Stan's Strange but True: November - Saddleworth Independent

Stan Bowes, from Diggle, has uncovered some interesting and entertaining facts – you just couldn’t make them up.

In 2007, the State of Tennessee executed a man named Philip Workman. For his last meal, Workman requested that a vegetarian pizza be donated to a random local homeless person, but prison officials denied his request, saying that “We do not donate to charities”.

However, his wishes were carried out. When news of the refusal became public, hundreds of people personally donated pizzas to homeless shelters in the area.Elsewhere, the cities of Minneapolis and St Paul, in Minnesota, U.S.A. merge into one another: so much so that they are often known as the twin cities.

In 1965, the Federal Government decreed that Daylight Saving Time would begin on May 9th of that year, but for various reasons, the Minnesota state legislature decided that May 23rd suited their purposes better. So Minneapolis joined the rest of the state and turned its clocks forward on May 23.

However, St Paul went with the rest of the nation and opted for May 9. For two weeks, the Twin Cities were an hour apart, causing untold chaos.

Improve your vocabulary

Arfanarf: Drunk!! Formed from Cockney slang, where a common drink was a mixture of ale and porter, in equal proportions: hence, half-and-half. To be arfanarf you had drunk too many of these mixtures.

Crizzling: The faint crackling sound that can sometimes be heard when ice is forming on water.

Apophthegms

Life is a game, the object of which is to discover the object of the game.

You cannot tell how deep a puddle is until you step in it.