Archive for the ‘Trivia’ Category
Today is a very special day here at Every Useless Thing. I’m officially opening the doors to the E.U.T. University of totally useless knowledge. You’ll learn through our detailed courses of study many of the things that have puzzled mankind for centuries. We have the answers but only you permanent students will be permitted to share that information with us. I know it’s a great honor and you should consider yourself very fortunate.
Todays lessons concern two things which are generally known to us but the true facts aren’t readily available. Thanks to EUTU you are about to be properly informed.
Lesson #1 – How did the word "shit” originate?
It’s been claimed by some that the word ‘shit” originated in the 16th century, when manure was transported by ship. The dry manure weighed little and was stowed below deck. When mixed with water, however, it gained in weight and began to ferment, producing methane gas, which, when exposed to a naked flame, would ignite, causing explosions and fire. Because of these accidents, crates of manure were labeled “Ship High In Transit’ to indicate that the crates were to be stowed above the deck, so that any water that the ship took on would not come into contact with them.
Unfortunately, this explanation is totally false and we here at EUTU through years of detailed research have discovered the real truth. Take good notes on this lesson because this “shit’” information will be included on your first POoP quiz.
The word “shit” is from the middle English word “shitten”, which in turn derived from the old English word “scitan”, from “besciten”, which meant “to be covered with excrement” and is in turn thought to originate from the Indo-European root “skei”. The word “shite”, meanwhile, is a variant form of the word as found in some dialects in Ireland and Scotland, as well as in colloquial English.
There you have the truth of the matter.
Lesson #2 – Why do men often shiver after urinating?
I’m not entirely sure our women students will be all that interested in this phenomenon but since it is an official part of the curriculum and will most certainly be included in future tests please pay close attention ladies.
After a man has finished urinating, it’s common for him to experience a shiver over his entire body. It is technically called post-micturition convulsion syndrome, and scientists are not exactly sure why it occurs. One theory is that urination results in heat loss after the warm urine has been expelled from the body, or through exposing the penis to the air, causing the body to shiver.
Meanwhile another theory suggests that the urination reflex is relayed through the autonomic nervous system, which is responsible for both contracting the urethra to hold in the urine and relaxing it to allow the urine to flow out. Also, as urine is released there is often a change in blood pressure, which might also explain the shivering. Shivering is most common in men and some actually find the experience pleasurable or even mildly erotic.
I can verify these statements because I’ve been experiencing that “shiver” myself for decades. I only pass that information along to you students because I’m a responsible educator with a passion for the truth.
That’s the final lesson for today. Break into study groups and ”bone up” on this important information. It seems that if two or more students can study together the results are much more satisfying.
CLASS DISMISSED
I know all of you are just sitting there and waiting for the answers to yesterday’s celebrity quiz. Here’s the complete list of celebrities with their aliases. How did you really do?
Boris Karloff…..William Henry Pratt
Mary Pickford…..Gladys Smith
Audrey Hepburn…..Edda Van Heemsta
Samuel Goldwyn…..Sam Goldfish
W.C. fields…..William Claude Dunkenfield
Martin Sheen…..Ramon Esteves
Michael Keaton…..Michael Douglas
Roy Rogers…..Leonard Slye
Dale Evans…..Francis Octavia Smith
Mel Brooks…..Melvin Kominsky
Jane Wyman…..Sarah Jane Folks
Whooping Goldberg…..Caryn Johnson
Joan Crawford…..Lucille Le Sueur
Woody Allen…..Allen Stewart Kinigsberg
Charlie Sheen…..Carlos Esteves
On to the next subject. As promised, another list of totally useless information I’ve collected from all sorts of sources both on the net and elsewhere.
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Twenty-eight percent of Africa is wilderness while thirty eight percent of North America is wilderness.
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A goldfish has a memory span of three seconds.
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A dime has 118 ridges around the edge.
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The average person spends three years of his or her life on a toilet.
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Take your height and divide by eight. That’s how tall your head is.
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One in three male motorists picks their nose while driving.
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More than ten people a year are killed by vending machines.
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More Monopoly money is printed in a year, than real money printed throughout the world.
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Famous billionaire Howard Hughes stored his own urine in large bottles.
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Approximately $25 million is spent each year on lap dances in Las Vegas.
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23% of all photocopier faults worldwide are caused by people sitting on them and photocopying their butts.
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Each year, there are more than 40,000 toilet related injuries in the United States.
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Coca-cola was originally green.
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The characters Bert and Ernie on Sesame Street were named after Bert the cop and Ernie the taxi driver in Frank Capra’s "It’s a Wonderful Life".
Are you feeling smarter now? Slowly but surely I’m filling your heads with mind numbing information which you’ll probably never use in any conversation and will most likely forget by Monday. It’s my insidious plot to takeover the world, one mind at a time.
It’s time to get back to the kind of postings everyone seems to enjoy. So today will be all about celebrities. It must be nice to have the ability to change your name at any time. There have been times in my life when I wished I could change my name and start fresh some where else. A really cool name that sounded just right and might make help people to remember me. I always thought my first name was dull because it seemed to be overused. JOHN! How boring can you get? For a time I was called Charlie based on my middle name but it didn’t stick. I also never was able to pull off a really cool nickname and to this day I still don”t understand why.
Oh well, lets move along to today’s posting. I’m going to supply you with two lists, each with fifteen names. The first will contain the names of fifteen famous celebs you should be familiar with and a second list of fifteen with their original birth names. Some will be easy to figure out but most will be much more difficult. No fair sneaking off to use search engines because that’s just cheating. I’ll post both lists tomorrow with the correct answers.
The Celebrity Aliases
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Boris Karloff
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Mary Pickford
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Audrey Hepburn
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Samuel Goldwyn
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W.C. Fields
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Martin Sheen
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Michael Keaton
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Roy Rogers
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Dale Evans
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Mel Brooks
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Jane Wyman
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Whooping Goldberg
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Joan Crawford
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Woody Allen
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Charlie Sheen
Now for their real birth names. It makes it much easier to understand why their names were changed. I can’t imagine seeing some of these names in the credits at the end of a film. Maybe their agents, friends, and studio heads were correct. Here are their actual names in no particular order. Match them up if you can.
The Actual Monikers
I told you they’d be tough. I honestly struggled to get just four correct. More useless information is scheduled for tomorrow along with todays answers. Have fun.
Welcome to a new day. As promised yesterday I’ll be giving you the answers to the ten mystery music trivia questions. I imagine getting the right answers without cheating and using Google or Bing was difficult. As my collection of totally useless information continues to accumulate I’ll be testing your knowledge of many different subjects. One of the things I like best about collecting trivia is that it’s fun and even interesting at times. Here’s your answers, I hope you did well.
1. In 1926, the police raided Mae West Broadway show ‘Sex’ and jailed her on vice charges. What did the rise wisecracking blonde sexpot claim when she was freed after serving 8 days of her 10 day sentence?
A: That it was the only time she ever got anything for good behavior.
2. Who was the first person ever awarded a gold record?
A: Glenn Miller, for Chattanooga Choo-Choo.
3. What singer named Clara Ann Fowler at birth adopted the name of the milk company that sponsored her first radio show?
A: Patti Page. The company was the Page Milk Company of Tulsa, Oklahoma.
4. What famous entertainer was known as Annie Mae Bullock before she adopted her stage name?
A: Actress-Singer, Tina Turner.
5. The singing duo of Caesar and Cleo only achieved fame under another name. What was it?
A: Sonny and Cher.
6. Country music comedienne, Minnie Pearl, always wore a hat with a price tag on it when she performed. What was the amount written on the price tag?
A: $1.98
7. Who was the only cast member of the hit rock musical Hair who refused to shed her clothes in the nude closing number?
A: Diane Keaton
8. What top rock group took it’s name from a song by blues great Muddy Waters?
A: The Rolling Stones. Water’s song, of course, was "Rolling Stone".
9. Under what name did New Wave singer-songwriter Declan McManus gain fame?
A: Elvis Costello
10. What famous singer, after receiving an honorary degree from Georgetown University, enrolled as a freshman and earned a BA in Theology?
A: Pearl Bailey. She received her BA in 1985 after seven years as a part-time student.
As you already know I really love passing on my never-ending lists of totally useless crap to my readers. I hope it helps make all of you moderately good Trivial Pursuit players as well as the winner of many a bar wager. I thought I’d take a somewhat different approach this time and make things a bit more interesting.
Usually I just supply the facts for you to enjoy but not today. I had a few readers give me some grief recently about never having any interesting facts from the music sector. The following ten questions need answered and it’s up to each of you to provide them. Are you up for the challenge? Even if you’re a true musical aficionado these music related questions should challenge even you. I’ll supply the answers tomorrow so let’s see just how good your trivia skills really are.
1. In 1926, the police raided Mae West Broadway show ‘Sex’ and jailed her on vice charges. What did the wisecracking blonde sexpot claim when she was freed after serving 8 days of her 10 day sentence?
2. Who was the first person ever awarded a gold record?
3. What singer named Clara Ann Fowler at birth adopted the name of the milk company that sponsored her first radio show?
4. What famous entertainer was known as Annie Mae Bullock before she adopted her stage name?
5. The singing duo of Caesar and Cleo only achieved fame under another name. What was it?
6. Country music comedienne, Minnie Pearl, always wore a hat with a price tag on it when she performed. What was the amount written on the price tag?
7. Who was the only cast member of the hit rock musical ‘Hair’ who refused to shed her clothes in the nude closing number?
8. What top rock group took it’s name from a song by blues great Muddy Waters?
9. Under what name did New Wave singer-songwriter Declan McManus gain fame?
10. What famous singer, after receiving an honorary degree from Georgetown University, enrolled as a freshman and earned a BA in Theology?
I told you they weren’t easy. I’m guessing anyone who scores more than five correct answers really knows their stuff. Check back tomorrow for the answers. I think you’ll find them interesting.
I seem to have centered all of my attention in recent days to male and female issues to the exclusion of all else. It’s time to get back to what this blog is all about, Totally Useless Information. There seems to be a never ending supply of useless facts and stupid information to keep me and this blog going for many years to come. I’ve already turned myself into a huge steaming pile of trivia which may come in handy some day playing Trivial Pursuit but not for much else. Maybe if I spread the information around a little it will make room in my skull for other new and useless things I may stumble upon. These factoids were collected from hither and yon and have no reason to exist other than to humor us. Here goes nothing.
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More than ten people a year are killed by vending machines.
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President George W. Bush was once a cheerleader.
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The average person spends three years of his or her life on the toilet.
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Pilgrims ate popcorn at the first Thanksgiving dinner.
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Iceland consumes more Coca-Cola per capita than any other nation.
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More Monopoly money is printed in a year, than real money printed throughout the world.
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There is a village in Ireland called Muff, and they have their own diving club.
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Seven percent of Americans eat at McDonalds every day.
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The only First Lady to ever carry a loaded revolver was Eleanor Roosevelt.
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Polar bears are left-handed.
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McDonald’s did away with its spoon-shaped coffee stirrers because people were using them to snort cocaine.
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Men who kiss their wives in the morning live five years longer than those who don’t.
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Outside of the bedroom, the most common place for adults in the U.S. to have sex is in a car.
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At any given hour there are an average of 61,000 people airborne over the United States.
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Seven pitches is the average life span of a Major League Baseball.
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Twenty nine percent of women spend more time shopping for shoes than they do looking for a life long mate.
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According to statistics, Australian women are most likely to have sex on the first date.
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It’s impossible to sneeze and keep your eyes open.
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The giant squid has the largest eyes in the world.
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The U.S. Government spent $277,000 on pickle research in 1993.
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American Airlines saved $440,000 in 1987 by eliminating one olive from each first-class salad.
I hope that’ll ease the withdrawal pains caused by your useless crap addiction. I’m afraid I’m too far gone to be helped so I’ll just keep on collecting this stuff and shovel it off to you. As always, your welcome.
I have a lot of fun teasing my female readers but I hope they understand that it’s all done with my tongue firmly implanted in my cheek. I’m positive being a women is no bed of roses these days because almost every women I’ve ever known has spent a great deal of her time and mine telling me about it. I’m really very sympathetic to their plight but for the most part I have no easy answers or solutions for them.
Here are a few things I know would happen if I were suddenly turned into a warm, soft, built, attractive, and fire breathing woman with a man’s attitude and outlook on life. I suspect that slutiness would have a new poster girl. I’d find it extremely difficult to keep my panties on if I actually chose to wear any. I’d be like that famous women of yore who was known as a real "man eater". Married women would hate me, single women would envy me, and men would desire me. I’d give it up (if you know what I mean) at every opportunity much like General Robert E. Lee gave it up at Appomattox.
Like most women I’d refuse to admit my age and would do everything in my power to remain young looking and sexually active like good old Mae West did. One of her favorite quotes was "I’m not concerned about the men in my life, it’s the life in my men that worries me." That’s not an exact quote but you get the idea. After reading Mae’s quote I decided to search out a few more informative female quotes pertaining to aging and life as a senior. Here are a few quotes and short poems to help you ladies enjoy this posting even more.
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Please don’t retouch my wrinkles. It took me so long to earn them.
~ Anna Magnani
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You’re not 40, you’re eighteen with 22 years experience. ~Author Unknown
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After 30, a body has a mind of its own. ~ Bette Midler
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Getting old ain’t for sissies. ~ Betty Davis
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It’s sad to grow old, but nice to ripen. ~ Brigitte Bardot
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Forget about the past, you can’t change it.
Forget about the future, you can’t predict it.
Forget about the present, I didn’t get you one."
– Unknown
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Nature gives you the face you have at twenty, but it’s up to you to merit the face you have at fifty. ~ Coco Chanel
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The really frightening thing about middle age is that you know you’ll grow out of it. ~ Doris Day
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We know we’re getting old when the only thing we want for our birthday is not to be reminded of it. ~ Unknown
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I finally got my head together, and now my body is falling apart. ~ Unknown
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You’ve had many many birthdays,
Too many for me to mention,
But there’s still one or two more
Before you draw your pension.
~ Unknown
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Life has got to be lived – that’s all there is to it. At seventy, I would say the advantage is that you take life more calmly. You know that "this, too, shall pass!" ~ Eleanor Roosevelt
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Looking fifty is great–if you’re sixty. ~ Joan Rivers
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If you survive long enough, you’re revered-rather like an old building. ~ Katherine Hepburn
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The secret of staying young is to live honestly, eat slowly, and lie about your age. ~ Lucille Ball
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I like my bifocals,
my dentures fit me fine,
my hearing aid is perfect,
but Lord I miss my mind!
-Unknown
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I’m at an age when my back goes out more than I do. ~ Phyllis Diller
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Few women admit their age. Few men act theirs. ~ Unknown
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"They say that age is all in your mind. The trick is keeping it from creeping down into your body." ~ Unknown
As for all of you men out there, don’t worry I’ll be sure to dedicate a posting only for our gender at some future time. I thought it was only proper to give the ladies their due after all the fun I’ve been having at their expense in recent weeks.
I started out today writing a post on political polling. Upon completion I reread it and found myself bored to actual tears. I may post it in the future but every time I write about politics or politicians I feel kinda dirty. Someday soon when I’m having one of those “I hate politicians” days I’ll post it. Today I feel like passing along a few more items of totally useless information to help make your lives richer and fuller. Here we go.
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Too much coffee can kill you. A lethal dose for an average adult is around 10 grams. That’s the equivalent of drinking between fifty and two hundred cups in rapid succession.
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Malaria mosquitos are attracted to ripe Limburger cheese and smelly feet.
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Members of the U.S. Congress are the highest paid legislators in the world.
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Toilet paper was invented by the Chinese. In 1391 they produced 720,000 sheets a year for exclusive use of the emperor. Each sheet measured 2 feet by three feet.
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Disney World in Orlando covers 30,400 acres or 46 square miles. That’s twice the size of Manhattan.
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A cockroaches brain is spread throughout it’s body., If you chop off the head, it can still live up to a week. It finally dies because it can’t eat.
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You can get cooties. Cooties are lice.
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Mosquito repellant does not repel mosquitos. It blocks their sensors so they don’t know your there.
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Poison ivy is a member of the cashew family of plants that supplies us with cashews and pistachio nuts.
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Charlie Chaplin once lost a Charlie Chaplin look-alike contest. He didn’t even make it to the finals.
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Artists have more sexual partners.
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The Puritan’s bought beer to America.
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Antarctica is the only continent without owls.
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A ten gallon hat only holds three-quarters of a gallon.
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The first film version of Frankenstein was a fifteen minute silent produced by Thomas Edison.
Well there you have it. I saved you all from a boring political rant and offered up this collection of incredible information at the same time. We do live in miraculous times, don’t we? I’m out the door and on my way in five minutes so ending this right now is necessary. Consider it ended.
It’s time again for another installment of totally useless information. If you remember all of these tidbits after reading this blog for a year you’ll be declared an Unofficial Trivial Pursuit Expert. Even that game doesn’t include some of the strange and useless stuff found here.
My search will continue to find as many of these stupid and useless facts as possible and forward them along for your amusement. We humans are a strange folk as reflected by the following:
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Did you know you share your birthday with at least 9 other million people in the world?
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Americans on the average eat 18 acres of pizza every day.
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Every time you lick a stamp, you’re consuming 1/10 of a calorie.
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Babies are born without knee caps. They don’t appear until the child reaches 2-6 years of age.
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In every episode of Seinfeld there is a Superman somewhere.
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If Barbie were life-size her measurements would be 39-23-33. She would stand seven feet, two inches tall and have a neck twice the length of a normal human’s neck.
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The Pentagon, in Arlington, Virginia, has twice as many bathrooms as is necessary.
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During your lifetime, you’ll eat about 60,000 pounds of food, that’s the weight of about 6 elephants.
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There are more plastic flamingos in the U.S, than real ones.
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More people use blue toothbrushes, than red ones.
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Lightning strikes about 6,000 times per minute on this planet.
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The average American/Canadian drinks about 600 sodas a year.
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Humans blink over 10,000,000 times a year.
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In the year 2000, Pope John Paul II was named an "Honorary Harlem Globetrotter”.
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Every second, Americans collectively eat one hundred pounds of chocolate.
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A person uses approximately fifty-seven sheets of toilet paper each day.
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In 32 years. there are about 1 billion seconds.
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Baby robins eat 14 feet of earthworms every day.
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Michael Jordan makes more money from Nike annually than all of the Nike factory workers in Malaysia combined.
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If you fart consistently for 6 years and 9 months, enough gas is produced to create the energy of an atomic bomb.
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Men are 6 times more likely to be struck by lightning than women.
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A toothpick is the object most often choked on by Americans.
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Every 45 seconds, a house catches on fire in the United States.
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The average ice berg weighs 20,000,000 tons.
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A lump of pure gold the size of a matchbox can be flattened into a sheet the size of a tennis court.
I think my favorite from this list is Pope John Paul II becoming an honorary Harlem Globetrotter. It’s funny on a number of levels and I can just picture him, robes flapping, doing a Michael Jordan flight to the basket for a truly holy dunk.
It’s time once again for this blog to live up to it’s name. Another installment of totally useless information collected during a global search for just about anything that’s even a little bit interesting. I feel that everyone should have a few trivia items that aren’t commonly known to help amaze their friends and possibly win a bar bet or two. Spring is arriving and we need to lighten things up a little so here we go.
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The average housewife walks 10 miles a day around the house doing chores. She walks 4 miles and spends 25 hours a year making beds.
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President James Garfield could write Latin with one hand and Greek with the other—simultaneously! Leonardo da Vinci could draw with one hand and write with the other, also simultaneously.
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Attila the Hun was a dwarf. Pepin the Short, Aesop, Gregory of Tours, Charles III of Naples, and the Pasha Hussain were all less than 3 and a half feet tall.
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Edgar Allan Poe and James Abbott McNeill Whistler both went to West Point.
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The Amazon River discharges 4.2 million cubic feet of water per second in the Atlantic Ocean.
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A rat can go without water longer than a camel can.
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Mr. Potato Head was the first toy advertised on television.
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An elephant may consume 500 pounds of hay and 60 gallons of water in a single day.
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Malaria mosquitos are attracted to ripe Limburger cheese and smelly feet.
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A fetus acquires fingerprints by the end of the first trimester.
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One million stray dogs and 500,000 stray cats live in New York City metropolitan area. There are about 100 million dogs and cats in the United States. Americans spend more than 5.5 billion on their pets each year. Every hour, 12,500 puppies are born in the US.
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In 2003, the personal fortune of writer J. K. Rowling of Harry Potter fame, surpassed that of the Queen of England.
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A 2005 survey by CareerBuilder.com, 43% of Americans called in sick when there was nothing wrong with them.
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The venom of the king cobra is so deadly that one gram of it can kill 150 people. Just to handle the substance can put one in coma.
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A whale’s heart beats only nine times a minute.
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A good milking cow will give nearly 6,000 quarts of milk every year.
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Under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, leeches and maggots are categorized as medical devices.
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Male moose have antlers 7 feet across. The antlers often weigh 60 pounds.
You should be feeling extra smart right about now. Knowing these fact puts you in a category all your own. I didn’t say it was a good category but you’re definitely in it. You’re now an official trivia nerd and I guess congratulations are in order.
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