· In the Chinese written language, the ideograph that stands for "trouble" represents two women under one roof.

· Ancient Romans always entered the home of a friend on their right foot ÷ the left side of the body was thought to portend evil. The Latin word for "left" is "sinister" ÷ thus our English word "sinister" refers to anything threatening or malevolent.

· Haggis, a traditional Scottish dish, is made from the lungs, heart and liver of a sheep that are then chopped and mixed in with onions, seasonings, suet and oatmeal. The dish is finished after it is boiled in a bag made from the sheep's stomach.

· Ants stretch when they wake up. They also appear to yawn in a very human manner before taking up the tasks of the day.

· During the time of Peter the Great, any Russian man who wore a beard was required to pay a special tax.

· Voltaire considered Shakespeare's works so deplorable that he referred to the bard as "that drunken fool."

· The saxophone is named after Antoine Sax. Born in Belgium, Sax invented a number of unusual-sounding instruments, all of which he named after himself. Besides the saxophone, he created the saxhorn and the saxotromba.

· The famous Swedish astronomer Tycho Brahe had a nose made of gold. It was a replacement for his own, which he lost in a duel with a Danish nobleman in 1566.

· A whip makes a cracking sound because its tip moves faster than the speed of sound (760 mph).