Author Archive
VARIOUS ODD FACTS
- In 1679, Messrs. Green, Barry and Hill were hanged at Tyburn for a murder they committed at Greenberry Hill.
- Melanie Griffith has a tattoo of a pear on her butt.
- And not to be outdone, Anna Kournikova has the tattoo of the sun on her butt.
- Andrew Jackson (1829-37) once killed a man in a duel because he insulted his wife.
- John Quincy Adams (1825-29) used to take a swim in the Potomac River every morning naked.
- Jimi Hendrix lost his virginity at age 12.
- Mark Twain lost his virginity at age 34.
MARK TWAIN WISDOM
- “There are several good protections against temptation, but the surest is cowardice.”
- “Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest.”
- “Education is what you must acquire without any interference from your schooling.”
- “Life would be infinitely happier if we could only be born at the age of 80 and gradually approach 18.”
- “Familiarity breeds contempt . . . and children.”
INSURANCE
- Dolly Parton insured her breasts for $3 million.
- Michael Flatley, Lord of the Dance, insured his legs for $40 million.
- Tina Turner insured her lips for $1 million and her breasts for $750,000.
- Bruce Springsteen insured his voice for $5 million.
- Jennifer Lopez insured her entire body for 1 billion dollars.
FYI: I’M INSURING MY RIGHT HAND FOR $10 BILLION
A pretty young maiden named Flo
Said “I hate to be had in the snow,
While I’m normally hot,
In this spot I’m not –
So, as soon as you come Bert, lets go!”
I know a lot of you celebrity lovers will be interested in the Oscar section, These trivia facts are laced with the names of so-called celebrities just for your enjoyment. Here we go . . .
FIRST, SOME FIRSTS
- Harry Houdini was the first man to fly a plane in Australia – in 1918.
- Barbra Streisand’s first performance was as a chocolate chip cookie.
- Groucho Marx ate his first bagel at the age of 81.
- The first ready-to-eat breakfast cereal was Shredded Wheat in 1893.
- Steven Spielberg directed the very first episode of Columbo.
- Courtney Cox was the first person on U.S. TV ever to use the word period – in an ad for Tampax.
OSCAR INFO
- The only actress to win an Oscar for less than 10 min. work: Judi Dench, who was on screen for only 8 min. in Shakespeare in Love (1998)
- The only actress to win a Best Actress Oscar in a foreign language: Sophia Loren for Two Women (1961)
- The only posthumous acting Oscar was won by: Peter Finch for Network (1976)
- The only actors to get seven acting nominations without ever winning a single Oscar: Peter O’Toole and Richard Burton
DEATHS
- Orson Welles and Yule Brenner both died on 10/10/85.
- The only mother and daughter to be nominated for Oscars in the same year: Diane Ladd and her daughter, Laura Dern, for Rambling Rose (1991)
- Sammy Davis Junior and Jim Henson both died on 05/16/90.
- Freddie Mercury and Klaus Kinski both died on 11/24/91.
SO ENDS DAY THREE
“I cannot be bothered with drawers,”
Insists one of our better-known whores;
“There isn’t much doubt
I do better without
In conducting my everyday chores.”
Are you the superstitious type? If I’m being truthful, I may upon occasion have paid some attention to one or two of the sillier superstitions. I hate to admit that but it’s ingrained into our consciousness about certain things and it can be hard to shake regardless of how stupid it sounds. I’ve never been one to fear the number “13” or Friday the 13th” but I know many people who are. So here is some additional information concerning that mystical number and the day Friday. Enjoy!
- The fear the number 13 – or ” triskaidekaphobia” as it’s technically known, goes back a long way. Accordingly to Scandinavian mythology, there was a banquet in Valhalla into which Loki (the God of Strife) intruded, thereby making it 13 guests, and where Balder (The God of Light) was murdered. In Christian countries the superstition was confirmed by thirteen people attending the Last Supper.
- Meanwhile, “Friday the 13th” is considered unlucky because it was the day of the crucifixion and because Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit on a Friday and also died on Friday.
- Some Buddhists and Brahmins also consider Friday to be unlucky. In combining superstitions about both Friday and the number 13, Friday the 13th is feared as being twice as frightful.
- Winston Churchill, the former British prime minister, never traveled on a Friday the 13th unless it was absolutely essential.
- Graham Chapman, the late member of the Monty Python team, actually like Friday the 13th. Indeed, he arranged to be buried on the 13th hour of Friday, October 13, 1989.
- Good things that have happened on a Friday the 13th include these: The Third Man premiered (January 1950), the Allies recaptured Tobruk (November 1942), and Alfred Dreyfus was restored to the French army and promoted to major (July 1906).
- Bad things that have happened on a Friday the 13th included these: a violent earthquake in Turkey that killed more than 1000 people (March 1992), a hurricane in Britain left 9 people dead (January 1984), and a plane crash left survivors stranded in the Andes without food and compelled them to turn to cannibalism to stay alive (October 1972).
- Months that begin on a Sunday will always have a Friday the 13th.
- People who were born on a Friday the 13th include Steve Buscemi, Zoe Wanamaker, Howard Keel and Christopher Plummer.
- People who have died on Friday the 13th include Benny Goodman and former U.S. Vice President Hubert Humphrey.
Day 2 of Trivia Week is complete. Be grateful that this weeks Friday falls on the 15th. Your safe until May 13, 2022, then watch out!
HAVE A SAFE UNSUPERSTITIOUS DAY
My dear, you looked simply divine,
And I know that we’ll get along fine;
For making ends meet
Will be such a treat,
When one end is yours and one mine.
It’s time for another giant pile of flaming and utterly useless information. As you already know I’ve always been a huge fan of trivia thats unusual, odd, or strange. I’ve collected this information from books, e-mails, notes from friends, and anywhere else I could find it. I hope you enjoy them and find them as interesting and fun as I did.
- New foreskins discarded after circumcision are sold to biomedical companies for use in artificial skin manufacture. They are also used as the secret ingredient in some popular anti-wrinkle gels.
- Lettuce contains 2 to 10 parts of morphine per billion.
- To see a rainbow you must have your back to the sun.
- You can tell the temperature by listening to the chirp of a cricket. For the temperature in degrees Fahrenheit, count the number of chirps in 15 seconds and then add 37.
- A calorie is the amount of energy it takes to raise the temperature of 1 g of water by 1°C. A gallon of gasoline contains 31,000 K calories, or the equivalent of 46.3 happy meals.
- Bubblegum is pink because it’s creator Walter Diemer, a Fleer employee, had only pink coloring left when he mixed up his first successful batch.
- The fly of your jeans is the flap of cloth over the zipper, not the zipper itself.
- The term cop most likely derives from the British police acronym for Constable On Patrol.
- There are more Subway sandwich shops in Manhattan than there are actual subway stations.
- Henry Ford, Robert Fulton, Eli Whitney, and Paul Revere were all clock makers at one point in their lives.
- When Thomas Edison died in 1941, Henry Ford captured his last breath in a bottle.
- The first item sold on eBay (then called the auction web) was a broken laser pointer that sold for $14 at the time, more than the cost of a new one.
- The term “the whole 9 yards” dates from World War II. When fighter pilots armed airplanes, the 50 caliber machine gun ammunition belts loaded into the fuselage measured exactly 27 feet. If a pilot fired all his ammo at one target, it got “the whole 9 yards”.
- On average, women utter 7000 words a day; men manage just over 2000.
NOW WASN’T DAY 1 FUN?
There was a young man from Siam,
Who said:” I go in with a wham!
But I soon lose my starch, like the mad month of March,
And the lion comes out like a lamb.”
As I promised, here is part two of the “Famous Last Words” list. They don’t need any more of an introduction than that.
“No! I didn’t come here to make a speech. I came here to die.” Crawford Goldsby, a.k.a. Cherokee Bill, when asked if he had anything to say before he was hanged.
“I know you’ve come to kill me. Shoot, you are only going to kill a man.” Che Guevera
“Don’t let it end like this. Tell them I said something.” Francisco (Pancho) Villa
“I’ll be in hell before you start breakfast!” “Black Jack” Ketchum, notorious train robber
“Don’t worry… It’s not loaded…” Terry Kath, rock musician in the band Chicago Transit Authority as he put the gun he was cleaning to his head and pulled the trigger.
“Is someone hurt?” Robert F Kennedy, to his wife directly after he was shot and seconds before he fell into a coma.
“Die, my dear? Why that’s the last thing I’ll do!” Groucho Marx
“Go on, get out! Last words are for fools who haven’t said enough!” Karl Marx, asked by his housekeeper when his last words were to be
“I have a terrific headache.” Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who died of a massive cerebral hemorrhage
“Drink to me!” Pablo Picasso
“I have not told half of what I saw.” Marco Polo, Venetian traveler and writer
“Dammit… Don’t you dare ask God to help me.” Joan Crawford. This comment was directed towards her housekeeper who began to pray aloud.
“Lord help my poor soul.” Edgar Allen Poe
Now that we’ve laid all these so-called celebrities to rest we can move on with our lives. If any of you come up with any epithets or last-words to celebrate your own death, let me know. I have a another post on this subject coming in the near future and I could add yours to the list.
* * * * TRIVIA WEEK COMING SOON * * * *
10/12 – 10/16
All Trivia – All Week
Anyone newly elected and working in Washington DC becomes a cynic within minutes of their arrival and a power-grabbing beltway politico within days. Between the lobbyist’s kissing their asses and the ever-growing groups of citizens who want something from them, they become overwhelmed very quickly. If they’re strong of character and have an equally strong stomach they may be able to work through all the nonsense and actually accomplish something meaningful. Even if they’re successful in doing so, the powers-that-be will keep dragging them back. They just keep repeating to these rookies all of the rationales they used to excuse their own bad or illegal behavior. Your ability to remain a decent individual under the worst possible circumstances isn’t helped when you read these kind of statements made by well known Washington insiders:
- “You will be measured in this town by the enemies you destroyed. The bigger they are, the bigger you will be.” John B Connally – Texas Gov. 1979
- “Don’t write anything down, but save everything that anyone else writes down.” Maureen Dowd – Columnist, 1995
- “I was not meant for the job or the spotlight of public life in Washington. Here ruining people is considered sport.” Vince Foster – Suicide Note – 1993
- “If you can’t deal every day with having people trying to destroy you, you shouldn’t even think of coming down here.” Alan Greenspan – 1994
After reading these statements even I’m becoming depressed again. The question for me is why anyone would willingly choose to work under these kind of conditions. They all say they’re going to fix the system from the inside and I’m sorry to say but that’s a lot of hogwash. We been hearing that same mantra for decades from really good people who were elected with the best of intentions. They are immediately eaten alive by the veterans and unable to make any meaningful changes whatsoever.
I spend a lot of my time looking at government and criticizing everything that needs to be criticized. It really bothers me that even I can’t find a solution to this problem after years of watching so many good people fail in their attempt for change. I’d much rather criticize and then offer a workable solution, but I cannot because I don’t have one. Maybe it’s just my apathy with the entire political system as it currently exists. The “Founding Fathers” must be spinning in their graves.
THE MONSTER HAS BEEN CREATED, NOW WHAT?
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