Since reading blogs slows considerably during these hot and sweaty days of Summer, I thought a short list of strange things were just what is needed today. If all of you aren’t reading much in this heat, here are a few more things you probably won’t read.

• For passengers who may not quite get it, American Airlines once printed instructions on their snack packages. “Open packet, eat nuts.”

• A female ferret can die from going into heat and not mating.

• In 1900, the average white woman’s life expectancy was only 48.7 years. For women of color, the life expectancy was 33.5 years.

• Your stomach creates a new mucus layer every two weeks.

• Thomas Edison preferred to do his reading in Braille, and he proposed to his wife in Morse code.

• American go through 12 billion bananas in a typical year.

• Roses are the symbol of the Virgin Mary. Catholic “rosaries” were originally made of 165 dried and rolled rose petals.

• Disney’s Space Mountain roller coaster was the first thrill attraction to be operated by a computer.

• The first time an instant replay was seen on TV was during an Army-Navy football game on December 7, 1963. CBS director Tony Verna masterminded the idea.

• Founding Father George Washington was a distant relation of King Edward I, Queen Elizabeth II, Sir Winston Churchill, and Gen. Robert E Lee.