I Bet Ya Didn't Know

State with highest percentage of people who walk to work: Alaska

If you and your matrimonial mate are both left-handed, you're more likely than right-handers to have twins.

The monastery of San Juan de la Peña in Spain, built in a deep gorge between sheer cliffs, can be reached by only expert mountain climbers.

While the famous Trevi Fountain in Rome was undergoing repair, the view was blocked by scaffolding. A nearby tavern posted this sign: Skip the Trevi; have a bevy.

The larva of the caddis fly catches the small organisms on which it feeds by spreading over the water of streams a net it spins of silk.

The Amazon rain forest is about 2 million square miles, mainly in Brazil, and has a wider variety of plant and animal life than any other spot on Earth.

Construction of Brasilia, the capital of Brazil, was begun in the 1950's. Rio de Janeiro was the capital until 1960.

Any plant or part thereof eaten during the main dish is a vegetable. If it is eaten at any other part of the meal, it is a fruit. US Supreme Court ruling in 1893!

The first movie shown in a drive-in theater was "Wife Beware", in 1933.

Cats, like a few other animals, have tear ducts allowing them to clean their eyes by shedding tears.

The squid and the octopus each have 2 gills, 2 kidneys, and 3 hearts.

Two infants, strapped inside a cradle, were found on the beach of Wyck, Germany, in 1825, having survived a great flood which killed hundreds and leveled scores of villages.

The wreath on a card of introduction, issued by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs to foreign dignitaries in the 18th century, revealed in an intricate code such data as its bearer's marital status, religion, gambling habits, education, discretion, and political affiliation.

The world's biggest pair of panties, made from acrylic and lace, measured 29.4 ft. (8.97 m.) x 14 ft. (4.26 m.)? They were strung across London's Oxford street as part of a promotion. (Source: GuinnessWorldRecords.com)

The spire of Trinity Church in Manhattan at the time of the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge was the only structure taller than the bridge towers at 281 feet.

HAL, the computer in "2001 a Space Odyssey" got its name from taking each letter of the alphabet preceding the letters IBM.

The original government house of Auckland, N.Z., was built in England, taken apart, transported by ship to New Zealand, and reassembled there in 1840. The structure, which measured 120 feet by 50 feet and weighed 250 tons, was a replica of the house built for Napoleon on St. Helena.

Six years before "Xena: Warrior Princess," Lucy Lawless was crowned Mrs. New Zealand in 1989.

In 1862, President Lincoln signed a bill calling for a transcontinental railroad.

Amtrak has 22,000 miles of track, linking 500 communities in 45 states. In 2000, Amtrack served 22.5 million riders.

The Notre Dame bridge in Paris, France, for a period of 380 years, had on it 78 three-story houses, which were marked by numbers in 1512, 214 years before any other home was numbered.

Amtrak's Acela train goes up to 150 MPH. It makes the trip from New York to Washington, D.C., in under 2¹/² hours.

Troops first arrived by rail to Bull Run (First Manassas) in 1861.

Various tolls were collected on the Brooklyn Bridge until about 1910. The 150,300 pedestrians who crossed on Opening Day paid 1 cent apiece; vehicles were charged 5 cents.

Schuyler Colfax (1823-1885) became the first American to preside over both houses of Congress. He was elected vice-president of the U.S. in 1868 while serving as speaker of the House of Representatives.

The earthworm doesn't have gills or lungs. It breathes through its skin.

Albert Einstein and Otto Hahn, both born on March 14, 1879, both won the Nobel Prize in physics.

Triskaidekaphobia, the fear of the nmber 13, is so widespread that 90% of the high-rise buildings in the United States have no 13th floor.

Humphrey Bogart, the famed movie tough guy, had such a sweet face a child that he was used as a model to sell baby food.

The egg always emerges large end first.

The battle formation of the armies of the ancient Siamese resembled the head of a buffalo.

The coat of arms of the Pelham family features the belt buckle of King John the Good of France, which was snatched by an English ancestor in the battle of Poitiers in 1356.

A tavern sign in Hamburg, Germany, made from the shoulder blade of a whale gave the street on which it hangs its name, "The Street of the Whale's Shoulder Blade."

The Dalai Lama, ruler of Tibet, a prisoner of the Red Chinese in his own palace, announced that he would escape on the afternoon of March 17, 1959. That afternoon, although Red Troops surrounded the palace and huge searchlights were trained on the building, the Dalai Lama and 80 companions escaped under the cover of a sudden sandstorm.

Larry Hama, who wrote the 155 issues of the "G.I. Joe" comic book, played a North Korean soldier who stole a jeep that Maj. Frank Burns was riding in a M*A*S*H episode.

Benjamin Franklin devised the first wet suit for divers, as well as a primitive version of today's flippers.

Dec. 17, 1903 - Orville and Wilbur Wright had been printers and bicycle makers before turning to flying machines. On this day, the WRIGHT FLYER, made of muslin, wood, and steel, traveled 120 feet over North Carolina sand dunes in the first powered manned flight.

Oct. 14, 1947: Chuck Yeager, flying the rocket-powered Bell X-1 broke the sound barrier for the first time.

On May 20 - 21, 1927, Charles Lindbergh achieved the first nonstop solo flight across the Atlantic in the SPIRIT OF ST. LOUIS.

On May 20 - 21, 1932, Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic. Five years later, she was lost over the Pacific Ocean in an attempt to fly around the globe.