not for parents

2 Not-for-Parents U.S.A.

Speed readIt usually took ten days for riders to race the Pony Express route. But the mail sailed through at record speed when President Lincoln’s Inaugural Address was delivered in seven days, 13 hours. Those were some pooped ponies!

EXPRESS DELIVERY If you are skinny, breath-takingly brave and able to ride a horse at breakneck speed, you may have had the right stuff to deliver mail during the days of the perilous Pony Express. If you can laugh in the face of danger and happen to be an orphan, you’d have the job in the bag for sure! In 1860 daring Pony Express riders thundered across treacherous trails from Missouri to California, riding rough day and night, rain or shine, to make sure the mail went through.

Delivery boyLegend has it that the youngest rider of the Pony Express was a lad named ‘Bronco Charlie’ Miller. He was just 11 when he hit the mail trail.

WANTEDYOUNG, SKINNY, WIRY FELLOWS

NOt OvER EIGhtEEN. MUSt

bE ExpERt RIdERS, WILLING

tO RISK dEath daILY.

ORphaNS pREFERREd.

WaGES $25 pER WEEK.

appLY, pONY ExpRESS

StabLE St Joseph, Missouri

WANT MORE?

3EXPRESS DELIVERY

I wonder if they serve expressos

on the Pony Express – I think

I need one!

I heard it straight from the horse’s

mouth. Mail to San Francisco in just ten days!

A letter bringing news of

Lincoln’s election, delivered

by Pony Express.

Getting lickedThe Pony Express was a fast and furious operation. The horseback relay mail service took off on 3 April 1860, but it came to a halt on 24 October 1861 when the nation got wired with telegraph technology.

Catch the spirit of the Pony Express www.ponyexpressdoc.com/


CANDY-BAR KINGPeople say money melts away, but what if you were paid in chocolate? The Aztec Indians were first to twig to the treasures of the cacao tree. They bashed the beans to make a chocolate beverage fit for kings. Centuries later, a sweetie named Milton Hershey cracked the recipe to give Americans a chocolate bar so cheap they could afford the treat even if they barely had a bean!

Look out, that’s not a chocolate pie,

it’s a cow pie!

We’re feeling a bit shattered

by now.

I’m sweet on the outside, but inside

I’m a bit nuts!

This is such a sweet business.

KISS AND TELLMilton Hershey built a town around his chocolate factory in Pennsylvania. In Hershey, the streets have names like Chocolate Avenue, and the lampost lights are shaped like kisses, but it all started with cacao beans in the jungle.

A nutter for peanut butterPeople thought that coating bite-size morsels of peanut butter in chocolate was an out-of-this-world idea – even E.T. the adorable alien thought Reese’s Pieces® were a runaway success!

Chocolate dropsChocolate tastes heavenly, but can it fall from the sky? Yes! In 1948 in the aftermath of World War II, a US Air Force pilot nicknamed ‘The Chocolate Flyer’ parachuted chocolate bars from his C-54 plane to children in war-torn Berlin.

WANT MORE?

5CANDY-BAR KING

But we’re totally wrapped

to be here!

We’re feeling a bit shattered

by now.

Bean there, done that.

Find out about the first kiss www.thehersheycompany.com/


This mattress sprung out of bed when the storm struck.

Prime tornado time: March

through August, afternoon to

evening.

ToRNADo ALLEYThere are many ups and downs in real estate, but nothing as shattering as having your house picked up by a monster storm that spins it around then drops it down the street! The twisters that tear through Tornado Alley are often deadly. Knowing they’ll face an arsenal of torrential rain, relentless hail and gale-force winds, most people shelter from the fury, but not storm chasers. That’s when these mad scientists whirl in to work!

MEAN AND EXTREMEAbout 1000 tornadoes hit the United States every year, and most strike the central states of Oklahoma, Kansas, the Texas Panhandle, Nebraska, South Dakota and Colorado. Tornadoes will sometimes lift and destroy houses, but leave light objects like paper and plates undisturbed. They have been known to toss trains, suck up snakes and even pluck the feathers from chickens!

Is that a flying snake, for goodness

sake?

TORNADO ALLEY

WANT MORE?

7

Holy cow. This is not the best way to make a milkshake!

What is this, the Tornado

Tango?

Twist and shout

You might think storm chasers are

adrenalin junkies, but most are scientists

who study how supercell storms form.

They use heavy-duty equipment to

gather data in deadly conditions.

Sucked upDuring a tornado in Kansas, a woman took cover in her bathroom.

She grabbed hold of the toilet, but was then sucked up by the twister

and knocked out by flying debris (which hopefully did not come

from the toilet)! She was rescued by two superhero storm chasers.

Meet the Cyclone Cowboy www.stormchaser.com/

TWIRLING TWISTERSTornadoes are born inside a big thunderstorm and created by powerful, twisting winds that form a freaky looking funnel. From the outside, tornadoes can look like snaking ropes, cones or elephant trunks. Debris clouds show that a tornado has reached the ground.

Average tornado alert warning

time: 13 minutes.

8 Not-for-Parents AUSTRALIA8 Not-for-Parents AUSTRALIA

Maim’s my middle nameGood grief, look at those teeth. A great white shark is also nicknamed ‘the white death’. No wonder, really. It has about 240 razor-sharp teeth with jagged edges.

The cage of deathAll this steel stops shark cage divers from becoming a shark meal. This is not for the faint-hearted. There are no creature comforts in the cage and lunch is optional!

Fancy some fish fingers?

What a tourist trap!

TeeTh on The reef

Different sharks have different kinds of teeth,

depending on what they eat. Some teeth are designed to crush the shells

of crabs and sea urchins. Some are smooth and rounded for grinding.

Others just grab and stab!

Jagged edge

More people die

surfing than from

shark attacks.

What a blast!Imagine dodging bombs and bullets while doing a spot of body surfing. In 1935 people were asked to suggest ways to help reduce shark attacks. Some of the more outlandish ideas were to use explosives to blow up the sharks or to mount machine guns up on the cliffs.

teeth of TerrorThere are fish-crunching, morsel-munching sharks bringing grief to the reefs all over Australia, and when their death-delivering dentures wear out or get lodged in a frightened fish, then there’s another row of teeth ready to reign terror!

9TEETH OF TERROR

WANT MORE?

9TEETH OF TERROR

WANT MORE?

Where’s the tooth fairy when

you need her?

Marine park sharksWhat would you expect to see at Shark Bay? Sharks, of course. One kind of shark is called the nervous shark. What’s it got to be nervous about? Maybe the peculiar-looking sharks that it shares its home with.

Head like a hammerHammerhead sharks really nail their victims! They use their flattened heads to hold down their prey before they take a bite.

A cookie-cutter nutterThis is one cookie you don’t want to eat. Cookie-cutter sharks inflict cookie-shaped wounds.

A gruesome gobblerGoblin sharks are always gobblin’ up something, but luckily for swimmers, they usually sink their ferocious teeth into fish and crabs.

Dead on the seabedAt Coogee Aquarium in 1935, a tiger shark vomited up an arm. Fingerprints and a tattoo on the arm led police to a small-time crook who had been dumped at sea.

That trunk looks ’armless.

Shark Bay www.sharkbay.org

10 Not-for-Parents AUSTRALIA

At first, the winning design

sat in the rejection pile.

Barking madConcerts are part of daily life at the Sydney Opera House, but what about a canine concert? In 2010 the world’s first concert for dogs was 20 minutes of hound-howling and toe-tapping fun for about one thousand dogs and their owners. To the humans, it sounded like ear-piercing, high-pitched whistles. To the hounds, it was heavenly harmony.

The master of the pieceWhen Australia ran an international contest to find a design for an opera house, 233 entries from 32 countries flooded in. Jørn Utzon, an architect from Denmark, took out the top prize in 1957. A keen sailor, Utzon created a radical design that looked like a ship with billowing sails. But the project wasn’t always smooth sailing. It took Utzon a couple of years alone to work out how to build the roof ‘sails’.

Meet the radical and rule-breaking Sydney Opera House. You might not know it today, but when it was first designed, some people said that it couldn’t and shouldn’t be built – and it almost wasn’t. But the Sydney Opera House really has plenty to sing about and plenty to smile about, too. It is one of the most photographed buildings on the planet. Outside, it is a meeting place and a greeting place. Inside, the music venues host operas, ballets and dramas. There has even been a flea concert!

when does the flea concert

start?

That dog collar is

nothing to sing about.

hullaBaloo at The harBour

Jørn Utzon

11HULLABALOO AT THE HARBOUR

WANT MORE?

Sydney Opera House – www.sydneyoperahouse.com

The tile fileAt a quick count, there are more than one million tiles on the Opera House’s roof. Luckily, they are self-cleaning when it rains. The tiles look white from afar, but a closer look reveals they consist of cream matt tiles and white glazed tiles. Fancy a look-alike roof on your house? There’s nothing stopping you. They are still available. Just ask for the ‘Sydney tile’.

Opera orangeLike Isaac Newton with his falling apple, architect Jørn Utzon had a real Eureka moment when he peeled an orange and saw the three-dimensional segments. There are 14 roof segments on the Sydney Opera House, forming an ‘orange’ or a perfect sphere if they were all put together.

I hope it rains.

There are miles

of tiles!

I look like an orangE.

vIvID IMAgINATIoNIn May and June, Vivid Sydney,

a festival of light and music, sure

paints the town red – and every

other colour of the rainbow.

At night, colourful creations are

projected onto the sails of the

Opera House. But when it is not

being lit up with special effects,

there’s no need to feel blue.

The white and cream tiles change

colour in the natural sunlight.


Treasure or trash?The Kelly Gang’s armour and helmets went to four different locations, except three of them got muddled up. Not everyone thought Ned Kelly’s stuff was treasure. In the 1950s someone at a museum threw out his shotgun thinking it was junk!

Farmer armourThe Kelly Gang’s armour

was made from the

curved blades of farm

ploughs. Ned’s suit was

the heaviest and weighed

44kg (97lb). Where did

they get hold of the plough

blades? They bought some,

pinched some, and farmers

even gave them some.

a long letterIn February 1879 the Kelly Gang headed to Jerilderie to rob a bank. The robbery took three days. On Friday night, they locked up the two policemen in their own jail and waited for the bank to open on Monday. On Sunday, Ned Kelly got out his now famous 8300-word letter, which explained how he wanted justice for himself and his family.

The iron outlawIn the late 1800s, the thought of having bushrangers roaming about made some folks jumpy. So much so that one man, upon hearing a loud bang, hid up in a tree all night, only to discover in the morning that a cook had dropped a pot! The police were jumpy, too. After all, Ned Kelly, the infamous outlaw, had robbed banks and murdered three policemen. But at Glenrowan in 1880, the police took on the armed and armoured Kelly Gang and won. Three of the gang lay dead, including Ned’s brother Dan. Ned Kelly was wounded but captured. When Ned was hung later that year, he is reported to have said, ‘Such is life!’

I am not a letter box!

13THE IRON OUTLAW

WANT MORE?

In 1869 Ned was arrested for the first time. He was just 14 years old.

DEAD NEDNed was hanged in Melbourne Gaol (Jail) on 11 November 1880. During Ned’s autopsy, his head was cut off. In the 1920s, rumour has it that his skull was a paperweight on a policeman’s desk. Then in 1978 the skull was stolen from the Old Melbourne Gaol. Here’s the latest heads-up. In 2009 the skull, which had ‘E. Kelly’ written on the side, was handed in, but forensic scientists concluded that it wasn’t Ned’s head.

Bones and bullets At the autopsy people took parts of the body for souvenirs. What remained of it was buried in a mass grave in the prison grounds. In 2011 scientists tested the bones from 33 skeletons found in the grave. They identified Ned Kelly’s headless skeleton.

The reward for Ned Kelly’s

capture was split among 67 people!

‘E. Kelly'? 'ned' is short for

EdwarD.

That stands for ‘Really important

person’.

ART, mAke RIP blAck TexT foR coedITIons

14 Not-for-Parents GREAT BRITIAN

A miniature poodle

‘It is not the size of the dog

in the fight, it is the size

of the fight in the dog!’ –

Winston Churchill

Despite its sourpuss expression, pushed-in nose and one heck of an underbite, the British bulldog sums up the grit and determination of the British people. The bulldog is a battler, first used to guard and bait bulls and bears back in the 1200s until the sport of bull baiting was banned in 1835. Luckily, today bulldogs are more likely to guard their food bowls. Many of the bulldog’s British buddies are the cat’s whiskers, too. They were rat catchers, sheep herders and sometimes just a man’s best friend.

BRiTish BuLLdOgs ANd BuddiEs

The leader of the packDuring World War II, the great British leader Winston Churchill was nicknamed ‘the British Bulldog’ by the Russians because of his fighting spirit. If only they’d known that Churchill’s own dog was a miniature poodle.

He would say that.

WANT MORE?

15BRITISH BULLDOGS AND BUDDIES

Some say Mary Queen of Scots’s dog hid under her dress when she was beheaded.

Roast beef and beerSome pubs serve dog-friendly pub grub. One establishment dishes up Sunday roast with cat-flavoured gravy made from beef stock and fish sauce! It can all be washed down with a cool dog beer. There’s not a dog’s chance of getting drunk though. The non-alcoholic drink is made from hops, malt and meat extract.

DoggIE TITbITS Welsh Corgi: The

word ‘corgi’ in Welsh means ‘dwarf dog’. Short legs come in handy when you nip and snap at livestock’s feet while trying to avoid a swift kick.

Border Collie: Its name comes from the fact that it was bred in the border areas between Scotland and England.

What a mascotMany sports clubs

around the world have adopted the courageous, fearless British bulldog as

their mascot. However, some clubs have gone for

more unusual mascots, including weevils,

aardvarks, armadillos, artichokes and even

a pickle!

No dogs allowed?King Charles II was besotted with his dogs to the point that he made a decree that the King Charles Spaniel could go in any public place and even in the Houses of Parliament. This law still stands today. Now that’s pet power!

I don’t think dogs look like their owners.

I look like the dog’s dinner in

this scarf.

ANd BuddiEs

WANT MORE?


29THE £10 TICKET

WANT MORE?

Meet some famous Ten Pound Poms – tenpoundpom.com/famous-poms.php

thE £10 tickETIn the 1960s, for just £10, Brits who were

under 45 years of age could emigrate to

Australia, and kids went for free. When the

Ten Pound Pom scheme started in 1947,

400,000 people pounded the pavement

to register for the £10 tickets. The Brits

were eager to leave behind the rain and

rationing to start a new life in the land

of sea, surf and sun. Postwar Australia

believed it had to ‘populate or perish’!

Dangerous dunnies

The Ten Pound Poms found

some things in Australia

foreign. Many of them had

lovely flush toilets back

home. Imagine their horror

when they saw the Australian

‘dunny’, which was often a

dry toilet down the end of

the garden. The toilet was

called the ‘thunderbox’, and

venomous spiders and snakes

often went to the loo, too.

Pom is short for ‘prisoner of

Mother England’ and refers

to the convicts who were

transported to Australia

from 1787 to 1868.

Australian soldiers called the British

troops during World War II ‘Poms’

because the British ate an instant mash

potato called Pom. How s’mashing!

When the Ten Pound Poms

arrived, the hot sun made

their pale round cheeks turn

rosy red, so they looked

like pomegranates.

PRISONERS, POTATOES

ANd POMEGRANATES

Here are some different ideas about

how the term ‘Pom’ originated:

Pass the test

In the 1950s, to qualify for

the Ten Pound Pom scheme,

adults had to pass a medical

examination. Back in 1901,

a hopeful immigrant had to

write 50 words correctly that the

officer dictated. Sounds easy,

except the officer could choose

50 words from any language!

Spell

‘Einwanderungsquote’.

These huts make

me hot under

the collar!

Where’s spider man

when you need him!

Redback spider

Beating the heat

The Ten Pound Poms almost

did perish! They were

housed in steel huts in

hostels. The huts got so hot

in summer that they had

to be sprayed with water to

cool them down. Some Ten

Pound Poms said it was like

living in a concentration

camp. What a hostile hostel!

If you went home

within two years

of arriving in

Australia, you h

ad

to pay back £110

.

There and back

If you throw a boomerang, it comes

back. For those Ten Pound Poms who

left Australia, went back home and then

returned to Australia, they were given

the name Boomerang Poms. There are

also Ping-Pong Poms, who go back and

forth many times between Australia and

home. No wonder they feel homesick!

Sailing to Australia, 1947


57WALTZING MATILDA

WANT MORE?

Listen to Waltzing Matilda here. www.nla.gov.au/epubs/waltzingmatilda

A swag

A billy

WAlTziNg MATildA

MY BEARD LOOKS LIKE A BUSH!

A sculpture in Winton of the three troopers’ revolvers

It would be easy if you didn’t know the song to think that ‘Waltzing Matilda’ was about a girl named Matilda who liked to waltz. But this famous bush ballad tells a tragic tale of a swagman who, after being tracked down by three troopers for stealing a jumbuck, throws himself into a billabong and drowns. The story behind the song begins with AB Paterson, a bush poet who usually signed his name ‘The Banjo’. But a woman named Christina Macpherson should also take a spot in the limelight.

Singing like billy-ohSometimes it’s good to change your tune, and that’s what happened to the song in 1903. A tea company used the song ‘Waltzing Matilda’ to help promote its product Billy Tea. It wrapped a copy of the song around each tea packet, although the song was slightly different from the original. Which word got more of a mention? Billy, of course!

Play it againIn early 1895 Christina played from ear the tune of a Scottish march song, called Craigielee, on the zither. She played in the sitting room at Dagworth Station, her family’s property near Winton in Queensland. Banjo Paterson was there, too (no, he wasn’t playing the banjo) and wrote the words for the first verse, turning it from a Scottish song into a bush ballad. In 1903 Banjo Paterson sold the rights to the song for five pounds!

Hands up!

‘Waltzing Matilda’ is the official unofficial national anthem.

Once a jolly swagman camped by a billabong,

Under the shade of a Coolibah tree,

And he sang as he watched and waited till his Billy boiled,

You’ll come a-Waltzing Matilda with me.

A zither

SONG wOrdSbillabong – a stagnant part of a river billy – a tin can for making teajumbuck – a sheepswag – personal belongingsswagman – a traveller or a shearer

trooper – a cavalry soldier waltzing matilda – to carry a swag

Tuned into tea A billy was a swagman’s best mate. It doubled as a cooking pot and kettle. It is not surprising then that the swagman in the

first verse of the song watched and waited while his billy boiled.

That’s straight from the horse’s Mouth. A horse, of courseThe initials ‘ABP’ should really stand for ‘A Bush Poet’. But they stand for Andrew Barton Paterson. The solicitor and poet wrote under the pen name ‘The Banjo’, the name of a horse his family owned. To the average bloke, the man is simply known as Banjo Paterson.


WANT MORE?

15

All-AMERICAN ACCIDENTSPop, fizz, aahhh! Happiness is when an accidental invention turns out to be what everyone is gasping for! In 1886 a pharmacist named John Pemberton brewed up a murky mix of ingredients to make a remedy for headaches. He carried a jug of his syrupy concoction to a pharmacy in downtown Atlanta where they added a dash of soda water, declared it delicious and sold it for 5 cents a glass. Coca-Cola® has made a real splash ever since!

ALL-AMERICAN ACCIDENTS

Waffling aroundIce creams were such a hot item at the St Louis World’s Fair in 1904 that the seller ran out of dishes. Quick as a lick, a nearby pastry maker rolled his waffles into a cone shape to hold the treat. He was no drip, was he?

PoPsicle ParadiseIn 1905, 11-year-old Frankie Epperson was making soft drink, but he left his mixing bucket out overnight and the drink froze with the wooden stick standing up. Did forgetful Frankie get a licking? No. He sold his amazing icicles!

When POP goes BANG

Walter E Diemer was an accountant at a chewing gum factory, but one day he didn’t stick to his task. He experimented with gum recipes instead and made a batch of not-too-sticky, stretchy goop. Blowing bubbles became totally POPular!

Mmmm, delicious and refreshing!

It’s DOCTOR Pemberton, but don’t try my medicine if you’ve got

a sore tooth!

Cookie time

In 1930 an innkeeper named Ruth Wakefield ran out of baking chocolate while making cookies. So she chopped up a chocolate bar and added it to the dough, expecting the chunks to melt. They didn’t, and her gooey chocolate chip cookies have been munched and crunched ever since.

THE DOC StartED a fire, addED one iron tub, chuckED in some cola nuts, coco leaves, caffeine and more. THEN HE DipPED in a wooden boat oar and stirRED!

Is it the real thing?

It was a magical mix from the start! www.thecoca-colacompany.com

Bite me!


WANT MORE?

9

GAME’s ON Eyes are focussed. Hearts are racing. Every

muscle is tensed. More than

111 million die-hard sports fans are on

the edge of their seats and you know

why. It’s Super Bowl Sunday! The

game is on, and so is almost every

TV in the country. Football fans

flock to watch their helmet-

headed heroes play ball. But the

biggest players of all may be

GAME’S ON

ON THE WILD SIDE

Sports can bring out the animal

in everyone, but many American

football teams are fierce and feral.

Check out these wild names:

Atlanta Falcons

Buffalo Bills

Carolina Panthers

Chicago Bears

Denver Broncos

Detroit Lions

Philadelphia Eagles

Miami Dolphins (they

make a real splash!)

Super Bowl

Sunday is the

first Sunday

in February.

The Yell Squad No big game is complete without cheerful chants and pom poms. The first cheerleading team was started in 1903 by a bunch of men who called themselves ‘The Yell Squad’.

The gearHelmets, face masks and pads

provide protection for players.

Linemen are padded to the

max because they do the

most blocking and tackling.

Linemen wear a

face mask called

a bird cage.

Countdown to kickoff www.nfl.com/superbowl/

Hair-raising tactics

Troy Polamalu of the Pittsburgh

Steelers is an outstanding

player with outstanding hair.

His locks are so full they could

span 100 football fields Let’s

hope they’re not hair today,

gone tomorrow!

perhaps i can snag

the ball with my

legendary locks!

Road ragePerhaps the most famous British 007 car is the

Aston Martin DB5, which was first used in 1964.

Its spy extras included a passenger ejector seat,

machines guns, a bulletproof shield, and an oil-

slick sprayer. The car’s stand-in was stolen

under the cover of darkness in 1997 and has

never been seen since. Vile villains!


77

BOND, JAMES BOND

WANT MORE?Official website – www.007.com

Bond, James BondAll good spies are meant to blend into the back-

ground to avoid detection. This cannot always be

said of James Bond, a fictional British MI6 agent who

has been eliminating evil on the silver screen for

more than 50 years. With spy gadgets like exploding

toothpaste, shooting ski poles and cars with rocket

launchers, James Bond doesn’t go unnoticed – or

quietly. The villains and their deadly weapons are just

as visible, especially if Bond is wearing his X-ray eye-

glasses designed for serious spying!

Rolling… action!In 2008, a man delivering a 007 car to the film set crashed into a

lake and sank. Luckily, he kicked his way out of the car in true Bond style. Mind you, Bond has had his share of bad luck with vehicles. He has destroyed at least 28 cars, 20 boats and submarines, six helicopters, five planes, two tanks and a

shaken, not stirred!

Reckon he’s got a licence?

Yeah, he’s got a licence to Kill.

This Bond stunt set a record for the world’s

longest boat jump.

Everyday evilThe villains in the Bond movies arm themselves with gadgets, too. The bodyguard of the infamous villain Goldfinger had a specially modified bowler hat with a razor in the rim. When thrown like a frisbee, it could slice and dice through flesh and bone. Hats off to Bond for surviving a hat attack. 007 to HeavenWhen you think of James Bond,

you think of spy gadgets dreamed up by the great gadget maker named Q. Many ordinary objects were certainly packed with a powerful punch and designed to kill:

a briefcase with a sniper rifle, tear gas and a throwing knife

a watch that deflects speeding bullets

killer bagpipes with a machine gun and a set of flame throwers an explosive Parker pen – click the top three times and four seconds later – KAPOW!

Double the troubleJames Bond has the code name 007. The double zeros give him a licence to kill, unlike real MI6 spies. James Bond’s creator, Ian Fleming, knew a real spy named Wilfred “Biffy” Dunderdale, who was a MI6 agent in Paris during World War II. Biffy had a fondness for fast cars and pretty women. Sound familiar?

Fact not FictionIn 1965, when Bond, played by Scottish actor Sean Connery,

uses a jet pack to get back to his car, it was pure science

fiction. Today, real jet packs are starting to take off, so it

won’t be too long before people can escape the real evil of

the city – traffic jams.

KAPOW

GenGis KhanBecause the Great Wall was discontinuous,

Mongol invaders led by Genghis Khan (“universal

ruler”) had no problem going around the wall and

they subsequently conquered most of northern

China between A.D. 1211 and 1223. They ruled

all of China until 1368 when the Ming

defeated the Mongols.

want more?New York City Police Museum – www.nycpolicemuseum.org

30 Not-for-Parents NEW YORK CITY

31

NeW YorK’s FiNesT

The GreaT Wall

stop stealing my bricks!

Qin Shi Huang

Genghis Khan

Top copsThe NYPD has ten separate bureaus, each one with a

chief who reports to the Police Commissioner. There

are also some specialised units, including a Movie and

Television Unit to help people filming in the city.

Top copsThe NYPD has ten separate bureaus, each one with a chief who

reports to the Police Commissioner. There are

also some specialised

animals in blueAbout 120 horses, 30 German

shepherds and 3 bloodhounds serve in the

NYPD. The horses are trained to stay calm

around noises such as sirens, noisy crowd

The most important holiday for Chinese people

the world over is Chinese New Year. A parade

through the streets acts out the legend of a

terrible monster named Nian – the Chinese word

for year – who is frightened off with loud noises

from drums and firecrackers as well as red paper

cutouts on doors.

Kitted outThe NYPD officer on the beat needs to be in full uniform,

which includes a gun and holster, baton and handcuffs, as

well as other special equipment.

Kitted outAccording to legend, a helpful dragon traced

out the course of the Great Wall for the workforce. The builders

subsequently followed the tracks of the dragon.

Money vs fruit

Manhattan Chinatown is a place

to live and a place to do business

for many Chinese in New York. It’s

also a place where locals and tourists

can eat well and score a bargain, but it’s

not the only Chinatown in the city.

Growing communities of Chinese

people in the boroughs of Queens

and Brooklyn. creating other

Chinatowns. Growing communities

of Chinese people in the other

hmmm.... think

i’d prefer

the money

Yay!

Mandarins!

Some text about

lanterns could

go here......

That rat

really gets

my goat!

Kitted out

The NYPD officer on the beat

needs to be in full uniform,

which includes a gun and

holster, baton and handcuffs.

76 Not-for-Parents NEW YORK CITY

Chinese new year

Chinese zodiaC signs

The most important holiday for Chinese people the

world over is Chinese New Year. A parade through

the streets acts out the legend of a terrible monster

named Nian – the Chinese word for year – who is

frightened off with loud noises from drums and

firecrackers as well as red paper cutouts on doors.

Each year around 5000 people take part in the

New York parade for Chinese New Year.

want more? The New York Stock Exchange – www.nyse.com/about/history


67ODD BODS AND ODD BALLS

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Title – address

odd Bods and odd Balls!

I’d rather be goalie!

Trouser troubleOne peculiar pastime has now been banned. Ferret leggers used to tie their trouser legs tightly at the ankles and then put two ferrets down their trousers. This pastime had some very peculiar rules. Ferret leggers couldn’t be drunk and couldn’t wear underwear!

Is that man legless?

Cheese wheel

Odd bods in odd bogsThe small town of Llanwrtyd Wells in Walesis proud of their peculiar pastime – bog snorkelling. Contestants can’t use swimming strokes as they race through the bog. The contest does not always go swimmingly though. In 1995, the World Bog Snorkelling Competition was cancelled due to drought!

As hard as nailsShin-kicking is peculiar – and painful. Long ago, some shin-kickers used to toughen up their shins by banging them with coal hammers. People have been getting their kicks out of this pastime for more than 400 years.

What a sour face!Ever eaten a sour apple and pulled a funny face? The sport of face-pulling, or gurning, started at the Egremont Crab Fair, which was first held in 1267. Legend has it that when the Lord of Egremont gave away sour crab apples, people contorted their faces, and so the pastime began.

Good Grief, where’s

my Teeth?

A cheese rollBreak a leg! The crazy contestants need luckas they race down a steep grassy hill after an eight-pound wheel of Double Gloucester cheese. The cheese bounces and rolls at breakneck speed – and so do the contestants. People don’t break their necks, but some sure break their arms and legs.

The first ball may

have been the severed

head from an execution

that was thrown into

the crowd.

If “eccentric” is your middle name, then how about these peculiar pastimes. You could snorkel in a bog (that’s a wetland not a toilet), chase after a runaway cheese or pull an ugly face without getting told off. These and other peculiar pastimes in Great Britain can make you laugh until you cry, or sometimes just make you cry.

Having a Ball!The Royal Strovetide Football Match is a peculiar pastime in the English town of Ashbourne. The match goes on for two days and hundreds of people join in. The teams have to chase the ball over fields, through streets and across water. That’s because the goals are about five kilometres apart.

16 Not-for-Parents Guides

not for parents

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