When It’s a Wonderful Life was released in 1946, the FBI labeled it “subversive.”
They said that its depiction of a greedy businessman was “a common trick used by communists.”
Trivia
The Flynn Effect
Are we getting smarter? IQ scores around the world have been going up by about three IQ points per decade.
Suggested reasons include improved nutrition, smaller families, better education, and the stimulating modern environment, but no one really knows what’s causing it.
It’s called the Flynn effect, after New Zealand political scientist who discovered it.
SRO
Standing shoulder to shoulder, all the people in the world could fit on the Indonesian island of Bali.
Piece of the Pie
A 2003 survey of Domino’s Pizza managers in Washington D.C. found that Dec. 13, 2003, the day Saddam Hussein was captured, was the biggest day of the year for tips.
Dear Diary
The world’s longest diary is kept by Robert Shields of Dayton, Wash. Since 1972 he has spent four hours a day typing a record of everything that happens to him. Sample:
July 25, 1993, 7 a.m.: I cleaned out the tub and scraped my feet with my fingernails to remove layers of dead skin.
He stores the diary, now 38 million words long, in more than 80 cardboard boxes.
Great Indeed
Egypt’s Great Pyramid weighs 5,750,090 tons.
Deep Freeze
In 1956, an expedition to the South Pole found a tin of Edam cheese left behind by Robert Scott’s party 44 years earlier.
It was still edible.
Lincoln’s Pockets
Contents of Lincoln’s pockets on the night of his assassination:
- Two pairs of glasses
- Lens polisher
- Watch fob
- Penknife
- Newspaper clippings
- Handkerchief
… and a Confederate five-dollar bill.
Hand Over Foot
Fingernails grow up to four times faster than toenails.
Clinton and E-Mail
Bill Clinton sent only two e-mails during his entire eight-year term in office. One was to test the system; the other was to congratulate John Glenn on his return to space.
Both are archived in Clinton’s presidential library.