"The accompanying picture is no imaginary instance, but is actually taken from an official document. The figure is supposed to represent one of these Deal boatmen, and the numerals will explain the methods of secreting the tea. (1) Indicates a cotton bag which was made to fit the crown of his hat, and herein could be carried 2 lbs. of tea. He would, of course, have his hat on as he came ashore, and probably it would be a sou'wester, so there would be nothing suspicious in that. (2) Cotton stays or a waistcoat tied round the body. This waistcoat was fitted with plenty of pockets to hold as much as possible. (3) This was a bustle for the lower part of the body and tied on with strings. (4) These were thigh-pieces also tied round and worn underneath the trousers. When all these concealments were filled the man had on his person as much as 30 lbs. of tea, so that he came ashore and smuggled with impunity. And if you multiply these 30 lbs. by several crews of these Deal boats you can guess how much loss to the Revenue the arrival of an East Indiamen in the Downs meant to the Revenue."
-- East Indian smugglers' scheme to evade English customs officers, circa 1810. From E. Keble Chatterton, King's Cutters and Smugglers, 1700-1855, 1912
|W|P|113794104338692891|W|P|"How the Deal Boatmen Used to Smuggle Tea Ashore"|W|P|greg.ross@gmail.com"I can't listen to that much Wagner. I start getting the urge to conquer Poland." -- Woody Allen
|W|P|113779102978964576|W|P|Unquote|W|P|greg.ross@gmail.comWhile completing his last movie, James Dean filmed a safe-driving announcement aimed at teenagers.
"The life you save," he concluded, "may be mine."
|W|P|113871930350202933|W|P|Famous Last Words|W|P|greg.ross@gmail.com
Actors traditionally refer to Macbeth as "the Scottish play" rather than by name. Supposedly the witches cast real spells, cursing the play with fatal accidents -- beginning with the original production, when an actor was stabbed with a real dagger mistaken for a prop.
According to tradition, anyone who speaks the actual name of the play in a theater must leave, spit or turn around three times, and be invited back in.
|W|P|113841407479719422|W|P|"What Bloody Man Is That?"|W|P|greg.ross@gmail.comThere was a young lady from Bude
Who went for a swim in the lake
A man in a punt
Stuck an oar in her ear
And said, "You can't swim here, it's private."
-- Anonymous
|W|P|112871717426310774|W|P|Limerick|W|P|greg.ross@gmail.com"Can't Be Done":
- "You can't stand for five minutes without moving, if you are blindfolded."
- "You can't stand at the side of a room with both your feet lengthwise touching the wainscoting."
- "You can't get out of a chair without bending your body forward, or putting your feet under it; that is, if you are sitting squarely on the chair, and not on the edge of it."
- "You can't break a match if the match is laid across the nail of the middle finger of either hand, and passed under the first and third finger of that hand, despite its seeming so easy at first sight."
- "You can't stand with your heels against the wall and pick up something from the floor."
- "Don't try to rub your ear with your elbow, for it will be a failure."
- "It takes a clever person to stand up when placed two feet from a wall with his hands behind his back and his head against the wall."
-- Sam Loyd's Cyclopedia of 5000 Puzzles, Tricks, and Conundrums (With Answers), 1914
|W|P|113839896983245023|W|P|Nothing Doing|W|P|greg.ross@gmail.com
You can float in the Dead Sea without getting your newspaper wet.
The water's saltiness makes floating objects unusually buoyant.
|W|P|113841485729033934|W|P|Barely Wet|W|P|greg.ross@gmail.com
|W|P|Gahh! What happened to that guy's foot?!?claus�tro�phi�li�a
n. the liking of small, enclosed spaces
Solution to "What Am I?", from Saturday:
Nothing.
|W|P|113839808674510570|W|P|"What Am I?": Solution|W|P|greg.ross@gmail.com
In October 1995 a group of Welsh high-school students discovered a 2-inch frog alive inside an old ring-pull can. The frog was much larger than the can's opening, so it must have entered when it was small; the can's sell-by date was May 1994, so it may have been trapped for a year or more.
How did it stay alive all that time? Possibly its odor attracted bugs, and rain and dew could have reached it through the can's hole.
But possibly some animals can survive long periods with practically no resources. In the 19th century, English geologist William Buckland deliberately buried two dozen toads in chambers of limestone, sealing them in with a sheet of glass. The little ones survived for 13 months, he found, the big ones a few months longer.
That's impressive, but there are limits, of course. Texas legend tells of "Old Rip," a horned toad accidentally sealed in a courthouse cornerstone in 1897. When the building was demolished 31 years later, Rip supposedly hopped out. That sounds ridiculous, but supporters insist that the witnesses included two judges and a pastor. You can judge for yourself: Rip's remains are on display at the Eastland County Courthouse.
|W|P|113839618712103509|W|P|Entombed Animals|W|P|greg.ross@gmail.comI am greater than God, and more evil than the devil. Poor people have me. Rich people want me. And if you eat me, you'll die. What am I?
I'll post the answer tomorrow.
|W|P|113744684991211161|W|P|What Am I?|W|P|greg.ross@gmail.com
Yesterdays_ashes|W|P|The only thing that comes to mind is "Nothing".Uncle Billy rested his axe on the log he was chopping, and turned his grizzly old head to one side, listening intently. A confusion of sounds came from the little cabin across the road. It was a dilapidated negro cabin, with its roof awry and the weather-boarding off in great patches; still, it was a place of interest to Uncle Billy. His sister lived there with three orphan grandchildren.
Leaning heavily on his axe-handle, he thrust out his under lip, and rolled his eyes in the direction of the uproar. A broad grin spread over his wrinkled black face as he heard the rapid spank of a shingle, the scolding tones of an angry voice, and a prolonged howl.
"John Jay an' he gran'mammy 'peah to be havin' a right sma't difference of opinion togethah this mawnin'," he chuckled.
-- Annie Fellows Johnston, Ole Mammy's Torment, 1897
|W|P|113716166840890966|W|P|Progress Marches On|W|P|greg.ross@gmail.comHandbill circulated in Dallas on Nov. 21, 1963, the day before Kennedy's assassination:
In October 1998, 300 dead starlings fell out of the sky in Tacoma, Wash.
No one knows why.
|W|P|113659989449460931|W|P|Trick or Treat|W|P|greg.ross@gmail.comA human sacrifice to a carnivorous tree, as described in the South Australian Register, 1881:
The slender delicate palpi, with the fury of starved serpents, quivered a moment over her head, then as if instinct with demoniac intelligence fastened upon her in sudden coils round and round her neck and arms; then while her awful screams and yet more awful laughter rose wildly to be instantly strangled down again into a gurgling moan, the tendrils one after another, like great green serpents, with brutal energy and infernal rapidity, rose, retracted themselves, and wrapped her about in fold after fold, ever tightening with cruel swiftness and savage tenacity of anacondas fastening upon their prey.
Unfortunately, years of subsequent investigation -- including the enchantingly titled Madagascar, Land of the Man-Eating Tree (1924) -- have failed to find such a tree, or even the Mkodo tribe that purportedly feeds it. Nice try, though.
|W|P|113823008240107216|W|P|Revenge of the Food Chain|W|P|greg.ross@gmail.com
After viewing Citizen Kane, a friend asked Orson Welles how anyone could know Kane's last words when he died alone.
Reportedly Welles stared for a long time and said, "Don't you ever tell anyone of this."
|W|P|113737451929366286|W|P|"Rosebud"|W|P|greg.ross@gmail.com"Had I been present at the Creation, I would have given some useful hints for the better ordering of the universe." -- Alfonso, king of Castile (1221-1284), on studying the Ptolemaic system
|W|P|113443073328731497|W|P|Unquote|W|P|greg.ross@gmail.comFamous people who died of pneumonia:
- William Henry Harrison
- Leo Tolstoy
- Jim Backus
- Lawrence Welk
- Billy Wilder
- Charles Bronson
Yesterdays_ashes|W|P|And don't forget Jim Henson, the creator of the Muppets who died of bacterial pneumonia in 1990.
"This gentleman had an idea that he could fly by the aid of this ingenious machinery. You will see that his wings are arranged so that they are moved by his legs, and also by cords attached to his arms. The umbrella over his head is not intended to ward off the rain or the sun, but is to act as a sort of parachute, to keep him from falling while he is making his strokes. The basket, which hangs down low enough to be out of the way of his feet, is filled with provisions, which he expects to need in the course of his journey.
"That journey lasted exactly as long as it took him to fall from the top of a high rock to the ground below."
-- Frank R. Stockton, Round-About Rambles in Lands of Fact and Fancy, 1910
|W|P|113813894060282054|W|P|"Up in the Air"|W|P|greg.ross@gmail.comDuring World War II, B.F. Skinner was working on a pigeon-guided missile. Three pigeons inside the missile would guide it by pecking at a screen. The Pentagon didn't take it seriously.
There was also a proposal to attach tiny time bombs to bats and release them to roost in Japanese buildings. The project was tested successful on a fake Japanese city, but the war ended before it could be implemented.
In the 1960s the CIA implanted a battery and a microphone into a cat and an antenna into its tail. They released it near the Soviet compound in Washington D.C., but it was hit and killed by a taxi almost immediately.
|W|P|113528410223864950|W|P|Back to the Drawing Board|W|P|greg.ross@gmail.comIn 1925, shortly before his trial for teaching evolution, John Scopes received this letter from an actress:
|W|P|113487808425052943|W|P|Pro Bono|W|P|greg.ross@gmail.comIf the personal appearance of a highly educated chimpanzee will be of any assistance to you in arranging your defense, I tender you the services of "Smoky Ci," famous moving picture chimpanzee, without any fees.
Lillian Aurora
Every so often someone finds a bunch of rats whose tails are knotted together. It's called a rat king. (This one, with 32 rats, was found in a German miller's fireplace in 1828.)
The rats are usually dead when they're discovered, and no one has suggested a natural cause, so presumably humans are involved somehow.
Typically the rats are fully grown adults, so they're not born this way, and their tails are often broken and callused, which means they've survived in this state for some time, fed by humans or by other rats.
Why would anyone do this? Who knows?
|W|P|113796220431850305|W|P|Rat Kings|W|P|greg.ross@gmail.comIn January 2005, Canadian police officer Chris Legere pulled over an 18-year-old woman for driving 96 mph.
That afternoon he pulled over the same car doing 92 mph in the opposite direction. At first he thought it was driven by the same driver, but he was mistaken.
It was her identical twin sister.
|W|P|113642972777132993|W|P|Seeing Double|W|P|greg.ross@gmail.comFrom The Private Life of the Queen, by "One of Her Majesty's Servants," 1897:
|W|P|113191774565733776|W|P|Victoria Punk'd|W|P|greg.ross@gmail.comHer Majesty [Queen Victoria] takes delight in a clever riddle or rebus, but on one occasion she was very angry at having been hoaxed over a riddle which was sent to her with a letter to the effect that it had been made by the Bishop of Salisbury.
For four days the Queen and Prince Albert sought for the reply, when Charles Murray (Controller of the Household) was directed to write to the bishop and ask for the solution.
The answer received was that the bishop had not made the riddle nor could he solve it.
When It's a Wonderful Life was released in 1946, the FBI labeled it "subversive."
They said that its depiction of a greedy businessman was "a common trick used by communists."
|W|P|113737550421191791|W|P|"Am I Talking Too Much?"|W|P|greg.ross@gmail.comAre we getting smarter? IQ scores around the world have been going up by about three IQ points per decade.
Suggested reasons include improved nutrition, smaller families, better education, and the stimulating modern environment, but no one really knows what's causing it.
It's called the Flynn effect, after New Zealand political scientist who discovered it.
|W|P|113519718418113951|W|P|The Flynn Effect|W|P|greg.ross@gmail.comForgive your dying daughter. I have but a few moments to live. My native soil drinks my blood. I expected to deliver my country but the fates would not have it so. I am content to die. Pray, Pa, forgive me. Tell ma to kiss my daguerreotype.
P.S. -- Give my gold watch to little Eph.
-- Telegram dictated by "Emily" (last name unknown), who left home to join the Union army as a man and was fatally wounded in Tennessee at age 17
|W|P|113487571715559959|W|P|A Daughter's Farewell|W|P|greg.ross@gmail.com
Discovered in 1957, the Vinland map appears to show that the Vikings visited and mapped the New World more than 400 years before Columbus. That's us on the left, beyond Greenland.
Recent analyses have cast some doubts on its authenticity, but the jury's still out.
|W|P|113409453835593929|W|P|Vinland|W|P|greg.ross@gmail.comdeip�no�so�phy
n. learned dinner conversation
Kailashgiri Brahmachari is carrying his mother across India. They left the northern village of Piparia eight years ago and hope to reach Varanasi in 2013.
He says it's the will of God.
"He is a nice son, but I am getting tired," his mother told the BBC. "I sometimes feel like ending the journey and getting back home."
|W|P|113633824014596824|W|P|She Ain't Heavy|W|P|greg.ross@gmail.com
Who needs Photoshop? In 1920 two English cousins, Frances Griffiths and Elsie Wright, produced a series of photos that seemed to show them cavorting with fairies and gnomes. They were published in The Strand and convinced Arthur Conan Doyle, among others.
The girls remained evasive until 1981, when they admitted that the fairies had been paper cutouts held up with hatpins. But Frances maintained until her death that the gnome below was real.
"All generalizations are dangerous -- even this one." -- Alexandre Dumas
|W|P|113779151021691722|W|P|Unquote|W|P|greg.ross@gmail.comBlue Peacock was the sexy code name of a secret British plan to salt the Rhine with nuclear mines in the 1950s, in case of war.
Less sexily, they planned to put a live chicken in each one, to keep the electronics from getting cold.
When the file was declassified on April 1, 2004, this was taken to be an April Fool's joke, but it's true. Fortunately, the project was canceled.
|W|P|113527563215936647|W|P|I Say, 007!|W|P|greg.ross@gmail.com
No time to relax? Try speed golf. Sprint through 18 holes without a caddy and you can finish a round in 45 minutes.
Gerald Ford said, "I know I am getting better at golf because I'm hitting fewer spectators."
|W|P|113633649529078426|W|P|Fore!|W|P|greg.ross@gmail.comIn 1891, Robert Louis Stevenson sent a formal document to Annie Ide of St. Johnsbury, granting her his birth date.
Annie's birthday was Christmas Day, and she seldom received birthday presents, so Stevenson gave her rights to November 13. He no longer celebrated his birthday, he said, and she could have it.
|W|P|113769759858661963|W|P|And Many More|W|P|greg.ross@gmail.com TwistedNoggin|W|P|That's quite funny. I bet he was a fun eccentric.Cures, from John Aubrey, Miscellanies Upon Various Subjects, 1696:
- To cure a Thrush: Take a living frog, and hold it in a cloth, that it does not go down into the child's mouth; and put the head into the child's mouth 'till it is dead; and then take another frog, and do the same.
- To cure the Tooth-Ach: Take a new nail, and make the gum bleed with it, and then drive it into an oak. This did cure William Neal's son, a very stout gentleman, when he was almost mad with the pain, and had a mind to have pistolled himself.
- For the Jaundice: The jaundice is cured, by putting the urine after the first sleep, to the ashes of the ash-tree, bark of barberries.
- To cure a beast that is sprung, (that is) poisoned: It lights mostly upon Sheep. Take the little red spider, called a tentbob, (not so big as a great pins-head) the first you light upon in the spring of the year, and rub it in the palm of your hand all to pieces: and having so done, piss on it, and rub it in, and let it dry; then come to the beast and make water in your hand, and throw it in his mouth. It cures in a matter of an hour's time. This rubbing serves for a whole year, and it is no danger to the hand. The chiefest skill is to know whether the beast be poisoned or no. From Mr. Pacy.
Gottfried von Leibniz was convinced of the existence of unicorns by this skeleton, found in Germany's Harz Mountains in 1663.
Why does it have only two legs? Well, supporters said, that's because souvenir hunters plundered it.
Then why did they take the legs but leave the horn? Um ...
|W|P|113615045098294025|W|P|Unicorn Hoax?|W|P|greg.ross@gmail.comSolution to "A Penny Saved," from Wednesday:
Push the cork into the bottle.
|W|P|113753319939828994|W|P|"A Penny Saved": Solution|W|P|greg.ross@gmail.com |W|P|See, I knew this, but you threw me off with the picture. This solution doesn't work when the cork is so large in relation to the bottle!"Finally I am becoming stupider no more." -- Mathematician Paul Erdös, suggested epitaph for himself
|W|P|113509524876426613|W|P|R.I.P.|W|P|greg.ross@gmail.com
Suppose you put a coin into an empty bottle and then insert a cork in the bottle's opening. How could you retrieve the coin without breaking the bottle or pulling out the cork?
I'll give the answer tomorrow.
|W|P|113744666137414906|W|P|A Penny Saved|W|P|greg.ross@gmail.com |W|P|Spanish blogger likes plagiarism:http://86400.es/2006/01/19/acertijo/
|W|P|The last comment is false, the questions are for all people, not only for the people that can see this page. This blog translate de question to spanish only. |W|P|What about quoting your original source?It�s pretty simple to deduce that you have copied and translated this post.
Is "typical spanish" to do this things?
|W|P|No, no es t�picamente espa�ol hacer esto. Esto es t�picamente est�pido y ellos est�n en todas partes y cada vez se hacen notar m�s. Lamentablemente existen quienes los defienden.Tu tienes raz�n para estar enojado.
No soy espa�ol pero esa lengua yo hablo.
No, it is not typically Spanish to make this. This is typically stupid and they are everywhere and every time they are made notice more. Regrettably they exist who defend them.
You are right to be angry.
I'm not Spanish but that language I talk.
At a 1987 party, Oxford philosopher A.J. Ayer confronted Mike Tyson and demanded he stop harassing Naomi Campbell.
Tyson said, "Do you know who the fuck I am? I'm the heavyweight champion of the world."
Ayer replied, "And I am the former Wykeham professor of logic! We are both pre-eminent in our field; I suggest that we talk about this like rational men."
No word on who Campbell left with.
|W|P|113737389206516817|W|P|Strange Bedfellows|W|P|greg.ross@gmail.comIf you're going to exhibit a talking cat in Georgia, you need a business license, according to a court ruling in 1981. Carl and Elaine Miles had been presenting Blackie the Talking Cat to passersby in Augusta; Blackie would meow "I love you" or "I want my mama," and the onlookers would give small change to the Mileses.
They objected to the license requirement, saying that the law violated their right to free speech and that it didn't mentioned talking animals. But they lost the case in district court in 1982, and an appeals court upheld the decision:
This Court will not hear a claim that Blackie's right to free speech has been infringed. First, although Blackie arguably possesses a very unusual ability, he cannot be considered a "person" and is therefore not protected by the Bill of Rights. Second, even if Blackie had such a right, we see no need for appellants to assert his right jus tertii.
The court added, "Blackie can clearly speak for himself."
|W|P|113527545395105089|W|P|Miles v. City Council of Augusta, Georgia|W|P|greg.ross@gmail.com
The land regions of Mars can be distinguished from the seas by their ruddy color, the seas being greenish. But here, perhaps, you will be disposed to ask how astronomers can be sure that the greenish regions are seas, the ruddy regions land, the white spots either snow or cloud. Might not materials altogether unlike any we are acquainted with exist upon that remote planet?
The spectroscope answers this question in the clearest way. You may remember what I told you in October, 1876, about Venus, how astronomers have learned that the vapor of water exists in her atmosphere. The same method has been applied, even more satisfactorily, to the planet of war, and it has been found that he also has his atmosphere at times laden with moisture. This being so, it is clear we have not to do with a planet made of materials utterly unlike those forming our earth. To suppose so, when we find that the air of Mars, formed like our own (for if it contained other gases the spectroscope would tell us), contains often large quantities of the vapor of water, would be as absurd as to believe in the green cheese theory of the moon, or in another equally preposterous, advanced lately by an English artist�Mr. J.T. Brett�to the effect that the atmosphere of Venus is formed of glass.
-- Richard A. Proctor, St. Nicholas Magazine for Boys and Girls, November 1877
|W|P|113734564476852222|W|P|"The Planet of War"|W|P|greg.ross@gmail.comThe sum of the numbers 1 through 10 is 55.
The sum of the numbers 1 through 100 is 5,050.
The sum of the numbers 1 through 1,000 is 500,500.
|W|P|113427497307542450|W|P|A Number Pattern|W|P|greg.ross@gmail.comErnest Hemingway's former home in Key West, Fla., contains a colony of six-toed cats.
The author had a sailor's love of polydactyl cats -- their extra toes are considering good luck at sea, giving them superior abilities to climb and to hunt shipboard rodents.
So when Hemingway received a six-toed cat from a ship's captain, he provided for its descendants in his will. There are currently about 60 cats at the Key West house, and about half of them have extra toes.
|W|P|113659970187985624|W|P|Hemingway's Cats|W|P|greg.ross@gmail.com
High Noon unfolds in real time. You can time the events on your watch.
|W|P|113720571328021308|W|P|"Kane Will Be a Dead Man in Half an Hour"|W|P|greg.ross@gmail.comStanding shoulder to shoulder, all the people in the world could fit on the Indonesian island of Bali.
|W|P|113479347321119261|W|P|SRO|W|P|greg.ross@gmail.comRecipe for "flying ointment":
- 1/2 oz. soot
- 1 oz. pork fat
- 1 oz. hemlock
- 1 oz. deadly nightshade
- 1 oz. wolfsbane
Allegedly such recipes were obtained by torturing accused witches, who said they used the ointment to fly to the Sabbat. More likely the mixture induced hallucinations; maybe that amounts to the same thing.
|W|P|113519645934638678|W|P|Toil and Trouble|W|P|greg.ross@gmail.com
The Russians' "tsar tank" (above) didn't work in World War I, and their "winged tank" (below) didn't work in World War II.
No matter. "Failure is not falling down," runs an Asian proverb, "but refusing to get up."
an�tich�thon
n. hypothetical second Earth on the opposite side of the sun
Thinking they had found a Viking settlement, a team of experts spent months in 2003 excavating a platform of slabs in Marion Garry's garden in Fife, Scotland.
They finally realized it was a 1940s patio.
Archaeologist Douglas Speirs admitted to ignoring an old television remote found during the dig.
"Looking back now," he said, "that probably wasn't the best approach."
|W|P|113660102512293354|W|P|Science Marches On|W|P|greg.ross@gmail.com
When Magellan reached Argentina in 1519, he was in for a shock:
One day we suddenly saw a naked man of giant stature on the shore of the port, dancing, singing, and throwing dust on his head. The captain-general sent one of our men to the giant so that he might perform the same actions as a sign of peace. ... He was so tall that we reached only to his waist, and he was well proportioned ...
The navigator's account says the man was "10 spans high," which would be 7 foot 6; later European explorers reported natives up to 15 feet tall.
These legends persisted for 250 years before they were debunked, and they left one permanent legacy: Patagonia means "land of the big feet."
|W|P|113604955287956664|W|P|Tall Tale|W|P|greg.ross@gmail.comA 2003 survey of Domino's Pizza managers in Washington D.C. found that Dec. 13, 2003, the day Saddam Hussein was captured, was the biggest day of the year for tips.
|W|P|113642846031483275|W|P|Piece of the Pie|W|P|greg.ross@gmail.comThe world's longest diary is kept by Robert Shields of Dayton, Wash. Since 1972 he has spent four hours a day typing a record of everything that happens to him. Sample:
July 25, 1993, 7 a.m.: I cleaned out the tub and scraped my feet with my fingernails to remove layers of dead skin.
He stores the diary, now 38 million words long, in more than 80 cardboard boxes.
|W|P|113633871027553988|W|P|Dear Diary|W|P|greg.ross@gmail.com
The Sedlec Ossuary in the Czech Republic is decorated with 40,000 human skeletons.
"If life must not be taken too seriously," wrote Samuel Butler, "then so neither must death."
|W|P|113519659639995426|W|P|Bone and Garden|W|P|greg.ross@gmail.comThe Telluride Nothing Festival has been a cherished Colorado tradition since 1991. Highlights of this year's gathering:
- Sunrises and sunsets as normal.
- Gravity will continue to be in effect.
- The laws of physics will be on display.
Festival motto: "Thank you for not participating."
|W|P|113633706597888420|W|P|"Leave Me Alone"|W|P|greg.ross@gmail.com"There are some ideas so wrong that only a very intelligent person could believe in them." -- George Orwell
|W|P|113435005719563160|W|P|Unquote|W|P|greg.ross@gmail.com
Egypt's Great Pyramid weighs 5,750,090 tons.
|W|P|113479185517903984|W|P|Great Indeed|W|P|greg.ross@gmail.comAccording to his transcript, George P. Burdell has been a student at Georgia Tech since 1927. How? He was invented out of thin air when student Ed Smith received two enrollment forms. With Smith's help, "Burdell" attended all his friend's classes and took all the same exams.
For a nonexistent person, Burdell turned out to be pretty ambitious. Smith graduated in 1930, but his invisible friend stuck around, adopted by other students. He eventually earned a master's degree and became an official alumnus, then flew 12 bombing missions over Europe in World War II. In 1969 he signed up for a whopping 3,000 credit hours at Georgia Tech -- and began a 12-year term on MAD magazine's board of directors. In 2001 he was briefly the leading contender among voters for TIME magazine's person of the year.
Strangely, after 79 years of school Burdell is still only a sophomore. He's majoring in civil engineering, according to a recent report card.
|W|P|113527782804642298|W|P|A Professional Student|W|P|greg.ross@gmail.comIn 1956, an expedition to the South Pole found a tin of Edam cheese left behind by Robert Scott's party 44 years earlier.
It was still edible.
|W|P|113642915389241165|W|P|Deep Freeze|W|P|greg.ross@gmail.com
Contents of Lincoln's pockets on the night of his assassination:
- Two pairs of glasses
- Lens polisher
- Watch fob
- Penknife
- Newspaper clippings
- Handkerchief
... and a Confederate five-dollar bill.
|W|P|113521474971551596|W|P|Lincoln's Pockets|W|P|greg.ross@gmail.comAbout 17 to 25 percent of people sneeze when exposed to bright light.
It's called photic sneeze reflex.
|W|P|113519744282827890|W|P|Gesundheit|W|P|greg.ross@gmail.comIn October 2003, a couple hiking in the mountains of northern Sweden came upon 70 pairs of shoes, all filled with butter.
No one knows who put them there, or why.
|W|P|113660028910526075|W|P|Heels Shortened|W|P|greg.ross@gmail.com
"Twenty young men chase a cheese off a cliff and tumble 200 yards to the bottom, where they are scraped up by paramedics and packed off to hospital."
That's a typical description of the Cooper's Hill Cheese Rolling and Wake, held each May at Cooper's Hill near Gloucester, England. The participants run downhill after a Double Gloucester cheese, which the winner gets to keep. Theoretically they're trying to catch the cheese, but it rapidly gets up to 70 mph (knocking over a spectator in 1997) and this rarely happens.
The racers themselves get sprained ankles, broken bones and concussions, and the first-aid services are getting stretched as the race grows in popularity. Last year they ran out of ambulances.
|W|P|113526291144923314|W|P|Tally Ho|W|P|greg.ross@gmail.com"Nothing is more exhilarating than to be shot at without result." -- Winston Churchill
|W|P|113604625394359493|W|P|Unquote|W|P|greg.ross@gmail.comWinnipeg resident Jim Sulkers lay dead in his apartment for two years before his body was discovered.
Sulkers was estranged from his family, and automated banking processed his disability checks and paid his bills.
When police finally climbed through the window in August 2004, they found his mummified body in the bed, spoiled food in the refrigerator, and a wall calendar that was two years out of date. Everything else was in perfect order.
|W|P|113633759895291697|W|P|One Man Is an Island|W|P|greg.ross@gmail.com
If you live on the Atlantic coast, keep your eyes peeled for rubber ducks. In 1992, 29,000 bathtub toys were washed from a container ship into the North Pacific. For 14 years they've been working their way through the arctic, and they're beginning to appear in the U.S. and Europe. The First Years, the U.S. company that made the ducks, is offering $100 in savings bonds to anyone who finds one -- call 1-800-317-3194.
|W|P|113633730828782736|W|P|Beachcombers' Bonanza|W|P|greg.ross@gmail.comTo show his devotion, St. Simeon Stylites the Elder (c. 388-459) climbed onto a column and stayed there for 36 years.
Julius Caesar wrote, "Men willingly believe what they wish."
|W|P|113633750009365991|W|P|"The Pillar Saint"|W|P|greg.ross@gmail.comA masochist's lunch menu:
- Casu marzu is a Sardinian cheese riddled with live insect larvae that can jump up to 6 inches. Wear goggles.
- Kopi luwak, sometimes described as "cat poop coffee," is a Sumatran beverage made from berries that have passed through a civet's digestive tract.
- Lutefisk is a Nordic dish made by soaking whitefish in lye. It is the only food refused by Jeffrey Steingarten, author of The Man Who Ate Everything: "Lutefisk is not food, it is a weapon of mass destruction."
- "Stinky tofu," a favorite of Mao Zedong, is marinated for months in a brine of fermented vegetables. Reportedly it tastes like blue cheese, but its smell has been compared to sewage, horse manure, and "a used tampon baking in the desert."
Mark Twain wrote, "Part of the secret of success in life is to eat what you like and let the food fight it out inside."
|W|P|113649241559466611|W|P|Bon Apetit|W|P|greg.ross@gmail.com
In the sixth century A.D., the Maya astronomers of Central America determined the length of the solar year to be 365.242 days.
The true length, established by modern astronomers, is 365.2422 days.
|W|P|113605012905327361|W|P|One Celestial Revolution|W|P|greg.ross@gmail.come�po�po�e�an
adj. befitting an epic poet
In 1979, K.T. Smith offered to buy a drink for anyone willing to moon the next train that passed the Mugs Away Saloon in Laguna Niguel, Calif.
Since then, the second Saturday in July has become "Moon Amtrak Day," when hundreds of drinkers bare their bottoms at the 25 trains that pass through town.
The trains are reportedly booked solid for months in advance.
|W|P|113643032377641455|W|P|Bad Moon Rising|W|P|greg.ross@gmail.com
Letter received by William McKinley in April 1898, shortly before the outbreak of the Spanish-American War:
|W|P|113487733591444166|W|P|Have Gun, Will Travel|W|P|greg.ross@gmail.comDear Sir I for one feel Confident that your good judgment will carry America safely through without war --
But in case of such an event I am ready to place a Company of fifty Lady sharpshooters at your disposal. Every one of them will be an American and as they will furnish their own arms and ammunition will be little if any expense to the government.
Very truly
Annie Oakley
Fingernails grow up to four times faster than toenails.
|W|P|113479263918649919|W|P|Hand Over Foot|W|P|greg.ross@gmail.comHere's one way to beat temptation: file a lawsuit. In 1971, Gerald Mayo sued "Satan and his staff" in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania. He alleged that "Satan has on numerous occasions caused plaintiff misery and unwarranted threats, against the will of plaintiff, that Satan has placed deliberate obstacles in his path and has caused plaintiff's downfall" and had therefore "deprived him of his constitutional rights," a violation of the U.S. Code.
The court noted that jurisdiction was uncertain; legally the devil might count as a foreign prince. Also, Mayo's claim seemed appropriate for a class action suit, and it wasn't clear that Mayo could represent all of humanity. Finally, no one was sure how the U.S. Marshal could serve process on Satan.
So the devil got away. Mayo's case has been cited several times, and has never been overturned or contradicted.
|W|P|113527543990407421|W|P|"Get Thee Behind Me"|W|P|greg.ross@gmail.com
Except for the beds, Sweden's Ice Hotel is made completely of ice blocks -- 60 rooms and suites, a bar, a reception area and a chapel, 30,000 square feet in all. Even the glasses in the bar are made of ice. You can book a room for about $400, but hurry -- it melts in May.
Its alter ego is the Uyuni Salt Hotel, in Bolivia, where everything -- including the beds -- is made of salt. (Photo �2005 Tom Corser, www.tomcorser.com.)
|W|P|113535127996918093|W|P|Extreme Hospitality|W|P|greg.ross@gmail.comBill Clinton sent only two e-mails during his entire eight-year term in office. One was to test the system; the other was to congratulate John Glenn on his return to space.
Both are archived in Clinton's presidential library.
|W|P|113642995213796427|W|P|Clinton and E-Mail|W|P|greg.ross@gmail.comUntil 2000, calling 760-733-9969 would connect you to a single phone booth in the Mojave desert, 15 miles from the nearest interstate and miles from any building.
Tired of vandalism, Pacific Bell finally took down the booth. Fans put up a headstone, but they took that down too. Killjoys.
|W|P|113519856752832177|W|P|Hello?|W|P|greg.ross@gmail.com
Bangkok's full name is Krung Thep Mahanakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahinthara Ayuthaya Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom Udomratchaniwet Mahasathan Amon Piman Awatan Sathit Sakkathattiya Witsanukam Prasit.
It means "the city of angels, the great city, the eternal jewel city, the impregnable city of God Indra, the grand capital of the world endowed with nine precious gems, the happy city, abounding in an enormous royal palace that resembles the heavenly abode where reigns the reincarnated god, a city given by Indra and built by Vishnukarn."
|W|P|113614983845796203|W|P|Formal Thai|W|P|greg.ross@gmail.comTreatment for sore throat, diphtheria, and scarlet fever from The Confederate Receipt Book, 1868:
|W|P|113521116141859768|W|P|Landmarks in Medicine, #1|W|P|greg.ross@gmail.comMix in a common size cup of fresh milk two teaspoonfuls of pulverized charcoal and ten drops of spirits of turpentine. Soften the charcoal with a few drops of milk before putting into the cup. Gargle frequently, according to the violence of the symptoms.
Yesterdays_ashes|W|P|They were built tough back then!!! Seems to me the turpentine would kill you...betcha kids didn't try to use the excuse of a sore throat to get out of school much. :-)Silliest British name changes of 2005, according to The Sun:
- Tim Mind Your Own Business And Kiss My Arsenal Swain
- Solar Fruitbat Samba
- Nineteen Sixty-Eight
- Rhyme-Master Joey Joe Joe Toasterface
- Jellyfish McSaveloy
- Nigel Bottomface
In 2002, Richard James of St. Albans agreed to change his name to Mr. Yellow-Rat Foxysquirrel Fairydiddle in exchange for a pint of beer. He paid $70 to make the change official, then realized he didn't have enough money to change it back.
|W|P|113633666566177641|W|P|"David Hulk Banner"|W|P|greg.ross@gmail.com
A letter to the Seattle Bureau of Prohibition, Sept. 12, 1931:
|W|P|113520872088749718|W|P|Prohibition and the Family|W|P|greg.ross@gmail.comDear Sir:
My husband is in the habit of buying a quart of wiskey every other day from a Chinese bootlegger named Chin Waugh living at 317-16th near Alder street.
We need this money for household expenses. Will you please have his place raided? He keeps a supply planted in the garden and a smaller quantity under the back steps for quick delivery. If you make the raid at 9:30 any morning you will be sure to get the goods and Chin also as he leaves the house at 10 o'clock and may clean up before he goes.
Thanking you in advance, I remain yours truly,
Mrs. Hillyer
Elvis Presley had an eighth-degree black belt in karate.
|W|P|113633833042947798|W|P|Don't Be Cruel|W|P|greg.ross@gmail.comHeadmaster's Palindromic List on His Memo Pad
| Test on Erasmus | Dr. of Law |
| Deliver slap | Stop dynamo (OTC) |
| Royal: phone no.? | Tel: Law re Kate Race |
| Ref. Football. | Caps on for prep |
| Is sofa sitable on? | Pots -- no tops |
| XI -- Staff over | Knit up ties ("U") |
| Sub-edit Nurse's order | Ned (re paper) |
| Caning is on test (snub slip-up) | Eve's simple hot dish (crib) |
| Birch (Sid) to help Miss Eve | Pupil's buns |
| Repaper den | T-set: no sign in a/c |
| Use it | Red roses |
| Put inkspot on stopper | Run Tide Bus? |
| Prof. -- no space | Rev off at six |
| Caretaker (wall, etc.) | Noel Bat is a fossil |
| Too many d---- pots | Lab to offer one "Noh" play -- or "Pals Reviled"? |
| Wal for duo? (I'd name Dr. O) | Sums are not set. |
| See few owe fees (or demand IOU?) |
-- Winning entry in a New Statesman palindrome competition, 1967
|W|P|113227799275793545|W|P|A Symmetric To-Do List|W|P|greg.ross@gmail.com
"When a candle is burnt so long as to leave a tolerably large wick, blow it out; a dense smoke, which is composed of hydrogen and carbon, will immediately rise. Then, if another candle, or lighted taper, be applied to the utmost verge of this smoke, a very strange phenomenon will take place. The flame of the lighted candle will be conveyed to that just blown out, as if it were borne on a cloud, or, rather, it will seem like a mimic flash of lightning proceeding at a slow rate."
-- Alfred Rochefort, Healthful Sports for Boys, 1910
|W|P|113608420440872936|W|P|Light Up|W|P|greg.ross@gmail.comDEAR MRS. A.,
HOORAY, HOORAY,
AT LAST YOU ARE DEFLOWERED.
ON THIS AS EVERY OTHER DAY
I LOVE YOU -- NOEL COWARD.
-- Telegram received by Gertrude Lawrence, July 5, 1940, the day after her wedding
|W|P|113435071262355119|W|P|Best Wishes|W|P|greg.ross@gmail.com"Listening to the Fifth Symphony of Vaughan Williams is like staring at a cow for 45 minutes." -- Aaron Copland
|W|P|113604644414195610|W|P|Unquote|W|P|greg.ross@gmail.com
Necessity is the mother of invention. In the 1840s, when Army horses and mules were failing in the American Southwest, Secretary of War Jefferson Davis (yes, same guy) allocated $30,000 for "the purchase of camels and the importation of dromedaries, to be employed for military purposes." The Navy sent a ship to North Africa, and in 1856 33 confused camels arrived in Indianola, Texas.
They did pretty well. After a survey expedition to California, an enthusiastic Col. Edward Beale declared, "I look forward to the day when every mail route across the continent will be conducted ... with this economical and noble brute."
The Civil War put an end to the project, but there's a strange postscript. Some of the camels escaped into the Texas desert, where apparently they adapted to life in the wild. The last feral camel was sighted in 1941. There's a movie in here somewhere.
|W|P|113521023814368536|W|P|U.S. Camel Corps|W|P|greg.ross@gmail.com |W|P|There already was a movie; it was called "Hawmps" - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074614/
This verse is a combined lipogram and pangram: Each stanza omits the letter e but includes every other letter of the alphabet:
A jovial swain should not complain
Of any buxom fair,
Who mocks his pain and thinks it gain
To quiz his awkward air.Quixotic boys who look for joys
Quixotic hazards run;
A lass annoys with trivial toys,
Opposing man for fun.A jovial swain might rack his brain,
And tax his fancy's might;
To quiz is vain, for 'tis most plain
That what I say is right.
-- W.S. Walsh, Handy-Book of Literary Curiosities, 1892
|W|P|113228123189100147|W|P|Lipogram Pangram|W|P|greg.ross@gmail.comIn a 70-year lifetime, the average person sheds 44 pounds of skin.
|W|P|113479331340446854|W|P|Call Housekeeping|W|P|greg.ross@gmail.com
Unfortunate epitaphs:
Sacred to the Memory of
Captain Anthony Wedgwood
Accidentally Shot by His Gamekeeper
Whilst Out Shooting
"Well Done Thou Good and Faithful Servant"
Erected to the Memory
of
John McFarlane
Drown'd in the Water of Leith
By a Few Affectionate Friends
Solution to "The Four Sevens," from Saturday:
Dudeney writes, "The way to write four sevens with simple arithmetical signs so that they represent 100 is as follows:"
7/.7 × 7/.7 = 100.
"Of course the fraction, 7 over decimal 7, equals 7 divided by 7/10, which is the same as 70 divided by 7, or 10. Then 10 multiplied by 10 is 100, and there you are! It will be seen that this solution applies equally to any number whatever that you may substitute for 7."
Full credit to Alex's 77/.77 = 100, which is more simply expressed and equally adaptable.
|W|P|113461693263307767|W|P|"The Four Sevens": Solution|W|P|greg.ross@gmail.comque�ri�mo�ni�ous
adj. full of complaints