Strange BUT TRUE

• The first real shampoo dates back to the 1500s. In India, “sapindus,” aka soapberries or soapnuts, were boiled with dried Indian gooseberry and other herbs. The extract created a lather and resulted in soft, shiny hair.

• A single human hair can hold up to 100 grams in weight, while an entire head of hair could bear up to 12 tons — the equivalent of two African elephants.

• On April 1, 1974, black smoke was seen rising from Mount Edgecumbe, a volcano in Alaska. When a Coast Guard pilot came closer to investigate,

he found 70 tires burning and the words “APRIL FOOL” spray painted into the snow.

• While it’s hard to imagine that anyone would dare to steal an infant Jesus, especially during the most wonderful time of the year, BrickHouse Security’s “Saving Jesus” program offers a free GPS tracker for the star of your nativity scene.

• U.S. park ranger Roy C. Sullivan had the flabbergasting distinction of being struck by lightning the most times and surviving: seven times between 1942 and 1977.

• Speaking of distinctions, Buzz Aldrin holds the curious title of being the first man to urinate on the moon, shortly after stepping onto its surface.

• At the end of the 19th century, American con artist, gangster and

crime boss Jefferson Randolph Smith earned the nickname “Soapy” for his scheme of wrapping soap bars in notes of varying denominations and covering them with plain paper, then pretending to mix them in with bars devoid of money and selling the latter at an inflated price while maintaining the pretense that some of the packages contained cash.

• Ben & Jerry learned how to make ice cream by taking a $5 correspondence course (which they split between them) offered by Penn State.

Thought for the Day: “Sometimes you put walls up not to keep people out, but to see who cares enough to break them down.”

— Anonymous