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NEW ZEALAND RECIPE INCREDIMAIL LETTERS & UNUSUAL WORLD FACTS LETTERS
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THE ULTIMATE EMOTICON COLLECTOR!
20 LARGEST ISLANDS IN THE WORLD
1. GREENLAND 838,999 sq.ml
2.NEW GUINEA 319,713 sq.ml
3.BORNEO 290,320 sq.ml
4.MADAGASCAR 226,657 sq.ml
5.BAFFIN ISLAND 183,810 sq.ml
6.SUMATRA 182,561 SQ.ML
7. great britain (INCL.SCOTLAND) 88,146 SQ.ML
8.HONSHU, JAPAN 86,246 sq.ml
9. ELLESMERE ISLAND 82,119 sq.ml
10.VICTORIA ISLAND 81,930 sq.ml
11.CELEBES 69,225 sq.ml
12. SOUTH ISLAND, NEW ZEALAND 59,439 sq.ml
13. JAVA 51,007 sq.ml
14.NORTH ISLAND, NEW ZEALAND 44,297 sq.ml
15. CUBA 43,359 sq.ml
16.NEWFOUNDLAND 43,359 sq.ml
17.LUZON 41,765 sq.ml
18.ICELAND 39,702 sq.ml
19.MINDANAO 38,254 sq.ml
20. IRELAND 32,052 sq.ml
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15 LONGEST RIVERS IN THE WORLD
(length - miles)
1. NILE, AFRICA 4,145
2.AMAZON, SOUTH AMERICA 4,000
3.MISSISSIPPI-MISSOURI, U.S. 3,710
4.OB-IRTYSH, U.S.S.R 3,460
5.YANGTZE, CHINA 3,400
6.HUANG HO, CHINA 3,000
7.CONGO, AFRICA 2,718
8.AMUR, AFRICA 2,700
9.LENA, USSR 2,680
10.MACKENZIE-PEACE, CANADA 2,635
11.MEKONG, ASIA 2,600
12.NIGER, AFRICA 2,600
13.PARANA, SOUTH AMERICA 2,530
14.MURRAY-DARLING, AUSTRALIA 2,310
15.VOLGA, USSR 2,290 |
10 HIGHEST WATERFALLS
Height (ft)
1. ANGEL, VENEZUELA 3,312
2. TUGELA, SOUTH AFRICA 3,110
3. YOSEMITE, CALIFORNIA 2,425
4. CUQUENAN, VENEZUELA 2,000
5. SUTHERLAND, NEW ZEALAND 1,904
6. EASTERN MARDALFOSS, NORWAY 1,696
7. TAKKAKAW, CANADA 1,650
8. CASCADE DE GLETROZ, SWITZERLAND 1,640
9. RIBBON FALLS, CALIFORNIA 1,612
10. KING GEORGE, GUYANA 1,600 |
20 LARGEST LAKES
Square Km
1. Kaspiskoye More (Caspian Sea) USSR 393,898
2. Superior, US-Canad 82,414
3. Victoria, Tanzania-Uganda-Kenya 69,485
4. Aralskoye More (Aral Sea) USSR 68,682
5. Huron, US-Canda 59,596
6. Michigan, US 58,016
7. Tanganyika, Zaire-Tanzania-Zambia 32,893
8. Great Bear, Canada 31,792
9. Ozero Baykal USSR 31,492
10 Great Slave, Canada 28,438
11. Erie, US-Canada 25,745
12. Winnipeg, Canda 24,341
13. Malawi, Tanzania-Mozambique 23,310
14. Lago de Maracaibo, Venezuela 21,487
15. Ontario, US-Canada 19,259
16. Ozero Balkhash USSR 18,260
17. Ladozhskoye Ozero, USSR 18,130
18. Lac Tchad, Chad-Nigeria-Cameroon 15,540
19. Ozero Oneshskoye, USSR 9,842
20 Eyre, Australia 9,583 |
FIRST 10 MEN IN SPACE
1. YURI ALEKSEYEVICH GAGARIN (USSR; Vostok 1. Apr. 12.1961)
Set first world record space record of 203.2 mi.up
2. ALAN B. SHEPARD (USA Freedom 7; May 5, 1961)
Reached altitude of 115 mi
3. VIRGIL IVAN GRISSOM (US; Liberty Bell 7; July 21, 1961)
Reached altitude of 118 mi. Spacecraft sank on splashdown but he scrambled to safety
4. GHERMAN STEPANOVICH TITOV (USSR; Vostok 2; Aug 6-7, 1961)
Carried out study on effects of prolonged weightlessness
5. JOHN HERSCHEL GLENN (US; Friendship 7; Feb 20, 1960)
First time an American manned spacecraft orbited the earth
6. MALCOLM SCOTT CARPENTER (US; Aurora 7; May 25 1962)
Reenacted Glenn's first flight and achieved a speed of 17,532mph
7. ANDRIAN GRIGORIEVICH NIKOLAYEV (USSR; Vostok 3; Aug 11-15, 1962)
First astronaut operated television in space. Flight of 1.64 million mi.
8. PAVEL ROMANOVICH POPOVICH (USSR; Vostok 4; Aug 12-15, 1962)
An essential purpose was to "obtain data on establishing contact" with Vostok 3
9. WALTER MARTY SCHIRRA (US; Sigma 7; Oct 3, 1962)
A near tragedy occurred due to a malfunctioning space suit
10. LEROY GORDON COOPER (US; Faith 7; May 15-16 1963)
After the automatic control system failed, a successful manually controlled splashdown was achieved. |
25 WEDDING ANNIVERIES - AND THE GIFT TO GIVE ON EACH ONE.
1st Paper
2nd Cotton ( or calico)
3rd Leather
4th Linen (or silk)
5th Wood
6th Iron (or candy)
7th Wool (or copper)
8th Bronze ( or small electrical appliance)
9th Willow ( or pottery)
10th Tin (or aluminium)
11th Steel
12th Silk (or linen)
13th Lace
14th Ivory
15th Crystal (or glass)
20th China
25th Silver
30th Pearls
35th Coral (or jade)
40th Rubies
45th Sapphires
50th Gold
55th Emeralds
60th Diamonds
75th Diamonds again |
18 FAMOUS BRAINS - AND WHAT THEY WEIGHED
The brain is really an enlarged end of the spinal cord. The ratio of the weight of the brain to that of the spinal cord is a fair criterion of an animal's intelligence. In fish, this ratio is 1:1; in people 55:1 - the brain weighs 55 times as much as the spinal cord. The human brain isn't the largest ( the elephant's is four times as heavy); nor the most convoluted ( a dolphin's is even more wrinkled), but it's the best around. The average man's brain weighs 49oz. The average woman's brain weighs 44 oz. Apparently the weight of the brain has nothing to do with the degree of intelligence. The weigh of the following were determined after death (when the brain weighs a little less).
Oz
1. George Gordon, Lord Byron, English poet 82.25
2. Oliver Cromwell, Lord protector of England 82.25
3. Ivan Turgenev, Russian novelist 74
4. Goerge Curvier, French naturalist 64
5. William Makepeace Thackeray, English novelist 58
6. James Fisk, US financier 58
7. Leon Trotsky, Russian leader 56
8. George Francis Train, US millionaire eccentric 53.8
9. Daniel Webster, US Potician 53
10. Abigail Floger , US coffee heiress 52.91
11. Robert F. Kennedy, US presidential canditate 51.15
12. Janis Joplin, US singer 51.15
13. Marilyn Monroe US actress 50.79
14. Howard Hughes, US billionaire recluse 49
15. Walt Whitman, US poet 44.87
16. Donald DeFreeze, US abductor of Patricia Hearst 42.33
17. Leon Gambetta, French statesman 39
18. Anatole France, French author 35 |
extract from "THE WORLD'S GREATEST MISTAKES"
PSST! WANT TO BUY THE EIFFEL TOWER?
Con-man sold Paris's most famous landmark - twice
If there is indeed a fool born every minute, for every fool there seems to be a con-man ready to make him a little wiser.
Two of the most extraordinary confidence tricksters of all time were Count Victor Lustig, an Austrian who worked in the French Ministry of Works, and Daniel Collins, a small-time American crook. Together they managed to sell the Eiffel Tower - not once, but twice.
The count set about pulling off the deal by booking a suite in a Paris hotel in the spring of 1925 and inviting five businessmen to meet him there. When they arrived he made them take vows of secrecy, then told them that the Eiffel Tower was in a dangerous condition and would have to be pulled down. He asked for tenders for the scrap metal contained in the famous landmark. The count explained the hotel meeting and the secrecy vow by saying that his ministry wanted to avoid any public outcry over the demolition of such a well-loved national monument.
Within the week, all bids were in, and the count accepted that of scrap merchant Andre Poisson. The deal was struck, and a banker's draft was handed over at a final meeting at which the count introduced his 'secretary', Collins.
The the con-men play their master-stroke. They asked Poisson for a bribe to help the deal go smoothly through official channels. The duped dealer agreed willingly, and gave the back-hander in cash. If he had ever had any suspicions, they were now wholly allayed. After all, a demand for abribe meant that the two men must be from the ministry.
Lustig and Collins were out of the country within 24 hours. But they stayed abroad only long enough to realise that the outcry they had expected to follow their fraud had not happened. Poisson was so ashamed at being taken for a ride that he never reported the hoax to the police.
The count and his partner returned to Paris and repeated the trick. They sold the Eiffel Tower all over again to another gullible scrap merchant. This time the man did go to the police, and the con-men fled. They were never brought to justice, and they never revealed just how much money they had got away with.
Lustig's exploits may well have been inspired by a Scot, Arthur Furguson. Within a couple of months, in 1923, he sold three London landmarks to different American tourists. Buckingham Palace went for 2,000 pound deposit, Big Ben for 1,000 pound and Nelson's Column for 6,000 pounds.
He emigrated to the United States in 1925. In Washington, he found a Texas cattleman admiring the White House and, pretending to be a government agent, spun a slender yarn about how the administration was looking for ways of cutting costs. Now, if the Texan would care to rent the White House at a knockdown rate of $100,000 a year...? Furguson was in business again.
The Scotsman moved to New York where he explained to an Australian visitor that, because of a widening scheme for New York Harbour, the Statue of Liberty would have to be dismantled and sold. A great loss to the USA, but would it not look grand in Sydney Harbour...?
The Australian immediately began to raise the $100,000 that the con-man asked for the statue. But his bankers advised him to make a few further inquiries, and the police were tipped off.
Furguson was arrested and a court sentenced him to five years in jail. When he came out, the master-hoaxer retired from the ancient-monuments business and, until his death in 1938, he lived in California - languishing in luxury on his ill-gotten gains.
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30 RENOWNED REDHEADS
1. Lucille Ball, U.S. actress and comedienne
2.Sarah Bernhardt, French actress
3.Lizzie Borden, American acquitted of murder
4. Winston Churchill, British prime minister
5.Oliver Cromwell, British lord protector
6.George Armstrong Custer, U.S. general
7.Emily Dickinson, U.S. poet
8.Elizabeth I, queen of England
9.Arthur Godfrey, US TV personality
10.Harold "Red" Grange, US football hero
11.Henry VII, King of England
12.Katharine Hepburn, US actress
13.Thomas Jefferson, US President
14.Rod Laver, Australian Tennis champion
15.Sinclair Lewis, US novelist and playwright
16.Napoleon, French Emperor
17.Nero, Roman Emperor
18.Ignace Jan Paderewski, Polish pianist and statesman
19.Walter Reuther, US Labor Union leader
20.Salome, biblical dancer
21.Margaret Sanger, US feminist and birth-control advocate
22.William Shakespeare, British playwright
23.George Bernard Shaw, British playwright
24.Beverley Sills, US opera star
25.Svetlana Stalin, Russian writer, daughter of Joseph Stalin
26.Titian, Italian painter
27.Mark Twain, US author and humorist
28,Martin Van Buren, US president
29.George Washington, US president
30.William the Conqueror, King of England
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10 DOCTORS WHO TRIED TO GET AWAY WITH MURDER
"Wherever the art of medicine is loved
there also is love of humanity." - Hippocrates; c. 400B.C.
1. JOHN WEBSTER (US; 1791-1850)
a distinguished Harvard professor, Webster was deeply in debt to Dr. George Parkman of the Massachusetts medical School. Angered over Parkman's demands for repayment, Webster killed him by a blow to the head, then dismembered the body. Charred bones werre found beneath Webster's laboratory, along with a set of false teeth which a dentist identified as Parkman's. Webster was convicted on this circumstantial evidenc and, prior to hanging, confessed to the crime.
2. EDME CASTAING (France; 1796-1824)
Castaing was the first to use the newly discovered drug morphine to commit murder. He poisoned a patient, the wealthy Hippilyte Ballet, so that the victim's brother Auguste would inherit a fortune. Then, after getting Auguste to make out a will in his behalf, Castaing poisoned him, too. He was suspected almost immediately and arrested. At his trial, medical opinions differed as to the nature of the poison used. Castaing was convicted of Auguste's - but not Hippolyte's - murder. He was executed, protesting his innocence to the last.
3. ALFRED WILLIAM WARDER (England; 1820 - 1866)
All three of Warder's wives died under suspicious circumstances, but he was held responsible for the murder of only one - his third wife, Ethel. She died suddenly after their secret wedding. Warder, an authority on forensic toxiology, admitted prescribing a tincture of aconite - to be taken orally for her bladder trouble - although he knew the remedy was strictly for external use. Before the jury at the inquest could return its verdict of guilty, Warder committed suicide by taking prussic acid.
4. WILLIAM PALMER (England 1824 - 1856)
In his youth, Palmer was a thief and gambler. Heavily in debt, he took out insurance ploicies on his wife and brother. Both died soon after. When the insurance company refused to honour the brother's policy, Palmer faced financial ruin, as he had borrowed against his expectations. To save himself, he falsely appropriated the gambling winning of his friend James Cook and then poisoned Cook with strychnine. Convicted for just this one murder, he was believed to committed 12-15 othrs, including those of his mother-in-law and an illegitimate child. He went to the gallows.
5. EDWARD WILLIAM PRITCHARD (Scotland; 1825-1865)
A vain, pathological liar and seducer of young woman only motive Pritchard had for the slow poisoning of his wife with his egotistical desire to get away with murder. He killed his wife's mother for no better reason, and it was thought he had murdered a young girl some years before. His was the last public execution in Scotland and allegedly was attended by 100,000 people.
6. PHILLIP CROSS (Ireland; 1825-1888)
Cross was an aging Lothario and a bungler. To dispose of the wife he no longer wanted, he used arsenic, the most detectable of all poisons. Then - only two weeks later - he married his mistress, a girl young enough to be his granddaughter. The gossip started led to the exhumation of Mrs Cross's body. The arsenic was traced to Cross and a jury took only 10 minutes to find him guilty. His young wife abandoned him, and he died on the gallows, a very bitter man.
7. HAWLEY HARVEY CRIPPEN (England; 1862-1910)
The American-born Crippen prescribed an overdose of hyoscine, a drug to lessen the sex drive, to kill his vain, nymphomaniac wife, who was a music hall artist. He then dismembered her body and hid parts in his cellar, where they were discovered. He sailed for Canada with his young mistress, Ethel Le Neve, whom he hoped to marry. She was disguised as a boy. In the first such use of wireless telegraphy, Crippen was identified while aboard ship and arrested upon landing in Quebec. He was convicted and hanged in England. Le Neve was acquitted of complicity.
8. TOM DREHER (US; 1882-1929)
Aided by his mistress, Ada Le Boeuf, and a hired accomplice, Dreher shot Ada's husband and dropped his body into a Louisana lake. Though it was weighed, and had been slashed across the stomach to release the bouyant gases, it was discovered. The doctor's affair with Ada was common bayou gossip, so he was immediately suspected. He confessed and all three murderers were convicted. Ada and her doctor-lover were hung together despite a plea to Governor Huey Long for clemency in her case.
9. ROBERT GEORGE CLEMENTS (England; c. 1885 - 1947)
Clements's first wealthy wife died of "sleeping sickness" in 1920, his second of "endocarditis" in 1925, his third of "cancer" in 1939, and his fourth of "myeloid leukemia" in 1947. He had signed the first three death certificates, but the fourth was signed by Dr. James Houston, a colleague who had accepted Clement's diagnosis. But other doctors suspected morphine, and it was found in an autopsy. Both Clements and Houston committed suicide after writing notes: Clement's, a last disclaimer of guilt; Houston's, a sad admission of error.
10. GEZA DE KAPLANY (US; b.1926)
De Kaplany was an arrogant Hungarian womanizer practising in San Francisco. He poured acid over his estranged wife, a former showgirl, then mutilated her further, using a knife. She died in agong a monthlater, on September 30, 1962. De Kaplany claimed insanity. and defense psychiatrists called him a paranoid, a latent homosexual, and a transvestite. However, he was declared legally sane and sentenced to life imprisonment and committed to a California prison medical facility.
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10 WEAPONS NAMED AFTER PEOPLE
1. BIG BERTHA
This name was given to several German WW1 weapons - at first, to large short-barreled mortars, and later to the gargantuan cannon that shelled Paris in 1918. The name originated from the resemblence between the mortars and the short stocky build of Bertha Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach (1886-1957). Her father Friederick Alfred Krupp, committed suicide in 1902 after the Italian police released photographs of him performing homosexual acts, Bertha then inherited the Krupp armaments empire and was provided with a husband, Gustav von Bohlen und Halbach, by order of the German emperor. Bertha survived both wars and politics dying in W.Germany at the age of 71.
2. BOWIE KNIFE
A popular weapon of the American West, the Bowie knife was named after Jim Bowie (1796-1836), the hero of the Alamo. Bowie popularized the 9-18in stabbing and cutting knife, but according to the most reliable sources, his brother Rezin Bowie (1793-1841) was the actual inventor. Rezin drew a diagram of the knife, then had a blacksmith forge it from a large metal file. The knife was given its first trial soon afterwards in 1827, when brother Jim baptized it in a duel.
3. COLT REVOLVER
The celebrated "six shooter" of the American West was named after its inventor, Samuel Colt (1814-1862). At 16, Colt ran away to sea and aboard ship, carved a wooden model of his revolver. He produced the revolver and patented it in 1836. In 1855, Colt began mass production of the gun and became one of the wealthest men in America.
4. DERRINGER
This short-barreled, large caliber pistol named after its inventor, Henry Deringer, Jr (1786-1868). A Philadelphia gunsmith, Deringer began making pistols in 1825 and later specialised in derringers. His guns were widely imitated. One such imitation was inscribed with the double r spelling, which became the accepted form.
5. GARAND RIFLE (M-1)
This semiautomatic rifle served as the basic weapon for American soldiers on both WW11 and the Korean War. It was named after John Cantius Garand (1888-1974) who developed it while he was an employee of the US Armory at Springfield, Mass. Garand perfected the rifle in 1930 and, six years later, the US Army issued it as the standard infantryman's rifle. Garand first became interested in guns while running a shooting gallery. As a government employee, he received neither a patent for the rifle nor any royalties from its sales.
6. GATLING GUN
A crank-operated prototype of the modern machine gun, it was named after its inventor, Dr. Richard Jordan Gatling (1818-1903). Though he studied medicine, Gatling never practised as a doctor. Instead, he became an inventor of agricultural machinery which made him wealthy. He patented the Gatling gun in 1862 during the Civil War. After initial rejections of his gun by northern military men, Gatling hired a civilian crew and personally demonstrated the effectiveness of his invention on the battlefield.
7. MAUSER RIFLE
The first practical bolt-action rifle was named after its German inventors, the brothers Peter Paul Mauser (1838-1914) and Wilhelm Mauser (1834-1882). Following in their father's footsteps, both boys became gunsmiths. In 1867, they moved to Liege, Belgium, and after two years work they perfected the Mauser rifle, which they sold to the Prussian Army in 1871. Returning to their hometown of Oberndorf, Germany, the brothers built the enormous Mauser rifle factory.
8. MAXIM GUN
This first modern machine gun was named after Sir Hiram Maxim (1840-1916). Born an American, Maxim worked as an engineer, draftsman, and inventor in the US before going to England in 1881. He created the Maxim gun in 1883 and formed a company for its manufacture. In 1900, Maxim became a British subject and was knighted by Queen Victoria. This prolific inventor received 122 US patents and 149 British patents during his lifetime.
9. THOMPSON SUBMACHINE GUN (tommy gun)
This famous machine gun, used by gangsters and WW11 G.I.s was named after inventor, Co. John Taliaferro Thompson (1860-1940). A Wst Point graduate, Thompson served in the US Army's Ordnance Dept. from 1890 to 1914, when he retired. WW1 brought him out of retirement and, in 1920 he invented the "tommy gun" The gun was lethal at short range, as the US Marines demonstrated when they landed in Nicaragua in 1926.
10. WINCHESTER RIFLE
The favourite repeating rifle of the American frontiersman and the Indian was named after its manufacturer, Oliver Fisher Winchester (1810-1880). Winchester started his career as an industrialist by manufacturing men's shirts. This proved profitable, allowing him to buy the Volcania Repeating Arms Co. in 1858. By 1867, business was booming, and he founded the Winchester Repeating Arms Co. By hiring inventors and buying up patents, Winchester nearly monopolized the repeating rifle industry.
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15 PEOPLE WHO BECAME WORDS
1. AMELIA JENKS BLOOMER (1818-1894)
Bloomers were created by Mrs Elizabeth S.Miller in 1850. Mrs Bloomer, a feminist in Seneca Falls, N.Y., wore them in July 1851, and popularized them.
2. THOMAS BOWDLER (1754-1825)
A self-appointed censor in London, Dr. Bowdler published his own Family Shakespeare and Gibbon's Decline and Fall: He bowdlerized all of the racier passages.
3. CAPT. CHARLES C. BOYCOTT (1832-1897)
Hired by the earl of Earne to collect high rents from impoverished Irish tenant farmers, the captain was silently ignored, or boycotted, by the workers.
4. LOUIS BRAILLE (1809-1852)
Blinded in an accident at the age of 3, he learned to read in Paris from the large embossed letters in three cumbersome books. At 15, he invented his system of raised dots, called braille.
5. NICALAS CHAUVIN
A soldier under Napoleon, Chauvin was wounded 17 times. He was retired on a pension of $40 a year. Instead of being bitter, he was loyal to Napoleon and praised him incessantly. By extension, chauvinism has come to mean blind attachment to a group, especially to a country.
6. RUDOLF DIESEL (1858-1913)
A German engineer who worked at the Krupp factory, he invented an internal-combustion engine based on compression ignition that would run on cheap crude oil. It is called a diesel engine.
7. JOSEPH I. GUILLOTIN (1738-1814)
A prominent Parisian physician and member of the French National Assembly, Dr. Guillotin spoke in favor of the more humane method of capital punishment. Decapitation by sword and hanging were soon replaced by a quick and efficient guilliotine. (designed by Dr. Antoine Louis nad constructed by Tobias Smith)
8. CAPT. WILLIAM LYNCH (1742-1820)
Organizing a group of Pittsylvania County men to aid him. Virginian Lynch took the law into his own hands in an effort to catch and punish (lynch) an elusive band of thugs. Most reference books erroneously trace the derivation of the word to Col. Charles Lynch of the Virginia House of Burgesses. However, this Lynch lynched no one.
9. JOHN MONTAGU (1718-1792)
Montagu, the fourth earl of sandwich, led a public life laced with political corruption and a private one tainted by questionable mores. A compulsive gambler, Lord Sandwich would refuse to leave the card table for a meal during a game and, instead, would have a servant bring him a slice of meat between two pieces of bread - a sandwich.
10. JEAN NICOT (1530?-1600)
During a mission in Portugal, French Ambassador Nicot was given a Florida tobacco plant. He brought it back to France with him and went into business for himself when he discovered a growing interest in the "American powder" and the nicotine it contains.
11. MAJ. VIDKUN QUISLING (1887-1945)
Fascist leader of Norway's unpopular National Unity party, Quisling was put in charge of the country by Adolf Hitler during the Nazi occupation of Norway. A traitor who collaborates with invaders is a quisling.
12. LEOPOLD VON SACHER-MASOCH (1836-1895)
Due in part to a childhood of bloody horror stories told to him by his nurse Handscha, the prolific Austrian novelist Sacher-Masoch found that he could derive pleasure only from being physically abused and tortured - that is, from masochism.
13 MARQUIS DE SADE (1740-1814)
A member of the French aristocracy, the marquis spent many years in jail for committing scandalous crimes of sexual perversion. It was in prison he wrote novels and plays that depicted countless acts of sexual cruelty (sadism)
14 ANTOINE JOSEPH SAX (1814-1894)
While working for his father in Brussels musical instrument workshop, Sax invented a number of new brass wind instruments, the most popular of which was the saxophone.
15. ETIENNE DE SILHOUETTE (1709-1767)
In an attempt to restore the postwar French economy, Contrller General Silhouette instituted a wave of new taxes - most of which burdened the rich. After eight months, he was forced to resign amid a deteriorating economy. His name soon became associated with cheap and "empty" commodities, such as pocketless trousers and shadow protraits (silhouettes). |
| THE 7 WONDERS OF THE MIDDLE AGES
1. THE COLOSSEUM OF ROME
2. THE CATACOMBES OF ALEXANDRIA
3. THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA
4. STONEHENGE
5. THE LEANING TOWER OF PISA
6. THE PORCELAIN TOWER OF NANKING
7. THE MOSQUE OF ST.SOPHIA, CONSTANTINOPLE |
THE 7 WONDERS OF THE ANCIENT WORLD
Who created one of the earliest and most enduring of all lists, a list that arbitrarily named the seven most spectacular sights existing in the world 150 years before the birth of Jesus Christ? The list was created by a most respected Byzantine mathematician and traveler named Philon. In a series of arduous trips, Philon saw all of the western civilized world there was to see in his time, and then he sat down and wrote a short but widely circulated paper entittled 'De Septem Orbis Spectaculis (The Seven Wonders of the World).
1.THE GREAT PYRAMID OF CHEOPS (Egypt)
Begun as a royal tomb in c.2600 B.C., standing in splendour 2,000 years before any of the other Seven Wonders were built, this largest of Egypt's 80-odd pyramids is the only Wonder to have survived to this day. Located outside of Cairo, near Giza, the burial tomb of King Cheops was made up of 2.3 million blocks of stone, some of them 2-1/2 tons in weight. The height is 481 ft., the width at the base 755 ft. on each side, large enough to enclose London's Westminister Abbey, Rome's St.Peter's, and Milan's and Florence's main cathedrals.
2. THE HANGING GRDENS OF BABYLON (Iraq)
They were not hanging gardens, but gardens on balconies or terraces. When Nebuchadnezzar brought home his new wife, a princess from Medes, she pined for the mountains and lush growth of her native land. To please her, in 600 B.C., the king started to build a man-made mountain with exotic growths. Actually it was a square building 400 ft. high, containing five terraces supported by arches climbing upward, each densely planted with grass, flowers, and fruit trees, irrigated from below by pumps manned by slaves or oxen. Inside and beneath the gardens, the queen held court amid the vegetation and artificial rain. Due to the erosion of time and influx of conquerors, the Hanging Gardens had been leveled and reduced to wildness when Pling the Elder visited them before his death in 79 A.D.
3. THE STATUE OF ZEUS AT OLYMPIA (Greece)
The multicoloured Temple of Zeus, in the area where the Greek Olympic Games were held every fifth year, contained the magnificent statue of Zeus, king of the gods. Sculptured by Phidias ( who had done Athena for the Parthenon) some time after 432 B.C., the statue was 40 ft. high, made of ivory and gold plates set on wood. Zeus, with jewels for eyes, sat on a golden throne, feet resting on a footstool of gold. Pausanias, saw the statue intact as late as the second century A.D. After that it disappeared from history, probably the victim of looting armies and fire.
4. THE TEMPLE OF DIANA AT EPHESUS (Turkey)
Summing up his Seven Wonders, Philon chose his favourite "But when I saw the temple at Ephesus rising to the clouds, all these other wonders were put in the shade." The temple, a religious shrine built after 350 B.C., housed a statue of Diana, goddess of hunting, symbol of fertility. The kings of many Asian states contributed to the construction. The temple, 225 ft. wide and 525 ft. long, was supported by 127 marble columns 60ft. high. St. Paul, in the New Testament, railed against it, being quote as saying that "the temple of the great goddess Diana should be despised, and her magnificence should be destroyed, whom all Asia and the world worshippth." The craftsmen of the temple disagreed: "And when they heard these sayings, they were full of wrath, and cried out saying, Great is Diana of the Ephesians." Ravaged and brought down by invaders, the temple was rebuilt three times before the Goths permanently destroyed it in 262 A.D. In 1874, after 1 years of digging, the English archaeologist J.T.Wood unearth fragments of the original columns.
5. THE TOMB OF KING MAUSOLUS AT HALICARNASSUS (Turkey)
King Mausolus, conqueror of Rhodes, ruled over the Persian province of Caria. His queen, Artemisia, was also his sister. When he died in 353 B.C., he was cremated and his grieving widow drank his ashes in wine. As a memorial to him, she determined to build the most beautiful tomb in the world at Halicarnassus, now called Bodrum. She sent to Greece for the greatest architects and sculptors, and by 350 B.C. the memorial was completed. There was a rectangular sculptured marble tomb on a platform, then 36 golden-white Ionic columns upon which sat an architrave, which in turn held a pyramid topped by a bronzed chariot with statues of Mausolus and Artemisia. The monument survived 1,900 years, only to tumble down in an earthquake. What remains of it today is the word "mausoleum."
6. THE COLOSSUS OF RHODES ON THE ISLE OF RHODES (in the Aegean Sea)
To celebrate being saved from a Macedonian siege by Ptolemy I, the Rhodians, between 292 and 280 B.C., erected a mommoth statue to their heavenly protector, the sun-god Apollo. Chares, who had studied under a favorit of Alexandra the Great, fashioned the statue. The nude Colossus was 120 ft. tall, with its chest and back 60 ft. around, built of stone blocks and iron and plated with thin bronze. It did not stand astride the harbour, with room for ships to pass between rhw legs, but stood with feet together on a promontory at the entrance to the harbour. In 224 B.C., it was felled by an earthquake. It lay n ruins almost 900 years. In 667 A.D., the Arabs, who controlled Rhodes, sold the 720,900lbs of the broken statue for scrap metal to a Jewish merchant. When the merchant hauled his purchase to Alexandra, he found that it required 900 camel loads.
7. THE LIGHTHOUSE ON THE ISLE OF PHAROS (off Alexandria, Egypt)
On orders of Ptolemy Philadephus, in 200 B.C., the architect Sostratus of Cnidus constructed a pharos or lighthouse such as the world had not seen before. Built on a small island off Alexandria, the tiers of the marble tower - first square, then round, each with a balcony - rose to a height of 400 ft. At the summit a huge brazier with an eternal flames was amplified by a great glass mirror so that the fire could be seen 300 miles at sea. Half the lighthouse was torn down by occupying Arabs, who hoped to find gold inside the structure. The rest of the structure crashed to the ground when an earthquake struck in 1375. |
10 REAL PEOPLE WHO INSPIRED GREAT CHARACTERS IN FICTION
1. ALEXANDER SELKIRK ( inspiration for ROBINSON CRUSOE)
Selkirk (1676-1721), born in Largo, Scotland, became a seaman under Capt. William Dampier. In 1704, objecting to the condition fo the ship he was on, Selkirk asked to be put ashore on Mas a Tierra, a tiny island in the Pacific Ocean off South America. He lived alone on this island for four years and four months before being returned to England. A free-lance writer, Daniel Defoe, read about him, may have meet him, and in 1719 published a book based on Slekirk entitled 'The Life and Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of York, Mariner.'
2.WILLIAM BRODIE (inspiration for DR. HENRY JEKYLL and EDWARD HYDE)
Brodie (1741-1788), cabinetmaker, head of his union, member of the Edinburgh town council, was a respected businessman by day and a masked thief and leader of a gang of robbers by night. He was finally caught and hung. Knowing of Brodie, fascinated by "man's double being," Robert Louis Stevenson created 'The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886)
3.LEIGH HUNT (inspiration for HAROLD SKIMPOLE)
Hunt (1784-1859), a newspaper editor and publisher - as well as professional barnacle - was the friend of both Percy Bysshe Shelley and Lord Byron. Charles Dickens knew him and cruelly caricatured him as the sponger Skimpole in 'Bleak House ( 1852-1853)
4. JOSIAH HENSON (inspiration for UNCLE TOM)
Henson (1789-1883) born into slavery on a Maryland farm, became overseer of his master's estate and a Methodist preacher. Learning he was to be sold to a southern planter, he escaped to Canada, taking with him his wife and large family. He traveled three times to England, propagandizing for the emancipation of blacks. While there, he was received by Queen Victoria. In Boston, he was interveiwed by Harriet Beecher Stowie, who then sued Henson, as the prototype for Uncle Tom in her 1852 best-seller, 'Uncle Tom's Cabin.'
5.CALIRE CLAIRMONT (inspiration for JULIANA BORDEREAU)
Clairmont (1798-1879), stepdaughter of William Godwin, became Lord Byron's mistress and had a child to him. When Henry James, visiting Florence in 1887, learned that Clairmont had recently been alive in the city, he was inspired to create the character of Bordereau for his novella 'The Aspern Papers'
6. MARY CECILIA ROGERS (inspiration for MARIE ROGET)
Rogers (1820-1841), a beautiful clerk in a tobacco shop in New York, N.Y., where Edgar Allan Poe was a customer, was murdered and found floating in the Hudson River. Her slayer was never apprehended. Poe based "The Mystery of Marie Roget" on her case.
7. DELPHINE DELAMARE (inspiration for EMMA BOVARY)
Delamare (1822-1848), daughter of a prosperous farmer and educated in a finishing school, married a plodding country doctor in Ry, France. She dreamed of a mored exciting life, spent money extravagantly, took many lovers, and at last committed suicide by swallowing arsenic. Hearing the story from a close friend, Gustave Flaubert based his 'Madame Bovary' (1857) on it
8. MARIE DUPLESSIS (inspiration for MARGUERITE GAUTIER)
Duplessis (1824-1847) worked for a corsetmaker, then for a hat shop, before she became a prostitute in Paris. She moved up into high society, and ws kept by a series of wealthy aristocratic lovers. Her trademark was the white camellia. When she died of tuberculosis, one of her lovers, Alexander Dumas fils, enshrined her in a novel (1848) that became famous on stage and screen as 'Camille'
9. DR. JOSEPH BELL (inspiration for SHERLOCK HOLMES)
Dr.Bell (1837-1911) a surgeon and medical instructor in the Royal Infirmary at Edinburgh, after merely looking at a stranger could deduce much of his life and many of his habits. This impressed a student of his, A. Conan Doyle, who admitted years later, "I used and amplified his methods when I tried to build up a scientific detective who solved cases on his own merits."
10. CHESTER GILLETTE ( inspiration for CLYDE GRIFFITHS)
Gillette ( 1883-1908) who worked in the shirt factory owned by his wealthy uncle, had become the lover of a factory employee, Grace Brown, who thought he was going to marry her. Meanwhile, he was meeting young ladies who were more prominent socially. In 1906, learning that Grace was pregnant, and realizing that he might be trapped into marriage, Gillette tooke her to Big Moose Lake in New York, rowed her out to the middle of the lake, smashed her on the head with a tennis racket, and dumped her overboard. She drowned, Gillette was caught, tried, electrocuted. Theodore Dreiser followed the case, and from it wrote 'An American Tragedy' (1925) |
7 FAMOUS MEN WHO WERE FULL-TIME OR PART-TIME VIRGINS
1.Sir Isaac Newton (English Scientist: 1642-1727)
He died a virgin. It was said his abstinence was the cause of his acute insomnia.
2.Immanuel Kant ( German Philosopher; 1724 -1804)
He died a virgin.
3. Louis XVI ( French King; 1754-1793)
The first seven years of his marriage to Marie Antoinette were entirely sexless. He suffered from phimosis - an abnormal growth foreskin - that made erection painful and intercourse impossible. He refused an operation on the grounds that this was how God had made him. Eventually persuaded, he underwent the simply surgery and finally consummated his marriage on his 23rd birthday.
4. John Ruskin ( English writer; 1819-1900)
On his wedding night he was shocked into sexual abstinence for the remainder of his life by the sight of wife's public hair. He became an obsessive masturbator - " a suicide committed daily", he called it. Sexual repression drove him mad. He kept a diary of his sex dreams. He died a virgin.
5. George Bernard Shaw (English playwright; 1856-1950)
A virgin until thee age of 29 when he was seduced by an aging widow. The experience shocked him into 15 years of total abstinence. He was never explicit in writing about sex, using the words ' manroot" for penis and "her sex" for vagina.
6. Havelock Ellis (English Sexologist; 1859 -1939)
He never masturbated because he feared he would contract VD from wet dreams. He was a virgin until he was 32. He married a lesbian.
7. Adolf Hitler ( German Leader; 1889 - 1945)
It was thought that he had only one testicle. He loved pornographic films and books. At a Christmas party a woman kissed him under the mistletoe and he literally shock with rage. Despite his last-minute marriage to Eva Braun, many authorities believe he died a virgin. |
15 GIANTS
All persons except the two women on this list are reputed to have stood 8 ft. or taller. No women has ever achieved a scientifcally verified height of 8 ft. Currently, the tallest living woman is the "still growing" Sandy Allen ( b.1955) of Shelbyville. Ind.s who measures 7ft 5-3/16in
1. GOLIATH OF GOTH (c.1060 B.C.)
Philistine giant killed by David with a sling. The Bible puts his height at "six cubits and a span" (9 ft. 6-1/2in) But some early histroians claim he was only 6ft 10in.
2. JAN VAN ALBERT ( c. 1920)
Dutch giant , 9ft 5in whose photograph appeared in The New York Times in June 1920.
3. MACHNOW (c.1905)
Russian giant, 9ft 3in who appeared in the London Hippodrome in 1905
4. JOHN MIDDLETON (c.1610)
A giant in the reign of England's James I. He is said to have measured 9ft 3in.
5. ROBERT PERSHING WADLOW (1919 - 1940)
An American giant born in Alton, Ill., who at 8ft 11.1in attained the greatest scientifically verified height for a human being.
6. JOHN F. CARROLL (1932 - 1969)
Born in Buffalo, N.Y., Carroll measured 8ft 7-3/4in
7. GAIUS JULIUS MAXIMINUS (173-238)
A thracian of unusual size and strength who was emperor of Rome ( 235-238). He is reputed to have been 8 ft 6 in in height.
8. JAMES TOLLER (1795-1819)
Born on August 28, 1795, James Toller, known as "the young English Giant" stood 8ft 1-1/2in at age 18 and is reported to have been 8ft 6in when he died. He was exhibited in London in 1815-1816 and was presented to the czar of Russia and the king of Prussia.
9.JOHN WILLIAM ROGAN (1871-1905)
Born in Gallatin, Tenn., he measured 8ft 6in.
10. DON KOEHLER (b.1925
A resident of Chicago, Ill. Koehler is the world's tallest lIving person at 8ft 2in. (1978)
11. VAINO MYLLYRINE (1909-1963)
Born in Helsinki, Finland, Myllyrine measured 8ft 1.2in
12. SULAIMAN ALI NASHNUSH (b.1943)
A Libyan giant who stands 8ft 0.4in tall after having undergone a successful operation to halt abnormal growth.
13. CHARLEMAGNE (742-814)
King of the Franks and founder of the Holy Roman Empire, Charlemagne is said to have been 8ft tall.
14. JANE BUNFORD (1895-1922)
Born at Bartley Green, England, Jane Bunford stood 7ft 7in., though she would have measured 7ft 11in had it not been for a curvature in her spine. She attained the greatest scientifically verified height for a woman, and she grew her hair to a record length of 8ft.
15. ANNA SWAN (c.1865)
A Nova Scotian giantess 7ft 5-1/2in in height who became a member of P.T.Barnum's Museum at age 17. She nearly burned to death in 1865 when the museum caught fire and rescue attempts were hampered because of her size. She was at last lifted to safety by means of a tackle and derrick. Anna Swan was presented to Queen Victoria in 1869, and later married Capt. Martin Van Buren Bates, a Kentucky giant approximately 7ft 2-1/2in.–... |
15 VERY SMALL PEOPLE
1. THE FAIRY QUEEN (c.1850)
A young dwarf exhibited in London reputedly measured 1ft 4in. and weighed 4lbs. Her feet were said to be 2in long.
2. LUCIA ZARATE (1863-1889)
The shorter of two sisters who formed a circus act, "The Mexican Midgets," Lucia measured 1ft 8in. She weighed 4.7lbs at age 17.
3. CAROLINE CRACHAMI (1814-1824)
Born in Sicily, Caroline Crachami, at 1ft 8.2in., was the shortest human of whom there is accurate record. She was taken to London at age 9 and, under the guardianship of a man named Gilligan, was pubically exhibited until her death a year later in June.1824. Much to the horror of her father, Gilligan disappeared with her body, hoping to sell it at a high price for anatomical research. He eventually left it in the care of Sir Everard Home, who agreed to present it to the Royal College of Surgeons. Her father learned of Caroline's whereabouts too late to stop the dissection of her body.
4.PAULINE MUSTER (1876-1895)
A Dutch midget who measured 1 ft 9.65in at the time of her death at age 19. She is the shortest human adult of whom there si accurate record.
5. M. RICHEBOURG (c. 1768 -1858)
Reputedly only 1ft 11in tall, Richebourg served as a spy in the French Revolution. He was given secret dispatches and was carried through enemy lines - disguised as a baby nursing a bottle.
6.CALVIN PHILLIPS (1791-1812)
Bridgewater, Mass., dwarf who measured 2ft 5.5in at the time of his death and weighed 11 lbs. He is the shortest male of whom there is accurate record.
7. NRUTURAM (b.1929)
A dwarf of Naydwar, India. Nruturam measures 2ft 4in. He is the world's shortest dwarf alive today (1978)
8. A.L. SAWYER (c.1883)
Editor of the Florida Democrat, Sawyer stood 2ft 6-1/2in
9. LAVINIA WARREN (1841-1919)
Lavinina married "General Tom Thumb' in 1863 when she was 22 years old and 2ft 8in. After Tom Thumb's death she married Count Primo Magi (2ft 8in)
10. GEORGE TROUT (c.1830)
Barely 3ft tall, Trout served as a messenger in the service of the British Houses of Parliament from 1830 to 1850. It has been reported that he once made an agreement with Anthony White, chief surgeon of Westminister Hospital, to allow White to dissect his body upon his death. he got the better of the bargain, however, by femanding a $20 payment immediately immediately. and then managing to outlive White.
11. "GENERAL TOM THUMB" Charles Sherwood Stratton 1838-1883)
The most famous American midget, Tom Thumb measured 2ft 6.5in at age 12, 3ft 4in at the time of his death. He joined P.T.Barnum's organisation in 1842 and was on exhibition in New York, England, and continental Europe from 1844 to 1847.
12. JEFFERY HUDSON (1629-1683)
A English dwarf of Charle's court. Measured 18in at age 30, later growing to 3ft 6in. He was involved in many adventures including captured by Flemish pirates in 1630 and by Barbary pirates in 1649. In 1679 he was imprisoned for conspiracy. Hudson's portrait ws painted by Vandyke.
13. EDDIE GAEDEL (1925-1961)
An American midget 3ft 7in small, Gaedel is renown as the only midget ever to take part in a major-league baseball game. He appeared as a pinch hitter ( and walked) for the St.Louis Brown's against the Detroit Tigers on August 19, 1951.
14. RICHARD GIBSON (1615-1690)
English portrait painter. Both he and his wife stood 3ft 10in.
15. ATTILA THE HUN (c.405-453)
King of the Hums. Attila was thought to have been a dwarf, although his exact height is not recorded. |
23 OF THE BUSIEST LOVERS IN HISTORY
KING SOLOMON (c.973-c.933 B.C)
MNESARETE (c.4TH CENTURY B.C.)
CLEOPATRA (63-30 B.C.)
EMPRESS THEODORA (508?-548)
QUEEN ZINGUA (early 17th Century)
WILLIAM DOUGLAS (1724 - 1810)
GIOVANNI GIACOMO CASANOVA (1725 - 1798)
CATHERINE THE GREAT (1729-1796)
MARQUIS DE SADA (1740-1814)
MLLE. DUBOIS (c. 1770)
KING LAPETAMAK II (c.1778)
LOLA MONTEZ (1818?-1861)
SARAH BERNHARDT (1844-1923)
FRANK HARRIS (1854-1931)
GABRIELE D'ANNUNZIO (1863-1838)
GRIGORI EFIMOVICH RASPUTIN (1871?-1916)
MATA HARI (1871-1917)
GENERAL CHANG CHUNG-CH'ANG (c.1880-c.1935)
KINH IBN-SAUD (1880-1953)
MAE WEST (B.1892)
KING CAROL II (1893-1953)
ANOMYMOUS (b.c.1900)
BRIGITTE BARDOT (b.1934)
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1.KING SOLOMON (c.973-c.933 B.C)
The son of David and Bath-sheba became the third king of Israel and reigned some 40 years, during which time he enjoyed 700 wives and from 60 to 300 mistresses. His women were both Israeli and foreign ( some taken to further ploitical alliances) and were among the most beautiful in all antiquity. Although polygamy was the matrimonial standard of the time, later rabbis claimed that Solomon's single son was proof of punishment by God for Solomon's violation of monogamy
2.MNESARETE (c.4TH CENTURY B.C.)
Mnesarete was a Greek hetaera and possibly the most beautiful prostitute of all time. The nickname Phryne ("toad"), given to her because of her complexion, has since become synonymous with "courtesan". Her fine body was reputedly the model for Praxiteles' statue of the goddess Aphrodite at Cnidus, and when, during a festival, she let her hair down, took off her clothes and stepped in the sea, she inspired Apelles to paint his great Aphrodite Anadyomene. Phryne was later accused of profaning the Eleusinian mysteries and was defended by one of her lovers, the statesman and orator Hyperides. Just when it seemed she would lose her case - and therefore her life - Hyperides ripped open her robe and exposed her breasts to the jury. She was acquitted.
3.CLEOPATRA (63-30 B.C.)
No great beauty, Cleopatra was among the most alluring women of all time and was well-versed in the art of lovemaking. From the time she took her first lover ( at the age of 12), the queen of the Nile used sex for power, as well as pleasure. It is said that she erected a small temple where she kept scores of young lovers who were fed drugs to increase their lust. It was with these slaves that she practiced the erotic secrets she learned from courtesans in a bordello in Alexandria. Allegedly she could take on 100 men in a single night. At 38, the Egyptian queen committed suicide.
4.EMPRESS THEODORA (508?-548)
Theodora was an actress during her childhood in Constantinople. A Roman law prohibiting senators from marrying actresses was repealed just prior to her marriage to Roman Emperor Justinian I. Possessed of great beauty, intellect, and will - along with a reputation for severity - Theodora advocated great morals reforms for the city of Rome while constituting herself "the protectoress of faithless wives." So as not to break Rome's laws against total nudity, "the most depraved of all courtesans" would appear in public - clothed only with a ribbon. It has also been said that when picnicking outside Rome, Theodora would open her "gates of Venus" to at least 10 young men for an entire evening. The following day, she would take on their 30 servants.
5.QUEEN ZINGUA (early 17th Century)
Angola's Queen Zingua was among the cruelest of nymphomaniacs, rivaled only by the legendary Amazons, who were said to make sex slaves of male captives and cripple them because "the lame best perform the act of love." The queen, who kept a large harem of males, enjoyed arranging battles of death between warriors, then going to bed with the winner. It is said that she would make love with a man all night and have him killed in the morning. The jealous Zingua also had all pregnant females executed. Her bizarre sex life apparently continued until she was converted to Catholicism at the age of 77.
6. WILLIAM DOUGLAS (1724 - 1810)
The third earl of March and fourth duke of Queensberry, certainly the prototype of the "dirty old man", often leered at beauties passing by from the window of his Piccadilly house and sent his groom out to bring him any girl whose body particularly pleased him. This approach usually worked, for 'Old Q' was one of the richest and most influential men of his time. He consorted with women ranging in rank from duchesses to prostitutes, and held "oriental orgies" at his great estates, orgies which were unrivaled since those of Tiberius. During his old age, he hired Louis XV's former physician, not only to keep him alive, but to arrange his love festivals. When, at the age of 86, the Piccadilly Ambulator' died of overeating, at least 70 unopened love letters were found in his bed. He willed over 1 million pounds to his lovers and servants.
7.GIOVANNI GIACOMO CASANOVA (1725 - 1798)
According to his voluminous memoirs, Casanova seduced thousands of women; only 116 of them are actually named in published records. Life for the Italian adventurer was a continual search for new pleasures, and his name equals Don Juan's as a synonym for a promiscuous womanizer. Casanova's specialty was seducing his friends' wives and daughters - often two at a time. he frequently bathed with his companions in a bathtub built for two, and sometimes shared with them 50 oysters he customarily ate for breakfast. Women, he once said, were his cuisine.
8.CATHERINE THE GREAT (1729-1796)
Sexually insatiable, the empress of Russia advocated sexual relations six times a day. She had 21 official lovers, although her final total exceeded 80. An avid voyeur as well as an insomiac, Catherine claimed that sex was the best sleeping pill. Rogerson, her physician, and Mme. Protas, her procurer, respectively examined and tried out all male prospects approving them for the empress.
9.MARQUIS DE SADA (1740-1814)
The man who gave us the word sadism lived a life of scandalous debauchey marked by habitual infidelity and sexual perversions. Comte Donatien Alphonse Francois de Sade ( he encouraged people to call him "Marquis") was a handsome little Frenchman and a "fanatic of vice". He was involved in the notorious Rosa Keller affair, in which he tortured a Parisian prostitute, and was tried in absentia and sentenced to death for his part in the Marseilles scandal - an orgy in which he was accused of sodomy, torture, and poisoning participants with chocolate-covered bonbons. Eventually reprieved by the king, Sade authored numerous novels and plays, including 100 days of Sodom, in which he described 600 variations of the sex instinct. In 1803, he was committed to an insane asylum at Charenton, where he died 11 years later.
10.MLLE. DUBOIS (c. 1770)
"her greed for gold was equal to her greed for pleasure," a chronicle of the day wrote. The French actress once made a catalog of her lovers over a 20-year period. This accounting was so well known that even the Marquis de Sade was influenced by the figures. In his fictional 'Philosophy in the Boudoir,' his character Mme. de Saint-Ange de clares, "In the 12 years I have been married I have been laid I have been had by perhaps 10,000 to 12,000 individuals."
11.KING LAPETAMAK II (c.1778)
It is said that on his third voyage, in 1777, Captain Cook visited the Pacific island kingdom of Tonga, where he met Tonga's King Lapetamaka II. Strong, raven-haired, and in his 80s, the king claimed that it was his duty to deflower every native maiden. He said that he had neverr been with the same women twice and presently performing his appointed task 8-10 times a day, every day.
12.LOLA MONTEZ (1818?-1861)
Whatever Lola wanted, Lola got. By the time she turned 13, the British-Irish dancer and adventuress had dsicovered she could sell her body for money. She was very particular. She refused to allow the viceroy of Poland to sleep with her because he had false teeth. After taking three husbands and innumerable lovers (including Franz Liszt and Alexandre Dumas pere), Lola became the mistress of King Louis I of Bavaria., who made her baroness of Rosenthal and countess of Lansfield. One writer claims that the king confided she could "perform miracles with the muscles of her private parts" and that he "gave her his kingdom" when she : caused him to achieve 10 organisms in a 24-hour period." Her influence over Louis precipitated a revolution that forced him to abdicate. Lola fled to England, and later to America - where she lectured, danced, made love and became the mistress of several wealthy Americans. Towards the end of her life she devoted much of her money and energy to "helping fallen women."
13.SARAH BERNHARDT (1844-1923)
"The divine Sarah," as Oscar Wilde called her, went through more than 1,000 lovers in her colourful life, many of them famous artists and writers like Edmond Rostand. The energetic French actress once observed, "It is by spending oneself that one becomes rich." Sarah often slept in a rosewood coffin lined with letters from her lovers.
14.FRANK HARRIS (1854-1931)
The Irish-born author and "sexpert" had Lloyd's of London insure for $150,000 the card file of 2,000 women he claimed he had seduced in his lifetime. His first job, at the age of 10 consisted of selling dirty postcards, and he later invented a card game called Dirty Banshee in which the cards depicted satyrs and goddesses engaged in sexual acts. Harris's book 'My life and Loves, banned for 40 years in the US and England, sold for a long time in Parisian bookstores for $100 and more. He also worked as editor for England's 'Saturday Review' magazine.
15. GABRIELE D'ANNUNZIO (1863-1838)
The Italian poet, dramatist, novelist and adventurer is said to have dominated the Italian literary scene for 40 years. Stating that "a good soldier is prepared for anything'" D'Annunzio would carry condoms into battle in Napoleon's snuffbox, which he had won. There are legends he rode to the hounds in the raw with a naked lady at the front of his saddle, nonchalantly strolled nude into the dining room of an illustrious hotel, slept on a pillow filled with locks of hair from his conquests, served wine from a carafe made from the skull of a virgin who had committed suicide because of him, and used strychnine as an aphrodisiac. D'Annunzio, whose most famous affair was with the actress Eleonora Duse, publicly boasted that he was hated by 1,000 husbands.
16.GRIGORI EFIMOVICH RASPUTIN (1871?-1916)
The name Rasputin, or Rasputnik, was given to him by fellow villages and meant "libertine." The Russian mystic spent his life living up to it. By diverting his followers' religious fervor into sexual channels, this "saviour and healer" seduced hundreds of women, ranging from peasant girls to aristocrats. After he became " a member" of the royal family ( he won the confidence of the czar and czarina by assuaging the pain of their hemophiliac son), noble ladies vied for Rasputin's favors. "The Holy Satyr" would accommodate them in his bedroom, which he called "the holy of holies." There were even public chargs - probably untrue - that he had affairs with Czarina Alexandr and her young daughters. The "mad monk" with the hypnotic eyes had few equals in history.
17.MATA HARI (1871-1917)
Probably the most notorious spy since Delilah and the most accomplished mistress since La Pompadour, Mata Hari ( born Margarete Zelle in Holland) worked as a spy for the Germans while posing as an exotic dancer in Paris. Her lovers included Jules Cambron, chief of the French Ministry, the crown prince of Germany, the Dutch prime minister, and the duke of Brunswick. (It has been estimated that her activities caused the deaths of 50,000 Allied soldiers.) When she did not sleep with men for state secrets, she did so for money. Though Mata Hari probably hated men due to the brutality of her first husband, she did enjoy sex, often relaxing in French brothels after work. When the Germans betrayed her, at least half a dozen former lovers hatched absurd plans to save Mata Hari from the French firing squad that eventually took her life.
18. GENERAL CHANG CHUNG-CH'ANG (c.1880-c.1935)
"The general with the three long legs," as Shanghai prostitutes called him' is said to have taken on entire brothels at one time. Because he ate black chow meat (reputedly an aphrodisiac) every day of the year, he became known as "The Dog-Meat General." The Chinese warlord was dubbed "72-Cann0n Chang" because his "manhood" supposedly equaled 72 stacked silver dollars in length and diameter.
19.KINH IBN-SAUD (1880-1953)
From the age of 11 until his death at 72, the Saudi Arabian monarch had sexual relations with three different women every night - except during battles.
20.MAE WEST (B.1892)
"I do all my of my best work in bed," the legendary lady replied when a reporter asked her how she went about writing her memoirs. It is not known how many lovers Mae West has had, or if she is still sexually active in her 80s. But the star of stage and screen, whose name has become synonymous with the word "vamp", must rank among the world's most sexually active women. In her memoirs she writes of one session of lovemaking with a prodigy named Ted that lasted 15 consecutive hours - possibly the sexual marathon record.
21. KING CAROL II (1893-1953)
Like his mother Queen Marie, the Romanian ruler was a sexual athlete whose affairs numbered in the thousands. It is said that because of the king's "abnormally large sex organ," operations had to be performed on the vaginas of several dozen women so that they could accommodate him. A number of young girls reputedly died "when their perinea were ruptured during intercourse with the king. "Eventually, a "court abortionist" was appointed. In 1925, King Carol was forced to abdicate and go into exile - largely at the instigation of the Liberal party - because of a scandal caused by the king's liaison with his mistress Magda Lupescu ( nee Elena Wolff). Carol returned in 1930, but again he was forced to abdicate because he refused to give up Magda. The two were married in 1947 and lived together in exile until Carol's death.
22.ANOMYMOUS (b.c.1900)
Alfred C. Kinsey, a professor of zoology at Indiana University, noted in his famous 10-years sex study, published in 1948, the case of a man whose frequency of coitus was 33.1 acts per week, over a period of 30 years - apparently with no harm to his health. (This equals almost 52,000 times for the period - nearly five times a day.) Other sex researchers have recorded examples of people who have engaged in sexual intercourse twice a day for periods of 30 years. Kinsey approximated the average (mean) frequency of total sexual outlet for the general male population at 2.3 acts per week, up to the age of 85.
23. BRIGITTE BARDOT (b.1934)
At the age of 40, the French film star boasted in an interview that she "must have a man every night." Assuming that her need began at age 20, and subtracting an arbitrary 76 days a year for travel, illness, menstruation, or even rest, that would mean that Brigitte ( without considering daylight liaisons) had a total of 4,980 nights of sexual activity. Formidable. |
EXTRACTS FROM "THE BOOK OF LISTS" by David Wallechinsky, Irving Wallace & Amy Wallace.
All images are only smiley characters and bear no resemblence to actual people.
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