Strange But True

* It was British Prime Minister Winston Churchill who made the following sage observation: “A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.”

* 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.

* If you do much printing, you might not be surprised to learn that if you figure out the cost by volume, printer ink costs far more than Dom Perignon champagne or Chanel No. 5 perfume.

* The name of Alcatraz Island — famed location of a high-security prison that’s now a tourist attraction — comes from the Spanish “Isla de los Alcatraces,” or “Island of Pelicans.”

* The murre, a bird found in the Arctic, actually dives into the water and swims to catch the small fish that comprise its diet. Interestingly, its eggs aren’t like those of any other bird in the world: The whites are blue, not white, and the yolks are bright red.

* Those who study such things claim that the oceans eventually will dry up — in about a billion years or so.

* The Transportation Security Administration banned cigarette lighters on carry-on luggage between 2005 and 2007. During that time, TSA screeners confiscated 22,978 lighters every day. Safe disposal of those lighters cost the taxpayers approximately $4 million every year.

Thought for the Day

“In this world there are only two tragedies. One is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it. The last is much the worst.”

--Oscar Wilde

(c) 2018 King Features Synd., Inc.