Strange But True: Walt Disney explosives
By Lucie Winborne
Golf legend Jack Nicklaus earned his nickname, the “Golden Bear,” thanks to his size and blond hair. Conveniently, it was also the name of his high school mascot.
The Statue of Liberty wears a size 879 shoe.
When Americans moved out of one house and into another in the early 20th century, they would burn all their old dishcloths so that none of the bad energy that had been wiped up in the old house would move with them into their new abode.
“Horizontal refreshment” was a 19th-century slang term for sex.
The term “mortician” was invented as part of a PR campaign by the funeral industry, which felt it was more customer-friendly than “undertaker.” The term was chosen after a call for ideas in Embalmer’s Monthly.
It would take 76 workdays (if you work an eight-hour day) to read every online privacy policy you agree to in an average year.
Sorry, Scotland: Persians invented bagpipes.
Walt Disney World is the second-largest buyer of explosives in America, following only the U.S. Department of Defense, but don’t worry -- most of them are in the form of fireworks.
A Canadian police officer named Ward Clapham created a program giving “positive tickets” to people who do good deeds.
Harriet Tubman was the first woman to lead a U.S. military raid.
Great white sharks rarely survive in captivity. Experts suspect the electricity in buildings interferes with the animals’ electrosensory systems, though that hasn’t stopped some aquariums from trying, and failing, to display them.
Marie Curie remains the only person to earn Nobel Prizes in two different sciences.
Instead of mowing the lawn, Google rents goats to eat the grass at its headquarters.