Strange But True—Gallons Of Tears

by Lucie Winborne

•  The rarest shape for a human nose is the bulbous type, exemplified by former U.S. President Bill Clinton.
•  Smuggling a cat out of ancient Egypt was punishable by death.
•  A variety of corn grown in Peru has kernels so large that they’re eaten individually.
• After impressionist painter Claude Monet developed cataracts, he agreed to have surgery on his right eye only. It is believed that afterwards he could see and paint a wide spectrum of colors usually not seen by the human eye.
• Dinosaurs often swallowed large rocks, which stayed in their stomachs and helped them grind up food.
•  One in 23 million people have an allergy to water.
• In 1631, royal printers Robert Barker and Martin Lucas published a Bible containing the typo “Thou Shalt Commit Adultery.” As if that weren’t embarrassing enough, another misprint, in Deuteronomy, substituted the word greatnesse with great-asse. Barker and Lucas were fined 300 pounds and lost their printing license. Less than a dozen copies of what came to be known as the Wicked, Sinful, and Adulterous Bible are known to exist today and are highly prized by collectors. On average, a person’s eyes make 15 to 30 gallons of tears a year.
• A rainbow’s arc is relative to the position of the person observing it, so it is impossible for two people to actually see the exact same one.
•  The air around a lightning bolt is five times hotter than the surface of the sun.
• While rare, there have been enough reported cases of strokes triggered by spa massage treatments that the medical community has nicknamed the phenomenon beauty parlor stroke syndrome.