Archive for the ‘austria’ Tag
I enjoy writing this blog but there are times it could drive a person to drink. Responding to some of the inane comments is time consuming and boring and many critics have been sent packing from this blog and occasionally if they p*ss me off enough they get blocked. Most criticisms are like water running off a ducks back because they consist mostly of a steady stream of BS but also loads and loads of your good old fashion boring political rhetoric. My solution is to ignore damn near everything, laugh my ass off, and then have a cold refreshing alcoholic beverage or whiskey. Todays post will concern trivial facts about the drinking of many of our favorite beverages. Here we go. . . .
- The spot on the planet with the highest per capita consumption of wine is a tiny Pacific island of Norfolk with a population of approximately 1800. Their rate of consumption per capita is 77.8 bottles per year. (If I’d known this years ago I would have changed my retirement plans.)
- And to continue my somewhat combative relationship with religion it should be noted that the Vatican City comes in a close second. Those jolly cardinals, priests, and Pope have a annual per capita consumption of 76 bottles. (Can I get a BIG AMEN!!)
- Just to be fair the following five locations aren’t far behind: Andorra, Croatia, Portugal, Slovenia, and Macedonia. (This final tidbit makes me smile a little. France comes in a measly eighth.)
- Since I’m a confirmed hater of beer I’ll give a big shout out to Czechoslovakia who is far and away the winner of annual per capita beer consumption at 142.6 liters. Austria and Germany are third and forth and Poland is sixth. The U.S.A. places 17th while the British bitter beer and port consumption brings them in at 28th place. (No wonder we revolted.)
- Lets talk about something I love – WHISKEY. The UK is well down the list with a per capita consumption of 1.25 liters. India and Ireland come in at 1.24 liters but the big winner in whiskey consumption is surprisingly France at 2.15 liters a year or 87 shots per person. (I guess It takes a lot to make those hairy ladies in France sexually attractive. LOL)
I’m not addressing the world’s vodka consumption today because it would take another lengthy post to even scratch the surface. That topic will be addressed at a later date.
SPECIAL THANKS TO BILL ROGERS
and
“L’chaim”
These facts may appear to be BS but they are not. They were researched and compiled by Shane Carley who is also obsessed with weird but true facts.
- The first leader of an independent Chile was Irish.
- The Hundred Years War actually lasted 116 years.
- The Austrian army once mistakenly attacked itself. The Battle of Karansebes resulted in losses of up to 10,000 soldiers when one Austrian regiment mistook another for the enemy.
- Surprisingly, the U.S. state closest to Africa is not Florida – it’s Maine.
- President Richard Nixon had a speech prepared just in case Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin died on the moon.
- The people of Loss Angeles were so accustomed to light pollution that when an earthquake caused a blackout in 1994, many citizens called observatories to ask about the weird lights in the sky. They were the stars.
- Early astronaut toilets were so bad that feces sometimes floated through the space capsule.
- Believe it or not as far as official records are concerned, no one has ever had sex in space.
- Marijuana and the hops in your beer come from the same plant family.
- You can generally tell the color of a chickens eggs by the color of its ears.
- As recently as 2004, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration permitted the production and marketing of maggots for limited use as a “medical device”.
- The Declaration of Independence was written on animal skin.
- Taking into consideration the upcoming holiday season. Christmas was originally banned in the American colonies.
- Jackie Mitchell, the first (and only) female player in Major League Baseball, once struck out Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig in consecutive at bats.
- Hall of Fame MLB pitcher Hoyt Wilhelm hit a home run in his first MLB at-bat. He never hit another home run over the remainder of his 21 year career.
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TRUTH IS STRANGER THAN FICTION
I’ve been blogging for almost 15 years and have written thousands of words. Also, I’ve been addicted to crossword puzzles for my whole life and know thousands of other words. That being said, I recently stumbled across some trivia concerning words and languages and I like to pass them along. I know a lot of words, but I found out I didn’t know as much as I thought I did.
- Egyptians, Indians, and Turk’s search for “sex” on Google more than any other nationality. “Hitler” is the most popular in Germany, Austria, and Mexico. The word Nazi is a favorite in Chile, Australia, and Britain. “David Beckham” gets the most hits in Venezuela.
- In the Eskimo language Inuktitut, there is a single word meaning “I should try not to become an alcoholic”: Iminngernaveersaartunngortussaavunga.
- The words “tomato”, “coyote”, “avocado”, and “chocolate” all come from the Aztec language Nahuatl.
- The word “boredom” did not exist in the English language until after 1750.
- The “zip” in “zip code” stands for “zone improvement plan”.
- An 18-year-old knows approximately 60,000 words, which represents a learning rate of one word per 90 walking minutes from the age of one.
- By the age of five, children will have acquired 85% of the language they will have as adults.
- The Finnish language has no future tense.
- Over just six days in the month of August 1998, The Washington Post devoted 80,289 words to the Monica Lewinsky scandal.
- The condition of being unable to release a dart from one’s hand when throwing is known as dartitus.
WORDS CAN BE FUN
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