^{Some of the grossest World Eating Records:
100 live maggots in 5 min, 29 sec.
144 snails in 11 min, 30 sec.
12 slugs in 12 min.60 earthworms in 3 min, 6 sec. EWE!!}

   ^{Hanging offences in the nineteenth-Century Britain:
Associating with gypsies.
Setting fire to a hayrick.
Writing on Westminster Bridge.
Impersonating a pensioner of Greenwich Hospital.
Appearing on the highway with a sooty face.
Damaging a fish pond.
Cutting down a tree.
Secreting notes in a post office.
Stealing a spoon.}

   ^{The firsts:
George Bush was the first president to throw up on live TV.
Buzz Aldine was the first man to defecate on the moon.}

   ^{Last words:
I don't know.- Pierre Abelard, philosopher, 1142
Wait a minute...- Pope Alexander VI, Bogie, 1503
Am I still alive? - Julie de Lespinasse,1776
I'm alright - HAG. Wells, 1946}

   ^{It's your Funeral, reasons why you may wish you'd died in ignorance:
   The most reliable methods of diagnosing death are: pouring freezing water in your ear, poking something in your eye, poking something down your throat, grinding knuckles into your sternum, etc To avoid any possibility of insects entering your body via your nose, your nostrils are deep-packed with cotton wool saturated with a liquid insecticide. Until the 1950s, coffins were hardly ever made to measure. If your body didn't fit your coffin the undertaker would normally break your ankles and bend your feet back.}

   ^{All-time Most Stressful Funeral Experiences:
   When William the Conqueror died in 1087 his marble coffin was found to be considerably too small for the late king. Two soldiers were required to stand on the body to squeeze it in, which they did with considerable enthusiasm, jumping up and down on it until they broke the king's back. The broken spine tore a hole in his stomach and caused it to explode with a loud bang: the stench was so overpowering that everyone present had to flee the building.}

   ^{A severe national toilet paper shortage in Cuba in 1994 led to the ransacking of a library, where rare books were stolen and torn apart. An official explained that most Cubans had long since used up their telephone books and magazines.}

   ^{The inquisitive Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II studied the human digestive system by butchering his dinner guests.}

   ^{The last meal of condemned murderers:
   A US one dollar bill sandwich- Joshua Hones, hanged at Pennsylvania in 1839 for the murder of his wife. While Jones was awaiting execution he sold his body to the prison doctors for 10 dollars. He spent nine dollars on delicacies to vary his prison diet. Realizing that he still had a dollar bill in his pocket just minutes before his execution, he requested two slices of bread.}

   ^{Your mouth produces about one litre of saliva a day.}

   ^{In 1881 US President Garfield was shot twice by the assassin Charles Gateau. One bullet grazed Garfield's arm but the other lodged itself somewhere inside his body. He was rushed to the White House, still conscious, and over the next 80 days 16 doctors were consulted on the president's condition. The first doctor, Willard Bliss, jabbed a finger into the wound, then inserted a non-sterile probe to find the bullet. Bliss didn't find the bullet, but did so much damage with his probe that it mislead physicians who arrived later into believing that this was the path made by the bullet. They concluded that the missile had penetrated his liver and that surgery would therefore be of use. An army surgeon-general then stuck his unwashed finger into the wound as deep as he could, and was followed by the navy-surgeon. He used a metal detector to detect the bullet, and when the machine did detect something, it was just the springs in the bed the president was lying on. The physicians did so much damage, that, to no one's surprise, he died. An autopsy later revealed that the bullet had entered the President's spine near the right 11th rib but did not exit. He would have survived if the physicians had washed their hands and used sterile instruments, and been a bit more careful.}