DREAM A LITTLE DREAM

The word DREAM didn't come to mean "sleep images" until the 13th century -- in Old English it
meant "joy," "noise," or "music"

In 1999, Harvard University conducted a study called "Gorillas in Our Midst." Test subjects were instructed to watch people pass a basketball back and forth. Meanwhile, more than 80% of the time subjects failed to notice a person in a gorilla suit walking around the room

The United Nations ranks Norway first among all nations in the category "Quality of Life"

Percent of Americans who can name the Three Stooges when asked to do so spontaneously: 60%
Percent of Americans who can name three past or current Supreme Court justices: 17%

An official census of Panama City in 1610 listed 548 citizens and more than 3,500 African slaves

70% of the San Francisco Bay is less than 12 feet deep

58% of soldiers killed during the American Civil War were positively identified

Money is about 10,000 years old

All McDonald's restaurants in Sweden serve organic food in edible or degradable packaging -- in 2002, the first McDonald's drive-thru window for snowmobiles opened in Piteaa, Sweden

The flush toilet was introduced in 1810

Human saliva has a boiling point that is 3 degrees higher than regular water

The phrase "rule of thumb" is derived from a centuries old English law that stated a husband could not beat his wife with any object or strap wider than his thumb

Diet Coke was invented in 1982

The can-opener was invented 48 years after the can

More than 400,000 Americans still do not have indoor plumbing

Jimmy Carter was the first U.S. president born in a hospital

In the next seven days, 800 Americans will be injured by their jewelry

Shoes wear out faster on the right foot than the left

Least likely time for a bank robbery in the United States: Wednesday, 3 - 6 p.m.

The United States produces more tobacco than it does wheat

Q-Tip cotton swabs were originally called Baby Gays

Every 1,000 years, Spring gets two-thirds of one day shorter

Percent of American men who claim that t.v. has taught them more about life than their parents: 22%

95% of all creatures on earth are smaller than a chicken egg

The Jordanian city of Amman was once called Philadelphia

"Alma Mater" means "bountiful mother"

It takes a plastic container 50,000 years to start to decompose

Microsoft threatened 17 year old Mike Rowe with a lawsuit after Rowe launched a website called MikeRoweSoft.com

The day after George W. Bush won re-election in 2004, Canada's main immigration website received over 115,000 visitors -- in a typical day, the site receives less than 20,000 visits

While American novelist Anne Parrish was browsing a used bookstore in Paris in the 1920s, she happened upon a copy of "Jack Frost and Other Stories," which had been a childhood favorite for her -- as she was explaining to her husband how much she had enjoyed the stories as a child, he happened upon the flyleaf and found the handwritten inscription "Anne Parish, 209 N. Weber Street, Colorado Springs" -- it was Anne's own book that her parents had given away when she was a teenager

One-quarter of all horses in the U.S. died of an epidemic virus in 1872

Greek writer Julius Pollux described the game "apodidraskinda" in the year 150 -- we know the game as "hide-and-seek"

You actually can get blood from a stone, as long as it contains 17% bauxite

Less than 1% of human flatulence is made up of the chemicals that cause odor but they are so pungent that most people can smell them at 1 part per 100 million

Butterflies taste with their feet

It is impossible for a solar eclipse to last longer than 7 minutes, 58 seconds

Plants that are thirsty emit a high pitched sound that the human ear cannot hear

First Republican president of the United States: Abraham Lincoln

The Empire State Building in New York City has 6,400 windows

The custom of shaking hands when greeting originated as a way for men who were strangers to demonstrate they were unarmed

Air becomes liquid at -190 degrees Celsius -- liquid air looks like water with a slight bluish tint

Although toilet paper was invented in China in the late 1300s, it was for Emperors only -- widespread use didn't happen until after 1857 when New Yorker Joseph Gayetty started marketing it

HUH?:
"Smoking kills. If you're killed, you've lost an important part of your life" -- Actress Brooke Shields, during an interview to become spokesperson for a federal anti-smoking campaign

"I have opinions of my own- strong opinions- but I don't always agree with them" -- Former U.S. President George Bush, Sr.

"One word sums up probably the responsibility of any Governor, and that word is 'Be prepared'" -- Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush

"This is unparalyzed in the state's history" -- Gib Lewis, Texas Speaker of the House

"We are not ready for the unforeseen event that may or may not occur" -- Dan Quayle, Former Vice President