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Illustration by Holly Randall
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Arizona Daily Wildcat
Monday, January 24, 2005
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Things you always never wanted to know
During World War II the city of Leningrad underwent a 17-month German siege. Unable to access the city by roads, the Russians built a railroad across the ice on Lake Lagoda to get food and supplies to the citizens.
Elton John's real name is Reginald Dwight. Elton comes from Elton Dean, a Bluesology sax player. John comes from Long John Baldry, founder of Blues Inc. They were the first electric white blues band ever seen in England - 1961.
The saying "It's so cold out there it could freeze the balls off a brass monkey" came from when they had old cannons like ones used in the Civil War. The cannonballs were stacked in a pyramid formation called a brass monkey. When it got extremely cold outside they would crack and break off, thus the saying.
The average garden-variety caterpillar has 248 muscles in its head.
A walla-walla scene is one where extras pretend to be talking in the background - when they say "walla-walla" it looks like they are actually talking.
The Australian $5, $10, $20, $50 and $100 notes are made out of plastic.
Most armadillos seen dead on the road did not get hit by wheels. When an armadillo is frightened it jumps straight into the air.
Armadillos can be housebroken.
Armadillos have four babies at a time, always all the same sex. They are perfect quadruplets: the fertilized cell splits into quarters, resulting in four identical armadillos.
"Wayne's World" was filmed in two weeks.
The beautiful town of Puyallup (PEW-al-up) is home to an annual daffodil parade. Three Pacific 10 Conference quarterbacks have come from the small suburb (Damon and Brock Huard of Washington and Jason Johnson of the UA).
Cleopatra's last name was Ptolemy, and she was Greek, not Egyptian.
Only two people signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4: John Hancock and Charles Thomson. Most of the rest signed on Aug. 2, but the last signature wasn't added until five years later.
Barbie's measurements, if she were life-sized: 39-23-33.
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