John Lydon, a.k.a. Sex Pistols punk rocker Johnny Rotten, has filmed a British TV commercial for Country Life Butter.
Human toothpaste contains foaming agents that could make a dog vomit.
King Henry VIII went from a 32-inch waist early in his rule to a 54-inch waist near the end. At his death, he weighed just under 420 pounds.
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The "devil's horns" salute of heavy-metal fans – hand upraised with index and pinky fingers extended and the digits between them folded down – was popularized by Ronnie James Dio of Black Sabbath. He had learned the gesture from his Italian grandmother, who used it to ward off the evil eye.
The sweater vest – the sleeveless knit garment worn by Prime Minister Stephen Harper in his "fireside" election ad – is stereotypical garb for the "emo" acolyte, a young pseud who favours lugubrious music.
At the turn of the 20th century, the rule of thumb was blue clothing for girls and pink for boys. Blue was considered more delicate and best suited to females, while pink was more assertive and therefore more male-friendly.
Yawning in front of a dog can cause it to yawn, too. Researchers believe this is the first hard evidence "that dogs have the capacity to empathize with humans."
The "cat nights" of summer begin today. The term denotes a time when cats yowl and witches prowl, and harks back to "the belief that a witch could turn herself into a cat eight times, but on the ninth time, Aug. 17, she couldn't regain her human form," hence the notion that a cat has nine lives. "
Octopuses don't have eight legs. Six of its tentacles function as "arms" and two as "legs."
Although technically a fruit, the tomato was deemed a vegetable in 1893 by the U.S. Supreme Court, which reasoned that because it's used more like a vegetable than a fruit, it should therefore have the former designation. The ruling was prompted by a legal challenge involving a tax on imported vegetables.
Botanically speaking, grains of wheat, corn and rice, as well as squash, peppers and eggplant, are all fruit – fleshy or dry ripened ovaries of plants, containing seeds. Vegetables, meanwhile, are the edible leaves, stalks, roots, tubers, bulbs and flowers of a plant.
Ketchup started out as a pickled fish sauce, ke-tsiap, in China, before being adopted by Malaysia (kechap) and Indonesia (ketjap). The British made it with pickled mushrooms, anchovies, walnuts and oysters, with tomatoes entering the brew in the 1700s.
Some of the things we learned this week, according to the Toronto Star's weekly feature "10 Things We Learned This Week" includes:
Ebsen, best known as Jed Clampett in TV's The Beverly Hillbillies, had to drop the role of Tin Man (eventually played by Jack Haley) in The Wizard of Oz because of a severe allergic reaction to the aluminum powder makeup.
Terry, the cairn terrier that played Toto in The Wizard of Oz, made $125 a week – more than many of the actors earned.
The latest Guinness record to be adjudicated was the largest number of people dressed as Smurfs – there were 1,253 of them on July 18, in Castleblayney, Ireland.
British scientists who've been studying Blondie drummer Clem Burke and other rock and jazz percussionists for the past eight years say drummers have as much stamina as top-flight athletes.
The woman who played Judith Iscariot, the girlfriend of the messiah in Monty Python's Life of Brian, is the new mayor of Aberystwyth in Wales. Sue Jones-Davies promises to lift a three-decade local ban of the movie.
Male mosquitoes live on nectar and plant juices. Females drink blood.
Chicken, Alaska (population 17 to 37, depending on whom you ask), is so named because the original residents couldn't agree on the spelling of the town's first, fowl-inspired choice: Ptarmigan
There are 1,961,990,553,600 ways to feed a shoelace through the six pairs of eyelets on an average shoe, according to shoe-lacing.com
July is Doghouse Repairs Month, "a time for all who are doomed for the doghouse to make amends and minimize their stay..." The occasion is the brainchild of a florist.
About 60 per cent of all weddings in Canada take place during the summer months. August is the most popular for marriage, when 21 per cent wed. January is the least popular month, with 2.6 per cent.
Eighteen- to 49-year-olds in the U.S. "are 35 per cent more likely to watch the Cartoon Network than CNN.
Scientists have identified in excess of 130,000 species of moth, but just 18,000 species of butterfly.
Every year in the United States, people toss out $80 million in metals including gold, copper and platinum when they trash their old cellphones. (discovermagazine.com)
The place we now know as Toronto was once called the Township of Dublin, before it was renamed York.
Some migratory birds choose nesting sites where they hear more mature birds of the same species singing to their young – a cue the place is safe and conducive to reproductive success.
The top three countries in terms of those who said they have sex at least weekly in a survey of 26 countries commissioned by the condom and sex aid manufacturer Durex: Greece (87 per cent), Brazil (82) and Russia (80). Lowest: Japan (34 per cent).
Careerbuilder.com says: "More than a third of working dads (37 per cent) said they would leave their job if their spouse or significant other's income could comfortably support the entire family."
As measured by heart rate, people watching a live feed of a nature scene on a 50-inch, high-definition plasma TV found it no more soothing than staring at a blank wall.
The @ sign was very close to being eliminated from the standard keyboard until 1971, when Ray Tomlinson wrote it into the code used to send the first email.
There was once a pineapple-flavoured Mars bar. It was not a roaring success.
The full name of TV mom June Cleaver, of Leave It to Beaver, is June Evelyn Bronson Cleaver.
You can use cricket chirps to calculate the temperature (in Celsius): Count the number of chirps in 25 seconds. Divide by 3. Add 4
Ronald Reagan is the first and only presidential candidate to be endorsed by TV Guide.
China, which has the world's largest weather-modification program – with 30,000 employees and a yearly budget of about $100 million – hopes to provide sunshine for the August Olympics by "seeding" clouds with rain-inducing particles beforehand.
In the 1800s, the "scent molecules" produced by flowers could travel roughly 1,000 metres. In today's polluted atmosphere, that distance has been cut to about 200 metres, making it difficult for bees to find the nectar they need to survive.
Scott Joplin's "Maple Leaf Rag" was not named for the Maple leaf or Canada but for the Maple Leaf Club in Sedalia, Mo. (americanheritage.com)
Among the 10 most unusual excuses employees offered for being late for work: i) My ex-husband stole my car so I couldn't drive to work. ii) I had to go audition for American Idol. iii) I wasn't thinking and accidentally went to my old job.
Tartan Day, marked today in a number of North American venues, commemorates the Declaration of Arbroath – the Scottish Declaration of Independence, signed on April 6, 1320. Almost half who signed the American Declaration of Independence were of Scottish descent.
Mel Blanc, the voice of Porky Pig, Daffy Duck, Yosemite Sam and Bugs Bunny was reportedly aroused from a coma following a car accident when the physician asked him, "Bugs? Bugs Bunny? Are you there?" and Blanc responded, in Bugs's voice, "What's up, Doc?"
Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, have found that male octopuses masquerade as females in order to make moves on the object of desire.
Among the Top 10 April Fool's jokes of all time, as determined by the Museum of Hoaxes:
Among the Top 5 April Fool's jokes of all time: In 1996, the Taco Bell Corporation took out full-page newspaper ads announcing it had bought the Liberty Bell –
Lions from Africa used to be kept in a menagerie in the Tower of London.
The only other species known to French kiss "as a prelude to mating" is a small creature from the Amazon known as the white-fronted parrot. "After the birds open their beaks and touch tongues, the male spews his lunch onto the female's chest."
The grandfather of pop singer Huey ("I Want a New Drug") Lewis invented the protective red-wax sealant used in the packaging of various types of cheeses.
The Michelin Man has a name: Bibendum. The design of the roly-poly advertising icon was inspired by an 1898 advertising sketch for a brasserie, which featured a large, mummy-like giant raising a mug of beer and saying "Nunc est Bibendum," Latin for "Now it is time to drink."
