Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader Wise Up! by Bathroom Readers’ Institute
Authors: Bathroom Readers’ Institute
Ads: Link
at full gallop while a standing performer rides on its back.
In 1793, George Washington attended one of the first circus performances in America.
On September 13, 1916, an elephant named Mary was hanged for murder in Erwin, Tennessee. The crime: killing a circus worker.
The shout “Hey, Rube!” can be used either as a rallying call or as a cry for help for circus people involved in a fight.
Actor Burt Lancaster worked as a circus acrobat from 1932 to 1939…and did his own stunts in the 1956 movie Trapeze .
“Equilibristics” is an act that combines juggling and gymnastics.
The Emmett Kelly Museum in Sedan, Kansas, honors Kelly, a circus performer who created the now-famous sad-faced clown in the 1930s. He modeled it after Depression-era hoboes.
Human cannonballs aren’t blasted from the cannon with gunpowder—they’re propelled by a catapult. The flash, smoke, and boom are supplied by fireworks.
Most famous little person act: the Doll family, made up of four siblings (three sisters and a brother). The group performed with the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus from the 1920s to the 1950s.
Technically, knife throwing falls under the heading of “impalement arts.”
Animal Parts
The triangular soft part on the underside of a horse’s hoof is called a frog.
A group of hares is a down. (A group of hairs is called a wig.)
In Sweden, cockroaches are called kackerlacka .
The swollen, light-colored section seen on earthworms: the clitellum.
What do you call a cross between a Tibetan yak and a buffalo? A yakalo.
A female lobster is called a hen or a chicken.
A cow’s first stomach is the rumen.
The sound made by ferrets during play is called dooking.
When a male horse and female donkey mate, the offspring is a hinny.
Bears live in dens, badgers live in setts, and squirrels live in dreys.
Crepuscular animals (from the Latin crepusculum , meaning “twilight”) are most active at dawn and dusk. Examples: dogs, deer, mice, and some birds.
Flour Power
The words “flour” and “flower” are related. Both come from French terms that mean “blossom.”
A five-pound bag of flour yields about 17 ½ cups.
Bread made from flour is one of the oldest prepared foods in the world. As far back as the Neolithic period (around 9500 BC), people were using flour to make bread.
The primary difference among cake, bread, and all-purpose flour is the amount of gluten (a type of protein that comes from wheat) that each contains. Bread flour has the most, cake flour the least.
The inner part of a loaf of bread is called the crumb.
Whole-wheat flour has fives times more fiber and 25 percent more protein that white flour.
Flour particles suspended in the air are highly flammable and have caused many mill explosions throughout history.
Want to kill weevils or insect eggs in your flour? Freeze it for 48 hours.
I’ll Fly Away
Hummingbirds rarely walk, and when they do, they usually do it for just an inch or two.
Buzzards are legally classified as songbirds in Ohio.
Bats, like cats, groom themselves.
Some birds, such as gulls and cormorants, can drink salt water.
Some grizzly bears eat as many as 40,000 moths in one day.
Storks use their long bills (some can be more than a foot long) to fight off predators.
A male bird of paradise needs several years to develop his extravagant, flower-shaped plumage.
Yellow canaries that are fed red pepper will turn bright orange.
Pigeons can’t walk without bobbing their heads.
Owls cannot move their eyes. They have to move their heads, which they can swivel 270 degrees.
A pelican’s pouch can hold three gallons of water…more than twice what will fit in its stomach.
Standing on one leg is a flamingo’s most comfortable position.
World’s most ancient bird: New Zealand’s Kiwis. The species has been around for about 30 million years.
The ostrich has the biggest eyes of any land animal— two inches in diameter.
To make sure it doesn’t lose its
In 1793, George Washington attended one of the first circus performances in America.
On September 13, 1916, an elephant named Mary was hanged for murder in Erwin, Tennessee. The crime: killing a circus worker.
The shout “Hey, Rube!” can be used either as a rallying call or as a cry for help for circus people involved in a fight.
Actor Burt Lancaster worked as a circus acrobat from 1932 to 1939…and did his own stunts in the 1956 movie Trapeze .
“Equilibristics” is an act that combines juggling and gymnastics.
The Emmett Kelly Museum in Sedan, Kansas, honors Kelly, a circus performer who created the now-famous sad-faced clown in the 1930s. He modeled it after Depression-era hoboes.
Human cannonballs aren’t blasted from the cannon with gunpowder—they’re propelled by a catapult. The flash, smoke, and boom are supplied by fireworks.
Most famous little person act: the Doll family, made up of four siblings (three sisters and a brother). The group performed with the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus from the 1920s to the 1950s.
Technically, knife throwing falls under the heading of “impalement arts.”
Animal Parts
The triangular soft part on the underside of a horse’s hoof is called a frog.
A group of hares is a down. (A group of hairs is called a wig.)
In Sweden, cockroaches are called kackerlacka .
The swollen, light-colored section seen on earthworms: the clitellum.
What do you call a cross between a Tibetan yak and a buffalo? A yakalo.
A female lobster is called a hen or a chicken.
A cow’s first stomach is the rumen.
The sound made by ferrets during play is called dooking.
When a male horse and female donkey mate, the offspring is a hinny.
Bears live in dens, badgers live in setts, and squirrels live in dreys.
Crepuscular animals (from the Latin crepusculum , meaning “twilight”) are most active at dawn and dusk. Examples: dogs, deer, mice, and some birds.
Flour Power
The words “flour” and “flower” are related. Both come from French terms that mean “blossom.”
A five-pound bag of flour yields about 17 ½ cups.
Bread made from flour is one of the oldest prepared foods in the world. As far back as the Neolithic period (around 9500 BC), people were using flour to make bread.
The primary difference among cake, bread, and all-purpose flour is the amount of gluten (a type of protein that comes from wheat) that each contains. Bread flour has the most, cake flour the least.
The inner part of a loaf of bread is called the crumb.
Whole-wheat flour has fives times more fiber and 25 percent more protein that white flour.
Flour particles suspended in the air are highly flammable and have caused many mill explosions throughout history.
Want to kill weevils or insect eggs in your flour? Freeze it for 48 hours.
I’ll Fly Away
Hummingbirds rarely walk, and when they do, they usually do it for just an inch or two.
Buzzards are legally classified as songbirds in Ohio.
Bats, like cats, groom themselves.
Some birds, such as gulls and cormorants, can drink salt water.
Some grizzly bears eat as many as 40,000 moths in one day.
Storks use their long bills (some can be more than a foot long) to fight off predators.
A male bird of paradise needs several years to develop his extravagant, flower-shaped plumage.
Yellow canaries that are fed red pepper will turn bright orange.
Pigeons can’t walk without bobbing their heads.
Owls cannot move their eyes. They have to move their heads, which they can swivel 270 degrees.
A pelican’s pouch can hold three gallons of water…more than twice what will fit in its stomach.
Standing on one leg is a flamingo’s most comfortable position.
World’s most ancient bird: New Zealand’s Kiwis. The species has been around for about 30 million years.
The ostrich has the biggest eyes of any land animal— two inches in diameter.
To make sure it doesn’t lose its
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