STRANGE BUT TRUE

By Samantha Weaver

• It's not known who made the following sage observation: The sharper your words are, the more they'll hurt if you have to swallow them.

• Those who study such things say that Southerners watch more TV than residents of any other region of the country.

• Any given major ballet company will go through about 3,000 pairs of toe shoes every year. Under normal use, one pair will last for about one hour of performing.

• If you average out the depth of the world's seas and the elevation of the land, you'll find that the ocean is four times as deep as the land is high.

• Pierre-Auguste Renoir, one of the leading artists of the Impressionist movement, died in 1919, at the age of 78. His last words were, What a pity I have to go now just when I was beginning to show promise!

• A male sea otter shows affection by biting his mate's nose.