Strange BUT TRUE

• In the 1st century AD, Roman men as well as women used cosmetics — lightening their skin with powder, applying red pigment to their cheeks, and painting their nails, though you’d hardly want to use their form of nail polish today — a nasty mixture of pig fat and blood. They also painted their heads to camouflage bald spots!

• Princess Leia’s “Star Wars” hairdo, which she referred to as “hairy earphones” and a “hair don’t,” was inspired not by bagels but women of the Mexican Revolution.

• Pound cake got its name from its original ingredients: a pound of butter, a pound of eggs, a pound of flour and a pound of sugar.

• Beat author William S. Burroughs’ novel “Naked Lunch” was supposed to be called “Naked Lust.” He decided to change the title after fellow Beat writer Jack Kerouac mispronounced the original one.

• In 2009, 59-year-old Italian neurosurgeon Claudio Vitalae had a heart attack in the middle of performing a brain surgery. He powered through it when he realized his patient would never recover if he stopped, despite the urging of his staff and his chest pains worsening. Half an hour after finishing the surgery, Mr. Vitale had an angioplasty, later telling the press, “I’m not a hero, I only did my duty.”

• The first documented use of toilet paper dates to 6th century A.D. China.

• No U.S. president has ever died in the month of May.

• Alcatraz was the only prison to offer its inmates hot showers, but don’t make the mistake of thinking that had anything to do with showing kindness to the prisoners. Rather, the assumption was that if they were used to hot shower water, they’d be unable to cope with the frigid waters of the San Francisco Bay and deterred from an escape attempt.

Thought for the Day: “I cannot teach anybody anything. I can only make them think.” — Socrates