Every day, you inhale about 700,000 of your own skin flakes.
On March 20, 1764, a 20-year-old Thomas Jefferson wrote that he got a killer, two-day headache after he behaved awkwardly in front of a girl he fancied.
The number 4 is considered unlucky in China, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam because the words in those countries’ languages for “4” sound like the word for “death.” Many buildings there skip a 4th floor or the floor is labeled “F.” Fear of the number 4 is called “tetraphobia.”
In 2003, there were 21,514 bowling-related injuries requiring hospital emergency room visits. Most of these involved bowlers who dropped balls on their feet or got their fingers caught between two bowling balls in the bowling ball return.
Hal Smith, the actor who played Otis Campbell, the town drunk on The Andy Griffith Show, never had a sip of booze in his life.
This article appears in November 16 • 2012.