You'd think I'd get tired of USELESS TRIVIA!!!!!
A rat can last longer without water than a camel.
The Declaration of Independence (the very official copy in the Rotunda of the National Archives) is written on parchment, not paper.
A raisin dropped in a fresh glass of soda will bounce up and down continually from the bottom of the glass to the top.
A 2x4 is actually 1-1/2" x 3-1/2" .
40% of McDonald's profits come from the sales of Happy Meals.
Every person has a unique tongue print. (Say "aaah")
315 entries in Webster's 1996 Dictionary were misspelled.
On average, 12 newborns will be given to the wrong parents daily.
John Wilkes Booth's brother once saved the life of Abraham Lincoln's son. Irony.
Playing cards were issued to British pilots in WWII. If they were captured, the cards could be soaked in water and folded to reveal a map for escape.
Dr. Seuss actually pronounced Seuss such that it sounded like Sue-ice.
During the California Gold Rush of 1849 miners sent their laundry to Honolulu for washing and pressing. Due to the high costs in California during these years it was deemed more feasible to send the shirts to Hawaii for servicing.
American Airlines saved $40,000 in 1987 by eliminating one olive from each salad served in first class.
The printing industry gives us other popular phrases, such as "mind your 'p's and 'q's." The moveable block type had the letters in reverse so they would read correctly when imprinted on paper. Apprentices had to remove the type from the pages and return the blocks to their upper and lower cases. Each drawer in the case held a different size of letters, and each drawer was divided into compartments (called sorts) for each letter. The letters 'p' and 'q' could easily be mistaken, so the master printer would advise their apprentices to mind their 'p's and 'q's. (This is debated. Link.)
When the master printer was building a page and discovered that a particular sort was empty, he would get angry. Thus the term "out of sorts".
The question mark came from a monk habit of writing the Latin word for question, quo, at the end of sentences. Over time, the letters were written vertically to save space and morphed into the ? we write today. Similarly, the exclamation point came from the Latin word "Lo", meaning something important that should be heeded. (Lo and behold...)
Wellfleet, Massachusetts has the only town clock in the world that strikes ship's time. (Rings every half hour, to a maximum of 8 rings at the end of each four hour period.)
The very first bomb dropped by the Allies on Berlin during World War II killed the only elephant in the Berlin Zoo.
There are four cars and eleven lightposts on the back of a $10 dollar bill.
Scissors as we know them today (well, pretty much) were invented in Rome in about 100 AD (or CE, if you want to be politically correct).
If one places a tiny amount of liquor on a scorpion, it will instantly go mad and look like it is stinging itself to death. It spasms a lot.
Most scorpions will glow under black (ultraviolet) light. (?!)
If you have three quarters, four dimes, and four pennies, you have $1.19. You also have the largest amount of money in coins without being able to make change for a dollar.
The mask used by Michael Myers in the original Halloween was actually a Captain Kirk mask painted white.
The first product Motorola developed was a record player for automobiles. At that time the most known player on the market was the Victrola, so they called themselves Motorola.
Roses MAY be red, but violets ARE, indeed, violet.
Charlie Chaplin once won third prize in a Charlie Chaplin look alike contest.
In Gulliver's Travels Jonathan Swift described the two moons of Mars, Phobos and Deimos, giving their exact size and speeds of rotation. He did this more than one hundred years before either moon was discovered.
Sherlock Holmes NEVER said, "Elementary, my dear Watson." For that matter, Sherlock Holmes never existed in the first place. But the address where he supposedly lived, 221B Baker Street, still gets a lot of fan mail. I am told that there is a desk there that has the sign "Secretary to Mr. Holmes".
An old law in Bellingham, Wash., made it illegal for a woman to take more than 3 steps backwards while dancing. (?!)
Birds have the right of way on all Utah highways.
A rat can last longer without water than a camel.
The Declaration of Independence (the very official copy in the Rotunda of the National Archives) is written on parchment, not paper.
A raisin dropped in a fresh glass of soda will bounce up and down continually from the bottom of the glass to the top.
A 2x4 is actually 1-1/2" x 3-1/2" .
40% of McDonald's profits come from the sales of Happy Meals.
Every person has a unique tongue print. (Say "aaah")
315 entries in Webster's 1996 Dictionary were misspelled.
On average, 12 newborns will be given to the wrong parents daily.
John Wilkes Booth's brother once saved the life of Abraham Lincoln's son. Irony.
Playing cards were issued to British pilots in WWII. If they were captured, the cards could be soaked in water and folded to reveal a map for escape.
Dr. Seuss actually pronounced Seuss such that it sounded like Sue-ice.
During the California Gold Rush of 1849 miners sent their laundry to Honolulu for washing and pressing. Due to the high costs in California during these years it was deemed more feasible to send the shirts to Hawaii for servicing.
American Airlines saved $40,000 in 1987 by eliminating one olive from each salad served in first class.
The printing industry gives us other popular phrases, such as "mind your 'p's and 'q's." The moveable block type had the letters in reverse so they would read correctly when imprinted on paper. Apprentices had to remove the type from the pages and return the blocks to their upper and lower cases. Each drawer in the case held a different size of letters, and each drawer was divided into compartments (called sorts) for each letter. The letters 'p' and 'q' could easily be mistaken, so the master printer would advise their apprentices to mind their 'p's and 'q's. (This is debated. Link.)
When the master printer was building a page and discovered that a particular sort was empty, he would get angry. Thus the term "out of sorts".
The question mark came from a monk habit of writing the Latin word for question, quo, at the end of sentences. Over time, the letters were written vertically to save space and morphed into the ? we write today. Similarly, the exclamation point came from the Latin word "Lo", meaning something important that should be heeded. (Lo and behold...)
Wellfleet, Massachusetts has the only town clock in the world that strikes ship's time. (Rings every half hour, to a maximum of 8 rings at the end of each four hour period.)
The very first bomb dropped by the Allies on Berlin during World War II killed the only elephant in the Berlin Zoo.
There are four cars and eleven lightposts on the back of a $10 dollar bill.
Scissors as we know them today (well, pretty much) were invented in Rome in about 100 AD (or CE, if you want to be politically correct).
If one places a tiny amount of liquor on a scorpion, it will instantly go mad and look like it is stinging itself to death. It spasms a lot.
Most scorpions will glow under black (ultraviolet) light. (?!)
If you have three quarters, four dimes, and four pennies, you have $1.19. You also have the largest amount of money in coins without being able to make change for a dollar.
The mask used by Michael Myers in the original Halloween was actually a Captain Kirk mask painted white.
The first product Motorola developed was a record player for automobiles. At that time the most known player on the market was the Victrola, so they called themselves Motorola.
Roses MAY be red, but violets ARE, indeed, violet.
Charlie Chaplin once won third prize in a Charlie Chaplin look alike contest.
In Gulliver's Travels Jonathan Swift described the two moons of Mars, Phobos and Deimos, giving their exact size and speeds of rotation. He did this more than one hundred years before either moon was discovered.
Sherlock Holmes NEVER said, "Elementary, my dear Watson." For that matter, Sherlock Holmes never existed in the first place. But the address where he supposedly lived, 221B Baker Street, still gets a lot of fan mail. I am told that there is a desk there that has the sign "Secretary to Mr. Holmes".
An old law in Bellingham, Wash., made it illegal for a woman to take more than 3 steps backwards while dancing. (?!)
Birds have the right of way on all Utah highways.
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[Edited on May 18, 2005 12:22AM]
[Edited on May 18, 2005 12:29AM]