Odd Things Learned on the Way to writing a post.

False starts abound on my latest attempt to write a Halloween article. I will get a Halloween special out this weekend. Here are a few totally disjointed facts I have learned:

1. Standard 8 sided Stop signs were yellow until 1954, when they became red. Most movies depicting the 20s, 30s, 40s and even early 50s show this wrong.

2. The fax machine was invented and patented in 1844 - before the telephone. They used telegraph lines to transmit them and faxes were used via phone lines commonly in the late 1890s.

3. My previously mentioned song "Sukiyaki" ,1962, was the greatest selling Japanese language song in history.

4. The Duchess of Milan never paid for her portrait "Mona Lisa", so Da Vinci carried it with his belongings his whole life. "He just made me look way too fat" She said.