Tish Hinojosa has never met Willie Nelson.
Coca-Cola promoters in China were faced with the task of translating the company name into Chinese characters. Their first attempt, “kou kah koh lah,” literally means “Bite the wax tadpole.” They finally settled on something that means, roughly, “May the taste buds rejoice.”
There are seven licensed producers of peyote in Texas — for ritualistic uses by Native Americans.
An Italian agronomist developing export crops for Tanzania pushed strawberries, for which there is a strong market in Europe, but a party official declared that unlike beets and potatoes, strawberries were “not a socialist fruit.”
The national average cost of rhinoplasty — a nose job — is enough to feed a starving child in a Third World country for 43.8 years.
This article appears in November 5 • 1999.