Fast facts
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Monday, April 19, 2004
Things you always never wanted to know
In his early days, Picasso kept warm by burning his drawings.
Artificial "storm waves" made in a glass bowl in a scientific study made goldfish seasick.
"Five, four, three, two, one, lift off," the famous rocketry countdown, was created by the German director Fritz Lang for his 1928 motion picture "Die Frau im Mond," or "Woman in the Moon." The movie may be more popularly known as "By Rocket to the Moon."
Town laws in the Midwest in the 1880s prohibited the sale of ice cream sodas on Sunday. In Illinois, soda fountain owners got around the law by omitting the carbonated water and serving just the scoop of ice cream and the syrup. They called this a "Sunday soda." Later the name was shortened to "Sunday," and then became "sundae."
If the oceans were divided among all the people on Earth, every single man, woman and child would get the equivalent of 110 billion gallons, a tenth of a cubic mile of ocean water.
The average married woman in 17th-century America gave birth to 13 children.
During most of the Middle Ages, few people, including kings and emperors, were able to read or write. The clergy were virtually the only ones who could.
Courts in the United States devote more than half their time to cases involving automobiles.
O. Henry, the pseudonym of William Sydney Porter, was serving three years in prison for embezzlement when he began to write short stories. Upon his release, he gained national fame with 300 stories, most of which had surprise endings.