British village mystified after hundreds of apples fell from the sky over their homes People in the Keresley area of the city said the fruit came raining down at about 19:00 GMT on December 12, hitting passing vehicles. Parish councillor Sandra Camwell said the apple storm lasted a few minutes and was the second occurrence of its kind in a fortnight. Weather experts said winds could have carried the apples from an orchard. Allen Hogan, the owner of Hogan's Cider in Alcester, 30 miles away, said there were no apples obviously missing from his orchards. In Keresley itself Ms Camwell said there was only a small number of fruit trees. She said she believed the apples could have fallen from a passing aircraft. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-coventry-warwickshire-16203214

The name Sudoku comes from Japan and consists of the Japanese characters Su (meaning 'number') and Doku (meaning 'single') but the puzzle itself originates from Switzerland and then travels to Japan by way of America. Sudoku has its deep roots in ancient number puzzles. For many centuries people have been interested in creating and solving puzzles. This was the basis of developing important mathematics. Read about Magic Squares, Chinese Puzzle and more at: http://www.sudokudragon.com/sudokuorigins.htm
Note that letters, pictures or symbols may be used instead of numerals.

new verbs defriend, unfriend
new nouns fake friend, friend collector

It’s that time of the year, again! It’s time for The Marist Poll to reveal the word or phrase considered to be the most annoying in casual conversation. And, for the third consecutive year, “whatever” receives the dubious honor. Nearly four in ten adults nationally — 38% — say “whatever” grates on their nerves the most. “Like” one in five — 20% — say that verbal filler is the most irritating while 19% despise “you know.” “Just sayin’” gets on the nerves of 11% of the population compared with 7% who report “seriously” should be banned from casual conversation. Five percent are unsure. Link to complete release and tables at: http://maristpoll.marist.edu/1216-whatever-still-most-annoying-word-you-know-like-seriously-just-sayin%e2%80%99/

In Greek, psephology means the study of elections. At its root is pseph which means pebble or ballot. In ancient times, Greek citizens were required to present a pebble to cast their votes. It’s the most rudimentary way of gauging public opinion, and while the technology may have changed, our goal at the Marist Poll is the same — to identify current trends by measuring what people think. Pundit comes from a Hindi word that traces its origin back to Sanskrit where, pandita, means learned. See Pebble and Pundits, poll results from Marist Institute for Public Opinion (MIPO) divided by topic at: http://maristpoll.marist.edu/

Dickens trivia
There are over 60 English language adaptations of "A Christmas Carol."
See also: 'Christmas Carol' is a gift worth giving at: http://articles.latimes.com/2011/dec/23/entertainment/la-et-christmas-carol-20111223

This year there will be no Friday 30th December on the Pacific Island of Samoa. Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi says the change to move the Samoan calendar 24 hours forward has been made so business links can be improved with countries like Australia. "In doing business with New Zealand and Australia, we're losing out on two working days a week," the prime minister said. http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/16353404

Three already elderly Stieg Larsson thrillers topped 2011's all-year bestsellers table, followed by Jamie's 30-Minute Meals (the Christmas No 1) and Guinness World Records, with One Day and The Help just outside the top 10. This was a year when old books saw off new ones, and paperbacks sent hardbacks packing. The same seven titles merely change places, with Larsson's trio and David Nicholls's and Kathryn Stockett's two-year-old novels all given renewed sales muscle by movie versions. Joining them are two titles representing the class of 2010 – the nearest thing to new books that the 2011 list's elite group has to offer: a novel by Dawn French (3) that was last year's bestselling debut, and Emma Donoghue's Room (4), Booker-shortlisted and a double bookclub choice. With publishing in transition from "physical books" to ebooks (Nielsen's figures are confined to the former) and no overall picture yet available of the ebook market, buying trends are hard to read. But shoppers seem increasingly reluctant to shell out for higher-price titles, other than "manuals" (such as the Guinness annual or cookbooks), where the hardback format clearly makes sense. America's Jeff Kinney dominates the children's chart, and has five of his Wimpy Kid books in the overall top 30. Lorraine Pascale, with two well-placed spin-off titles (41, 60), is the only newcomer to convincingly challenge the Jamie-Hugh-Nigella-Gordon-Heston old guard of TV cheffery. Epic fantasy writer George RR Martin arrived impressively with titles at 13 and 76. Jo Nesbø's five entries defy talk that the Scandinavian crime boom has run its course, and contribute significantly to Random House at long last overtaking Hachette as top-scoring publishing group.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/dec/29/books-years-bestseller-charts-commentary

Top Worldwide tours in 2011
U2 wouldn’t be at the top of 2011’s box office results if it wasn’t for Bono’s 2010 back injury that resulted in the band postponing a large chunk of its 360° tour until 2011. Worldwide, U2 fans gobbled up 2,387,535 tickets in 2011 at an average price of $97.15 per. The stadium tour sold an average of 91,828 tickets per show for a final global gross of $231.9 million (All figures converted to U.S. dollars). U2’s North American journey was equally impressive, selling 1,701,486 tickets overall for a year’s gross of $156 million. Thanks, Mike http://www.pollstar.com/blogs/news/archive/2011/12/28/792619.aspx
Click http://www.pollstarpro.com/charts/2011YearEndTop25WorldwideTours.pdf for Pollstar’s Top 25 Worldwide Tours chart.