X-treme Weather
The temperature has never reached 100°F in either Alaska or Hawaii.
Cherrapunji, India, is the wettest inhabited place on earth, with 428 inches of rain per year.
Highest temperature ever recorded at the South Pole: 8°F.
Chicago’s average winter temperature is colder than that of Reykjavik, Iceland.
Tornadoes strike most often between 4:00 and 6:00 p.m., March through July.
In 1921, a hurricane deposited 23 inches of rain on Texas in one day.
A lightning bolt strikes so fast that it could circle the globe eight times in a second.
The warmest city in the United States, on average, is Key West, Florida. Coldest: International Falls, Minnesota.
Dust from the Sahara desert has been carried by the wind as far as Chicago.
Wettest city in the United States: Hilo, Hawaii. Driest: Yuma, Arizona.
Driest inhabited place on earth: Aswan, Egypt, receives only 0.02 inch of rain per year.
Snowiest city in the United States: Blue Canyon, California, with 204 inches (17 feet) per year.
Winds that blow toward the equator curve west.
Florida has more tornadoes per square mile than any other state.
All About Words
There are no words in the English language that rhyme with “orange,” “silver,” “month,” and “purple.”
The letter combination “ough” can be pronounced eight different ways.
The Swedish group ABBA learned to sing their English songs phonetically.
ABBA also had the highest-charting single in which both the song and band’s name were palindromes: “SOS.”
The only three English words that end in “ceed”: succeed, proceed, and exceed.
Stevie Wonder released a 1968 album under the name Eivets Rednow.
What does KGB stand for? Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti (or Committee for State Security, in English.)
The Japanese word koroski means “death induced by overwork.”
Saippuakivikauppias…Finnish for “lye merchant.”
Only word in the English language that begins and ends with “und”: underground.
What is Nessiteras rhombopteryx? The scientific name for the Loch Ness Monster…and an anagram for “monster hoax by Sir Peters.”
The “Ye” in “Ye Olde Taverne” is pronounced “the,” not “yee.”
The Simpsons cartoonist Matt Groening’s name rhymes with “raining.”
In The Matrix, Neo is often referred to as “the One.” (One is an anagram of Neo.)
Higher Education
Most college grads live in urban areas—about twice as many as elsewhere.
Harvard University started out as New College in 1636 with nine students and one instructor.
Over a lifetime, a college graduate earns an average of $1 million more than a high school grad.
In 2008, about 18 million students were enrolled in U.S. colleges and universities.
Oldest continuously operating high school in America: Boston Latin, established in 1635.
In 1963, Rice University in Houston became the first U.S. university to establish a department of space science.
Yale University granted the first medical diploma in the United States in 1729.
Oberlin College in Ohio was one of the first U.S. colleges to admit African Americans and women.
Usually, a “college” provides only undergraduate programs, whereas a “university” offers both undergraduate and graduate courses of study.
During the 1960s, Stephen King wrote a column called “King’s Garbage Truck” for a University of Maine magazine.
Mary Lyon founded the first women’s college in America, Mount Holyoke Seminary in Massachusetts, in 1837.
Yale University is home to the oldest college newspaper in the United States, the Yale Daily News.
Adjusted for inflation, it now costs twice as much to attend a four-year college than it did 25 years ago.
Doctor! Doctor!
Every year, U.S. doctors leave surgical tools inside about 1,500 patients.
What do revolutionary Che Guevara and clairvoyant Nostradamus have in common? Both had careers as doctors.
Jane Delano, a relative of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, founded the American Red Cross Nursing Service.
Elizabeth Blackwell was the first woman to graduate from a U.S. medical school and the first female doctor in the United States.
Busiest time of year for plastic surgeons: Christmas.
Only 11 percent of American doctors play golf.
Walt Whitman served for three years in the Civil War…as a nurse.
In 1988, Beach Boy Brian Wilson and his psychiatrist, Dr. Eugene Landy, recorded a rap song called “Smart Girls.”
The number-one reason Americans give for visiting the doctor is “upper respiratory tract infection.”
Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung introduced the concepts of extroverted and introverted personalities.
There are more psychiatrists than mail carriers in the United States.
Child-care guru Dr. Benjamin Spock won the 1924 Olympic gold medal in rowing.
Hippocrates, the “father of medicine,” prescribed pigeon poop as a cure for baldness.
Sigmund Freud pioneered the use of cocaine as an anesthetic.
A Pirate’s Life
THE GILDED AGE. The “Golden Age of Piracy” was an outbreak of piracy in nearly all the world’s oceans that lasted from about 1650 until 1725. Most modern ideas of pirates come from this period, and history’s most notorious pirate leaders—like Blackbeard, Henry Morgan, and William Kidd— all sailed during this time.
NOT A BAD JOB. During the 17th and 18th centuries, pirates made more money and had better working conditions than men onboard merchant and navy ships. Pirates voted before mounting an attack, and all booty was distributed among the crew, with the captain getting a larger portion and the rest shared evenly.
UNCONVENTIONAL PIRATES. Youngest known pirate: John King was nine years old when he was killed on the Whydah, which sank in a 1717 storm off the coast of Massachusetts. And Grace O’Malley, a 16th-century Irish female pirate, commanded three ships and employed about 200 men.
PIRATE JUSTICE. A pirate who broke his oath to his crew (by hoarding more than his share of the loot, for example) would be marooned on an island with a container of water and a loaded gun.
DON’T MESS WITH CAESAR. Around 75 BC, before he became emperor of Rome, Julius Caesar was a popular soldier and speaker who was captured by pirates. Initially, they wanted to ransom him for 20 gold pieces, but Caesar said he was worth more and convinced them to ask for 50 instead. After the Roman government paid the ransom, Caesar put together a search party, found the pirates, and had them all killed.
Hot & Cold
Iceland is home to 120 glaciers…and more than 100 volcanoes.
Only two U.S. towns have an extinct volcano within their city limits: Portland and Bend, Oregon.
During most of earth’s geologic history, the North and South poles had no ice.
You can’t make snowballs at the South Pole…the snow is too dry.
The only still-growing glacier in the world is Argentina’s Perito Moreno.
On the scenic Icefields Parkway in Alberta, Canada, you can drive past three massive glaciers.
Antarctica’s only active volcano: Mount Erebus. Its only river: the Onyx.
Largest desert in the world: Antarctica. Technically, the definition of a desert is a place with little or no rainfall, so Antarctica, which receives almost no rain, is the world’s largest.
More Real Headlines
Man Eating Piranha Mistakenly Sold as Pet Fish
Smithsonian May Cancel Bombing of Japan Exhibits
A Reason for Odor Found at Sewer Plant
Man Accused of Shooting Neighbor, Dog Held for Trial
Something Went Wrong in Jet Crash, Experts Say
Utah Girl Does Well in Dog Shows<
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Arafat Swears in Cabinet
Lansing Residents Can Drop Off Trees
Poll Says 53 Percent Believe that Media Offen Makes Mistakes
Blind Woman Gets New Kidney from Dad She Hasn’t Seen in Years
Some Pieces of Rock Hudson Sold at Auction
Assorted Animals
Ninety percent of all animal species in history are now extinct.
The ancient Egyptians bought jewelry for their pet crocodiles.
Cats were first domesticated around 8000 BC.
Menoceras, a prehistoric rhinoceros that was the size of a pony, roamed America’s Midwest about 20 million years ago.
The last cow to be kept at the White House: Pauline, who belonged to William Howard Taft (1909–13).
Most dinosaurs walked on their toes.
In ancient Egypt, killing a cat was a capital offense.
Giraffes have seven vertebrae in their necks…the same as humans. Theirs are just much larger.
Some ferrets sleep so soundly that they won’t wake up even if you jostle them.
Napoléon’s favorite horse was a gray Arabian named Marengo.
Before lawn mowers, grazing sheep often kept golf courses trim. One course in Florida tried using goats, but it didn’t work—alligators ate them.
Giant pandas have evolved to eat mostly bamboo, but technically they’re carnivores.
Benjamin Franklin wanted to make the turkey, not the eagle, America’s national bird. He believed the bald eagle didn’t live its life “honestly” and considered the turkey a more “respectable” bird.
World’s largest frog: the goliath from Africa. It can grow to be 12 ½ inches long and weigh about seven pounds.
Land o’ Lakes
The Great Salt Lake is about eight times saltier than seawater.
Lake Mashu, Japan, has the world’s clearest water. It’s transparent to a depth of 136 feet.
Biggest source of pollution in Lake Ontario: Lake Erie.
Deepest lake in the United States: Crater Lake in Oregon, at 1,943 feet.
Lake Huron’s Manitoulin Island is the largest island in a freshwater lake.
Minnesota has 201 lakes named Mud, 154 named Long, and 123 named Rice.
Texas has just one natural lake—Caddo Lake— and 190 man-made lakes and reservoirs.
The largest underground lake in the United States: the Lost Sea in (or under) Sweetwater, Tennessee.
Largest aquifer in the United States: the Ogallala Aquifer in the Great Plains, which covers more than 170,000 square miles in eight states.
There are about 3 million lakes in Canada.
Quirky Folks
Frank Sinatra showered four times a day.
King George III once referred to Benjamin Franklin as an “evil genius.”
Napoléon Bonaparte was afraid of cats.
Lou Gehrig’s only film role was as himself—a former baseball player turned rancher in the movie Rawhide.
Kevin Spacey initially wanted to be a stand-up comic.
Artist Paul Gauguin worked on the Panama Canal in 1887.
Robin Williams grew up in a 30-room mansion in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.
Early job for French actor Gerard Depardieu: door-to-door soap salesman.
Shirley Temple failed a screen test for the Our Gang movie comedies.
Bob Hope was jailed as a youth for stealing tennis balls.
Wheel of Fortune
Since it first went on the air in 1975,Wheel of Fortune has given away more than $180 million in cash and prizes.
On average, Vanna White claps her hands 720 times per episode.
First letter White turned on the show’s puzzle board: T.
Wheel of Fortune’s wheel weighs about 4,000 pounds.
Of the more than 3,000 people who try out, fewer than 500 make it onto the show.
Biggest winner: in 2008, New Jersey’s Michelle Loewenstein won $1,026,080.
Inspiration for the show’s puzzle board: the children’s game Hangman.
Host Pat Sajak served in the army during Vietnam, where he worked on a military radio show in Saigon. He replaced Adrian Cronour who famously started each day’s program with “Good morning, Vietnam!”
Wheel of Fortune is the longest-running syndicated show in television history.
What Could’ve Been
W. C. Fields was the first choice for the Wizard in The Wizard of Oz.
Kate Hudson was originally cast as William’s sister in Almost Famous (2000). She took over the Penny Lane role when Sarah Polley dropped out of the film.
Meryl Streep’s role in Out of Africa (1985) was first offered to Audrey Hepburn.
Harrison Ford turned down the lead role in Jurassic Park.
Uma Thurman originally turned down the role of Mia in Pulp Fiction (1994). Director Quentin Tarantino persuaded her by reading the script to her over the phone.
The roles played by Tom Cruise and Renee Zellweger in Jerry Maguire were originally written for Tom Hanks and Winona Ryder.
One actor considered for the Don Corleone role in The Godfather: Laurence Olivier.
Chris O’Donnell was offered Will Smith’s role in Men in Black, but turned it down.
The first choices for leads in The African Queen were John Mills and Bette Davis.
Director David Lean wanted Albert Finney for the lead in Lawrence of Arabia, but Katharine Hepburn urged the producer to cast Peter O’Toole instead.
Eddie Murphy’s role in Beverly Hills Cop (1984) was originally written for Sylvester Stallone.
Marie Osmond turned down the female lead (Sandy) in Grease.
Mel Gibson and Tim Curry both auditioned for the role of Mozart in Amadeus (1984).
Human Relations
According to studies, the primary cause of depression in married people is being married. In unmarried people, it’s being single.
Forty million Americans use online dating services.
Forty percent of American women say they have asked a man out on a date. (And 93 percent of them got a “yes.”)
A third of all pet owners admit to having more photos of their pet than of their spouse.
The U.S. divorce rate has dropped almost every year since 1979.
About 80 percent of the talking you do each day is to yourself.
Thirty-five percent of parents play video games with their kids. Of those parents, 47 percent are women.
On average, people stand 14 inches apart when having a conversation.
The three most common fears among American adults: spiders, social situations, and flying.
Tasty Titles
The St. Louis grocer who created Log Cabin syrup named it in honor of Abe Lincoln’s first home.
In Italian, muscatel means “wine with flies in it.”
The French name for potato: pomme de terre, or “apple of the earth.”
James H. Salisbury, an American doctor who advocated eating red meat, gave his name to the Salisbury steak.
The Big Dipper constellation is known as “the Casserole” in France.
Pretzels that have no salt on them are called “baldies.”
Mrs. Smith of pie fame was actually a Pennsylvania woman named Amanda Smith who supported her family by cooking pies.
The lollipop was named in 1908 by George Smith after a popular racehorse, Lolly Pop.
Burrito is Spanish for “little donkey.”
Amazing Animals
In 2007, British marine biologists discovered the oldest living animal, a clam more than 400 years old.
The longest recorded flight of a chicken: 13 seconds.
Of the world’s 10 deadliest snakes, seven live in Australia. But only about four people die of snakebites there each year.
According to scientists: the five smartest primates after humans are orangutans, chimpanzees, spider monkeys, gorillas, and surilis.
Rats can go without water longer than camels can.
The most endangered mammal in the United States: the black-footed
ferret. It’s also the only ferret species native to the region.
Longest flying-squirrel flight on record: 2.5 miles.
By the age of 15, most tuna have swum more than a million miles.
As a species, the platypus is 150 million years old. (Humans are about 200,000 years old.)
Gray whales make the longest annual migration of any mammal…12,000 miles round-trip.
Domestic cats thrive in more places on earth than any other mammal species besides humans.
North America has the greatest diversity of freshwater mussels in the world—297 species.
Alpaca wool comes in 22 natural colors—the most color variety of any wool-bearing animal.
In 2004, an English mastiff named Tia gave birth to a world-record 24 puppies in one litter.
Real Names
Sandra Dee…Alexandra Cymbliak Zuck
Roy Rogers…Leonard Franklin Slye
Boris Karloff…William Henry Pratt
Demi Moore…Demetria Guynes
Sade…Helen Folassade Adu
Johnny Cash…J. R. Cash
Jane Seymour…Joyce Frankenberg
Minnesota Fats…Rudolf Wanderone
Audrey Hepburn…Edda Kathleen van Heemstra Hepburn-Ruston
Albert Brooks…Albert Lawrence Einstein
Whoopi Goldberg…Caryn Elaine Johnson
Michael Caine…Maurice Joseph Mickelwhite
* * *
“My wife and I were happy for 20 years. Then we met.” —Henny Youngman
Opera Notes
Jacopo Peri’s Dafne, composed in 1594, was the first Italian opera.
“Here Comes the Bride,” from Richard Wagner’s 1850 opera Lohengrin, was first used as a wedding march during the Civil War.
The 1957 Bugs Bunny cartoon What’s Opera, Doc? adapted music from Wagner’s operas.
The female lead in an opera is the prima donna. The male lead is the primo uomo.
Giuseppe Verdi’s opera Aida premiered in Cairo, Egypt, in 1871 to celebrate the opening of the Suez Canal two years earlier.
Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader Wise Up! Page 18
