Strange But True: Elvis Mowing

By Lucie Winborne

  • In Switzerland, it is illegal to mow a front lawn while dressed as Elvis Presley.

  • Have a yen for learning about things that go bump in the night? You can get a Ph.D in parapsychology at the University of Edinburgh.

  • Red Bull energy drink was originally called Red Water Buffalo.

  • There was a Russian game show that would have you steal a car, and if you didn't get caught by the police within 35 minutes, you'd win the car. Otherwise, you would be arrested.

  • Benjamin Franklin invented a mechanical arm for reaching books on high shelves.

  • When English Romantic poet William Blake was only 4 years old he claimed to see God through a window. Throughout the rest of his life, Blake said he often communed with angels, and he incorporated these visions into his art.

  • Sulfhemoglobinemia is a condition that causes a person to develop green blood.

  • Translated literally, the Japanese words for wrist and ankle are "hand neck" and "foot neck."

  • In 2015, two brothers from Spain attempted to sell a fake portrait by Francisco de Goya to a sheikh for a cool 1.5 million euros, only to discover that he'd paid them in photocopied money. The pair were arrested when they tried to deposit their ill-gotten gains in a Geneva bank.

  • A study done by the University of Glasgow found that dogs appear to prefer reggae and soft rock over other genres of music.

  • The first mention of the word "pizza" was in a Latin text written in southern Italy in 997 CE.

  • The eponymous character in Dolly Parton's hit song "Jolene" was based on a bank teller who flirted mercilessly with Dolly's husband.

Thought for the Day: "It ain't what they call you, it's what you answer to."  -- W.C. Fields

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