Archive for the ‘trivia’ Tag

08/11/2022 Odd Information   Leave a comment

I feel the need to distribute a little more useless information today. There seems to a never-ending supply which I will happily make available to as many people as possible. Some of this information was also supplied by my all-time favorite writer, Isaac Azimov.

  • The foundations of the great European cathedrals go down as far as 40 or 50 feet. In some instances, they form a mass of stone as great as that of the visible building above the ground.
  • While Columbus was seeking new worlds to the West, Italian engineers were rebuilding the Kremlin in Moscow.
  • The number of possible ways of playing just the first four movies on each side in a game of chess is 318,979,564,000.
  • There were more than 100 distinct ethnic groups in the old Soviet Union.
  • The Pacific Ocean fills nearly a complete hemisphere of the Earth’s surface.

  • Because of the story in Genesis that Eve had been created out of Adam’s rib, it was widely believed during the Middle Ages that men had one fewer rib than women.
  • Immediately after the end of the American Revolution, Congress abolished the United States Army, the Navy, and the Marine Corps, leaving the Congress itself as the only national government organization. They feared a standing army.
  • When Thomas Jefferson became president, in 1801, 20% of the people in the United States were slaves. There were 5 million people in all.
  • It was only in 1968 – 43 years after the Scopes “monkey trial” – that the state of Tennessee abolished its anti-evolution law and accepted the doctrine of evolution.
  • “Red Tape” the rigid application of regulations and routine, resulting in the delay in getting business done, got its name from the color of the tape that was commonly used to tie official papers. The term was in use as early as 1658.

Well, for all of you trivia lovers out there you’ve just received your daily fix of totally useless information. My supply never seems to run low and more will definitely follow.

ENJOY YOUR WEEK

08/06/2022 “RAUCHINESS”   3 comments

My favorite word today is “Raunchy”. It’s not a word that’s heard too often these days, but I’ll do my best to do it justice. Another of my favorite things are riddles. As a kid we enjoyed them, and they were always fun. I’ll merge them together and give you ten “Raunchy Riddles” from the 1980’s. Here we go.

What’s the difference between a porcupine and a Porche? The porcupine has pricks on the outside.

How fast can a girl go when she’s having sex? 68 . . . If she went 69, she’d blow a rod.

What do you call a Mexican with a vasectomy? A dry Martinez.

Why did the girl take a bath in peroxide? Because she heard that on the whole gentlemen prefer blonds

What can a girl put behind her ears to make her look sexy? Her knees.

What’s the difference between an epileptic corn husker and a hooker with diarrhea? An epileptic corn husker shucks between fits.

Why don’t men mind women claiming to be the foundation of our country? Because they know who laid the foundation.

What’s worse than a centipede with athletes’ foot? Captain Hook with jock itch.

What’s the French method of self-defense? Tung Fu

Why was the Duchess on her knees? She was down for the Count.

DON’T YOU JUST LOVE THE 80’S?

08/04/2022 Mish Mosh   Leave a comment

Once again here is a collection of what the hell ever”. A mixture of stupid advertisements, bumper stickers, and whatever else I happen to find on my desk. TGIAF (Thank God It’s Almost Friday)

Newspaper Headlines

Statistics Show that Mortality Increases Perceptively in the Military During Wartime

Police Begin Campaign to Run Down Jaywalkers

Miners Refuse to Work After Death

Never Withhold Herpes from Loved One

Squad Helps Dog Bite Victim

😗😗😗

Newspaper Classified Ads

Two wire-mesh butchering gloves, one 5-finger, oine 3-finger, pair: $15.00

Bill’s Septic Cleaning – “We haul American-made products.”

For Sale – An antique desk suitable for lady with thick legs and large drawers.

Tired of cleaning yourself? Let me do it.

Man wanted to work in dynamite factory. Must be willing to travel.

😜😜😜

Malaprops From Grade School and High School Exams

Afterward Moses went up on Mt. Cyanide to get the Ten Commandments.

Most words are easy to spell once you get the words write.

The air is thin high up in the sky. Down here it’s fat.

Flying saucers are just an optical conclusion.

The Greeks invented three kinds of columns: Corinthian, Doric, and Ironic.

😏😏😏

THIS IS GOOD PREP FOR THE WEEKEND

08/02/2022 😁Being Human😁   Leave a comment

Are you human? Has anyone ever honestly asked you that question? If someone ever does, ask for specifics. Being human is a ridiculously hard job since the body seems to be on autopilot most of the time. Breathing, digesting food, eliminating waste, and a host of other things. It goes about the business of keeping us alive and does what’s needed regardless of how we feel. It’s truly the only thing that keeps us alive regardless of how careless and stupid we are. Read on . . .

  • Did you know that on average, the whiskers in a man’s beard grow nearly 6 inches per year?
  • If you’re a man, and your index finger is shorter than your ring finger your one third more likely to be diagnosed with prostate cancer. Scientists think that men with longer index fingers have lower levels of testosterone, which offers some protection against prostate cancer.
  • Human fingernails grow four times faster than their toenails.
  • The only places on the human body where hair will not grow are the soles of the feet, palms of the hand, lips, and eyelids (not counting eyelashes).
  • Did you know the heart mimics the music you listen to and can trigger physiological changes that increase or decrease your blood pressure?

  • Your left lung is slightly larger than your right lung.
  • The longest recorded bout of pickups lasted for 68 years. Charles Osborne, a hog farmer from Iowa began hiccupping in 1922 and didn’t stop until 1990 at age 97.
  • Right-handed people live, on average, nine years longer than left-handed people.
  • Redheads are more likely than other people to be left-handed.
  • Human beings can survive longer without food than they can without sleep. The longest any person has gone without sleep not using stimulants or other drugs is 264 hours, or about 11 days. The longest a person has gone without food or water (total starvation) is 73 days.

TAKE CARE OF YOUR BODY, IT’S ALWAYS TAKING CARE OF YO

08/01/2022 “Strange but True”   Leave a comment

Since reading blogs slows considerably during these hot and sweaty days of Summer, I thought a short list of strange things were just what is needed today. If all of you aren’t reading much in this heat, here are a few more things you probably won’t read.

  • For passengers who may not quite get it, American Airlines once printed instructions on their snack packages. “Open packet, eat nuts.”
  • A female ferret can die from going into heat and not mating.
  • In 1900, the average white woman’s life expectancy was only 48.7 years. For women of color, the life expectancy was 33.5 years.
  • Your stomach creates a new mucus layer every two weeks.
  • Thomas Edison preferred to do his reading in Braille, and he proposed to his wife in Morse code.

  • American go through 12 billion bananas in a typical year.
  • Roses are the symbol of the Virgin Mary. Catholic “rosaries” were originally made of 165 dried and rolled rose petals.
  • Disney’s Space Mountain roller coaster was the first thrill attraction to be operated by a computer.
  • The first time an instant replay was seen on TV was during an Army-Navy football game on December 7, 1963. CBS director Tony Verna masterminded the idea.
  • Founding Father George Washington was a distant relation of King Edward I, Queen Elizabeth II, Sir Winston Churchill, and Gen. Robert E Lee.

07/27/2022 “Grave Moments”   Leave a comment

In my younger days I spent a great deal of time in the oldest graveyards in southern Massachusetts. I did gravestone rubbings, sketches, and even a number of oil paintings. I even stretched t-shirts over gravestones, did rubbings, and sold them through a local gift shop. I had many requests from families for shirts with their family name or their favorite epithets. It seems everyone is either fascinated by graveyards or afraid of them. I’ve always loved them because of the absolute quietness. I spent many an hour curled up with a good book, under a tree, in my favorite graveyard.

Here are a few unusual and catchy tombstone epithets for your entertainment.

  • M.S. Donald Robertson, died 4 June 1848, age 63. “He was a peaceable man, and, to all appearance a sincere Christian. His death was much regretted – which was caused by the stupidity of Lawrence Tulloch of Clotherton who sold him nitre instead of Epsom salts by which he was killed in the space of three hours after taking a dose of it.” Cross Kirk, Shetland, England
  • “Sacred for the memory of Anthony Drake, who died for peace and quietness sake. His wife was constantly scolding and scoffin’, so he sought for repose in a twelve-dollar coffin.” Burlington, Massachusetts
  • “Sacred to the memory of Elisha Philbrook and his wife Sarah, beneath these stones do lie. Back-to-back, my wife and I. When the last trumpet the air shall fill, if she gets up, I’ll just lie still.” Sargentville, Maine
  • “Beneath this stone, a lump of clay lies Arabella Young, who on the 21st of May began to hold her tongue.” Hatfield, Massachusetts
  • Sacred to the memory of Jared Bates who died August the 6th, 1800. His widow, aged 24, lives at 7 Elm Street, has every qualification for a good wife, and yearns to be comforted.” Lincoln, Maine
  • “Fear God, keep the commandments, and don’t attempt to climb a tree, for that’s what caused the death of me.” Eastwell, Kent, England
  • “Here lies I, Jonathan Fry. killed by a skyrocket in my eye socket.” Frodsham, Cheshire, England

IT SEEMS A SENSE OF HUMOR LAST FOREVER

R.I.P.

07/26/2022 “Pearls of Wisdom”   1 comment

Who doesn’t love trivia? Even a person who reads trivia and claims not to enjoy it actually does learn something. The more facts you learn, regardless of content, adds information to your memory banks. “More” is always better than “Less”. Here’s a little more for you . . .

  • In 200 BC, the Carthaginian ruler, Hannibal, defeated an enemy’s navy by stuffing poisonous snakes into earthen jugs and catapulting them onto the decks of his opponents’ ships.
  • National Bathroom Reading Week is the second week in June.
  • An unusual baseball injury occurred when former Braves first baseman, Ryan Klesko, pulled a muscle by lifting his lunch tray.
  • The gluteus maximus, the muscle that makes up the buttocks, is the biggest muscle in the human body.
  • The square most commonly landed on in the game of Monopoly is Illinois Avenue. (The Go space ranks second.)
  • The original title of the Buddy Holly hits on “Peggy Sue” was “Cindy Lou”.
  • The very first stolen car was reported in St. Louis Missouri, in 1905.
  • The colors of the Campbell Soup label – carnelian red and white – were chosen from the colors of the Cornell University football team.
  • Nike shoes got their distinct waffle sole design in 1971, after track coach Bill Bowerman’s wife served him breakfast. Inspired by the design, he put rubber in his wife’s waffle maker and created what would become Nike’s custom sole.
  • The Library of Congress in Washington DC, is the largest library in the world, containing 28 million books and 532 miles of shelving.

Now be truthful. Don’t you feel just a little bit smarter? Add this quote to your files as well:

“Experience is the name everyone gives to his mistakes.” Oscar Wilde

07/25/2022 Limerick “How To” III   5 comments

David McCord

Here are the final limericks in Mr. McCord’s limerick construction primer. I thoroughly enjoy reading the work created by such an intelligent man who enjoys his love of poems and limericks as I do. His non-limerick poetry is also outstanding as you will see.

💥💥💥

It’s been a bad year for the moles

Who live just in stockings with holes;

And bad for the mice

Who prefer their boiled rice

Seved in shoes that don’t have any soles.

💥💥💥

There once was a man in the Moon,

But he got there a little too soon.

Some others came later

And fell down a crater,

When was it? Next August? Last June?

💥💥💥

I don’t much exactly quite care

For those cats with short ears and long hair.

But if anything’s worse

It’s the very reverse:

Just you ask any mouse anywhere.

💥💥💥

💥💥💥

So, by chance it may be you’ve not heard

Of a small sort of queer silent bird.

Not a song, trill, or note

Ever comes from his throat.

If it does, I take back every word.

💥💥💥

And last but not least.

Write a limerick now. Say there was

An old man of some place, what he does,

Or perhaps what he doesn’t,

Or isn’t or wasn’t.

Want help with it? Give me a buzz.

💥💥💥

I heard my first limerick when I was about 7 years old when I was eavesdropping on my father and one of his friends. I heard my dad recite this little gem. My love of limericks was born!

There once was a lady from Wheeling

She had one helluva feeling.

She laid on her back

And opened he c***k

And p****d all over the ceiling.

HAVE A GREAT WEEK

07/24/2022 Limerick “How To” II   Leave a comment

As promised, here is the second installment of David McCord’s limerick writing primer. He not only shows how to write a limerick but gives excellent examples of the various types you can create.

Consider this odd little snail

Who lives on the rim of a pail:

Often wet, never drowned,

He is always around

Safe and sound, sticking right to his trail.

💥💥💥

A man who was fond of his skunk

Thought he smelled pure and pungent as punk.

But his friends cried No, no,

No, no, no, no, no, no!

He just stinks, or he stank, or he stunk.

💥💥💥

Here’s one of his poems as well. Enjoy!

There was an old man who cried Boo!

Not to me or to he but to you.

He also said scat

To a dog not a cat,

And to Timbuc he added too-too.

💥💥💥

“This season our turnips was red

And them beets was all white. And instead

Of green cabbages, what

You suspect that we got?”

“I don’t know,” “Didn’t plant none,” he said.

💥💥💥

THE FINAL INSTALLMENT TOMORROW

07/22/2022 “Quotes of the Week”   Leave a comment

Alfred North Whitehouse 1861-1947

“Great art is more than a transient refreshment. It is something which adds to the permanent richness of the soul’s self-attainment. It justifies itself both by its immediate enjoyment, and also by its discipline of the inmost being. Its discipline is not distinct from enjoyment but by reason of it. It transforms the soul into the permanent realization of values extending beyond its former self.”

Facing mandatory retirement in London, and upon being offered an appointment at Harvard, Whitehead moved to the United States in 1924. Given his prior training in mathematics, it was sometimes joked that the first philosophy lectures he ever attended were those he himself delivered in his new role as Professor of Philosophy.