| The Italian city of Verona, where Shakespeare's lovers Romeo and Juliet lived, receives about 1,000 letters addressed to Juliet every Valentine's Day. |
| Armored knights raised their visors to identify themselves when they rode past their king. This custom has become the modern military salute. |
| Human beings cannot taste anything that isn’t soluble. |
| In Scotland, the New Year is called Hogmanay. In the villages of Scotland, barrels of tar are set afire and then rolled down the streets. This ritual symbolizes that the old year is burned up and the new one is allowed to enter. |
| Christmas trees are grown much like any other agricultural crop. About 112,000 acres in the northwest United States are planted with about 11 million trees. |
| The distance between an alligator's eyes, in inches, is directly proportional to the length of the alligator, in feet. |
| The origins of the soldier term "G.I." is an abbreviation for "Government Issue," which was stamped on all government kits supplied to recruits in the US Army during World War II. |
| In the Middle Ages, young men and women drew names from a bowl to see who their Valentines would be. They would wear these names on their sleeves for one week. Thus the origin of the phrase “to wear your heart on your sleeve.” |
| In ancient Egypt, the only person who was allowed to wear cotton was the High Priest. |
| A quality, fully-faceted round brilliant diamond has at least 58 facets. These are important for the maximum sparkle and brilliance of the stone. |