Ponder
Points
You might have guessed that it
took 214 crates to transport the Statue of Liberty from France to
New York in 1885.
Jim Capone, the older brother of
the infamous Al Capone was known as Richard ‘Two Gun’ Hart because
he was a lawman in the state of Nebraska.
Red Foley, the country and
western signer was Pat Boone’s father in law.
You reached Never-Never Land by
‘traveling second to the right and then straight on until the
morning…’ …that’s important to those of you that liked “Peter Pan”.
The very last Ivy League college
in America to go co-ed was Dartmouth in the year 1972.
Queen Victoria was 18 years old
when she became the Queen of England…..what do you think was the
very first thing that she did? She moved her bed into her own
room…until that time she had slept in the same room with her mother.
Venezuela…that country in South
America…..the name actually means …’Little Venice.”
Richard Nixon had a music box on
his desk when he was the President…You may not have known that the
tune that it played was…”Hail to the Chief….”
“ Crusade in Europe” by Dwight
Eisenhower and “Profiles in Courage” by John F. Kennedy are the only
two books written by American Presidents that have been made into
television series.
Speaking of Presidents…Abraham
Lincoln was the first United States President to have been born
outside of the original 13 states…he was born in Kentucky.
OK…one more about world
leaders….Boris Yeltsin lost his thumb and forefinger of his left
hand…how? As a kid he stole some hand grenades…..one went off as he
and some buddies were trying to take it apart.
Asa Candler purchased the
formula for Coca Cola from John Pemberton for $2,300 in 1887. When
Mr. Candler’s sons sold out in 1916 they got 25 million for it. Good
return.
The first Japanese automobile to
be sold in the United States was the Datsun…..sold 83 of those
rascals in 1958.
Q. The publisher G.P. Putnam had
a famous wife …who was she?
A. The well-known flyer…Amelia
Earhart.
Bet old Amelia and her husband
brought in more income than the average American teacher in
1900….their annual salary at that time? About $325.00 yearly. Not
much was it?
You thought mail order was
relatively new didn’t you……not so; old Ben Franklin put out the
first mail order catalog in 1744. Junk mail has been with us a long,
long time.
At 1300 feet below sea level,
the Dead Sea is the lowest body of water on this planet.
The Queen of the Underworld
(sounds like a good name for a rock group doesn’t it?) and the wife
of Hades in Greek mythology was called …Persephone.
Benny Benson, Benny Benson…..who
was he? Well, he was a 13-year-old kid in the 7th grade
in 1927 when he entered a contest and designed the winning entry for
the State flag of Alaska.
Cattle, climate, copper and
cotton…known as the ‘Four C’s” are associated with what city…..? El
Paso, Texas …of course.
There was a Texas cattleman by
the name of Sam Maverick…refused to brand his cattle….so what word
do we associate with him today? If you said…’maverick’ you’d be
right.
While we’re on words…the term
‘The Real McCoy…” where’d it come from? It was from an advertisement
for a sewing machine in Ireland in the 1800’s.
Let’s see you name the only word
in the dictionary that starts and ends with ‘und’….Give up? It’s
underground.
Queen Elizabeth’s last words in
1603 were? “All my possessions for one moment of time.”
Buy something that weighs ‘a
hundredweight’ over here in the States and you’ll get 100 pounds of
something…do so in England and you’ll get 12 pounds more.
72 years…that’s how long
information in the census must remain confidential…..the government
thinks that’s about the average length of a normal life.
Thomas Edison was also the
person that first introduced the word …”hello” as the way to answer
the phone…..got it from the English word Halloo…a word used in fox
hunts…..
If you order a pizza pie in
Italy you are being redundant…since pizza means pie in
Italian…Thus you’d be ordering a pie pie.
The drink …”Bloody Mary” started
out as a drink called the “Red Snapper” where it was invented…in
Paris….
Cleopatra used cucumbers to help
preserve her skin…still being used today…not by Cleopatra.
H.J. Heinz first product of his
famous…’Heinz 57’ was horseradish
The pineapple originally came
from South America…Didn’t get to Hawaii until the early 1800’s……
If you buy peanut butter in the
US…at least 90% of it has to be peanuts…Otherwise it can’t be
sold…..
In 1927…Lindbergh took a Felix
the Cat doll with him as company when he crossed the Atlantic on his
33-hour record breaking solo trip.
Speaking of famous people …Will
Rogers was the honorary mayor of what city? Beverly Hills, of
course.
Bananas, applesauce, rice and
toast…….make up what diet? The BRAT diet…given to babies with
diarrhea…..
The reason herrings are called
sardines is because the first process for canning them started in
Sardinia…..that’s why…
Didn’t know this…Eskimos use
refrigerators to keep their food from freezing……
The average adult reads about
275 words per minute…..except the tax code…..then it slows down
considerably…..
Walt Disney wanted to name
Disneyland by some other name when it was about to be opened…know
what it was? Mickey Mouse Land….Doesn’t sound right does it?
What time does the clock have on
it on the back of a $100 bill? 4:10…..can’t find any reason for
this…maybe it just looks good or something…..
Those two stone lions in front
of the New York Public Library are named …”Patience and Fortitude….”
Former New York City Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia came up with this one.
Al Jolson, that famous early
jazz singer and movie star….imprinted his knees in cement in front
of the Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles. …
George Washington’s wife
…..Martha ……would probably not have responded if she heard her name
called…she was known as ‘Patsy’ by old George
By the way, Thomas Jefferson is
often seen wearing a fur-collared coat …where’d he get it? It was a
gift from a Polish soldier named Thaddeus Kosciusko.
Another presidential tidbit….who
was the first American to win a Nobel Prize? It was Teddy Roosevelt,
for his work in 1907 in settling the Russo-Japanese war.
