Beech Tree News Network

Oh Snapple!: The Final Frontier

Okay, it’s not the last Snapple column but it sounded good.  The first fact I’ll bestow upon you this week is this: Galapagos turtles can take up to three weeks to digest a meal.  For those wondering, it only takes humans 6-8 hours to pass through your stomach.  

You don’t have to be a lawyer to be a Supreme Court Justice.  In the U.S., there is an official rock, paper, scissors league.  If there were ever a rock, paper, scissors, lizard, Spock league, Sheldon, Leonard, Raj and Howard should be the official mascots.  

At birth, a Dalmatian is always pure white.  When do their spots first appear, you may wonder.  I was, so I looked it up.  Dalmation puppies’ spots first appear about 3-4 weeks after birth.  After about a month, they have most of their spots, although they continue to develop through life at a much slower rate.

The first vacuum was so large that it was brought to a house with horses.  By the way, the first vacuum was invented in Chicago, 1868 by Ives W. McGaffney.  The koala is the longest sleeping animal, sleeping an average of 22 hours a day,  The average cat sleeps 13-16 hours a day.  The opossum and bat sleep almost 20 hours per day.  I could’ve sworn cats slept the most.  

The Inca built the largest and wealthiest empire in South America, but had no concept of money.  Coconut water was used as an IV drip in World War II when saline solution was in short supply.  That is a true MacGyver-ism! Now, here’s a fact I actually knew.  The first video to air on MTV was “Video Killed The Radio Star” by the Buggles on August 1, 1981.  A few years ago, MTV aired their very first hour of programming.  For historical purposes, it was interesting.  For entertainment purposes……well I laughed a lot.  

The perfect blueberry should be “dusty” in color.  The metal ring on the end of a pencil is called a ferrule.  The raised bump reflectors U.S. roads are named “Botts” dots.  Make sure to eat a chocolate covered cherry on January 3rd, it’s National Chocolate Covered Cherry day.  Los Angeles was originally founded as El Pueblo de la Reina de Los Angeles.  A 15-year-old boy invented earmuffs in 1873. Finally, kickball is referred to as “soccer-baseball” in some parts of Canada.