A dog named "Simone" was featured in the first season of The Partridge Family, though she was phased out of production early in the second season. Like "Tiger" on The Brady Bunch, the dog simply disappeared without an explanation.

Pediatricians estimate that 58 percent of their young patients go to child care or school even when ill, according to a Gallup survey. This despite the fact that 81 percent of mothers working full-time have stayed home at times to care for a sick child.

Elephants are covered with hair. Although it is not apparent from a distance, at close range, one can discern a thin coat of light hairs covering practically every part of an elephant's body.

The Virginia opossum is the only marsupial (pouched mammal) indigenous to North America. They will play dead when threatened, and contrary to folklore, do not sleep hanging by their tails. They have a litter size of up to 22, but only a maximum of 13 offspring live. Their babies stay in the pouch

The nickname "Tinsel Town" was coined by Oscar Levant, the pianist, composer who observed: "Strip the phoney tinsel off Hollywood, and you'll find the real tinsel underneath.

The highest point in Pennsylvania is lower than the lowest point in Colorado.

An estimated 50 percent of U.S. landfill space is taken up by discarded packaging.

In the state of Queensland, Australia, it is still constitutional law that all pubs (hotel/bar) must have a railing outside for patrons to tie up their horse.

The Tarantula nebula is thought to contain a huge star of over 1,000 times the mass of the Sun, ten times more massive than any star in the Milky Way.

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.

Gardenias and orange blossoms both smell terrific, but when placed together in the same bouquet, they will neutralize each other's odor and there will be no smell at all.

Joan Crawford was born Billie Cassin, but her name was changed to Lucille LeSueur when she was young and her mother remarried. When she embarked on a film career as a teenager, film studio executives didn't like her last name as it suggested a sewer. So, her screen name became Joan Crawford as a result of a promotional "name contest" which was ...Read more

In 1969 the Mexican Anti-Defamation Committee claimed the Frito Bandito character's "sneaky thief" image was damaging to the Mexican-American culture. Consequently, the executives at Frito Lay were forced to revaluate the Frito Bandito campaign and, soon after, all the Bandito commercials were pulled off the air. A Frito Lay survey, however, ...Read more

The phrase "guinea pig" originated when a tax was imposed on powder for Whigs in England to help pay for the war with Napoleon. The list of those who had paid the guinea (one pound, one shilling) was posted on their parish church door. As they were the wealthy of the day, they became known as the

The puzzles of those early days were quite a challenge. Most had pieces cut exactly on the color lines. There were no transition pieces with two colors to signal, for example, that the brown area (roof) fit next to the blues (sky). A sneeze or a careless move could undo an evening's work because the pieces did not interlock. And, unlike children...Read more

If hot water is suddenly poured into a glass that glass is more apt to break if it is thick than if it is thin. This is why test tubes are made of thin glass.

Kazatsky (also spelled kazatski and kazatska) is the popular, vigorous Russian folk dance performed by a man. It is characterized by a step in which, from a squatting position, each leg is alternately kicked out.

A poem written to celebrate a wedding is called a "epithalamium."

A new study found that male monkeys will give up their juice rewards in order to ogle pictures of female monkey's bottoms. The way the experiment was set up, the act is akin to paying for the images, the researchers say.