Small mackerels are called blinks.

English singer-actress Petula Clark is an American Civil War expert, and musician Phil Collins is a huge Alamo freak and memorabilia collector.

It’s illegal for two pigs to have sex at the county airport in Kingsville, Texas.

Martin Luther King Jr. convinced Nichelle Nichols to keep playing Uhura on Star Trek.

Harry Houdini and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle were friends. Doyle thought Houdini had supernatural powers to conduct seances, and Doyle wanted to speak with his dead son, who died due to World War I injuries. Houdini tried to convince him seances were just trickery.

This article appears in June 19 • 2009.

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