Trivia

Ice skating is pretty popular in Thailand’s Bangkok. Odd, what? Temperatures thereabouts run above 90 degrees much of the year. One big ice rink accommodates 1,500 people at a time. Thais refer to ice skates as “hard-water shoes.”

In Massachusetts around 1745, many a child who did not know the alphabet was sent to live with another family to learn it. Not always voluntarily. More frequently forced by the authority of the colony.

It’s a matter of record that the ancient Romans so disliked gray hair they came up with all sorts of concoctions to camouflage it. And they were not all that fond of no hair, either.

Raindrops become almost perfectly spherical as they fall. Knowing that, an English plumber named William Watts realized sieved molten lead would also turn into spherical drops if it fell far enough. So in the 1780s he built a tower atop his home, cut holes downward, dug a water well in the cellar, and poured said lead from top to bottom. To create shot for guns. His shot tower stood until 1968.

Ancients suspended wars during the Olympic Games. Moderns have suspended the Games during wars. Insert your editorial comment here.

Dutch word for the fruit “orange” translates “Chinese apple.”