This informative post will be posted on Saturday along with my usual writing.  We can all appreciate some of the lesser known facts from around the world.

The uniforms worn by The Beatles on the cover of the album “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” were rental costumes.  The medals that adorn Paul’s and George’s jackets, however, were not only theirs, they were real.  Each of the Fab Four had been awarded MBE medals (Members of the Order of the British Empire) by Queen Elizabeth II in 1965.

Prior to making it big as novelists, Harper Lee (TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD) wrote plane tickets as a reservations agent for Eastern Airlines, Kurt Vonnegut (SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE) wrote press releases for General Electric, and Amy Tan (THE JOY LUCK CLUB) wrote horoscopes.

These facts have been discovered in I NEVER KNEW THAT by David Hoffman (2009).

This informative post will be posted on Saturday along with my usual writing.  We can all appreciate some of the lesser known facts from around the world.

According to numerous pediatric dermatologists, duct tape is an effective, non-painful method for removing warts.

While searching for a way to store hydrogen and other gases needed for his chemistry experiments, London professor Michael Faraday invented the balloon in 1824.

These facts have been discovered in I NEVER KNEW THAT by David Hoffman (2009).

This informative post will be posted on Saturday along with my usual writing.  We can all appreciate some of the lesser known facts from around the world.

Kleenex was originally manufactured as filters for gas masks during World War I.  In the aftermath, Kimberly-Clark promoted them as both coffee filters and cold cream removers until research showed that most people had taken to using them like handkerchiefs to blow their noses.

It is the aromatic leaves of the violet–not the petals–that are used to make perfume.

These facts have been discovered in I NEVER KNEW THAT by David Hoffman (2009).

This informative post will be posted on Saturday along with my usual writing.  We can all appreciate some of the lesser known facts from around the world.

In 1945, Harold Mattson and Elliot Handler combined forces–and their names–to form Mattel Toys.  Fourteen years later, Handler’s wife Ruth also became an integral part of the operation when she created a fashion doll (and the doll’s boyfriend), which she named after their two kids, Barbie and Ken.

Leo Fender, designer of the highly cherished Fender Guitar, didn’t know how to play the guitar.

These facts have been discovered in I NEVER KNEW THAT by David Hoffman (2009).

This informative post will be posted on Saturday along with my usual writing.  We can all appreciate some of the lesser known facts from around the world.

The “classic” Irish combo of corned beef and cabbage is more a product of the island of Manhattan than of the Emerald Isle.  In the twentieth century, Irish immigrants to the U.S. settled in New York’s lower east side, and since the area was predominately Jewish, it was difficult to find bacon or cured ham to go with their cabbage.  So they did what their neighbors did–bought brisket, brined it in kosher salt, and served “corn beef” for dinner.

The ruby slippers that Judy Garland wore as Dorothy in “The Wizard of Oz” were Ferragamo pumps.

These facts have been discovered in I NEVER KNEW THAT by David Hoffman (2009).

This informative post will be posted on Saturday along with my usual writing.  We can all appreciate some of the lesser known facts from around the world.

Tomatoes are a member of the nightshade family, of which the majority is poisonous.  So, for almost two hundred years after they were brought back from Mexico, Europeans were afraid to eat tomatoes.  Instead, they used the plant as houseplants.

Cappuccino is named for the similarity of its color to the color of the long, hooded robes worn by the monks of the Capuchin order–and the fact that a properly prepared cappuccino leaves a brown ring along the rim of the cup that resembles a monk’s cowl.

These facts have been discovered in I NEVER KNEW THAT by David Hoffman (2009).

This informative post will be posted on Saturday along with my usual writing.  We can all appreciate some of the lesser known facts from around the world.

One pound of tea yields about two hundred servings.

Techno-musician and singer-songwriter Moby got his pseudonym honestly–his real name is Richard Melville Hall, and he’s the great-great-grandnephew of Herman Melville, author of MOBY DICK.  Hall freely admits he never got through the book.

These facts have been discovered in I NEVER KNEW THAT by David Hoffman (2009).

This informative post will be posted on Saturday along with my usual writing.  We can all appreciate some of the lesser known facts from around the world.

The popular website Yahoo! got its name from a word thought up by Jonathan Swift and used in his classic, GULLIVER’S TRAVELS, to mean “rude, unsophisticated, uncouth.”  The exclamation point was necessitated by law, added for trademark purposes after it was discovered that a brand of Yahoo barbecue sauce and a line of Yahoo knives already existed.

Strawberries contain more vitamin C than oranges.

These facts have been discovered in I NEVER KNEW THAT by David Hoffman (2009).

This informative post will be posted on Saturday along with my usual writing.  We can all appreciate some of the lesser known facts from around the world.

Many of the coffee bars inside the CIA and other top-secret United States government buildings are staffed by blind people, although this has as much to do with a very successful employment drive as it does national security.

Created in England in the 1760s, the first jigsaw puzzles were maps.  Pieces were formed by cutting along the borders of the countries, and the end result was used to teach kids geography.

These facts have been discovered in I NEVER KNEW THAT by David Hoffman (2009).

This informative post will be posted on Saturday along with my usual writing.  We can all appreciate some of the lesser known facts from around the world.

In 1966, the Scott Paper Company introduced a paper dress, a special offer available through the mail for one dollar.  Within six months, they had sold five hundred thousand of them–prompting experts to predict that by 1980, twenty-five percent of all our clothes would be made of paper.

Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven” is the most well-known and popular rock song to have never been released as a single.

These facts have been discovered in I NEVER KNEW THAT by David Hoffman (2009).