fascinating facts - interesting thoughts, trivia, jokes, brain teasers

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fascinating facts, trivia, interesting thoughts
presented by ... brian taylor

111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321
if a statue in the park of a person on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle; if the horse has one front leg in the air, the person died as a result of wounds received in battle; if the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes.
no word in the english language rhymes with month, orange, silver, and purple.
clans of long ago that wanted to get rid of their unwanted people without killing them use to burn their houses down - hence the expression "to get fired."
canada is an indian word meaning "big village".
there are 2 credit cards for every person in the united states.
only two people signed the declaration of independence on july 4^th, john hancock and charles thomson. most of the rest signed on august 2, but the last signature wasn’t added until 5 years later.
"i am." is not the shortest complete sentence in the english language. actually, "go!" is a complete sentence, and is the shortest sentence.
the term "the whole 9 yards" came from wwii fighter pilots in the south pacific. when arming their airplanes on the ground, the .50 caliber machine gun ammo belts measured exactly 27 feet, before being loaded into the fuselage. if the pilots fired all their ammo at a target, it got "the whole 9 yards."
each king in a deck of playing cards represents a great king from history. spades - king david; clubs - alexander the great; hearts - charlemagne; and diamonds - julius caesar.
"sleep tight" came from: beds before the 19th century were made of frames of wood that had holes for ropes that were laticed to hold a matress (such as they were). there was a wooden peg/pole that could be placed so that it fitted around the ropes going out and back in on the outside of the bedframe to tighten the lattice of ropes so the bed would not sag. this was done right before you got in bed. (explanation from gale barker)
the most common name in the world is mohammed.
the name jeep came from the abbreviation used in the army for the "general purpose" vehicle, g.p.
the sentence "the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog." uses every letter in the alphabet. (developed by western union to test telex/twx communications)
the eisenhower interstate system requires that one mile in every five must be straight. these straight sections are usable as airstrips in times of war or other emergencies.
in every episode of seinfeld there is a superman somewhere.
average life span of a major league baseball: 7 pitches.
a duck's quack doesn't echo, and no one knows why. untrue, in fact a duck's quack does echo: http://www.snopes.com/critters/wild/duckecho.htm
the only 15 letter word that can be spelled without repeating a letter is uncopyrightable.
the reason firehouses have circular stairways is from the days of yore when the engines were pulled by horses. the horses were stabled on the ground floor and figured out how to walk up straight staircases.
the airplane buddy holly died in was the "american pie". (thus the name of the don mclean song.)
the word "samba" means "to rub navels together".
the international telephone dialing code for antarctica is 672.
the glue on israeli postage stamps is certified kosher.
nutmeg is extremely poisonous if injected intravenously.
if you have three quarters, four dimes, and four pennies, you have $1.19. you also have the largest amount of money in coins without being able to make change for a dollar.
no nfl team which plays its home games in a domed stadium has ever won a super bowl. this is not true. the saint louis rams won the super bowl in 2000; they played their home games in (at the time) the trans world dome - now known as the edward jones dome. and the indianapolis colts in 2007 - , up until 2007 no nfl quarterback to wear number 18 had ever won a super bowl.
the first toilet ever seen on television was on "leave it to beaver".
the only two days of the year in which there are no professional sports games (mlb, nba, nhl, or nfl) are the day before and the day after the major league all-star game.

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only one person in two billion will live to be 116 or older.
the name wendy was made up for the book "peter pan".
in cleveland, ohio, it's illegal to catch mice without a hunting license.
it takes 3,000 cows to supply the nfl with enough leather for a year's supply of footballs.
cows spend 6 hours a day eating and 8 hours chewing cud.
35% of the people who use personal ads for dating are already married.
pound for pound, hamburgers cost more than new cars.
the 3 most valuable brand names on earth: marlboro, coca- cola, and budweiser, in that order.
it's possible to lead a cow upstairs...but not downstairs.
humans are the only primates that don't have pigment in the palms of their hands.
10% of the russian government's income comes from the sale of vodka.
on average, 100 people choke to death on ballpoint pens every year.
in 10 minutes, a hurricane releases more energy than all the world's nuclear weapons combined.
reno, nevada is west of los angeles, california.
average age of top gm executives in 1994: 49.8 years. average age of the rolling stones: 50.6.
elephants can't jump. every other mammal can.
the cigarette lighter was invented before the match.
five jell-o flavors that flopped: celery, coffee, cola, apple, and chocolate.
mel blanc (the voice of bugs bunny) was allergic to carrots.
until 1965, driving was done on the left-hand side on roads in sweden. the conversion to right-hand was done on a weekday at 5pm. all traffic stopped as people switched sides. this time and day were chosen to prevent accidents where drivers would have gotten up in the morning and been too sleepy to realize that *this* was the day of the changeover.
the very first bomb dropped by the allies on berlin during world war ii killed the only elephant in the berlin zoo.
dr. seuss pronounced "seuss" such that it rhymed with "rejoice."
in casablanca, humphrey bogart never said "play it again, sam."
sherlock holmes never said "elementary, my dear watson."
more people are killed annually by donkeys than die in air crashes.
the term, "it’s all fun and games until someone loses an eye" is from ancient rome. the only rule during wrestling matches was, "no eye gouging." everything else was allowed, but the only way to be disqualified was to poke someone’s eye out.
a ‘jiffy’ is an actual unit of time for 1/100^th of a second.
the average person falls asleep in seven minutes.
hershey’s kisses are called that because the machine that makes them looks like it’s kissing the conveyor belt.
money isn’t made out of paper, it’s made out of cotton.
cat's urine glows under a black light.
every time you lick a stamp, you’re consuming 1/10 of a calorie.
the phrase "rule of thumb" is derived from and old english law which stated that you couldn’t beat your wife with anything wider than your thumb.
the pentagon, in arlington, virginia, has twice as many bathrooms as is necessary. when it was built in the 1940s, the state of virginia still had segregation laws requiring separate toilet facilities for blacks and whites.
an ostrich’s eye is bigger that it’s brain.
the average human eats 8 spiders in their lifetime at night.
a rhinoceros horn is made of compacted hair.
the shortest war in history was between zanzibar and england in 1896, zanzibar surrendered after 38 minutes.
a polar bear's skin is black. its fur is not white, but actually clear.
dueling is legal in paraguay as long as both parties are registered blood donors.
donald duck comics were banned in finland because he doesn't wear pants.
more people are killed by donkeys annually than are killed in plane crashes.
shakespeare invented the word "assassination" and "bump."
marilyn monroe had six toes. untrue: http://www.snopes.com/movies/actors/mmtoes.htm
if you keep a goldfish in a dark room, it will eventually turn white.
women blink nearly twice as much as men.
right handed people live, on average, nine years longer than left handed people do.
the name of all the continents end with the same letter that they start with. (asia, africa, north america, south america, antarctica, europe, australia)
if the population of china walked past you in single file, the line would never end because of the rate of reproduction.
a snail can sleep for 3 years.
china has more english speakers than the united states.
the electric chair was invented by a dentist.
you share your birthday with at least 9 million people.
the boston university bridge (on commonwealth avenue, boston, massachusetts) is one of the few places in the world where a boat can sail under a train driving under a car driving under an airplane.
cats have over one hundred vocal sounds, dogs only have about ten.
our eyes are always the same size from birth, but our nose and ears never stop growing.
many hamsters only blink one eye at a time.
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.
montpelier, vermont is the only u.s. state capital without a mcdonald's.
the first ford cars had dodge engines.
leonardo da vinci invented scissors.
it takes about a half a gallon of water to cook macaroni, and about a gallon to clean the pot.
babies are born without knee caps. they don't appear until the child reaches 2-6 years of age.
michael jordan makes more money from nike annually than all of the nike factory workers in malaysia combined.
one of the reasons marijuana is illegal today because cotton growers in the 30s lobbied against hemp farmers - they saw it as competition. it is not as chemically addictive as is nicotine, alcohol, or caffeine.
the human heart creates enough pressure when it pumps out to the body to squirt blood 30 feet.
banging your head against a wall uses 150 calories an hour.
humans and dolphins are the only species that have sex for pleasure.
on average, people fear spiders more than they do death.
the strongest muscle in the body is the tongue.
americans on average eat a total of 18 acres of pizza every day.
every time you lick a stamp, you're consuming 1/10 of a calorie.
did you know that you are more likely to be killed by a champagne cork than by a poisonous spider a crocodile cannot stick its tongue out.
the ant always falls over on its right side when intoxicated.
polar bears are left-handed.
a cockroach will live nine days without its head, before it starves to death.
the male praying mantis cannot copulate while its head is attached to its body. the female initiates sex by ripping the male's head off.
some lions mate over 50 times a day.
butterflies taste with their feet.
starfish haven't got brains.
a pig's orgasm lasts for 30 minutes.
the longest recorded flight of a chicken is thirteen seconds
why do you need a driver’s license to buy liquor when you can’t drink and drive?
why isn’t phonetic spelled the way it sounds?
why are there interstate highways in hawaii?
why are cigarettes sold in gas stations when smoking is prohibited there?
do you need a silencer if you are going to shoot a mime?
have you ever imagined a world with no hypothetical situations? mornings?
if 7-11 is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, why are there locks on the doors?
if a cow laughed, w/could milk come out her nose?
if nothing ever sticks to teflon, how do they make teflon stick to the pan?
if you tied buttered toast to the back of a cat and dropped it from a height, what would happen?
if you’re in a vehicle going the speed of light, what happens when you turn on the headlights?
you know how most packages say "open here". what is the protocol if the package says, "open somewhere else"?
why do they put braille dots on the keypad of the drive-up atm?
why do we drive on parkways and park on driveways?
why is it that when you transport something by car, it’s called a shipment, but when you transport something by ship, it’s called cargo?
you know that little indestructible black box that is used on planes, why can’t they make the whole plane out of the same substance?
why is it that when you’re driving and looking for an address, you turn down the volume on the radio?
if you throw a cat out a car window does it become kitty litter?
if corn oil comes from corn, where does baby oil come from?
when a cow laughs does milk come out its nose?
how did a fool and his money get together?
the highest point in pennsylvania is lower than the lowest point in colorado.
how do they get a deer to cross at that yellow road sign?
if it’s tourist season, why can’t we shoot them?
what’s another word for thesaurus?
why do they sterilize the needles for lethal injection?
why is abbreviation such a long word?
why do kamikaze pilots wear helmets?
how do you know when its time to tune your bagpipes?
is it true that cannibals don’t eat clowns because they taste funny?
when you choke a smurf, what color does it turn?
do blind eskimos have seeing eye sled dogs?
why is there an expiration date on my sour cream container?
what do they use to ship styrofoam?
why do they call it a tv set when you only get one?
do radioactive cats have 18 half-lives?
what was the best thing before sliced bread?

did you know who in 1923 was:

1. president of the largest steel company?
2. president of the largest gas company?
3. president of the new york stock exchange?
4. greatest wheat speculator?
5. president of the bank of international settlement?
6. great bear of wall street?

these men should have been considered some of the world’s most successful men. at least they found the secret of making money.

now more than 55 years later, do you know what has become of these men?

1. the president of the largest steel company, charles schwab, died a pauper.
2. the president of the largest gas company, edward hopson, is insane.
3. the president of the n.y.s.e., richard whitney, was released from prison to die at home.
4. the greatest wheat speculator, arthur cooger, died abroad, penniless.
5. the president of the bank of international settlement shot himself.
6. the great bear of wall street, cosabee rivermore, died of suicide.

the same year, 1923, the winner of the most important golf championship, gene sarazan, won the u.s. open and pga tournaments. today he is still playing golf and is solvent.

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conclusion:
stop worrying about business so much
and play golf when you can

brian taylor ... web site developer in seattle washington