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Miscellaneous Trivia

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In the Catholic church, St. Gabriel, an archangel, is the patron saint of telecommunications.

The famous emergency hotline, whereby the President could have immediate contact with the Kremlin wasn't established until 1984. Prior to 1984, the only direct contact to the Kremlin was a cumbersome teleprinter link, supplying text messages that then had to be translated, responses drafted and sent back.

During President Lyndon Johnson's term, many people mis-dialed the White House number and instead reached the home of a New York housewife. Rose Brown had a near identical phone number. He wrote and thanked her for her diplomacy in receiving his highly sensitive calls and promised to return the favor when her friends and family accidentally dialed the White House.

A gator in the road is a huge piece of tire from a blow out on a truck, called a gator because the fly up when a truck runs one over and take out your air lines causing you to lose air and forcing your spring brakes to come on which causes a rather abrupt stop.

In 1997 a Menorah was built in Latrun, near the main Jerusalem-Tel Aviv highway. It was more than 60-feet tall, weighed 17 metric tons, and took up an area of 600-square meters. A rabbi was lifted in a crane each night of the holiday to light the candles on the menorah, which was made of metal pipes.

Before settling on the name of Tiny Tim for his character in "A Christmas Carol", three other alliterative names were considered by Charles Dickens. They were: Little Larry, Puny Pete and Small Sam.

Kwanzaa has seven basic symbols, which represent values and concepts reflective of African culture. - Mazao: Fruits, Nuts, and Vegetables

- Mkeka: Place Mat

- Vibunzi: Ear of Corn

- Mishumaa Saba: The Seven Candles

- Kinara: The Candleholder

- Kikombe Cha Umoja: The Unity Cup

- Zawadi: Gifts

Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer was conceived by author Robert May in 1939. Two other names he thought of before deciding on Rudolph were Reginald and Rollo.

Electric Christmas tree lights were first used in 1895. The idea for using electric Christmas lights came from an American, Ralph E. Morris. The new lights proved safer than the traditional candles.

The name of the dog on the Cracker Jack box is Bingo.

According to Scientific American magazine: if you live in the northern hemisphere, odds are that every time you fill your lungs with air at least one molecule of that air once passed thru Socrates lungs.

It is believed that Shakespeare was 46 around the time that the King James Version of the Bible was written. In Psalms 46, the 46th word from the first word is shake and the 46th word from the last word is spear.

The U.S. Library of Congress has compiled a 232-source bibliography on the subject of when, properly speaking, centuries roll over. Almost all of the sources agree that the twentieth century will not end until December 31, 2000.

The Times Square "time ball" is named the "Star of Hope". It was specially made for this year and contains 504 glass crystals cut into triangles, 600 light bulbs, 96 big lights, and 92 mirrors.

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