Giles Broadbent sincerely believes the following...
1. The elephant's ear is a perfect parabola capable of receiving Sky television if it were wired up. It is believed that elephants in London zoo face the 28 degrees east because they find the signal from satellite Astra 2 soothing.
2. Bonnie and Clyde wrote the song "I'm Sticking With You" despite the fact that the hair styling products that dandy Clyde Barrow applied before robberies triggered Bonnie Parker's asthma and they had to stand at least six feet apart.
3. The original cuckoo clock, invented by Jans Cuckhaus in 1753 in the Swiss village of Basle, had no special mechanism to mark the hour. It was Cuckhaus' grandson who added the iconic birdhouse as a marketing gimmick for the 1799 Basle exhibition.
4. The Beshwani religion in India requires its followers to reward all insects for their industry in disposing of the carcasses of animals that die by the roadside. Followers place sweets and pastries next to the carcass, clap and sing songs to create an atmosphere of celebration and gratitude.
5. The colour blue in its purest form was only discovered in 1815 by scientist Sir Humphry Davy. He noticed the hue while testing his revolutionary miner's safety lamp. Grateful pitmen originally called the life-saving device "the old Blue" before trademark law killed off the nickname.
6. According to latest figures from the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, 43 people were required hospital treatment last year after pulling off plasters "too quickly" while 78 people were treated for removing them "too slowly". Overall plaster-based casualties are down on the previous year's high when a spate of accidents prompted the Rospa to update their 1964 guidelines.
7. Traditional seaside rock is going out of fashion. In resorts such as Blackpool, rock sales have halved in a decade. The British Rock And Lollipop Association blames poor literacy levels in schools.
8. Ants are more like Transformers than originally thought. Scientists studying the Argentinian fire-ant believe that the creature's metasoma could twist and bend allowing the ant to stand upright for long periods while its exoskeleton could support more aggressive armoury. Scientists say the ant would require several millennia of evolution to exploit this potential.
9. According to tradition in Flagstaff, Arizona, if any single man or woman unknowingly shares the same sauce bottle in The Cherry Pie Diner they are destined to marry. Investigations by the Arizona State Senate, however, have shown that it is true in only 18 per cent of cases and has ordered Flagstaff authorities to remove the claim from tourist brochures.
– First appeared in The Wharf on July 9
