Stan Bowes from Diggle, has uncovered some more interesting and entertaining strange but true facts for us – you just couldn’t make them up
PEASANT WOMAN Mrs Vassilyev gave birth to her first child, Feodor, in 1725. Nothing unusual about that.
Except that she went on to be the most fecund woman in recorded history.
In 27 confinements she gave birth to 69 children. This included sixteen pairs of twins, seven sets of triplets, and four sets of quadruplets.
Almost as remarkable in its day is that 67 of the children survived infancy. Her immense brood brought her an audience with the Empress of Russia and a state pension, but little else.
AS UNLIKELY as it might sound, Johann Sebastian Bach once wrote a cantata about being addicted to coffee.
In eighteenth-century Leipzig, coffee addiction was an increasing social problem. Bach, one of Leipzig’s most famous citizens, was no stranger to the coffee mania – his Collegium Musicum performed in a coffee house.
He eventually wrote Schweight stille, paludert nicht (Be still, and stop chattering), also known as The Coffee Cantata. Written in 1732, this amusing little piece is all about the dangers of being addicted to coffee.
IMPROVE YOUR VOCABULARY
Sipe: A sipe is a groove in a tyre, designed to allow water to be expelled quickly, so improving the grip in wet weather.
Cascabel: The large round knob on the back-end of a muzzle-loading cannon. Its significance in Britain is that all Victoria Crosses (our highest award for bravery) are claimed to have been made from the cascabels of two Russian cannons captured in the Crimean War, though recent research suggests this is not strictly correct. In America the word also refers to a medium-hot chilli. Both meanings ultimately derive from the Spanish cascabel, meaning a little round bell, a child’s rattle, or a rattlesnake.
APOPHTHEGMS
Boxing is like ballet: except there’s no music or choreography, and the dancers hit each other
