Both Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince set records as the fastest-selling books in history.
Trivia
American Idols
The “most admired people of the 20th century,” compiled by the Gallup Organization:
- Mother Teresa
- Martin Luther King Jr.
- John F. Kennedy
- Albert Einstein
- Helen Keller
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Billy Graham
- Pope John Paul II
- Eleanor Roosevelt
- Winston Churchill
- Dwight Eisenhower
- Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
- Mahatma Gandhi
- Nelson Mandela
- Ronald Reagan
- Henry Ford
- Bill Clinton
- Margaret Thatcher
Duck!
Famous people who have been hit with pies:
- Pat Buchanan, politician and columnist (hit with a salad)
- Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden, monarch
- Bill Gates, Microsoft founder and chairman
- Jean-Luc Godard, filmmaker
- Calvin Klein, clothing designer
- Helmut Kohl, former chancellor of Germany
- Ralph Nader, American Green party politician
- Oscar de la Renta, fashion designer
- William Shatner, then-Star Trek star
- Jeffrey Skilling, Enron CEO
- Sylvester Stallone, action movie star
- Andy Warhol, artist
Zzz
Giraffes sleep only two hours a day.
Little Women
Heights of famous females:
- Dr. Ruth Westheimer, sex therapist, 4 feet 7 inches
- Linda Hunt, actress, 4 feet 9 inches
- Charlotte Brontë, novelist, 4 feet 10 inches
- Tammy Faye Bakker, televangelist, 4 feet 11 inches
- Barbara Boxer, U.S. senator, 4 feet 11 inches
- Dorothy Parker, author, 4 feet 11 inches
- Laura Ingalls Wilder, author, 4 feet 11 inches
- Lil’ Kim, rapper, 4 feet 11 in
- Madeleine Albright, former U.S. Secretary of State, 5 feet
- Gracie Allen, actress, 5 feet
- Kylie Minogue, musician, 5 feet
- Dolly Parton, actress and muscian, 5 feet
- Mary Pickford, actress, 5 feet
- Mother Teresa, Roman Catholic nun, 5 feet
- Harriet Tubman, abolitionist, 5 feet
- Mae West, actress, 5 feet
Medic!
What do these writers have in common?
- Ernest Hemingway
- John Dos Passos
- e.e. cummings
- Somerset Maugham
- John Masefield
- Malcolm Cowley
- Sidney Howard
- Robert Service
- Louis Bromfield
- Harry Crosby
- Julian Green
- Dashiell Hammett
- William Seabrook
- Robert Hillyer
- John Howard Lawson
- William Slater Brown
- Charles Nordhoff
- Sir Hugh Walpole
- Desmond MacCarthy
- Russell Davenport
- Edward Weeks
- C. Leroy Baldridge
- Samuel Chamberlain
All drove ambulances during World War I.
High Profile
There are only two books in the Bible that do not contain the word God.
They are Esther and Song of Solomon.
Neatness Counts
The average guard at the Tomb of the Unknowns cuts his hair, shaves twice, and spends eight hours preparing his uniform for each day’s work. (Thanks to MysticWolf for this one.)
Bring Me Your Poor
At its peak, during World War II, Fort Knox held enough pure gold to make 90 Statues of Liberty.
Truth in Advertising
On the original Star Trek, many sets include pipes and tubes marked “GNDN”.
That’s an in-joke among the set designers — it stands for “Goes Nowhere, Does Nothing.”