Totally True Useless Facts
201 - 300
- The phrase "sleep tight" derives from the fact that early mattresses were filled with straw and held up with rope stretched across the bed frame. A tight sleep was a comfortable sleep.
- "Three dog night," attributed to Australian Aborigines, came about because on especially cold nights these nomadic people needed three dogs, dingos, actually, to keep from freezing.
- During each baseball game the 350 pound president William Taft needed to stretch. This always happened at about the seventh inning, so the "seventh inning stretch" was adopted.
- After Eva Peron's death, her husband, Juan Peron (president of Argentina from 1946-1955) had her embalmed and sat at the breakfast table where he could talk to her every morning.
- The well known "It Girl" Clara Bow, a leading actress in silent films, once in 1927 bedded the entire USC football team. The invitation to her mansion advertised a game of nude football.
- There are 7 lavoratories on Air Force 1.
- 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.
- The Boston University Bridge (on Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts) is the only place in the world where a boat can sail under a train driving under a car driving under an airplane.
- The first episode of "Joanie Loves Chachi" was the highest rated American program in the history of Korean television. "Chachi" is Korean for "penis".
- The United States government keeps its supply of silver at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, NY.
- There are only thirteen blimps in the world. Nine of them are in the United States.
- Our eyes are always the same size from birth, but our nose and ears never stop growing.
- David Prowse was the guy in the Darth Vader suit in Star Wars. He spoke all of Vader's lines, and didn't know that he was going to be dubbed over by James Earl Jones until he saw the screening of the movie.
- Camel's milk does not curdle.
- "Mr. Mojo Risin" is an anagram for Jim Morrison.
- Many hamsters only blink one eye at a time.
- In every episode of Seinfeld there is a Superman somewhere, either by name or pictures on Jerry's refrigerator.
- The name Jeep came from the abbreviation used in the army for the "General Purpose" vehicle, G.P.
- Murphy's Oil Soap is the chemical most commonly used to clean elephants.
- Since 1896, the beginning of the modern Olympics, only Greece and Australia have participated in every Games.
- February 1865 is the only month in recorded history not to have a full moon.
- There will be four consecutive full moons making two blue moons in 1999 (January 2 and 31, March 2 and 31). The only other time it happened this century was in 1915 (January 1 and 31, March 1 and 31.)
- The volume of the Earth's moon is the same as the volume of the Pacific Ocean.
- It takes a lobster approximately seven years to grow to be one pound.
- Montpelier, Vermont is the only U.S. state capital without a McDonalds.
- Giraffes have no vocal cords.
- 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.
- The cruise liner, Queen Elizabeth II, moves only six inches for each gallon of diesel that it burns.
- There are two credit cards for every person in the United States.
- Isaac Asimov is the only author to have a book in every Dewey-decimal category.
- Roger Ebert is the only film critic to have ever won the Pulitzer prize.
- Columbia University is the second largest landowner in New York City, after the Catholic Church.
- An iguana can stay under water for 28 minutes.
- Back in the mid to late 80s, an IBM compatible computer wasn't considered a hundred percent compatible unless it could run Microsoft's Flight Simulator.
- The first Ford cars had Dodge engines.
- Leonardo Da Vinci invented the scissors.
- Stewardesses and reverberated are the two longest words (12 letters each) that can be typed using only the left had. The longest word that can be typed using only the right hand is lollipop. Skepticisms is the longest word that alternates hands.
- Babies are born without knee caps. They don't appear until the child reaches 2-6 years of age.
- 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.
- Michael Jordan makes more money from Nike annually than all of the Nike factory workers in Malaysia combined.
- No NFL team which plays it's home games in a domed stadium has ever won a Superbowl.
- The first toilet ever seen on television was on "Leave It To Beaver".
- In the great fire of London in 1666 half of London was burnt down but only 6 people were injured
- Lincoln Logs were invented by Frank Lloyd Wright's son.
- One of the reasons marijuana is illegal today because cotton growers in the 30s lobbied against hemp farmers -- they saw it as competition.
- The only two days of the year in which there are no North American professional sports games (MLB, NBA, NHL, or NFL) are the day before and the day after the Major League All-Star Game.
- A duck's quack doesn't echo, and no one knows why.
- In the 1940s, the FCC asigned television's Channel 1 to mobile services (two way radios in taxicabs, for instance) but did not re-number the other channel assignments. That is why our TV set has channels 2 and up, but no channel 1.
- 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.
- The underside of a horse's hoof is called a frog. The frog peels off several times a year with new growth.
- The San Franciso Cable cars are the only mobile National Monuments.
- The "save" icon on Microsoft Word shows a floppy disk with the shutter on backwards.
- The combination "ugh" can be pronounced in nine different ways. The following sentence contains them all: "A rough-coated, tough-faced, thoughtful ploughman strode through the streets of Scarborough; after falling into a slough, he coughed and hiccoughed."
- The only 15 letter word that can be spelled without repeating a letter is uncopyrightable.
- The shape of plant collenchyma cells and the shape of the bubbles in beer foam are the same - they are orthotetrachidecahedrons.
- The word 'pound' is abbreviated 'lb.' after the constellation 'libra' because it means 'pound' in Latin, and also 'scales'. The abbreviation for the British Pound Sterling comes from the same source: it is an 'L' for Libra/Lb. with a stroke through it to indicate abbreviation. Same goes for the Italian lira which uses the same abbreviation ('lira' coming from 'libra'). So British currency (before it went metric) was always quoted as "pounds/shillings/pence", abbreviated "L/s/d" (libra/solidus/denarius).
- Emus and kangaroos cannot walk backwards, and are on the Australian coat of arms for that reason.
- The word "Checkmate" in chess comes from the Persian phrase "Shah Mat," which means "the king is dead".
- Pinocchio is Italian for "pine eye".
- An animal epidemic is called an epizootic.
- The United States has never lost a war in which mules were used.
- Blueberry Jelly Bellies were created especially for Ronald Reagan.
- All porcupines float in water.
- "Hang On Sloopy" is the official rock song of Ohio.
- Did you know that there are coffee flavored PEZ?
- The world's largest wine cask is in Heidelberg, Germany.
- Lorne Greene had one of his nipples bitten off by an alligator while he was host of "Lorne Greene's Wild Kingdom."
- If you bring a raccoon's head to the Henniker, New Hampshire town hall, you are entitled to receive $.10 from the town.
- St. Stephen I the patron saint of bricklayers.
- The first song played on Armed Forces Radio during operation Desert Shield was "Rock the Casba" by the Clash.
- 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.
- Non-dairy creamer is flammable.
- The airplane Buddy Holly died in was the "American Pi." (Thus the name of the Don McLean song.)
- Texas is the only state that is allowed to fly its state flag at the same height as the U.S. flag, and the only one to be its own country.
- The only nation who's name begins with an "A", but doesn't end in an "A" is Afghanastan.
- The names of the three wise monkeys are: Mizaru: See no evil, Mikazaru: Hear no evil, and Mazaru: Speak no evil.
- When opossums are playing 'possum, they are not "playing." They actually pass out from sheer terror.
- The Main Library at Indiana University sinks over an inch every year because when it was built, engineers failed to take into account the weight of all the books that would occupy the building.
- All of the clocks in Pulp Fiction are stuck on 4:20.
- Pulp Fiction cost $8 million to make - $5 million going to actor's salaries.
- The Earth rotates on its axis more slowly in March than in September.
- All 50 states are listed across the top of the Lincoln Memorial on the back of the $5 bill.
- Almonds are members of the peach family.
- Maine is the only state whose name is just one syllable.
- The longest place-name still in use is: Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwenuakitanatahu, a New Zealand hill.
- In most advertisements, including newspapers, the time displayed on a watch is 10:10.
- The only real person to be a Pez head was Betsy Ross.
- Betsy Ross was born with a fully formed set of teeth.
- Betsy Ross's other contribution to the American Revolution, beside sewing the first American flag, was running a munitions factory in her basement.
- A dime has 118 ridges around the edge.
- Who's that playing the piano on the "Mad About You" theme? Why it's Paul Reiser himself.
- The name for Oz in the "Wizard of Oz" was thought up when the creator, Frank Baum, looked at his filing cabinet and saw A-N, and O-Z, hence "Oz."
- More people working in advertising died on the job in 1996 than died while working in petroleum refining.
- If you sneeze too hard, you can fracture a rib. If you try to suppress a sneeze, you can rupture a blood vessel in your head or neck and die.
- Nearly a third of all bottled drinking water purchased in the US is contaminated with bacteria.
- Rats multiply so quickly that in 18 months, two rats could have over 1 million descendents.
- You are more likely to be struck by lightning that to be eaten by a shark. You are more likely to be infected by flesh-eating bacteria than you are to be struck by lightning.
- You are more likely to be killed by a champagne cork than a poisonous spider.
- If you urinate when swimming in a South American river, you may encounter the candiru. Drawn to warmth, this tiny fish is known to follow a stream of urine to its source, swim inside the body, and flare is barbed fins. It will remain firmly embedded in the flesh until surgically removed.
1 - 100,
101 - 200,
201 - 300,
301 - 400,
401 - 500,
501 - 600,
601 - 700,
701 - 800,
801 - 900,
901 - 1000,
1001 - 1100,
1101 - current
I do not claim that all of these are actually true, but I have weeded out some of the obvious ones.
If you have any more for me, or if you find a repeat, typo, or blatant fallacy in the above, please e-me about it.
Corrected TTUFs
Where I learn some of this crazy stuff:
The Learning Kingdom
MailBits.com
Win Ben Stein's Money
Accord Publishing's 1999 Nose It All Calendar
Hot Topic pay stubs
E-mails which worm their way into my inbox
Tyler Whitney's Completely Random
Home Page
UselessKnowledge.com
The
Danny Baker Show
PhiLL's Site Of Useless
Information
Buy-ology - TLC
Spam page
Silly Putty page
Other interesting things too long for the TTUF's