Discover the Khrushchev Disneyland incident—when a Cold War tour, Hollywood, and a denied visit sparked one of history’s strangest diplomatic meltdowns.
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Merino sheep are prized for their super-fine wool. In a skin area about the size of a postage stamp, these sheep will carry between 10,000 and 15,000 fibers. The fibers are less than 19.5 microns wide. By comparison, they typical human hair is 60-70 microns wide. The wool of sixty merino sheep, tied end to…
On average, five acres of grassland contain about one ton of insects. The number of predatory invertebrates such as beetles may exceed 2,000 per square centimeter of ground. One acre of hay meadow may contain 2.25 million spiders. Each of these spiders will eat 2 insects a week for 6 months, which works out at about 108 million…
Horatio Alger, Jr. (1832 – 1899) was a prolific 19th-century American author, best known for his many novels about impoverished boys and their rise from humble backgrounds to lives of middle-class security and comfort through hard work, determination, courage, and honesty. His books represent the “rags to riches” element of the American Dream.
National policy and the global economy often hinge upon the statements of the President of the United States. Despite that incredible power and responsibility, some presidential utterances fail to inspire or motivate: President Lyndon Johnson: “For the first time in history, profits are higher than ever before.” President Dwight D. Eisenhower: “Things have never been…
“Good breeding consists in concealing how much we think of ourselves and how little we think of others.” — Orson Welles (1915-1985) source
Quarks are elementary particles that combine to form atomic particles. They were theorized by Murray Gell-Mann and George Zweig in 1964. Originally they were pronounced “kwork” by Gell-Mann. He settled on the spelling of the particle when he read a verse in James Joyce’s Finnegan’s Wake: “Three quarks for Muster Mark! Sure he has not…
Mithilesh Kumar Srivastava (1912-2009), also known as “Natwarlal,” was a noted Indian con man who repeatedly sold the Taj Mahal; the Red Fort; the Indian presidential residence, Rashtrapati Bhavan; and the Parliament House of India along with its 545 sitting members. Wanted in over 100 cases at the time of his death, he had been…
Gregor MacGregor, a notorious Scotsman, orchestrated one of the most successful scams in history by promoting investment in the fictitious country of Poyais near modern-day Honduras. Claiming to be the prince of Poyais, he swindled £1.3 million in bonds, equivalent to $5.6 billion in 2014 US currency.
The Earl of Lonsdale accepted a bet from his friend John Pierpoint Morgan that no man could circumnavigate the globe, on foot, without being recognized. The wager didn’t end there. By 1908, further conditions stipulated that the individual would only be permitted one change of pants, should wear a metal helmet, and had to push…
After Joan Collins married her fifth husband, Percy Gibson, a man 32 years younger than her, John Parrott said, “She can’t be with us tonight. She’s busy attending the birth of her next husband.” source
Bette Midler said of Princess Anne, “She loves nature in spite of what it did to her.” source Read more insults. Read more funny quotes.
“What problems do you have, apart from being blind, unemployed and a moron?” — John McEnroe to Wimbledon spectator source
Winston Church described Clement Attlee as, “a modest man, who has much to be modest about.” source
Sir Winston Churchill was a master of the English language, so it should be no surprise that he was also a master at using it to devastate his critics. One of the best examples of this came in an exchange between Churchill and Bessie Braddock, a Labour Party Member of Parliament: Braddock: “Winston, you’re drunk!”…
