The national anthem
of Greece has 158 verses. No one in Greece has memorized all 158
verses.
There are 293 ways to
make change for a dollar.
The average
secretary's left hand does 56% of the typing.
A shark is the only
fish that can blink with both eyes.
There are more
chickens than people in the world.
Two-thirds of the
world's eggplant is grown in New Jersey.
The longest
one-syllable word in the English language is "screeched."
On a Canadian two
dollar bill, the flag flying over the Parliament Building is an
American flag.
All of the clocks in
the movie Pulp Fiction are stuck on 4:20.
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".
All 50 states are
listed across the top of the Lincoln Memorial on the back of the
$5 bill.
Almonds are members
of the peach family.
Winston Churchill was
born in a ladies' room during a dance.
Maine is the only
state whose name is just one syllable.
There are only four
words in the English language which end in "-dous": tremendous,
horrendous, stupendous, and hazardous.
Los Angele's full
name is "El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reinade los Angeles de
Porciuncula". And can be abbreviated to 3.63% of its size,
"L.A."
A cat has 32 muscles
in each ear.
An ostrich's eye is
bigger than its brain.
Tigers have striped
skin, not just striped fur.
In most
advertisements, including newspapers, the time displayed on a
watch is 10:10.
Al Capone's business
card said he was a used furniture dealer.
The only real person
to be a Pez head was Betsy Ross.
The Ramses brand
condom is named after the great pharaoh Ramses II who fathered
over 160 children.
When the University
of Nebraska Cornhuskers play football at home, the stadium
becomes the state's third largest city.
The characters Bert
and Ernie on Sesame Street were named after Bert the cop and
Ernie the taxi driver in Frank Capra's "Its A Wonderful Life."
A dragonfly has a
lifespan of 24 hours.
A goldfish has a
memory span of three seconds.
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.
It's impossible to
sneeze with your eyes open.
The giant squid has
the largest eyes in the world.
Who's that playing
the piano on the "Mad About You" theme? Paul Reiser himself.
The male gypsy moth
can "smell" the virgin female gypsy moth from 1.8 miles away.
In England, the
Speaker of the House is not allowed to speak.
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 microwave was
invented after a researcher walked by a radar tube and a
chocolate bar melted in his pocket.
Mr. Rogers was an
ordained minister.
John Lennon's first
girlfriend was named Thelma Pickles.
The average person
falls asleep in seven minutes.
There are 336 dimples
on a regulation golf ball.
'Stewardesses' is the
longest word that is typed with only the left hand.
To "testify" was
based on men in the Roman court swearing to a statement made by
swearing on their testicles.
If you yelled for 8
years, 7 months and 6 days, you would have produced
enough sound energy to heat one cup of coffee.
The human heart creates enough pressure when it
pumps out to the body to squirt blood 30 feet.
Banging your head against a wall uses 150
calories an hour.
On average people fear spiders more than they do
death.
The strongest muscle in the body is the TONGUE.
You can't kill yourself by holding your breath.
Americans on the average eat 18 acres of pizza
every day.
Every time you lick a stamp, you're consuming
1/10 of a calorie.
Did you know that you are more likely to be
killed by a champagne cork than by a poisonous
spider?
Right-handed people live, on average, nine years
longer than left-handed people do.
In ancient Egypt, Priests plucked EVERY hair
from their bodies, including their eyebrows and
eyelashes.
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 catfish has over 27,000 taste buds, that
makes the catfish rank #1 for animal having the most
taste buds.
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 it's
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 blacklight.
An ostrich's eye is bigger than it's brain.
Starfishes haven't got brains
The sentence "The quick brown fox
jumps over the lazy dog." uses every letter in the
alphabet.
Average life span of a major
league baseball: 7 pitches.
A duck's quack doesn't echo, and
no one knows why.
In the 1940s, the FCC assigned
television's Channel 1 to mobile services (two-way
radios in taxicabs, for instance) but did not
renumber the other channel assignments. That is why
your TV set has channels 2 and up, but no channel 1.
The San Francisco Cable cars are
the only mobile National Monuments.
The only 15 letter word that can
be spelled without repeating a letter is
uncopyrightable.
Hang On Sloopy is the official
rock song of Ohio.
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 airplane Buddy Holly died in
was the "American Pie." (Thus the name of the Don
McLean song.)
When opossums are playing
'possum, they are not "playing." They actually pass
out from sheer terror.
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.
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.
111,111,111 x 111,111,111 =
12,345,678,987,654,321
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 used to burn their houses down - hence the
expression "to get fired."
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.
"I am." is the shortest complete
sentence in the English language.
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."
Hershey's Kisses are called that
because the machine that makes them looks like it's
kissing the conveyor belt.
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 longest recorded flight of a
chicken is thirteen seconds.
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.
David Prowse was the guy in the
Darth Vader suit in Star Wars. He spoke all of
Vader's lines, and didn't know that he was going to
be dubbed over by James Earl Jones until he saw the
screening of the movie.
The name Jeep came from the
abbreviation used in the army for the "General
Purpose" vehicle, G.P.
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.
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.
Nutmeg is extremely poisonous if
injected intravenously.
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.
No NFL team which plays its home
games in a domed stadium has ever won a Super bowl.
The first toilet ever seen on
television was on "Leave It To Beaver".
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-Star Game.
Only one person in two billion
will live to be 116 or older.
The name Wendy was made up for
the book "Peter Pan."
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.
Thirty-five percent of the people
who use personal ads for dating are already married.
There are an average of 178
sesame seeds on a McDonald's Big Mac bun.
The world's termites outweigh the
world's humans 10 to 1.
Pound for pound, hamburgers cost
more than new cars.
The 3 most valuable brand names
on earth: Marlboro, Coca-Cola, and Budweiser, in
that order.
When Heinz ketchup leaves the
bottle, it travels at a rate of 25 miles per year.
Humans are the only primates that
don't have pigment in the palms of their hands.
It's possible to lead a cow
upstairs...but not downstairs.
Ten percent of the Russian
government's income comes from the sale of vodka.
Ninety percent of New York City
cabbies are recently arrived immigrants.
On average, 100 people choke to
death on ball-point pens every year.
In 10 minutes, a hurricane
releases more energy than all the world's nuclear
weapons combined.
Reno, Nevada is west of Los
Angeles, California.
Average age of top GM executives
in 1994: 49.8 years. Average age of the Rolling
Stones: 50.6.
The cigarette lighter was
invented before the match.
Five Jell-O flavors that flopped:
celery, coffee, cola, apple, and chocolate.
According to one study, 24% of
lawns have some sort of lawn ornament in them.
Coca-Cola was originally green.
The first couple to be shown in bed together on prime time television were Fred and
Wilma Flintstone.
Every day more money is printed for Monopoly than the US Treasury.
The Hawaiian alphabet has 12 letters.
Men can read smaller print than women; women can hear better.
City with the most Rolls Royce's per capita: Hong Kong
State with the highest percentage of people who walk to work: Alaska
Percentage of Africa that is wilderness: 28%
Percentage of North America that is wilderness: 38%
Barbie's measurements if she were life size: 39-23-33
Average number of days a West German goes without washing his underwear: 7
Percentage of American men who say they would marry the same woman if they had it to do
all over again: 80%
Percentage of American women who say they'd marry the same man: 50%
Cost of raising a medium-size dog to the age of eleven: $6,400
Average number of people airborne over the US any given hour: 61,000.
Intelligent people have more zinc and copper in their hair.
The world's youngest parents were 8 and 9 and lived in China in 1910.
The youngest pope was 11 years old.
First novel ever written on a typewriter: Tom Sawyer.
The San Francisco Cable cars are the only mobile National Monuments
The venom in a Daddy Long-Legs spider is more poisonous than a Black Widow's or a Brown
Recluse, but they cannot bite humans because their jaws won't open wide enough.
If you toss a penny 10000 times, it will not be heads 5000 times, but more like 4950.
The heads picture weighs more, so it ends up on the bottom.
The human brain is so complex; that it would cost over $8 billion for anyone to program,
and sell a computer(s) to do all the things it does!
Mel Blanc (the voice of Bugs Bunny) was allergic to carrots.
The first letters of the months July through November, in order, spell the name JASON.
The pop you get when you crack your knuckles is actually a bubble of gas bursting.
101 Dalmatians and Peter Pan (Wendy) are the only two Disney cartoon features with both
parents that are present and don’t die throughout the movie.
The only bone not broken so far during any ski accident is one located in the inner ear.
The winter of 1932 was so cold that Niagara falls froze completely solid.
There's no Betty Rubble in the Flintstone Chewables.
It's impossible to get water out of a rimless tire.
In Minnesota it is illegal to cross state lines with a duck on your head.
In Indiana it is illegal to ride public transportation for at least 30 minutes after
eating garlic.
In the United States there are more 2nd streets than there are 1st streets, and Main
street is not the most common; Pine is.
More capital cities begin with B than any other letter: Berlin, Berne, Bonn, Bucharest,
Budapest, Buenos Aires, Brasilia, Baghdad, Bratislava, Brussels, Belgrade,
Bogotá and of
course Belfast.
Stanley Andrews and Ronald Reagan both served as hosts of television's
"Death Valley Days."
Sight accounts for 90 to 95 percent of all sensory perceptions.
The U.S. Congress passed laws in 1999 to discourage the practice of registering popular
or trademarked domain names for the sole purpose of resale or profit, although it is legal
to do it with generic words or surnames.
Sedimentary rocks are used to make cement, glass, fertilizer, baking soda, laundry
bleach, and aspirin
Mice, whales, elephants, giraffes, and humans all have seven neck vertebra.
Tony the Tiger, cartoon mascot of Kellogg's Frosted Flakes since the early 1950s, was
called "Tom-Tom the Tiger" in the island nation of Grenada.
After being forced to state in public that the earth does not rotate, Galileo is said to
have muttered under his breath, "But it does move."
In Sweden, it is a breech of etiquette for you to toast your host or anyone who is your
senior in rank or age until after they toast you.
The bumblebee does not die when it stings – it can sting again and again. In
bumblebee hives, the entire colony, except for the queen, dies at the end of each summer.
Each year, an entirely new colony of bees must be produced.
T. E. Lawrence's novel "The Seven Pillars of Wisdom" was re-titled when it was
made into a film: Lawrence of Arabia (1962).
Hitchcock bought the rights to the novel
Psycho anonymously from Bloch for just
$9,000. He then bought up as many copies of the novel as he could to keep the ending a
secret. During filming, this movie was referred to as "Production 9401" or
"Wimpy". The film only cost $800,000 to make yet has earned more than $40 million. Hitchcock
used the crew from his TV series to save time and money. The actual house used for the design construction of the house used in Psycho still
stands in Kent, Ohio. The shower scene has over 90 splices in it, and did not involve Anthony Perkins at all.
Perkins was in New York preparing for a play. Contrary to popular rumors, during the shooting of the shower scene, Hitchcock did not
arrange for the water to suddenly go ice-cold when the attack started. The sound that the knife makes penetrating the flesh is actually the sound of a knife
stabbing a casaba melon. The blood in the shower scene is actually chocolate sauce.
Most varieties of snake can go an entire year without eating a single morsel of food.
The "Cereal Bowl of America" is in Battle Creek, Michigan, where the most
cereal in the United States is produced.
Vintage port takes forty years to reach maturity.
In 1991's Jungle Fever, Samuel L. Jackson’s performance as crackhead Gator
won him the first-ever supporting actor award given by the Cannes Film Festival.
According to the U.S. government, people have tried more than 28,000 different ways to
lose weight.
Before she met Popeye, Olive Oyl went out with Ham Gravy.
In one night, the World Trade Center in New York used more electricity than the entire
city of Troy, New York.
During Ronald Reagan's presidency, the White House purchased 12 tons of jelly beans
Before turning to a career on the pulpit as the Reverend Billy Sunday, the soon-to-be
evangelist was a superb outfielder with the Chicago White Stockings. Many observers
credited Sunday with helping Chicago win the pennant back in 1886.
Shakespeare was the first to use certain words that are now common, including
"hurry," "bump," "eyeball," and "anchovy."
At birth, the white whale is black
The National Lighter Museum in Guthrie, Oklahoma has nearly 20,000 pieces, representing
over 85,000 years of lighters and fire starters. The only museum of its kind in the world,
it is dedicated to collecting and preserving the history of the evolution of lighters.
In James M. Barrie's Peter Pan, the place where children go with Peter Pan is not called
"Never-Never Land." It is called "Neverland."
Everyone knows about vitamins A, B, C, D, and E. Few are aware that there are also
vitamins K, T, H, and U. These vitamins are helpful in proper liver function, treating
anemia, and the healing of ulcers.
The ampersand (&) was once a letter of the English alphabet
"International Orange" is the official name of the orange-red paint used to
paint the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, and it has always been that color.
Rejecting carbon black and steel gray, the color was chosen because it blended well with
the span's natural setting. Had the U.S. Navy's color request been granted, the bridge
would have been painted black with yellow stripes. Painting the bridge is an ongoing task
and its primary maintenance job. The special paint protects the Golden Gate from the high
salt content in the ocean air, which rusts and corrodes the steel components.
The diameter of Venus is only about 400 miles less than that of Earth.
Thomas Edison originally formed the Edison Electric Light Company in 1878. Through
several mergers and acquisitions over the decades, the company has grown into what we now
know as General Electric.
The first commercial radio station in the U.S., KDKA Pittsburgh, began broadcasting in
November 1920.
A survey revealed that perpetrators of violent acts on TV dramas go unpunished 73
percent of the time.
The ancient city of Attica was famous for its luscious figs, and they became an
obsession for its citizens, rich or poor. Solon, the ruler of Attica (639-559 B.C.), made
it illegal to export figs out of Greece, making sure there were plenty for his subjects.
At greatest risk of injury to a professional football player's anatomy is the
knee, which is involved in 58 percent of all major football injuries
Golf-great Billy Casper turned golf pro during the Korean War while serving in the Navy.
Casper was assigned to operate and build golf driving ranges for the Navy in the San Diego
area.
Jerry Seinfeld shares the ranks with television performers Andy Griffith, Jackie
Gleason, Bob Hope, Angela Lansbury, Bob Newhart, Cybill Shepherd, the Smothers Brothers,
Tim Allen, and Hal Linden, all of whom have not won Best Actor Emmys.
The Sun provides our planet with 126,000,000,000,000 horsepower of energy every day.
This means that 54,000 horsepower is delivered to every man, woman, and child on Earth in
each 24-hour period.
William Caxton, an English printer, established the first printing press in English in
1476
Nothing can be burned again that has already been burned once
In Germany, the fairy-tale-like castle of Neuschwanstein is one of the most famous
castles in all the world. Each year, more than a million tourists visit the castle. It was
built by King Ludwig II, believed to have been mentally ill, more than a century ago. His
magnificent Neuschwanstein Castle is likely Germany's most famous sight. From a distance,
the castle, sitting on a rocky peak of the Alps in Bavaria, is like a storybook picture.
Walt Disney got many of his ideas for Sleeping Beauty's castle at Disneyland from
Neuschwanstein Castle. Its full name, Schloss Neuschwanstein, translates to
"Castle of New Swan Stone".
The average adult stands 0.4 inch (1 cm) taller in the morning than in the evening,
because the cartilage in the spine compresses during the day
Berengaria, Queen of England and wife of Richard the Lionhearted, never set foot in
England. She lived in Italy most of her life while her husband was off on adventures and
crusades.
The most commonly used language in the world is Chinese. It is spoken by over 1 billion
people
Of all the ore dug in diamond mines, only one carat in every 23 tons proves to be a
diamond
Christendom did not begin to date its history from the birth of Christ until 500 years
after his death. The system was introduced in 550 by Dionysius Exigus, a monk in Rome
Muppets creator Jim Henson first created Kermit in 1955 — as a lizard. He was made
from Henson's mother's coat and two halves of a Ping-Pong ball (no flipper feet or
eleven-point collar). He didn't become a frog until 1968
More than 2.2 million guests visited Dollywood in 1998, making the park the most visited
attraction in the state of Tennessee after the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
Tourists' interest in this Pigeon Forge entertainment park can be attributed to several
factors, the main of which is its famous namesake – country entertainer Dolly Parton.
Her "Rags to Riches Museum" and a replica of her childhood home are consistently
cited as favorite attractions by park visitors.
As much as six percent of the world's population may experience sleep paralysis, the
inability to move and speak for several minutes after awakening
In July 1934, Babe Ruth paid a fan $20 dollars for the return of the baseball he hit for
his 700th career home run
In 1943, Percy Clark of UCLA made the mistake during the Rose Bowl game of being tackled
behind the goal line while attempting to return a punt against Georgia. UCLA lost the
game, 2-0. One newspaper carried the headline "CLARK 2, UCLA 0." Clark was
openly shunned by classmates and, in despair, he quit college a week later. He moved to
the woods in Oregon, where he spent many years as a recluse
One-third of the solar energy reaching the Earth is used in evaporating water; about
95,000 cubic miles each year. This is equivalent to 30 lakes the size of Lake Superior
The first drug that was offered as a water-soluble tablet, was aspirin in 1900
Gordon Sumner, the rock star and actor known as Sting, got his nickname from the
yellow-and-black jerseys he used to wear, which fellow musicians thought made him look
like a bumble bee
The first female operator was Emma M. Nutt, who started working for Telephone Dispatch
Company in Boston on September 1, 1878. Prior to that, all operators were men.
A hippopotamus can open its mouth wide enough to accommodate a 4-foot-tall child
The average adult has between 40 and 50 billion fat cells
More than one-third of the world's commercial supply of pineapples comes from Hawaii
The Speaker of the House in Great Britain is not allowed to speak
The whistling swan has more than 25,000 feathers on its body
Major league baseball teams buy 182 pounds of special baseball rubbing mud each year
from a farmer in Millsboro, Delaware
The border between Canada and the U.S. is the world's longest frontier. It stretches
3,987 miles (6,416 km).
The population of the American colonies in 1610 was 350.
Turkey’s largest city, Istanbul, played a central role in Greek history. Called
Constantinople, it was capital of the Byzantine Empire. The name Istanbul was not
officially adopted until 1930
In 1769 the British designer Edward Beran enclosed wooden slats in a frame to adjust the
amount of light let into a room. These became known as Venetian blinds from their early
use over Italianate windows.
According to the General Telephone Company of Pennsylvania, the typical American spends
an average of one year of his or her life speaking on the telephone
The first spacecraft to send back pictures of the far side of the Moon was
Luna 3
in October 1959. The photographs covered about 70 percent of the far side.
Forty-seven czars are buried within the Kremlin walls.
The average person's total skin covering would weigh about 6 pounds if collected in one
mass
The largest refracting telescope is the 40-inch Yerkes telescope, built in 1897 and
still in use. All larger telescopes are of the "reflecting" variety, using
mirrors instead of lenses
The original title of Jane Austen's novel
Pride and Prejudice was
First
Impression
On the Baja coast, osprey couples return to the same nests year after year. These
birds rebuild their old nest, carefully repairing any damage caused by winds, rain, and
age. After years of rebuilding, some osprey nests can reach heights of 4 feet.
In New York City, Consolidated Edison has more than 80,500 miles (129,524 kilometers) of
underground electrical cable in the city. Some of the power is purchased from
Hydro-Quebec, a sprawling series of hydroelectric dams that harness the power of the La
Grande River in northern Quebec and Ontario.
New Zealand has an estimated population of 3,500,000, which is nearly a million less
than the much smaller U.S. state of Arizona, with a 1997 estimated population of 4,595,000
In 1859, a shower of fish fell from the sky in Glamorgan, Wales. The fish covered an
area the size of three tennis courts.
The world's largest yo-yo resides in the National YoYo Museum in Chico, California.
Named "Big Yo," the 256-pound yoyo is an exact scale replica of a Tom Kuhn
"No Jive 3 in 1 YoYo." Fifty inches tall and 31.5 inches wide, the yo-yo is made
of California sugar pine, Baltic birch from the former USSR, and hardrock maple. It was
first launched in San Francisco on October 13, 1979
Polaris, in the tail of the Little Bear constellation, is the closest visible star to
true north and thus is referred to as the North Star. By about 2100 A.D., the wobble of
Earth's axis will slowly begin pointing the North Pole away from Polaris.
Scallops are considered the safest shellfish to eat raw. Most of the danger in eating
raw shellfish stems from the fact that shellfish filter large amounts of sea water to
obtain nutrients. Toxins, bacteria, and viruses tend to accumulate in this filtration
apparatus. The filtration apparatus in scallops is, however, discarded; only the scallop's
abductor muscle, where few toxins accumulate, is eaten
Beef seems so American, but it was actually an import. Spaniards brought the first
cattle to the United States in the sixteenth century. Originally, the settlers regarded
them as beasts of burden, but the Indians found them delicious. The Indians, in fact, were
the first cattle herders, and they were the ones who moved the cattle across the
Mississippi River to the grasslands of the plains.
Portmanteau words are descriptive word combinations, such as brunch (from breakfast and
lunch), motel (from motor and hotel), and smog (from smoke and fog).
The House of Windsor rules England. The Netherlands is ruled by the House of Orange
In hospital slang, a GOMER is a patient seeking emergency treatment for a minor
complaint. The term is an acronym for "Get Out of My Emergency Room."
Roy Rogers' favorite of the 100 movies he made was
My Pal Trigger
It took three years of constant printing to complete Johann Gutenberg's famous Bible,
which appeared in 1455 in two volumes, and had 1,284 pages. He reportedly printed 200
Bibles, of which 47 still exist.
In Turkey, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, anyone caught drinking coffee was
put to death.
The penguin is the only bird that can swim, but not fly. It is also the only bird that
walks upright
The pupil of an octopus's eye is rectangular
Washington, D.C. is the birthplace of many celebrities, including David Birney, Blair
Brown, Connie Chung, Matt Frewer, Goldie Hawn, Al Gore, John Heard, Edward Hermann,
William Hurt, John F. Kennedy, Jr., Michael Learned, Roger Mudd, Maury Povich, Chita
Rivera, Pete Sampras, and Peter Tork.
In March 2000 during the pre-ceremony Academy Award interviews, Tom Cruise confessed
that he had never watched an Oscar telecast until long after he was an adult and was
pursuing an acting career.
The average medium size piano has about 230 strings, each string having about 165 pounds
of tension, with the combined pull of all strings equaling approximately 18 tons.
It takes a lobster approximately seven years to grow to be one pound
Miami Beach, Long Beach, Huntington Beach, Palm Beach, Pacific Beach, Hermosa Beach,
Redondo Beach — there are scores of U.S. coastal cities and towns with
"beach" in their names. Surprisingly, there's only one city in the United States
named merely "Beach." It is found in North Dakota, which is a land-locked state
The color of the blood of an octopus is bluish-green.
Chicago, Illinois is the candy capital of the world. Chicago has more chocolate
manufacturers within a small radius than any other place in the world. This dates back to
the 1800's when Chicago was a national hub for transportation and manufacturing, in
addition to being very close to sources for key candy ingredients -- milk and corn syrup,
it was also convenient to ship candy products to either coast from Chicago
The temperature of lava is dependent on the geographic location. For example, Hawaiian
lava can be as hot as 2,140 degrees Fahrenheit. By contrast, lava from mountains like
Mount St. Helen's can be several hundred degrees cooler
Enrico Caruso was the first singer to sell a million records, and was also the first
opera star to appear in films
The administrative code of New York City still requires that hitching posts be located
in front of City Hall.
The six official languages of the United Nations are English, French, Arabic, Chinese,
Russian, and Spanish.
Texas is the only state that permits residents to cast absentee ballots from space. The
first to exercise this right to vote while in orbit was astronaut David Wolf, who cast his
vote for Houston mayor via e-mail from the Russian space station Mir in November
1997.
In 1993, Ted Danson earned a reported $450,000 per episode as Sam Malone during the
final season of Cheers, an industry record at the time. While Roseanne received
more that year for an episode of Roseanne, she also did more. In addition to
acting, she was the show's executive producer and a contributing writer.
Mother-of-pearl is not always white. It can be pink, blue, purple, gray, or even green.
Nor is it produced only by the pearl oyster. The abalone and the pearl mussel both have
shells that are lined with fine-quality mother-of-pearl.
The word "sake," Japanese wine made from fermented rice, is shortened from the
word sake-mizu, which translates to "prosperous waters."
The Dead Sea is the lowest body of water on Earth at 1,315 feet below sea level at its
lowest point
In the city of Reykjavik, Iceland, one can see the stars eighteen hours a day during the
heart of the winter. During the summer, sunlight is visible 24 hours a day.
The sport with the largest expenses (medical, legal, and others) due to injuries treated
in U.S. emergency rooms in 1995 was bicycling, with costs exceeding $4 billion. More than
half a million bicycling injuries were documented. A huge percentage of those injuries
were head injuries, which could have been prevented had riders worn protective helmets.
For his X-Files audition, David Duchovny showed up in a tie with pink pigs all
over it.
There are 1,783 diamonds on the Britain's Imperial State Crown. This includes the
309-carat Star of Africa.
To survive, most birds must eat at least half their own weight in food each day.
Despite being 24 years old, Michael J. Fox starred as high school student Marty McFly in
the hit science-fiction comedy Back to the Future (1985).
When the Apollo 12 astronauts landed on the moon, the impact caused the moon's
surface to vibrate for 55 minutes. The vibrations were picked up by laboratory
instruments, leading geologists to theorize that the moon's surface is composed of fragile
layers of rock.
Mosquitoes do not bite. They stab. A mosquito has no jaws; when attacking a victim, it
pierces it with its long proboscis and sucks the blood up through a nasal tube.
The five favorite U.S. school lunches nationwide, according to the American School Food
Service Association, are, in order, pizza, chicken nuggets, tacos, burritos, and
hamburgers.
Grasshopper Glacier in Montana was named for the grasshoppers that can still be seen
frozen in the ice.
There are more than 25,000 McDonald's restaurants in over 115 countries.
McDonald's has actually been remarkably responsive to the local cultures: they offer
"Aryan" (a popular chilled yogurt drink) in Turkey; McLaks (a grilled salmon
sandwich) in Norway, and teriyaki burgers in Japan. In New Delhi, India, where Hindus shun
beef and Muslims refuse pork, the burgers are made of mutton and called Maharaja Macs. And
if you're vegetarian, as many strict Hindus are, there's the McAloo Tiki burger, a spicy
vegetarian patty made of potatoes and peas
Napoleon, the famous French general, was not born in France. He was born on the
Mediterranean island of Corsica of Italian parents
The average rainfall around the world is 40 inches per year
A female pharaoh was unknown in Egypt before Hatshepsut, who began her reign in 1502
B.C. In order not to shock convention, she had herself portrayed in male costume, with a
beard, and without breasts
A garter snake can give birth to 85 babies
In 1990, American tennis pro John McEnroe, often called "The Brat" because of
his infantile, volatile on-court behavior, became the first player in 27 years to be
disqualified from a Grand Slam tournament for misconduct. His repeated bad manners led to
his being booted from the Australian Open
In its early years, rock and roll music was believed to make teenagers crazy,
drug-deranged, and/or promiscuous. The Los Angeles Mirror printed a story in 1959
that announced that rock music "tightens the cow's glandular system and deters
milking," with a strange headline that claimed "Rock 'n' Roll Makes Cows Tighten
Up."
Chicken á la King, a dish of diced chicken in a cream and sherry sauce, was originally
chicken á la Keene, and only later was corrupted to suggest a royal provenance. Several
parties lay claim to the dish's name origin, the most prevalent being London's Claridge's
Hotel claim that the Keene in question was equestrian J. R. Keene and said its chef had
created the dish to memorialize his 1881 Grand Prix victory.
In the film industry, a "hot set" is a set that is ready for use and is not to
be disturbed.
More than 100 years ago, the felt hat makers of England used mercury to stabilize wool.
Most of them eventually became poisoned by the fumes, as demonstrated by the Mad Hatter in
Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland. Breathing mercury's fumes over a long period
of time will cause erythrism, a disorder characterized by nervousness, irritability, and
strange personality changes
Many seabirds that swallow fishes too large for immediate digestion go about with the
esophagus filled. Apparently without discomfort, the tail of the fish sticks out of the
bird's mouth.
Sports historians have traced roller skating to the early 1800s when an unknown Dutchman
sought to find a warm-weather equivalent to ice skating. He decided to attach wooden disks
to shoes; after a short period of refinement, roller skating became a popular pastime in
Holland. The sport attained even greater popularity among the North American public with
the introduction of the steel wheel with ball bearings.
A dragonfly can fly 25 mph
On the planet Jupiter, your weight would be nearly three times greater than it is on
Earth
The first actress known to wear trousers was Sarah Bernhardt in 1876.
Frumenty was a spiced porridge, enjoyed by both rich and poor. It is thought to be the
forerunner of modern Christmas puddings. It has its origins in a Celtic legend of the
harvest god Dagda, who stirred a porridge made up of all the good things of the Earth.
Lebanon is the only country in the Middle East that does not have a desert.
With its intense, narcotic perfume, lilac, especially white lilac, is considered an
unlucky plant in certain parts of the British Isles. It is among the least welcomed
flowers for hospital patients, though some people believe that lilac blossoms with five
petals brings luck to those who find them
Bangladesh is the most densely populated non-island region in the world, with more than
1,970 humans per square mile.
A Scottish term for someone who is sullen or bad-tempered is "dorty."
Heinz Vinegar commissioned a survey of Americans' Easter-egg habits, and found that blue
was the favorite hue of 35 percent of the respondents when dyeing eggs. Purple (18
percent), pink (17 percent), green (7 percent), and yellow and red (each 6 percent)
trailed. After the egg hunt is over, 64 percent of Americans said they eat them and 22
percent throw them away. Ten percent don't color eggs, and 2 percent said they let them
rot.
At the height of the teddy bear's huge popularity in the early 1900s, there is record of
one Michigan priest who publicly denounced the teddy as an insidious weapon. He claimed
that the stuffed toy would lead to the destruction of the instincts of motherhood and
eventual racial suicide.
The little lump of flesh just forward of your ear canal, right next to your temple, is
called a tragus
The tails of comets generally point away from the Sun whether the comet is approaching
the sun or receding.
The Curly Redwood Lodge is one of northern California’s most unique lodges. It was
built from one curly redwood tree that produced 57,000 board feet of lumber. The tree
– cut down in 1952 – was 18 feet, 2 inches at the trunk. Curly redwood is unique
because of the curly grain of the wood, unlike typical straight grained redwood
Carp are the largest of the minnows — it's a big family, including over 300
American species, mainly small freshwater fishes. True minnows (family Cyprinidae)
are soft-rayed fishes with teeth in their throats only.
From the monarchs' investment of $6,000 in Columbus's first voyage, Spain had a return
of $1,750,000 in gold after only one century
Between the mid-1860's and 1883, the bison population in North America was reduced from
an estimated 13 million to a few hundred.
Spaghetti is the favorite pasta shape, with 38 percent favoring it over other pasta
shapes. The second favorite shape is elbow macaroni, at 16 percent.
Artist Andy Warhol became famous for his painting of Campbell's Soup cans. Before that,
he made his living painting shoes for advertisements.
Bloomers, or ladies pantaloons got their name from suffragette Amelia Bloomer.
John VIII (died 882) was the first Pope to be murdered – he was poisoned and then
clubbed to death.
Rev. Jesse Jackson, during an interview on NBC-TV's
Meet the Press in June 1988,
remarked, "There's nothing wrong with having a big ego. It's all right to have a
Rolls Royce ego so long as you don't have a bicycle brain. If they coordinate, you can
work it out pretty well."
A poll taken shows that between 74 and 94 percent of workers in the United States and
Canada take 5 to 15 minutes daily for a morning coffee break. The coffee break in the
workplace did not become common until the early 1940s.
President Calvin Coolidge, thirtieth U.S. president, liked cats and would often walk
around the office with his yellow cat draped over his shoulders like a fur piece
Satu is a female first name in Finnish meaning "fairy tale," and the best
children's' fairy tales are awarded on October 18th, known as "Satu's Day." The
international competition for children ages 7 to 13 has been held since 1993, and its
rules are translated into five languages
Before his 1957 West Side Story success, songwriter Steven Sondheim supported
himself writing "Topper" TV scripts
What do bats' wings, elephants' ears, flamingos' legs, rabbits' ears, goats' horns, and
human skin all have in common? They radiate heat to providing cooling for the animal.
The Wizard of Oz was a Broadway musical 37 years before the MGM movie version was made.
It had 293 performances and then went on a tour that lasted 9 years.
The kakapo is a nocturnal burrowing parrot of New Zealand that has a green body with
brown and yellow markings. Its name is from Maori and means "night parrot."
A "jiffy" is an actual unit of time. It is 1/100 of a second
Safeco Field, Seattle's newest ballpark for the Mariners baseball team which opened on
July 15, 1999, was built to resemble the great ballparks of yesteryear. It is open-air and
has real grass. Seating capacity of the ballpark is 46,621. Safeco Field features a
retractable roof that covers the ballpark, but does not enclose it. The roof keeps fans
protected from the wind and rain. The three roof panels measure 8.75 acres. The total
weight of the roof is a staggering 22,000,000 pounds.
In 1977, Bette Davis was the first female motion picture performer to be honored with
the Life Achievement Award of the American Film Institute (AFI), the highest honor given
for a career in film. Other recipients of the prestigious AFI Life Achievement Award
include Frank Capra, James Cagney, Henry Fonda, Alfred Hitchcock, Jack Lemmon, Gregory
Peck, Steven Spielberg, and Dustin Hoffman. Since the AFI established this award in 1973,
only three other women have been honored since Davis: Elizabeth Taylor, Barbara Stanwyck,
and Lillian Gish.
According to experts, large caves tend to "breathe"; they inhale and exhale
great quantities of air when the barometric pressure on the surface changes, and air
rushes in or out seeking equilibrium.
Only about 20 percent of diamonds are made into jewels. Because they are so hard, most
diamonds are used to make tools such as dental drills and metal cutters.
The first letter of every continent's name is the same as the last: AmericA, AntarcticA,
EuropE, AsiA, AustraliA, AfricA.
The 1997 Jack Nicholson film As Good As It Gets is known in China as "Mr.
Cat Poop."
On November 12, 1995, NBC’s Mad About You featured the acting debut of
62-year-old Yoko Ono, the woman who once was universally blamed for the breakup of the
Beatles. The show’s star and co-creator Paul Reiser had been coaxing John
Lennon’s widow to appear on the series for more than two years
Tooth enamel is the hardest substance manufactured by the human body.
The white meat of turkey is generally preferred in the United States, while other
countries choose the dark meat.
Cats have amazing hearing ability. A cat's ear has 30 muscles that control the outer ear
(by comparison, human ears only have six muscles). These muscles rotate 180 degrees, so
the cat can hear in all directions without moving its head.
The opossum, often called "possum," dates back
over 45 million years
Elvis Presley's first Cadillac was blue before he bought it in 1955 and painted it pink.
The armor of the armadillo is not as tough as it appears. It is very pliable, much like
a human fingernail.
In golf, a "snowman" is a score of 8 for a hole or 88 for a round
The telescope on Mount Palomar, California, can see a distance of
7,038,835,200,000,000,000,000 miles
Internet access in the country of Burma is restricted by anti-modem laws. Illegal
possession of a modem can lead to a prison term. Public typists work at typewriters
charging about 14 cents per page. On a good day, a public typist earns about $3.50.
U.S. Army doctor D. W. Bliss had the unique role of attending to two U.S. presidents
after they were shot by assassins. In 1865, he was one of 16 doctors who tried to save
Abraham Lincoln; in 1881, Bliss supervised the care of James Garfield
Socrates, Nero, Mark Anthony, Cleopatra, Vincent van Gogh, and
Adolph Hitler all
committed suicide
The Japanese adore beef, but cannot get enough because the country is too small for
large-scale cattle raising. An exception are the cows of Kobe, who live the good life:
they drink beer, are massaged three times a day to keep their meat tender, and are sung
to, making them feel serene. Kobe beef is world-famous for its flavor, although chances of
finding any outside Japan are almost nil. A few restaurants in the United States import
the rare commodity, charging more than one hundred dollars for a 16-ounce, one-inch-thick
steak
In January, 1987, San Francisco station KRON-TV became the first major market TV station
in the U.S. to air a condom commercial
There are more than 15,000 different varieties of rice.
There are fifteen nations that gave women the right to vote before the United States did
in 1920. The earliest were New Zealand, in 1893, Australia, in 1902, and Finland, in 1906
The Sun is about midway in the scale of star sizes, but most are smaller ones. Only five
percent of the stars in our galaxy are larger than the Sun. (That's five billion larger
stars, however.)
There are 6,272,640 square inches in an acre
The average worker in Japan reportedly takes only half of his/her earned vacation time
each year
Martha Jane Burke, better known as Calamity Jane, was married twelve times
There is 1 mile of railroad track in Belgium for every one and a half square miles of
land
Natalie Cole, daughter of music legend Nat "King" Cole, became the first black
to win the Best New Artist Grammy Award in 1975. The 25-year-old singer released her debut
album, "Inseparable," exactly 10 years after her father's death
Signing a memorial to Congress for the abolition of slavery was the last public act of
Benjamin Franklin.
To an observer standing on Pluto, the Sun would appear no brighter than Venus appears in
our evening sky.
In Portugal, the traditional Christmas meal (consoada) is eaten in the early
hours of Christmas Day. Burning in the hearth is the Yule log (fogueira da consoada).
The ashes and charred remains of the Yule log are saved; later in the year, they are
burned with pine cones during Portugal's thunderstorm season. It is believed that no
thunderbolt will strike where the Yule log smoke has traveled.
Specializing in showing only newsreels, the Embassy Theatre opened in New York City in
November 1929. It proved to be popular for a time, and was the first theater of its kind
Henri Nestlé was originally a baby food manufacturer. His work and research with
condensed milk aided Swiss chocolatier Daniel Peter in inventing a method to successfully
combine chocolate and milk in a solid form — the first milk chocolate — in 1875
The perennial European grass timothy, widely grown in the United States for hay, was
named after Timothy Hanson, who took the seed from New York to the Carolinas in the 1720s.
Toads eat only moving prey
In an interview, veteran Emmy-winning actress Ann B. Davis reminisced about her days on
the set of the 1970s TV sitcom, The Brady Bunch. On her character, Alice the
housekeeper, Davis recalled, "I used to insist on having something in the pot when I
pretended to cook. In the beginning it was canned stew, but after a while, I became less
pure in my acting, and I'd add salt and pepper to boiling water."
A male moth can smell a female moth from 100 yards away
It takes 11 dump-truck loads of wood to make a proper funeral pyre for a full-size
elephant
During an interview on the history of Los Angeles, screenwriter Robert Towne said he
nearly named his blockbuster film Water and Power instead of Chinatown. The
film, which starred Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway, was a critical accounting of southern
California's earlier days of water and the ruthless men who controlled its distribution
There are about 130 species of owl.
There is a correspondence between the fluctuation of agricultural production and sunspot
variations. Production of wheat, for example, reached high figures during sunspots
maximums and low figures during sunspot minimums
For many years, the globe on the "NBC Nightly News" spun in the wrong
direction. On January 2, 1984, NBC finally set the world spinning back in the proper
direction
Some cultures call the papaya tree "the medicinal tree" because its seeds and
leaves have been used to make medicine
Oddly enough, despite his tremendous influence on early television and his popularity
with the American public, Jackie Gleason never won an Emmy award. His longtime sidekick,
Art Carney, won five Supporting Actor Emmys for both The Jackie Gleason Show and
The
Honeymooners; co-star Audrey Meadows won one. "The Great One," however, was
overlooked through his TV career. According to one source, this bothered good friend
Carney, who hid his Emmy trophies so that Gleason wouldn't be reminded of the snub when he
came to visit Carney at his home.
Catnip can affect lions and tigers as well as house cats. It excites them because it
contains a chemical that resembles an excretion of the dominant female's urine
According to the federal Trade Commission, there are 20,000 television commercials made
each year that are aimed exclusively at children. Of these, 7,000 are for sugared
breakfast cereals
A full seven percent of the entire Irish barley crop goes to the production of Guinness
Beer
When under extreme stress, such as when held in captivity, some octopuses will eat their
own arms, which grow back
About 250 million years ago, the state of New York was part of a chain of volcanic
islands, with an ocean on one side and a vast inland sea on the other
The word "dude" was coined by Oscar Wilde and his friends. It is a combination
of the words duds and attitude
Natalie Wood rehearsed for her striptease in the film
Gypsy (1962) for a month.
She finally did so well, "Life" magazine reported, that Gypsy Rose Lee herself,
watching Wood on the movie set, burst into tears of nostalgia.
The musical term "honky tonk" comes from black slang for "gin mill"
— later it was used to describe spirited music that thrived in such places in the
1930s
In Brazil, Christmas is celebrated with fireworks
Death at an early age. Nearly half of deaths among Canadian children and teenagers aged
10 to 19 are due to external causes, most commonly, car accidents. Among teens 15 to 19,
suicide is the second leading cause of death, accounting for about 25 percent of teenage
deaths
According to the Recruitment Code of the U.S. Navy, anyone "bearing an obscene and
indecent" tattoo will be rejected
Holiday Headaches: Nearly one in four people said they have more headaches during
the Christmas season than any other time of the year. Of those surveyed, 75 percent said
that not having enough time caused them to have headaches; 73 percent said crowds and
traffic created their headaches; and 51 percent said skipping meals gave them headaches
An average toilet uses 5 – 7 gallons of water every time it is flushed. A single
leaky toilet can waste more than 50 gallons a day, amounting to 18,000 gallons a year.
On the TV sitcom The Addams Family, it took actress Carolyn Jones two hours every
day to put on Morticia’s vampish make-up. She also wore a full-length wig made of
black human hair
President George Washington oversaw construction of the White House, but he never lived
there. It was the second U.S. president, John Adams, elected in 1796, who first lived in
the White House. His term was nearly over by the time he moved in, and only six rooms had
been completed
The English scientist Isaac Newton and the German mathematician Gottfried W. Leibniz,
working independently, both discovered calculus, the branch of mathematics that studies
continuously changing quantities
Since 1978, at least 37 people have died as a result of shaking vending machines, in an
attempt to get free merchandise. More than 100 have been injured
The more money a person makes, the less likely they are to buy lottery tickets
Barnard's star is approaching the Sun at a speed of 87 miles/second. By the year 11,800,
it will be the closest star to us.
If one identical twin grows up without a given tooth coming in, the second identical
twin will usually also grow up without the tooth
Arachibutyrophobia is fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of your mouth
Federal regulations specify that 90 percent of peanut butter has to be peanuts
In 1940, silver coins fell from the skies on to the town of Gorky, Russia. A tornado had
lifted up an old money chest and dropped the coins it contained as the wind carried it
long
In ancient Rome, gold salves were used for the treatment of skin ulcers. Today, gold
leaf plays an important role in the treatment of chronic ulcers
In 1900, there were 8,000 cars in the United States; by 1919, there were 6 million cars
in the U.S.
The highest known score for a single word in competition Scrabble is 392. In 1982, Dr.
Saladin Khoshnaw achieved this score for the word "caziques," which means an
Indian chief
Until 1942, Warner Bros.' "Looney Tunes" were black-and-white, with
established characters, and "Merrie Melodies" were in color, usually with
one-shot characters. For 1942 and 1943, "Looney Tunes" were in color on a
scattershot basis, then color only from 1944 to the present.
According to the U.S. Naval Observatory, the first populated land where the Sun will
rise on a new day is at Kahuitara Point (44° 16' S 176° 9' W) on Pitt Island in the
Chatham Islands, a dependency of New Zealand
Hair grows slowest at night. It speeds up in the morning, slows in the afternoon, and
grows faster again in the evening. Hair grows faster in summer than in winter
The most famous natural landmark in Northern Ireland is the Giant’s Causeway.
Comprised of approximately 37,000 dark basalt columns packed together, they were formed
when a volcanic eruption spewed molten basalt out 55 million years ago. As the basalt
cooled, these unique polygonal structures were formed. Most of the columns of the Giant's
Causeway form a six-sided honeycomb pattern. Some have as many as ten sides and measure
about 12 inches across and up to forty feet in length
The first city to reach a population of 1 million people was Rome, Italy in 133 B.C.
London, England reached the mark in 1810 and New York City, USA made it in 1875. Today,
there are over 300 cities in the world that boast a population in excess of 1 million.
When a piece of glass cracks, the crack travels faster than 3,000 miles per hour
At one time in Scotland, witches were suspected of assuming the form of red butterflies
Lord Byron had four pet geese that he brought everywhere with him, even to social
gatherings. Byron, though considered one of the most dashing and attractive men of his
time, was overweight and had a club foot
The raven is the first bird mentioned in the Bible. It was sent out by Noah to see if
the waters had abated
"Singapore" means "City of Lions," but none have ever been seen
there
The first graves in Arlington National Cemetery were dug by James Parks, a former
Arlington Estate slave. Buried in Section 15. James Parks is the only person buried in
Arlington National Cemetery who was born on the property.
Researchers have determined that 1 acre of potatoes can yield 1,200 gallons of ethyl
alcohol in a year
