Strange But True: Snakes and Earthquakes
By Lucie Winborne
Banging your head against a wall for one hour will burn 150 calories. However, we generally recommend something safer and less painful, such as, say, walking your dog.
The typewriter was first designed to print page numbers on books.
Snakes can sense an approaching earthquake from as far as 75 miles away and five days before it occurs.
"Omphalophobia" is the fear of belly buttons.
In England, all property of suicide victims was once confiscated and Christian burial rites were denied, while those who attempted the act but failed were charged as felons. The penalties were intended as a deterrent, due to the superstition that anyone who took their own life would wander the streets of their town and haunt their homes.
"Toy Story's" character of Woody was originally intended to be a ventriloquist's dummy.
When Salvatore Ferragamo was unable to purchase steel for shoe heels due to economic sanctions against Italy in the 1940s, he inadvertently created the wedge design while experimenting with Sardinian cork -- gluing, trimming and fixing it to pieces of the sole.
Wheat isn't just a multipurpose food source. It is also used in paper, hair conditioner and even stamps.
In Michigan and Connecticut, it's illegal to kiss a woman in public on a Sunday.
Traffic has become so bad in major American cities that there isn't even a definitive "rush hour" anymore.
The HBO comedy "Curb Your Enthusiasm" helped save a man from being falsely accused of the murder of 16-year-old Martha Puebla. Larry David's acclaimed series was filming at Dodger Stadium the night the crime occurred, and its cameras fortunately picked up Juan Catalan, proving the truth of his alibi as well as his innocence.
Thought for the Day: "How others treat me is their path; how I react is mine." -- Wayne Dyer
(c) 2023 King Features Synd., Inc.