Strange But True
By Samantha Weaver

+ Talk about overkill -if you'll excuse the pun. In May 1996, 39-year-old General Fleming ("General" was his given name, not a rank) decided to "shuffle off this mortal coil" in Akron, Ohio. His suicide note didn't explain why he found life to be so unbearable, but he evidently felt very strongly about the matter and left nothing to chance. Carrying a .38-caliber handgun, Fleming jumped off the balcony of his apartment, which was on the 14th floor. It seems he was carrying the gun because he was afraid the fall might not be enough to kill him; on the way down, he shot himself in the head.

+ Finley Peter Dunne was a journalist and humorist -and an apt student of human nature, evidently. He's the one who made the following sage observation: "Trust everybody, but cut the cards."+ If you're average, over the course of your lifetime your mouth will produce about 10,000 gallons of saliva.

+ Those who are among the ranks of the "single and searching" will want to take note of the results of a recent survey of those on the dating scene. When asked what they considered to be the worst topics of conversation on a date, 46 percent of respondents cited past relationships. At 21 percent, dieting or body image was the secondranked conversation killer. Marriage and politics tied for third place, each receiving 15 percent of the vote.

+ I hope you are not among the unfortunate people who know this from experience, but a human can detect the smell of a skunk from a mile away. + Researchers have found

that toddlers are surprisingly strong, especially in their leg muscles. Stronger even than oxen, they say, on a pound-forpound basis.

+ Thought for the Day: "People don't choose their careers; they are engulfed by them."-novelist John Dos Passos.