To: comic@superkids.com
Subject: Fascinating Facts
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A duck's quack doesn't echo, and no one knows why.
In the 1940s, the FCC assigned television's Channel 1 to
mobile services (two-way radios in taxicabs, for instance)
but did not re-number the other channel assignments. That
is why your TV set has channels 2 and up, but no channel 1.
The San Francisco Cable cars are the only mobile National
Monuments
The "save" icon on Microsoft Word shows a floppy disk, with
the shutter on backwards.
The combination "ough" can be pronounced in nine different
ways. The following sentence contains them all: "A
rough-coated, dough-faced, thoughtful ploughman strode
through the streets of Scarborough; after falling into a
slough, he coughed and hiccoughed."
The verb "cleave" is the only English word with two
synonyms which are antonyms of each other: adhere and
separate.
The shape of plant collenchyma cells and the shape of the
bubbles in beer foam are the same - they are
orthotetrachidecahedrons.
The word 'pound' is abbreviated 'lb.' after the
constellation 'libra' because it means 'pound' in Latin,
and also 'scales'. The abbreviation for the British Pound
Sterling comes from the same source: it is an 'L' for
Libra/Lb. with a stroke through it to indicate abbreviation.
Sames goes for the Italian lira which uses the same
abbreviation ('lira' coming from 'libra'). So British
currency (before it went metric) was always quoted as
"pounds/shillings/pence", abbreviated "L/s/d"
(libra/solidus/denarius).
Emus and kangaroos cannot walk backwards, and are on the
Australian coat of arms for that reason.
Cats have over one hundred vocal sounds, while dogs only
have about ten.
The word "Checkmate" in chess comes from the Persian phrase
"Shah Mat," which means "the king is dead".
Pinocchio is Italian for "pine head."
Camel's milk does not curdle.
In every episode of Seinfeld there is a Superman somewhere.
The United States has never lost a war in which mules were
used.
Hang On Sloopy is the official rock song of Ohio.
Did you know that there are coffee flavored PEZ?
The world's largest wine cask is in Heidelberg, Germany.
Lorne Greene had one of his nipples bitten off by an
alligator while he was host of "Lorne Greene's Wild
Kingdom."
Cat's urine glows under a blacklight.
If you bring a raccoon's head to the Henniker, New
Hampshire town hall, you are entitled to receive $.10 from
the town.
St. Stephen is the patron saint of bricklayers.
The reason firehouses have circular stairways is from the
days of yore when the engines were pulled by horses. The
horses were stabled on the ground floor and figured out how
to walk up straight staircases.
Non-dairy creamer is flammable.
The airplane Buddy Holly died in was the "American Pie."
(Thus the name of the Don McLean song.)
Texas is also the only state that is allowed to fly its state flag at the
same height as the U.S. flag.
When opossums are playing 'possum, they are not "playing."
They actually pass out from sheer terror.
The Main Library at Indiana University sinks over an inch
every year because when it was built, engineers failed to
take into account the weight of all the books that would
occupy the building.
Each king in a deck of playing cards represents a great
king from history. Spades - King David, Clubs - Alexander
the Great, Hearts - Charlemagne, and Diamonds - Julius Caesar.
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