Strange BUT TRUE

• It was Hungarian psychiatrist Thomas Stephen Szasz who made the following sage observation: “If you talk to God, you are praying. If God talks to you, you have schizophrenia.”

• That iconic symbol of the Old West, the Pony Express, was based on the mail system used throughout the Mongol Empire in the 13th century. However, the Mongol riders often covered 125 miles in a single day, which was faster than the best record held by a Pony Express rider.

• Someone with way too much spare time discovered that a quarter has 119 grooves on its edge.

• What’s in a name? A great deal, it turns out, if you’re talking about housing prices. Those who study such things say that a house on a “boulevard” is valued at over one-third more than the same house that has “street” in its address.

• Confectioner Milton Hershey suffered through founding two candy companies that ended in failure, then succeeded on his third attempt, and finally sold that company and used the proceeds to found the Hershey Company. After all his hard work, though, he seemed to be less interested in enjoying the fruits of his labors than in helping others. In 1909 he established the Hershey Industrial School for Orphaned Boys, and 10 years later he donated control of the company to a trust for the school. Today the institution is called the Milton Hershey School, and it continues to have a controlling interest in the candy company.

• Southern California has more cars than India has cows. If cows are sacred in India, what does that say about how Californians feel about their automobiles?

*** Thought for the Day: “Men are not against you; they are merely for themselves.” — Gene Fowler