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 the early 1800s, it was customary for local U.S. banks to issue their own money.  Given the large French-speaking population in Louisiana, the ten-dollar bills that came from that area frequently had DIX (which is French for “ten”) printed on them.  People began to refer to those bills as “dixies” and to Louisiana as “Dixie Land.”  In time, Dixie became a nickname applied to all of the Deep South.

Ringo Starr was a certified cosmetologist when he replaced Pete Best as The Beatle’s drummer.  He joined the group hoping to make enough money to open his own hair salon.

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.

It takes approximately six to eight hundred grapes to produce one bottle of wine.

Joe Sheridan was closing up his restaurant at Ireland’s Foynes Airport in 1945 when bad weather forced a transatlantic flight to turn around and come back.  Realizing that the plane’s passengers would be tired and irritable, Sheridan stayed late and greeted them with coffee that had been mixed with a little sugar, spiked with a shot of Irish whiskey, and topped with freshly whipped cream.  When asked if what they were drinking was Brazilian coffee, Sheridan replied, “No.  It’s Irish coffee.”  The name stuck.

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 of the first models for the artificial heart was invented in the early 1950s at the Yale University School of Medicine, using the parts and motor from a standard Erector Set.

David Rice Atchison was President of the United States for one day, March 4, 1849.  James Polk’s term ended that morning, but President-elect Zachary Taylor refused to be sworn in on a Sunday.  In the interim, the job automatically went to Atchison, the Senate president pro tem.

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 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).