MULLET OVER BY JAMES K. WHITE | NOVEMBER 12, 2014
Drivers croon in perfect harmony
Records indicate that back in 1680 Dutch mathematician Christiaan Huygens built the world’s first internal combustion engine. The engine used gunpowder as fuel. Admittedly, the device had no immediate practical value, but improvements through the next two and a half centuries led to the development of fine gasoline engines like the one in our 1959 Plymouth Savoy.
George Herbert Walker Bush has been our only president with four legitimate names. Sobriquets offered to presidents by disgruntled citizens are not generally considered to be legitimate names.
Cables used to suspend the Golden Gate Bridge contain approximately 80,000 miles of high grade steel wire.
Classified Ad recently placed: Cleaning and Janitorial help wanted. Applicants please leave mess on phone.
One more Ad: Clothes Washer for sale. $100. Owned by bachelor who didn’t wash much.
Go ahead and squirm. A study conducted on 20 people at the Mayo Clinic has revealed that fidgety folks burn off as much as 350 calories per day or 30 pounds per year with their extra movements.
Spencer Perceval was prime minister of the United Kingdom from 1809-1812. I mention Spencer because he is the only British Prime Minister to have been assassinated. Poor Perceval was shot by a man described as “disgruntled merchant” in the lobby of the House of Commons on May 11, 1812.
What was proclaimed as Hitler’s “Thousand Year Reich” lasted 147 months.
Oh those amazing Estonian chicken farms. A news story replete with photographic evidence declares that an Estonian hen recently laid an egg containing nine fully developed yolks. I am confident that there is an easy joke here, but this column is too classy to condescend. Either that or I can think of nothing.
An official bowling ball can weigh no more than 16 pounds. There is no lower bound for weight. The ball must be between 26.704 inches and 27.002 inches in circumference. I do hope that all your bowling records have been set using an “official ball.”
A survey conducted in America indicates more than 70 percent of motorists who play music through their sound systems regularly sing along with the melodies. The drivers croon in perfect harmony, probably.
Irving Berlin composed more than 3,000 songs (Puttin’ on the Ritz, White Christmas, God Bless America and thousands more), but never learned to read music. Well, feel free to fidget yourself thin – and have a great week.
James White is a retired mathematics teacher who enjoys sharing fascinating trivia. He can be reached at [email protected].
