Did two different nations use the same flag for years, and not know it?

Three cheers for the red, white and blue!

Yes, our nation celebrates another birthday this week. Two hundred forty seven years ago, on July 4, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was proclaimed, and thirteen British colonies were suddenly on their own.

No, I am aware it wasn’t as simple as that. There was a war to fight, a peace to be negotiated, and all that stuff, but once that was out of the way, here came the good old USA.

And I’m rather glad that it happened.

I do hope your Independence Day celebration was the best it could’ve been, and in honor of our nation – and you – how about some trivia? Got a fresh batch right here. Enjoy!

Did you know…

…romance in Austria in the 19th Century could be a bit nauseating? In the rural areas of the country, for example, a woman who went to a dance looking for love would place a slice from an apple into her armpit. At the end of the night, she would give the fruit to the man she most wanted to get to know. Additional trivia note: Think that’s disgusting? Consider this: if the man returned the feelings, he would eat the slice of apple. (Ewwww!)

…a Super Bowl kickoff had to be redone? In the first Super Bowl (then called the AFL-NFL World Championship Game) held on January 15, 1967, the second half kickoff had to be a do-over. The reason? NBC had a half-time interview with comedian Bob Hope (1903-2003) which ran long, and viewers did not get to see the kickoff – so the network asked that the kickoff be re-done. The game saw the Green Bay Packers defeat the Kansas City Chiefs, 35-10. (An interview with Bob Hope that ran long? Perish the thought!)

…a French king believed he was made of glass? King Charles VI (1368-1422), known as Charles the Mad, suffered from a delusion that he was made of glass, and he even had iron bars sewn into his clothing to keep him from “shattering” if he were to bump into another person or fall down. (His mania was rather transparent, don’t you think?)

…you may suffer from zoophobia? If you do, city life is best – you have a fear of animals. (Having grown up in a big city, I could make a comment about other types of animals… but I won’t.)

…recycling one aluminum can saves enough energy to run a television set for three hours? (Now if there were only programs on television worth recycling the can …)

…two nations used the same flag for 18 years and did not know it? The nations of Haiti and Liechtenstein had identical flags of half blue and half red, but until the 1936 Olympics, neither nation was aware of the other’s flag design. They discovered their flag issue when they competed against each other at the Games in Berlin that year. After learning of the faux pas, Liechtenstein changed their flag by adding a golden crown to it, leaving the blue and red flag by itself for Haiti. Haiti later added its national crest. The two countries had developed their flags totally independently of each other.

…Smokey the Bear has his own zip code? The symbol of preventing forest fires can be reached by writing to zip code 20252. (And yes, Smokey will write back to you.)

…it is against the law in Alabama to stab yourself in an effort to gain someone else’s pity? (Pretty silly and painful way to go about it as well.)

…potatoes do not have a lot of calories? According to one estimate, you would have to eat 11 pounds of potatoes to gain one pound of weight. Potatoes have no more calories than apples do. (But 11 pounds of apples would taste far better.)

…you may suffer from vestiphobia? It’s a shame if you do, though, because going outside might just land you in jail for indecent exposure. Vestiphobia is the fear of clothing. (I have a line I could use here, but it would close the show.)

…American television programs are pretty violent? Yeah, you already knew that. But to prove the point, I invite you to consider The A-Team. The popular show about Vietnam veterans on the lam from the law, which ran in the U.S. from 1983 to 1987, was offered internationally and picked up by a German broadcaster. However, the show’s tendency toward over-the-top violence was so strong that of the series’ 98 episodes, only 26 were aired in Germany. (Of the 26 they aired, most were incomprehensible anyway, at least until translated into German.)

…the nation with the most islands would probably surprise you? You might think it was Indonesia or another South Pacific island group. No, it’s actually Sweden. The nation of Sweden has 221,800 islands. Of these, only 1,000 have people on them.

…scientist Nikola Tesla (1856-1943) had some pretty odd beliefs? For instance, the man who gave the world alternating current would not speak to women who wore pearls. (I don’t know why, maybe he was a fan of oysters.)

…fireworks can be pretty dangerous? Oh, you were aware of that. Well, consider this: the fireworks display at the 1770 wedding of France’s King Louis XVI (1754-1793) and Marie Antoinette (1755-1793) went wrong and caused the deaths of 100 people. (There’s room here for a line about a bang-up wedding, but I’m not going to do it.)

…diamonds can be made from peanut butter? Diamonds, the hardest natural substance known, are simply carbon that has been heated to very high temperatures and compressed by great pressure. If you take something rich in carbon – like, say, peanut butter – and subject it to that tremendous pressure and heat, you get a diamond. (Plain or crunchy?)

Now… you know!

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