Cat's cradle is one of the most universal games in the world. Played in almost every culture, what is a puzzle to ethnologists is that widely scattered peoples -- Maoris of New Zealand, North American Indians, Arctic Eskimos, and Africans, for instance -- make figures of string between their

He certainly did -- Wolf was the name of the dog that was with Rip Van Winkle when he fell asleep for 20 years.

The average bra size sold at Frederick's of Hollywood in 1966 was a 34B. Today, it's a 36C.

The war with Spain was the shortest war in American history. It lasted five months: April 1898 to August 1898. ----------- headline:How many women were in the Girl Scouts?

Over 40 percent of the women in the U.S. were in the Girl Scouts organization. Two-thirds of the women listed in "Who's Who

Alchemy refers to both an early protoscience and an early philosophical discipline, both combining elements of chemistry, metallurgy, physics, medicine, astrology, semiotics, mysticism, spiritualism, and art. Alchemy has been practiced in Mesopotamia, Ancient Egypt, Persia, India, and China, in Classical Greece and Rome, in the Islamic ...Read more

The King James version of the Bible has 50 authors, 66 books, 1,189 chapters, and 31,173 verses. The shortest verse in the Bible consists of two words: "Jesus wept" (John 11:35).

In the United States, Birkenstocks were first popular among young adults, a group traditionally associated with American liberalism; in the early 1990s "Birks" enjoyed a surge of popularity among college-aged Generation Xers. During the 2004 U.S. presidential primary, some conservatives derided Howard Dean's supporters as "Birkenstock liberals."...Read more

Many puzzles are termed "fully interlocking". This means that adjacent pieces are connecting such that if you move one piece horizontally you move all, preserving the connection. Sometimes the connection is tight enough to pick up a solved part holding one piece. Some fully interlocking puzzles have pieces all of a similar shape, with rounded ...Read more

Lucy Burns. Lucy Burns was an active militant suffragist in both the United States and Great Britain. According the {book;} 'Notable American Women' by Sidney R. Bland, Lucy Burns spent more time in prison than any other suffragist.

Fingernail polish often contains four or five chemicals the Environmental Protection Agency calls potentially harmful. If a person bought fingernail polish in a 55-gallon drum, the empty drum could not be legally thrown into a landfill. It would have to be transported to the nearest state-regulated commercial hazardous-waste disposal facility. ...Read more

A normal person has two true vocal chords. We also have two false vocal chords which have no direct role in producing sound.

The surface temperature of a neutron star is about 1.8 million degrees Fahrenheit.

No high jumper has ever been able to stay off the ground for more than one second.

According to Beatles producer George Martin, Neal Hefti's catchy composition of the 1960s "Batman" Emmy-winning theme song inspired George Harrison to write the hit song "Taxman."

The Frito Bandito was the cartoon mascot for Fritos corn chips from 1967 to 1971. Created by the Foote, Cone & Belding Agency, and animated by Tex Avery, the character was voiced by Mel Blanc, who used an exaggerated Mexican accent not unlike another character of his - Speedy Gonzales. The Frito Bandito spoke broken English and robbed people of ...Read more

John Hanson -- not George Washington -- was the first president of the U.S. When the Congress met in 1781, the U.S. was governed by the Articles of Confederation, which were adopted in 1777 and ratified by the states in 1781. At that meeting, Congress elected John Hanson its "President of the U.S. in Congress assembled." George Washington became...Read more

The first known published crossword puzzle was created by a journalist named Arthur Wynne from Liverpool, and he is usually credited as the inventor of the popular word game. December 21, 1913 was the date and the 'word-cross' appeared in a Sunday newspaper, the New York World. Wynne's puzzle differed from today's crosswords in that it was ...Read more

Prior to the invention of lawn mowers, lawns were cut with scythes, but this operation was ineffective unless the lawn was wet. The sale of lawn mowers got a great boost when lawn tennis came into vogue in England in 1870.

Following a family move, a series of studies have discovered that boys between the ages of 6 and 11 tend to have problems adjusting to new environments, particularly school. The research showed that moving during those ages could be so traumatic for boys as to cause a drop in academic achievement or even I.Q. The results were not conclusive for ...Read more

Although many food writers have translated the Italian "antipasto" as "before the pasta," its literal meaning is "before the meal."