Salman Rushdie suggested that if Robert Ludlum had written Hamlet it would be called The Elsinore Vacillation.
Larry Rosenbaum observed that a gigolo is a million million billion piccolos.
The Greek god of theatrical criticism was named Pan.
Most pygmy hippos in American zoos are descended from William Johnson Hippopotamus, a pet given to Calvin Coolidge.
BISOPROLOL FUMARATE is an anagram of SUPER MARIO FOOTBALL.
Illinois considers Pluto a planet.
“It is as if children know instinctively that anything wholly solemn, without a smile behind it, is only half alive.” — Iona and Peter Opie, The Lore and Language of Schoolchildren, 1959
In 1934 Ole Kirk Kristiansen named his toy company Lego, after the Danish phrase for “play well” (leg godt).
He found out later that it also means “I put together” in Latin.
(Thanks, Tony.)
The big-eyed wolf spider of Hawaii has two cousins that live in lava caves.
One is called the small-eyed big-eyed wolf spider.
The other is the no-eyed big-eyed wolf spider.
Between the 1880s and the 1960s, the flag of the Turks and Caicos Islands featured an igloo. When Britain decided that the colony needed its own flag, it commissioned an artist to paint a suitable local scene. At the time, the salt industry dominated the local economy, so he sketched a man working on a quay between two piles of salt. When this was sent to London, the Admiralty artist apparently mistook these for ice, not knowing that the Turks and Caicos lie southeast of the Bahamas, and he helpfully added a door to the right pile.
Amazingly, the error remained in place until 1966, when it was discreetly removed before a state visit by Queen Elizabeth.
(Thanks, Charles.)
Rather than follow daylight saving time, the state of Arizona observes standard time throughout the year.
But the Navajo Nation observes daylight saving time throughout its territory, including the part that lies in Arizona.
And the Hopi Nation, which lies entirely in Arizona, surrounded entirely by the Navajo Nation, doesn’t.
So the Hopi Nation is a region that doesn’t observe daylight saving time inside one that does inside one that doesn’t inside one that does.
Related: Ontario contains an island in a lake on an island in a lake.
North, South Carolina, is 100 miles southeast of Due West.
Also: Northwest, North Carolina, is in southeast North Carolina, due east of Due West, South Carolina, and east and slightly north of North, South Carolina.
(Thanks, Bob and Rick.)
And while we’re at it:
Canada is south of Detroit.
Due to a curve in the border, Windsor, Ontario, lies south of Michigan’s largest city.
A floral compass in Windsor bears a plaque that reads:
THE GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION OF THE U.S.A. AT THIS POINT LIES DUE NORTH OF CANADA
“How Rumors Spread,” a palindrome by Fred Yannantuono:
“Idiot to idiot to idiot to idiot to idiot to idi …”
