England’s King James I was thinking ahead; he wrote about the health hazards of smoking in his 1604 treatise “Counterblaste to Tobacco.”
Muhammad Ali had a hit single on his 1963 album I Am the Greatest—a cover of “Stand by Me.”
The father of the early 20th-century Supreme Court justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. discovered the adrenal gland.
Trick-shot golfer Wedgy Winchester could chip a coin into a golf hole from 20 yards.
Most successful song by a solo female artist: Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You.”
Marie Tussad, who was suspected of royalist sympathies and arrested during the French Revolution, was sentenced to die on the guillotine, but was spared because of her wax-sculpting talents.
At 16, Rick James went AWOL from the U.S. Navy, fled to Canada, and joined a band with Neil Young.
Ah, Britannia
First recorded appearance of a garden gnome in England: 1840. (They were first made in Germany.)
In Lancashire, in 1617, King James I knighted a piece of steak Sir Loin, thus coining the term. Why? He thought it was especially tasty.
According to studies, married people in England spend about 25 minutes per week kissing.
Nine percent of the people in England drink neither tea nor coffee.
A 2006 study found that the average white middle-aged Briton was healthier than the average white middle-aged American.
Fifty-eight percent of the London Underground, the city’s transit system, is actually above-ground.
There are 66 cities in the United Kingdom: 50 in England, five in Wales, six in Scotland, and five in Northern Ireland.
In the United Kingdom, about 50 instant lottery tickets are sold every second.
Leaders of the World
Nine U.S. presidents never attended college: George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Harry S. Truman, Andrew Jackson, Martin Van Buren, Zachary Taylor, Millard Fillmore, Andrew Johnson, and Grover Cleveland.
Former British prime ministers John Major and Tony Blair once worked for London’s power company.
Shortest time in office for a Canadian prime minister: John Turner, 79 days in 1984.
Said Musa—prime minister of Belize from 1998 to 2008— wore jeans and a T-shirt to his inauguration.
U.S. president Woodrow Wilson couldn’t read until he was 10 years old.
Mexico’s president Felipe Calderon (who took office in 2006) once told MTV that he “regretted not having more fun as a child.”
Former U.S. president Jimmy Carter’s English teacher introduced him to War and Peace when he was 12. He was disappointed to learn that it wasn’t about cowboys and Indians.
In 2007, the magazine Vanity Fair listed French president Nicolas Sarkozy as number 68 on its 100 best-dressed list.
Vaclav Havel, former president of the Czech Republic, is a huge fan of both Frank Zappa and Lou Reed.
U.S. president James A. Garfield could write Latin with one hand and Greek with the other—at the same time.
British journalist Carol Thatcher, the daughter of former prime minister Margaret Thatcher, won the 2005 season of the UK reality show I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here!
Under the Weather
You can use pinecones to forecast the weather: when rain is on the way, the scales close.
Technically, a drizzle is 14 drops of rain per square foot per second; a light rain is 26 drops.
The first type of umbrella was invented by the ancient Egyptians as a sun shield.
According to weather forecasters, “scattered showers” means a 10 percent chance of rain.
In 1823, Charles Macintosh patented the waterproof cloth later used to make raincoats.
A whistle sounds louder just before it rains.
Average life span of an umbrella: 1 ½ years.
According to the U.S. Weather Service, one-day forecasts are right 75 percent of the time.
The Chinese invented the first waterproof umbrella using wax and lacquer.
A lightning bolt can travel at a speed of 60,000 miles per second.
Celebrity Gossip
James Earl Jones, who was the voice of Darth Vader in the Star Wars series, used to stutter. When he was in high school, the stuttering was so severe that he rarely spoke to anyone.
Before he became famous, Sylvester Stallone cleaned lion cages.
On his business cards, Verne Troyer, who played Mini Me in the Austin Powers movies, calls himself “the biggest little guy in the business.”
Oscar-winning movie stars live longer than those who don’t win.
French artist Henri Rousseau—famous for painting exotic jungle scenes—never left the city of Paris.
Track and field star Jackie Joyner-Kersee suffers from asthma.
After only three months in school, seven-year-old Thomas Edison was sent home for constantly asking “Why?” His frustrated teacher sent a note home to Edison’s parents claiming that the boy was slow.
They Write the Songs
Sting wrote the Police song “Every Breath You Take” on Noel Coward’s piano.
Neil Sedaka composed “Oh! Carol” for Carole King in 1959. She later recorded “Oh! Neil.”
Cole Porter’s original lyrics to “I Get a Kick Out of You” referenced the Lindberghs: he changed them after the couple’s baby was kidnapped.
Carl Perkins wrote the song “Blue Suede Shoes” on an old potato sack.
Willie Nelson wrote “Crazy” for country singer Billy Walker—and Walker turned it down. (Patsy Cline didn’t.)
Songwriter Jim Weatherly wrote “Midnight Train to Georgia” in the 1970s after a conversation with actress Farrah Fawcett, in which she said she had to run to catch a “midnight plane to Houston.”
The melody for Nat King Cole’s 1954 hit “Smile” was composed by Charlie Chaplin.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow never actually saw the 53-foot waterfall Minnehaha that he wrote about in his 1853 poem “The Song of Hiawatha.”
Barry Manilow didn’t write “I Write the Songs”—Bruce Johnston did…and it was about Beach Boy Brian Wilson.
Kris Kristofferson, Janis Joplin’s former boyfriend, penned her hit single “Me and Bobby McGee.”
The John Fogerty song “Centerfield” plays continuously at the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York.
John Lennon’s inspiration for the 1967 song “Good Morning, Good Morning” was a cereal commercial.
Men & Women
During a conversation, women make eye contact 15 percent more often than men do.
In 2008, there were 140,000 stay-at-home dads in the United States, up 64 percent from a decade before.
According to the Boston Globe, the estimated salary for a stay-at-home parent is $138,000.
Women look at other women more often than they look at men.
At age 21, women are more likely than men to be enrolled in college.
Almost twice as many women as men buy gifts for Mother’s Day.
Thirty-five percent of teenage girls who use the Internet write blogs; only 20 percent of teen boys do.
Men who have a heart attack in a public place often walk outside when they start to feel ill, but women are more likely to go into the bathroom.
Men can read smaller print than women can, but women can hear better.
Men are more likely than women to be left-handed.
Studies reveal that men prefer classical music while on hold; women prefer light jazz.
More women than men talk to their cars.
* * *
“Have you noticed that all the people in favor of birth control are already born?”
—Benny Hill
Money Matters
The U.S. Treasury began printing paper money in 1862 because there was a coin shortage.
There are $171 million worth of pennies and $2.6 billion worth of dimes in circulation.
The paper for U.S. currency is made exclusively by the Massachusetts-based Crane & Company.
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There are 26 states named on the back of a $5 bill.
In 1792, the United States established the dollar as its official currency.
It costs about 1.2 cents to mint a penny.
At the end of the Civil War, 33 percent of U.S. paper currency was counterfeit.
Eighteen percent of U.S. coins are contaminated with the E. coli bacteria.
The three people shown on today’s U.S. currency who weren’t presidents: Alexander Hamilton, Benjamin Franklin, and Sacagawea.
Who’s on the $500 bill? William McKinley. The $1,000 bill? Grover Cleveland.
U.S. paper currency is fluorescent under UV light.
The only First Lady to have her image used on U.S. currency: Martha Washington, on a silver certificate in 1886.
Original gold coins included $10, $5, and $2.50 values.
About half of the U.S. currency printed are $1 bills.
The U.S. Mint once considered producing doughnut-shaped coins.
Alabama’s state quarter spells Helen Keller’s name in Braille.
Everyday Dangers
According to statistics, about 7,000 people a year are injured by falling off of chairs.
Most dangerous cheerleading moves: the “pyramid” and the “basket toss.”
What recreational activity causes more bone fractures than any other? Aerobic dancing.
Hot drinks cause more injuries than lawn mowers do.
About 2,000 people are injured every year from trying to pry frozen foods apart.
More people die while playing golf than any other sport. Leading causes: heart attacks and strokes.
Deadliest weather phenomenon in the United States: lightning.
Cotton swabs cause more injuries than razor blades.
More than 6,000 Americans are injured every year by toilet seats.
Odds of being killed by fireworks: one in 615,488.
Survivor Realities
The inaugural 2000 season of Survivor is often credited as the beginning of the “reality television revolution.”
The fourth season of Survivor was supposed to take place in Jordan, but because of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the producers relocated to the Marquesas Islands in French Polynesia.
The show’s host, Jeff Probst, is also an ordained minister.
All of the show’s contestants receive a stipend (between $2,500 to $100,000) for participating. The amount increases the longer they’re in the game.
Michael Skupin, who took part in the Australian season, fell into a campfire during filming and was evacuated from the set. Then, after he got home, members of the animal rights group PETA attacked him with pepper spray for killing a pig on the show.
British television producer Charlie Parsons came up with the idea and format for Survivor in 1992.
Tina Wesson, winner of the 2001 season, wasn’t originally selected to be on the show. The producers called her when someone else dropped out.
Oldest Survivor contestant: Rudy Boesch was 72 when he competed on the first season. Youngest: 19-year-old Spencer Duhm (season 18).
The first season’s winner, Richard Hatch, spent three years in jail for tax evasion. Why? He didn’t properly report his $1 million prize to the IRS.
The Australian season didn’t actually take place in the Outback. The camps were in a semiremote area about three hours from Cairns, a coastal city in the northeastern part of the country.
Presidential Pastimes
When John Tyler was told that he’d been elected president, he was on his knees playing marbles.
Calvin Coolidge liked to have his head rubbed while he ate breakfast in bed.
Abraham Lincoln enjoyed Edgar Allan Poe’s poem “The Raven.”
James A. Garfield was a fan of Jane Austen.
Benjamin Harrison liked to play billiards and go duck hunting.
For fun, Calvin Coolidge rode a mechanical horse that he kept in the White House.
An avid collector, Franklin D. Roosevelt had a stamp collection that grew to 25,000 stamps by the 1930s and was worth millions.
Calvin Coolidge played the harmonica.
Speed-reader Jimmy Carter was once clocked reading 2,000 words a minute.
James A. Garfield juggled Indian clubs, which look like bowling pins, to build his muscles.
Thomas Jefferson, James A. Garfield, and Rutherford B. Hayes all liked to play chess.
Thomas Jefferson collected maps, minerals, fossils, bones, and Native American artifacts.
John F. Kennedy collected scrimshaw—carved or engraved ivory.
Harry S. Truman walked two miles every morning at a brisk clip of 128 steps per minute.
Jimmy Carter is an avid fan of Putt-Putt golf.
Franklin D. Roosevelt watched only short films with happy endings.
Can’t Win ’Em All
In 1966, British fans booed Bob Dylan when he used an electric guitar for the first time onstage.
Winston Churchill called Mahatma Gandhi “a seditious lawyer…posing as a half-dressed fakir.”
Japanese pro golfer Masashi Ozaki was uninvited from the 1988 Masters when rumors of his mob connections surfaced.
Tchaikovsky called Brahms’s piano concertos “dried stuff.”
In 1967, Jimi Hendrix opened for the Monkees…and was booed.
After pitcher Buck O’Brien gave up five runs in the first inning of a 1912 World Series game, his Red Sox teammates beat him up.
German psychologist Karen Horney challenged Sigmund Freud’s theories and suggested that men suffered from “womb envy.”
The term “fan” was first used to insult baseball “fanatics” in the late 1800s.
It’s Called a…
Siffleuse…a female wrestler
Cheek…the side of a hammer
Flink…a group of 12 or more cows
Pintle…the pin that holds a hinge together
Archetier…a person who makes bows for violins and other instruments
Yeevil…a fork used for pitching manure
Zugzwang…making a bad move in chess
Plectrum…a tool used to pluck or strum a stringed instrument, like a guitar pick
Skirl…a group of pipers (A group of harpists is called a melody.)
Peloton…the main cluster of riders in a bicycle race
Digitabulists…a person who collects thimbles
Alipile…a person who removes armpit hair professionally
Anthems
Hawaii’s unofficial anthem, “Aloha ‘Oe” (“Farewell to Thee”) was written in 1877 by Lili‘uokalani, the islands’ last queen.
Spain’s national anthem has no official lyrics.
The 1862 Civil War song “Battle Cry of Freedom” was so popular in the northern United States that 14 printing presses couldn’t meet the demand for sheet music.
The theme song for Monty Python’s Flying Circus: “The Liberty Bell” by John Philip Sousa.
“Taps,” written by Union general Daniel Butterfield, was also used by the Confederate army.
Michael Jackson’s estate owns the rights to South Carolina’s state anthem, “South Carolina on My Mind.”
Teacher Katharine Bates wrote “America the Beautiful” in 1893 after viewing Colorado’s Pike’s Peak.
The Beatles’ “All You Need Is Love” opens with a few bars of the French national anthem.
The Dutch national anthem, “Het Wilhelmus,” is the world’s oldest. It was first performed in 1574.
Woody Guthrie wrote the folk anthem “This Land Is Your Land” as a protest of Irving Berlin’s “God Bless America.”
World’s newest national anthem: Nepal’s “Sayaun Thunga Phool Ka” (“Hundreds of Flowers”), adopted in 2007.
The music for California’s state anthem (“I Love You, California”) was composed by a man named Abraham F. Frankenstein.
Hard Workers
With 8,833 wins, Bill Shoemaker is the most successful jockey of all time.
King Frederick II of Prussia (1712–
86) wrote 120 flute concertos, more than any other composer.
Author Isaac Asimov (1920–92) wrote or edited more than 500 books in his lifetime.
Total number of concerts played by the Grateful Dead: 2,317.
Susan Butcher won the world’s longest dogsled race, the Iditarod, four times.
Russian songwriter Irving Berlin wrote more than 1,000 tunes.
Vin Scully has been the “Voice of the Dodgers” since 1950—the longest tenure of any sportscaster with one team.
It took Leo Tolstoy nearly 10 years to write War and Peace, and it was originally published in six volumes.
Antonio Vivaldi composed 488 concertos, more than any other composer.
Movie Price Tags
Marlon Brando was paid $3.7 million for two weeks of work for his cameo role in Superman.
First movie to earn $100 million: Jaws (1975). First movie to earn $200 million: Jaws.
Highest-grossing golf movies: Tin Cup ($53.9 million) and Caddyshack ($39.8 million).
Biggest Hollywood bomb ever: The Adventures of Pluto Nash (2002). It lost more than $95 million.
Clint Eastwood’s salary for the 1964 spaghetti Western A Fistful of Dollars: $15,000.
Julia Roberts earned $50,000 for Mystic Pizza in 1988, $300,000 for Pretty Woman in 1990, and $20 million for Erin Brockovich in 2000.
Dustin Hoffman’s salary for The Graduate (1967): $17,000.
Kevin Smith’s comedy Clerks (1994) was made on a budget of $26,800.
Highest-grossing Western: Dances with Wolves, which made $394.2 million worldwide.
At $3.9 million, Ben-Hur (1925) was the most expensive silent film ever made.
Pulp Fiction cost $8 million to make, of which $5 million was for actors’ salaries.
The Miami Police Department’s annual budget equals 83 percent of what it cost to make the movie Miami Vice in 2006.
For her role in Cleopatra, Elizabeth Taylor was the first female actor to get a $1 million film contract.
It cost $3 million to build the Titanic…and $100 million to make the movie.
Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader Wise Up! Page 17