Did you know?

peppercorn

Daniel Boone detested coonskin caps.
Playing cards were issued to British pilots in WWII. If they were captured, the cards could be soaked in water and unfolded to reveal a map for escape.
Most lipstick contains fish scales. Yum.
Dr. Seuss actually pronounced Seuss such that it sounded like Sue-ice.
Ketchup was sold in the 1830s as medicine.

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Gypsy

Hippos kill more people then any of the predators in Africa.

Nubia, Greece,Mexico,China,North America,Sudan and India all have Pyramids.

The Great Pyramid of Cholula is the largest pyramid ever built, by volume.It is still being excavated.

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peppercorn

American Airlines saved $40,000 in 1987 by eliminating one olive from each salad served in first class.

The number of possible ways of playing the first four moves per side in a game of chess is 318,979,564,000.

Upper and lower case letters are named 'upper' and 'lower', because in the time when 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. The proper term for upper case letters is "majuscule" and for lower case it's "minuscule".

The printing industry gives us other popular phrases, such as "mind your 'p's and 'q's." The moveable block type had the letters in reverse so they would read correctly when imprinted on paper. Apprentices had to remove the type from the pages and return the blocks to their upper and lower cases. Each drawer in the case held a different size of letters, and each drawer was divided into compartments (called sorts) for each letter. The letters 'p' and 'q' could easily be mistaken, so the master printer would advise their apprentices to mind their 'p's and 'q's. (This is debated.)

When the master printer was building a page and discovered that a particular sort was empty, he would get angry. Thus the term "out of sorts".

The question mark came from a monk habit of writing the Latin word for question, quo, at the end of sentences. Over time, the letters were written vertically to save space and morphed into the ? we write today. Similarly, the exclamation point came from the Latin word "Lo", meaning something important that should be heeded. (Lo and behold...)

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ravenquill

Since the invention of the automatic milking machine, milk cows have been selected for small teat length. Long teats were needed when they were hand milked, but they sometimes stepped on them when getting up from lying down. A milking machine works well on either, and the smaller teats are better for the cow.

Aspirin was first sold as a medicine in 1899, but it wasn't until 1971 that scientists figured out how it works.

It takes 90 gallons of paint to repaint a Boeing 747. The paint weighs 525 pounds.

Graffiti found on a wall in Pompei advertised prostitutes and their rates, including the ad, "Martimus licks your vulva for 4 As. He is ready to serve virgins as well."

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peppercorn

There are no words in the dictionary that rhyme with the words orange, purple, or silver, or month.
The numbers '172' can be found on the back of the U.S. $5 dollar bill in the bushes at the base of the Lincoln Memorial. (New or old? Not sure. Probably the old one.)
The very first bomb dropped by the Allies on Berlin during World War II killed the only elephant in the Berlin Zoo.
There are four cars and eleven lightposts on the back of a $10 dollar bill.
Scissors as we know them today (well, pretty much) were invented in Rome in about 100 AD (or CE, if you want to be politically correct).
If one places a tiny amount of liquor on a scorpion, it will instantly go mad and look like it is stinging itself to death. It spasms a lot.
Most scorpions will glow under black (ultraviolet) light. (?!)
Bruce Lee was so fast that they actually had to SLOW a film down so you could see his moves. That's the opposite of the norm.

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