Strange But True
By SAMANTHA WEAVER

+ Those who study such things claim that in any given year, more gasoline is spilled simply while refueling lawn equipment than was spilled in the Exxon Valdez disaster.

+ It was famed composer Igor Stravinsky who said, "Too many pieces of music finish too long after the end."

+ In the United States, approximately 18 acres of pizza are consumed every day.

+ With more than 300 million books in print, British novelist J.K. Rowling, author of the beloved Harry Potter series of books, is one of the best-selling writers in the world. When Joanne Kathleen was a youngster, however, her parents didn't have such lofty ambitions for her. When she went to college they wanted her to study French so she would be able to find work as a bilingual secretary. The future author hated secretarial work, though; during meetings, when she was supposed to be taking notes about the proceedings, she daydreamed and scribbled potential names for fictional characters in the margins of her notepad.

+ Mechanics and engineers can tell exactly how hot an object (such as an engine component) is if they know two things: what color it glows and what material it is made of.

(c) 2007 King Features Synd., Inc.