The Weekly Vista

Strange BUT TRUE

- By Lucie Winborne (c) 2021 King Features Synd., Inc.

• “The Whole Shabang” is a brand of potato chips once sold only in jails and prisons. It was so popular that in 2016, due to demand from ex-inmates, it was finally made available to the general public.

• The majority of people will tilt their head to the right when they kiss.

• Sherlock Holmes creator Sir Arthur Conan Doyle helped popularize skiing by being the first Englishman to document the sport.

• In Alabama, it’s against the law to drive while impersonat­ing a member of the clergy.

• For centuries, doctors thought that medicines made with human flesh, blood or bone could be effective in curing all kinds of ailments, from epilepsy to headaches. The practice was called “corpse medicine.”

• The original name for the search engine Google was Backrub. It was renamed after the googolplex, which is the number 1 followed by 100 zeros.

• The fear of young people is known as “ephebiphob­ia.”

• Gatling gun salesmen went to Civil War battlefiel­ds to demonstrat­e their products in actual combat.

• A newly sworn-in Barack Obama visited the U.K. in 2009 and presented some rather curious gifts to the prime minister and queen: 25 DVDs to David

Cameron, and an iPod Classic to the then-octogenari­an Elizabeth II. Cameron returned the gesture with some “wellies” and Hobgoblin ale.

• In the Solomon Islands, dolphin teeth were (and still are) used as a form of currency.

• Historical­ly, most Easter celebrants would have eaten lamb for the occasion, as the holiday has its roots in the Jewish Passover. Most American Easter dinners now feature ham, however, because years ago, hams cured over the winter would have been ready to serve in early spring.

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Thought for the Day: “When writing the story of your life, don’t let anyone else hold the pen.” — Harley Davidson

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