To raise public revenue, Emperor Vespasian--who built the Colosseum--was the first to introduce pay toilets in the city of Rome. When his ...

The following is a report from the Daily Telegraph on 02.12.2010.  The heading, "In Case You Missed It", is not a punning referen...

Gold is chemically inert, which also explains why it never rusts and does not cause skin irritation. If gold jewellery irritates the skin,...

“I expect to pass through this world but once and therefore if there is anybody that I want to kick in the crutch I had better kick them i...

Drug-sniffing dogs are trained to bark like crazy and go "aggressive" at the first whiff of the right powder. Bomb-sniffing do...

“The difference between Marilyn Monroe and Madonna is the same difference as exists between champagne and cat's piss.” -  John Junor ...

   The name marijuana comes from a Mexican slang term for cannabis and is believed to have derived from the Spanish pronunciation of the ...

Harold Holt (1908-1967), pictured above with his stepdaughters-in-law in 1967, was  the local member for Malvern and Prime Minister of Au...

1 x 1 = 1 11 x 11 = 121 111 x 111 = 12321 1111 x 1111 = 1234321 11111 x 11111 = 123454321 111111 x 111111 = 12345654321 11111...

(Click on the photographs to enlarge). Members Stand packed for Test, 2-7 December 1932 Some interesting things to note about the above ...

Life is broadly defined as the condition of an organism that exhibits growth through metabolism, reproduction, and adaptation to its envi...

Sometimes what seemed like a good idea on the drawing board turns out to be something quite different in reality. The pending release of...

The liquid inside young coconuts can be used as a substitute for blood plasma. From The Straight Dope : Coconut water can be used for a...

“One of the three S’s, I suppose.” - Sir Henry Bolte   Henry Bolte (1908 – 1990) was Australia’s longest serving Victorian Premier, from...

The origin of the name of the game of chess is uncertain. It most probably came from the Arabic word for king, “Shah”, which then passed ...

A sober debate about Ireland and the euro crisis degenerated into Nazi slurs in the EU parliament today after a UKIP member was ejected for ...

The above punctuation mark is called an interrobang and sometimes a quesclamation mark. The function of the mark is to ask a question and ...

Today I met with a new client, a young chap who wore a loose fitting, sloppy-style T shirt that hung off his chest revealing tattooed wri...

M&M’s were created by Forrest Mars, the founder of the Mars company, and his business partner, William Murrie, the president of the Her...

  (Click on pics to enlarge). I am indebted to Byter Arthur for sending me an email of a building in Shanghai which collapsed. It is a tr...

The idea that the Australian coat of arms features a kangaroo and emu because they are the only animals that don’t walk backwards is erro...

Those who have read or seen Dan Brown's Angels and Demons will recall the prominent use of ambigrams, words that can be read in more t...

The term "sideburns" is a corruption of "Burnside", after General Ambrose Burnside (above and below), a Union General i...

For Catherine, who wanted a simpler quote than last Friday's Walt Whitman quote: "Someday I want to be rich. Some people get so ...

It  is considered good luck for a chimney sweep to attend a wedding. In Dickensian England, chimneysweeps were often young children in th...

 (Click on the photos to enlarge). My #1 son is currently taking part in Movember, a worldwide movement for the growing of moustaches durin...

Ambassadors to the United Kingdom are not called that officially, but rather Ambassadors to the Court of St. James. The Court of St. James,...

   Marie Antoinette once said that she did not believe in ghosts but she was afraid of them. So it is with mysteries, puzzles and phenomeno...

The term "menstruation" comes from the Latin word mensis (month), which in turn relates to the Greek word mene (moon). The E...

"When I, sitting, heard the astronomer, where he lectured with such applause in the lecture room, how soon, unaccountable, I became ti...