Strange but true facts

•Polish burglar Torge Czar came up with an elaborate plan to rob a jewelry store: He planned to tunnel through a wall into the safe, thereby retrieving the valuables stored there. He made a slight miscalculation, though; when he had tunneled through the wall, he found himself in a food factory. In fact, he fell into a vat of spinach, where he drowned.

•Famed author and adventurer Jack London claimed, “You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.”

It’s been estimated (although it’s not entirely clear by whom) that during Colonial times, a male in America who was more than 15 years old would consume the equivalent of 60 six-packs of beer every year.

•The land on which the headquarters of the CIA is located was once the family estate of Robert E. Lee.

•It’s still not known who made this pithy observation: “If you don’t have an education, you’ve got to use your brain.”

•The word “pizza” first appeared in the year 997. It was contained in a text written in Latin.

•Weather watchers say that at any given moment, there are approximately 2,000 thunderstorms occurring around the world.

•The English language adopted the word “ketchup” from Malaysia. Oddly, in Malay it means “fish sauce.”

•Shelters are supposed to be surrounded by 4 inches of concrete in order to protect the inhabitants from fallout. If you don’t have that much concrete, though, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has offered suggestions for alternatives that provide the same amount of protection: 14 inches of books or magazines, 6 inches of sand, 7 inches of dirt or 10 inches of water.

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Thought for the Day: “Don’t go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first.” — Mark Twain