AWESOME FACTS ABOUT EVERYTHING - CXXXVII

1. Women did not get the right to vote in Mexico until 1953.

2. The Coca-Cola Company symbol on the New York Stock Exchange is KO.

3. Despite being kings, lions don't live in jungles.

4. Cowboy caviar is a bean salad that gets its name from the black-eyed peas in the dish, which resemble caviar. The dish was created by Helen Corbitt, a former head chef at Neiman Marcus in Dallas, Texas. Corbitt was instructed to use only Texas-based ingredients, and the dish was originally called Texas caviar. The name was later changed to cowboy caviar as a tongue-in-cheek comparison to the expensive rare true caviar. 

5. Alexander Graham Bell suggested "Ahoy" as the standard greeting when answering the telephone. "Hello" - suggested by Thomas Edison - was adopted instead.

6. A stone is a British unit of weight equal to 14 pounds.

7. President Calvin Coolidge, known for his reticence, was also known for his love of animals and his collection of them - including many dogs, birds, a wallaby, lion cubs, a raccoon, and other unusual animals. In 1927, tire magnate Harvey S. Firestone presented Coolidge with a rare pygmy hippo, captured on one of Firestone's vast plantations in Liberia. At the time, pygmy hippos were virtually unknown in the United States. Coolidge name his pet "Billy" and donated him to the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. - where he was a favorite. Billy is also notable as the common ancestor to almost all pygmy hippos in American zoos. He sired 23 calves.

8. A "buttload" originates from the old British measurement "butt" - which referred to a large cask of wine - roughly equivalent to 126 gallons. It is not a recognized unit of measurement today, but is a slang (coarse) term to mean a large amount of something.

9. Lacrosse is oldest organized sport in North America.