Steve Wright’s Further Factoids. Steve Wright

      “Rugged” is a two-syllable word that can be made one syllable by adding letters to it to make the word “shrugged”.

       Women blink nearly twice as much as men. Why…?

      Harry Randall is Cockney rhyming slang for candle. Fair enough, but who’s Harry Randall?

       Renoir had to paint with the brush tied to his fingers because of rheumatism.

      Drinking three cups of coffee a day can cut the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease.

      Louis XIII (that’s 13th in real money)appointed a Royal Anagrammist (bloke that does anagrams) for a salary of £1,200 a year.

      Pensioners now prefer surfing the net to traditional old people’s pastimes of gardening, DIY and walking. And eating boiled sweets.

      The “Mona Lisa” has no eyebrows–it was the fashion in Renaissance Florence to shave them off. She’s also got a tat of a spider on her neck if you look closely, and her tongue is pierced, which accounts for the painful smile.

       Postmen and women walk further than secretaries in their work, a global study found.

      The average number of sexual partners a man has during his life is 14.56. Must have been interrupted during the 15th…

      Sack races were banned at a community’s annual festival because the cost of insuring against injury became too high. Out went the three-legged race and egg-and-spoon at the “fun day” in Hartlepool. Eggs can break easily when dropped, that’s a fact.

       Psychologists at Aberdeen University reckon the best way to woo a woman is to chat up her mate.

      Fathers tend to determine the height of their child, mothers their weight. Hmm, I think I’ll make him 6 foot 2.

       Fulham’s Moritz Volz scored the 15,000th goal in Premiership history in the last game of last year. 15,000 Volz…

      According to a poll in the British Medical Journal, the most significant health breakthrough of all time was not antibiotics, vaccines or anaesthetic but…sanitation.

      Scientists have found the brain has a kind of screensaver that automatically kicks in when we’re idle, allowing our mind to wander or daydream.

       Celebrity section 3

      A half-eaten banana signed by GMTV presenter Kate Garraway fetched £1,650 on an auction website.

      Before becoming a professional dancer, Strictly Come Dancing star Brendan Cole worked as a builder.

      Dragons’ Den star and multi-millionaire Duncan Bannatyne began his business career as an ice-cream man, after buying an ice-cream van for 450 quid.

      Comedian Russell Brand has been arrested 11 times, once for stripping off at an anti-globalisation protest.

      Desperate Housewives star Eva Longoria is the only one among her parents’ children to have dark skin, dark eyes and dark hair. Her three sisters all have fair hair, blue eyes and pale skin. Eva thought for a long time that she was adopted because she looked so different.

       In the mid 90s, a photo of fellow Desperate Houswife Teri Hatcher, wrapped in nothing but a red Superman cape, became the most downloaded image on America Online.

       Jennifer Aniston, Kate Moss and Kelly Osbourne all have heart tattoos, whilst Sienna Miller, Britney Spears, Victoria Beckham and Lindsay Lohan all have stars.

      Borat star Sacha Baron Cohen went to the same school as Matt Lucas of Little Britain, and funnyman David Baddiel.

      All emperor penguins with film careers have Happy Feet.

       Beatrix Potter left the National Trust 4,000 acres in the Lake District to be preserved for the nation.

      Judge John Deed (not a real judge) actor Martin Shaw, once worked for a chemical company before being accepted at drama school.