Editor’s Note: Richard Hawk brings a different perspective to safety—one that is offbeat, perceptive, funny and never dull. Here are some Tidbits from Richard’s Safety Stuff newsletter that you can find at www.makesafetyfun.com.

• In Ancient Egypt, warm donkey droppings were prescribed to alleviate sore eyes.
• Most Americans are too chronically sleep deprived to awaken without an alarm. Need for an alarm by definition signals some kind of danger.
• Since 2001 about 1,000 U.S. children have been killed while buying ice cream.
• Absinthe, a green, bitter liquor, was banned in 1915; during its heyday, 9,000 deaths each year in the U.S. were attributed to its use.
• About a quarter of the world drives on the left side of the road.
• Obesity and physical inactivity account for more than 100,000 premature deaths each year.
• People break their hips in their own homes more often than in all other places combined.
• The U.S. death toll from the 1918 flu epidemic was so high that it created a coffin shortage.
• The last Bonaparte, Jerome Napoleon Bonaparte, died in 1945 after tripping over his dog's leash.
• Only 10% of white or yellow berries are safe to eat.
• Approximately 5,000 U.S. deaths have been attributed to lead poisoning since 1930.
• In the 1950s, it was against French law for a flying saucer to land in any vineyard.
• According to U.S. geological data, for reasons unknown, most sinkholes seem to occur on Thursdays.
• The top foods that choke: hot dogs, grapes, nuts, raw carrots, celery and peanut butter.
• Fulgerite is "fossilized lightning" occurring when a bolt melts soil into glass.
• Over 50,000 people (U.S.) have died from being scalded since 1965.
• Superman once gave Batman a ring of green kryptonite so that if he, Superman, ever lost his mind and became a danger to humans, Batman could use the ring to defeat him.
• Downsizing? Americans spend about $30 billion per year trying to lose weight.
• The bite of a brown recluse spider can require over two months to heal.
• Heart attack is the most frequent cause of death from rapid overeating.

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