Arts and Literature

Bizarre Fact #91:
Did you know...
It's a myth that owls don't hunt in the daytime because they can't see in daylight. It's just that rats and mice, the main items on owl menus, are most active after dark.

Bizarre Fact #92:
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January is named for the Roman god Janus.

Bizarre Fact #93:
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Less romantic was the old historical opinion that Valentine's Day is a good day to prepare eels for the purposes of magic. Eating an eel's heart was once believed to enable a person to see into the future.

Bizarre Fact #94:
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Long ago, the people of Nicaragua believed that if they threw beautiful young women into a volcano it would stop erupting.

Bizarre Fact #95:
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Many sailors believe a cat on board a ship means a lucky trip.

Bizarre Fact #96:
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Most vampires are described in folklore as flushed and ruddy, with swollen bodies and bloated faces. Often, they can be identified because they're sitting up in the grave.

Bizarre Fact #97:
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No one knows where the expression "to grin like a Cheshire cat" originated, but it wasn't with Carroll. The Cheshire cat is a well-known character in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, but the expression, meaning a sneering smile that shows the gums, existed long before he wrote the book. There is no such breed of cat.

Bizarre Fact #98:
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On the stone temples of Madura in southern India, there are more than 30 million carved images of gods and goddesses.

Bizarre Fact #99:
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One gift-giving taboo in China is the giving of straw sandals, which are associated with funerals, and therefore considered bad luck.

Bizarre Fact #100:
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One legend claims stealing someone's shadow (by measuring it against a wall and driving a nail through its head) can turn the victim into a vampire.