STRANGE BUT TRUE - April 15, 2010

* 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 released as a single on this side of the Atlantic.

* If you use Listerine to freshen your breath, you might be interested to know that its original formula is 26.9 percent alcohol by volume — that comes out to 54-proof gargle.

* There are lots of sports fans out there, and a lot of sports to enjoy: football, basketball, soccer, baseball, hockey ... olive oil wrestling? OK, maybe there aren’t a lot of oiled wrestling events here in America, but in Turkey it’s the national sport. Kirkpinar, as it’s known there, has been popular since the Ottoman Empire. The Turkish town of Edirne has been hosting the annual tournament since 1361.

* It was in Kitchener, Ontario, in 2006 that the world’s largest smoothie was made. Over the course of 3 1/2 hours and using seven blenders, the folks there made a whopping 195 gallons of the fruity beverage.

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Thought for the Day: “Infatuation is when you think that he’s as sexy as Robert Redford, as smart as Henry Kissinger, as noble as Ralph Nader, as funny as Woody Allen and as athletic as Jimmy Connors. Love is when you realize he’s as sexy as Woody Allen, as smart as Jimmy Connors, as funny as Ralph Nader, as athletic as Henry Kissinger and nothing like Robert Redford — but you’ll take him anyway.” — Judith Viorst

(c) 2010 King Features Synd., Inc.