Strange But True: Walking Fish

By Lucie Winborne

  • The Climbing Gourami is a fish that can climb out of water, breathe oxygen and even walk for short distances.

  • India has 454 living languages and 16 official ones.

  • During her 1982 restoration, the Statue of Liberty's head was accidentally installed 2 feet off-center.

  • General George S. Patton believed he was reincarnated from either a military leader from Napoleon's army or a Roman legionary, claiming to have seen combat multiple times in previous lives, and also believed that after he died he would return to again lead armies onto the battlefield.

  • Only deceased people can appear on American currency.

  • When put under a microscope, tears produced by grief, hope or onions were unique in form from each other.

  • Viking names included such gems as "desirous of beer," "able to fill a bay with fish by magic," "lust-hostage" and "the man who mixes his drinks."

  • North Korea accidentally hit one of its own cities during a 2017 failed missile test.

  • In 1916, a proposed amendment to the U.S. Constitution would have put all acts of war to a national vote. Anyone voting "yes" would have to register as a volunteer for army service.

  • Dynamite was originally going to be called "Nobel's Safety Powder."

  • Singer James Brown was such a strict bandleader that he had signals arranged with his manager to let him know if a musician made a mistake during concerts. After a performance, band members' errors were deducted from their paychecks.

  • Ostriches are the only birds with a bladder.

  • In 1872, sitting president Ulysses S. Grant was pulled over and fined $20 for exceeding the Washington speed limit ... on a horse.

  • Aristotle believed that plants had souls.

Thought for the Day: "Life is painting a picture, not doing a sum." -- Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.

(c) 2025 King Features Synd., Inc.

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