Strange But True: Why I Hate My Uncle
By Lucie Winborne
Baby porcupines are known as porcupettes.
In the early 20th century, California's Glass Beach was used as a trash dump. Decades of ocean tides have cleared the beach and polished discarded bottles and automobile tail lights into collectible pebbles of sea glass.
In 1939, Hitler's nephew wrote an article titled “Why I Hate My Uncle.” He came to America, served in the Navy and settled on Long Island.
Continental plates drift as fast as fingernails grow.
Nineteenth-century British surgeon George Merryweather believed leeches could predict the weather. Sadly, his "tempest prognosticator," displayed at the Great Exhibition in 1851, failed to catch on.
Viking burials included board games.
Child star Shirley Temple reportedly didn't love her famous curls, preferring instead the cropped 'do of her hero, Amelia Earhart.
Remember this when you're attempting to settle a dispute with currency: When you flip a coin, there is a slightly greater chance that it will end up on the side it started.
The NASA Vehicle Assembly Building in Florida is so huge it has its own weather.
Women in traditional Rwandan societies avoid eating goat meat, as it's believed this will cause them to grow a beard.
The record for the longest tire skid was set in 1964 at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah.
Walt Disney World is a surprisingly popular place for people to scatter the ashes of their deceased loved ones. Unsurprisingly, the "Happiest Place on Earth" takes a dim view of the practice, saying that anyone bringing human remains onto the property will be asked to leave.
The modern popped collar originated as a way to keep tennis players' necks from getting sunburned.
Thought for the Day: "What sculpture is to a block of marble, education is to a human soul." -- Joseph Addison
(c) 2024 King Features Synd., Inc.