Strange but true

By Samantha Weaver

* It was Robert Kennedy who made the following sage observation: “One-fifth of the people are against everything all the time.”

* An adult ostrich can reach up to 9 feet in height and weigh upward of 300 pounds.

* The Taj Mahal, a tomb built by Indian Mogul Emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his wife, Mumtaz Mahal, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the most-visited tourist attractions in the world. It wasn’t always so, though; from the time of the building’s completion in 1643 until the British occupied the Indian subcontinent, only Muslims were allowed onto the grounds. If any non-Muslim ventured into the forbidden Taj Mahal, he or she was put to death.

* The frigid island nation of Iceland is, by all accounts, a peaceful place. In the entire history of the country, there has been only one armed robbery.

* In 1957, famed crooner Frank Sinatra wrote for a magazine called “Western World” a piece that included the following: “My only deep sorrow is the unrelenting insistence of recording and motion picture companies upon purveying the most brutal, ugly, degenerate, vicious form of expression it has been my displeasure to hear, and naturally I’m referring to the bulk of rock ‘n’ roll.” He goes on to call it “the martial music of every sideburned delinquent on the face of the earth.”

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Thought for the Day: “Enemies are so stimulating.” — Katharine Hepburn