Strange But True: Shiatsu Massages

By Lucie Winborne

• Chuck Norris had his own line of jeans called "Action Jeans."

• At the time of its release, Grand Theft Auto 5 is the most expensive video game ever made -- $265 million in production costs.

• Diet Coke isn't a modified form of Coke, but a totally different recipe.

• A brand of anti-chafing foot powder won a 1967 mayoral election in Picoaza, Ecuador. Its platform? The product was touted as potentially bringing hygiene and well-being to the town of 4,000.

• The youngest soldier in the American Civil War was a 9-year-old boy from Mississippi, while the oldest was an 80-year-old man from Iowa.

• After the 9/11 tragedy in 2001, cyclist David Hale Sylvester began bicycling-and-hugging tours all over the world and staged multiple "hug parties" on three continents. As of 2021, he had hugged more than half a million people.

• Australian tennis player Samuel Groth once served a ball that was clocked at an astonishing 163.6 mph.

• Danish, Anglo-Saxon and Norman men were known for elaborate hairstyles and grooming, sometimes even before battle.

• According to practitioners, shiatsu massages should always be given with the recipient lying on the floor rather than on a table or chair.

• A Florida judge once called Elvis Presley "savage" for "undermining the youth."

• Tilapia are painted on ancient Egyptian tomb walls and included in a spell in the Egyptian Book of the Dead to help the deceased take their place in the sun boat.

• Up to 75% of people with Down syndrome have some hearing loss.

• Ancient Roman priestesses known as Vestal Virgins were required to remain virgins for 30 years; those convicted of breaking their vows could be buried alive.

(c) 2026 King Features Synd., Inc.