Interesting Facts - Page 98

Israel is the only country in the developed world that has a birth rate above replacement levels.

Goodbye is a shortening of the phrase "god be with you".

There are many "minced oaths" in the English language. Minced oaths are words which have been created as politically-correct versions of swearing. Here are a few examples:

• Zounds is short for "God's wounds".
• Blimey is short for "God blind me".
• Gadzooks is short for "God's hooks", the nails which bound Jesus to the cross.
• Drat is short for "God rot".

In the late 1970s, a man named Richard Williams was watching TV when he happened to notice a woman named Virginia Ruzici earning a $30,000 check for winning the French Open. At that moment in time, he decided that he would get rich by coaching his future children to be champion tennis players. A hare-brained scheme? One might think. But his two daughters, Venus and Serena Williams, became two of the greatest tennis champions of all time.

King Tut's Parents were siblings. His wife was also his half-sister.