Answers to Outside the Box Puzzles from page 52 1. Haste makes waste 2. Henpecked 3. High and dry 4. Keep the ball rolling 5. Last but not least 6. Bend an ear Fast Facts With Canada celebrating its 150th anniversary this year, the emblem of our country has been the star of the show. Recognized around the world, here are a few tidbits about our distinctive flag. • In 1964, Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson invoked the idea of a new flag to replace the Canadian Red Ensign, the unofficial flag of the country since 1890. • The Maple Leaf was raised on Parliament Hill on Feb. 15, 1965 as the official flag of Canada. • More than 5,000 designs were submitted before the Maple Leaf was chosen. • The dimensions of the flag are twice as long as they are wide, which is unique to Canada. It’s believed that no other national flag uses these dimensions. • In 1921, King George V declared red and white the official colours of the Canadian flag. • The flag atop the Peace Tower on Parliament Hill is replaced daily. The discards are given away free to citizens, but there’s a 40- to 60-year wait to get one. • In 1984, the national flag was launched into outer space on NASA’s Challenger space shuttle with the first Canadian astronaut, Marc Garneau. It’s corn on the cob season and, besides pleasuring our palates, this perennially popular vegetable is an important ingredient in an amazing variety of products. Here are some of them. • Chewing gum • Ethanol • Antibiotics • Batteries • Deodorant • Cough drops • Matchsticks • Candy • Crayons • Adhesives • Textiles • Vitamins Ever wonder where this expression came from? We know that it means to leak a secret and its origin is generally believed to date back to an ancient Greek voting process involving beans. Voters each placed one of two different-coloured beans in a pot, with white depicting a “yes” vote and a black/ brown bean counted as a “no” vote. Should someone knock over the pot and “spill the beans,” the secret results of the election would accidentally be revealed. There are other conflicting theories, but this one is typically the most accepted. • Naturalist Charles Darwin was obsessed with earthworms and devoted four decades of his life to studying them. In its initial run, the book which he wrote on them actually outsold his most famous work, On the Origin of Species. • Velcro was invented by a Swiss man who was inspired by the way in which burrs attached to clothing while walking his dog. • The average lead pencil will draw a line 35 miles long or write approximately 50,000 English words. • Queen Elizabeth I regarded herself as a paragon of cleanliness. She declared that she bathed once every three months, whether she needed it or not. • A cockroach can live for several weeks with its head cut off. Its brain is located inside its body and the roach ultimately dies from being unable to eat. • In 2006, somebody tried to sell New Zealand on eBay. The price got up to $3,000 before eBay shut it down. Did you know? Let them eat corn “Spill the beans” The Maple Leaf Forever 54 | www.snowbirds.org
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