Strange But True: Swearing Parrot

By Lucie Winborne

• Andrew Jackson's parrot was kicked out of his funeral for swearing.

• In 1947, The New York Times opined that "the pizza could be as popular a snack as the hamburger if Americans only knew more about it."

• Buzz Aldrin's mother's maiden name was Moon.

• When pirate Richard Worley, captain of the New York's Revenge, captured his second ship, he named it the New York Revenge's Revenge.

• Wisconsin is known as the Badger State because the area's lead miners used to spend winters in tunnels burrowed into hills -- like badgers.

• Jim Carrey was the first actor to have three number one movies in one year.

• The Palais Ideal in France was built entirely of stones that a postman named Ferdinand Cheval picked up on his mail route.

• Honey hunters in Mozambique use special calls to recruit the services of birds known as honeyguides. The birds lead the humans to bees' nests, and in return, they get the leftover beeswax.

• In 1964, a pre-fame 17-year-old David Bowie was interviewed on the BBC program "Tonight" as the founder of The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Long-Haired Men.

• Thomas Edison nicknamed two of his kids Dot and Dash after the Morse code signals.

• Army ants that misinterpret the scent trails left by other ants will sometimes break from the crowd and march in circles. If enough ants join them, they can form massive "death spirals."

• John Quincy Adams was an avid skinny-dipper who included dips in the Potomac River as a regular part of his exercise regimen.

• Crayola came from the words for "oily chalk."

• The U.S. Senate's Rule XIX states that U.S. senators cannot insult their colleagues.

Thought for the Day: "Leaders can let you fail and yet not let you be a failure." -- Stanley McChrystal

(c) 2024 King Features Synd., Inc.