Strange But True: Feb. 8, 2018

STRANGE BUT TRUE

* It was 19th-century French novelist and poet Victor Hugo who made the following sage observation: “Men hate those to whom they have to lie.”

* If you’re planning to visit the Hawaiian island of Kauai, you might want to trek up to Mount Waialeale. If you do, though, be sure to take an umbrella, as that mountain holds the distinction of receiving more rainfall than any other place on Earth, with an average of about 40 feet — yes, feet — of rain annually.

* According to the National Chicken Council’s annual Chicken Wing Report — yes, there is such a report, and it is strategically timed for release just before the Super Bowl — 1.35 billion wings were consumed during Super Bowl weekend this year. That’s an all-time high; the number crunchers have determined that if all those wings were laid end-to-end, the resulting line of poultry would stretch 394 million feet. That would be long enough to circle the Earth three times — or to cross a road 13 million times.

* When archaeologists discovered the tomb of King Tut, one of the objects they found inside was a bronze razor — and it was still sharp enough to use.

* Did you ever wonder how the lollipop got its name? A man named George Smith first put the hard treat on the end of a stick, but candy-making wasn’t his only interest. It seems that Smith also had a keen interest in horseracing, and he named the candy after a popular racehorse of the time, Lolly Pop.

* Those who study such things say that all mammals, from rodents to elephants, urinate for approximately 21 seconds. This is now known as the “Law of Urination.”

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Thought for the Day: “The universe is like a safe to which there is a combination. But the combination is locked up in the safe.” — Peter De Vries

(c) 2018 King Features Synd., Inc.