LadyAnn's Whimsical Place
- List of Useless Facts -
- If you stretch a standard Slinky out flat it measures 87 feet long.
- The only word in the English language with all five vowels in reverse
order is "subcontinental".
- Most Americans car horns beep in the key of F.
- The only two Southern state capitals not occuppied by Northern troops
during the American Civil War were Austin, Texas and Tallahasse, Florida.
- Neck ties were first worn in Croatia. That's why they were called
cravats (CRO-vats).
- The saying "it's so cold out there it could freeze the balls off a brass
monkey" came from when they had old cannons like ones used in the
Civil War. The cannonballs were stacked in a pyramid formation, called
a brass monkey. When it got extremely cold outside they would crack
and break off... Thus the saying.
- The "ZIP" in Zip Code stands for "Zone Improvement Plan".
- A "jiffy" is an actual unit of time for 1/100th of a second.
- The penguins that inhabit the tip of South America are called
jackass penguins.
- Swans are the only birds with penises.
- A whale's penis is called a dork.
- The pupil of an octupus' eye is rectangular.
- The shortest French word with all five vowels is "oiseau"
meaning bird.
- Camel's milk does not curdle.
- Swahili is a combination of African tribal languages, Arabic
and Portuguese.
- "Mr. Mojo Risin" is an anagram for Jim Morrison.
- The ball on top of a flagpole is called the trunk.
- A person from the country of Nauru is called a Nauruan; this
is the only palindromic nationality.
- The word "modem" is a contraction of the words "modulate,
demodulate". (MOdulateDEModulate)
- Oliver Cromwell was hanged and decapitated two years after
he had died.
- The parking meter was invented in North Dakota.
- The first prime number after 1,000,000 is 1,000,003.
- The only "real" food that U.S. Astronauts are allowed to take
into space is pecan nuts.
- The word "queueing" is the only English word with five
consecutive vowels.
- The first Eagle Scout west of the Mississippi is buried
in San Marcos, Texas.
- In every episode of Seinfeld there is a Superman somewhere.
- All three major 1996 Presidential candidates, Clinton, Dole
and Perot, are left-handed.
- Sheriff came from Shire Reef. During early years of monarchial
rule in England, each shire had a reef who was the law for that
shire. When the term was brought to the United States it was
shortned to Sheriff.
- The little lump of flesh just forward of your ear canal, right
next to your temple, is called a tragus.
- Murphy's Oil Soap is the chemical most commonly used to
clean elephants.
- Other than humans, black lemurs are the only primates that may
have blue eyes.
- The United States has never lost a war in which mules were used.
- The longest one-syllable word in the English language is "screeched".
- When ocean tides are at their highest, they are called "spring
tides". When they are at their lowest, they are call "neep tides".
- February 1865 is the only month in recorded history not to have
a full moon.
- The difference between male and female blue crabs is the design
located on their apron (belly). The male blue crab has the Washington
Monument while the female apron is shaped like the U.S. Capitol.
- It takes a lobster approxiamately seven years to grow to be one pound.
- Montpelier, Vermont is the only U.S. state capital without
a McDonalds.
- At latitude 60 degrees south you can sail all the way around
the world.
- The correct response to the Irish greeting, "Top of the morning
to you" is "and the rest of the day to yourself".
- Giraffes have no vocal cords.
- All porcupines float in water.
- No word in the English language rhymes with month.
- In Disney's "Fantasia", the Sorcerer's name is "Yensid"
(Disney backwards).
- Canada is an Indian word meaning "Big Village".
- There are two credit cards for every person in the
United States.
- The word "byte" is a contraction of "by eight".
- Isaac Asimov is the only author to have a book in every
Dewey-decimal category.
- Only thirty percent of the famous Maryland blue crabs are
actually from Maryland, the rest are from North Carolina and Virginia.
- Back in the mid to late 80's, an IBM compatible computer wasn't
considered a hundred percent compatible unless it could run
Microsoft's Flight Simulator.
- The famous split-fingered Vulcan salute is actually intended to
represent the first letter ("shin" pronounced "sheen") of the word
"shalom". As a small boy, Leonard Nimoy observed his rabbi using it
in a benediction and never forgot it; eventually he was able to add
it to "Star Trek" lore.
- The symbol on the "pound" key (#) is called an octothorpe.
- Ethernet is a registered trademark of Xerox, Unix is a registered
trademark of AT&T.
- There are more bald eagles in the province of British Columbia
then there are in the whole United States.
- A full seven percent of the entire Irish barley crop goes to
the production of Guinness beer.
- Donald Duck's middle name is Fauntleroy.
- Ralph Kramden made 62 dollars a week.
- Wilma Flinestone's maiden name was Wilma Slaghoopal, and Betty
Rubble's Maiden name was Betty Jean Mcbricker.
- A pregnant goldfish is called a twit.
- 111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321
- When your sink is full, the little hole that lets the water
drain, instead of flowing over the side, is called a "porcelator".
- It's impossible to sneeze with your eyes open.
- The A&W of root beer fame stands for Allen and Wright.
- The first letters of the names of the Great Lakes spell HOMES.
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LadyAnn's Whimsical Place
This "useless" Page *wink*
has been visited
a lot of
times since October 31st, 2000.
Hope you got a chuckle or two! :)
Last Modified: February 4th, 2004.
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