Americans consume about 138 billion cups of coffee a year.

Undertakers report that human bodies do not deteriorate as quickly as they used to. The reason, they believe, is that the modern diet contains so many preservatives that these chemicals tend to prevent the body from decomposition too rapidly after death.

The one extra room new-home shoppers want the most is the laundry room, at 95 percent. Only 66 percent of new-home buyers request an extra room to use as an office.

Many cities in our country bear the names of other countries. The U.S. city of Mexico can be found in the states of Indiana, Maine, and Missouri.

Major-league baseball clubs didn't start putting numbers on uniforms until the 1930s. As a result, Ty Cobb, who broke many batting and base-stealing records while playing with the Detroit Tigers (1905-1926), didn't have his uniform number retired. This was, simply, because Cobb never was issued a

Thirty-two percent of computer data loss cases are due to human error.

The world's first underground railway, between Paddington (Bishop's Road) and Farringdon Street - with trains hauled by steam engines - was opened by the Metropolitan Railway on January 10th 1863. The initial section was six km (nearly four miles) in length, and provided both a new commuter rail service and an onward rail link for passengers ...Read more

Attila the Hun was a dwarf. Pepin the Short, Aesop, Gregory of Tours, Charles III of Naples, and Pasha Hussain were all less than three and a half feet tall.

An 'Alms Box' was placed in every church on Christmas Day, into which worshippers placed a gift for the poor of the parish. These boxes were always opened the day after Christmas, which is why that day became know as Boxing Day.

Hair grows slowest at night. It speeds up in the morning, slows in the afternoon, and grows faster again in the evening. Hair grows faster in summer than in winter.

Ostriches are such fast runners, they can outrun a horse. Male ostriches can roar like a lion.

The groom's principal attendant at a wedding is called the best man. The phrase best man is of Scottish origin and dates back to the days when a bridegroom simply kidnapped the woman he wanted as his bride. To help him in his task, the groom enlisted a group of friends, the toughest and bravest

Woodbury Soap was the first product to show a nude woman in its advertisements. The year was 1936. Edward Steichen's photograph showed a rear, full-length view of a woman sunbathing – wearing only sandals.

When she was a girl, former Radio City dancer Valerie Harper lived all over the U.S. because her father was a traveling salesman. When she was 18, she left upstate New York to be a member of the "Li'l Abner" chorus in 1958. A few years later, Harper contracted hepatitis. Her doctor prescribed loads of candy, and she ballooned to 155 pounds. In ...Read more

When ordering coffee on U.S. flights, for the East Coast, "regular" is with milk and sugar; on the West Coast, "regular" coffee is black.

Humphrey Bogart made the following disparaging comment about James Dean, who died in a car crash at age 24: "If he'd have lived, they'd have discovered he wasn't a legend."

Fans thought Rod Serling invented the term "Twilight Zone." As a matter of fact, so did Serling. He'd not heard anyone use it before, so he assumed he'd created it. However, after the hit TV show debuted in 1959, Serling was informed that Air Force pilots used the phrase to describe "a moment when a plane is coming down on approach and it cannot...Read more

Although many food writers have translated the Italian "antipasto" as "before the pasta," its literal meaning is "before the meal."

A study of New York marathoners a few years ago found that their divorce rate – male and female – was twice the national average. Persons that engage in solitary endurance sports are the ones most likely to be compulsive exercisers – for example, joggers, long-distance swimmers, weight-lifters, and cross-country skiers. Occasionally, ...Read more

In the Middle Ages, one Valentine's Day custom was for young men and women to draw names from a bowl to see who their valentines would be. They would then wear these names on their sleeves for one week. “To wear your heart on your sleeve” now means that it is easy for other people to know how