Strange But True: Hear the Rhubarb

By Lucie Winborne

  • A border collie named Saul took a leaf out of another (albeit fictional) canine's book, being praised as a "real-life Lassie" when he led two members of a search party to his owner after the man was injured on a hike.

  • Nutmeg can produce a hallucinogenic effect if taken in a high enough quantity.

  • It's not just trees that help provide us humans with oxygen -- about half of that in our atmosphere is a byproduct of photosynthesis from the microscopic sea algae known as phytoplankton.

  • Rhubarb grows so fast you can actually hear it!

  • Legend holds that when a pope dies, it's the custom to strike him on the head three times with a silver hammer to ensure he's really deceased.

  • A survey revealed that nearly half of the unmarried gents polled washed their bedsheets a mere four times a year, instead of the recommended once per week. Singletons, there may be a lesson in there.

  • Less than 14% of all M&Ms candies are brown.

  • May never begins or ends on the same day of the week as any other month in any given year.

  • Proof that crime doesn't pay ... even in space! Earlier this year, Canada passed a law allowing prosecution of crimes committed by the country's astronauts on the moon or on their way to it.

  • The greatest number of people to play a single piano simultaneously is 23.

  • For a reasonable $19.95, you too can buy alien abduction insurance from a Florida agent. Of course, to cash it in, you'll need to hand over a signature from an "authorized, on-board alien," and who knows if they can even write in English?

***

Thought for the Day: "Keep your face always toward the sunshine, and shadows will fall behind you." -- Walt Whitman

(c) 2022 King Features Synd., Inc.

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