Trivia and Amazing Facts 16-06-08

• Rubber bands last longer when refrigerated.

• TYPEWRITER is the longest word that can be made using the letters only on one row of the keyboard.

• A snail can sleep for three years.

• Celebrity-hounding photographers are called paparazzi, in English as well as Italian. It is believed the word was coined after a particularly obtrusive character named "Paparazzo" in Federico Fellini's 1960 film, La Dolce Vita. It has been said that Fellini chose the name because it suggested, onomatopoetically, the predatory, relentless nature of the character - the "z" sound hinted at a buzzing, annoying insect. Considering the voracious, self-serving nature of such hangers-on as the paparazzi, Fellini may also have played with the Italian verb pappare, which means "to devour with wild abandon."

• A poem written to celebrate a wedding is called a "epithalamium."