Facts & figures
Low flyers
Released in ‘82
Passion Killers were a band from Barnsley in the UK that reached not-so-heady heights in the early 1980s. The band included three members of Chumbawamba. Their only album, released in 1982, failed to chart.
Bright spark
1,093 patents
Passionate inventor Thomas Edison filed a whopping 1,093 patents in his lifetime. When he died in 1931, he held an impressive 34 patents for the telephone, 141 for batteries, 150 for the telegraph and 389 for inventions for electric light and power. And that doesn’t include his work on movie cameras.
Solidarity for singles
Celebrate April 14
For anyone lacking a little passion in their lives, commiserate with South
Korean singletons on April
14. For ‘Black Day’, the unlucky in love dress up in dark clothes and chow
down on black food, such as noodles with black bean sauce.
Egg-shaped fruit
Nine types
There are nine different varieties of passion fruit in supermarkets across the globe. The Black Knight from the USA is shaped like an egg and has dark purple-black fruit, while the Golden Giant from Australia has yellow flesh and is the size of a tennis ball.
Cobra kisser
19 snakes
A passionate Thai snake charmer broke the Guinness World Record for kissing 19 cobras in a day. Khum Chaibuddee gave each reptile a peck on the head and then moved onto the next to beat the previous record of 11. Thailand’s Ripley’s Believe It or Not Museum, which organised the record-breaking attempt, had a medical team on standby, in case any of the snakes got a little too frisky.
Present tense
Almost €110
The average American man spends the equivalent of nearly €110 on Valentine’s Day, while the average woman spends €58, according to the American National Retail Federation. Among other things, the day usually sees a significant increase in the sale of guns.
Ding dong
Top 10
Passion Fruit was a Eurodance group that hit the charts in 1999 with The Rigga-Ding-Dong-Song. According to lead singer Maria Serrano, “Our style is sweet and bouncy, with sugar-coated lyrics and catchy rhythms, reflecting the characteristics of a passion fruit.”
Floaty coat
One parachute
Franz Reichelt was a passionate Austrian tailor who invented the coat parachute. Known as The Flying Tailor, he designed a special garment to open up in the air and allow someone to fly or float gently to the ground. It didn’t catch on.
Constantly engaged
94 vows
The world’s most passionate couple may be Lauren and David Blair of Tennessee, USA. The pair have renewed their wedding vows 94 times since getting married in 1984. “We knew this was the real thing and wanted to declare our love in front of as many people as possible,” says Lauren. “I’ve said ‘I do’ in a kilt at a blacksmith’s shop in Scotland, on Jimi
Hendrix’s couch at the Hard Rock Café in London, and atop the 160-metre-high Skylon Tower, overlooking Niagara Falls,” adds David. The most memorable time? In front of the famous ‘sexpert’ Dr. Ruth Westheimer in a New York restaurant.
Candy fan
418 Pez dispensers
A desire for 1980s’ trinkets has turned Kevin Rej into quite the obsessive. He owns 418 Pez (handheld sweet dispensers for children) including all the Simpsons and Disney characters – from Goofy through to Simba from The Lion King – and an Elvis Presley.
