Trivia #1

1. Monaco - 89.52
2. Japan - 84.74
3. Singapore - 84.68
4. Macau - 84.51
5. San Marino - 83.24
6. Iceland - 82.97
7. Hong Kong - 82.86
8. Andorra - 82.72
9. Switzerland - 82.50

Our statistics come from the most recent data gathered by the CIA World Factbook. As of 2015, the country with the highest life expectancy is Monaco at 89.52 years; the country with the lowest is Chad at 49.81 years.

Answer : Switzerland
The Republic of Ireland has the strictest gun control laws in the world. Until recently, Japanese police were unable to carry guns, using martial arts and sticks as an alternative. When a bullet is fired in the line of duty it is carefully documented. In 2018 one bullet was fired.

Answer: Nims, France It’s in the name: De Nims (Fr: “of Nims”)

Tijuana, Mexico

Many people attribute the Caesar Salad’s birthplace to the nation of Italy. The creation of Caesar Salad is attributed to restaurateur Caesar Cardini, an Italian immigrant who operated restaurants in both the U.S. and Mexico. Cardini lived in San Diego, but also worked in Tijuana where he could avoid the restrictions of Prohibition. His daughter, Rosa, recounted that her father invented the dish in 1924 on the Fourth of July after a rush of thirsty and hungry American tourists depleted the kitchen's stock in the wee hours of the morning. Cardini made do with what he had left in the restaurant’s refrigerator, adding the theatrical flair of the table-side tossing by the waiter.

Julia Child wrote that she had eaten a Caesar Salad at Cardini's restaurant when she was a child of nine-years-old in the 1920s -- thus making the creation world-famous.

The Panama Hat

A Panama hat, also known as an Ecuadorian hat or a toquilla straw hat, is a traditional brimmed straw hat of Ecuadorian origin. Traditionally, hats were made from the plaited leaves of the Carludovica palmata plant, known locally as the toquilla palm or jipijapa palm, although it is a palm-like plant rather than a true palm. Ecuadorian hats are light-colored, lightweight, and breathable, and often worn as accessories to summer-weight suits, such as those made of linen or silk. The tightness, the finesse of the weave, and the time spent in weaving a complete hat out of the toquilla straw characterize its quality. The term was being used by at least 1834. The popularity of the hats increased in the mid-19th century when many miners of the California Gold Rush traveled to California via the Isthmus of Panama and Pacific Mail Steamship Company. In 1906, U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt visited the construction site of the Panama Canal and was photographed wearing a Panama hat, which further increased the hats' popularity.

Shanghai's population of 24.1 million makes it the top populous city proper not only in Asia but in the world as well.

Shanghai strategically lies in the Yangtze River Delta and the city's port is ranked as the world's busiest having handled 37 million TEUs in 2016. Qinglong Town, founded in 746, preceded Shanghai and it grew as a trading port in Imperial China. Shanghai's economic potential made it a center of conflict in the 19th century as the British and French fought to control the city. The Japanese also invaded Shanghai during the 2nd World War. Shanghai is an economic and trading hub in modern day China, and it has reported double-digit growth since 1992 excluding the global recession of 2008 and 2009. Shanghai's top three service sectors are real estate, financial services, and retail while manufacturing accounts for about 40% of the total output. Shanghai hosts numerous industrial zones such as the Shanghai Hongqiao Economic and Technological Development Zone. Shanghai attracts populations of local immigrants as well as foreign settlers from Japan, the US, and Korea.

- www.worldatlas.com

San Marzano

San Marzano tomatoes are grown primarily in the Campania region of Italy, at the base of Mt Vesuvius, in the Agro-Nocerino area. They are cultivated in the soils of the communes of Naples, Salerno and Avellino. These thin, pointy, sweet plum tomatoes are essential ingredients for an authentic Pizza Napolitana, according to the Verace Pizza Napolitana Association in Naples, Italy. These tomatoes require areas with good irrigation, and they will not thrive in hilly topography, or extreme temperatures. The soil in this area near Mt Vesuvius contains volcanic ash, phosphorous and potassium, and the climate is temperate with high humidity much of the year.

Courtesy L'Italo-Americano

The Netherlands: 6.03 feet

The Dutch are on average the tallest people on the planet. Just 150 years ago, they were relatively short. In 1860, the average Dutch soldier in the Netherlands was 5-foot-5. American men were 2.7 inches taller. Since 1860, average heights have increased in many parts of the world, but no people have shot up like the Dutch. The average Dutchman now stands more than 6 feet tall. And while the growth spurt in the United States has stopped in recent years, the Dutch continue to get taller. For years, scientists have sought to understand why average height has increased, and why the Dutch in particular have grown so quickly. Among other factors, the Dutch have a better diet than in the past, and they have better medical care. But Stulp and his colleagues have found evidence suggesting evolution is also helping to make the Dutch taller.

2. Montenegro: 6.01 feet
3. Denmark: 5.99 feet
4. Norway: 5.98 feet
5. Serbia: 5.97 feet

Serbia holds the fifth spot in the list, with its citizens exhibiting an average height of 5.97 feet across both genders. The combination of Slavic and Mediterranean gene pools are the source of these people's great natural heights. The predominant brachycephaly Dinaric trait has been identified as one of these factors. Slavic athletics and exercise from the time of childhood may be other factors influencing the growth spurts. Serbian meals are always rich in dairy products and protein from meat, and dining patterns exemplify meals being partaken of later in the day.

--- The World Health Organization

Marie-Antoinette

In 1780, fourteen year-old Maria Antonia (Marie-Antoinette) of the Habsburg Empire arrived in Versailles to marry Louis XVI. She introduced the French court to a new flaky crescent-shaped bread, called the kipfel (crescent/ croissant). The kipfel originated in 1683 as a comestible celebration of the Austrian victory over the Ottomans at the siege of Vienna. The story follows that a baker, up early to make bread, saved the city when he heard the Turks tunneling underneath the city and sounded an alarm. The kipfel’s curved shape, said to mimic the crescent moon of the Ottoman flag, then would seem to pay poetic tribute to the indomitable spirit of a city that resisted a powerful invading force.

Source: www.smithsonianmag.com

Marlene Dietrich never won an Oscar

Those who did win:
Luise Rainer: (Born Germany) The Great Ziegfeld (1936), The Good Earth (1937)
Sophia Loren: (Born Italy) Two Women (1960)
Maggie Smith: Born England) (The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969)
Charlize Theron: (Born South Africa) Monster (2003)