The Book of the Bizarre: Freaky Facts and Strange Stories (52 page)

In 1989 the U.S. Supreme Court conceded that burning the U.S. flag was a right protected by the First Amendment.

SMOKING ANIMALS

Don't offer a cigar, Cuban or otherwise, to any animal in Zion, Illinois. It is illegal! The law makes no mention of cigarettes or pipe tobacco.

NO CROAKING

Frogs may not croak after 11
P.M.
in Memphis, Tennessee.

TREES ARE SACRED

In ancient Germany, you could be punished by death for mutilating a tree.

FULL DISCLOSURE

In July of 1991, the Supreme Court of New York State made a declaration that a home in Nyack, New York, was haunted. Why was the state's high authority brought in to rule over a matter of the supernatural? Because the couple who brought the case to court claimed that the haunting was never disclosed when they bought the house. They said the former owners or
agent should have informed them of the haunting just as termite damage or any other major issue needed to be disclosed, in keeping with the law. And the haunting it-self kept the home from being inhabitable. To recoup their down payment, they took the matter to court. They were awarded damages, after the Supreme Court declared the home haunted, as a matter of law.

BUT IN IDAHO . . .

The state of Idaho has enacted a provision known as the “Ghost in the Attic” statute, which went into effect in 1998. It states that neither a home's seller nor the seller's broker is liable for not disclosing that a property may be haunted. Even if a house is the site of a known suicide or homicide, the seller need not disclose this fact
unless
the buyer specifically writes to the seller and inquires.

WYMIN IN WYOMING

In 1869, women were first granted the right to vote in the territory of Wyoming. The Nineteenth Amendment, which granted voting rights to all women in the United States, wasn't passed until 1920.

FROM THE NEW YORK HERALD TRIBUNE AND OTHER PAPERS, 1941