Bizarre College Courses

At Georgetown University, you can boldly go where no other philosophy student has gone before in the "Philosophy and Star Trek" course, where students discuss the nature of time travel, the ability of computers to think and feel, and other philosophical dilemmas faced by the crew of the Starship Enterprise.

Students analyze the plots, themes, and characters of daytime soaps and discuss their impact on modern life in the University of Wisconsin's course entitled "Daytime Serials: Family and Social Roles."

If students wish to research how hot dogs, amusement parks, and the five-day workweek have impacted American leisure culture, they can take the University of Iowa course "The American Vacation." They'll learn how American families' varying backgrounds shape their vacation experiences.

Students at Bowdoin College can enroll in "The Horror Film in Context" in the school's English Department. Students read Freud and Poe and watch Hitchcock and Craven, all while discussing the horror genre's treatment of gender, class, and family.

At Williams College, students can learn more about those in the cement shoe industry by enrolling in "Comparative History of Organized Crime," which compares the work of goodfellas from the United States, Italy, Japan, and Russia.

Barnard College offers a course on "The Road Movie," which studies Easy Rider and Thelma and Louise, while also discussing the genre's literary precursors, like On the Road and The Odyssey.

Contemplate the relationship between sin and the art world at the Rhode Island School of Design's "The Art of Sin and the Sin of Art." The course catalog invites you to "lust with the saints and burn with the sinners."

At Centre College in Danville, Kentucky, students can take "Art of Walking," in which students not only read literature by noted perambulators like Kant and Nietzsche, but go for neighborhood strolls with their professor and his dog.

Bizarre Christmas Traditions

In Italy they have no Christmas trees. Instead they decorate small wooden pyramids with fruit.

Ukranians decorate their trees with an artificial spider and matching web. A spider web found on Christmas morning is believed to bring good luck.

The citizens of Caracas, Venezuela block off the streets on Christmas eve so that people can roller-skate to God's house.

It is a British Christmas tradition that a wish made while mixing the Christmas pudding will come true only if the ingredients are stirred in a clockwise direction.

A traditional Christmas dinner in early England was the head of a pig prepared with mustard.

Sending red Christmas cards to anyone in Japan constitutes bad etiquette, since funeral notices there are customarily printed in red.

In Norway on Christmas Eve, all the brooms in the house are hidden because long ago it was believed that witches and mischievous spirits came out on Christmas Eve and would steal their brooms for riding.

Bizarre Stories of 2004

Here is a selection of some "offbeat" stories which offered an insight into human nature in 2004, courtesy of yahoo.com:

ZHENGZHOU, China: A Chinese couple raised their only child for 13 years in the belief it was a girl, until a visit to the local hospital alerted them to the fact that he was really a boy with underdeveloped sexual organs. They did not realize anything was wrong until they were baffled by a "reaction in the lower half of his body" whenever he watched pretty women on TV.

RATCHABURI, Thailand: A group of Thai Buddhist monks were arrested and defrocked after holding a spate of rowdy drug and alcohol parties. Villagers complained about their wild behavior and drug-taking at the local temple. Five of the saffron-robed monks tested positive for amphetamine pills and a sixth was blind drunk.

COSENZA, Italy: A driverless railway engine thundered nearly 120 miles through southern Italy at 50 miles an hour before staff managed to derail it. The driver had set the loco- motive in motion, leaned out to see if the line ahead was clear, then slipped and fell from his cabin. Another railway worker tried to jump aboard and stop it but failed and the train gathered speed until it was finally switched to a track with a long incline and it smashed through buffers at a disused station before finally coming to a halt.

ZAGREB: A South African who fell in love with a Croatian beauty he has never even spoken to, traveled halfway round the world in search of the woman of his dreams. Keith van der Spuy saw the woman only twice, on a boat and in a nightclub, while on vacation in the former Yugoslav republic but could not get her out of his head and returned to Croatia weeks later, with two diamonds in his pocket, to track down the haunting blonde -- but, sadly, to no avail.

ALDERSHOT, England: A drunken soldier sparked a major secur- ity alert after leaving a regimental party dressed as an Arab suicide bomber. Fifteen police cars, along with dog handlers were called out after a passer-by spotted someone near an army base wearing an Arab-style robe, a turban and false beard, as well as orange paper, wires and candles stuffed into a jacket to make it look like he was carrying explosives. The soldier, who was drunk, was ordered to pay a small on-the-spot fine.

LONDON: A number of wealthy clients of the smart London restaurant Zafferano clubbed together to buy one of the most expensive truffles in the world for 40,000 euros (53,000 dollars), but it ended up spoiling in a refrigerator. The 850-gram (30-ounce) delicacy from Tuscany was put on display at the restaurant but then the chef went on vacation after locking the truffle in the fridge and taking the keys with him. When he returned after four days, he found it had rotted, forcing the owner to throw the whole thing out.

CHISINAU, Moldova: The president of first division football club Roso saw red when the referee awarded a penalty against his team, so he leaped into his jeep, drove it on to the pitch and tried to run the hapless official down. Mikhail Makayev chased the astonished referee around the ground for several minutes until he escaped by clambering up into the stands. The match was abandoned and Roso's opponents Poitekhnik were awarded the game 3-0.

GUWAHATI, India: An army officer was dismissed and another suspended after a court martial found they splashed tomato ketchup on civilians to make them look like dead Assam separatist rebels in a bid for a gallantry medal. Colonel H.S. Kohli took photos of civilians posing as corpses and gave them to his senior officers as proof of the killings, but records later showed no deaths had been reported.

PALEMBANG, Indonesia: A landmark bridge in Sumatra is in danger of collapse because too many men are urinating on one of its steel pillars. Surveyors have found that the Ampera bridge in Palembang has begun to lean at an angle and rocks slightly when traffic is heavy. The acidic fluid's corrosive forces could lead to the eventual collapse of the bridge.

OSLO: Until the divorce papers dropped into her mail box, a 22-year-old woman was unaware that she had been married to a complete stranger for a year. The woman's wallet was snatched some years ago and her identification cards were used in an Islamic ceremony to unite her and a Pakistani man in holy matrimony. She hopes to have the marriage annulled, but investigators have closed the case as they cannot find the man, believed to be operating under several different aliases.

Bizarre Truth In Advertising:

These are some nominees for the Chevy Nova Award. This is given out in honor of the GM's fiasco in trying to market this car in Central and South America. "No va" means, of course, in Spanish, "it doesn't go".

* The Dairy Association's huge success with the campaign "Got Milk?" prompted them to expand advertising to Mexico. It was soon brought to their attention the Spanish translation read "Are you lactating?"

* Coors put its slogan, "Turn It Loose," into Spanish, where it was read as "Suffer From Diarrhea."

* When Gerber started selling baby food in Africa, they used the same packaging as in the US, with the smiling baby on the label. Later they learned that in Africa, companies routinely put pictures on the labels of what's inside, since many people can't read.

* An American T-shirt maker in Miami printed shirts for the Spanish market which promoted the Pope's visit. Instead of "I saw the Pope" (el Papa), the shirts read "I Saw the Potato" (la papa).

* Pepsi's "Come Alive With the Pepsi Generation" translated into "Pepsi Brings Your Ancestors Back From the Grave" in Chinese.

* The Coca-Cola name in China was first read as "Kekoukela", meaning "Bite the wax tadpole" or "female horse stuffed with wax", depending on the dialect. Coke then researched 40,000 characters to find a phonetic equivalent "kokou kole", translating into "happiness in the mouth."

Bizarre Product Facts

In 4000 BC Egypt, men and women wore glitter eye shadow made from the crushed shells of beetles.

In M&M candies, the letters stand for Mars and Murrie, the developers of the candy in 1941.

In the 1700s, European women achieved a pale complexion by eating "Arsenic Complexion Wafers" actually made with the poison.

Kotex was first manufactured as bandages, during W.W.I.

Most American car horns honk in the key of F.

Most lipstick contains fish scales.

The condom - made originally of linen - was invented in the early 1500's.

Bizarre Trivia

Workers were suspended from a Las Vegas hospital in 1980 for betting on when patients would die.

There are more bacteria in your mouth than there are people in the world.

The cavity fighter found in toothpaste is made from recycled tin.

No one knows where Mozart is buried.

Gardening is the best exercise for maintaining healthy bones.

Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke was in the "Guinness Book of World Records" for consuming 2.5 pints of beer in 12 seconds.

Forty trillion dollars changes hands each day worldwide.

The average person takes 18,000 steps in one day.

Morbidly obese humans are the world's heaviest primates; gorillas are after that at 485 pounds.

Forty one percent of the moon is not visible from the Earth at any time.

>From the age of 30, humans gradually begin to shrink.

Bizarre High School Nicknames

Poca Dots (Poca, WS)

Cairo Syrupmakers (Cairo, GA)

Frankfort Hot Dogs (Frankfort, IN)

Brown Scoopers (Sturgis, SD)

Cobden Appleknockers (Cobden, IL)

Freeport Pretzels (Freeport, IL)

Devil's Lake Satans (Devil's Lake, ND)

Speedway Sparkplugs (Speedway, IN)

Mesquite Skeeters (Mesquite, TX)

Maryville Spoofhounds (Maryville, MO)

Teutopolis Wooden Shoes (Teutopolis, IL)

Dunn Earwigs (Dunn, CA)

West Plaines Zizzers (West Plaines, MO)

Yuma Criminals (Yuma, AZ)

Pleasant Hill Billies (Pleasant Hill, OR)

Bizarre Factoids

Romans invented the first popsicle.

The opposite sides of a cube of dice will always equal 7.

A cheetah does not roar, it purrs.

The first bike ever didn't have wheels. People walked it along.

No two zebras have the same kind of stripes.

Reindeer stay warm in the arctic cold by eating moss.

Dolphins keep one eye open while they sleep.

Cats measure width with their whiskers.

A giraffe's tongue is 21 inches long.

The Rafflesia flower smells like rotten meat.

It takes 3,000 cows to make enough leather for one year's supply of NFL footballs.

Sharks can never stop moving.

Sobicphobia is the fear of being afraid.

Bizarre Premonitions

After having nightmares for ten consecutive nights about a DC-10 crash, Cincinnati office manager David Booth called American Airlines on May 22, 1979. Three days later, 273 people died when an American DC-10 crashed at Chicago.

In 1896, German psychic Madame de Ferriem had a vision of bodies being carried out of a coal mine at Dux in Bohmeia in bitterly cold weather. A year later hundreds were killed by an explosion in a coal mine in Dux during a cold spell.

"Fugitive" star David Jensen had a dream in 1980 where he saw himself being carried out in a coffin after a heart attack. His psychic's advise to go in for a physical came too late, for two days later Jensen died of a massive heart attack.

On the morning of April 14, 1865, Julia Grant, wife of US General Ulysses S. Grant had a strong feeling that she and her husband should get out of Washington. As they were leaving, the couple passed John Wilkes Booth on his way to assassinate President Lincoln at the theatre. Grant was also found to be on Booth's death list.

Bizarre Vocabulary Facts

All Hebrew originating names that end with the letters "el" have something to do with God.

Alma mater means bountiful mother.

Corduroy comes from the French, cord du roi or cloth of the king.

Fido means faithful in Latin.

January is named for the Roman god Janus.

Sekkusu is sex in Japanese.

Spain literally means 'the land of rabbits.'

The Kentucky Fried Chicken slogan finger-lickin' good came out as eat your fingers off in Chinese.

The magic word 'Abracadabra' was originally intended for the specific purpose of curing hay fever.

Bizarre Statistical Facts

There are 318,979,564,000 possible ways of playing the just the first four moves on each side in a game of chess.

In the 1970 Census, the U.S. had 2,983 men who were already widowers at the age of foureen and 289 women, also at four- teen, who had already been widowed or divorced.

The second moste numerous of living things are mollusks - soft bodied animals with hard shells.

The total population of the Earth at the time of Julius Caesar was 150 million. The total population increase in two years on Earth today is 150 million.

People who have never married are 7.5 times more likely to be hospitalized in a state or community psychiatric facility than those who married.

[Thanks to Isaac Asimov's Book of Facts]

Bizarre Religious Facts

Camel is considered unclean meat in the Bible.

In 1631, two London bible printers accidentally left the word "not" out of the seventh commandment, which then read, "Thou shalt commit adultery." This book is now referred to as the "Wicked Bible."

Over eleven thousand people have visited a tortilla chip in New Mexico that appeared to have the face of Jesus Christ burned into it.

John Bunyan, a popular writer from the 1700's, was sent to prison for twelve years for preaching.

Parts of the Dead Sea Scrolls appeared for sale in the June 1, 1954 issue of the Wall Street Journal.

The biggest selling Christmas single of all time is Bing Crosby's "White Christmas."

A temple located in Sri Lanka is dedicated to a tooth of the Buddha and is called "Temple of the Tooth."

Bizarre "Onlys"

Antarctica is the only continent without reptiles or snakes.

Baskin Robbins once made ketchup ice cream. This was the only vegetable flavored ice cream produced.

Bats have only one baby a year.

Giraffes are the only animals born with horns. Both males and females are born with bony knobs on the forehead.

Honey is the only food that does not spoil. Honey found in the tombs of Egyptian pharaohs has been tasted by archaeologists and found edible.

Swans are the only birds with penises.

Teeth are the only parts of the human body that can't repair themselves.

The king of hearts is the only king without a moustache on a standard playing card.

The only part of the human body that has no blood supply is the cornea in the eye. It takes in oxygen directly from the air.

Bizarre History Facts

Beer was the first trademarked product - British beer Bass Pale Ale received its trademark in 1876.

Playing-cards were known in Persia and India as far back as the 12th century. A pack then consisted of 48 instead of 52 cards.

Excavations from Egyptian tombs dating to 5,000 BC show that the ancient Egyptian kids played with toy hedgehogs.

Accounts from Holland and Spain suggest that during the 1500s and 1600s urine was commonly used as a tooth-cleaning agent.

In 1969 the US launched a male chimpanzee called Ham into space.

In 1963 the French launched a cat called Feliette into space.

The first written account of the Loch Ness Monster, or Nessie, was made in 565AD.

Bizarre Factoids

"Wanted: Young, skinny, wiry fellows not over 18. Must be excellent riders, willing to risk death daily. Orphans preferred. Wages are $25.00 a week." This is a mid 1800's help wanted sign for the Pony Express.

In 1980, a Las Vegas hospital suspended workers for betting on when patients would die.

In 1980 the yellow pages listed a funeral Home under "frozen foods".

It would take half the people in the United States between the ages of 18 and 45 to run the nation's telephone system if it were not computerized.

In 1944, Fidel Castro was voted Cuba's best schoolboy athlete. A lefthanded pitcher, Castro was later given a tryout by the Washington Senators but was turned down by the baseball club.

There are more than 1,000 chemicals in a cup of coffee. Of these, only 26 have been tested, and half caused cancer in rats.

Bizarre Olympic Questions

Here are some of the questions that were asked of the Sydney Olympic Committee via their Web site, and answers supplied where appropriate.

Q: Will I be able to see kangaroos in the street? (USA)
A: Depends on how much beer you've consumed...

Q: Which direction should I drive - Perth to Darwin or Darwin to Perth - to avoid driving with the sun in my eyes? (Germany)
A: Excellent question, considering that the Olympics are being held in Sydney.

Q: Do the camels in Australia have one hump or two? (UK)

Q: Can you tell me the regions in Tasmania where the female population is smaller than the male population? (Italy)
A: Yes. Gay nightclubs.

Q: Can you give me some information about hippo racing in Australia? (USA)
A: What's this guy smoking, and where do I get some?

Q: Which direction is North in Australia? (USA)
A: Face North and you should be about right.

Q: Can you send me the Vienna Boys' Choir schedule? (USA)
A: Americans have long had considerable trouble distinguishing between Austria and Australia.

Q: I have a question about a famous animal in Australia,
but I forget its name. It's a kind of bear and lives in trees. (USA)

Q: Will I be able to speak English most places I go? (USA)
A: Yes, but you'll have to learn it first.

Bizarre Church Bloopers

[courtesy of netscape.com]

The Rector will preach his farewell message after which the choir will sing "Break Forth Into Joy."

Our church will host an evening of fine dining, superb entertainment, and gracious hostility.

The sermon this morning: "Jesus Walks on the Water." The sermon tonight: "Searching for Jesus."

On a church bulletin during a minister's illness: "GOD IS GOOD. Dr. Hargreaves is better."

Announcement in a church bulletin for a national prayer and fasting conference: "The cost for attending the Fasting and Prayer conference includes meals."

Potluck supper Sunday at 5:00 p.m. - prayer and medication to follow.

Mrs. Johnson will be entering the hospital this week for testes.

Miss Charlene Mason sang "I will not pass this way again," giving obvious pleasure to the congregation.

Weight Watchers will meet at 7 p.m. at the First Presbyterian Church. Please use the large double door at the side entrance.

Our youth basketball team is back in action Wednesday at 8 p.m. in the recreation hall. Come out and watch us kill Christ the King.

Barbara's in the hospital and needs blood donors for more transfusions. She is also having trouble sleeping and requests tapes of Pastor Jack's sermons.

"Ladies, don't forget the rummage sale. It's a chance to get rid of those things not worth keeping around the house. Don't forget your husbands."

Remember in prayer the many who are sick of our community. Smile at someone who is hard to love. Say "hell" to someone who doesn't care much about you.

Bizarre Bra Designs

The Loving Cup bra of 1979 featured a tiny electronic circuit which signaled when it was safe for sex. Its lights flashed red or green indicating whether sex could result in pregnancy.

In 1992, a Somerset man created a water-filled double-D cup bra. He said that the wearer should add wallpaper paste for an even firmer frontage.

A new bra on the market was made of hologrammatic fibers, the surface of which creates a 3D impression to make the breasts appear a better shape.

Designer Andre Van Pier created a bra that was adorned with 3,250 diamonds.

Madonna's famous 'Bullet Bra,' worn during her Blonde Ambition tour of 1990, was based on an antique breastplate worn by Italian soldiers.

There are also plans to introduce a mirrored bra and one filled with insect repellent to keep pesky mosquitoes at bay.

From Paris in the 1980s came the Joli'bust, a self-adhesive bra consisting of nothing more than two shaped pieces of sticky plastic fixed beneath the breasts to show off the curves.

Bizarre Urban Legends

[Courtesy of netscape.com]

Many years ago a farmer stomped a rattlesnake to death with his boot. A couple of days later, the farmer died. The man's son then wore the boots, and he also died. The farmer's grandson was then given the boots; when he too grew into them, he also died. Finally, the grandson's mother found a fang of the rattler in the sole of one of the boots.

To be initiated into a gang in California during the Christmas season, potential members must abduct someone and wrap them from head to toe in wrapping paper. Then they are required to lock the victim in the trunk of their own car.

An MIT student spent his summer going to the Harvard foot-ball field wearing a striped shirt, whereupon he blew a whistle and threw birdseed. When it came time for the first football game, the referee walked onto the field, blew the whistle - and was descended upon by a flock of birds. The game had to be delayed for half an hour.

A sheriff was passing a farm one day when he saw a man standing on the side of the road yelling, "Pig! Pig! Pig!" The cop became angry and began to yell back, "Redneck! Red- neck! Redneck!" Seconds later, the cop ran right into the redneck's prize pig.

When a couple arrived at their hotel room, they noticed a gruesome stench. They called the front desk, and house- keeping came up to clean the room. Later that night, the couple woke up because the smell had come back. The man thought it was coming from the bed, so he pulled the sheets off - and found a dead body that had been stuffed in the mattress.

A man from a small town in Kentucky had refused to cut his hair for over 30 years. One day he finally decided to get it cut. After the barber started to cut his hair, the man screamed and ran off. His wife later found him dead at home. The coroner found that when the barber had tried to cut his hair, he had hit a nest of red-backed spiders that began to bite the man, eventually killing him.

Bizarre Methods of Contraception

Back in 23-70 AD, Roman nobleman Pliny the Elder believed that if you took two small worms from the body of a certain species of spider and attached them -- wrapped in deer skin, mind you -- to a woman's body before sunrise, she would not conceive.

It was believed in ancient times that if a woman spat three times into a frog's mouth she would not conceive for a year.

Supposedly, a pebble clasped in the hand during coitus would also stop conception.

St. Albert the Great (1193-1280) advised women to eat bees as an effective contraception procedure.

Aetios of Amida (fl. 527-565) suggested that a man should wash his penis in vinegar or brine before having sex and that a woman should wear a cat's testicle in a tube across her navel to avoid contraception.

Bizarre Execution Facts

The last public execution in America was the hanging of a 22-year-old black man named Rainey Bethea. He was executed at Owensboro, KY, in 1936 after being convicted of killing a 70-year-old white women. Twenty thousand people showed up to witness the execution.

The last person hanged in the U.S. for being a pirate was Capt. Nathaniel Gordon, in New York City on March 8, 1862. Gordon had been smuggling slaves into the US.

The last person to be burned at the stake was Phoebe Harrius. Harrius was convicted of coining false money and was burned at the stake in front of Newgate Prison in England in 1786.

The last public execution by guillotine was on June 17, 1939. Eugen Weidman was executed before a large crowd in Versailles, France. The last nonpublic use of the guillotine in France, at Baumetes Prison, in Marsailles, was the execution of convicted murderer Hamida Djandoubi, a Tunisian immigrant, on September 10, 1977.

During WWII Private Eddie Slovik was tried by court-martial and sentenced to death for desertion. He was shot by his own unit, the 28th Infantry Division, in a small town in northeast France.

Bizarre Author's Names

These names are completely genuine and have been corroborated in the catalogues of the British Library and in the American National Union Catalog, as well as other authoritative sources.

Ole Bagger

Stanka Fuckar

Gottfried Egg

Dr F.P.H. Prick van Wily

Baron Filibarto Vagina d'Emarese

A. Schytte

Mme J.J. Fouqueau de Pussy

Simon Young-Suck Moon

Tit Wing Lo

Bizarre Buildings

The Ice Hotel at Jukkasjarvi, Swedish Lapland, offers the ultimate in cold comfort - a building constructed out of ice where the average room temperature is minus four degrees centigrade. The beds are made from packed snow topped with spruce boughs and reindeer skins. The hotel melts every April and has to be rebuilt the following winter.

The six-story Elephant Hotel at Margate, New Jersey, is in the shape of a huge elephant, complete with trunk and tusks. It was built in 1881 by James V. Lafferty as a real-estate promotion. The 65ft-high concrete elephant, named Lucy, was used as a tavern before being converted into a hotel. The reception area is in her hind legs and a staircase in each leg leads up to the main rooms.

The Pineapple Lodge stands in Dunmore Park, Central Scotland. The lower part of the building is an ordinary octagonal tower but from the tops of the columns sprout stone, spiky leaves, transforming it into a 53ft-high pineapple. It was built in 1761 at the request of the Fourth Earl of Dunmore for reasons known only to himself.

Sir Thomas Tresham was obsessed with the power of numbers and in 1597 ordered the building of a triangular lodge at Rushton, Northamptonshire, in which everything relates to the number three - a homage to the Trinity. It has three sides, each of which measures 33ft, three gables on each side, three stories and triangular or hexagonal rooms decorated with trefoils or triangles in groups of three. All of the Latin inscriptions have 33 letters.

The Crocodile Hotel near Ayers Rock in the heart of the Australian outback is a building complex in the shape of a crocodile. The 'eyes' protrude from the reception area, the rooms run along the 'body' to the 'tail' and the hotel swimming pool is located in the creature's 'alimentary canal.'

Bizarre Conspiracies

Grant Wood's famous painting of an old Indiana couple posing in front of their farmhouse is considered the definitive portrait of the Midwestern farmer. In actuality, the man and women aren't really a couple nor are they farmers. Also, the "farmhouse" in the picture was once used as a bordello.

William Eno is considered to be the "Father of Traffic Safety." He supposedly originated stop signs, one-way streets, taxi stands, pedestrian safety islands and traffic rotaries. What is not known is that he never learned to drive and he considered cars to be a passing fad.

The Beach Boys, who were considered to be the "Kings of California Surfing, started a national surfing craze in the early 1960's. Four of the original members of the band knew nothing about surfing and the only one that did, drowned in 1983.

In October 1994, "Weekly Reader" magazine ran an article that "discussed smoker' rights and the harm done to the tobacco industry by smoking restrictions. The article said nothing about smoking being the cause of lung cancer. Turns out the magazine is owned by the largest shareholders in RJR Nabisco, makers of Camel cigarettes.

Karl Marx, considered to be the enemy of American capitalism, accepted a job as the London correspondent of the New York Tribune years after he had become famous as the author of the "Communist Manifesto." His reason was that his anti-capitalist political writing hadn't earned him enough to live on.

Bizarre Facts from Michelle D.

Q. Why do dimes, quarters and half dollars have notched edges, while pennies and nickels do not?

A. The US Mint began putting notches on the edges of coins containing gold and silver to discourage holders from shaving off small quantities of the precious metals. Dimes, quarters and half dollars are notched because they used to contain silver. Pennies and nickels aren't notched because the metals they contain are not valuable enough to shave.

Q. Why do men's clothes have buttons on the right while women's clothes have buttons on the left?

A. When buttons were invented, they were very expensive and worn primarily by the rich. Because wealthy women were dressed by maids, dressmakers put the buttons on the maid's right. Since most people are right-handed, it is easier to push buttons on the right through holes on the left. And that's where women's buttons have remained.

Q. Why do Xs at the end of a letter signify kisses?

A. In the Middle Ages, when many people were unable to read or write. Documents were often signed using an X. Kissing the X represented an oath to fulfill obligations specified in the document. The X and the kiss eventually became synonymous.

Q. Why is shifting responsibility to someone else called "passing thebuck"?

A. In card games, it was once customary to pass an item, called a buck, from player to player to indicate whose turn it was to deal. If a player did not wish to assume the responsibility, he would pass the buck" to the next player.

Q. Why do people clink their glasses before drinking a toast?

A. It used to be common for someone to try to kill an enemy by offering him a poisoned drink. To prove to a guest that a drink was safe, it became customary for a guest to pour a small amount of his drink into the glass of the host. Both men would drink it simultaneously. When a guest trusted his host, he would then touch -- or clink -- the host's glass with his own.

Q. Why are people in the public eye said to be "in the limelight"?

A. Invented in 1825, limelight was used in lighthouses and stage lighting by burning a cylinder of lime in an oxyhydrogen flame that produced a brilliant light. In the theater, performers on stage in the ''limelight" were seen by the audience to be the center of attention.

Q. Why do ships and aircraft in trouble use "mayday" as their call for help?

A. This comes from the French word m'aidez - meaning "help me" - and is pronounced "mayday." (Note: not exactly.... it's pronounced "med-ay", but close enough)

Q. Why is someone who is feeling great "on cloud nine"?

A. Types of clouds are numbered according to the altitudes they attain, with nine being the highest cloud. If someone is said to be on cloud nine, that person is floating well above worldly cares.

Q. Why are zero scores in tennis called "love"?

A. In France, where tennis first became popular, a big, round zero on the scoreboard looked like an egg and was called l'oeuf, which is French for "egg". When tennis was introduced in the US, Americans pronounced it "love,"

Q. Why are many coin banks shaped like pigs?

A. Long ago, dishes and cookware in Europe were made of a dense, orange clay called pygg. When people saved coins in jars made of this clay, the jars became know as "pygg banks". When an English potter misunderstood the word, he made a bank that resembled a pig. And it caught on here!

Bizarre National Superstitions

In Iceland, an unmarried person who sits at the corner of a table won't marry for seven years. A pregnant woman who drinks from a cracked cup risks having a baby with a harelip.

In Japan, picking up a comb with its teeth facing your body brings bad luck.

In Malta, churches with two towers are fitted with a clock face in each but the two clocks always tell different times to confuse the Devil about the time of the service.

In Nigeria, a man hit with a broom becomes impotent unless he retaliates seven times with the same broom. Sweeping a house at night brings misfortune to the occupants.

In Poland, bringing lilac into the house is a sure sign of impending death.

In Scotland, red and green should never be worn together. It is unlucky to throw vegetables on to the fire and to carry a spade through the house. This means that a grave will soon be dug. And three swans flying together means a national disaster is imminent.

In Holland, people with red hair bring bad luck.

In China, sweeping out a house removes all the good luck, especially on Chinese New Year.

Bizarre Patrons

Apollonia - Patron Saint of toothaches.

Fiacre - Patron Saint of venereal disease and taxi drivers.

Gengulf - Patron Saint of unhappy marriages.

Vitus - Patron Saint of comedians and mental illness.

Matthew - Patron Saint of accountants.

Bernardino of Siena - Patron Saint of advertising executives.

Luke - Patron Saint of butchers.

Marin de Porres - Patron Saint of hairdressers.

Joseph of Arimathea - Patron Saint of grave diggers and
funeral directors.

Bernard of Clairvaux - Patron Saint of beekeepers.

Sebastian - Patron Saint of neighborhood watch.

Bizarre April Fool's Day Hoaxes

In 1981 the Manchester Guardian convinced readers that scientists at Britain's research labs in Pershore had "developed a machine to control the weather." The article said that "Britain will gain the immediate benefit of long summers, with rainfall only at night, and the Continent will have whatever Pershore decides to send it." Readers were also assured that the scientists would ensure that it snowed every Christmas in Britain.

In 2000 the British Daily Mail reported that Esporta Health Clubs had designed a new line of socks to help people lose weight. Named "FatSox," these socks could actually suck body fat out of sweating feet and promised to "banish fat forever." As a person's body heat rose and their blood vessels dilated, the socks would draw "excess lipid from the body through the sweat." After having sweated out the fat, the wearer could then simply remove the socks and wash them, and the fat, away.

A huge party was thrown at Jeff Koon's New York Studio in 1998 to honor the memory of the late, great American artist Nat Tate, the troubled abstract expressionist who ruined 99 percent of his own work before jumping to his death from the Staten Island ferry. At the party David Bowie read selections from William Boyd's soon-to-be released biography of Tate, "Nat Tate: An American Artist, 1928-1960." Critics in the audience murmured comments about Tate's work as they enjoyed their drinks. The only problem was that Tate never really existed - he was the satirical creation of William Boyd. Bowie, Boyd, and Boyd's publisher were the only ones in on the joke.

In March 1860 many people throughout London received the following invitation: "Tower of LondonAdmit Bearer and Friend to view annual ceremony of Washing the White Lions on Sunday, April 1, 1860. Admittance only at White Gate. It is particularly requested that no gratuities be given to wardens or attendants." By noon on April 1 a large crowd had reportedly gathered outside the tower. But of course, lions hadn't been kept in the tower for centuries, particularly not white lions. The crowd gradually snuck away disappointed.

Bizarre Age-Old Cures

Urinating in an open grave cures incontinence.

Passing a child three times under the belly of a donkey cures whooping cough.

Touching a corpse's hand cures a sore throat.

Stick an elder twig in your ear and wear it night and day to cure deafness.

Carry a child through a flock of sheep to cure respiratory problems.

To cure fever, place the patient on a sandy shore when the tide is coming in. The waves will carry away the disease.

A cork under the pillow at night cures cramps.

Rubbing the grease off church bells into your body cures shingles.

Tying a hairy caterpillar in a bag around a child's neck cures whooping cough.

Throwing a dung beetle over your shoulder cures a stomach ache.

Bizarre Animals

The Sphinx cat, bred from a Canadian mutation, is virtually hairless and has a damaged spine which results in a hopping walk.

The crop pigeon is bred with an over-sized crop and absurdly long feathers on its feet. The crop can't be cleaned naturally and the bird finds walking difficult.

Position canaries are bred to resemble the figures 1 and 7. Parts of their bodies are featherless and their over-stretched tendons mean they shift continually from foot to foot.

The munchkin cat has short hind legs and three-inch front legs. It can barely jump, can't groom itself and suffers from premature aging of its long spine.

A German breed of lop-eared rabbit has ears as long as its body, making walking difficult.

Persian cats are bred to have 'piggy' faces. The nose is little more than a stump.

The shar pei, a dog designed in the U.S. from a Chinese strain, is bred for its wrinkles.

Mutant goldfish are deliberately bred with large growths on their faces.

Bizarre Festivals

Gotmaar Festival (India, September) - On the day after the September full moon, the 45,000 residents of Pandhura divide themselves into two groups and hurl rocks at each other until sunset when the fighting ends.

Moose-Dropping Festival (Alaska, July) - The town of Talkeetna is host to an annual celebration of moose-droppings. Stalls sell jewelry and assorted knick-knacks made from moose-droppings. The highlight of the celebration is the moose-dropping-throwing competition, where competitors throw gold-painted moose-droppings into a target area.

Cheese-Rolling (U.K., May) - At 6 p.m. on Spring Bank Holiday Monday, local youths line up at the top of the hill alongside a 7 pound circular Double Gloucester cheese. When the cheese is released, the competitors hurtle down the hill in an attempt to catch it before it reaches the bottom.

Grandmother's Festival (Norway, July) - First held at Bodo in 1992, the festival sees grannies riding motorbikes, race-horses, skydiving and scuba-diving. The star of the inaugural event was 79-year-old Elida Anderson who became the world's oldest bungee jumper.

La Tomatina (Spain) - This festival dates back to 1944 when the fair at Bunol was ruined by hooligans hurling tomatoes at the procession. Now each year the town stages a 90-minute mass fight with 190,000 pounds of ripe tomatoes.

Running of the Sheep (U.S., September) - Reedpoint, Montana, stages a gentle alternative to Spain's famous Running of the Bulls. Each September hundreds of sheep charge down Main Street for six blocks. Contests are held for the ugliest sheep and prettiest ewe while shepherds assemble to recite poetry.

Bizarre Attempts to Fly

Man's attempts at flight date back to around 1020 when Oliver of Malmesbury, an English Benedictine monk, strapped a huge pair of wings to his body and try to soar into the air from Malmesbury Abbey. He broke both legs.

In 1783, Jacques Charles released a large unmanned balloon from Paris. It landed in Gonesse where it was attacked and destroyed by villagers who thought it was a monster.

In the early years of this century the Parisian Count de Guiseux created an Aeroplane Bicycle. The device featured large wings fixed to a bicycle with a propeller linked to the drive chain of the back wheel. To have any hope of elevation, the Count had to pedal furiously, making any form of flight an exhausting prospect.

The aerial velocipede was the brainchild of Monsieur A. Goupil in the 1870s. Resembling a unicycle beneath a Zeppelin, it proved spectacularly unsuccessful despite an optimistic write-up in the French trade press.

In 1742, French nobleman the Marquis de Bacqueville launched an ambitious attempt to fly across the River Seine in Paris with paddles strapped to his arms and legs. With a huge crowd gathered below, he leaped from a window ledge on the top floor of his house and began flapping vigorously. He fell like a rock but was lucky enough to land on a pile of old clothes in a washerwoman's boat. He sustained nothing worse than a broken leg.

Bizarre Military Mishaps

In 1757, a Prussian army had to abandon a safe escape route when they saw the road blocked by what they believed to be batteries of Austrian artillery. It turned out to be nothing more deadly than a herd of cattle.

In 1836, when Mexican troops were engaged in skirmishes with the Texans, Mexican General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna ordered his troops one afternoon to take a siesta. During the nap, the entire Mexican army was routed by the Texans in just 18 minutes.

At the Battle of Karansebes in 1788, 10,000 Austrian soldiers were killed or injured by their own side when drunken comrades began shouting that the Turks were upon them. In the darkness and confusion, the Austrians started firing indiscrimately at each other.

When relations with Bolivia soured in 1865, Queen Victoria ordered the Royal Navy to send six gunboats to Bolivia and sink its fleet. Her admirals quietly pointed out that Bolivia had no coast and therefore no fleet, whereupon the Queen sent for a map and a pair of scissors and cut Bolivia from the world.

Famous American General Thomas 'Stonewall' Jackson was devoutly religious and considered fighting on a Sunday to be a sin. In 1862, at the height of the Battle of Mechanicsville in the American Civil War, he stood alone praying on a nearby hill, steadfastly refusing to speak to anyone all afternoon. With nobody to guide them, his Confederate troops suffered huge losses.

More Bizarre Christmas Traditions

It is a British Christmas tradition that a wish made while mixing the Christmas pudding will come true only if the ingredients are stirred in a clockwise direction.

A traditional Christmas dinner in early England was the head of a pig prepared with mustard.

Sending red Christmas cards to anyone in Japan constitutes bad etiquette, since funeral notices there are customarily printed in red.

In Norway on Christmas Eve, all the brooms in the house are hidden because long ago it was believed that witches and mischievous spirits came out on Christmas Eve and would steal their brooms for riding.

Bizarre Sporting Mishaps

After beating 1000 rivals in a 500-mile race, Percy the racing pigeon flopped down exhausted in a Sheffield loft and was promptly eaten by a cat.

In preparation for the 1992 New York Golden Gloves Championships, boxer Daniel Caruso psyched himself up by pounding his gloves into his face. In doing so, he broke his nose and was disqualified from the match.

While waving to the crowd after finishing fourth in the 500cc US Motor Cycle Championship in 1989, Kevin Magee fell off the machine and broke his leg.

During a cricket game in Kalgoorlie, Australia, Stan Dawson was hit by a delivery which ignited a box of matches in his pocket. As he tried to beat down the flames, he was tagged out.

Russian athlete Ivanon Vyacheslav was so thrilled to win a medal at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics that he threw the medal high into the air. It landed in Lake Wendouree, and was never found.

Creatures with Bizarre Sexual Habits

After mating, the male garter snake from North America closes up the female's sexual opening with a plug made from kidney secretions. This is a form of chastity belt to ensure that the female is fertilized by the first male to mate with her.

The seahorse is the only creature where the male becomes pregnant. The female inserts a nipple-like appendage into the male and releases her eggs into a special pouch in his stomach. He then discharges his sperm over them and his stomach takes on the rounded shape once the eggs are ferti- lized.

The female bedbug has no sexual opening, so the male creates his own vagina, using his curved, pointed penis as a drill. The male then inserts his sperm and the blood-sucking female feeds on some of it when blood is in short supply.

After the female praying mantis mates with her partner, she then eats him. The female hooks her deadly arms around him and slowly nibbles away at him during copulation. Sometimes she doesn't even wait until after sex to make him her next meal, but his sex drive is so strong that he can keep going even while being eaten.

The male swamp antechinus, a mouse-like marsupial from Australia, is the only mammal which dies after mating. The males dedicate their lives to non-stop mating until they literally drop dead. Most of them die of starvation because they have no time to eat between sex.

Bizarre Language Trivia

The word "bozo" derives from the French slang term "bouseaux" (meaning "hick, peasant, or yokel"). However, bouseaux literally means "cow turds."

Gay men who successfully joined the British Navy used to be called "reverse malingerers."

A Boy Scout who forcibly helps an old lady across the street is called an officious interloper.

The Greeks had a word that meant "with armpits smelling like a he-goat."

The term for when dogs scratch their butts by dragging them across the floor is called "sleigh riding."

The expression "paddy wagon" is derived from a derogatory reference to picking up drunk Irish people.

Young women in Atlanta used to refer to their private parts as "janers."

Bizarre Statistical Facts

There are 318,979,564,000 possible ways of playing just the first four moves on each side in a game of chess.

In the 1970 Census, the U.S. had 2,983 men who were already widowers at the age of fourteen and 289 women, also at four- teen, who had already been widowed or divorced.

Mollusks, soft bodied animals with hard shells, are the sec- ond largest population of living things.

The total population of the Earth at the time of Julius Cae- sar was 150 million. The total population increase in two years on Earth today is 150 million.

People who have never married are 7.5 times more likely to be hospitalized in a state or community psychiatric facility than those who married.

Bizarre Frauds

Barnum's Fiji Mermaid, an ugly, dried-up, black object about three-feet (one-meter) long, was promoted as being half-monkey and half-fish. It was eventually found to be a hoax.

Poet Edgar Allan Poe ran a long-running hoax promotion of a manned balloon flight across the Atlantic.

Tourists flocked to Palisade, Nevada when the city boasted its regular gunfights and street brawls. However, what the visitors didn't know was that all the fights were staged.

A report in The Illustrated London News of February 9, 1856 claimed that a living pterodactyl (an extinct flying reptile) had been discovered in France.

A hotel operator hoaxed tourists to visit his city by crea- ting a "Silver Lake Serpent" that lured many people to the area.

Bizarre Product Facts

Actor Arnold Schwarzenegger bought the first Hummer manufactured for civilian use in 1992. The vehicle weighed in at 6,300 lbs and was 7 feet wide.

Americans consume 42 tons of aspirin per day.

Bayer was advertising cough medicine containing heroin in 1898.

Bullet proof vests, fire escapes, windshield wipers and laser printers were all invented by women.

Cocaine was sold to cure sore throat, neuralgia, nervousness, headache, colds and sleeplessness in the 1880s.

For two years, during the 1970s, Mattel marketed a doll called "Growing Up Skipper." Her breasts grew when her arm was turned.

Bizarre Money Facts

If you stack one million US $1 bills, it would be 110m (361 ft) high and weigh exactly 1 ton.

TIP is the acronym for "To Insure Promptness."

Of the more than $50 billion worth of diet products sold every year, almost $20 billion are spent on imitation fats and sugar substitutes.

Money notes are not made from paper, they are made mostly from a special blend of cotton and linen.

The average age of Forbes's 400 wealthiest individuals is 63.

In 1955 the richest woman in the world was Mrs. Hetty Green Wilks, who left an estate of $95 million in a will that was found in a tin box with four pieces of soap.

80% of millionaires drive second-hand cars.

If California was a country, it would be the 5th largest economy in the world.

A third of the world's people live on less than $2 a day, with 1.2 billion people living on less than $1 a day.

Bizarre Sporting Events

An international brick-throwing contest is held every July at Stroud, New South Wales with teams representing the Aus- tralian, English, American and Canadian towns named Stroud.

The Beer Can Regatta is held every June at Darwin in Australia's Northern Territory where craft assembled from beer and soft drink cans is raced.

Bed-pushers from all parts of Britain converge on North Yorkshire each year for the Knaresborough Bed Race where the main obstacle on the two-mile course is the River Nidd.

A bathtub race from Nanaimo to Vancouver across the Strait of Georgia is held each July at the Vancouver Sea Festival.

Near Barstow, California, the annual Calico Tobacco Chewing and Spitting Championships are held.

Bizarre Phobias

Coprophobia- Fear of Feces

Dextrophobia- Fear of objects at the right side of the body.

Alektorophobia- Fear of chickens.

Olfactophobia- Fear of smells.

Anablephobia- Fear of looking up.

Phronemophobia- Fear of thinking.

Tonsurphobia - Fear of haircuts.

Anthophobia - Fear of roses.

Bizarre Jobs

Laughter Therapist - Encourages people to think happy thoughts and make themselves laugh.

Worm Farmer (Vermiculturist) - Manages worms as they decompose rotten material and create compost.

Onion grader - Sorts out the onions based on their different qualities and uses; also removes the mud, sticks and stones that surround the onions.

Heritage Management Officer - Goes to every site that is proposed for development to ensure that there is nothing of archaeological significance that needs to be removed or preserved.

Golf Ball Marshal - Searches the fairways and bunkers for elusive golf balls.

Bizarre Patents

A nose filter was patented that would be attached in the nostril to purify and warm the air inside, and also moisten and medicate the mucous membrane of the sinus cavity.

Canine seasonal panties were created to prevent soiling or staining of clothing and furniture by the female canine's seasonal fluids.

A nose guard for horses was created to protect the nose from being sunburned.

A mattress with a wedge-shaped body with an inclined upper surface was designed with a concavity for the breasts.

An ear brace for dogs was invented to train dogs of various breeds to hold their ears erect.

Bizarre College Courses

"Philosophy and Star Trek" - Georgetown University

"Seeing Queerly: Queer Theory, Film, and Video" - Brown University

"Cultural History of Rap" - UCLA

"Language and Sexual Diversity" - University of Minnesota

"Black Feminism" - University of Missouri

"Ecofeminism" - University of Florida

"Sex and Death" - Carnegie Mellon University

"Race and Sport in African-American Life" - University of Texas

"The Bible and Horror" - Georgetown University

Bizarre Religious Facts

Camel is considered unclean meat in the Bible.

In 1631, two London bible printers accidentally left the word "not" out of the seventh commandment, which then read, "Thou shalt commit adultery." This book is now referred to as the "Wicked Bible."

Over eleven thousand people have visited a tortilla chip in New Mexico that appeared to have the face of Jesus Christ burned into it.

John Bunyan, a popular writer from the 1700's, was sent to prison for twelve years for preaching.

Parts of the Dead Sea Scrolls appeared for sale in the June 1, 1954 issue of the Wall Street Journal.

The biggest selling Christmas single of all time is Bing Crosby's "White Christmas."

A temple located in Sri Lanka is dedicated to a tooth of the Buddha and is called "Temple of the Tooth."

Bizarre Facts

During your lifetime, you'll eat about 60,000 pounds of food, that's the weight of about 6 elephants!

Some ribbon worms will eat themselves if they cant find any food.

Dolphins sleep with one eye open.

The worlds oldest piece of chewing gum is over 9000 years old.

In space, astronauts cannot cry properly, because there is no gravity, so the tears can't flow down their faces.

There are more plastic flamingos in the U.S, than real ones.

About 3000 years ago, most Egyptians died by the time they were 30.

More people use blue toothbrushes, than red ones.

A sneeze travels out your mouth at over 100 m.p.h..

Your ribs move about 5 million times a year, every time you breathe.

In the White House, there are 13,092 knives, forks and spoons.

The three best-known western names in China: Jesus Christ, Richard Nixon, and Elvis Presley.

A monkey was once tried and convicted for smoking a cigarette in South Bend, Indiana.

In Los Angeles, there are fewer people than there are automobiles.

About a third of all Americans flush the toilet while they are still sitting on it.

In Kentucky, 50 percent of the people who get married for the first time are teenagers.

In 1980, a Las Vegas hospital suspended workers for betting on when patients would die.

27 percent of U.S. male college students believe life is "a meaningless existential hell."

Bizarre Legendary Monsters

THE BEAST OF TRURO - As pet cats were found slaughtered in the Cape Cod area of Massachusettes, speculation grew as to whether the beast was a mountain lion even though none existed in the region. Its identity remains a mystery today.

GOATMAN - Described as having the upper body of a human, the legs of a goat and cloven hooves, Goatman has been known to leap out on unsuspecting courting couples parked in lover's lanes in Virginia. It is theorized that the creature was the result of a science experiment on goats that went wrong.

THE JERSEY DEVIL - The story goes that somewhere in the wooded Pine Barrens area of New Jersey lurks a monster with a large horse-like head, wings and a long serpent's body. In 1951, strange screams were heard coming from the woods, which were said to be the cry of the Jersey Devil.

MO-MO - In the summer of 1971, two girls stopped for a picnic near the town of Louisiana, Missouri, when a half-ape half human emerged from some bushes and tried to break into their car. Monster hunts in the area failed to reveal the culprit.

THE FLATHEAD LAKE MONSTER - Visitors to Flathead Lake, Montana, have sometimes spotted something "huge and black" in the water. A major sighting was in 1963 by Ronald Nixon who calculated the creature to be around 25ft long. A reward was offered for the first good photograph of the beast went unclaimed.

Bizarre Superstitions

Spilling salt is considered bad luck, probably because it was once so valuable. Superstition has it a person is doomed to shed as many tears as it takes to dissolve the spilled salt.

Evil spirits can't harm you when you stand inside a circle.

Suspend a wedding band over the palm of the pregnant girl. If the ring swings in a circular motion it will be a girl. If the ring swings in a straight line the baby will be a boy.

A knife as a gift from a lover means that the love will soon end.

If you use the same pencil to take a test that you used for studying for the test, the pencil will remember the answers.

The number of Xs in the palm of your right hand is the number of children you will have.

You must hold your breath while going past a cemetery or you will breathe in the spirit of someone who has recently died.

Bizarre History Facts

Beer was the first trademarked product - British beer Bass Pale Ale received its trademark in 1876.

Playing-cards were known in Persia and India as far back as the 12th century. A pack then consisted of 48 instead of 52 cards.

Excavations from Egyptian tombs dating to 5,000 BC show that the ancient Egyptian kids played with toy hedgehogs.

Accounts from Holland and Spain suggest that during the 1500s and 1600s urine was commonly used as a tooth-cleaning agent.

In 1969 the US launched a male chimpanzee called Ham into space.

In 1963 the French launched a cat called Feliette into space.

The first written account of the Loch Ness Monster, or Nessie, was made in 565AD.

Bizarre Body Facts

Hippocrates, the Father of Medicine, suggested that a woman could enlarge her bust line by singing loudly and often.

Men loose about 40 hairs a day. Women loose about 70 hairs a day.

A person remains conscious for eight seconds after being decapitated.

The first human sex change took place in 1950 when Danish doctor Christian Hamburger operated on New Yorker George Jargensen, who became Christine Jargensen.

Unless food is mixed with saliva you cannot taste it.

On average a hiccup lasts 5 minutes.

Fingernails grow nearly 4 times faster than toenails.

A newborn baby's head accounts for one-quarter of its weight.

If all your DNA is stretched out, it would reach to the moon 6,000 times.