Know It All

Some expressions in Britain have different meanings than they do here in the United States. For example, in Britain a pram is a baby carriage, a lift is an elevator, a car park is a parking lot and a dustman is a garbage collector.

***

Baseball players suffer more eye injuries than athletes in any other sport.

***

Labor Day is always celebrated on the first Monday in September. Do you know when the first Labor Day holiday was observed? Do you know what year the bill was passed that made Labor Day a holiday? See answer at end.

***

New Jersey mob boss Tony Soprano uses Satriale’s Pork Store as the front for his illegal operations in the HBO series “The Sopranos” (1999-2007).

***

A 65-million-year-old mummy of a dinosaur was unearthed in North Dakota in 2004. The five-ton fossil of the duckbilled edmontosaurus is one of only four dinosaurs ever found with fossilized skin.

***

Above the marble statue of Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) at the Lincoln Memorial on Washington, D.C., is an inscription that reads “In this temple, as in the hearts of the people for whom he saved the Union, the memory of Abraham Lincoln is enshrined forever.”

***

The city of Azusa, California, in Los Angeles County claims to be the city with “everything from A to Z in the U.S.A.”

***

There are 2.54 centimeters in 1 inch.

***

In 1953, the staff of the Rocket Chemical Company made 40 attempts to create a successful rust-prevention solvent. The final product was WD-40, which stands for Water Displacement perfected on the 40th try. WD-40 is now found in four out of five American households.

***

One raw red pepper has three times as much vitamin C as one orange.

***

Fresh fruit floats in Jell-O. Seedless grapes and fruit in heavy syrup sink in Jell-O.

***

In 1912, the largest advertising billboard in the world was for Kellogg. The 106-foot by 80-foot mechanical billboard in Times Square, New York showed a boy’s face that went from sad to happy when he got his Kellogg cereal.

***

The American Humane Association created the PATSY Award, the animal equivalent of the Oscars. From 1951 to 1986, awards were given to trained animals in television and movies for “Picture Animal Top Star of the Year.” The first winner of the PATSY was a mule named Francis, the star of the movie “Francis the Talking Mule” (1950).

***

Answer: A parade was held by the Central Labor Union in New York City in 1892. The parade was in observance of the first Labor Day, as well as a demonstration for the eight-hour work day. In 1894, President Grover Cleveland (1834-1908) signed the bill into law that made Labor Day a legal holiday. In 1916, the Adamson Act established the eight-hour workday.

Know It All is by Kerry McArdle. It runs in the weekend edition of the Daily Journal. Questions? Comments? Email knowitall(at)smdailyjournal.com or call 344-5200 ext. 128.