• It was columnist and editor Doug Larson who made the following sage observation: “Few things are more satisfying than seeing your children have teenagers of their own.”

• If you’re a fan of football, you’ve probably seen the leaping lion logo on the helmets of Detroit Lions players. You might not realize, though, that the lion has a name: Bubbles.

• The first volume of the first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary was published in 1884, 30 years after the Philological Society of London came up with the idea for a dictionary that traced the way the language had developed from Anglo-Saxon times. It was estimated that the entire project would take 10 years, but in half that time they’d completed just a single volume, covering A to Ant.

• Those who study such things say that your brain takes about 0.0004 seconds to retrieve a memory.

• You might be surprised to learn that the person who has been nominated for more Academy Awards than any other living person is neither an actor nor a director. American composer John Williams — who created scores for such memorable films as the “Star Wars” series, “Jaws,” “Schindler’s List,” “Jurassic Park,” the “Indiana Jones” series, “Fiddler on the Roof” and the first three “Harry Potter” movies — has (so far) been nominated for a whopping 50 Oscars, and he has taken home five of the statuettes. He’s also received three Emmy Awards, four Golden Globes and 22 Grammy Awards — with an astounding 65 Grammy nominations to his name.

• It’s not clear why, but the incidence of left-handedness in twins is significantly higher than it is in the general population.

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Thought for the Day: “To be astonished is one of the surest ways of not growing old too quickly.” — Colette

Reach Weekender at wbwnews@civitasmedia.com.

By Samantha Weaver

Weekender Wire Service

http://www.theweekender.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/strange_true_P20160208.pdf