Strange BUT TRUE

• Attention, “Lord of the Rings” fans: the dark region on the north pole of Pluto’s moon, Charon, is called Mordor.

• A common issue with blood donation — along with other types of charitable contributions — is that if donors don’t know the recipient, it’s harder to convince them that donating is beneficial. Therefore, in an effort to encourage more young people to give blood, Sahlgrenska University Hospital in Gothenburg, Sweden, sends a text when their donation has been dispensed to someone in need, providing

proof that it’s going to good use.

• The Twitter bird actually has a name — Larry, after Hall of Fame basketball player Larry Bird.

• In the 18th century, Napoleon Bonaparte and Benjamin Franklin were both defeated at chess by a machine called the Mechanical Turk — or at least they thought they were. It was later revealed to be quite the elaborate hoax, with a highly skilled chess master hiding inside the “machine” and moving the pieces against the opponent.

• In a move to keep disease-wary Nazis away, Polish doctor Eugene Lazowski faked a typhus outbreak, saving over 8,000 people from slave labor camps and death.

• The longest song title ever is

Hoagy Carmichael’s 1943 “I’m a Cranky Old Yank in a Clanky Old Tank on the Streets of Yokohama with my Honolulu Mama Doin’ Those Beat-o, Beat-o Flat-OnMy-Seat-o, Hirohito Blues.”

• Duncan Hines was a real person — a popular restaurant critic who also wrote a book of hotel recommendations.

• Eight of the 10 largest statues in the world are of Buddhas.

• Pittsburgh is the only city where all the major sports teams (MLB, NHL, NFL) have the same colors: black and gold.

••• Thought for the Day: “Many are stubborn in pursuit of the path they have chosen, few in pursuit of the goal.” — Friedrich Nietzsche