ETHREADZNY Posted November 17, 2002 Share Posted November 17, 2002 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 used to burn their houses down - hence the expression "to get fired." Canada is an Indian word meaning "Big Village". There are two credit cards for every person in the United States. Only two people signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4th, 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 the shortest complete sentence in the English language. 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." The most common name in the world is Mohammed. 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. 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 1/100th 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. 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. An ostrich's eye is bigger that it's brain. The longest recorded flight of a chicken is thirteen seconds. -------- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest sneak Posted November 17, 2002 Share Posted November 17, 2002 01 interestingoner Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ETHREADZNY Posted November 17, 2002 Author Share Posted November 17, 2002 <http://www.banzai.net/sublime/smbanner.JPG> Strange Facts * Look at the number four on a clock face that uses Roman numerals. If the clock is made correctly then the Roman numeral four is wrong. The standard and correct way to write the Roman numeral four is "IV," but the traditional way to show it on a clock face is "IIII." Legend has it that a clock was made for a British king. When he saw the clock he mis- informedly corrected the clock maker who re-did the clock face to show a "IIII" instead of an "IV" thus not risking offending the king. Other clock makers followed suit so as not to embarass the king. Now it is the traditional way to make clocks. * Every episode of "Seinfeld" contains at least one Superman. * Hummingbirds can't walk. * June Foray, the voice of Talking Tina from the classic Twilight Zone episode "Living Doll", was also the voice of Rocky the talking squirrel from "Rocky & Bullwinkle". * The dunce cap of schoolhouse fame originates from a paper cone that was placed on the heads of accused witches during the Middle Ages. When Joan of Arc was martyred, she was wearing one of them. * Despite the hump, a camel's spine is straight. * "Rhythm" and "syzygy" are the longest English words without vowels. * There is no mention of Adam and Eve eating an apple in the Bible. * The largest eggs in the world are laid by a shark. * Jacques Cousteau invented scuba gear while in the French resistance during World War II. * More people are killed each year from bees than from snakes. * "Halloween" took place in the town of Haddonfield, Illinois but almost all the cars in the film had California license plates. * A rat can last longer without water than a camel. * There are more nutrients in the cornflake package itself than there are in the actual cornflakes. * Peanuts are used in the production of dynamite. * The bubbles in Guiness Beer sink to the bottom rather than float to the top like all other beers. No one knows why. * Casey Kasem is the voice of Shaggy on "Scooby-Doo." * Soda water does not contain soda. * A female ferret will die if it goes into heat and cannot find a mate. * "Smithee" is a pseudonym that filmmakers use when they don't want their names to appear in the credits. * The lifespan of a tastebud is ten days. * Bob May played the Robot on "Lost In Space" (1965-68) and Dick Tufeld was the voice. * Crocodiles swallow stones to help them dive deeper. * When opossums are playing opossum, they are not "playing." They actually pass out from sheer terror. * Liquid paper was invented by Mike Nesmith's (of the Monkees) mother, Bette Nesmith Graham, in 1951. * The turkey was wrongly named after what was thought to be it's country of origin. * More money is printed daily for the Monopoly game than by the U.S. Treasury. * There is a city called Rome on every continent. * The screwdriver was invented before the screw. * Four people played Darth Vader: David Prowse was his body, James Earl Jones did the voice, Sebastian Shaw was his face and a fourth person did the breathin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ETHREADZNY Posted November 17, 2002 Author Share Posted November 17, 2002 give me some more * Boys who have unusual first names are more likely to have mental problems than boys with conventional names. Girls don't seem to have this problem. * Russians generally answer the phone by saying, 'I'm listening.' * Until 1967, LSD was legal in California. * In the 40's, the Bich pen was changed to Bic for fear that Americans would pronounce it 'Bitch.' * Termites eat wood twice as fast when listening to heavy metal music. * The NY phone book had 22 Hitlers before WWII. The NY phone book had 0 Hitlers after WWII. * There is a town in Texas called 'Ding Dong.' * John Wilkes Booth's brother once saved the life of Abraham Lincoln's son. * The cigarette lighter was invented before the match. * Daniel Boone detested coonskin caps. * Men leave their hotel rooms cleaner than women do. * While performing her duties as queen, Cleopatra sometimes wore a fake beard. * Thirty-five percent of the people who use personal ads for dating are already married. * If you multiply 526,315,789,473,684,210 with _any_ number you will always find the original number in the result! * If the population of the Earth continued to increase at its present rate indefinitely, by 3530 A.D. the total mass of human flesh and blood would equal the mass of the Earth. By 6826 A.D. it would equal the mass of the known universe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zen Posted November 17, 2002 Share Posted November 17, 2002 Some of those facts are interesting, others, it seems, are not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ETHREADZNY Posted November 17, 2002 Author Share Posted November 17, 2002 ^ I'M SORRY Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
effyoo Posted November 17, 2002 Share Posted November 17, 2002 Originally posted by ETHREADZNY < * Every episode of "Seinfeld" contains at least one Superman. What does that mean? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A Fire Inside Posted November 17, 2002 Share Posted November 17, 2002 interesting indeed.. more? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A Fire Inside Posted November 17, 2002 Share Posted November 17, 2002 Originally posted by effyoo What does that mean? It means that in EVERY episode of Seinfeld, Superman appeared. Wether it be a toy figure, comic, magnet..whatever. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
effyoo Posted November 17, 2002 Share Posted November 17, 2002 Really? Well, I'll have to look for that now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ETHREADZNY Posted November 17, 2002 Author Share Posted November 17, 2002 Originally posted by A Fire Inside It means that in EVERY episode of Seinfeld, Superman appeared. Wether it be a toy figure, comic, magnet..whatever. never knew that, thats completely dope. here are some more During our lifetime, you'll eat about 60,000 pounds of food, that's the weight of about 6 elephants! Some ribbon worms will eat themselves if they cant find any food! Dolphins sleep with one eye open! The worlds oldest piece of chewing gum is over 9000 years old! In space, astronauts cannot cry properly, because there is no gravity, so the tears can't flow down their faces! There are more plastic flamingos in the U.S, than real ones! About 3000 years ago, most Egyptians died by the time they were 30! More people use blue toothbrushes, than red ones! A sneeze travels out your mouth at over 100 m.p.h.! Your ribs move about 5 million times a year, every time you breathe! In the White House, there are 13,092 knives, forks and spoons! Slugs have 4 noses! Recycling one glass jar, saves enough energy to watch T.V for 3 hours! Lightning strikes about 6,000 times per minute on this planet! Owls are one of the only birds who can see the color blue! The average American/Canadian drinks about 600 sodas a year! It was once against the law to slam your car door in a city in Switzerland! There wasn't a single pony in the Pony Express, just horses! > Honeybees have a type of hair on their eyes! ........1..2..3...breathe....and repeat........... .......rest your eyes.. there's plenty more where that came from........ <> The starfish is one of the few animals who can turn it's stomach inside-out! <rl]> Eskimo ice cream is neither icy, or creamy! <A jellyfish is 95 percent water! In Bangladesh, kids as young as 15 can be jailed for cheating on their finals! The katydid bug hears through holes in its hind legs! A company in Taiwan makes dinnerware out of wheat, so you can eat your plate! > More Monopoly money is printed in a year, than real money printed throughout the world! > The elephant is one of the few mammals that can't jump! The penguin is the only bird who can swim, but not fly! > Q is the only letter in the alphabet that does not appear in the name of any of the United States! One quarter of the bones in your body are in your feet! America once issued a 5-cent bill! You'll eat about 35,000 cookies in a lifetime! Wow! Like fingerprints, everyone's tongue print is different! There are no words in the dictionary that rhyme with: orange, purple, and month! Interesting tries from our readers: orange: door hinge, melange (French for mix) purple: hurtle, durple?, turtle month: once, bunth?, hunch Babe Ruth wore a cabbage leaf under his cap to keep him cool! He changed it every 2 innings! Fortune cookies were actually invented in America, in 1918, by Charles Jung! > A man named Charles Osborne had the hiccups for 69 years! Wow! A giraffe can clean its ears with its 21-inch tongue! Chewing gum while peeling onions will keep you from crying! Here are some interesting numbers to look at! (*1997) 166,875,000,000 pieces of mail are delivered each year in the U.S! 1,525,000,000 miles of telephone wire a strung across the U.S! 123,000,000 cars are being driven down the U.S's highways! 85,000,000 tons of paper are used each year in the U.S! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
optimodub Posted November 17, 2002 Share Posted November 17, 2002 Rubber bands last longer when refrigerated. There are 293 ways to make change for a dollar. The average person's left hand does 56% of the typing. There are more chickens than people in the world. The longest one-syllable word in the English language is "screeched." On a Canadian two-dollar bill, the flag flying over the Parliament building is an American flag. A cat has 32 muscles in each ear. There are 336 dimples on a regulation golf ball. A cockroach can live nine days without its head before it starves to death. Elvis had a twin brother named Aaron, who died at birth, which is why Elvis' middle name was spelled Aron: in honour of his brother. It is also misspelled on his tomb stone. Donald Duck comics were banned in Finland because he doesn’t wear pants. Stewardesses is the longest word typed with only the left hand. Shakespeare invented the words "assassination" and "bump." Marilyn Monroe had 6 toes on one foot. Women blink nearly twice as much as men. Right-handed people live, on average, nine years longer than left-handed people do. The names of the continents all end with the same letter with which they start. TYPEWRITER is the longest word that can be made using the letters on only one row of the keyboard. The word racecar and kayak are the same whether they are read left to right or right to left. A snail can sleep for 3 years. American Airlines saved $40,000 in 1987 by eliminating one olive from each salad served in first-class. The electric chair was invented by a dentist. Vatican City is the smallest country in the world with a population of 1,000 and a size of 108.7 acres. The average chocolate bar has 8 insects' legs in it. some of those sound dubious i must admit, but i just copied em from i can't remember where :rolleyes: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ETHREADZNY Posted November 17, 2002 Author Share Posted November 17, 2002 Donald Duck comics were banned in Finland because he doesn?t wear pants. I was banned in my neighborhood for not wearing pants. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DorkstaR Posted November 17, 2002 Share Posted November 17, 2002 im learning so much more here than i ever did in high school. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dignan Posted November 17, 2002 Share Posted November 17, 2002 seems like good bathroom reading...if i could just get my computer near the toilet Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
455 Posted November 18, 2002 Share Posted November 18, 2002 hmmmmmm........... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fizm Posted November 18, 2002 Share Posted November 18, 2002 Originally posted by ETHREADZNY "I am." is the shortest complete sentence in the English language. i contest this statement in multiple ways. 1) "I do." is shorter simply because m's are long. 2) if you recall from grade school grammar, in a command, the "you" is often negated, since it's understood. therefore, "Go." would be even shorter. subject (understood), verb. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fizm Posted November 18, 2002 Share Posted November 18, 2002 Originally posted by ETHREADZNY * "Rhythm" and "syzygy" are the longest English words without vowels. more language nonsense: y is a vowel. strictly speaking, maybe just in these words. to me, it's always a vowel. in words like "you" or "yes" or whatever...if you drag it out, it still always makes a "ee" sound... p.s. in my opinion, certain vowels in english are actually dipthongs of multiple vowel sounds.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest spec Posted November 18, 2002 Share Posted November 18, 2002 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." that's the most interesting fact yet Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ctrl+alt+del Posted November 18, 2002 Share Posted November 18, 2002 Originally posted by optimodub The average chocolate bar has 8 insects' legs in it. : dammit! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ledzep Posted November 18, 2002 Share Posted November 18, 2002 * The screwdriver was invented before the screw. what the hell for? and how did they think up the name? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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