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Vaknin, Sam, 1961-

"The First Book of Factoids"



http://www.polygamy.com/

http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/humanrelations/womeninislam/polygamy.html

Popcorn

Corn pollen more than 80,000 years old was found in Mexico. Proper
popcorn was known in China, Sumatra, and India for at least 5000
years. Popped popcorn and kernels 5600 years old were discovered in
the "Bat Cave" in New Mexico in 1948-1950. Popcorn kernels - ready to
pop - were unearthed in ancient Peruvian tombs. In a cave is southern
Utah, fluffy, fresh looking, white popcorn was dated to 1000 years
ago.

Popcorn was used by the Aztecs and Indians as a decorative motif in
headdresses, necklaces, and ornaments on statues of divinities. In the
16th century, both Hernando Cortes (in Mexico) and Christopher
Columbus (in the West Indies) described these unusual uses of the
snack. Father Bernardino de Sahagun (1499-1590), a Franciscan priest
with deep interest in Mexican culture, described a ritual in honor
of the Aztec gods of fisheries:

"They scattered before him parched corn, called momochitl, a kind of
corn which bursts when parched and discloses its contents and makes
itself look like a very white flower; they said these were hailstones
given to the god of water.


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