Know it All

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In the story of Cinderella, a royal ball is held to find a wife for the king’s only son. If the prince did not marry, the royal bloodline would end.

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The average bee hive has 50,000 to 70,000 bees and produces 60 to 100 pounds of honey per year.

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The word dandelion comes from an Old French word dentdelion, meaning tooth of the lion, in reference to the jagged edges on the leaves of the plant.

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Lestor Maddox (1915-2003) got national attention in 1964 when he refused to allow African Americans into his Atlanta restaurant, the Pickrick Cafeteria. Under protest of government interference with small business, Maddox sold his restaurant rather than integrate it.

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In the history of baseball there have been over 16,000 major league baseball players. Of those, 40 percent have hit home runs.

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Since 1978, there have been 37 recorded incidents of people getting killed by vending machines. In all of the cases people shook the machines to get free merchandise or money, and the machines fell on them.

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Do you know what product had the advertising slogan "A Little Dab’ll Do Ya”? See answer at end.

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One way to control poison oak and poison ivy growing wild is to get a goat. Goats can eat the plants with no ill effect.

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The tree that grows the tallest is the California redwood tree, which grows up to 370 feet tall. The roots of the huge conifers spread as far as 250 feet.

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The 17-foot tall statue of David, on display at the Accademia Gallery in Florence, Italy, was damaged by a vandal in 1991. David’s toe was broken after being hit with a hammer.

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The three original commentators on "Monday Night Football” (1970-present) were Keith Jackson (born 1928), Don Meredith (born 1938) and Howard Cosell (1918-1995).

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When American explorer Donald MacMillan (1874-1970) went on an Arctic expedition in 1913 he brought NECCO wafer candies with him. He gave the candy to the Eskimo children.

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Casper the Friendly Ghost had a friend named Wendy. Wendy was a young witch who lived with her aunts Thelma, Velma and Zelma in an enchanted forest.

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At weddings in the Czech Republic people throw peas, not rice, at the bride and groom.

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The town of Churchill Manitoba, Canada is known as the Polar Bear Capital of the World. Every October and November the bears gather along the shore of the Hudson Bay, waiting for the bay to freeze over so they can hunt for seal. Thousands of tourists travel to the town to see the polar bears in their natural habitat.

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Answer: It was the advertising slogan for Brylcreem. Introduced in 1929, Brylcreem was the first mass-marketed men’s hair care product. Fred Flintstone’s exclamation of "Yabba Dabba Doo” comes from Brylcreem’s slogan.

Know It All is by Kerry McArdle. It runs in the weekend and Wednesday editions of the Daily Journal. Questions? Comments? E-mail knowitall@smdailyjournal.com or fax 344-5290