Strange But True: Nude Chefs

By Lucie Winborne

  • In 1945, Soviet children presented the U.S. ambassador in Moscow with a wooden Great Seal as a friendship gift. It just happened to include a hidden listening device, which spied on American diplomats for seven years before it was discovered.

  • When humans blush, their stomach also turns red.

  • The Brazilian free-tailed bat uses chirps, buzzes and trills to form unique syllables in a type of "love song" to attract females, as well as ward off male competition.

  • On the California side of the U.S.-Mexican border is a city named Calexico. On the opposite side is a town called Mexicali.

  • Parthenophobia is a fear of virgins.

  • England's Queen Victoria defied both the clergy and her personal physician to become the first monarch to use anesthesia (chloroform) during childbirth.

  • Actor Liam Neeson trained to be a teacher but got fired after punching a student who pulled a knife on him.

  • Women blink about two times less often than men.

  • Professional chefs in wealthy 17th-century European households were primarily men, who often cooked in the nude or in their underwear due to kitchens' intense heat.

  • Deaf quarterback Paul Hubbard was the first to use the "round formation huddle" in football, to ensure that his teammates could interpret his hand gestures.

  • Inventor A.J. Grafham tried to increase car travel safety with his 1930's sponge rubber seat, which promised to protect pedestrians from injury if they were hit by a speeding automobile.

  • In Japan, Ronald McDonald is known as Donald McDonald.

  • Benedict Cumberbatch is the second cousin, 16 times removed, of King Richard III, whom he portrayed in the 2016 BBC miniseries "The Hollow Crown."

Thought for the Day: "Although golf was originally restricted to wealthy, overweight Protestants, today it's open to anybody who owns hideous clothing." -- Dave Barry

(c) 2025 King Features Synd., Inc.

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