Delilah was given a few thousand pieces of silver to deceive Samson into revealing the secret of his strength. (NKJV) Judges 16:4-5: “And the lords of the Philistines came up to her and said to her, ‘Entice him, and find out where his great strength lies, and by what means we may over power him….and every one of us will give you 1100 pieces of silver.’ ”

The longest book chapter in the Bible is Psalm 119, the shortest is Psalm 117.

James, written around 45 AD, is the oldest book in the New Testament.

In Old Testament times the Mediterranean Sea was called the Great Sea.

The 7 Fathers of the Church:
St Athanasius, St Gregory of Nazianzus, St John Chrysostom, St John of Damascus, St Basil of Caesarea, St Gregory of Nyssa, St Cyril of Alexandria.

The raven is the first bird mention in the Bible. It appears in Genesis 8:7, when it is sent out from the ark by Noah to see if the flood waters have abated. The second bird was a dove, in verse 8.

In 1750 there were about 800 million people in the world. In 1850 there were a billion more, and by 1950, another billion. Then it took just 50 years to double to 6 billion.

In 1870 there were more Irish living in London than in Dublin.

The world average of egg consumption per capita is 230.

Since 1972, some 64 million tons of aluminum cans (about 3 trillion cans) have been produced. Placed end-to-end, they could stretch to the moon about a thousand times. Cans represent less than 1% of solid waste material.

New Zealand is home to 4 million people and 70 million sheep.

Sharks and rays also share the same kind of skin: instead of scales, they have small tooth-like spikes called dentils. The spikes are so sharp that shark skin has long been used as sandpaper.

A giraffe can clean its ears with its 50cm (20 in) tongue.

A snail has two pairs of tentacles on its head. One pair is longer than the other and houses the eyes. The shorter pair is used for smelling and feeling its way around.

A group of geese on the ground is a gaggle – a group of geese in the air is a skein.

The sailfish is the fastest swimmer, reaching 109 km/h (68 mph).

Picasso could draw before he could walk and his first word was the Spanish word for pencil.

The largest statue in the world is Mount Rushmore, the heads of four US Presidents carved into the Black Hills near Keystone. The heads are 18 m (60 ft) tall.

In 1816, Frenchman J.R. Ronden tried to stage a play that did not contain the letter “a.” The Paris audience was offended, rioted and did not allow the play to finish.

In 1097, Trotula, a midwife of Salerno, wrote The Diseases of Women – it was used in medical schools for 600 years.

The shortest stage play is Samuel Beckett’s “Breath” – 35 seconds of screams and heavy breathing.

Early in her career, Whitney Houston sang the jingle used in commercials for Bounce fabric sheets.

Eva Longoria starred in the 2004 flick Carlita’s Secret, a crime drama in which she shared a same-sex smooch with actress Maria Bravo. “It was the most fun I’ve ever had kissing somebody”.

Grey’s Anatomy star Patrick Dempsey began his career as a juggling unicycle-riding clown.

In 1985, a four year old Alicia Keys appeared on The Cosby Show as one of the guests at Rudy’s slumber party.

Mariah Carey was nicknamed “Mirage” in high school because she never showed up for class.