Know It All

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Gondoliers in Venice move their gondolas with a single oar that is 14-feet long. The oars are usually made from seasoned beech wood.

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The largest fruit crop on earth is grapes, followed by bananas.

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One stone, an English unit measurement of weight, equals 14 pounds. The stone was originally used for weighing produce from crops.

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Lum Eddards and Abner Peabody ran the Jot’Em Down General Store in Pine Ridge. They were the main characters of "Lum and Abner,” a radio comedy that ran from 1932-1954. Lum was a bachelor with a big ego. Abner was a gullible married man. They had many plans for grandeur that always failed.

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Popcorn pops because there is a small amount of moisture inside each kernel that changes to steam when heated. As the temperature increases, the pressure build up until the kernel literally explodes.

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Jimi Hendrix (1942-1970), Janis Joplin (1943-1970) and Jim Morrison (1943-1971) have something in common, besides being singers of the 1960s. Do you know what it is? See answer at end.

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The Irish Potato Famine was caused by a new fungus, Phytophthora infestans, that struck potato crops in Ireland in 1845.

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Famous western outlaw Billy the Kid was born Henry McCarty (1859-1881) in New York City. American folklore credits the young man with killing over 20 people but he actually killed four people. At the age of 21, Kid was killed by Sheriff Pat Garrett (1850-1908) in Lincoln County, N.M.

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The world’s longest opera is Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (The Mastersingers of Nuremberg), a five-our long opera written by Richard Wagner (1813-1883).

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The first skyscraper was the 10-story Home Insurance Building built in Chicago in 1883. It was the first building made with a skeleton framework of steel.

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A pound of one dollar scratch-off Lottery tickets costs $907. One pound of hundred dollar bills costs $45.359. One pound of good quality, one-carat diamonds costs about $11.4 million.

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The Big Bang, the explosion that cosmologists theorized started the universe, produced all of the hydrogen and helium that fuels the stars and sun.

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Old Grand Dad bourbon was produced and sold during Prohibition. The company name was changed to American Medicinal Spirits. The bottles were labeled "for medicinal purposes” for sick, blind and lame patients.

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A male ostrich is called a rooster and a female ostrich is called a hen.

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Boxer Muhammad Ali (born 1942) coined the term "rope-a-dope” for a fighting strategy used in the ring. Rope-a-dope is staying at the ropes while your opponent punches you until he tires out, then come back swinging.

Answer: They all died of drug overdose, all at age 27.

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 call 344-5200 x114.