Do You Wanna Know?

* Ten percent of the Russian government’s income comes from the sale of vodka.

* On average, 100 people choke to death on ball-point pens every year.

* Only one person in two billion will live to be 116 or older.

* In Cleveland, Ohio, it’s illegal to catch mice without a hunting license.

* Thirty-five percent of the people who use personal ads for dating are already married.

* The world’s termites outweigh the world’s humans 10 to 1.

* The 3 most valuable brand names on earth: Marlboro, Coca-Cola, and Budweiser, in that order.

* In 10 minutes, a hurricane releases more energy than all the world’s nuclear weapons combined.

* It was the accepted practice in Babylon 4,000 years ago that for a month after the wedding, the bride’s father would supply his son-in-law with all the mead he could drink. Mead is a honey beer, and because their calendar was lunar based, this period was called the honeymonth” or what we know today as the “honeymoon.”

* “Minding your p’s and q’s” comes from early typesetting. The letters are in reverse making it very easy to confuse the two.

* Many years ago in England, pub frequenters had a whistle baked into the rim or handle of their ceramic cups. When they needed a refill, they used the whistle to get some service. “Wet your whistle,” is the phrase inspired by this practice.

How Coins Are Made!

In November 1902, President Theodore Roosevelt and some of his friends went on a hunting trip to Mississippi. After hours of searching, Roosevelt and his group had not come across any wild animals. Finally, the group did track down and surrounded a helpless bear. One of the guides asked the president to shoot the bear so he could win a hunting trophy. The president refused, and news reporters throughout the country spread the story of Roosevelt’s kind act.

Not long after this took place, a famous cartoonist named Clifford Berryman drew a cartoon based on Roosevelt ‘s rescue of the bear. When a store owner in Brooklyn saw the cartoon, he decided to make toy bears to sell in his shop. He asked president Roosevelt for permission to use the name “”Teddy’s Bear”” for his toys, as a reminder of the bear Roosevelt had set free.

Nowadays, everyone knows these toys as Teddy Bears, but few people know that they were named after President Theodore “”Teddy”” Roosevelt.

Traveling between Moscow and Vladivostok, the Trans-Siberian Express makes the longest regular train trip in the world, covering 5,778 mi and making 91 stops over the course of nine days.