Strange But True: Sesame Seeds

By Lucie Winborne

• Seventy-five percent of all sesame seeds grown in Mexico wind up on McDonald's hamburger buns.

• In 1998, a British man faked his own death by leaving his clothes on the beach and hiding to make his wife realize how much she missed him. Unfortunately, the prank backfired, as she divorced him after learning about it.

• Former First Lady Hillary Clinton served on the boards of TCBY and Walmart.

• Earthworms in the northern part of North America are a non-native, invasive species and a major factor in forest deterioration.

• The last duel in Canada wasn't much of a fight at all, being between two men who were so terrified that one fainted and the other was seized by horror. As if that weren't enough, their guns were loaded with blanks.

• Michael Bay, producer of "Friday the 13th," walked out of the film's screening because it contained too much sex.

• Ever wonder why garlic is so anathema to vampires? One theory goes that it's an antibiotic, and since vampirism was often thought to be a disease, it was harmful to them. Another holds that it was believed to repel mosquitoes, and since they're both bloodsuckers, vampires would be repelled as well.

• Brazil has the largest Japanese community outside of Japan.

• A city in Sweden uses light therapy in bus stops to combat depression during the winter when 19 hours of the day are darkness.

• Astronomers have discovered a cloud of fiery gas about 3,000,000 light years across that reaches temperatures in the tens of millions of degrees and gobbles entire galaxies as it moves along.

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Thought for the Day: "Nature has given us all the pieces required to achieve exceptional wellness and health, but has left it to us to put these pieces together." -- Diane McLaren

(c) 2023 King Features Synd., Inc.