We were going to do a page of “bests”—but worsts are funnier. So put on a happy face and read about the worst…
…TRAFFIC CONGESTION A 2002 study found that traffic moved through central London at an average speed of 2.9 mph—slower than walking.
…VIEW The Grand Banks of Newfoundland, Canada, are blanketed by heavy fog for an average of one out of every three days—often for weeks at a time.
…CROSSWORD PUZZLE ANSWER In 1971, the London Times included this word in one of its daily puzzles: honorificabilitudinitatibus.
…REJECTION When King Harald Grenske of Norway proposed marriage to Queen Sigrid Storrada of Denmark in 996, she had him executed.
…MOVIE According to a nationwide poll conducted by the Hastings Bad Cinema Society, the worst movie of the 20th century was John Travolta’s Battlefield Earth.
…VOTING “ERROR” In the 1928 Nigerian presidential election, Charles King beat Thomas Faulkner by 600,000 votes. One problem: Nigeria only had 15,000 registered voters.
…CONSTRUCTION PROJECT Workers spent 90 years building the Church of Corcuetos in Spain. The day after it was finally completed in 1625, it collapsed.
…TOURISTS According to a survey by the online travel service expedia.com, “Britons are the rudest, meanest, and worst-behaved holidaymakers in the world.”
…HANDS IN FOOTBALL Quarterback Warren Moon fumbled the ball 161 times during his 17-year career.
…CAR Click and Clack, the Car Talk guys, polled listeners to find the lousiest make of car ever produced. The winner…er, we mean, loser: the Yugo.
A stone weighs slightly less at the equator than it does at the North Pole.