Stan Bowes, from Diggle, has uncovered some interesting and entertaining facts – you just couldn’t make them up.
Strange but true
Fire-fighters in Christchurch, Dorset, England, arranged an exercise in which they were to set fire to an abandoned, derelict bungalow. Whilst conducting final checks to ensure there was nothing potentially dangerous in the property, which was part of a former elderly-care complex, they discovered £90,000 (€127.000 – $141,300 – 元901,000) in bundles of bank notes under a bed. The owners were never traced.
Elsewhere, American Maureen Wilcox did both the Massachusetts and Rhode Island lotteries for many years. She never had any luck until one week she got both sets of six numbers! Statistically, the odds against this are almost infinitesimal. Unfortunately, she didn’t become rich. She had the six numbers for the Massachusetts lottery on her ticket for the Rhode Island lottery ticket – and vice versa! It’s said after that she never bought another lottery ticket.
Improve your vocabulary
Cascaron: An eggshell filled with confetti, and emptied on certain festive occasions. From the Spanish cascarón: an eggshell.
Grampus: An alternative name applied to any of the dolphin or toothed whale families. Its odd appearance coming from its old-French derivation – gran pisce, or ‘big fish’.
Apophthegms
Truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it.
Learning is weightless, a treasure you can always carry easily.
A telephone is a good way to talk to some-one without having to offer them a drink.
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