Ponder
Points
So
you thought Pintail ducks were fast because they flew at 65 MPH?
Well, how about the Spine-tailed swift? It clocks in at just over
106 MPH. Does it matter if they fly in a school zone?
The song "True Love" from the 1956 movie called "High
Society" sold over a million copies. That made Princess Grace
(Kelly) of Monaco the only Princess to ever achieved win a gold
record for this achievement.
We all know that collecting stamps is the most popular hobby in the
world.
In the afternoon on Mars, the temperature ranges around a
comfortable 80
degrees. You’d better have a jacket later on though, since it drops
to a
minus 190 degrees once the sun goes down.
Pharaoh (during the time of Moses) was the first person to have a
birthday
party according to Genesis 40:20 in the Bible.
John Sevier was the only governor of the State of Franklin prior to
1796.
What? You’ve never heard of Franklin? That’s what Tennessee was
called
before it formally became a state.
Just so you’ll know there were about 5,000 folks present at the time
Lincoln
gave his Gettysburg Address on November 19, 1863.
The word ‘Supersede’ is the only word that ends in sede.
Toronto, Canada was known as York in 1793. The British Lieutenant
Governor
had named it.
Bet you didn’t know that the caffeine that gets taken out of coffee
to make
it decaf doesn’t just get thrown down the drain. Nope, most of it
gets sold
to soft drink makers to put some juice in their colas. So, why do we
pay
more for decaf when it actually costs the coffee companies less?
Good
question.
I can’t recall anyone ever talking to me about a ranarium. That’s
frog farm
in case you didn’t know.
Sources tell me that if you are attacked by killer bees you should
do the
following: Run, don’t stand still (this seems pretty simple) get
indoors as
fast as you can. If you are outside then run through weeds or bushes
to help
give you some cover. Don’t jump into water or a pool since the bees
will
most likely be waiting for you when you come up for air.
The only known whaling ship to be sunk by a sperm whale was the
Essex in
1820. The ship went down on November 20th after being rammed by the
giant
whale.
Ty Cobb still holds the record for stealing home. He did it 46 times
in his
22-year career.
Here’s something to think about: Entropy in thermodynamics, a
parameter
representing the state of disorder of a system at the atomic, ionic
or
molecular level: the greater the disorder, the higher the entropy.
Thus the
fast moving disordered molecules of water vapor have a higher
entropy than
those of a more ordered liquid water, which in turn has more entropy
than
the molecules in solid crystalline ice. We were all wondering about
that
just the other day, weren’t we?
New Hampshire was the only New England State that was not invaded by
the
British during the Revolutionary War.
Just so you’ll know…over 1,000,000,000 people speak Mandarin
Chinese.
Only 129,000,000 speak French.
Robert Todd Lincoln, Abe’s son, refused to attend state affairs and
functions. He had been to them before and had witnessed the
assassinations
of three Presidents. His father, President Garfield and President
McKinley.
The inspiration for "The Three Musketeers" was a company
of bodyguards for
King Louis XIII in 1622. They were originally issued muskets; thus
the word
musketeers, but the muskets were too heavy and unreliable to use, so
they
reverted back to using swords. Most of these musketeers were from
ages 17 to
20 years old and came from aristocratic families.
Cats have three types of hair: primary, awn and secondary. It’s the
primary
hair (also called guard hairs) that stick to your clothing. That’s
because
they have tiny barbs at their tips. Now you know.
The reason birds don’t tip over when they go to sleep on a wire is
simple.
Nature provided them with tendons that lock their claws when their
weight is
applied. The perfect vice grips, sort of.
The heat in chili peppers is measured in Scoville Units. Perfected
by a
Wilbur Scoville in 1912. Jalapenos weigh in at a measly 2,500 to
5,000
units. Compare this to the Habanero at 100,000 to 350,000. And you
wondered
why you hurt so badly, now you know.
Ever heard of Ribbon Falls? It’s our highest waterfall located in
Yosemite
National Park. FYI the falls drop from 1612 feet.
Turnpike: you know those roads that you might have to pay to travel
upon?
Well, the word originally came from the fact that the first toll
collectors
were armed with pikes. If you refused to pay, you might get poked
with the
pike. In any event you wouldn’t be allowed to get on the road. Same
deal
today.
Next time you want to complain about the lack of rain, think about
the
people who live in Tidikelt, over in the Sahara Desert. They once
went 10
years without any raindrops falling on anyone’s head.
You knew that Thomas Jefferson invented the dumbwaiter.
You might have guessed that taxicabs first appeared on the streets
of New
York in gasoline powered automobiles with meters, but in what year
was this?
1907, hard to believe.
Is there such a thing as a Tasmanian Devil? Sure is. Lives in, of
all places
Tasmania, off the coast of Australia. They’re about 31 inches long.
Look
somewhat like a small bear. Gets its name from its nasty temper. I
think I’
ve met some of them.
The phrase "to go scot free" doesn’t have anything to do
with Scotland. In
the old days in England, a ‘scot’ was the word used for a payment of
some
sort. Thus if you went ‘scot free’ it meant you didn’t have to pay.
If you are thinking about becoming a hydroplane driver you might
want to
reconsider. They have the highest mortality rate of any occupation
besides
being an astronaut. 25 out of every 1000 hydroplane drivers are
killed.
Risky business.
Rin Tin Tin, the famous dog of the movies, was found in a foxhole
during
World War 1.
Grandma Moses took up painting because her hands and fingers got to
be too
stiff to embroidery. This was a smart move.
Speaking of women, the first woman to ever win the Pulitzer prize
for
fiction was Edith Wharton in 1921 for her novel.” The Age of
Innocence."
Did you realize that the vocabulary of the average American consists
of
about 10,000 words? We need to improve on that.
Ants are like humans in a couple of ways. They stretch when they
first wake
up and yawn before getting started to work. I wonder if they stand
around
drinking coffee? Just kidding.
David Ben-Gurion was not a native of Israel. He was born in Poland
in 1886.
As you recall he became Israel’s first Prime Minister in 1948.
Likewise
Golda Meir was born in Russia in 1898, raised in the US and then
became
Israel’s fifth Prime Minister in 1969.
If you’re looking for something to do tonight, go outside and count
the
stars. It’s said that with the naked eye we can only see about 2,500
at a
time.
Women wearing buttons in Florence in the 1400’s were subject to
being
arrested. My question is why?
Speaking of a long time ago, in medieval Japan, you had to get a
tooth
pulled, you went to a dentist. He did it with his fingers. Ouch.
It has never been proven that Hitler ever hung any wallpaper.
