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modern bra didn’t begin until the 1930s, when it began to replace the corset. But bralike undergarments have been around since 1400 BC.

Questionable Behavior
    At any point in time, 0.7 percent of the world’s population is drunk.
    About 1,500 New York residents are bitten every year…by other New Yorkers.
    Americans bet $6 billion a year at Internet gambling sites.
    Percentage of high-school seniors in 1970 who smoked: 18.4. In 2008: 10 percent.
    Two-thirds of Americans say they regularly use the “f-word.”
    Up to 98 percent of college students have admitted to cheating in school at least once.
    Experts say it’s harder to tell a convincing lie to someone you find sexually attractive.
    According to researchers, the number of public apologies issued by famous figures in the United States doubled between 1990 and 2002.
    Odds that one of your party guests will peek into your medicine cabinet: 40 percent.

That’s the Size of It
    How big is home plate on a baseball diamond? It’s five-sided: 17" x 8 ½" x 12" x 12" x 8 ½"
    A cloud measuring one cubic mile weighs about 3.5 million pounds.
    The Slinky toy was made of an 87-foot piece of wire, 3" in diameter and 2" high.
    Actual dimensions of a record: a 12" disk (LP) is 11.89", and a 7" disk (45 rpm) is 6.89".
    An NFL field is 360 feet long (including end zones) by 160 feet wide.
    Diameter of the wire in a standard paper clip: about 0.04".
    Average length of a coat hanger when straightened: 44".
    There are exactly 216 noodles in every can of Campbell’s chicken noodle soup.
    Average depth of a golf ball dimple: 0.01".
    Fattest newspaper ever printed: The New York Times , October 17, 1965, at 946 pages. It weighed 7 ½ pounds.
    The average iceberg weighs 20 million tons.
    A standard CD is 4.7" in diameter.
    A baby grand piano is 5'11" long. Professional grand: 6'. Concert grand: 8'11" or longer.
    Plymouth Rock weighs about four tons.
    At liftoff, a space shuttle weighs about 4.5 million pounds.
    The first Band-Aids ever made were 2½" wide…and 18" long.
    If you had $1 million in $100 bills, they would weigh 20.41 pounds.

Simons Say
    “If your lifeguard duties were as good as your singing, a lot of people would be drowning.”
    —Simon Cowell, American Idol judge
    “Discussing personal things in front of an audience creates a release; people recognize something from their own lives. Humor is the optimism, the release.”
    —Simon Amstell, comedian
    “The whole point in forming a band: Girls. Absolutely gorgeous girls.”
    —Simon Le Bon, lead singer of Duran Duran
    “Judgment comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgment.”
    —Simón Bolívar
    “What I want to do and what I do are two separate things. If we all went around doing what we wanted all the time, there’d be chaos.”
    —Simon Birch, from the film Simon Birch
    “I used to lie in bed in my flat and imagine what would happen if there was a zombie attack.”
    —Simon Pegg, British writer and actor
    “I miss meat pies. They don’t have them in L.A. Actually, all I think about the whole time I’m in America is what I’m missing out on in Australia.”
    —Simon Baker, actor
    “Violence is like a weed—it does not die even in the greatest drought.”
    —Simon Wiesenthal
    “I think I have a superior brain and an inferior stature, if you really want to get brutal about it.”
    —Paul Simon
    “I remember being onstage once when I didn’t have fear: I got so scared I didn’t have fear that it brought on an anxiety attack.”
    —Carly Simon

Celebrity Contracts
    Van Halen created the famous “M&M rider” clause (which prohibited brown M&Ms backstage) to test whether concert promoters had read the entire contract.
    Per his contract, Oakland A’s relief pitcher Rollie Fingers got $300 extra in 1973 for growing the longest mustache on his team, and $100 more to pay for mustache wax.
    Diana Ross once had a contract that said no one backstage was allowed to make eye contact with