– We like German Chocolate Cake at our house. I was a bit surprised that the delicious dessert has no direct connection to the country of Germany nor was the cake named after any part of Deutschland. Yummy German Chocolate Cake was named after the delight’s creator, Samuel German (1852).
– At one time, the list of millionaires (dollar-wise) was short. It requires one thousand millions to make one billion. Last count, there were exactly 1542 billionaires in the world. None are known to be in my family. Approximately 30% of the special $1,000,000,000 group are Americans. It is rumored that most of those wealthy elite are either lawyers or plumbers.
– A mother started Father’s Day. After listening to a sermon about Mother’s Day in 1910, Sonora Smart Dodd spoke to her minister concerning the creation of a Father’s Day. Later that year (June 19th), the first Father’s Day was celebrated in Spokane’s YMCA Building.
– Lewis Carroll (real name was Charles Dodgson) authored the enchanting novel Alice in Wonderland in 1865. Mr. Dodgson (1832-1898) was an accomplished mathematician. He was employed as a lecturer/instructor at Oxford University. The multi-talented Englishman was also an Anglican Church deacon of renown.
– Yes, arachnids can be dangerous. In 2017, five Americans died from venomous spider bites.
– Subsequent to a series of unlikely coincidences regarding convictions and sentencings: 1999 found Ted Kaczinski (Unibomber), Timothy McVeigh (Oklahoma City Bomber) and Ramzi Yousef (1993 World Trade Center Bomber) all imprisoned in Colorado inside the same prison at the same time. Each was to spend 23 hours of every day in solitary confinement. Their one hour allotted for roaming in the recreation yard was shared. The men were separated by wire barriers and were forbidden to make eye contact. However, they were permitted to orally converse with each other.
– Folks really should be cautious when grabbing items that do not belong to them. During a recent January, the “Snatch and Run” bandit had been making a real pest of himself in Sydney, Australia. One sunny afternoon, the opportunistic thief ran up to a stopped convertible and deftly seized a sturdy, well-constructed canvas bag. That speedy crook was then “gone like a flash” while toting his loot and escaping on a motor scooter. The theft victim told police that he hoped the culprit was alert and agile because the bag contained a very venomous, very alive, very agitated taipan snake. B-a-a-a-d newsssss. Have a great day.
James White is a retired mathematics teacher who enjoys sharing fascinating trivia. He can be reached at [email protected].
