Little known facts

A man named David Rice Atchison was once president of the US.

He was only president for a few minutes due to a technicality but his gravestone proudly proclaims that he was president for a day in 1849.

Frank Sinatra didn't write his signature song "My Way."

The melody is based on a French song entitled "Comme d'habitude." Paul Anka heard the song while vacationing in Paris. He bought the publishing rights and tailored the lyrics for Sinatra.

St. Patrick was not Irish.

He was born in Britannia, a Roman province that later became what we know as England. He was captured by Irish raiders when he was 16 and taken to Ireland where he was a slave for six years. He escaped but later returned to spread the Christian gospel.

The song "Puff, the Magic Dragon" is not about smoking weed.

The lyrics were originally penned as a poem in 1959 by a Cornell University student, writing about the sad end to his carefree childhood.

The expression "sweating like a pig" doesn't make sense.

Pigs have no sweat glands and can't sweat at all, which is why they attempt to lower their body temperature by wallowing in mud.

The Olympic Games used to include artistic challenges.

Cultural events ran side-by-side with athletics during both the ancient and modern Olympics. The roster of events included architecture, painting, sculpture, music and literature up through the 1948 games.

Most grown cats are lactose intolerant.

Once kittens are weaned, they no longer need milk in their diets. Cats like the taste of milk and will drink it, but it can give them stomach pain and continuous diarrhea which can endanger their health.

The "cracking" sound of a whip is due to the whip breaking the sound barrier.

A sonic boom is created when the extreme tip of the whip snaps out to its full length. That's what she said. Sorry, I couldn't resist.