| Question: What is the heaviest snake? | | | | on Charlie Brown's sandlot baseball team. |
| Answer: Anaconda | | | | Question: Who discovered aspirin? |
| Interesting Fact: There is a lot of controversy over | | | | Answer: Edmund Stone |
| which snake holds the world's record for massive | | | | Interesting Fact: The compound from which the |
| size. The dimensions that have earned the anaconda | | | | active ingredient in aspirin was first derived, salicylic |
| the title of king is its total body mass or weight. | | | | acid, was found in the bark of a willow tree in 1763 |
| While the Asiatic Reticulated Python (Python | | | | by Reverend Edmund Stone of Chipping-Norton, |
| reticulatus) holds the world's record for length of a | | | | England. (The bark from the willow tree-Salix |
| snake, with the longest ever measured at 33 feet, | | | | Alba-contains high levels of salicin, the glycoside of |
| the girth of the anaconda is far bigger. Anacondas in | | | | salicylic acid.) Earlier accounts indicate that Hippocrates |
| the jungles of South America can grow as big around | | | | of ancient Greece used willow leaves for the same |
| as a grown man! | | | | purpose-to reduce fever and relieve the aches of a |
| Question: Who first patented chewing gum? | | | | variety of illnesses. |
| Answer: Amos Tyler | | | | Question: How did junk email come to be known as |
| Interesting Fact: On July 27, 1869, Amos Tyler | | | | Spam? |
| received the first patent in the United States for | | | | Answer: Monty Python "spam" skit |
| chewing gum. Although chewing gum had existed for | | | | Interesting Fact: Yes, Monty Python and not that |
| thousands of years, Tyler, a resident of Toledo, | | | | mysterious meat product we usually associate with |
| Ohio, was the first person to patent it in the United | | | | that word. In this popular skit by the British comedy |
| States. Tyler's gum consisted of white rosin and olive | | | | troupe Monty Python, a group of Vikings dining in a |
| oil, which he heated and mixed thoroughly. After the | | | | restaurant sing "Spam, spam, spam" repeatedly, |
| mixture cooled, it had a white color. Then, Tyler cut | | | | annoying the other patrons and making conversation |
| his product into sticks and packaged each strip | | | | difficult. Gee, wonder what that has in common with |
| individually. There is no evidence that Tyler ever sold | | | | junk email? |
| his gum commercially, although he probably at least | | | | Question: How long is a Giant Anteater's tongue? |
| had a local market for it in Toledo. | | | | Answer: 23 inches |
| Question: When did the Peanuts comic strip first | | | | Interesting Fact: The great anteater, or ant bear |
| include Snoopy? | | | | (Myrmecophaga), has an elongated, almost cylindrical |
| Answer: Oct. 4, 1950 | | | | head and snout, a long sticky tongue, a coarse-haired |
| Interesting Fact: Originally a minor figure, Snoopy | | | | body about 4 feet long, and a long, broad tail. The |
| grew to become the strip's best-known character. His | | | | large, sharp claws on the forefeet are weapons of |
| quirks were famous: sleeping on top of his doghouse, | | | | defense and are used to open the hard earth |
| pretending he was a WWI airplane pilot or Foreign | | | | mounds of termites and ants, which are then picked |
| Legionnaire (in costume), showing the ropes to his | | | | up on the saliva-coated tongue. The tongue extends |
| bird friend, Woodstock, and even playing shortstop | | | | to a length of nearly 2 feet. |