| Trivia, |
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| Beauty products czarina Elizabeth Arden was born Florence Nightingale Graham. Mickey Rooney has been married eight times, including marriages to actresses Ava Gardner and Martha Vickers. He has been married to Jan Chamberlin since 1978 The infamous Roman Emperor Nero murdered his mother and later his wife, Octavia, in order to marry his mistress. The melody for what became the pop music hit It's All In The Game in 1958 ws originally composed by Vice President Charles Dawes in 1912, before he served under Calvin Coolidge. Nobody knows where the body of French author Voltaire is. It was stolen from its tomb in the 19th century and has never been recovered. The theft was discovered in 1864, when the tomb was opened and it was empty. The herring is the most widely eaten fish in the world. Nutritionally, its fuel value is equal to that of a steak. According to the US Department of Agriculture, Americans eat more than 22 pounds of tomatoes per person every year. More than half this amount is eaten in the form of ketchup and tomato sauce. Johnny Bench of the Cincinnati Reds was the first catcher to win Rookie of the Year in 1968. The 10th American President, John Tyler, was the first president to be photographed while in office. Many folks are marrying older today than they did before the turn of the century. In the United States in 1890, the average age of men at their first marriage was 26 years, compared with 27 today. For women, the corresponding figures are 22 then, 25 now. Legendary Apache Chief Geronimo's Indian name GOYATHLAY, in English means "One who yawns". The Mexicans gave him the name Geronimo, which in Spanish means "Jerome". In March 2000, the Disney company reversed its 43-year ban on mustaches for its theme-park employees. Founding father Walt Disney sported his own mustache, but that didn't stop him from banning facial hair in 1957. He did this to distance his crew from stereotypical county fair "carnies". Actress Erika Christiansen's role as a drug addict in the movie Traffic was notable for the fact that when she filmed it the self-proclaimed "goody two-shoes" had never taken a Tylenol or smoked a cigarette. The modern dinner plate is a fairly recent development. Until the 15th century, it was customary to eat on a thick slice of stale bread, called a "trencher," that soaked up the juice. In the early 1950's, Clint Eastwood signed a $75 a week contract with Universal to do walk-ons in low-budget horror flicks. He was fired when studio executives decided his Adam's apple protruded too much for him to be star material. The name of the English game of cricket, is believed to have been derived from the Middle French word criquet, which means goalpost. Warren Beatty, Uma Thurman, Sidney Poitier, Burt Reynolds and Michael Caine worked as dishwashers before they became stars. A full-grown anteater is nearly 6 feet long, yet its mouth is only one inch wide. The Statler Hotel in Buffalo, NY, was the first hotel in the US to have running water and a private bath in each room when it was built in 1904. The Yuengling Brewery in Pottsville, PA, is the oldest continuously operating brewery in the US. It was built in 1829. A diamond will not dissolve in acid. The only thing that can destroy it is intense heat. Kobe beef is a special grade of beef from cattle raised in Kobe, Japan. Before they are turned into T-bones, the lucky cattle are massaged with sake and fed a daily diet that includes lots fo beer. This produces meat that is extraordinarily tender, finely marbled, and full flavored. It is also extremely expensive, often costing more than $100 per pound. The world burns up about 1 billion gallons of gas daily. Bob Hope served as the Academy Awards master of ceremonies by himself and with others a total of 16 times, and participated in an additional 27 Oscar presentations. No other individual has come close to matching his record. The first known advertisement printed in English appeared in 1477 and touted a prayer book. No price was quoted, only that the book was "good chepe" (Cheap). A poem written to celebrate a wedding is called a "epithalamium." New Age pianist Yanni is a former member of the Greek National Swimming Team. The big chill: During WW II, the US Navy commissioned the world's first floating ice cream parlor for service in the Pacific theater. This concrete barge, capable of producing ten gallons of ice cream every seven seconds, kept ships well supplied. Privately owned cars were forbidden on the island of Bermuda up until 1948. This is one reason that there are still so many bicycles there. Facetious, abstemious, abstentious, arsenious and arterious are the only five words in the English language that contain the vowels a, e, i, o and u in their proper order. In Milwaukee during the early 1900's 12,500 horses in the city left an estimated 1333 tons of manure and urine on the streets per year. Vintage port takes at least 40 years to reach maturity. During the late 19th century, it became fashionable to leave the bottom button of a vest or suit jacket undone. The reason? The fashion plate Prince of Wales - later Edward VII - was too fat to button it. George Washington died in 1799 after losing about two and a half liters of blood - half the amount possessed by an average human. Had Washington been injured? He hadn't. He was deliberately bled by three successive doctors - as treatment for a sore throat. Dr James H. Salisbury, a 19th century English/American physician, was the father of Salisbury Steak, which he prescribd as a health food. He believed that diet was the main factor governing our health, so he created a special food and diet, heavy on Salisbury Steak and hot water, for his patients suffering from anemia, gout, rheumatism, arteriosclerosis, tuberculosis and asthma. |