Star Wars Facts:

1. The word Jedi is derived from the term Jidai-geki, a Japanese period -film genre.
2. 2,200 special-effect shots in The Phantom Menace, opposed to 500 used in Titanic.
3. Cost of filming 115million US dollars.
4. Amount that Pepsi paid for sponsorship deal: 2 billion US dollars.
5. Profits made from Star Wars merchandising since 1977: 4.5 billion US dollars.
6. There are 7 horns on Darth Maul's head.
7. The following people have legally changed their name to Obi-Wan Kenobi:

Scientific Fact:
Speed of light: 670 million miles per hour.

Random Quotes:

• "I'm thinking of putting in a workman's compensation claim." ~ Rudolph Giulliani, New York City mayor, on an injury aggravated by handshakes.
• "There were two white boys on the elevator up here. I got real scared." ~ Chris Rock, comedian, who is black, in the wake of the Columbine shootings.
• "I'm going to bring him another gun so he can shoot himself." ~ Hiroyuki Uyesugi, to reporters, after his son Byran was accused of shooting seven people in Hawaii.
• "Television won't be able to hold on to any market it captures after the first six months. People will soon get tired of staring at a plywood box every night." ~Darryl Zanuck, 20^th Century Fox studio chief; 1946
• "The singer will have to go." ~Manager of the Rolling Stones, on Mick Jagger; 1963
• "Reagan doesn't have that presidential look." ~United Artists Executive, rejecting Ronald Reagan as the lead in the 1964 film The Best Man.
• "That virus is a pussycat." ~Dr. Peter Duesberg, molecular-biology professor at U.C.,Berkeley, on HIV; 1988
• "No woman in my time will be Prime Minister." ~Margaret Thatcher, 1969
• "There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in their home." Ken Olson, president, Digital Equipment, 1977

• 1999: "That fuse box looked like it was put in by an Indian." ~While touring an electronic company in England
• 1998: "You didn't managed to get eaten then?" ~To a student who was in Papua New Guinea.
• 1995: "How do you keep the natives off the booze long enough to pass the test?" ~To a Scottish driving instructor.
• 1993: "You can't have been here that long; you haven't got a potbelly." ~While visiting Hungary.
• 1986: "If you stay here much longer, you'll all be slitty-eyed." ~To British students in China.

• Instant Coffee (1901) Satori Kato
• Windshield Wipers (1903) Mary Anderson
• Paper Cup (1908) Hugh Moore
• Cellophane (1908) Jacques Brandenberger
• Crossword Puzzles (1913) Arthur Wynne
• Pop-up Tissue box (1921) Andrew Olsen
• Traffic Light (1923) Garrett A. Morgan
• Power Steering (1926) Francis W. Davis
• Self-adhesive Label (1935) R. Stanton Avery
• Answering Machine (1945) Edwin L. Peterson
• Credit Card (1950) Earl John Hilton
• Yield Sign (1950) Clinton Riggs
• Bubble Wrap (1957) Chavannes&Fielding
• ATM (1960) Luther Simjian
• Egg Mcmuffin (1973) Herb Peterson

Homosexuals in the Military: A look at military policy around the world.

29% of the high-tech firms started since 1995 have a Chinese or an Indian CEO

1. China 1267 Million
2. India 998
3. U.S. 276
4. Indonesia 209
5. Brazil 168
6. Pakistan 152
7. Russia 147
8. Bangladesh 127
9. Japan 126
10. Nigeria 109

1. American teachers who say that if they could start over, they would not teach: 24%
2. Average age at which girls began to menstruate

In 1900: 14.3
In 1999: 12.9
3. U.S. gasoline that comes from Nigeria: 14%
4. Number of Gap stores in America: 923
5. Average cost of a vasectomy: $500
6. Number of times a hedgehog's heart beats per minute: 300
7. Number of noses a slug has: 4
8. Number of eyelids a camel has: 3
9. Average number of people each year that are killed by vending machines falling on them: 13

Clichés of the Month: "Small Beer."
Something unimportant or insignificant. In England "small beer" originally meant beer with a low content of alcohol and therefore something beneath the notice of a serious drinker. By Shakespeare's time, it had come to signify any unimportant thing. In Othello Iago uses it that way in his talk of a hypothetical woman who would "suckle fools and chronicle small beer."

Word Of the Month: "Frisson."
"French noun. An emotional thrill; a shiver of excitement."

(From The Oxford Dictionary of Foreign Words and Phrases edited by Jennifer Speakeã 1997, published by Oxford University Press)

Comments:

Utye-scene@nyc.rr.com