Beethoven often dipped his head in cold water before composing! (And sometimes the water flowed down to the floor below).

Beethoven had exactly 60 coffee beas in he's cup of coffee.

Similar story:

While Khachaturian was on Stalin's fecal roster, he heard one of his banned pieces being played, and asked "who is the composer". The answer was that the piece was very old, and the composer long forgotten.

Not for a composer, but a pianist...

Richter while out of the country was always being followed by 'an official' (KGB I assume, or something like that in that time). So he entered a bus, and the man entered in front of him and in front of the door. Richter kindly asked if the man was going to get off in the next stop and hit the bell. The man said that he was going to get off (in order to follow Richter). The man did get off the bus, but Richter never got off eventually!

Ok... so not too strange

If you're not sure about whether it's a myth (and no one really knows the truth regarding this) then don't say it's false!
You've taken your "proofs" from obvious articles, but the essercizi were not written, but published in 1738 when Scarlatti was still in his early 50s. It would appear that the earliest of them date to around 1719-20.
Now, the truth IS that there is found quite a bit of handcrossing in a few of the later sonatas. Also one of his most important patrons (I don't remember the queen's proper name at the moment) was known to be quite overweight.

I'm not sure whence this one originates, but it's all over the place. There is no more truth to it than Santa or the Easter Bunny.

It's actually quite well documented that this was Beethoven's way of washing himself. Standing in a tub he poured so much water over himself that the tub often run over, bothering the neighbors living downstairs. Beethoven had some problems with his renters because of this. It is, however, not true that he did this before composing.
Another strange fact about Beethoven: his math skills were abysmal. Sometimes he even scratched some additions in his window shutter. In one case he tried to add five plus five (or something similar) and his result was something like twenty two.

Something I read about Rossini: a pupil who had composed two piano pieces asked Rossini if he would listen to them and share his opinion. Rossini kindly agreed. After the pupil only having played the first of the two, Rossini said: "I like the second one better".

This is not that interesting, but Ravel was born with the sun in Pisces and wrote three of the great water-themed piano pieces...Jeux D'eau, Une Barque sur l'ocean, and Ondine...though if I had to guess I would say his ascendant was either in Virgo or Gemini.

There are so many strange Wagner facts, he had such an interesting life....if you read a biography, on pretty much every page you will find something you might not have expected. Apparently the original cast of the Ring cycle kept a monkey around for entertainment....Wagner once stood on his head to keep the mood effervescent among said cast (Cosima was said to disapprove of this kind of frivolity, however). At least, that's what I remember reading. Apparently multiple conductors have had heart attacks at around the same point in the score of Tristan und Isolde, though I forget who these were.

I read in a biography of Stravinsky that he was fascinated by an appendectomy that someone close to him received, and apparently from that point on recommended the procedure to anyone who complained of the slightest stomach irritation....I was just tickled when I read that

Okay, now I just kind of feel like I'm spreading rumors.

If you read my whole post, you'd see that I didn't.

I indicated I wasn't sure. But I'd bet you that it's so! And anyway it seems you wouldn't take the bet, because from what you say later in your post, it looks like you AGREE that the thing is probably false! So why do you say that other kind of stuff?

No need to answer; the question was rhetorical.

After Haydn's death, Joseph Rosenbaum, a friend of Haydn and secretary to the second Prince Nikolaus, persuaded the prince to let him decapitate the composer in order to examine it for phrenological purposes, promising to return it in a matter of weeks.
It was not until, in 1820, when Esterhazy honoured his intention of transferring Haydn's corpse to a specially built mausoleum at Eisenstaedt, that it was discovered that the composer was a head short!
After a complicated plot of theft, double-dealing and court cases, the skull ended up in the Vienna "Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde" in 1839. Here, the skull was put on display in a glass case sitting on a piano, where it remained until 1954!
On 5 June that year, Haydn's head made the 30-killometere journey from Vienna (via his birthplace) to Eisenstaedt, to be reunited with his trunk 145 years after they had been parted!

Are you sure these are facts? Your post sent me scurrying to find my book about Satie (couldn't find it). But my memory is that Satie did write an essay about himself stating many of these things. True, he was in many ways eccentric, but in his writing he was relentlessly humorous, and I don't believe all of these were meant to be taken factually.

today we'd classify Satie as OCD and dope him up with zoloft, paxil, celexa, etc ...

In order not to get stopped by the customs, Horowitz hid pound sterling money in his shoes when leaving Russia.

....and that's why we now have to take off our shoes at airports.

Liszt once slapped Chopin and called him a punk.

And then he slept with George Sand while Chopin was away, right? :P

Well I have never heard that anecdote, Damon. Where is your source, mate?

I have read that Samson François was once slapped by his teacher Marguerite Long for some transgression during a lesson.

(He is just poking at Chopin since he has a current distaste for him.)

^ Never know about Damon...

He just made a little mistake -- he meant that Damon once slapped Chopin and called him a punk.

No, he slapped her too and then ordered her to make him some pie.

Brahms has his own breakfast cereal.

He also slapped Chopin.

And George Sand, whom he referred to as "Sandy Georgette"

I'm not buying it. Come one now, who here could imagine Liszt going neanderthal on anyone? It's simply not possible, even considering that whiny Chopin guy who probably deserved a good slap now and then. Besides, Liszt probably had so much pie thrown at him...well I'll leave it at that.

However, a perusal of Liszt's letters do indicate propensity to invite himself into the homes of the aristocracy for extended stays. A world class opportunist perhaps, but to imagine him as a thug, never!

A strange fact about Beethoven's "Fur Elise". This 'title' is almost certainly wrong and came into being because of a reading error by Ludwig Nohl who has edited autograph before it was lost. The dedication was not "Fur Elise" but for Therese Malfatti but Nohl misread it (cheers to Beethovens handwriting ) So actually the piece should be called "Fur Therese".

Chopin took up with George Sand - - -

(Far as I know Liszt never slapped Chopin but he's rumored to have used Chopin's apartment for an amorous tryst with the fiancee of a mutual friend while Chopin was out of town - and left the evidence - )

As you can see, my sources are impeccable:

Oh Godness..