You don’t say July 24, 2015
Curiosity Corner
By
Dr. Jerry D. Wilson
Emeritus Professor of Physics
Lander University
Very curious and interesting.
• All U.S. coins have a “coin turn.” That is, if you look at a “heads” right-side-up, the image on the “tails” side is inverted. (Why do we say “heads” or “tails” when we flip a single coin?)
• The four-leaf clover is a genetic mutation that occurs in about every 10,000 clovers.
• The only 15-letter word that can be spelled without repeating a letter is “uncopyrightable.”
• The Dutch painter Vincent Van Gogh cut off his left ear. His “Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear” shows the right ear bandaged because he painted his mirror image.
• Tennis pro Andy Roddick, called the Rocket Man, has the record for the fastest serve – 155 miles per hour.
• The Pentagon was built with twice as many bathrooms (284) as needed because it was built in segregated Virginia.
• Africa has the shortest coastline of all the continents; and of the various cultures has the shortest (Pygmy) and tallest (Watusi) people in the world.
• The word “automobile” means “self-moving” and was coined to give a name to horseless carriages.
• Mark Twain purchased a Remington typewriter in 1874 and became the first author to submit a typewritten manuscript to a publisher. It was the manuscript for a novel titled “Thomas Sawyer.”
