In the 1970s and 1980s, American astronauts commonly breakfasted on eggs and bacon. But Russian cosmonauts were more likely to start their day with chicken and prunes, pralines and white Borodinsky bread.

Apple juice consumption in the United States more than doubled from 1961 to 1971.

BROOKLYN BRIDGE MEASURES UP

The length between the two towers of New York City’s Brooklyn Bridge is 1,595.5 feet.

Other than for flights to Denver, almost all air travel out of New York’s La Guardia Airport is limited to trips of 1,500 miles or less. The Port Authority made the rule when it opened what is now John F. Kennedy International in order to encourage use of the newer airport.

Tug-boats work better pushing than pulling. That’s because a tug leaves its own wake, which creates added turbulence for the barge, which is being pulled.

After the United States entered World War II, President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s convertible Lincoln was sent back to the Ford Motor Company to receive protective armor and other safety features. The renovations, which included bulletproof glass, armor plate and a compartment for submachine guns, added six feet to the car’s original length and brought it up to a total weight of 9,300 pounds.

Half of all astronauts experience motion sickness while in space.

The favorite hobby of Russian Czar Peter the Great was shipbuilding. In 1697, Peter traveled to Holland on holiday and worked in a shipyard in Zaandam. He tried to avoid unnecessary attention by using the name Peter Mikhailov.

COWS HAVE ADVANCED SALT SNIFFERS

With an advanced sense of smell, cows can detect sodium from up to six miles away.

First introduced at the 1904 World’s Fair, puffed rice was billed as an alternative to popcorn, not as a breakfast cereal.

William Painter, inventor of the bottle cap, suggested a number of tools for opening bottles: a knife, a screwdriver, a nail, an ice pick. He later created a bottle cap opener.

In 1927, the first Volvo came off the assembly line in Goteborg, Sweden.

Historians believe that, after the dog, the goat was the second animal to be domesticated.

The Otis Elevator Company has 1.4 million of its elevators, operating in buildings around the world, including the White House, the Kremlin, Buckingham Palace and the Vatican.

Steel wheels on steel rails result in such minimal friction that travel by train is about 10 times more energy-efficient than travel by road.

New York City stopped installing seesaws in its 900-odd park playgrounds in 1986. It was decided that the risk of injury to children was too high.

The United Nations has its own post office, fire department and security force.

New York City’s transit buses travel nearly 102 million miles each year.

AMERICANS PREFER COW

The average American eats about 70 pounds of beef each year.

Pre-sliced bread was first sold by Missouri’s Chillicothe Baking Company in 1928. By 1933, about 80 percent of all bread sold in the U.S. was pre-sliced.

The state flower of Michigan is the Apple Blossom.

In 1863, U.S. innovators applied for 3,773 different patents. Just six years later, that number had risen to 12,000. By the 1930s, patent applications were coming in at the rate of a thousand a week.

When Samuel Clemens (a.k.a. Mark Twain) and his family moved to Europe in 1892, it wasn’t because they loved the Old World. Instead, the family could live more cheaply in Europe, a fact that became very important as Clemens did just about everything possible to avoid impending bankruptcy.

Broadway theaters have seats with each row identified by a letter. But there is no Row I. That’s because the letter that follows H is too easily confused with the number 1.

In 1910, U.S. President Howard Taft began a tradition by throwing out the first ball on the Washington Senators’ opening day.

Kansas, Texas, Missouri and Florida have the country’s greatest percentage population of people, age 65 and older.

LOTS O' GOATS

There are about 700 million goats in the world.

Charles Darwin reported that wild ducks are monogamous, at least for a season. But such is not the case for their much-more promiscuous, domesticated relatives.

In his two-year racing career, the famous horse, Man o’ War, earned prizes of $249,465. He raced 21 times, and took second place in only one contest. He won all the rest.

First intended for makeup removal, Kleenex facial tissues were first called Celluwipes.

Domino’s Pizza was originally called DomiNic’'s Pizza, but the name was changed in 1965.

The Louisiana Purchase contained 909,380 square miles of land.

Norman G. Dyhrenfurth’s well-equipped climb of Mt. Everest in 1963 required a thousand porters and sherpas to carry the almost 30 tons of gear. Supplies included 12,000 cigarettes, 216 bottles of oxygen, waterproof diaries, seven movie cameras and freeze-dried foods, including crab imperial, pork chops and chicken tetrazzini.

Levi Strauss always referred to the pants he sold as “waist high overalls,” not jeans.

The physician Malachias Geiger published a protection against the Black Death in his 1637 book, “Margaritologia.” Geiger recommended baking pulverized pearls with antlers and cinnamon as well as other ingredients.

NOT BAAAD

In Tibet and other parts of the Himalayas, sheep are used as pack animals.

The sole survivor of Gen. Custer’s last stand at Little Big Horn in Montana was a horse. His name was Comanche.

Q-tips originally were called Baby Gays.

The state bird of Kentucky is the Cardinal.

Russia’s Mir space station spent 5,511 days in space, orbiting the Earth 86,330 times.

In Korea, kite fighting was named a national sport in 1921.

In spite of Robert E. Peary’s claim that he had reached the North Pole in 1908, violent east winds, shifting ice and Peary’s own failure to measure longitude make it likely that he missed the pole by as much as 60 nautical miles.

The Mercantile Agency, established by Lewis Tappan, became one of the nation’s first, successful credit rating agencies. Tappan commissioned correspondents, who operated as investigators, ferreting out a subject’s net worth, business prospects and moral character. Abraham Lincoln was one of Tappan’s correspondents. Ulysses S. Grant, Grover Cleveland and William McKinley also worked for the company.

Pearls once commanded incredible prices. For instance, the Roman general Vitellus sold one of his mother’s pearls and used the proceeds to finance an entire military campaign.

SHEEP PREFER FEMALE LEADERSHIP

Among flocks of wild sheep, leadership often goes to the most experienced mother as opposed to the biggest or strongest ram.

One of the hooves of Marengo, Napoleon’s most-prized horse, was saved when the animal died and made into a silver-mounted snuff box.

John Harvey Kellogg, a medical doctor, invented flaked breakfast cereal in 1895 and introduced Corn Flakes in 1898. One of Kellog’s former patients, Charles Post, became a competitor with his own Grape-Nuts cereal.

In the United States, a major symphony conductor has an expected life-span of 73.4 years. But an author of political poetry is expected to live only 64.47 years. College and university presidents have an average life-span of 70.11 years.

President Calvin Coolidge is remembered by historians as a great respecter of the rules of the road. While driving, he never accelerated to more than 16 miles per hour.

The oval wan-wan, the largest kite ever built, was created to celebrate the reconstruction of Japan’s Rengiji Temple in 1692. The kite measured about 65 feet across and weighed nearly 5,500 pounds. Flying the kite required 200 strong men, and if the wind did not subside overnight, the kite sometimes remained airborne for days because it was impossible to haul down.

NEARLY 5 MILLION VEGETARIANS

Almost 5 million Americans identify themselves as vegetarians.

Craven Walker, inventor of the Lava lamp, told 1960s consumers that “if you buy my lamp, you won’t need drugs.” Walker’s invention was an immediate success.

In 1964, Sidney Poitier became the first African American to win an Oscar for Best Actor.

Pigs do have sweat glands. But only on their noses.

Justin Morgan taught school, served as town clerk and conducted singing classes. But Morgan also had an eye for fine horses, and when he died, he left behind a little horse, named Figure. That little horse — part Arab, part Thoroughbred — was well-known for his ability to outpull and outrun much larger animals. And he became the father of America’s first new line of horses, the Morgan.

Alexander Graham Bell is well-known for his invention of the telephone. But Bell also experimented in genetics, working for many years to breed sheep with extra nipples. He thought the ewes of just such a breed might produce more milk.

Biologists suggest that if the human body could retain the same resistance to stress, injury and disease that is present in a 2-year-old child, we might commonly live for up to 700 years.

RAND MCNALLY RELEASES FIRST ATLAS

In 1924, Rand McNally published its first road atlas, “The Rand McNally Auto Chum.”

It takes the planet Mercury 87.97 days to orbit the sun.

The National Geographic Society rarely removed its members in the organization’s early years. But the society made an exception in 1932, striking Al Capone’s name from the membership list when he entered federal prison. Capone continued to receive copies of “National Geographic” as a paying subscriber.

Ornithologists report that chickens are capable of deception. If a rooster, for instance, judges that a hen has wandered too far, he will use a food call to get her attention, even when no food is present.

Historians record that Napoleon Bonaparte was not a good rider, so he needed especially stable horses in battle. He owned 60 or more white horses. Each of them was trained to stand steady — not to rear or shy — when guns were fired from nearby.

Marion Donavan, inventor of the disposable diaper, also created the Turtling-a-ling. The brass turtle, with bells on its head and tail, simulated a doorbell. Donavan pitched the device as a means of cutting short an unwanted phone call by making it clear to the caller that other priorities demanded attention.

PORK PROVES POPULAR

More than 40 percent of all meat raised in the world is pork.

When Hernando Cortes began his conquest of Mexico, he rode a chestnut horse. But he soon replaced the mount with a black stallion named El Morzillo, meaning the Black One. When El Morzillo developed a limp, Cortes left him in the custody of a Mayan chief. The chief and his people renamed the horse Tziminchac, after the Mayan god of thunder and lightning, and housed the steed in their temple. When El Morzillo died, the Mayans carved a stone statue of him.

The first domestic refrigerator went on sale in Chicago in 1913. It was called the Domelre, which stands for domestic electric refrigerator.

Although CFCs have been banned in the United States, there are two exceptions to the rule: their use in asthma inhalers and in the making of methyl chloroform, which is used to clean O-ring seals in NASA’s space shuttles.

In 17th-century Constantinople (now Istanbul), tradition required that the groom provide his bride with coffee and promise always to do so. A failure to supply his wife with the enervating drink was legal grounds for divorce.

North Dakota is also known as the Peace Garden State.

AMERICANS HATE LAWYERS

Americans have long been hostile toward those who practice the legal profession. Colonists at Massachusetts Bay made it illegal in 1641 for a person to earn money, representing others in court. And in 1658, Virginia’s legislators passed a law, expelling all attorneys from the colony.

Elvis Presley announced to friends in 1973 that he was becoming a vegetarian. “I’ll be eating a lot of vegetables now, a lot of salads and raw fruits. I’m telling the maids, and that’s what they’re going to make for me,” he said. But the King was a big eater, and Larry Geller writes in his book “If I Can Dream: Elvis’ Own Story” that the diet lasted only two days.

Although mobile in flight, hummingbirds are virtually helpless on the ground. Their feet and legs are so small that in most cases, they cannot walk or even hop.

A Chinese checker board has 121 holes.

More than 3,000 people have been buried in England’s Westminster Abbey. Among them, Thomas Parr, who was widely held to be the world’s oldest man. But Parr, believed to have reached 152 years of age, may have made a math error. Some historians claim that Parr was confused, claiming his grandfather’s 1483 birthdate as his own.

MUSIC HALL SEES FIRST FILM

The first film to debut in New York’s Radio City Music Hall was Frank Capra’s “Bitter Tea of General Yen,” starring Barbara Stanwyck. The year was 1933.

The standard piano has 88 keys: 52 are white, and the remaining 36 are black. But that has not always been the case. Until the 1880s, Steinway’s grand pianos had no more than 85 keys. And the Boesendorfer Concert Grand has 94.

Social researchers note that American bars almost always have television sets but rarely if ever turn on the sound. In a recent study, at least one bartender claimed the TVs provide patrons “something to do with their eyes,” a kind of visual Muzak.

Pope John II, in A.D. 533, may have been the first pope to change his given name. The pope’s actual name, Mercurio, after the pagan god Mercury, wasn’t deemed suitable for the head of the Church.

After Parker Brothers bought the rights to Monopoly in 1934 the company introduced the board game with no tokens, instructing players to use buttons or pennies as markers. The first tokens, added in 1935, were modeled after chess pieces. And in 1937, brand new, die-cast tokens included a car, purse, flatiron, lantern, thimble, shoe, top hat and rocking horse.

TAIL GIVES KITE STABILITY

Some kites depend on a tail for stability. Experts say that for such kites, the tail should be approximately seven times the length of the kite’s spine.

When Levi Strauss arrived in San Francisco in 1853, the city had 399 saloons and 28 breweries. At least 1,200 residents were murdered that year out of a total population of about 70,000.

By 1860, one in eight Americans was foreign-born.

Many modern pearls are bleached to create a uniform color. But in Roman and Medieval Europe, owners are said to have fed their pearls to chickens to acquire the same effect. The fowl’s digestive system reportedly removed blemishes and improved color.

Florence Nightingale, the founder of modern nursing, is best known for her work with wounded soldiers in the Crimean war. She also established a nursing school at St. Thomas’s Hospital in London. But before she was famous, Nightingale’s very first patient, in 1837, was a sheepdog with a bruised leg. His name was Cap.

American colonists drank a lot of cider. In one village near Boston, 40 families made about 3,000 barrels of the alcoholic beverage or almost 100,000 gallons. P. Dudley wrote in his book, “Transactions,” that this was just enough cider to last the village for a year.

TWAIN TRIES HAND AT WRITING, SALES DISAPPOINTING

Mark Twain’s “Tom Sawyer” was the first novel he wrote without the help of another author. Initial sales of the book were disappointing.

Ulf Merbold was the first foreigner to fly into orbit and back on an American spacecraft. He was from Germany.

Warren G. Harding was the first U.S. President, who knew how to drive a car when he entered the nation’s top office. For the sake of the President’s safety, however, the Secret Service did not allow Harding to drive while in office.

The Roman Emperor Caligula commissioned a number of royal yachts, each more than 200 feet long. The boats included reception chambers, exercise rooms, baths, a grape arbor, and in at least one case, a brothel.

When Alexander Graham Bell realized he had fallen in love with the young Mabel Hubbard, he wrote her a 17-page letter, expressing his feelings. But he did not ask her to marry him. She was too young. Mabel thought otherwise, and on her 18th birthday, she surprised Bell, telling him she had grown to love him more than anyone except for her mother. She added that they could be engaged as soon as he liked. The two were married 18 months later.

WRIGHT BROTHERS LIVED AT HOME

When the Wright brothers made their first flight, Wilbur was 36 and his brother, Orville, 32. Neither was married, and they still lived at home with their 74-year-old father, Milton, and 29-year-old sister, Katharine. Working as a high school teacher, Katharine also was unmarried.

While at sea, a navigator, standing on deck at five feet above sea level, has a view of 2.5 nautical miles in all directions. The curvature of the earth is such, however, that if that same navigator is elevated 15 feet above sea level, the horizon will be 4.44 miles away.

When growing up, Samuel Finley Breese Morse, inventor of the electromagnetic telegraph, didn’t go by his first name. His parents, Jedediah and Elizabeth, simply called their oldest child Finley.

The first microwave ovens, created by Percy LeBaron Spencer, stood 6 feet tall, weighed more than 770 pounds and cost about $5,000 each.

One of Spain’s national heroes, Rodrigo Diaz de Bivar (a.k.a. El Cid), affectionately named his horse babieca, which means dumbbell or idiot. According to legend, when Bivar chose this scraggly colt, his father called him a babieca. Bivar applied the term to his horse, claiming that it would be a reminder of his father’s doubts.

CARDAMOM HARD TO FIND OUTSIDE OF MIDDLE EAST AND SCANDINAVIA

Some spices are closely identified with one particular region and one type of food within that region. For instance, cardamom is used to flavor coffee in Middle Eastern countries. And it is found in Scandinavian breads. But look for cardamom in other foods and other places, and you won’t be likely to find it.

Gerbils in the wild are found almost exclusively in Central Asia. Mongolian gerbils, Meriones unguiculatus, are the variety most commonly kept as pets.

When breeders mix species, the first portion of the new name comes from the male and the second come from the female. A lepjag is the product of a male leopard and a female jaguar. A zorse results when a male zebra is bred to a female horse.

The Lone Ranger, a radio-show hero of the 1930s, wore a black mask. He made the mask from part of a black vest that his older brother, Dan, had been wearing when he was murdered by members of the infamous Cavendish Gang. The Lone Ranger originally was part of a group of six Texas Rangers, who were ambushed by that gang. He was the only survivor.

In Sesame Street’s first season, Oscar the Grouch had orange fur.

THE YEAR THAT THE UNIVERSE GOT BIGGER

The universe expanded in 1920. That was the year that astronomer Harlow Shapley convinced fellow scientists that the galaxy was at least 10 times larger than they had previously thought.

Tiramisu, with a name that literally translates to “pick me-up,” is a classic Italian dessert that also has become well-known in the United States. The primary ingredient is Mascarpone, an Italian cheese, made from cream. Connoisseurs say the cheese is sweet and rich, very much like buttercream icing.

Slugs each have a pneumostome or air hole on the side of their bodies for breathing. They may also absorb oxygen directly through their moist skin.

Bram Stoker’s novel, “Dracula,” was originally titled “The Un-Dead.”

At one point, during the Battle of Jutland in World War I, as British ships were pursuing the German High Seas Fleet under cover of darkness, the British Admiralty lost contact with many of its boats. But German cryptographers were picking up messages from the lost warships and keeping their own ships apprised of British positions. England’s own cryptographers could not detect the weak wireless signals from their ships, so in a turnabout play, they picked up and decoded the German messages, which they used to relocate the British fleet.

THE TRUTH ABOUT POE

Well-known author Edgar Allen Poe was accused of drug addiction, alcoholism, robbing the cradle and even worse. But most of these proved to be lies, spread after he died by a writer, who was jealous of Poe’s many literary accomplishments.

Studies of American shopping habits show that the average consumer, on a visit to the grocery store, sees 317 different products per minute.

Cheetahs used to be found in the Middle East. But no such cats have been seen in the region since 1977.

On the traditional Mohs scale of hardness, diamonds rate a 10 while pearls range from 2.5 to 4. Pearls fall in that lower range because they can be scratched by a knife blade or piece of glass but not by a fingernail.

In spite of the United States’ long-term policy of economic sanctions against Cuba, about 50,000 American citizens visit the island nation as tourists each year.

In 1964, only 4 percent of the nation’s law students were women. Since then, the ratio has risen to almost 50 percent.

An old superstition, regarding bees, holds that if a honeybee enters a home, a visitor will soon follow. If you catch and kill the bee, however, the visit will be unpleasant.

$60 INVESTMENT GOES A LONG WAY

John Jacob Bausch set up an optical goods shop in 1853. But he was short on capital, so he borrowed $60 from a friend, Henry Lomb, promising to make Lomb a partner if the business grew. It did. Bausch & Lomb is the world’s largest provider of eye care products.

America’s first Thanksgiving, memorialized as a coming together of the Pilgrims and their native American friends, was something different from what most of us were taught in school. For one, there was no such thing as Thanksgiving Day. This festival lasted three days and included drinking, gambling, athletic games and target practice. And turkey wasn’t the main dish. Instead, the settlers feasted on venison. Edward Winslow wrote that “We entertained and feasted, and [the Indians] went out and killed five deer, which they brought to the plantation.”

The English word splash is dham in Hindi, plyukh in Russian, plump in Danish and chof in Spanish. The closest Greek equivalent is plitz-platz.

Caraway seeds were an important part of some of the most ancient love potions. That’s because it was believed that the seeds had the magical power to keep items or people from straying. In many cases, valued possessions also would have been sprinkled with the seeds to keep them from being stolen.

HORSES HAVE NO GALL BLADDERS

What do horses, zebras, elephants, rhinos, dolphins, camels, tapirs and rats have in common? No gall bladders.

A law passed in 1659 made it illegal to celebrate the Christmas holiday in colonial Massachusetts. Anybody “found observing, by abstinence from labor, feasting or any other way, any such days as Christmas day” was fined five shillings.

On at least one occasion during World War II, the Nazis built a simulated airfield, complete with wooden buildings and planes. But British intelligence came through. The Royal Air Force sent a single British plane, which dropped one small bomb on the site. But there was no explosion. The bomb was also made of wood.

The ancient city of Corinth used about 50 dogs at night as an early warning system to protect the city against invaders.

All the early American colonies had apple cider. But 17th century authorities agreed that the very best cider came from New Jersey.

The great composer, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, never attended school. But Mozart did receive a quality education — taught at home by his father. It is said that he was very good at mathematics. And he could speak seven different languages.

The dot over the letter i is called a tittle.

ROMAN EMPEROR PAMPERED HIS HORSE

The Roman emperor Caligula’s favored horse, Incitatus, ate from an ivory manger and drank from a golden bowl.

In NASA’s 1978 astronaut selection process, out of as many as 10,000 applicants, psychological testing narrowed the field down to only about 150 finalists.

Woodrow Wilson was the first American President to join the Automobile Association of America. The AAA emblem is still displayed on the Pierce-Arrow that served as Wilson’s car while he was in office.

Most kites require a wind speed of 8 to 12 miles per hour for successful flight.

Susan B. Anthony claimed that the bicycle did more to emancipate women than any other invention.

Of the world’s royal yachts, the oldest belonged to the Egyptian Pharaoh Cheops. It was 143 feet long and included a kind of air conditioning. Wet reed mats were laid across the top of the pharaoh’s cabin. The luxurious boat was buried alongside Cheops’ tomb at Giza’s Great Pyramid.

Fennel, a spice originating near the Mediterranean, carries the genus name foeniculum, which is Latin for “little hay.”

The National Geographic Society, founded in 1888, is the world’s largest nonprofit educational and scientific institution. The organization’s journal, National Geographic, is read by more than 40 million people.

WORLD'S OLDEST NATIONAL ANTHEM

Japan’s national anthem, “Kimigayo” or “The Reign of our Emperor,” was composed about 1,100 years ago, making it the world’s oldest such song.

Of people infected with the West Nile virus, less than 1 percent becomes seriously ill.

A popular recipe for imitation pearls in the 15th century called for ground up seed pearls, glass and fish bones. Snail slime and egg whites were then added in order to bind the material.

A human body contains about one quart of blood for every 30 pounds of weight.

Oil was discovered in Iran in 1908. Commercial discoveries of oil in Iraq were made for the first time in 1927 and in Saudi Arabia in 1938.

The average American supermarket carries more than 10,000 different products.

In the aftermath of the historic battle at the Alamo, Mexican Gen. Santa Anna had all the American corpses soaked in oil and then set on fire. Only three Americans survived: Susanna Dickinson, her 15-month-old baby and Joe, a slave who had belonged to Col. William B. Travis.

Anise tastes more like licorice than licorice. That’s because an oil — distilled from the anise plant — is what gives licorice its distinctive taste. The licorice plant tastes like licorice, but experts claim it’s just not the same.

CUBAN OLYMPIAN WASN'T FOCUSED

Cuban postman Felix Carvajal should have won the 1904 Olympic marathon, according to several observers. Instead, he only placed fourth. The problem? Carvajal made many stops along the course to chat with spectators. At one point, he even took a break to pick some apples and eat them. More than half of that year’s competitors were unable to finish the marathon because of the heat. But Carvajal had a grand old time.

The first photographs of another planet came from Mariner 4 in July 1965. The planet was Mars.

The original formula for pewter required four parts tin and one part lead.

The average jack rabbit is known to hit a top speed of nearly 40 miles per hour.

A match between All Star New York and Brooklyn was the first baseball game to charge admission. It was held at Fashion Race Course on Long Island in 1857, and the cost was 50 cents per person.

The British Isles are home to six native languages: English, Scots Gaelic, Welsh, Irish Gaelic, Manx and a French patois in the Channel Islands. Cornish used to be part of the list, but its last native speaker died at the end of the 19th century.

WHO NEEDS MIRRORS?

When Ford Motor Company introduced its first Mustang, the car was designed to appeal to younger drivers with a base-bottom price of $2,345. But some consumer advocates claimed that the low price was more gimmick than substance. In order to get a car at that price, customers had to accept a vehicle with no sun visors or outside mirrors.

The meat packing industry in New Zealand has been freezing and shipping lamb to Great Britain since 1882.

America’s G.I. Bill, passed in 1944, guaranteed that the nation’s soldiers would be treated better. Teddy Roosevelt’s Rough Riders received campaign ribbons. Veterans of World War I went home from service with just $60 in cash. But because of the new legislation, serviceman returning from World War II, were guaranteed unemployment pay, education grants and housing loans.

According to phone book records, New York City’s most common surname is Rodriguez with 22,712 entries. Williams is second with 18,236. Smith takes third place with 16,316. Brown (15,485) and Rivera (14,831) round out the top five.

The popular KitchenAid mixer originally was called the H-5. It was the world’s first domestic mixer to come with its own fixed stand and bowl.

HARVARD EXPELS STUDENTS WHO COMPLAIN ABOUT FOOD

Students at Harvard rioted in 1766 over the poor quality of food, and at least half of the 155 students were expelled.

When Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit invented the mercury thermometer in 1714, he calibrated it such that 0 was set to the coldest temperatures found during winter in Western Europe. At the other end of the scale, 100 corresponded to the region’s summer highs.

Alligators grow nearly one foot per year until they reach a length of about 11 feet.

Ricotta means re-cooked. The whey that is left over from the making of other cheeses is re-heated, forming snowy-white curds. Thus, Ricotta cheese is a dairy product. But it is not a true cheese.

Ty Cobb’s 1910 batting title was awarded in error. “The Sporting News” discovered in 1981 that one game had been counted twice, giving Cobb an average of .385 when he had only earned .383. During that same season, Nap Lajoie of Cleveland had earned a .384 batting average.

A cat’s normal body temperature ranges from 100.5 to 102.5 degrees Fahrenheit.

In the “Iliad,” Homer claims that a Greek herald, Stentor, had a voice as loud as that of 50 ordinary men. That’s why, even today, a loud voice is sometimes called stentorian.

HUMAN BEATS ELEPHANT ON BLOOD CELL SIZE

The elephant may be the largest of land mammals, but its red blood cells are smaller than those found in humans.

The eggplant is a member of the potato family.

The crew of Apollo 11 spent about 22 hours on the moon in July 1969 with one 2-1/2 hour moonwalk. In November of the same year, the crew of Apollo 12 spent 31 hours on the lunar surface, collecting rock samples during two moonwalks.

Alice Roosevelt, daughter of President Theodore Roosevelt, handed out the prizes at the 1904 Olympic Games in St. Louis, Mo.

Allspice comes from the berries of pimento dioica, an evergreen tree, native to Jamaica. The berries are most fragrant before they ripen, so when the fruit is harvested, berries that have matured are thrown away.

From 1870 to 1900, more than 30 American women designed and patented dishwashing machines. But Josephine Cochran stands above the rest. Her commercial dishwasher was the first to be manufactured. According to one newspaper, Cochran’s machine was “capable of washing, scalding, rinsing and drying from 5 to 20 dozen dishes of all shapes and sizes in two minutes.”

Results of a 2000 poll indicate that only 42 percent of American households have a gun.

CROWS PREFER CUSTOM NESTING MATERIALS

When making a nest, the common crow prefers maroon-colored grapevine bark to all other materials.

Space flight was attempted as early as the 16th century when a Chinese bureaucrat, Wan Hu, attached 47 black powder rockets to the base of a specially-built chair. After the smoke from the exploding rockets had wafted away, Wan Hu and his chair had disappeared, never to be seen again.

From 1700 to 1900, about 1 billion people died from tuberculosis.

Ancient Romans considered pearls the frozen tears of the gods. Greeks, on the other hand, held that pearls were the result of lightning strikes at sea. Other peoples believed that the jewels were solidified rain or dewdrops that had been captured by clams.

In 1976, the average American consumed 55 pounds of fats and oils, 300 cans or bottles of soda, 200 sticks of chewing gum, more than 20 pounds of ice cream, 18 pounds of candy, five pounds of potato chips, 63 dozen doughnuts and at least 50 pounds of cookies and cakes.

At least 60 percent of Saudi Arabia’s population lives along the shores of the Red Sea and in the coastal region.

In the 19th century, well-known place-names such as New York, New Jersey and New England were hyphenated.

AMERICANS LOVE MONEY

A traveler once wrote of the United States, “I know of no country, where the love of money has taken a stronger hold on the affections of men.” The man was Alexis Charles Henri Clerel de Tocqueville. He made the observation in 1831.

The Converse Chuck Taylor All Star, created in 1917, is the bestselling sneaker model of all time. Taylor, who played for the Akron Firestones, started working for Converse, selling its basketball shoes in 1918. His signature was added to the sneaker’s All Star ankle patch in 1923. The company sells about 4.5 million pairs of All Stars each year.

Hailstones may fall at night or in the morning, but they are most common during the afternoon.

Attendance at America’s major league baseball games first surpassed the 5-million mark in 1904. The American League had 3,024,028 guests at 154 games that year, and the National League sold 2,664,271 tickets.

In the 1930s, the United States Public Health Service found that people, living in towns with naturally fluoridated water, had half as many cavities as the rest of the population. Acting on the study, many cities added fluoride to their drinking water, and by 1986, 60 percent of all U.S. citizens had fluoridated tap water.

ELECTRIC IRON PREDATED FIRST POWER STATION

When Henry W. Seely invented the first electric iron in 1882, he was a little bit ahead of his time. The country’s first power station didn’t start generating electricity until three months after the debut of Seely’s invention. And Seely did it again, just one year later, inventing a working, cordless electric iron in 1883.

Louis XIV is often called the most powerful of France’s many kings. But most of that credit is due to a secret weapon: intelligence. Louis XIV employed a mathematician, Antoine Rossignol, who was skilled in the art of cryptography and could read the secret messages of all the world’s kings and nobles.

When the Egyptian pharaohs’ bodies were mummified, one of the spices used in the process was cinnamon.

Although 55 United States’ athletes took part in the 1900 Olympic Games in Paris, most of them did not know they were competing in the Olympics until they won. That’s because the proper name of the event only appeared on the medals. Even the official program identified the “world’s amateur track and field championships” as part of the Paris Exposition.

The Zodiac is the name given to the path that the Sun appears to travel through the heavens.

Valley Forge Deserters

During the winter of 1777-78, the American forces at Valley Forge suffered from cold weather, a lack of provisions and the threat of mutiny. Many soldiers simply deserted rather than continue to endure such hardship. On average, 8 to 10 men left the Continental Army each day.

When measured in terms of energy, the condensation heat released by a hurricane in one day could provide heat and light to U.S. homes and businesses for almost six months.

In 1824, when Lord Byron died in Greece, the attending physician removed and measured Byron’s brain. Its weight of “about six medicinal pounds” made it one of the largest human brains on record and at least 25 percent larger than the average.

Lucy Hayes, wife of President Rutherford B. Hayes, became the first college graduate to preside over the White House.

Etymologists claim that the English buckaroo most likely came from the Spanish word, vaquero, meaning cowboy or cattle driver.

In the late 1980s television show, “Beauty and the Beast,” Ron Perlman spent nearly five hours each day, getting made up for his role as Vincent, the beast. The series ended about a dozen episodes into its third season.

First Liquid Bleach Factory

Opened in 1913, the Electro-Alkaline Company of Oakland, Calif., was America’s first commercial scale liquid bleach factory. But an engineer for one of the company’s equipment suppliers suggested that the bleach needed a snappier name. That engineer, Abel M. Hamblet, designed a diamond-shaped logo and combined the names for the product’s two active ingredients, chlorine and sodium hydroxide, coining the brand-name Clorox.

Only two U.S. Presidents are buried at Arlington National Cemetery: William Howard Taft and John Fitzgerald Kennedy.

In the English language, the letter Z shows up only once, on average, in every 1,000 letters. On the other hand, the letter E would be used about 130 times in that same passage while the letter T would appear 93 times.

At 23 years old, George Armstrong Custer was the youngest man ever to become a general in the U.S. Army.

The average person swallows almost 600 times a day.

Etymologists claim that the word bridegroom first got its start as the Old English brydguma. Bryd became bride. Guma, a poetic word for man, became gome. But by the 16th century, nobody remembered what gome meant, so they replaced it with the term for a servant-male: groom.

Body Shop Sells

The Body Shop, which sold its first product in 1976, now makes a sale every 0.4 seconds.

If a consumer suspects that the “100 percent wool fabric” actually contains cotton, there is a simple test that can be used to determine the truth. Fill a metal container with water, and for every pint of water, add a tablespoonful of lye. Boil the fabric for at least 15 minutes. The wool should dissolve completely. The cotton will be unaffected.

A group of seven rabbits eats about as much as a single sheep.

Before they were the Pirates, Pittsburgh’s baseball team was known as the Innocents because of its weak first season. In 1890, the team won only 23 games and lost the other 113.

Julia Grant was the first wife of an ex-president to write her own autobiography. But publishers weren’t impressed, and the book went unpublished until 1975.

Bakers have always known that whole grain loaves stay fresh longer than white bread.

Originally called New Amsterdam, today’s New York also took the name New Orange, starting in August 1673. But that name didn’t last long. In February 1674, the name was restored to New York.

Egyptians Have Heart, Babylonians Choose Liver

Ancient Egyptians held that the heart was the most important of organs. Babylonians, on the other hand, assigned emotion and spirit to the liver. The Mesopotamians tried to hold on to the best of both worlds, linking emotion to the liver and intellect to the heart.

People weren’t quite sure, at first, how to deal with the electric lightbulb. In order to assist and assure consumers, the Edison Company created the following sign: “This room is equipped with Edison Electric Light. Do not attempt to light with match. Simply turn key on wall by the door. The use of electricity for lighting is in no way harmful to health, nor does it affect soundness of sleep.”

Margaret James of Charlestown, Mass., became the first person in America convicted of witchcraft. She was executed on June 15, 1648, almost 50 years before the Salem witch trials.

An expert on dandelions claims that at least 93 different insects visit the flower for its copious supplies of nectar.

The twisting column of air that makes a tornado may reach speeds of up to 400 miles per hour. The average tornado touches down to form a track about an eighth of a mile wide and 10 miles long.

Spice or Herb?

The traditional distinction between spices and herbs is one of location. If it grows in the tropics or subtropics, it’s a spice. But if it grows in the temperate zone, which includes most of Europe and the United States, it’s an herb.

The use of codes and ciphers is as old as history itself. But today’s secret writing is much more complex than that used in ancient times. Julius Caesar, for example, used a simple substitution code. Each letter in a message was replaced with one that was three letters further on in the alphabet.

U.S. President John Quincy Adams bought a chess set and a billiard table while in office. His political opponent, Andrew Jackson, made much of the purchase during the next presidential election, claiming that Adams had installed “gaming furniture” in the White House at public expense. Jackson’s ensuing victory was substantial with 178 electoral votes to Adams’ 83.

At the Olympic games of 1896, held in Athens, the United States had no official team. But its athletes won nine of the 12 track and field events. The remaining gold medals went to Great Britain (2) and Greece (1).

The moon has a diameter of 2,160 miles.

Costly Costume Party

During the Boston Tea Party on Dec. 16, 1773, patriots, dressed as Indians, dumped 342 chests of tea into the Boston Harbor. The tea was valued at more than £10,000, which would now be worth about $1.8 million.

Charles H. Dow and Edward D. Jones worked together in 1876 as financial reporters for “The Providence Star.” In 1882, the two writers teamed up to create there own newspaper that would eventually be known as “The Wall Street Journal.” But the stock-watching duo remains best-known today for their creation of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. It appeared in the journal as a daily feature, starting in October 1896.

In the region of Auvergne in France, legend has it that young men, recently returned from military service would walk along the country lanes, looking for the farmhouse that had the largest number of Gaperon cheeses drying on the windowsills. The number of Gaperons was directly correlated to the size of a farmer’s herd and thence a good indication of his wealth: the richer the farmer, the more desirable his daughter.

A 1980s survey of 70,000 homemakers found that vacuuming was America’s most popular housecleaning task while dusting and polishing took second place, followed in third place by washing clothes. The least-enjoyed task? Washing dishes.

CONVERTING WIND TO ELECTRICITY

Scientists claim that economically converting wind into electricity requires an average wind speed of 14 miles per hour. The Office of Energy Information Administration says that 37 states have locations with sufficient wind speed for establishing such wind farms.

A male donkey is a jack. A female donkey is a jennet.

Turtles have no teeth.

In 2003, the U.S. Mint produced more than 12 billion new coins. Of those, pennies accounted for more than half of all production, with 6.8 billion created. Quarters were second at a count of 2.3 billion new coins. Just over 2 billion new dimes were also made that year.

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.

If the average man never shaved, his beard would grow to almost 30 feet during his lifetime.

The entire United Kingdom is slightly smaller than the state of Oregon.

A sneeze may project particles from the nose and mouth at rates, approaching 100 miles per hour.

ICELANDERS LIKE FISH

Iceland leads the world when it comes to per-person fish consumption. Japan is second, with Portugal close on its heels. What about the U.S.? A distant 14th place. Pass the fish sticks.

Louis Pasteur pioneered a process for sanitizing wine, beer and milk, and he developed a cure for rabies. Jonas Salk created a vaccine for polio. But who remembers Peter Moller? In 1854, this Norwegian pharmacist invented a method for producing medicinal cod liver oil, which fast became the best answer to the disease of rickets in malnourished children. And he was showered with awards.

Mother Nature sometimes gets confused as evidenced in Evans, Colorado. Residents of the town reported a rain of corn that lasted several hours. And in Aug. 2001, thousands of corn husks fell on Wichita, Kan., area homes. Eary.

Gold-digging

In South Africa, production of a single ounce of gold requires about three tons of rock, 1,320 gallons of water and 600 kilowatt hours of electricity.

Caesar’s Last Words

William Shakespeare recorded the dying words of Julius Caesar in his play of the same name: “Et tu, Brute.” But Shakespeare created the quotation for artistic effect. Suetonius, author of “The Lives of the First Twelve Caesars,” writes that Caesar’s actual last words were “Kai su, teknon,” meaning “Even you, my child.”