Fast Facts
December 4, 2006
- Shakespeare spelled his own name several different ways.
Ham radio operators coined the word ham from the expression “”ham-fisted operators,”” used to describe early radio users who sent Morse code by pounding their fists.
The ball on top of a flagpole is called a truck.
In 1778, fashionable women of Paris never went out in blustery weather without a lightning rod attached to their hats.
How valuable is the penny you found lying on the ground? If it takes just a second to pick it up, a person could make $36 per hour just picking up pennies.
According to author Douglas Adams, a salween is the faint taste of dishwashing liquid in a cup of fresh tea.
More than 26 dialects of Quichua are spoken in Ecuador.
The correct response to the Irish greeting “”Top of the morning to you”” is, “”And the rest of the day to yourself.””
A horologist measures time.
Mozart wrote the nursery rhyme “”Twinkle Twinkle, Little Star”” at the age of 5.
“”Gone With the Wind”” is the only Civil War epic ever filmed without a single battle scene.
American explorer Richard Byrd once spent five months alone in Antarctica.
The shortest British monarch was Charles I, who was 4-foot-9.
At 12 years old, an African man named Ernest Loftus made his first entry in his diary and continued every day for 91 years.
Louisa May Alcott, author of the classic “”Little Women,”” hated children. She only wrote the book because her publisher asked her to.
Mozart’s real name was Jahannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart.
The average banana weighs 126 grams.
Benjamin Franklin was the first head of the United States Post Office.
In Ivrea, Italy, thousands of citizens celebrate the beginning of Lent by throwing oranges at one another.
Only three world capitals begin with letter “”O”” in the English language: Ottawa, Canada; Oslo, Norway; and Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.
