The Old Post Centre Amazing Stories and Fascinating Facts

Fascinating Music Facts

Michael Jackson won the most grammys ever with a total of eight / The longest song to reach number one on the Billboard charts on LP was Id Do Anything For Love by Meatloaf. - Read more

Fascinating Food Facts

Half of the worlds population live on a staple diet of rice / Chocolate is the number one foodstuff flavour in the world, beating vanilla and banana by 3-to-1. - Read more

Fascinating Facts Page One

The worlds youngest parents were 8 and 9 and lived in China in 1910 / The straw was probably invented by Egyptian brewers to taste in-process beer without removing the fermenting ingredients which floated on the top of the container. - Read more

Fascinating Facts Page Two

Madrid is the only European capital city not situated on a river / The word posh, which denotes luxurious rooms or accomodations, originated when ticket agents in England marked the tickets of travelers going by ship to the Orient. Since there was no air conditioning in those days, it was always better to have a cabin on the shady side of the ship as it passed through the Mediterranean and Suez area. Since the sun is in the south, those with money paid extra to get cabin's on the left, or port, traveling to the Asia, and on the right, or starboard, when returning to Europe. Hence their tickets were marked with the initials for Port Outbound Starboard Homebound, or POSH. - Read more

Fascinating Facts Page Three

Des Moines has the highest per capita Jello consumption in the U S A / The only "real" food that U.S. Astronauts are allowed to take into space is pecan nuts. - Read more

Fascinating Facts Page Four

Soweto in South Africa ws derived from SOuth WEst TOwnship / Sheriff came from Shire Reeve. During early years of feudal rule in England, each shire had a reeve who was the law for that shire. When the term was brought to the United States it was shortned to Sheriff. - Read more

Fascinating Facts Page Five

Hang On Sloopy is the official rock song of Ohio / Many Japanese golfers carry "hole-in-one" insurance, because it is traditional in Japan to share one's good luck by sending gifts to all your friends when you get an "ace." The price for what the Japanese term an "albatross" can often reach $10,000. - Read more

Fascinating Facts Page Six

The longest chapter in the Bible is Psalm 119 / Astronauts in the Space Shuttle are weightless not because there is no gravity in space, but because they are in free fall around the Earth. - Read more

Fascinating Facts Page Seven

The first Ford cars had Dodge engines / In the Wizard of Oz Dorothy's last name is Gail. It is shown on the mail box. - Read more

Fascinating Facts Page Eight

The famous split-fingered Vulcan salute is actually intended to represent the first letter ("shin," pronounced "sheen") of the word "shalom." As a small boy, Leonard Nimoy observed his rabbi using it in a benediction and never forgot it; eventually he was able to add it to "Star Trek" lore. - Read more

Fascinating Facts Page Nine

Samuel Clemens aka Mark Twain was born on a day in 1835 when Haley's Comet came into veiw. When He died in 1910, Haley's Comet came into view again / The Cincinnati Reds baseball team name was officially changed to the Redlegs during the anti-communist movement. - Read more

Fascinating Facts Page Ten

Winston Churchill was born in a ladies' room during a dance / Richard Nixon left instructions for "California, Here I Come" to be the last piece of music played at his funeral softly and slowly were he to die in office. - Read more

Fascinating Facts Page Eleven

The earliest document in Latin in a woman's handwriting it is from the first century A D is an invitation to a birthday party / In the movie the Right Stuff there is a scene where a government recruiter for the Mercury astronaut program played by Jeff Goldblum is in a bar at Muroc Dry Lake, California. His partner suggests Chuck Yeager as a good astronaut candidate. Jeff proceeds to badmouth Yeager claiming they need someone who went to college. During the conversation the real Chuck Yeager is playing a bartender who is standing behind the recruiters eavesdropping General Yeager is listed low in the movie credits as Fred. - Read more

Fascinating Facts Page Twelve

Speak of the Devil is short for Speak of the Devil and he shall come. It was believed that if you spoke about the Devil it would attract his attention. That's why when your talking about someone and they show up people say Speak of the Devil / Most snakes have either only one lung, or in some cases, two, with one much reduced in size. This apparently serves to make room for other organs in the highly-elongated bodies of snakes. - Read more

Fascinating Facts Page Thirteen

A twelve-foot anaconda can catch, kill, and eat a six-foot caiman, a close relative of crocodles and alligators. While these snakes are not usually considered to be the *longest* snake in the world, they are the heaviest, exceeding the reticulated python in girth / Hummingbirds are the only animals able to fly backwards. - Read more

Fascinating Facts Page Fourteen

The Holland and Lincoln Tunnels under the Hudson River connecting New Jersey and New York are an engineering feat. The air circulators in the tunnels circulate fresh air completely every ninety seconds / When two words are combined to form a single word (e.g., motor + hotel = motel, breakfast + lunch = brunch) the new word is called a "portmanteau. - Read more

Fascinating Facts Page Fifteen

Every photograph of an American atomic bomb detonation was taken by Harold Edgerton / The Great Chicago Fire of 1871 did start in a barn belonging to Patrick and Katherine O'Leary. The O'Leary's house was one of the few that survived the fire. The O'Leary's house had to be guarded by soldiers for weeks afterwards, however, because many enraged residents wanted to burn it down. - Read more

Fascinating Facts Page Sixteen

The biggest bell is the "Tsar Kolokol" cast in the Kremlin in 1733. It weighs 216 tons, but alas, it is cracked and has never been rung. The bell was being stored in a Moscow shed which caught fire. To "save" it the caretakers decided to throw water on the bell. This did not succeed in -- the water hit the superheated metal and a giant piece immediately cracked off, destroying the bell forever / Scottish is the language called Gaelic, whereas Irish is actually called Gaeilge. - Read more

Fascinating Facts Page Seventeen

The characters Bert and Ernie on Sesame Street were named after Bert the cop and Ernie the taxi driver in Frank Capra's "Its A Wonderful Life" / It was discovered on a space mission that a frog can throw up. The frog throws up it's stomach first, so the stomach is dangling out of it's mouth. Then the frog uses it's forearms to dig out all of the stomach's contents and then swallows the stomach back down again. - Read more

Fascinating Facts Page Eighteen

The gene for the Siamese coloration in animals such as cats, rats or rabbits is heat sensitive. Warmth produces a lighter color than does cold. Putting tape temporarily on Siamese rabbit's ear will make the fur on that ear lighter than on the other one / The tailless dinner jacket was invented in Tuxedo Park, New York. Thus it is called the "tuxedo dinner jacket" and is named after the town not the other way around . - Read more