Strange BUT TRUE

By Samantha Weaver

* It was Emily Post, arbiter of courtesy and expert on etiquette, who made the following sage observation: “Manners are a sensitive awareness of the feelings of others. If you have that awareness, you have good manners, no matter what fork you use.”

* If you’re planning on moving to Florida, keep in mind that in that state, it’s illegal for a housewife to break more than three dishes in one day.

* It’s a popular stereotype: a rejected lover sitting on a barstool, drinking to try to

forget the heartbreak. The problem is, drinking isn’t really an effective way to go about acquiring amnesia, even temporarily. Those who study such things say that imbibing alcohol can actually help people recall events that occurred just before they started drinking.

* A defense lawyer in a Canadian murder- for- hire case once argued that his client must be innocent — because the defendant was useless. The attorney commented, “No one would hire him to cut the grass. Why would someone hire him to kill someone?” Nice try, but no luck: The man was convicted.

* There doesn’t seem to be a clear explanation of why flies fly faster when they’re in the sun than when they’re in the shade.

* Twilight is often defined as the period of time when day is ending and night is beginning — a pretty vague definition. There are more precise versions, though: Civil twilight is the time when streetlights come on, nautical twilight occurs when the horizon disappears, and astronomical twilight is when the faintest stars become visible.

Thought for the Day:

“Science is built with facts as a house is with stones, but a collection of facts is no more a science than a heap of stones is a house.” — Jules Henri Poincare