Interesting, Useless Facts

1. Shakespeare used some 17,677 words in his plays, sonnets, and narrative poems, and he was the first to coin 1700 of these words.

2. The dot over the letter "i" is called a tittle.

3. 315 entries in Webster's 1996 Dictionary were misspelled.

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

5. There are no words in the dictionary that rhyme with orange, purple and silver.

6. You are likely to test positive for Opium Usage in a drug test if tested right after eating a Poppy-seed Bagel.

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

8. Ketchup was sold in the 1830s as medicine.

9. A raisin dropped in a glass of fresh champagne will bounce up and down continuously from the bottom of the glass to the top.

10. Every person has a unique tongue print.

11. The name Wendy was invented for the book Peter Pan, there was never a recorded Wendy before that.

12. Donald Duck comics were banned in Finland because he doesn't wear pants.

13. The glue on Israeli postage stamps is certified kosher.

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

15. A duck's quack doesn't echo. No one knows why.

16. American Airlines saved $40,000 in '87 by eliminating one olive from each salad served in first class.

17. There are no clocks in Las Vegas gambling casinos.

18. Chewing gum while peeling onions will keep you from crying.

19. The Pacific Ocean contains about 25,000 islands.

20. During World War II, wooden Oscars were given as metal was scarce.

21. A rat can last longer without water than a camel.

22. Scissors are said to have been invented by Leonardo da Vinci.

23. Camels have three sets of eyelids. These protect their eyes from blowing sand.

24. The human stomach produces a new layer of mucus every two weeks. Without this mucus production, the stomach would digest itself.

25. The world's first electronic computer was called ENIAC and was produced in 1946. It was 8 feet tall, 78 feet long, and had over 18000 vacuum tubes.

26. In early Olympic Games - women were not allowed to watch the games, but were allowed to participate in the games.

27. The average McDonald's Big Mac bun has 198 sesame seeds on it.

28. Beer is made by fermentation which is caused by bacteria feeding on yeast cells and then defecating. Which means it is a nice tall glass of bacteria poop.

29. Native Americans never actually ate turkey; killing such a timid bird was thought to indicate laziness.

30. Spinach is native to the area of Iran, but didn't spread to other parts of the world until the beginning of the Christian era.

31. Goat milk is used to produce Roquefort cheese.

32. Astronaut Neil Armstrong first stepped on the moon with his left foot.

33. The world's longest name officially used by a person is "Adolph Blaine Charles David Earl Frederick Gerald Hubert Irvin John Kenneth Lloyd Martin Nero Oliver Paul Quincy Randolph Shermasn Thomas Uncas Victor William Xerxes Yancy Zeus Wolfeschlegelsteinhausenbergerdorft Senior" which is composed of 28 words or 192 letters.

34. Canada is an Indian word meaning "Big Village".

35. The town of Calma, Chile in the Atacama Desert has never had rain.

36. There's a place called "Y" in France.

37. In ancient Greece "idiot" meant a private citizen or layman.

38. The official name for the city of Bangkok, Thailand is "Krung thep mahanakhon bovorn ratanakosin mahintharayutthaya mahadilok pop noparatratchathani burirom udomratchanivetma hasathan amornpiman avatarnsa thit sakkathattiyavisnukarmprasit" or just "Krung thep" for short meaning "City of Angels."

39. The Nullarbor Plain of Australia covers 100,000 square miles (160,900 km) without a tree.

40. The longest place name still in use, which is 85 letters long, is "Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipuka- kapikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu" which is a name of a hill in New Zealand.

41. Mosquito repellents don't repel. They hide you. The spray blocks the mosquito's sensors so they don't know you're there.

42. The average garden-variety caterpillar has 248 muscles in its head.

43. The name "Kangaroo" came about when some of the first white settlers saw this strange animal hopping along and they asked the Aborigines what it was called. They replied with "Kanguru", which in their language means "I don't know".