Fast Facts Answers to Outside the Box Puzzles from page 56 1. Bank account 2. A broken record 3. Fade away 4. Seeing is believing 5. Outstanding 6. It’s beneath me Frisbee Facts Interesting data about the popular flying disc. ▶ In the late 1870s, a Connecticut baker named William Russel Frisbie put the family name on the bottom of lightweight tin pans in which homemade pies were sold. ▶ A group of Yale students famously began using the plates for recreational tossing. That’s where the modern history of Frisbee began. ▶ In 1948, a plastic version was invented. ▶ It was marketed in 1957 by the Wham-O toy company as the Pluto Platter. ▶ The Frisbee was inducted into the U.S. National Toy Hall of Fame in 1998. ▶ At least 60 manufacturers today produce the flying discs. ▶ A Frisbee is eight to 10 inches in diameter with a pronounced lip. ▶ Illuminated discs are made of phosphorescent plastic. ▶ Frisbee is a Registered Trademark. ▶ Ultimate Frisbee is part of the prestigious international World Games that hosts more than 30 sports disciplines. ▶ Frisbee discs made before 1964 are considered antique collector’s items and can fetch a pretty penny. ▶ Rarer limited-edition discs have sold for hundreds of dollars. ▶ Disc tossing for one hour is said to burn roughly 390 calories. ▶ The end zones in Frisbee sporting tournaments is nearly twice as big as in football. ▶ More plastic flying discs have been sold across the world than footballs and basketballs. Drink Up Here’s a list of the nine most consumed beverages around the world. 1. Water 2. Tea 3. Coffee 4. Orange juice 5. Beer 6. Soft drinks 7. Wine 8. Vodka 9. Energy drinks Suit Up!! If you’ve ever wondered about the history of women’s bathing suits, here’s a background capsule. ▶ In the British spa town of Bath, women in the 1600s wore canvas, billowing garments designed to fill up with water to modestly obscure their figures. ▶ The first true swimsuit didn’t appear until the 18th century, with European ladies wading into the water in long dresses mostly made of wool. ▶ Early wool “bathing costumes” often featured sleeves and long socks. ▶ Around the mid-1800s, popular bloomer swimsuits appeared. However, they featured wide legs and full skirts that were unwieldy in the water. ▶ Later “bloomer suits” were slightly more freeing and fashioned from lighter fabric. ▶ A woman’s bathing suit in the early 1900s was a onepiece tank style jumper that stopped at the thigh. ▶ By the 1930s, suits became figure hugging and made of swim-worthy fabric such as latex. ▶ During the 1940s, two-piece suits arrived. ▶ The bikini stunned the world in 1946 by the scandalous fact that it revealed the navel. ▶ It was the mid-20th century before bikini swimwear hit its stride. ▶ Less fabric and less coverage continued into the 1980s and forward. Think the “Baywatch” TV show and the generally accepted norms of today. Mental Floss Fun facts with which to impress friends. ▶ When you sleep, you can’t smell anything...even bad odours. ▶ Giant pandas consume about 20 pounds of bamboo a day. ▶ Kangaroos can’t walk backwards. ▶ Bats can eat 3,000 insects in one night. ▶ Cows can walk upstairs but not down. ▶ The Nobel Peace Prize is named for Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite. ▶ The average person spends two weeks of their life waiting at traffic lights. ▶ A tsunami can travel as fast as a jet plane. ▶ Sudan has more pyramids than any country in the world. ▶ The Philippines consists of 7,641 islands. ▶ There’s enough gold inside Earth to coat the planet. ▶ The brand name Spam is the combination of spice and ham. ▶ A cow-bison hybrid is called a beefalo. 62 | www.snowbirds.org
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