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Arizona Daily Wildcat
Thursday October 16, 2003
Things you always never wanted to know
The postage stamp was invented by an Englishman named James Chambers in 1834. Before that time envelopes had stamps engraved upon them. They were bulky, however, and Chambers' invention caught on immediately. Postage stamps were introduced to America in 1847.
E is the most frequently used letter in the English alphabet, Q the least.
The word "bamboo" has contributed two colloquialisms to the English language. First, we owe to it the word "joint," meaning a disreputable gathering place, a dive. This is because the pipes used in opium dens were crafted of bamboo and had many "joints." (It has been suggested that marijuana
cigarettes are also known as "joints" because of their association with opium dens.) Second, there is the word "bamboozle," which means to fool or cheat. This traces back to the Chinese custom of punishing swindlers by whacking them on the hands and back with bamboo poles. Any smart aleck so treated was a "bamboozler," that is, one worthy of being tanned with bamboo.
Dr. John Cohausen wrote a book in 1743 "proving" that one could live to be 115 years old by inhaling the breath of little girls. In his book, Hermippus Redivivus, Dr. Cohausen gave the following prescription: Take one pound of gum olibani, two ounces of styrae, myrrh, and several other herbs, mix, burn and inhale while at the same time imbibing the exhalations of the nearest little girl.
The famous 19th century bullfighter Lagartijo (born Rafael Molina) killed 4,867 bulls.
A bubble is round because the air within it presses equally against all its parts, thus causing all surfaces to be equidistant from its center.
Nothing can be burned again that has already been burned once.
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