TRIVIA

One of the great but little-known treasures of New York
City is a forty-acre hemlock forest, undisturbed, as far
as is known, since the time of the Indians. The grove
stands on the banks of the Bronx River in the New York
Botanical Garden.

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The pyramids in Egypt contain enough stone and mortar to
construct a wall 10 feet high and 5 feet wide running from
New York City to Los Angeles.

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Pizza

In Australia, the Number 1 topping for pizza is eggs. In Chile,
the favorite topping is mussels and clams. In the United States,
it's pepperoni.

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A Christmas Carol

The four ghosts in Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol were
the ghosts of Christmas Past, Christmas Present, Christmas
Yet to Come, and the ghost of Jacob Marley.

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A "Blue Moon" is the second full moon in a calendar month
(it is rarely blue).


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CLOSE CALL

The title role of Dirty Harry, 1971, was originally
intended for Frank Sinatra. After he refused, it was
offered to John Wayne, and then Paul Newman, finally
being accepted by Clint Eastwood.

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Ye OLD LANGUAGE TRIVIA

The "y" in signs reading "ye olde.." is properly pro-
nounced with a "th" sound, not "y". The "th" sound
does not exist in Latin, so ancient Roman occupied
(present day) England used the rune "thorn" to rep-
resent "th" sounds. With the advent of the printing
press the character from the Roman alphabet which
closest resembled thorn was the lower case "y".

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PENULTIMATE

The last thing to happen is the ultimate. The next-to-
last is the penultimate, and the second-to-last is the
antepenultimate.

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"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for
good men to do nothing."

- - Edmund Burke (1729-1797), Irish philosopher and statesman.