• It was American mythologist Joseph Campbell who made the following sage observation: “The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek.”

• If you’re an aficionado of barbed wire, be sure to head to LaCrosse, Kansas, during the first weekend of May. Collectors gather there every year for the Antique Barbed Wire Swap and Sell Festival.

• You might be surprised to learn that both men and women have an Adam’s apple; it’s more visible on men because men have larger larynxes and because women tend to have more fatty tissue in their necks.

• You doubtless know of Alexander Hamilton, one of America’s Founding Fathers, as the nation’s first Secretary of the Treasury, and you’ve probably heard that he was fatally wounded in a duel with Vice President Aaron Burr. Most of his accomplishments are not common knowledge, though — and they deserve to be. Born into poverty on the Caribbean island of Nevis, the illegitimate son of a Scots merchant, Hamilton began work as a clerk at the age of 11. His employers were so impressed with his intelligence that they paid for him to attend school in America, where he became involved in revolutionary politics. He was a lieutenant colonel by the age of 20 and managed to marry into one of the most distinguished families in New York. In addition to writing most of the Federalist Papers, Hamilton founded the New York Post, the U.S. Coast Guard and the U.S. Mint.

• Marie de Medici, queen of France in the early 17th century, once had a gown made that was embellished with more than 3,000 diamonds and 30,000 pearls.

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Thought for the Day: “He who is only just is cruel. Who on earth could live were all judged justly?” — Lord Byron

Reach Weekender at wbwnews@civitasmedia.com.

By Samantha Weaver

Weekender Wire Service

http://www.theweekender.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/strange_true_P20160215.pdf