STRANGE BUT TRUE

• It was American journalist and satirist Ambrose Bierce who made the following sage observation: “There is nothing new under the sun but there are lots of old things we don’t know.”

• Those who study such things say that when a ladybug is frightened, it squirts a foul-smelling goo from its knees.

• You might be surprised to learn that approximately 40 percent of the oxygen in the world’s atmosphere is provided by the verdant plant growth of South America’s Amazon River basin.

• Mayan artwork dating back as far as 700 A.D. shows people preparing chocolate beverages. Chocolate was so valued by the natives of the Americas, the Maya even used cacao beans as currency.

• For reasons that aren’t quite clear, in 1960 Macy’s department store introduced a vending machine that dispensed men’s underwear. After an initial flurry of shoppers coming to see the new contraption, the machine was doomed to obscurity due to lack of interest.

• Here’s a question for the ladies: Are you a philematophobe? If you’re a woman who hates to be kissed, you are.

• In 1958, then-Vice President Richard Nixon made a state visit to Venezuela. It seems he wasn’t terribly popular there, and one of the protesters spit on him. The Secret Service detained the man, and an irate Nixon kicked him in the shins.

• Researchers at Yale University have determined that people think more efficiently in the winter than in the summer.

Thought for the Day: “A bore is a man who deprives you of solitude without providing you with company.” — Gian Vincenzo Gravina

(c) 2011 King Features Synd.