Things I learned lately - 18 Oct

• In Churchill, Manitoba, people leave their cars unlocked, in case anyone needs to make a quick escape from a polar bear.
• Lactose tolerance various by geographical region. In northern Europe, about 90% of the population can tolerate lactose, around the Mediterranean, that drops to around 40%, and in Africa and southern Asia, 10%.
• Your saliva glands produce about 4 soda cans worth of saliva every day.
• The word Popsicle (TM) is in fact trademarked.
• Tegestologists are people who collect coasters.
• In the 1950s, Xerox machines overheated so often, they came equipped with small fire extinguishers.
• 'Pillow puffer' was a term that used to mean interior designer.
• There exists scotch flavoured toothpaste.
• Tokyo's Shinjuku subway station handles 3,640,000 people per day. Not the system - this one subway station!
• The way we pronounce 'herb' (the 'h' being silent) is a holdover of times when it was considered proper for all aitches to be silent, unlike today. Had the tradition carried on, we would also be pronouncing ospital, umble, etc.
• Before people said 'break a leg' instead of 'good luck' to actors, they used to say 'give birth to a bastard!', back in 1670. The problem is that the origin of 'break a leg' has at least a dozen different, credible sources.
• ET was originally supposed to eat M&Ms in the movie, but Mars didn't agree to let the candy be used.