“Cold maceration” means putting the grapes in a refrigerated environment for several days before starting fermentation to encourage color extraction. This is being done more and more frequently with Pinot Noir since the skins of this varietal don’t have as much pigmentation as other red

Ancient Egyptians believed that "Bast" was the mother of all cats on Earth. They also believed that cats were sacred animals.

William Rufus DeVane King was the first and only U.S. vice president to take the Oath of Office from outside the United States. He did this in Havana, Cuba in 1853.

Humphrey Bogart made the following disparaging comment about James Dean, who died in a car crash at age 24: "If he'd have lived, they'd have discovered he wasn't a legend."

In the early 1950s, Clint Eastwood signed a $75-a-week contract with Universal to do walk-ons in low-budget horror flicks like Revenge of the Creature. He was fired when studio executives decided his Adam's apple protruded too much for him to be star material. For some time, Eastwood took on odd jobs, such as digging swimming pools, to augment ...Read more

When used by an ornithologist, the word "lore" refers to the space between a bird's eye and its bill.

There are 40,000 muscles and tendons in an elephant's trunk. This makes it very strong and flexible, allowing an elephant to pluck a delicate flower or lift a huge log. The trunk is used for touching, grasping, sucking, spraying, smelling, and striking.

There really are such thing as "cooties." Though most people believe that "cooties" is just a nonsense word used by children to describe unpleasant insects, cooties are in fact a kind of body lice.

It is worth noting that a school's eliteness or cost does not necessarily mean that is a preppy college. Preppy culture idealizes athleticism and sociability. The culture also emphasizes deference to tradition and ritual and, generally speaking, disapproval of ostentation. The term "preppie" is associated, not with dramatic designer fashions, ...Read more

The oldest known map is carved on a clay tablet that dates to about 2300 B.C., which now resides in the Fogg Art Museum in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Excavated at Nuzi in northern Iraq during the early 1920s, the clay map portrays the river Euphrates flowing through northern Mesopotamia.

Clint Eastwood was 41 years old when he debuted in the role of maverick Det. "Dirty" Harry Calahan in the action film Dirty Harry (1971). Reportedly, the part had been turned down by Paul Newman, John Wayne, Robert Mitchum, and Frank Sinatra. Eastwood insisted on performing his own action stunts, including the famous scene where he jumped from a...Read more

In 1918 and 1919, a world epidemic of simple influenza killed 20 million people in the United States and Europe.

The praying mantis eats nothing but live food, predominantly insects. Its prey is taken only from flowers, leaves, bark, or the ground - never while the potential victim is in flight. Surprisingly, if quick and lucky, it will also consume and eat a hummingbird.

The electric organs in an electric eel make up four-fifths of its body.

The rich flavor of dark turkey meat is especially valued in soup and stew recipes. Dark meat holds up better than white meat in rich marinades.

In Australia, the Number 1 topping for pizza is eggs. In Chile, the favorite topping is mussels and clams. In the United States, it's pepperoni.

One of the greatest orators of all time, - Demosthenes (384? – 322 B.C.) was once a stutterer who stubbornly trained himself to stop, reportedly by putting pebbles in his mouth and practicing speaking aloud.

The Sahara Desert comprises an area as large as Europe. Its total land mass is some 3,565,565 square miles.

Levi Hutchins of Concord, New Hampshire, invented the first alarm clock in 1787. It only rang at 4 a.m. because that's what time he got up.

The six official languages of the United Nations are English, French, Arabic, Chinese, Russian, and Spanish.