Strange But True: Petition Against Coffee
By Lucie Winborne
In 1674, the Women's Petition Against Coffee claimed the beverage was turning British men into "useless corpse[s]" and proposed a ban on it for anyone under the age of 60.
Eugene V. Debs ran for president in 1920 while serving a prison sentence in Atlanta Federal Penitentiary for his protests against World War I. He still captured nearly 1 million votes.
The plot of "The Nightmare Before Christmas" was partly inspired by the collision of holiday store decorations.
Cotton candy was invented in 1895 by candy maker John C. Wharton and dentist William Morrison, who called it "fairy floss" and sold thousands of servings at the St. Louis World's Fair in 1904. It was renamed "cotton candy" in the 1920s by Josef Lascaux -- another dentist -- who sold the saccharine confection to his patients. Hmmm, sounds a little bit suspicious to us.
In a study by the Smell and Taste Treatment Research Foundation, the scent women found most arousing was Good & Plenty candy mixed with cucumber.
Arachibutyrophobia is the fear of peanut butter getting stuck to the roof of your mouth.
Lancaster, Pennsylvania, was the U.S. capital for the shortest period of time, a mere day, on Sept. 27, 1777.
Aretha Franklin's voice was declared a "natural resource" of the state of Michigan.
In 1967, supermodel Twiggy became the first celebrity to be immortalized as a Barbie doll. Other celebrity Barbies have included Cher, Elizabeth Taylor, Elvis and Priscilla Presley, and Nicki Minaj.
A face with big eyes, a small nose and a small chin exhibits kinderschema: the collection of traits humans have evolved to find adorable
Thought for the Day: "Life is a great big canvas, and you should throw all the paint on it you can." -- Danny Kaye
(c) 2024 King Features Synd., Inc.