Offbeat knowledge for the moment

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Before his debut on Magnum, PL, Tom Selleck appeared twice on The Dating Game, but didn’t get picked either time.

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In 1943, Percy Clark of UCLA made the mistake during the Rose Bowl game of being tackled behind the goal line while attempting to return a punt against Georgia. UCLA lost the game, 2-0. One newspaper carried the headline "CLARK 2, UCLA 0." Clark was openly shunned by classmates, and, in despair, he quit college a week later. He moved to the woods in Oregon, where he spent many years as a recluse.

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When medieval clans wanted to downsize and dispose of unwanted folks without murdering them, they just burned their houses to the ground as a small hint. Thus the phrase "to get fired."

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The strongest bone in the body, the thigh bone, is hollow. Ounce for ounce, it has a greater pressure tolerance and bearing strength than a rod of equivalent size in cast steel. When an average adult is walking, his weight puts a downward pressure of 12,000 pounds per square inch on each thighbone. In this case, even the thinnest part of the thighbone, at 1-inch thick, supports the weight of a male African elephant.

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The average human body holds enough phosphorous to make 2,200 match heads.

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Counting Crow lead singer Adam Duritz recalled in a 2000 interview that Rolling Stone Keith Richards once reprimanded him for sipping chicken soup to cure a coldand instead gave him a bottle of Guinness.

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In the Roman Republic of 500 B.C., the senate could appoint a supreme national commander for a limited time during periods of emergency. While in charge, his word was law. His title in Latin meant "I have spoken." The title was "dictator."

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Contrary to popular belief, Daniel Boone reportedly did not like coonskin caps.

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Until 1937, the referee had to throw a jump ball after every basket.

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In 1990, Irish rock singer Sinead O’Connor became the first musical recording artist to refuse a Grammy Award, which she won for her recording of, ironically enough, "I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got." She claimed that too much emphasis was placed on the pop charts, and not enough on the ills and abuses of the world.