Interesting Facts

The album Abbey Road was nearly called "Everest". (This would have meant that one of the pop world's most iconic photos was nearly never taken, but the idea of schlepping up Everest for a photo shoot was abandoned, and on 8th August, 1969 the Fab Four walked out of No 3 Abbey Road, and whilst a policeman held up the traffic on Abbey Road, the photographer Iain Macmillan took photos as the band walked back and forth. Since then quite a few people have reproduced that moment, but with no friendly policemen around, they are taking their lives in their hands.)

Mo Farrar is the fastest Englishman to finish the London Marathon. (He came 8th in the marathon, but broke the British record with a time of 2 hours, 8 minutes and 21 seconds.  Only 4 minutes behind the winner, Kipsang Wilson from Kenya (who set a track record of 2 hours 4 minutes 29 seconds). Of course the English press are having a field day of negativity at his expense, just because he didn't win, but he will always be a winner to me.) http://www.learnenglish.de/aprdiary14.html

Ram Singh Chauhan is the proud owner of the world's longest moustache. (His tache is 4.29m (14ft) long, and he told reporters that he spends an hour every day cleaning and combing it,.  He also oils it regularly and washes it every 10 days.  And men say women are vain!)

The iconic artwork The Scream, created by Norwegian expressionist artist Edvard Munch, has sold for just under $120m (£74m). (This makes it the most expensive art work ever sold at auction, the previous record was for Picasso's Nude, Green Leaves, and Bust, which sold for $106.5m in 2010. There are actually 4 versions of this pastel (yes it's no oil painting), but this is the only one owned privately, and it bears a poem written by the artist on the frame. The poem reads: "I was walking along a path with two friends - the sun was setting - suddenly the sky turned blood red - I paused, feeling exhausted, and leaned on the fence - there was blood and tongues of fire above the blue-black fjord and the city. "My friends walked on, and I stood there trembling with anxiety - and I sensed an infinite scream passing through nature." If anyone had been nearby when I heard how much this piece of paper had sold for, they would have heard a scream passing through my ho...