Fast facts
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Friday, November 21, 2003
Things you always never wanted to know
One of the most picturesque Mississippi River gamblers was George Devol. A formidable fighter, Devol was good with his fists, but his principal weapon was his head. If doctors who examined him are to be believed, his skull above the forehead was more than an inch thick. In 1867, he had a friendly butting contest with Billy Carrol, a circus performer known both as "The Great Butter" and "The Man with the Hard Head," and whose act consisted of smashing barrels and heavy doors with his head. George Devol knocked him out.
Thomas Alva Edison suffered early from deafness and taught his wife-to-be Morse code while he was courting her. When she was able both to send and receive messages, Edison proposed to her by tapping out the message in her hand. She answered in the same way. After they were married, they often "spoke" to each other in Morse code. Whenever they attended a play, Mrs. Edison kept her hand on her husband's knee and telegraphed the words to him so he could appreciate it.
No matter where she went - and she went as far afield as the Crimea in 1854 - the "Lady of the Lamp," the English hospital administrator and reformer Florence Nightingale, carried a pet owl in a pocket.
Ladies in Europe took to wearing lightning rods on their hats and trailing a ground wire - a fad that began after Benjamin Franklin published instructions on how to make them, in his 1753 almanac, Poor Richard Improved.
A newborn turkey chick has to be taught to eat, or it will starve. Breeders spread feed underfoot, hoping the little ones will peck at is and get the idea. Turkeys tend to look up with their mouths open during rainstorms. Lots of them drown as a result.
The female anglerfish is six times larger than her mate. The male anchors himself to the top of her head and stays there for the rest of his life. They literally become one. Their digestive and circulatory systems are merged. Except for two very large generative organs and a few fins, nothing remains of the male.