Strange But True: Jack Daniel

By Lucie Winborne

  • A fan of the Detroit Pistons who also happened to design the video game NBA Jam detested the Chicago Bulls so much that he embedded a special code causing them to miss last-second shots when playing the Pistons in the game.

  • Heat waves kill more Americans than tornadoes, hurricanes, or floods.

  • In nuclear physics, a "shake" (equivalent to 10 nanoseconds) is an informal unit of time measuring events in a nuclear explosion.

  • Fans of the Philadelphia Eagles have a longstanding reputation for rowdiness, but when a 1997 game between the team and the San Francisco 49ers saw around 60 fistfights in the stands, with someone even shooting a flare gun, the response from both worried families and local law enforcement prompted the installation of "Eagles Court," a functional courtroom and jail at Veterans Stadium.

  • Calling a man bald qualifies as sexual harassment in the United Kingdom.

  • When Salvador Dali bought a castle for his wife, Gala, in 1968, she accepted it with one condition -- that the artist would gain written permission from her before visiting.

  • One of the oldest recorded tattoo ink recipes consists of Egyptian pine bark, corroded bronze, vinegar, vitriol, leek juice and insect eggs.

  • The movie term "blockbuster" was originally a military term to describe bombs in World War II that could destroy an entire city block.

  • You've undoubtedly watched the Oscars at some point, but have you heard of the Pawscars? That's an annual show put on by American Humane, celebrating the "furry, winged, and scaled" actors of TV and film, both past and present.

  • As he lay dying of blood poisoning, the last words of whiskey distiller Jack Daniel were, fittingly, "One last drink, please."

***

Thought for the Day: "The past is the only dead thing that smells sweet." -- Cyril Connolly

(c) 2022 King Features Synd., Inc.

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