Do Fish Drink Water?

So, I found this book, Do Fish Drink Water? on our bookshelf that was in our closet. It's not my book, it was left here. I've seen it before, but never taken the interest in looking at it until my friend Ross was here and started looking at it. Anyway, it's a book full of interesting facts and answers to strange questions by Bill McLain.

Today I was reading about the real Count Dracula. Apparently he was based on a guy named Vlad III Dracula, who was the Prince of Wallachia (the present-day Romania). His father was Vlad Dracul. Dracul is the Romanian word for "devil," and the prince was called Dracula, which means "the son of the devil."

The name seems quiet fitting based on what I read about this guy, Vlad III Dracula. He would have his enemies or those to opposed him skinned, beheaded, boiled, blinded, burned, or buried alive. His favorite method though was to impale his victims on stakes (he was also know as "Vlad the Impaler"). Once, he impaled 20,000 Turkish prisoners.

If that wasn't enough, he believed poor people were worthless and theives. He held a feast at his domain and ordered all the poor and sick people in his kingdom there. At the end of the feast, he had the hall boarded up and set it on fire. No one survived.

Despite all of these horrible things he did, there isn't any indication or record of him being a vampire. Some think Bram Stoker modeled his character on him because of a friendship he had with a professor at the University of Budapest who supplied him with information about Vlad III Dracula.

On a side note, I learned that legend has it that vampires have an almost obsessive compulsive-like desire to count, especially things like seeds. People used to sppread mustard seeds or something like that around their house because supposedly it would distract the vampire and take their interest off you, hopefully until the sun comes up. I was quiet surprised I didn't know this actually. I knew about the obsessive complusive thing, but didn't realize it was about counting (gives that Sesame Street Count Dracula guy a whole new meaning). I have this thing about knowing strange things about fictional monsters, werewolves, vampires, etc...so that is why it surprised me so much that I didn't know that little fact. I guess you can only learn so much watching The Monster Squad a few hundred times.