• Of all the Star Wars characters, it’s Darth Vader who earns the most money from his likeness being used for merchandise, including Halloween costumes, figurines, coffee mugs, and toasters that burn the likeness of Darth Vader into the bread. • Only four people knew of the surprise ending in “The Empire Strikes Back” where Darth Vader reveals he is Luke’s father: George Lucas, Mark Hamill, James Earl Jones, and director Irwin Kershner. George Lucas told Prowse to deliver the line: “Obi-Wan Killed your father!” which was later dubbed over by James Earl Jones. Even the people on set or […]
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Belly Button – BEAUTIFUL BODY –
– BEAUTIFUL BODY – • The belly button is the remnant of the place where the umbilical cord connects a baby to the placenta. The word “umbilical” springs from the Latin word meaning middle or center, originally referring to a scroll’s ornamental end. • Every mammal with a placenta also has a belly button: elephants, dolphins, bats. Some mammals may have a very faint belly button, including the platypus, which lays an egg, and marsupials, where the cord falls off while the baby is still in the pouch. • Birds and reptiles, while not being mammals, also have a faint […]
Chestnut Trees
• Until recently, chestnut trees dominated eastern hardwood forests, with an estimated three to four billion trees across more than 30 million acres. Known as “redwoods of the East,” chestnuts grew fast and tall, reaching 100 feet (30 m) in height, with diameters exceeding 12 feet (3.7 m). They lived for an average two to three centuries. • Their bold-grained, blondish wood was strong, easily worked, and extremely rot-resistant, used in everything from barn timbers to pianos, split-rail fences to fine furniture (in which it was often veneered with more fashionable woods like mahogany). Timbermen loved it for re-sprouting readily […]
Sneaky Fish Facts
• Knife fish live in tropical waters, growing up to a foot long (30 cm). They emit electrical signals to communicate with each other and to identify prey. The six-foot (1.8 m) electric eel lives in the same waters, and eavesdrops on the electrical signals given off by knife fish in order to home in on their location and get an easy meal. The knife fish customarily communicated in very low electrical frequencies, which the larger eel could easily hear, but have now evolved to communicate in higher frequencies that are beyond the electric eel’s ability to sense. • The […]
Martha Jane Cannary – PEOPLE WORTH REMEMBERING –
– PEOPLE WORTH REMEMBERING – Fact or fiction? How much of the life about Martha Jane Cannary was true? How much was exaggerated? You be the judge as you read along about the rowdy and adventurous woman better known as Calamity Jane. • Martha Cannary (often spelled Canary) hailed from Missouri, born there in 1852. When she was 13, the family, which included her parents and five younger siblings, began a five-month long wagon train trip to a new home in Virginia City, Montana. Along the route, Martha became a good shot as she spent her days hunting with the […]
TIDBITS® Eats Dangerous Dinners
by Janet Spencer Come along with Tidbits as we nibble some of the world’s most questionable foods! CASSAVA • Cassava, also called manioc, is a tropical plant whose starchy tuberous root is similar to the yam. It’s the source of tapioca. It’s the third most important source of calories for people in the tropics, after rice and corn. • Cassava is edible, but there’s a catch: the root tubers contain a substance called linamarin that triggers the production of cyanide within the body after being ingested due to its interaction with bacteria in the gut. There are two types […]
Liars
Liar, liar, pants on fire! Who lies and why? This week, Tidbits tells the truth about lies! • Prevaricator, falsifier, deceiver, perjurer … no matter what you call them, it’s a person who does not tell the truth, one who makes “an intentionally false statement.” Why do we do it? There are many reasons we do it, but almost always it’s for some degree of self-protection, to prevent damage to one’s reputation, and to avoid confronting facts and feelings. • Research supports the concept that 95% of people cannot go an entire week without telling at least one lie. […]