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Strange But True + In order to stay aloft in its seemingly effortless hover, the ruby-throated hummingbird beats its wings approximately 200 times every single second. + It was Academy Awardwinning screenwriter Marshall Brickman who made the following observation: "When something good happens it's a miracle, and you should wonder what God is saving up for you later." + Famed director Steven Spielberg got an early start in filmmaking; when he was still a kid, he used his father's Super- 8 camera to make several movies. One of his youthful films was about a UFO invasion, and - acting out what were surely many young boys' fantasies about annoying siblings - he cast his sisters as victims of the extraterrestrials. Special effects evidently were important to him even then: Spielberg got some cherry tomatoes from his mother, which he smashed up to use as blood. + Do you suffer from paraskavedekatriaphobia? It's a particular form of triskaidekaphobia, which, as you may already know, is fear of the number 13. Paraskavedekatriaphobia is, specifically, fear of Friday the 13th. + When composer Johann Strauss Jr. made his debut, Johann Strauss Sr. planted friends in the audience to boo. It seems father, a composer himself, didn't like the competition. + It seems there's a world record for everything - even one for the longest sushi roll in the world. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it was made in Japan, in Ichinoseki City. The recordholding cucumber roll, made in 2001, measured 4,381 feet long. Makes you wonder how many people it took to consume the entire thing. + The olive tree is actually an evergreen - and it can survive in stony, inhospitable earth for hundreds of years. *** Thought for the Day: "The most important thing in a relationship between a man and a woman is that one of them be good at taking orders." - Linda Festa
(c) 2007 King Features Synd., Inc.
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