Strange But True: Al Capone opened a soup kitchen

By Lucie Winborne

• Unlike some genocides in which victims could sometimes avoid persecution by converting to another religion, Nazi Germany generally defined Jews by ancestry rather than personal belief. Under the Nuremberg Laws, a person's classification depended largely on the religious affiliation of parents and grandparents, so conversion to Christianity usually did not exempt someone of Jewish ancestry from anti-Jewish persecution.

• Turtles can see well underwater, but on land they are nearsighted.

• In one of his occasional efforts to improve public relations, Chicago gangster Al Capone opened a soup kitchen during the Great Depression.

• During the pre-WWII drafts, an illiterate gentleman hoping to avoid military service asked his wife to write the draft board and explain how much he was needed at home. The plan backfired when his lady instead requested that her husband be taken because he was a "no-good" alcoholic who didn't help around the house.

• Beer is the third-most popular drink on Earth, after water and tea.

• An Ohio State University study found that women who reported stress in the previous 24 hours burned 104 fewer calories than nonstressed women after a high-fat meal.

• Geneticists believe that the same segment of DNA in the human genome is responsible for the development of both schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

• The first female golfer was Mary, Queen of Scots (1542--1567).

• In the U.S., graduating nurses take an oath called the Nightingale Pledge, named after Florence Nightingale and adapted from the Hippocratic Oath taken by doctors.

• After his first son's birth, Claude Monet attempted suicide by jumping into the Seine. He was poor, estranged from his father and disappointed in the French art scene. Fortunately, he survived and later helped found the Impressionist movement.

(c) 2026 King Features Synd., Inc.