Did You Know…Everything Plus The Kitchen Sink Edition

A cauliflower is nothing but a cabbage with a college education, said Mark Twain.

Theodore Roosevelt was the last U.S. President (26th) to write his own speeches.

In the 1770s, Minutemen, in preparation for the War of Independence against Britain, were a militia formed to be ready at a moment’s notice, muskets loaded at all times; noble predecessors of our National Guard.

It is unknown who exactly invented the first sink. Sinks, also called wash basins or washstands, have been around for centuries. Face, hand and foot washing have been around since prehistoric times so no, it wasn’t IKEA.

 A windshield made of European glass, rather than shattering if hit, breaks into powder.

When the French say ouf, it’s a little like oy vey, in Yiddish.

The writer Anne Lamott describes prayer as, spiritual antibiotics.

In 1981 when the actress Natalie Wood died by drowning at 43, her net worth was $2.5 million dollars, $6 million in today’s currency, all left to her husband, the actor Robert Wagner. Sixty-two years after the questionable events surrounding her death, the case has been reopened. Mr. Wagner, now 88 years-old, is a person of interest, as a suspect is called.

The average age of an American soldier killed during World War II was 26; the Vietnam War, 20. 

The writer Norman Mailer once got into a bloody fistfight with two sailors while walking his two poodles in Central Park after one of them said, his dogs looked gay.

 Winston Churchill and his wife Clementine had pet names for one another. He called her Cat, and he was her Pug. 

The late comic Bill Hicks who didn’t have a particular fondness for Los Angeles, referred to it as, Hell-A.

 Actor Paul Newman with his best pal, writer H. E. Hotchner, mixed Newman’s own salad dressing recipe in a huge tub in Paul’s barn, bottling it as gifts to give to friends. Unbeknownst to them, it was the beginning of one of the greatest charities ever, Newman’s Own that to date has raised more that $600 million dollars since 1982 giving to worthy causes.  

 Hotch, as Paul called him, died at age 102, twenty years after his best pal.

John Lewis one of the original Freedom Riders, arrested over 40 times, beaten senseless during the march in Selma, Alabama on March 7, 1965 adhering to Dr. King’s mandate of non-violence, never once lifting his hand to retaliate. 

Visiting the Lincoln Memorial at night is truly unforgettable. Guarded by 24 hour sharpshooters, it’s by far, the safest place to be in Washington D.C.

  Lincoln would have liked that.

  I’m guessing, so would have Mr. Lewis.

  Good place to end.