· In nineteenth century England, it was considered vulgar to hold an umbrella under one's arm. Well-bred people gripped their umbrellas in the middle, with the handle turned toward the ground. Only silk umbrellas were considered fashionable by the British upper crust, and only if they were blue or green. For the general public, moreover, umbrellas were an unaffordable luxury. When it rained, the ordinary man or woman would hire an umbrella from a local stand, usually at the cost of one and a half pence per hour.

· When an Australian Bushman died, his body was lowered into a grave where a special kind of gravedigger awaited it. This person's job was to slice up the corpse and hand out bits of the flesh to mourners. The order in which the relatives partook of the feast was strictly prescribed. A mother ate from her children, and children from their mother. A man could eat his sister's husband and his brother's wife. A father, however, could not eat his children, nor could children eat of their father.

· Zachary Taylor, 12th president of the United States, did not vote until he was 62. He did not even vote in his own election. Taylor, a professional soldier, lived in so many places during his life that he was unable to establish a legal residence until he retired.