SUNDAY TRIVIA

Did You Know...

~ The peace symbol ☮ was created by Gerald Holtom in 1958. It was designed for the British "Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament". The design was created by superimposing the flag semaphore letters 'N' and 'D' (Nuclear Disarmament) onto a circle. Flag semaphore is a system of communication using two hand held flag to convey information based on what position each flag is held at. The letter 'N' in flag semaphore is created by holding both flags at an angle below the horizontal line. This forms the two angled lines on the Peace Symbol. The letter 'D' is created by holding one flag straight up and one straight down. This forms the vertical line of the Peace Symbol.

~ From 1909 through 1982, the US penny was made from 95% copper and 5% zinc. As of October 2009, the metal in one pre-1983 penny can be melted and sold for 1.8 cents. The scrap value for pennys from 1982 and earlier is more than the coin is worth as currency.

~ In botanical terms, a fruit consists of the ripened ovary and seed of a flowering plant. What most people consider the strawberry "fruit" is not technically a fruit. The strawberry is considered an "accessory fruit". The fleshy part is derived from the peg at the bottom of the hypanthium that held the ovaries, and not from the ovaries themselves which form the "seeds". So from a technical standpoint, the seeds are the actual fruits of the plant, and the flesh of the strawberry is modified receptacle tissue.

~ The modern bikini was invented by a French designer in 1946. It was named after Bikini Atoll, the site of US nuclear weapon tests a few days earlier in the Marshall Islands, on the reasoning that the burst of excitement it would cause would be like the nuclear device. 

~ Hydrogen peroxide bubbles on wounds not because it is killing germs, but because it decomposes into water and oxygen gas in the presence of enzymes from broken skin cells.

~ Ketchup has not always been made out of tomatoes. It started out as a general term for sauce, typically made of mushrooms or fish brine with herbs and spices. Mushroom ketchup is still available in some countries, such as the UK. Some popular early main ingredients include anchovy, oyster, lobster, walnut, kidney bean, cucumber, cranberry, lemon, and grape.

~ To make Pop Rocks, the hot sugar mixture is allowed to mix with carbon dioxide gas at about 600psi. The carbon dioxide gas forms tiny, 600psi bubbles in the candy. When you put the candy in your mouth, it melts and releases the bubbles. What you are hearing and feeling is the 600psi carbon dioxide gas being released from each bubble.

~ Campbell's "Chicken Noodle" soup wasn't always one of Campbell's most popular soups, and it didn't start out as "Chicken Noodle" soup either. Introduced in 1934, it was originally called "Chicken with Noodles" and enjoyed only moderate success. Later that same year an innocent misstatement on the "Amos 'n' Andy" radio program caused sales to sky-rocket. Amos misread his copy and accidentally called the product "Chicken Noodle" soup. Suddenly the soup company started receiving large orders for their "new" product. The soup was formally renamed "Chicken Noodle" after the erroneous turn of phrase caused high demand for the soup. Today, Campbell's uses nearly a million miles of noodles in the production of their Chicken Noodle soup every year. That is enough noodles to circle the equator over 40 times.