The Memory Train is staying at the station this week, and I thought I would take this opportunity to share some information with you loyal readers. • Money isn’t made out of paper. It’s made out of cotton.
• The Declaration of Independence was written on hemp (marijuana) paper.
• The dot over the letter “i” is called a tittle.
• A raisin dropped in a glass of champagne will bounce up and down continuously from the bottom to the top of the glass.
• Forty percent of McDonald’s profits come from the sale of Happy Meals.
• Three hundred fifteen entries in Webster’s 1996 dictionary were misspelled.
• The “spot” on 7-Up soda comes from its inventor who had red eyes. He was an Albino.
• On average, 12 newborns will be given to the wrong parents daily.
• Warren Beatty and Shirley MacLaine are brother and sister.
• Chocolate affects a dog’s heart and nervous system. A few ounces will kill a small-sized dog.
• Orcas (killer whales) kill sharks by torpedoing up into the shark’s stomach from underneath, causing the shark to explode.
• Most lipsticks contain fish scales.
• Donald Duck comics were banned from Finland because he doesn’t wear pants.
• Ketchup was sold in the 1830s as medicine.
• Upper and lower case letters are called “upper” because at that time all original print had to be set in individual letters. The upper case letters were stored in the case on top of the case that stored the smaller, “lower case” letters.
• Leonardo DeVinci could write with one hand and draw with the other at the same time.
• Because metal was scarce then, the Oscars given out during World War II were made of wood.
• There are no clocks in the Las Vegas gambling casinos.
• The name Wendy was made up for the book Peter Pan. There was never a recorded Wendy before.
• There are no words in the dictionary that rhyme with orange, purple and silver.
• Leonardo DaVinci invented scissors. Also, it took him 10 years to paint Mona Lisa’s lips.
• A tiny amount of liquor on a scorpion will make it instantly go mad and sting itself to death.
• The mask used by Michael Meyers in the original “Halloween” was a Captain Kirk’s mask painted white.
• If you have three quarters, four dimes, and four pennies, you have $1.19. You also have the largest amount of money in coins without being able to make change for a dollar.
• By raising your legs slowly while laying on your back you can’t sink in quicksand.
• The phrase “rule of thumb” is derived from an old English law which stated that you couldn’t beat your wife with anything wider than your thumb.
• The first product Motorola started to develop was a record player for automobiles. At that time, the most known record player on the market was the Victrola, so they called themselves Motorola.
• Celery has negative calories. It takes more calories to eat a piece of celery than the celery has in it to begin with. It’s the same with apples.
• Chewing gum while peeling onions will keep you from crying.
• The glue on Israeli postage stamps is certified kosher.
• Guinness Books of Record hold the record for being the books most often stolen from public libraries.
• Astronauts are not allowed to eat beans before they go into space because passing gas in a space suit damages it.
• George Carlin said it best about Martha Stewart: “Boy, I feel better knowing that O.J. Simpson and Kobe Bryant are still walking around. Osama bin Laden too. But they take the one woman in America willing to cook, clean and work in the yard, and they haul her off to jail.”
Thank You Dept.: I want to thank all readers for comments I receive from all around the country. And what is so wonderful is that they keep me on my “P’s and Q’s” when I’m wrong, especially Mercury Records star Dinah Washington.
Hubie’s Humor Dept.: What song do fish sing to each other? “Salmon-chanted Evening.” On that note, if you are always “C sharp,” your life will never “B flat.”
Until next time, I’ll plant U now and dig U later. Peace and chicken grease!
Hugh Burrell can be reached at (313) 872-3437 or e-mail him at hughburrell@aol.com.
