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     Volume 4 Issue 24| December 10, 2004 |


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Trivia

More Trivial Tidbits

*Neck ties were first worn in Croatia. That's why they were called cravats (CRO-vats).
*Alma mater means bountiful mother.
*A Holstein's spots are like fingerprints -- no two cows have the same pattern of spots.
*Glass flutes do not expand with humidity so their owners are spared the nuisance of tuning them.
*Jersey (in the Channel Islands, UK) was the only place that the Nazi's occupied in Great Britain during World War II.
*In England, the Speaker of the House is not allowed to speak.
*Playing cards were issued to British pilots in WWII. If captured, they could be soaked in water and unfolded to reveal a map for escape.
*Over 30 million people in the US "suffer" from Diastima. Diastima is having a gap between your front teeth.
*Carnivorous animals will not eat another animal that has been hit by a lightning strike.
*Reindeer milk has more fat than cow milk.
*Seoul, the South Korean capital, just means "the capital" in the Korean language.
*The original fifty cent piece in Australian decimal currency had around $2.00 worth of silver in it before it was replaced with a less expensive twelve sided coin.
*The letters KGB stand for Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti.
*The word rodent comes from the Latin word 'rodere' meaning to gnaw.
*Alexander the Great was an epileptic.
*The name for Oz in the "Wizard of Oz" was thought up when the creator, Frank Baum, looked at his filing cabinet and saw A-N, and O-Z, hence "Oz."
*There are ten human body parts that are only three letters long: Eye, Ear, Leg, Arm, Jaw, Gum, Toe, Lip, Hip and Rib.
*Elvis had a twin brother named Jesse Garon, who died at birth, which is why Elvis' middle name was spelled Aron; in honour of his brother.

*During WWII the city of Leningrad underwent a seventeen month German siege. Unable to access the city by roads, the Russians built a railroad across the ice on Lake Lagoda to get food and supplies to the citizens.
*The microwave was invented after a researcher walked by a radar tube and a chocolate bar melted in his pocket.
*Horses cannot vomit.
*Rabbits cannot vomit.
*The "chapters" of the New Testament were not there originally. When monks in medieval times translated it from the Greek, they numbered the pages in each "book."
*The term, "It's all fun and games until someone loses an eye" is from Ancient Rome.
*The only rule during wrestling matches was, "No eye gouging." Everything else was allowed, but the only way to be disqualified is to poke someone's eye out.
*The original plan for Disneyland included a Lilliputland.
*The Sanskrit word for "war" means "desire for more cows."
*The "ZIP" in Zip Code stands for "Zone Improvement Plan."
*When a female horse and male donkey mate, the offspring is called a mule, but when a male horse and female donkey mate, the offspring is called a hinny.
*A donkey will sink in quicksand but a mule won't.
*Crickets hear through their knees.

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