Know it all

The first recorded conjoined twins were Chang and Eng, born in Siam in 1811, hence the term “Siamese Twins.” Their livers were fused and they were joined at the waist. Eng was on the right and Chang was on the left. They died in 1874.

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The sloth, an arboreal mammal, sleeps 15 to 18 hours per day, hanging upside-down. Sloths live in Central and South America.

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Plastic milk containers were introduced in 1964.

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Babe Ruth hit his first home run in Fayetteville, North Carolina, on March 7, 1914.

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Ladybugs were first brought to America in the 1880s. They were imported from Australia in an attempt to save California’s orange trees, which were getting destroyed by pests.

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Seven U.S. presidents were educated at Harvard. They are John Adams, John Quincy Adams, Rutherford B. Hayes, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy and George W. Bush.

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The wooden blocks for the stacking game Jenga are made from alder trees.

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In Germany it is called kuckuck, in Japan it is the kak-ko, France calls it coucou and in Holland it is a Koekoek. What is called in America? See answer at end.

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Saint Petersburg in Russia was founded by Emperor Peter the Great (1672-1725) in 1703.

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In 2002, Marshall Fields in Chicago made the record-breaking largest box of chocolates ever. The box weighed 3,226 pounds, and contained 90,090 individual Frango mint chocolates.

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One gallon of house paint covers approximately 400 square feet.

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People following the “Hollywood Diet” drink a specially formulated juice for three days and do not consume anything else. The claim is that a person can lose 5 to 15 pounds on the diet.

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Before most people were literate, an X qualified as a signature on an agreement. People kissed the X to show their good faith. That is how the letter came to symbolize a kiss.

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European white storks often build nests on the roofs and chimneys of houses. They build their nests in the spring, a time when many babies are born. That’s the origin of the legend about storks delivering babies.

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The turkey trot, popular in the early 1900s, was almost banned. Dancers bob their heads like strutting turkeys. Some people felt the dance was demoralizing.

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Termite colonies consist of a queen, a king, soldier termites and worker termites.

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The color of paint on the Golden Gate Bridge is called International Orange.

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There are 24 circles on a Twister board. The colors are red, blue, yellow and green.

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One-quarter of the peanuts produced in the United States are used in candy.

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Answer: The Cuckoo bird. In most countries the bird is named for the distinctive sounds it makes. Cuckoo birds do not build nests. They lay their eggs in the nests of other birds who then raise the cuckoo chicks as their own.

Know It All is by Kerry McArdle. It runs in the weekend and Wednesday editions of the Daily Journal. Questions? Comments? Email knowitall(at)smdailyjournal.com or call 344-5200 ext. 114.