It's time to separate the true anoraks from the dilettantes.

Isn't it amazing how many of those 'strange but true' lists contains wild inaccuracies? You'd almost think Zarniwoop wrote them.

Are the following 'facts' true, false, or undetermined? Here's the backstory on those factoids.

1. True. Square watermelons were invented by graphic designer Tomoyuki Ono.
2. Undetermined. The jury is still out on cows and stairs. On the one hand, we have generations of US students who have played this prank at school, vs the Snopes.com message board, which opines that cows can go downstairs, but just don't wanna.
3. False. 'Moldwarp' is Middle English for 'mole'. They aren't villains in Doctor Who (yet), just what shows up in FWR'S garden.
4. True. Edison recommended 'electricide' as a way to discredit George Westinghouse in the battle between AC and DC. See Snopes.com, 'Seat of Power'.
5. True. The 9,000-year-old piece of gum (honey-flavoured) was found by archaeologists in western Sweden in 1993.
6. False. Smithsonian.com is firm on the fact that elephants can't jump. Not even a little.
7. True. And the reason is just as stupid as it sounds. Virginia, 1940s, segregation...? We'll let Snopes.com explain.
8. True. Point Roberts, Washington, USA, is an exclave surrounded by British Columbia, Canada.
9. False. The two Wells Fargo ATMs at McMurdo Station dispense only US currency, which can be exchanged for other currencies at Scott Base, two miles away.
10. True. See Genesis 1:20-22.

Now that you know about the ATMs, are you ready for that job at the post office?

Dmitri Gheorgheni

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