If you stomp out a cigarette on the streets of the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead, you could get a £75 ($118) fine.

When the Soviet Union and Russia used to send monkeys into space, the names of the monkeys started with each letter of the Russian alphabet sequentially.

Wallpaper, which was a cheaper alternative to tapestries, dates back to at least 1509. Mass merchandising of wallpaper began in the 1840s. Papers printed before 1860 used arsenic in the ink.

The late actor Walter Matthau liked to joke about his birth name and pass off bogus information just to see who was gullible enough to believe him. He said his middle name was “Foghorn” when he registered for a Social Security card.

If you can find a Twinkie, it’ll take you about 45 seconds to explode it in a microwave.

This article appears in February 8 • 2013.

A note to readers: Bold and uncensored, The Austin Chronicle has been Austin’s independent news source for over 40 years, expressing the community’s political and environmental concerns and supporting its active cultural scene. Now more than ever, we need your support to continue supplying Austin with independent, free press. If real news is important to you, please consider making a donation of $5, $10 or whatever you can afford, to help keep our journalism on stands.

SUPPORT US