Strange But True: Mar. 15, 2018

* It was French poet, journalist and novelist Anatole France who made the following sage observation: “The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread.”

* If you’re planning a trip to North Carolina in June, try to make it to the small town of Spivey’s Corner for the annual Hollerin’ Contest. If you’d like to participate but are worried about straining your vocal cords, you can always enter the conch-blowing contest instead of one of the ones that involves actual yelling.

* You might be surprised to learn that famed British author Aldous Huxley, best-known for his dystopian novel “Brave New World,” was a consultant on Disney’s 1951 animated film version of “Alice in Wonderland.”

* After the vows have been said in a traditional Korean wedding, the groom formally introduces his new wife to his parents. The bride’s father-in-law then pelts the bride with red dates, which is supposed to ensure fertility.

* Jazz musician Glenn Miller was the recipient of the first gold record ever awarded, for the big-band hit “Chattanooga Choo-Choo.”

* You might be surprised at some of the seemingly innocuous things that arouse passions in a group of people. Take the venerable 1960s television show “Mr. Ed,” for example. Evidently an evangelist named Jim Brown took issue with the show’s theme song, claiming that when played backward, the tune contains the message “the source is Satan” and “someone sang this song for Satan.” His preaching on the subject was so persuasive that members of a church in Ironton, Ohio, made a bonfire of recordings of the song.

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Thought for the Day: “Men of genius are often dull and inert in society, as a blazing meteor when it descends to earth, is only a stone.” — Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

(c) 2018 King Features Synd., Inc.