Women are better than men at the basketball free-throw line, according to a study by Larry Silverberg and Chau Tran at North Carolina State University.
Different types of mead include but are not limited to cyser (apples or apple cider), melomel (fruit or fruit juice), pyment (grapes), hippocras (grapes and spices), morat (mulberries), capsicumel (chiles), and metheglin (spices such as cinnamon or cloves).
There are almost 700 leech species. Not all leeches suck blood, and not all bloodsucking leeches seek the blood of humans. One desert variety lives in camels’ noses.
Hasenfürzchen means “bunny fart” in German. Like many animal-related German words, it is also a term of endearment (akin to “sweetie” or “honey”).
Alfred Hitchcock loved practical jokes. Once, he bet a man a week’s salary that he’d be too scared to spend a whole night chained to a camera in a dark studio. Before leaving, Hitchcock offered him some brandy to help him sleep. The man accepted, not realizing the brandy had been laced with a laxative.
This article appears in February 22 • 2019.