Fast Facts
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Tuesday, November 15, 2005
Things you've always never wanted to know
X-rays of the "Mona Lisa" show there are three different versions of the same subject, all painted by Leonardo da Vinci, under the final portrait.
In the U.S., federal law states that children's TV shows may contain only 10 minutes of advertising per hour and on weekends the limit is 10 1/2 minutes.
There are about 226,000 trees in New York's Central Park.
The first television sitcom couple to ever share the same bed on a regular basis was Lily and Herman Munster.
There are 6,272,640 square inches in an acre.
In 1874, the first animal purchased for the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago was a bear cub, bought for $10.
Benjamin Franklin was America's first political cartoonist. His drawing of a snake divided into eight parts was published in Philadelphia in 1754.
The early Egyptians built some large temples. The Great Temple at El-Karnak, built more than 3,000 years ago, is larger than the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris.
An alligator can go through 2,000 to 3,000 teeth in a lifetime.
The world's windiest place is reputed to be Commonwealth Bay, George V Coast, Antarctica, where wind speeds of 200 mph have been recorded.
In 1893, Milwaukee's Pabst beer won a blue ribbon at the Chicago Fair, and was sold thereafter as Pabst Blue Ribbon beer.
Early systems of measurement used body parts to calculate length. A cubit ran from elbow to middle fingertip. The distance from fingertip to fingertip of outstretched arms was a fathom.
Native Hawaiians call a newcomer to Hawaii a "malihini."
In baseball, a "can of corn" refers to a fly ball that is easy to catch. This phrase reportedly came from an old practice of grocery store clerks, who used to knock unreachable cans off high shelves with a stick and catch them in their work aprons.