Trivia

Animal Trivia All About Money ... Where Did That Come From? Entertainment Trivia Food Trivia Trivia and Words Fascinating Things You Might Not Know About ... Did You Know? What Is It? The Historical Original of the Middle Finger Ring Around the Rosey 11/22/99 Historical Trivia Brass Monkey Life in the 1500's

ANIMAL TRIVIA

• When opossums are playing 'possum, they are not "playing." They actually pass out in terror.
• In Cleveland, Ohio, it's illegal to catch mice without a hunting license.
• It takes 3,000 cows to supply the NFL with enough leather for a year's supply of footballs. (And you thought they were pigskins!)
• The world's termites outweigh the world's humans 10 to 1.
• An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain.
• Tigers have striped skin, not just striped fur.
• A dragonfly has a lifespan of 24 hours.
• A goldfish has a memory span of three seconds.
• The giant squid has the largest eyes in the world.
• The male gypsy moth can "smell" the virgin female gypsy moth from 1.8 miles away. (pretty good trick)
• A rat can last longer without water than a camel.
• Some insects can live up to a year without their heads.
• A giraffe can clean its ears with its 21-inch tongue!
• Every night, wasps bite into the stem of a plant, lock their mandibles (jaws) into position, stretch out at right angles to the stem, and, with legs dangling, fall asleep.
• Chocolate kills dogs! Chocolate affects a dog's heart and nervous system, and a few ounces are enough to kill a small sized dog.
• Most lipstick contains fish scales.
• Orcas (killer whales) kill sharks by torpedoing up into the shark's stomach from underneath, causing the shark to explode.
• Human birth control pills work on gorillas.
• An elephant can smell water three miles away.
• Bats always turn left when exiting a cave!
• It is possible to lead a cow upstairs but not downstairs.
• Smartest dogs: 1) Scottish border collie; 2) Poodle; 3) Golden retriever. Dumbest: Afghan hound.
• A duck's quack doesn't echo, and no one knows why.
• The reason firehouses have circular stairways is from the days of yore when the engines were pulled by horses. The horses were stabled on the ground floor and figured out how to walk up straight staircases.
• The longest recorded flight of a chicken is thirteen seconds.
• Humans and dolphins are the only species that have sex for pleasure.
• A crocodile cannot stick its tongue out.
• The ant can lift 50 times its own weight, can pull 30 times its own weight and always falls over on its right side when intoxicated.
• Polar bears are left-handed.
• The flea can jump 350 times its body length. That is like a human jumping the length of a football field.
• A cockroach will live nine days without its head before it starves to death.
• Butterflies taste with their feet.
• Elephants are the only animals that can't jump.
• A cat's urine glows under a black light.
• Starfishes haven't got brains.
• The male praying mantis cannot copulate while its head is attached to its body. The female initiates sex by ripping the male's head off.
• A pig's orgasm lasts for 30 minutes.
• Some lions mate over 50 times a day.
• A shark is the only fish that can blink with both eyes.
• There are more chickens than people in the world.
• A cat has 32 muscles in each ear.
• Donkeys kill more people annually than plane crashes.
• Turtles can breathe through their butts. (I know some people like that, don't YOU?)
• A snail can sleep for three years.
• Cats have over one hundred vocal sounds. Dogs only have about 10.
• A tiny amount of liquor on a scorpion will make it instantly go mad and sting itself to death.
• The rat is the most common animal in the world. It is found everywhere in the world, including Antarctica, but not in New Zealand.
• The cost of raising a medium-size dog to the age of eleven is $6,400.
• Mosquito repellents don't repel. They hide you. The spray blocks the mosquito's sensors so they don't know you're there.
• The reason firehouses have circular stairways is from the days when the engines were pulled by horses. The horses were stabled on the ground floor and figured out how to walk up straight staircases.

ALL ABOUT MONEY ...

• On a Canadian two-dollar bill, the flag flying over the Parliament Building is an American flag.
• All 50 states are listed across the top of the Lincoln Memorial on the back of the $5 bill.
• A dime has 118 ridges around the edge.
• On an American one-dollar bill, there is an owl in the upper left-hand corner of the "1" encased in the "shield" and a spider hidden in the front upper right-hand corner.
• Money isn't made out of paper, it's made out of cotton. Before the 1950's it was made from Hemp, the stem and leaves of a marijuana plant.
• The numbers '172' can be found on the back of the US $5 bill in the bushes at the base of the Lincoln Memorial.
• Every day more money is printed for Monopoly than the US Treasury.
• 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.
• There are 293 ways to make change for a dollar.
• Michael Jordan makes more money from Nike annually than all of the Nike factory workers in Malaysia combined.

WHERE DID THAT COME FROM?

• In Shakespeare's time, mattresses were secured on bed frames by ropes. When you pulled on the ropes the mattress tightened, making the bed firmer to sleep on. That's where the phrase, "Goodnight, sleep tight" came from.
• The phrase "rule of thumb" is derived from an old English law which stated that you couldn't beat your wife with anything wider than your thumb.
• The term "the whole 9 yards" came from W.W.II fighter pilots in the Pacific. When arming their airplanes on the ground, the .50 caliber machine gun ammo belts measured exactly 27 feet, before being loaded into the fuselage. If the pilots fired all their ammo at a target, it got "the whole 9 yards."
• The name Jeep came from the abbreviation used in the army for the "General Purpose" vehicle, GP.
• It was the accepted practice in Babylon 4,000 years ago that for a month after the wedding, the bride's father would supply his son-in-law with all the mead he could drink. Mead is a honey beer, and because their calendar was lunar based, this period was called the "honey month" or what we know today as the "honeymoon."
• In English pubs, ale is ordered by pints and quarts. So in old England, when customers got unruly, the bartender would yell at them to mind their own pints and quarts and settle down. It's where we get the phrase "mind your P's and Q's."
• Many years ago in England, pub frequenters had a whistle baked into the rim or handle of their ceramic cups. When they needed a refill, they used the whistle to get some service. "Wet your whistle," is the phrase inspired.
• The Ramses brand condom is named after the great pharaoh Ramses II, who fathered over 160 children.
• To "testify" was based on men in the Roman court swearing to a statement made by swearing on their testicles.
• If a statue in the park of a person on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle; if the horse has one front leg in the air, the person died as a result of wounds received in battle; if the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes.
• Clans of long ago that wanted to get rid of their unwanted people without killing them would burn their houses down - hence the expression "to get fired."

ENTERTAINMENT TRIVIA

• The first toilet ever seen on television was on "Leave It To Beaver."
• All of the clocks in Pulp Fiction are stuck on 4:20.
• The characters Bert and Ernie on Sesame Street ere named after Bert the cop and Ernie the taxi driver in Frank Capra's "Its A Wonderful Life"
• Who's that playing the piano on the "Mad About You" theme? Paul Reiser, himself.
• The name for Oz in the "Wizard of Oz" was thought up when the creator, Frank Baum, looked at his filing cabinet and saw A-N, and O-Z, hence "Oz."
• The mask used by Michael Myers in the original "Halloween" was a Captain Kirk mask painted white.
• John Lennon's first girlfriend was named Thelma Pickles.
• "60 Minutes," on CBS is the only TV show without a theme song.
• The Beatles did not play a single note in the song, "Eleanor Rigby".
• Susan Lucci is the daughter of Phyllis Diller.
• Warren Beatty and Shirley MacLaine are brother and sister.
• Sylvia Miles had the shortest performance ever nominated for an Oscar with "Midnight Cowboy". Her entire role lasted only six minutes.
• During the chariot scene in 'Ben Hur' a small red car can be seen in the distance.
• Donald Duck comics were banned from Finland because he doesn't wear pants.
• The name Wendy was made up for the book Peter Pan, there was never a recorded Wendy before!
• Bruce Lee was so fast that they actually had to SLOW a film down so you could see his moves. That's the opposite of the norm.
• The first CD pressed in the US was Bruce Springsteen's 'Born in the USA.'
• Casey Kasem is the voice of Shaggy on Scooby-Doo.
• The first couple to be shown in bed together on prime time television was Fred and Wilma Flintstone.
• There's no Betty Rubble in the Flintstones Chewables Vitamins.
• The airplane Buddy Holly died in was the "American Pie." (Thus the name of the Don McLean song.)
• 1 in every 4 Americans has appeared on television.
• Walt Disney was afraid of mice.
• The sound of E.T. walking was made by someone squishing her hands in jelly, Debra Winger was the voice of E.T.
• In every episode of Seinfeld there is a Superman somewhere.
• Mr. Rogers is an ordained minister.

FOOD TRIVIA

• When Heinz ketchup leaves the bottle, it travels at a rate of 25 miles per year.
• Ketchup was sold in the 1830's as medicine.
• Ten percent of the Russian government's income comes from the sale of vodka.
• There's an average of 178 sesame seeds on McDonald's Big Mac bun.
• 40% of McDonald's profits come from the sales of Happy Meals.
• Astronauts are not allowed to eat beans before they go into space because passing wind in a space suit damages it. (It also smells up the atmosphere.)
• Almonds are members of the peach family.
• The only real person to be a PEZ head was Betsy Ross.
• Did you know that there are coffee flavored PEZ?
• The microwave was invented after a researcher walked by a radar tube and a chocolate bar melted in his pocket.
• 100% of all lottery winners gain weight.
• You burn more calories sleeping than you do watching television.
• Celery has negative calories! It takes more calories to eat a piece of celery than the celery has in it to begin with.
• Your stomach has to produce a new layer of mucus every two weeks otherwise it will digest itself.
• A raisin dropped in a glass of fresh champagne will bounce up and down continually from the bottom of the glass to the top.
• A person cannot taste food unless it is mixed with saliva. For example, if a strong-tasting substance like salt is placed on a dry tongue, the taste buds will not be able to taste it. As soon as a drop of saliva is added and the salt is dissolved, however, a definite taste sensation results. This is true for all foods. Try it!
• The 'spot' on 7UP comes from its inventor who had red eyes. He was albino.
• The citrus soda 7-UP was created in 1929; "7" was selected because the original containers were 7 ounces. "UP" indicated the direction of the bubbles.
• The first product to have a bar code was Wrigley's gum.
• Bubble gum contains rubber.
• Chewing gum while peeling onions will keep you from crying!
• Coca-Cola was originally green.
• Iceland consumes more Coca-Cola per capita than any other nation.
• Hershey's Kisses are called that because the machine that makes them looks like it's kissing the conveyor belt.
• Peanuts are one of the ingredients in dynamite.
• The liquid inside young coconuts can be used as substitute for blood plasma.
• Apples, not caffeine, are more efficient at waking you up in the morning.
• Pearls melt in vinegar.
• The glue on Israeli postage stamps is certified kosher.
• The only food that doesn't spoil is honey.
• American Airlines saved $40,000 in 1987 by eliminating one olive from each salad served in first class.
• Nutmeg is extremely poisonous if injected intravenously.
• Two-thirds of the world's eggplant is grown in New Jersey.

TRIVIA AND WORDS

• The sentence "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog." uses every letter in the alphabet. (developed by Western Union to test telex/twx communications.
• The only 15 letter word that can be spelled without repeating a letter is "uncopyrightable".
• If you were to spell out numbers, you would have to to "one thousand" until you would find the letter "A".
• The longest one-syllable word in the English language is "screeched."
• No word in the English language rhymes with month, orange, silver or purple.
• "Dreamt" is the only English word that ends in the letters "MT".
• There are only four words in the English language which end in "-dous": tremendous, horrendous, stupendous, and hazardous.
• There are two words in the English language that have all five vowels in order: "abstemious" and "facetious."
• "Stewardesses" is the longest word that is typed with only the left hand.
• "Typewriter" is the longest word that can be made using the letters only on one row of the keyboard.
• The average person's left hand does 56% of the typing.
• 315 entries in Webster's 1996 Dictionary were misspelled.
• According to most executives, a typo in their resume automatically eliminates a candidate from job consideration.
• The dot over the letter 'i' is called a tittle.
• Upper and lower case letters are named 'upper' and 'lower' because in the time when all original print had to be set in individual letters, the 'upper case' letters were stored in the case on top of the case that stored the smaller 'lower case' letters.
• There are no words in the dictionary that rhyme with: orange, purple, and silver!
• The Hawaiian alphabet has 12 letters.
• First novel ever written on a typewriter: Tom Sawyer.
• "I am." is the shortest complete sentence in the English language.

FASCINATING THINGS YOU MIGHT NOT KNOW ABOUT ...

Sports

• There are 336 dimples on a regulation golf ball.
• The only two days of the year in which there are no professional sports games (MLB, NBA, NHL, or NFL) are the day before and the day after the Major League all-stars Game.
• No NFL team which plays its home games in a domed stadium has ever won a Super Bowl.
• When the University of Nebraska Cornhuskers play football at home, the stadium becomes the state's third largest city.
• Babe Ruth wore a cabbage leaf under his cap to keep him cool! He changed it every 2 innings!
  Advertising
  
• The 3 most valuable brand names on earth: Marlboro, Coca-Cola, and Budweiser, in that order.
• The first owner of the Marlboro Company died of lung cancer. So did the first "Marlboro Man."
• The first product Motorola started to develop was a record player for automobiles. At that time, the most known player on the market was the Victrola, so they called themselves Motorola.
• In most advertisements, including newspapers, the time displayed on a watch is 10:10.
  Humans and Anatomy
  
• Men can read smaller print than women; women can hear better.
• Women blink nearly twice as much as men.
• Only one person in two billion will live to be 116 or older.
• Intelligent people have more zinc and copper in their hair.
• It's impossible to sneeze with your eyes open.
• Babies are born without kneecaps. They don't appear until the child reaches 2 to 6 years of age.
• Our eyes are always the same size from birth, but our nose and ears never stop growing.
• Every person has a unique tongue print.
• The strongest muscle in the body is the TONGUE.
• You can't kill yourself by holding your breath.
• Right-handed people live, on average, nine years longer than left-handed people do.
• On average, 100 people choke to death on ball-point pens every year.
• On average, 12 newborns will be given to the wrong parents daily.
• The world's youngest parents were 8 and 9 and lived in China in 1910.
• Dentists have recommended that a toothbrush be kept at least 6 feet away from a toilet to avoid airborne particles resulting from the flush.
• Most dust particles in your house are made from dead skin.
  Cards
  
• The king of hearts is the king without a mustache.
• Each king in a deck of playing cards represents a great king from history. Spades - King David, Clubs - Alexander the Great, Hearts - Charlemagne, and Diamonds - Julius Caesar.
  Celebrity
  
• Al Capone's business card said he was a used furniture dealer.
• Einstein couldn't speak fluently when he was nine. His parents thought he might be retarded.
• Leonardo da Vinci could write with one hand and draw with the other at the same time.
• Leonardo Da Vinci invented scissors; also, it took him 10 years to paint Mona Lisa's lips.
• Barbie's full name is Barbara Millicent Roberts.
• Barbie's measurements if she were life size: 39-23-33.
  Everything Else
  
• The Main Library at Indiana University sinks over an inch every year because when it was built, engineers failed to take into account the weight of all the books that would occupy the building.
• Thirty-five percent of the people who use personal ads for dating are already married.
• In 10 minutes, a hurricane releases more energy than all the world's nuclear weapons combined.
• A "jiffy" is an actual unit of time for 1/100th of a second.
• If you are an average American, in your whole life, you will spend an average of 6 months waiting at red lights.
• February 1865 is the only month in recorded history not to have a full moon.
• The winter of 1932 was so cold that Niagara Falls froze completely solid.
• There are no clocks in Las Vegas gambling casinos.
• By raising your legs slowly and laying on your back, you can't sink in quicksand.
• Guinness Book of Records holds the record for being the book most often stolen from Public Libraries.
• The youngest pope was 11 years old.
• In the 1940s, the FCC assigned television's Channel 1 to mobile services (two-way radios in taxicabs, for instance) but did not re-number the other channel assignments. That is why your TV set has channels 2 and up, but no channel 1.
• "Hang On Sloopy" is the official rock song of Ohio.
• 111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321
• The cruise liner, Queen Elizabeth II, moves only six inches for each gallon of diesel that it burns.
• The highest point in Pennsylvania is lower than the lowest point in Colorado.
• Rubber bands last longer when refrigerated.
• Los Angeles' full name is "El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de los Angeles de Porciuncula"
• American car horns beep in the tone of F.
• No piece of paper can be folded in half more than 7 times.
• Oak trees do not produce acorns until they are fifty years of age or older.
• A Boeing 747's wingspan is longer than the Wright brother's first flight.
• Venus is the only planet that rotates clockwise.
• The plastic things on the end of shoelaces are called aglets.

DID YOU KNOW?

Q: About 1/3 of all Americans say they do this while sitting?
A: Flush the toilet.

Q: What do bullet proof vests, fire escapes, windshield wipers and laser printers all have in common?
A: All invented by women.

Q: Who is "Lisa Gheradini"?
A: DaVinci's Mona Lisa

Q: What common everyday occurrence is composed of 59% nitrogen, 21% hydrogen and 9% dioxide?
A: A fart.

Q: What is the percentage of Africa that is wilderness?
A: 28%

Q: What is the percentage of North America that is wilderness?
A: 38%

Q: Half of all Americans live within 50 miles of what?
A: Their birthplace.

Q: On what day are there are more collect calls than any other day of the year?
A: Father's Day.

Q: What city has the most Rolls Royce's per capita?
A: Hong Kong

Q: What state has the highest percentage of people who walk to work?
A: Alaska

Q: What is the average number of days a West German goes without washing his underwear?
A: 7

Q: What percentage of American men say they would marry the same woman if they had it to do all over again?
A: 80%

Q: What percentage of American women say they'd marry the same man?
A: 50%

Q: What is the average number of people airborne over the US at any given hour?
A: 61,000

Q: What percentage of Americans have visited Disneyland or Disney World?
A: 70%

Q: What is the average life span of a major league baseball?
A: 7 pitches

Q: Who is the only President to win a Pulitzer Prize?
A: John F. Kennedy for Profiles in Courage

Q: If you're single, there's a 1 in 3 chance you did this the last time you were with your significant other. What is it?
A: Lied

Q: It takes an average person about 7 minutes to do this. What is it?
A: Fall asleep

Q: Some men are "pee-pee shy" in public. Experts agree that this will help them go. What is it?
A: Multiply numbers in their head

Q: This stimulates 29 muscles and chemicals causing relaxation. Women seem to like it light and frequent, men like it more strenuous. What is it?
A: A kiss

Q: 85% of the guys who die while having sex are doing this. What is it?
A: Cheating on their spouse

This famous weapon was made from the native English yew tree, and the act of drawing the longbow was known as "plucking the yew." Much to the bewilderment of the French, the English won a major upset and began mocking the French by waving their middle fingers at the defeated French, saying, "See, we can still pluck yew! PLUCK YEW!"

Over the years, some 'folk etymologies' have grown up around this symbolic gesture. Since 'pluck yew' is rather difficult to say (like "pleasant mother pheasant plucker", which is who you had to go to for the feathers used on the arrows for the longbow), the difficult consonant cluster at the beginning has gradually changed to a labiodental fricative 'F', and thus the words often used in conjunction with the one-finger-salute are mistakenly thought to have something to do with an intimate encounter. It is also because of the pheasant feathers on the arrows that the symbolic gesture is known as "giving the bird"

11/22/99

The next even day will be 2/2/2000, the first even day since 8/28/888.

Have Nice Odd & Even Days!

HISTORICAL TRIVIA

• Richard Milhouse Nixon was the first US president whose name contains all the letters from the word "criminal." The second? William Jefferson Clinton.
• All US Presidents have worn glasses. Some just didn't like being seen wearing them in public.
• Adolf Hitler's mother seriously considered having an abortion but was talked out of it by her doctor.
• Only two people signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4th, John Hancock and Charles Thomson. Most of the rest signed on August 2, but the last signature wasn't added until 5 years later.
• The Declaration of Independence was written on hemp paper.
• George Washington grew marijuana in his garden.
• John Wilkes Booth's brother once saved the life of Abraham Lincoln's son.
• Both Hitler and Napoleon were missing one testicle.
• The San Francisco Cable cars are the only mobile National Monuments
• The Eisenhower interstate system requires that one mile in every five must be straight. These straight sections are usable as airstrips in times of war or other emergencies.
• The Pentagon, in Arlington, Virginia, has twice as many bathrooms as is necessary. When it was built in the 1940s, the state of Virginia still had segregation laws requiring separate toilet facilities for blacks and whites.
• Daniel Boone detested coonskin caps.
• Because metal was scarce, the Oscars given out during World War II, were made of wood.
• Winston Churchill was born in a ladies' room during a dance.
• Maine is the only state whose name is just one syllable.
• In England, the Speaker of the House is not allowed to speak.

BRASS MONKEY

The best storage method devised was a square based pyramid with one ball on top, resting on four resting on nine, which rested on sixteen. Thus, a supply of 30 cannon balls could be stacked in a small area right next to the cannon. There was only one problem...how to prevent the bottom layer from sliding or rolling from under the others.

The solution was a metal plate called a "Monkey" with 16 round indentations. But, if this plate were made of iron, the iron balls would quickly rust to it.

The solution to the rusting problem was to make "Brass Monkeys." Few landlubbers realize that brass contracts much more and much faster than iron when chilled. Consequently, when the temperature dropped too far, the brass indentations would shrink so much that the iron cannon balls would come right off the monkey. Thus, it was quite literally, "Cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey".

And all this time, you thought that was an improper expression, didn't you?

LIFE IN THE 1500'S

Baths consisted of a big tub filled with hot water. The man of the house had the privilege of the nice clean water, then all the other sons and men, then the women and finally the children. Last of all the babies. By then the water was so dirty you could actually lose someone in it. Hence the saying, "Don't throw the baby out with the bath water."

Houses had thatched roofs-thick straw-piled high, with no wood underneath. It was the only place for animals to get warm, so all the cats and other small animals (mice, bugs) lived in the roof. When it rained it became slippery and sometimes the animals would slip and fall off the roof. Hence the saying, "It's raining cats and dogs."

There was nothing to stop things from falling into the house. This posed a real problem in the bedroom where bugs and other droppings could mess up your nice clean bed. Hence, a bed with big posts and a sheet hung over the top afforded some protection. That's how canopy beds came into existence.

The floor was dirt. Only the wealthy had something other than dirt. Hence the saying, "Dirt poor." The wealthy had slate floors that would get slippery in the winter when wet, so they spread thresh (straw) on floor to help keep their footing. As the winter wore on, they added more thresh until, when you opened the door, it would all start slipping outside. A piece of wood was placed in the entranceway. Hence the saying a thresh hold.

In those old days, they cooked in the kitchen with a big kettle that always hung over the fire. Every day they lit the fire and added things to the pot. They ate mostly vegetables and did not get much meat. They would eat the stew for dinner, leaving leftovers in the pot to get cold overnight and then start over the next day. Sometimes stew had food in it that had been there for quite a while. Hence the rhyme, "Peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot nine days old."

Sometimes they could obtain pork, which made them feel quite special. When visitors came over, they would hang up their bacon to show off. It was a sign of wealth that a man could bring home the bacon. They would cut off a little to share with guests and would all sit around and chew the fat.

Those with money had plates made of pewter. Food with high acid content caused some of the lead to leach onto the food, causing lead poisoning death. This happened most often with tomatoes, so for the next 400 years or so, tomatoes were considered poisonous.

Bread was divided according to status. Workers got the burnt bottom of the loaf, the family got the middle, and guests got the top, or the upper crust.

Lead cups were used to drink ale or whisky. The combination would sometimes knock the imbibers out for a couple of days. Someone walking along the road would take them for dead and prepare them for burial. They were laid out on the kitchen table for a couple of days and the family would gather around and eat and drink and wait and see if they would wake up. Hence the custom of holding a wake.

England is old and small and the local folks started running out of places to bury people. So they would dig up coffins and would take the bones to a bone-house, and reuse the grave. When reopening these coffins, 1 out of 25 coffins were found to have scratch marks on the inside and they realized they had been burying people alive. So they would tie a string on the wrist of the corpse, lead it through the coffin and up through the ground and tie it to a bell. Someone would have to sit out in the graveyard all night (the graveyard shift) to listen for the bell; thus, someone could be, saved by the bell or was considered a "dead ringer".

And that's the truth ... now, whoever said History was boring??