Strange But True: Temporary Insanity Defense

By Lucie Winborne

• Dragonflies can control all four of their wings independently.

• The first person in the U.S. to use the "temporary insanity" defense was Daniel Sickles -a Union general, senator and congressman -after murdering the son of Francis Scott Key, composer of "The Star-Spangled Banner," who was having an affair with Sickles' wife. Sickles was acquitted.

• According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Super Bowl Sunday is the second-highest day of food consumption in America, second only to Thanksgiving.

• Art was an official Olympic event from 1912 to 1948. Submissions had to be in the categories of architecture, literature, music, painting or sculpture, and inspired by sports. The event was removed after a report showed that almost all of the submitting contestants were professionals.

• The forward slashes in Web addresses serve no real purpose, according to Tim Berners-Lee, creator of the World Wide Web.

• A 45-year-old Bosnian man named Amir Vehabovic faked his death in 2007 because he wanted to see who would attend his funeral and what they would say about him. After his mother was the only mourner to show up, he wrote dozens of angry letters to his (so-called) friends and what he thought about their relationship going forward.

• During World War II, it was illegal in Britain to give cats a saucer of milk, dogs a biscuit or bread to pigeons.

• The percontation point, a reversed question mark, was used at the end of a question that does not require an answer. Sadly, its use died out in the 17th century.

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Thought for the Day: "Yet I had rather be remembered as those brave beginners are, though many of them missed the triumph, than as the late comers will be, who only beat the drums and wave the banners when the victory is won." -Louisa May Alcott

(c) 2022 King Features Synd., Inc.