Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
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* Conservative author and commentator William F. Buckley Jr., a graduate of Yale University, once made the following controversial remark: “I’d rather entrust the government of the United States to the first 400 people listed in the Boston telephone directory than to the faculty of Harvard University.” * The first auctions in recorded history were held in 450 B.C. in Babylon. Sadly, and perhaps unsurprisingly, the items up for sale were humans. * The Goodyear company, known today for its automobile tires, was originally founded to produ...
• It was American drama critic and author John Mason Brown who made the following sage observation: “Reasoning with a child is fine if you can reach the child’s reason without destroying your own.” • The first Wal-Mart was located in the town of Rogers, Ark. When it opened in 1962, it had a total of 16,000 square feet of space. Today, there are Wal-Mart Supercenters all over the United States, and they measure at least 100,000 square feet and can range up to 220,000 square feet. • The original Maytag company was known for making horse-drawn...
* It was librarian and essayist Frederick Saunders who made the following sage observation: “Pride, like laudanum and other poisonous medicines, is beneficial in small, though injurious in large, quantities. No man who is not pleased with himself, even in a personal sense, can please others.” * Earthquakes occur at a rate of roughly one every minute around the world. About eight of those every year are considered to be major, registering above 7.0 on the Richter Scale. * Statistics show that the average 5-year-old boy today weighs about 10 perc...
*It was British mathematician, historian and philosopher Bertrand Russell who made the following sage observation: “If there were in the world today any large number of people who desired their own happiness more than they desired the unhappiness of others, we could have paradise in a few years.” *Do you know why camels are artiodactyls, while humans aren’t? It’s because dromedaries have an even number of toes (two) on each foot, while we have an odd number. *According to a poll conducted in the United Kingdom, 80 percent of male college freshm...
* It was famed 20th-century Canadian-American economist John Kenneth Galbraith who made the following sage observation: “It is a far, far better thing to have a firm anchor in nonsense than to put out on the troubled sea of thought.” * In Switzerland, it’s considered to be bad luck to tell anyone your baby’s name before he or she is born. * It’s been estimated that, around the world, 16 million tons of rain fall every second. * Do you ever yawn just because you saw someone else do it? It seems that humans are the only animals so affected....
* You might be surprised to learn that it was theoretical physicist Albert Einstein, one of the best-known scientists of all time, who made the following sage observation: “If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales.” * On average, a man’s beard grows about a half-inch every month. * Do you suffer from coprolalia? I would hope not! If you’re a word deconstructionist and up on your Greek, you might be able to figure out that coprolalia means an uncontr...
* It was British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli who made the following observation: “My idea of an agreeable person is a person who agrees with me.” * Hunters, take note: The largest deer that ever lived was the Irish elk, which became extinct more than 7,000 years ago. Though it stood a remarkable 7 feet tall at the shoulders, the creature’s most amazing characteristic was its antlers, which could stretch 12 feet from tip to tip and weigh up to 90 pounds. Imagine that rack hanging on your living-room wall! * If you are a parent, you proba...
* It was beloved American comedian and actor Bob Hope who made the following extremely sage observation: “People who throw kisses are hopelessly lazy.” * Next time you’re in Tinseltown, remember that it is unlawful to herd more than 3,000 sheep at a time down Hollywood Boulevard. * In the naming of American states, there are quite a few that never quite made it. It’s interesting to speculate about the possibilities, though. For instance, if you currently reside in the state of Kentucky or parts of Tennessee, but for the whimsy of fate you cou...
* It was French writer and film director Marguerite Duras who made the following observation: “I believe that always, or almost always, in all childhood, and in all the lives that follow them, the mother represents madness. Our mothers always remain the strangest, craziest people we’ve ever met.” * In Colorado, it is illegal to mutilate a rock in a state park. * Those who track radio statistics say that Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven” is the most-requested song in the United States — and this despite the fact that the song was never rel...
* It was 19th-century French author Pierre-Jules Renard who made the following sage observation about his craft: “Literature is an occupation in which you have to keep proving your talent to people who have none.” * Guinness, that notoriously dark and bitter Irish brew, contains fewer calories than skim milk or orange juice. Stout for breakfast, anyone? * Lawmakers in Phoenix once saw fit to make it illegal to walk through a hotel lobby while wearing spurs. * It’s hard to imagine what life was like before the widespread availability of refri...
* It was Benjamin Disraeli, 19th-century British Prime Minister and the first Earl of Beaconsfield, who made the following sage observation: “The most dangerous strategy is to jump a chasm in two leaps.” * You’ve probably never heard of Hurley, Wisc., but if you lived in the area, you’d know that the town is home to a 15-foot-tall corkscrew. It can be found, appropriately enough, outside Corkscrew Liquors. * Except for the queens, all wasps die in the autumn. * The Japanese ruling family is the oldest continuing hereditary monarchy in the wor...
• It was François VI, duc de La Rochefoucauld and prince de Marcillac, a noted 17th-century French author and memoirist, who made the following sage observation: “Few are agreeable in conversation, because each thinks more of what he intends to say than of what others are saying, and listens no more when he himself has a chance to speak.” • Rutherford B. Hayes, the country’s 19th president, was the first to install a phone in the White House. • It was 1948 when the first vinyl musical recording was made. The piece of music so immortalized...
* It was American cartoonist, humorist and journalist Kin Hubbard who made the following sage observation: “There’s no secret about success. Did you ever know a successful man who didn’t tell you about it?” * Next time you’re in Iowa, you might want to stop by the rural town of Riverside, which touts itself as the future birthplace of Captain James T. Kirk. Yep, the future birthplace. It seems that “Star Trek” creator Gene Roddenberry asserted that the character of James Tiberius Kirk was born in Iowa, but he didn’t specify exactly where....
It was way back in the 19th century that American statesman Daniel Webster made the following sage observation: “The world is governed more by appearances than realities, so that it is fully as necessary to seem to know something as to know it.” Scary movies like “Jaws” notwithstanding, experts claim that you are 50 times more likely to be killed by a bee than you are to be killed by a shark. All official American flags must be lowered and put away at night — all except one. The flag that was placed on the moon on July 20, 1969, by Neil Arms...
• It was American columnist Franklin Pierce Adams who made the following sage observation: “Seeing ourselves as others see us would probably confirm our worst suspicions about them.” • If you’re like the average human, your heart will beat 100,000 times today. • Before Humphrey Bogart became a famed star of the silver screen, he was famous for another reason. Bogart’s mother painted a portrait of little Humphrey as a baby, and that portrait was used as a trademark for Mellin’s baby-food company. • John Quincy Adams was the first U.S. presid...
• It was actor, senator and erstwhile presidential candidate Fred Thompson who made the following observation: “After two years in Washington, I often long for the realism and sincerity of Hollywood.” • With an area of less than 1,000 square miles, the tiny Western European nation of Luxembourg is one of the smallest countries in the world, and it is the world’s only remaining sovereign Grand Duchy. Considering the country’s longstanding adherence to tradition, it is perhaps unsurprising that the national motto is “We want to remain what we are...
• It was Chinese philosopher Confucius who made the following sage observation: “Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” • In 1875, a locust plague of epic proportions descended upon the Great Plains. Observers say it was 110 miles wide, and, at 1,800 miles long, stretched from Canada all the way down to Texas. • If you ever travel to China, keep in mind that the menu item known colorfully as phoenix talons are actually just chicken feet. • Farming is against the law in Washington, D.C. • When business magn...
• It was Canadian educator Laurence J. Peter who made the following sage observation: “An intelligence test sometimes shows a man how smart he would have been not to have taken it.” • You might (or then again, you might not) be surprised to learn that in this country, the most popular meal, for both lunch and dinner, is a sandwich. And the beverage to go along with that meal is more than likely going to be a soda. • If you’re like the average home-owning American, you can paint the entire exterior of your house with 30 gallons of paint. If y...
