Strange But True: Biting the Nose

By Lucie Winborne

• In 1837, Thomas Saverland took Caroline Newton to court for biting off part of his nose after he forcibly kissed her at a party.

• The original Xbox had sound snippets of real space missions.

• Korean college students once launched a protest against the amount of air in potato chip bags by building a raft out of them and sailing it across a river.

• When Michael Orchard broke into his neighbor's burning home to rescue their dog, his heart was in the right place but his timing wasn't: The house fire was merely his LSD-induced hallucination.

• Frozen cow manure was the first-ever puck used in a hockey game.

• The word "thug" comes from 1350s India and the Hindi word "thag," which means "deceiver" or "thief" or "swindler."

• Ten thousand light years away from Earth, a huge cloud 1,000 times larger than our solar system's diameter contains enough alcohol to fill 400 trillion pints. To drink it all, everyone on Earth would have to drink 300,000 pints each day for 1 billion years.

• A violin known as "the Blackbird," carved entirely from stone, produces sound comparable to traditional wooden violins.

• Research has shown that people born in September, October and November are more likely to live 100 years or longer.

• French performer Michel Lotito, aka "Monsieur Mangetout," or "Mr. Eat All," could hardly be accused of being a picky eater, having earned a Guinness World Record for strangest diet. His gastronomic feats included downing bicycles, razor blades and even an entire airplane.

• Much like humans, chimpanzees use strategic high ground for reconnaissance on rival groups during "chimp warfare."

Thought for the Day: "Every day the clock resets. Your wins don't matter. Your failures don't matter. Don't stress on what was, fight for what could be." -- Sean Higgins

(c) 2024 King Features Synd., Inc.