q Those who speak English call it a French kiss, but those who speak French call it an English kiss.

q It was Roman statesman Cato the Elder who made the following sage observation: “After I’m dead I would rather have people ask why I have no monument than why I have one.”

q At 140,000 square miles, the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument, located (unsurprisingly) in Hawaii, is larger than all the other U.S. national parks put together.

q Have you ever met an oligochaetelogist? You have if you’ve ever been introduced to someone who studies earthworms.

q If you could cut out a piece of a pulsar the size of a standard baseball and weigh it, it would be heavier than the Empire State Building.

q The largest diamond ever found was discovered in 1905 and weighed 3,106 karats, or more than 1 1/3 pounds, in the rough. After the Cullinan diamond changed hands several times, King Edward VII of England received it as a gift for his birthday.

When he finally had the stone cut, the enormous diamond yielded 96 small gems and nine large ones, including the 530-karat Great Star of Africa.

q It was once the custom among the Danakil tribe of Ethiopia to mark a man’s grave with one stone for each man he had killed during his lifetime.

q If you’re not a history buff, you might be surprised to learn that during the American Revolutionary War, more residents of the Colonies fought on the side of the British than on the side of the revolutionaries.

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Thought for the Day: “If a woman has to choose between catching a fly ball and saving an infant’s life, she will choose to save the infant’s life without even considering if there are men on base.”

– Dave Barry