News, Entertainment, Enlightenment
Mob boss Paul Castellano was not know for his sense of humor. In 1975, he heard his daughter’s boyfriend, Vito Borelli, compare him to Frank Perdue whose commercials were appearing on TV at the time. Big Paul had him whacked. Borelli, we mean, not Perdue. It takes a tough man to make a tender chicken.
Ever hear of a place called Woomera? How about Emu Field? They are in Australia. It’s where the British tested their atomic bombs. Ladies, imagine your two-piece bathing suits being called woomeras. Or emus.
Colonel comes from the Italian colonna which means column. The rank signified someone who led a column.
So what do Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Kurt Cobain and Amy Winehouse have in common besides being rock musicians and dying young? They were all 27 when they died. Some say the curse comes from bluesman Robert Johnson who also died at 27 in 1938 and is argued to be the inspiration for Rock and Roll.
Lieutenant O.F.J. Hogg of No. 2 AA Section in III Corps of the British Army was the first anti-aircraft gunner to shoot down an aircraft. It happened on Sept 23, 1914 in France.
There have been books bound with leathered human skin. Many can be found at the College of Physicians of Philadelphia.
A squirrel must bury more than 100 acorns to survive the winter.
Hoover Dam was the first man made structure to exceed the masonry mass of the Egyptian Great Pyramid at Giza.
Gendarme is term for French policemen. Originally, though the word referred to a knight in full armor i.e. a homme d’armes which is a man-at-arms and the plural of which is gens d’armes.
It’s well known that Ludwig von Beethoven composed is wondrous 9th Symphony when he was almost totally deaf. And probably many know that Thomas Edison was mostly deaf when he invented the phonograph. Just an irony to ponder next time you listen to a recording of the 9th Symphony.
And to trigger our few non-fans, we’d like to further the irony by pointing out that Rush Limbaugh, the world’s greatest radio personality, is also totally deaf.