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Miscellaneous Trivia 2 (yes more)

Joseph Bramah of Yorkshire was a farmer’s son but he was one the 18th century’s most prolific inventors. Some of his innovations included a water closet, a machine for number banknotes and a lock. In 1784 he patented the lock which was a revolutionary in safety measures. Up until that time, any lock available could easily be picked. Bramah’s lock was an incredible innovation as there were 494 million possible combinations of notches and was claimed to be totally burglar-proof. In fact, Mr Bramah was so confident that he offered a prize of 200 guineas to the first person who could pick it. For 67 years nobody was able to pick that lock and even then, the gentlemen who opened took a month to do so. Mr Bramah’s lock design was so effective that its modifications and designs are still being used to this day.

Some actors have a truly incredible talent and one such person was the Polish actress Helena Modjeska. Her acting was very realistic and emotional. At a dinner party where nobody knew Polish, Helena gave a dramatic reading in her native tongue. Many of her listeners were in tears when she finished. It eventually came out that she had only recited the Polish alphabet. Now that’s what I call talent.

Since 2000, Bing Crosby’s music has been used to fight crime in Woollongong, NSW. It has been discovered that when shopping centres play Bing’s music, crime goes down. It appears that the gangs of trouble-makers are less then impressed with the music and do not gather outside the shopping centre doors any more. Police are even considering playing Bing’s crooning in other public areas as a deterrent.

Many years ago, in Ontario Canada a Parson left $3,000 in his will to his daughter on one condition. The Parson’s only condition was that his daughter give up singing.

For 26 years from 1901 to 1927, Australian politicians argued about where they should build a national capital. During that time the Australian Parliament were based in temporary quarters in Melbourne. The states continued to argue about where the capital should be built until finally the politicians agreed to create a new federal territory which was not a part of any state. Canberra was built midway between Sydney and Melbourne and got its name from the aboriginal word “canberry” which means “meeting place.”

During the 19th century a badgered London publican died and left his property to his wife on one condition: every year on the anniversary of his death, his wife was to walk barefoot to the local market while holding up a lighted candle. Upon reaching the marketplace, the wife was to read out a full confession of her nagging ways. The confession was to include the theme that if her tongue had been shorter, her husband’s days would probably have been longer. Should the publican’s wife fail to keep her appointment, she was to receive only 20 pounds a years, which was barely enough to live on.

You may not believe this, but there is a language which contains just whistling. The Mazateco Indians of Mexico have a whistled speech which is used only by the men of the tribe. The speed, pitch and intensity of the whistles cover a wide range of subjects. In fact, the men could buy, sell and trade all in whistles and include precise details of quantity and price. A similar language of whistles exists on the Canary Island of La Gomera. It is very useful over long distances as the whistles can be understood across a valley up to 8km away.

In 1982 during a battle for the Falklands, there was a claim by the British Royal Air Force that their bombing of Port Stanley’s only runway had caused it to be closed and consequently this had halted Argentina’s airforce. Several deep bomb craters were seen on sophisticated aerial photographs taken by US satellites. It wasn’t until after the fighting ended that it was discovered that the bomb craters were actually fakes. It seems that Argentine soldiers had built convincing looking crater walls of loose earth with only buckets and spades. During the night, the Argentine airforce continued to fly in supplies and reinforcements. Despite all of our sophisticated technology, buckets and spades were able to fool the British airforce.

If you are ever able to visit the Washington Cathedral in the USA, be sure to take a good long look at the stained glass window that is dedicated to scientists and technicians. A tiny slice of moon rock that was brought back by the Apollo astronauts in 1969 is sealed in the window.

The boomerang used to Australian Aborigines, is not exclusive to them. Several northeast African tribes and the Hopi Indians of Arizona also used forms of boomerang, as did the hunters in ancient Egypt.

Venezuelans drink milk from a source that never moves or makes a sound. The South American milk tree that belongs to the fig family, produces a sap that tastes and looks just like cow’s milk. The Venezuelans use the sap just like milk. That’s “udderly” incredible.

Britain and the United States almost went to war over a pig in 1859. Yes it’s true! Charles Griffin an Englishman owned the pig and lived on San Juan Island which is just near Vancouver. Unfortunately the pig kept on wandering onto the American neighbour’s potato patch. The neighbour, Lyman Cutler, shot the pig and the Englishman Griffin complained to his government. Astonishingly, troops from both sides rushed in. It sounds like a strange reason for sending in troops, but this particular island was claimed by both countries. Although the pig war continued for 13 years, no shots were fired and soldiers from both countries remained stationed at either end of the Island. Finally in 1872, the German Kaiser, Wilhelm I gave the island and some others to the USA.

Do you remember the old nursery rhyme, Sing a Song of Sixpence which describes “4 & 20 blackbirds baked in a pie”? This may be referring to a medieval feast that was held in France in 1454. Members of the Order of the Golden Fleece, a group of knights, held a lavish banquet. At the feast was a huge baked pie, and at one point, 20 musicians leapt out of the pie and began to serenade the dinner guests.

Have you ever wondered what “The Ashes” are when countries play cricket? It was originally a contest for a trophy that never existed. In 1882 Australia won a one-game Test in London and afterwards a newspaper called “The Sporting Times” wrote a pretend obituary bemoaning the death of English Cricket. One line in the obituary read “The body will be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia,” and it seems that everyone quite enjoyed the joke. In the same year when England went to Australia to play, an Sydney woman burned a stump and presented the ashes in an urn to the England captain Ivo Bligh. Mr Bligh bequeathed the urn to the Marylebone Crecket Club where it remains in the Memorial Gallery. Even when Australia wins a test series against England, the urn remains in England.

In 1880 an Englishman by the name of James Gibb invented table tennis for amusement on wet weekends. But the game was first played with champagne corks as balls and the bats were made from cigar-box lids. Soon the corks were replaced with properly manufactured white balls and real bats replaced the cigar-box lids.

Hooliganism in sports is quite appalling but is not a new phenomenon. In the 1st century AD, it seems that sports fans misbehaved in the amphitheatres and there were battles between locals and visitors. This soon led to stone-throwing and eventually fighting with weapons. The Emperor Nero was so disgusted and appalled by the fights and killings that he forbade the gatherings for ten years.

In 1976 in Montreal, Canada during the Olympic games, the flame in the torch was soaked by a cloudburst and went out. Fortunately the only people in the stadium at the time were workmen and a plumber called Pierre Bouchard quickly relit the flame with a cigarette lighter and some newspaper.

Coming first in an event in the ancient Olympic games had very little to do with who was the fastest or went the furthest distance. Nobody even kept time. The judges instead based their choices on four things: style, grace and rhythm as well as who came first.

Since ancient times in a northern Swedish town a rather revolting championship has taken place. In this championship, the competitors had to eat rotten herrings. Yes, that’s right, they had to eat rotten fish. The local fishermen preserve their summer catch in large tin cans (although originally it was in barrels). Within the containers the fermenting fish give off gases which cause the containers to bulge. Once the can is opened the smell is quite repulsive but the fish are supposed to be extremely delicious. Eventually the championships became an international event with competitors travelling to Sweden from many parts of the world. Unfortunately the competition had to be cancelled when foreign contestants became seriously ill and some had to spend several weeks in hospital. Although this contest is still held locally, foreign visitors are now discouraged from taking part in it.

Have you ever wondered whether a boxer or a wrestler would win a contest if they competed against each other? Well this question has been settled three times and was won each time by a wrestler in 1887, 1892 & 1936.

If you want to lose weight in a hurry, the quickest method is to move to a mountaintop on the Equator and run in an easterly direction. The further you are away from the centre of the earth, the more the force of gravity decreases. In fact standing on a mountaintop you would weigh less than you would if you were standing at the beach. And because the earth bulges more at the Equator than it does at the Poles, you would weigh less at the Equator because you are further away from the centre of the earth. The running also helps because it counteracts the effect of gravity. Our planet spins in an easterly direction and running towards the east will lighten your weight. Therefore, if you want to lose weight quickly, you should stand on a mountaintop on the Equator and run east. Well, at least the running might help in the long-term.

During the 19th century an Australian weatherman called Clement L Wragge (known to his friends as Wet Wragge) was the first person to name a hurricane or a cyclone as we know it. Mr Wragge liked Biblical names and called some of the cyclones Rakem, Sacar, Talmon and Uphaz.

Many of the towns and cities in the world tend to have more fashionable and expensive properties on the western side of town. This seems rather odd doesn’t it? It appears that this may be because in the milder latitudes of both hemispheres of the planet, the prevalent winds are generally westerlies. These winds bring fresh air to the western edges of towns and carry smoke and pollution to the eastern side. This occurs even in places where there were beautiful ocean views on the east side.

In January 1981 three English explorers discovered an enormous cavern in northern Borneo. The cavern later named the Sarawak Chamber, is the largest known enclosed space in the world. It measures over 701m in width, 396m in length and 70m in height. The cavern could hold 38 football fields or 10 jumbo jets nose to tail. In fact it is so large that one of the explorers who was a very seasoned cave explorer experienced agoraphobia which is a fear of open spaces. The poor man was so paralysed with fear that he could not move for hours.

In 1948 there is strong evidence to suggest that China produced the first toothbrush. During the 17th century in Europe there were a variety of powders and pastes sold as cleaning agents. In Britain in 1891, the first toothpaste was sold in a metal tube.

Two of the strangest inventions ever patented have included spectacles for chickens – not for their eyesight, but to stop their eyes being pecked by other chickens. Then there was the animal catapult which was designed so that the animal could be launched upward and turn a somersault in midair. There were several designs for small animals as well as monkeys, and strangest of all, designs for horses and elephants! Why anybody would want to see a 4.5 tonne elephant performing a somersault is beyond me.

If you have a group of 23 people, there is a 50-50 chance that two of the people will share a birthday. This is because of a quirk in statistics. In fact, a mathematician by the name of Warren Weaver was discussing this curious fact at a dinner party during World War II. One of the guests counted the number present and said that there were 22 and they decided to put the theory to test. Each guest revealed their birthdate but unfortunately no two turned out to be the same. At that moment the waitress spoke up and revealed that she was the 23rd person in the room and she actually shared her birthday with one of the guests. Perhaps you could try this one out for yourself next time you’re at a gathering.

A relatively unknown American author by the name of Ernest Vincent Wright wrote many books but his most unusual was his novel “Gadsby” (not the Great Gatsby). The book was written in 165 days and was almost 300 pages long. What is remarkable about this enterprise is that the author wrote the entire book without using the letter “e”. The letter “e” is the most commonly used letter in the English language. Today the “Gadsby” novels are collectors items and worth more than $1,000.

Edward Cope was an American palaeontologist who amassed a large collection of fossils that can now be found in the American Museum of Natural History in New York. Edward Cope was a Quaker and because of this he refused to carry a gun when going on his expeditions in the US even though there was a very real danger from American natives. Once when hostile Indians surrounded him, Cope confused them by taking out his false teeth and putting them back in, over and over again. I guess the Indians must have thought he was crazy – they let him go.

Practical jokes have been played by many people over the centuries, and April Fools’ Day in 1957 was no exception. A BBC Television current affairs type program report told of the annual spaghetti harvest on the border of Italy and Switzerland. Pictures of women picking strands of spaghetti from trees and laying them down in the sun to dry were shown in the program. It seems they fooled some people as many viewers requested information so that they too could attend the harvest festival.

President Grant of the United States presented a cigar to Horace Norton the founder of Norton College in the 1860’s. Mr Norton was so pleased with the gift from the President that he decided not to smoke it and passed it on to his son and eventually it passed to his grandson Winstead. In 1932 the grandson Winstead attended a reunion at Norton College and gave a speech. After placing the cigar from President Grant in his mouth and lighting it he continued to speak, but before he could finish, the cigar exploded. It had taken 70 years, but President Grant had finally played his joke.

Jules Leotard was a successful French trapeze artist in the 1860’s and he is credited with inventing the tight fitting garments used by acrobats and dancers that we now know as the leotard.

Have you ever seen those movies where people drown in quicksand. During the 19th century, many mystery writers also loved to use quicksand as a means of killing off the villains. The reality is that you would be extremely unlikely to die in quicksand. When a person struggles, it certainly causes them to sink more quickly. But if you ever do find yourself in quicksand, all you have to do is stop moving and lay backward. A stick should be able to help you get your legs up higher. Eventually your body will be floating on the top and you can roll over towards firmer ground.

I always feel a little embarrassed when my library books are more than 2 weeks overdue. Especially when the computer at the local library beeps out my transgression for 12 months afterwards whenever I borrow a book. But I didn’t feel so bad when I read about the Bishop of Winchester who borrowed a book in 1650, the title of which, oddly enough, was the “Book of Fines”. The book remained in the Bishop’s office for 200 years and was then passed onto the Church Commissioners who kept it in their office for a further century. Finally in 1985 the book was returned to the library where it had accumulated a fine of around 3,000 pounds. Incidentally, the book had been borrowed for a period of approximately 335 years.

How is your spelling or typing? Well if these aren’t two of your best talents, don’t feel too badly. On 15 March 1978, The Times newspaper printed an astounding 78 misprints on one page alone. They outdid themselves 3 months later when one article carried an impressive 97 errors in just 14cm of text.

In 1972 Mary Connor attempted to become the first woman to be blasted out of a cannon over the River Avon. On the first occasion, the cannon was fired but Ms Connor did not move from the barrel. On the next occasion Ms Connor was blasted from the cannon and was sent flying only halfway across the river where she landed with a splash. Then wearing the odd bandage Ms Connor decided to try one last time. Fortunately this time the cannon seemed to work well and the daring Ms Connor went flying through the air. Unfortunately, she landed in almost exactly the same spot as previously and on this occasion, a rescue boat was floating there in case of an emergency. Yes, you guessed it, Ms Connor smashed into the boat which promptly sank and everyone, including Ms Connor had to swim to shore. Another woman by the name of Rita Thunderbird had previously attempted to be shot from a cannon. On that occasion, Ms Thunderbird body remained in the cannon whilst her bra was shot across the River Thames.

In 1979 a group of tourists were sightseeing in the Palace of Westminster. Walking across the lobby of the House of Commons, The Lord Chancellor, Lord Hailsham spied his friend Neil Marten, a Member of Parliament. The Chancellor suddenly remembered that it was his friend’s birthday, waved to his friend and yelled out “Neil!” The entire group of tourists walking nearby immediately fell to their knees.

Mrs Doreen Burley was a housewife in Lancashire and for thirty years she polished her favourite ornament every day. Her 5 grandchildren were allowed to play with it and the ornament took pride of place on her mantelpiece at her home. In 1988 Mrs Burley was describing her ornament to the manager of an antique shop when the manager advised her to call the police. The next day the army arrived at the door of Mrs Burley’s home and carried off her favourite ornament as though it was priceless china. Mrs Burley’s ornament was in fact a live bomb and she was aghast at the thought that she had been polishing a bomb for 30 years. She had originally picked it up with a box of brasses.

In York in 1982 a rather special book fair was held. It had a special exhibition called the first dud books of all times. Some of these dud books included, “The common teasel as a carnivorous plant”, “Ostrich egg-shell cups of Mesopatamia in Ancient and Modern times”, and “The list of stop cocks in the Liver Building, Liverpool”. Then there were the intriguing books entitled, “Uganda for a Holiday”, or “I was Hitler’s Aunt”, and the fascinating book “The law relating to sewers and Drains”.

Have you wondered where some streets got their names? Well there’s an area in Chattanooga, Tennessee that has some streets called Cinderella Drive, Wendy Lane, Glass Slipper Trail and Tinkerbell Circle. In San Diego there’s a street called Haveteur Way (Have it your way) and then there's another street in the USA called Nameless Street. But the one I like the best is in California that was named after an eccentric recluse called Mr Wong. The street was called Wong Way.

You would never be able to forget the birthdays in this family. Ralph and Carolyn Cummins of Clintwood in the USA have 5 children all born on the same day in different years. The children’s birthdate is February 20th. Catherine was born in 1952, Carol in 1953, Charles in 1956, Claudia in 1961 and Cecilia on 1966. Just for good measure, they called each of their children a name starting with the letter “C”. And then there is a young woman Sabrina Heinrich who was born on November 26 1978. Sabrina shares the same birthday with her great-grandmother, her grandmother, her aunt, her uncle and her cousin.

The former husband of the late Judy Garland held an auction of Miss Garland’s personal effects in Beverly Hills in 1979. One of the items in the auction was Miss Garland’s false eyelashes which fetched $125.

A set of identical twins were separated shortly after birth. Their boys’ adoptive parents had no knowledge of each other and named each of their sons James. The boys grew up and married and divorced a woman called Linda and named each of their firstborn son James Alan. Both men have the same hobbies and have had police training. Both are 1.82cm tall and weigh 81.6kg. The two brothers even liked to vacation on the same Florida beach. James Lews and James Springer met for the first time in 1979 when they were 39 years old.

What an amazing coincidence! A young boy called Roger Lausier was saved from drowning off a beach at Salem in the USA when he was 4 years of age. The woman who rescued him was Alice Blaise. Nine years later, in 1974 on the same beach, Roger paddled out to a drowning man on his raft and pulled him to safety. The rescued man was Alice Blaise’s husband./03

The inventor of dynamite was the well-known man Alfred Nobel. Nobel was an apparently moody and idealistic Swede who became a millionaire. In 1888 Alfred’s older brother Ludwig died of heart trouble. A leading French newspaper mistakenly thought that it was Alfred himself who had died and ran an obituary in their paper, calling him “a merchant of death”. Alfred Nobel was stunned by the obituary, not because he was still alive, but because he thought that the world would consider him as nothing more than the merchant of death. The rest of the obituary did not reflect his love of his fellow man, his generosity or his hopes for humanity. This incident was one of several factors that encouraged Alfred Nobel to authorise in his will, the Nobel Prize awards. He wanted the awards to be given to those people who do the most to advance the causes of peace, the sciences and literature.

Many dances during the 20th century have been considered vulgar or scandalous including the turkey trot, the grizzly bear, the charleston and the shimmy. I’m sure most people would have heard of the dance, the Tango. When the Tango was first introduced to America around about 1913, it was banned in Boston. In fact the Massachusetts legislature tried to enact a law so that tangoing couples would be fined for their first offence. If the couple dared to tango again, they would have landed in jail for six months. The tango was considered so scandalous that it was banned in Cleveland and Berlin. It was even prohibited in the English royal court for a short period until Queen Marry requested a demonstration of the dance at a ball.

If you ever find yourself saying something like, "I can’t understand the music of today," just remember that many popular songs of yesteryear were also considered quite crazy or just odd. Here are two songs from 1915 &1916 "Oh! How she could yacki, hacki, wicki, wacki, woo" and "Yaacka hula hickey dula". Then there was the 1941 hit titled "I’m looking for a guy who plays alto and baritone and doubles on a clarinet and wears a size thirty-seven suit."

Have you ever had a really brilliant idea for an invention? Here are some inventions that for some reasons, never achieved any success. In 1966 Thomas J Bayard invented the vibrating toilet seat. In 1952 a doll for children was invented that came with removable plastic kidneys, lungs, heart, stomach, liver and intestines. And in 1960 an American man by the name of Earl Christopherson patented a device to enable people to look inside their own ears.

A driver in Texas received a speeding fine in the mail along with a photo of his car. The man sent back a photo of a cheque to the police. Luckily the police had a sense of humour. They sent the Texan man back a photograph of a pair of handcuffs.

A Saudi Arabian man traced a foul smell to his absent sister’s refrigerator, so he threw out all of the putrid food inside. After his sister returned from her holiday, she was horrified when her brother told her about throwing out all of the rotten food in the fridge. Unfortunately what the brother had been unaware of was the fact that his sister had her life savings hidden in a package in tin foil in the refrigerator. Buried somewhere in a dump in Saudi Arabia, there’s cash worth about A$40,000.

Dried up by drought, a tiny British island resorted to drastic measures to survive. The residents of Lundy, off the Devon coast, had 12 tonnes of water shipped to their ailing island at great expense after their water supplies evaporated. Just as the tanker was preparing to dock, the clouds gathered and heavy rain began to fall.

After Amelia Earhart few solo across the Atlantic Ocean, in 1930 the United Airlines hired 8 registered nurses to work on their planes on the Chicago to San Francisco route. These 8 nurses were the very first stewardessess on aircrafts. It may seem a little strange to us that they hired nurses, but this was actually a necessity at the time. During the 1930's aircraft cabins were not pressurised and because of the rough flying that was routine at that time, many passengers became stressed out and quite often sick. Be thankful we don't live in that era as stewardesses were encouraged to physically slap hyperventilating or hysterical passengers.

Early settlers in Australia used camels to carry their goods over dry land and to avoid accidents at night with any horse-drawn carriages which come from the rear, the camels had lights attached to their tails. This is where we got the name for car "tail-lights" from.

A woman by the name of Audrey Seurer drove through a red light and had to go to Court. Ms Seurer told the judge that she was a school-teacher, and asked if the case could be heard at once as she had to get back to her class. A wild gleam came into the Judge's eye and he said, "Madam, I've waited years to have a teacher in this court. Now sit down at that table and write "I went through a red light' 500 times."

Tim Giddings was a probationary constable and was being shown the ropes by an old hand. One night they came to a large house and noticed a ladder propped up against the first floor. Mr Gidding's colleague sensed there was trouble and began to climb the ladder to see if there had been a break-in. As he got halfway up the ladder, there was the sound of wood splintering and his colleague fell into a flowerbed. The owner of the house rushed out and thanked the policemen for their concern. The house-owner explained that the ladder had been set up against an open window to allow his cats to come and go. The policemen suggested that it was also allowed burglars the same access to the house. "Oh no it doesn't," retorted the householder, "I've sawn all the higher rungs in half."

A group of people during intermission at the ballet were commenting on the gorgeous costumes. They also noted that the main ballerina did not appear in the outfit she was pictured in on the programme cover. A woman behind them overheard the conversation and said, "That, I believe, is a substitutu."

A well-known artist by the name of Hugh Troy enjoyed practical jokes and spent a lot of his time carrying out frauds for fun. While he was a student at Cornell University in New York, one winter in the 1920's, Mr Troy obtained an old waste paper bin made from a rhinocerous foot. He placed weights in it and then tied ten metres of clotheseilne to either side. Late one night, he and an accomplice ventured out onto the campus with the rhino foot suspended between them. Every few metres they lowered the foot into the snow, ensuring that their own footprints were too far away to raise any suspicions. The following morning someone spotted the footsteps in the snow and called in the learned professors. With great excitement the group followed the tracks. The trail led out onto the ice covering a lake that supplied the school's drinking water. The tracks ended in a huge hole in the ice. It is said that up to half of Cornell's population refused to drink any of the tap water and those who were brave enough to drink it swore that it tasted of rhino.

Sharon Landers was a Church secretary and she would answer the phone with the words, "Jesus loves you, Sharon speaking. How may I help you?" One day she was a bit distracted and when the telephone rang she picked it up and said, "Sharon loves you, Jesus speaking. How may I help you?" There was a pause and then the caller said, "Somehow I thought your voice would be different."

The Sydney Morning Herald's Darwin correspondent was called Chips Mackinolty. His mother was Judy Allen who had once been a famous swimmer in Victoria and had been nicknamed Fish. After falling pregnant with her son, her friends called them Fish and Chips, and the nickname Chips stuck. Chips and his sister Ann are known as Fish Ann Chips.

Do you remember your mum telling you to wear a jumper or a sweater because you would catch cold? Well that has been proven to be an old wives tale. In the UK the Common Cold Research Unit tested the effects of wind and wet clothes on volunteers who had been infected with a cold virus. It was found that the group caught no more colds than then a group that was were kept dry. The common cold is usually inhaled or ingested and no amount of water, cold wind or wet clothes increases the effects of a cold.

There's an old wives tale that says that reading in a bad light or too much reading can weaken your eyesight. It is certainly true that the eyes can get tired or sore, but it has been proven that it does not actually weaken your eyesight.

I remember when I was young, being terrified of swallowing chewing gum in case it stuck together in my insides. Well rest assured that this is NOT true. Swallowing chewing gum is not dangerous, and will pass through your system just like any food. But it is not recommended to swallow it.

Have you ever been involved in a discussion with someone as to whether it is more economical to turn lights off or leave them on? Taking all factors into account including the saving of electricity, the life of the device, and the surge in power consumption when being switched on etc, the general rule of thumb is, it is best to turn off normal light globes when not in use, and leave fluorescent lights on if they are being used frequently. The argument is now solved.

When the UK department store Harrods installed the first escalator, it was a very bumpy ride and even a little dangerous. Unfortunately people were too frightened to use it so the management decided to serve free brandy to any passengers who felt faint after their little trip to the top. The free brandy served its purpose and there was soon a steady stream of customers who began using the new-fangled device, time and time again, even though they felt faint every time. The escalator was a success.

Have you ever wondered where they got the names for groups of animals? In Elizabethan times it became popular to refer to groups by names that seemed to suit the species, eg a gaggle of geese. Here are some others you may not have heard of: a bale of turtles, a clowder of cats, a crash of rhinoceri, a drift of swine, a gam of whales, a grist of bees, a kindle of kittens, a murder of crows, a skulk of foxes, and a sleuth of bears.

Have you ever wondered what those interesting sounding Italian names for pasta mean? Cappelletti means little hats, linguina means small tongues, fettuccine are small ribbons, and radiatori are little radiators.

There was a Mexican man calling himself El Vez who styled himself on the real Evis. After the United States issued Elvis postage stamps, the Mexican gentlemen decided to put out his own line of stamps with pictures of himself in a famous Elvis pose. Whereas the US stamps had the usual mild glue on the back, the Mexican El Vez put different flavours on the back of his including, mild chili, medium chili and extra hot chili.

Two hundred years ago the Mayor of Amberg in Germany decided to make it illegal for anyone but landed gentry to marry. Naturally this included himself and his friends. To apply for a marriage license, couples had to prove that they owned property. An enterprising home-owner took pity on one couple and agreed to sell them his house for a small price. The agreement was that the couple would sell it back to him for a lower price the day after they got married. This solution worked very well and the home-owner continued to sell and buy back his home from numerous couples. Even though that law has been repealed, the tradition still continues to this day. Although the tiny home only has a single bedroom, it has been one of the most popular honeymoon spots for a few centuries.

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