More useless trivia:

A rat can last longer without water than a camel. 

Your stomach has to produce a new layer of mucus every two weeks, otherwise 
it will digest itself. 

The Declaration of Independence (the very official copy in the Rotunda of the 
National Archives) is written on parchment, not paper. 

The dot over the letter 'i' is called a tittle. 
 
A female ferret will die if it goes into heat and cannot find a mate. 

A 2x4 is actually 1-1/2" x 3-1/2" . 

40% of McDonald's profits come from the sales of Happy Meals. 

Every person has a unique tongue print. (Say "aaah") 

The 'spot' on 7UP comes from its inventor who had red eyes. He was an albino. 


315 entries in Webster's 1996 Dictionary were misspelled. 

During the chariot scene in 'Ben Hur' a small red car can be seen in the 
distance. (It was an Accord. "They were gathered in one accord...." so the 
scripture says.)

On average, 12 newborns will be given to the wrong parents daily. (That 
should keep them awake!!!)

John Wilkes Booth's brother once saved the life of Abraham Lincoln's son. 
(Irony) 

Warren Beatty and Shirley MacLaine are brother and sister. 

Chocolate kills dogs! Chocolate affects a dog's heart and nervous system. A 
few ounces is enough to kill a small sized dog. (Debated) 

Daniel Boone detested coonskin caps. 

Playing cards were issued to British pilots in WWII. If they were captured, 
the cards could be soaked in water and unfolded to reveal a map for escape. 

Most lipstick contains fish scales. (Yum, yum, yum!)

Dr. Seuss actually pronounced Seuss such that it sounded like Sue-ice. 

Ketchup was sold in the 1830s as medicine. 

Leonardo da Vinci could write with one hand and draw with the other at the 
same time. 

During the California Gold Rush of 1849 miners sent their laundry to Honolulu 
for washing and pressing. Due to the high costs in California during these 
years it was deemed more feasible to send the shirts to Hawaii for servicing. 


American Airlines saved $40,000 in 1987 by eliminating one olive from each 
salad served in first class. 

The number of possible ways of playing the first four moves per side in a 
game of chess is 318,979,564,000. 

Upper and lower case letters are named 'upper' and 'lower', because in the 
time when all original print had to be set in individual letters, the 'upper 
case' letters were stored in the case on top of the case that stored the 
smaller, 'lower case' letters. The proper term for upper case letters is 
"majuscule" and for lower case it's "minuscule". 

The printing industry gives us other popular phrases, such as "mind your 'p's 
and 'q's." The moveable block type had the letters in reverse so they would 
read correctly when imprinted on paper. Apprentices had to remove the type 
from the pages and return the blocks to their upper and lower cases. Each 
drawer in the case held a different size of letters, and each drawer was 
divided into compartments (called sorts) for each letter. The letters 'p' and 
'q' could easily be mistaken, so the master printer would advise their 
apprentices to mind their 'p's and 'q's. (This is debated. <A HREF="http://www.quinion.com/words/articles/psandqs.htm">Link.</A>) 
When the master printer was building a page and discovered that a particular 
sort was empty, he would get angry. Thus the term "out of sorts". 
The question mark came from a monk habit of writing the Latin word for 
question, quo, at the end of sentences. Over time, the letters were written 
vertically to save space and morphed into the ? we write today. Similarly, 
the exclamation point came from the Latin word "Lo", meaning something 
important that should be heeded. (Lo and behold...) 

Wellfleet, Massachusetts has the only town clock in the world that strikes 
ship's time. (Rings every half hour, to a maximum of 8 rings at the end of 
each four hour period.) 

There are no words in the dictionary that rhyme with the words orange, 
purple, or silver, or month. (Debated, as I don't think that sliver is a 
rhyme for silver, or pimple a good rhyme with purple, etc.) 

The numbers '172' can be found on the back of the U.S. $5 dollar bill in the 
bushes at the base of the Lincoln Memorial. (New or old? Not sure. Probably 
the old one.) 

The name Wendy was made up for the book Peter Pan. There was never a recorded 
Wendy before. (Debated) 

The very first bomb dropped by the Allies on Berlin during World War II 
killed the only elephant in the Berlin Zoo. 

There are four cars and eleven lightposts on the back of a $10 dollar bill. 

Scissors as we know them today (well, pretty much) were invented in Rome in 
about 100 AD (or CE, if you want to be politically correct). 

If one places a tiny amount of liquor on a scorpion, it will instantly go mad 
and look like it is stinging itself to death. (It spasms a lot.) 

Most scorpions will glow under black (ultraviolet) light. (Did you test it?!) 


Bruce Lee was so fast that they actually had to SLOW a film down so you could 
see his moves. That's the opposite of the norm. 

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. 

The first CD pressed in the US was Bruce Springstein's 'Born in the USA.' 

The mask used by Michael Myers in the original Halloween was actually a 
Captain Kirk mask painted white. (I didn't see the movie!)

The first product Motorola developed was a record player for automobiles. At 
that time the most known player on the market was the Victrola, so they 
called themselves Motorola. 

Roses MAY be red, but violets ARE, indeed, violet. 

By raising your legs slowly and lying on your back, you can't sink in 
quicksand. One should carry a stout pole while travelling in quicksand 
country...when placed under one's back, it helps one to float out of the 
quicksand. 

Casey Kasem is the voice of Shaggy on Scooby-Doo. (Who is Casey Kasem??)

Celery has negative calories! It takes more calories to digest a piece of 
celery than the celery has in it to begin with. (Mmm, more diet food.) 

Charlie Chaplin once won third prize in a Charlie Chaplin look alike contest. 


In Gulliver's Travels Jonathan Swift described the two moons of Mars, Phobos 
and Deimos, giving their exact size and speeds of rotation. He did this more 
than one hundred years before either moon was discovered. (That seems 
far-fetched!)

Chewing gum while peeling onions will keep you from crying! (Not necessarily, 
I tried that!  Perhaps, it wasn't a big enough wad!))
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My comments are in (parenthesis).  DLReagan+