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the_gooch

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the_gooch

the_gooch

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History

When George Washington was elected President, there was a King in France, a Tsarina in Russia, an Emperor in China, and a Shogun in Japan.

 

A family of six died in Oregon during WWII as a result of a Japanese balloon bomb.

 

Roulette, an invention by the mathematician Blaise Pascal, was a by-product of his experiments with perpetual motion.

 

The dome on Monticello conceals a billiards room (billiards were illegal in Virginia).

 

Armored knights raised their visors to identify themselves when they rode past royalty. This custom has evolved into the modern military salute.

 

Spiral staircases in medieval castles turn right as they ascend. This was so that (right-handed) knights defending the castle could more easily combat invading foes who were climbing the stairs.

 

Dashing horses kicking up mud (among other things), splashing the passengers riding behind them, led to the invention of the dashboard, a term which survives today.

 

Firehouses have circular stairways because the engines were at a time pulled by horses. The horses were stabled on the ground floor, and figured out how to walk up straight staircases.

 

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

 

Great Britain was the first county to issue postage stamps, so theirs are the only stamps in the world not to bear the name of the country of origin. (And the glue on Israeli postage stamps is certified kosher).

 

In the 1940s, the FCC assigned TV Channel 1 to mobile services, but did not re-number the other channel assignments.

 

Sputnik was launched on October 4, 1957, the same day that "Leave it to Beaver" debuted.

 

The Declaration of Independence was written on hemp paper.

 

The US purchased Alaska from Russia for approximately 2 cents an acre.

 

Taft was the last President with facial hair.

 

The day after October 4, 1582 was October 15, 1582.

 

Robert E. Lee is the only person to date to have graduated from West Point military academy without a single demerit.

 

Names

The names of the three monkeys are Mizaru (see no evil), Kikazaru (hear no evil), and Iwazaru (speak no evil).

 

The ammunition belts in WWII aircraft were 27 feet long, reminiscent of the expression "the whole nine yards".

 

University of Florida football team, the Gators, first tested Gatorade.

 

The Greek word "gymnasium" means "to exercise naked". In Ancient Greece, gymnasts wore no clothes.

 

Dismas and Gestas were the two thieves crucified with Jesus.

 

The term "dodger" (from the Brooklyn Dodgers, now known as the Los Angeles Dodgers) was a shortened form of "trolley dodgers," which described Brooklynites for their ability to avoid being hit by trolley cars.

 

The ghosts in Pac-Man are named Inky, Blinky, Pinky, and Clyde.

 

Mr. Snuffleupagas' first name was Alyoisus.

 

Thomas Crapper is credited with inventing the modern-day toilet, and Otto Titsling with inventing the brassiere. Major General Joseph Hooker allegedly paid prostitutes to accompany his soldiers in the Civil War.

 

A group of unicorns is called a blessing. A group of owls is called a parliament.

 

A barmaid reportedly decorated her establishment with the tail feathers of cocks. One day a patron asked for "one of those cock tails." She served him a drink with a feather in it.

 

The most common name in the world is Mohammed.

 

The product's full name is WD-40 Water Displacer, which was perfected on the fortieth attempt.

 

Tribeca stands for TRIangle BElow CAnal Street.

 

The two lions in front of the New York Public Library are currently named Patience and Fortitude.

 

The letter "J" does not yet appear anywhere within the periodic table of the elements.

 

Bert and Ernie from Sesame Street were named after Bert the cop and Ernie the taxi driver in "Its A Wonderful Life".

 

Words

The word "pound" is abbreviated "lb." from the Latin "libra pondo", meaning weight or balance, where the constellation got its name.

 

The word "checkmate" comes from the Persian phrase "Shah Mat," meaning "the king is dead".

 

"Alma mater" means "bountiful mother".

 

"Admiral" is derived from the Arabic phrase "amir al bahr," which means "lord of the sea".

 

"Stewardesses", "reverberated", and "lollipop" are the longest words that can be typed using only one hand on a keyboard. "Skepticisms" is the longest word that alternates hands, while the longest word that can be typed using the top row only is "typewriter".

 

The only 15-letter word that can be spelled without repeating a letter is "uncopyrightable".

 

"Bookkeeper" and "bookkeeping" are the only words in the English language with three consecutive double letters.

 

The word "set" has more definitions than any other word in the English language.

 

"Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis" (a lung disease) is the longest English word according to the Oxford English Dictionary.

 

"Beelzebub", another name for the devil, is Hebrew for "Lord of the Flies".

 

Geography

Mapmaking is older than writing.

 

At latitude 60 degrees south you can sail the entire way around the world.

 

If the earth were the size of a bowling ball, it would be just as smooth; the mountains on raised relief globes are greatly exaggerated.

 

Hawaii's Mauna Kea is the largest mountain on Earth: although partially submerged, it is 4,000 feet taller than Mount Everest.

 

When the University of Nebraska Cornhuskers play football at home to a sellout crowd, the full stadium becomes the state's third largest city.

 

Alaska is the most northern, western and eastern US state.

 

Mozambique has an AK-47 assault rifle on its flag.

 

Pluto takes 248 Earth years to orbit the Sun. For 20 of those years, it is closer to the Sun than Neptune.

 

The Amazon River enters the Atlantic with so much volume that fresh water exists more than a hundred miles from the mouth of the river.

 

The Boston University Bridge is the only place in the world where a boat can sail under a train driving under a car driving under an airplane.

 

Biology &c.

The human brain stops growing at age 18, and is 80% water. Your skin weighs twice as much as your brain. The storage capacity of the human brain is about 4 terabytes (4,000 gigabytes).

 

A peanut is a legume, not nut.

 

Honey is the only food that cannot spoil.

 

Mel Blanc, the voice of Bugs Bunny, was allergic to carrots.

 

A pig's orgasm lasts for 30 minutes.

 

A blue whale gains approximately 200 pounds a day for the first seven months of its life.

 

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.

 

An elephant can be pregnant for two years.

 

The fingerprints of koala bears are virtually indistinguishable from those of humans, so much so that they could be confused at a crime scene.

 

All polar bears are left-handed.

 

The human body has 70,000 miles of blood vessels.

 

Fun Facts

Dueling is legal in Paraguay as long as both parties are registered blood donors.

 

Zaire is the world leader in cobalt mining, producing two-thirds of the world's cobalt.

 

You expend more calories eating and digesting celery than there are in the celery itself.

 

Minus 40 degrees Fahrenheit equals minus 40 degrees Celsius.

 

Michael Jordan shaves his head on Tuesdays and Fridays.

 

The international telephone dialing code for Antarctica is 672.

 

Powdered non-dairy creamer is flammable (trust me on this).

 

Raindrops are not tear-drop shaped. They are rounded at the top and flat on the bottom.

 

Isaac Asimov is the only author to have written a book in all 10 Dewey-decimal categories.

 

There are 293 ways to make change for a dollar.

 

The purpose of the indentation at the bottom of a wine bottle is to strengthen the structure of the bottle and to trap the sediments in the wine.

 

The tip of a whip moves so fast that it breaks the sound barrier. The "crack" of a whip is actually a tiny sonic boom.

 

Mr. (Fred) Rogers was an ordained minister.

 

In a deck of cards, the King of Hearts (AKA the suicide King) appears to be sticking his sword through his head.

 

The wingspan of a Boeing 747 jet is longer than the Wright Brothers' first flight.

 

Starting with the number one, you would have to count to one thousand to use the letter "A".

 

The Statue of Liberty's tablet is two feet thick.

 

If done perfectly, any Rubik's Cube combination can be solved in 17 turns.

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Daze One Million

Daze One Million

Posted
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some are duplicates

 

Many years ago in England, pub frequenters had a whistle baked into the rim or handle of their ceramic cups. When they needed refill, they used the whistle to get some service. "Wet your whistle" is the phrase inspired by this practice.

 

Most lipstick contains fish scales.

 

Drivers kill more deer than hunters.

 

 

The search engine Google got its name from the word ‘googol’,

which refers to the number one with a hundred zeros after it.

 

 

The name Wendy was made up for the book "Peter Pan."

 

 

Nutmeg is extremely poisonous if injected intravenously.

 

 

The highest point in Pennsylvania is lower than the lowest point in Colorado.

 

 

Average life span of a major league baseball: 7 pitches.

 

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.

 

 

When opossums are playing 'possum, they are not "playing." They actually pass out from sheer terror.

 

 

Ninety percent of New York City cabbies are recently arrived immigrants.

 

 

The Bible has been translated into Klingon.

 

 

Thirty-five percent of the people who use personal ads for dating are already married.

 

 

In Cleveland, Ohio, it's illegal to catch mice without a hunting license.

 

 

No NFL team, which plays its home games in a domed stadium, has ever won a Superbowl.

 

 

It takes 3,000 cows to supply the NFL with enough leather for a year's supply of footballs.

 

 

The airplane Buddy Holly died in was the "American Pie."

(Thus the name of the Don McLean song.)

 

 

A duck's quack doesn't echo, and no one knows why.

 

 

In every episode of Seinfeld there is a Superman somewhere.

 

 

Eskimos use refrigerators to keep food FROM freezing.

 

 

Jimmy Carter was the first U.S. President to be born in a hospital.

 

Flies taste with their feet.

 

Amateur boxer Joe Flanagin named his two sons Bob and Weave.

 

A drunk staggered into a Pennsylvania ER complaining of severe pain while

trying to remove his contact lenses. He said that they would come out halfway,

but they always popped back in. A nurse tried to help using a

suction pump, but without success. Finally, a doctor examined him and

discovered the man did not have his contact lenses in at all.

He had been trying to rip out the membrane of his cornea.

 

A couple hobbled into a Washington State emergency room covered in bloody

restaurant towels. The man had his hands around his abdomen and the woman had

hers around her head. They eventually explained to doctors that

they had gone out that evening for a romantic dinner.

overcome with passion, the woman crept under the table to administer

oral sex to the man. While in the act, she had an epileptic fit,

which caused her to clamp down on the man's penis and wrench it from

side to side. In agony > and desperation, the man grabbed a fork and

stabbed her in the head until she let go.

 

 

A 20 year old man came into the ER with a stony mass in his rectum.

He said that he and his boyfriend were fooling > around with concrete mix,

then his boyfriend had the idea of pouring the > mix into his anus using a

funnel. The concrete then hardened, causing > constipation and pain.

Under general anesthesia, a perfect concrete cast of the man's rectum was

removed along with a ping pong ball. (Boy lead a sheltered life - thank goodness)

 

 

73% of Test tube babies have an irrational fear of aquariums.

 

A 500lb. woman from Illinois was examined in a hospital.

During the examination, an asthma inhaler fell from under herarmpit,

a dime was found under one of her breasts and

a remote control was > found lodged between the folds of her tummy.

 

A 63 year old widow was admitted to the > hospital in Recife, Brazil,

suffering abdominal pains. X-rays showed that > she was carrying a 20 inch

long skeleton of a fetus which she conceived > a decade earlier.

It had become lodged outside the womb and was never > expelled from her body.

 

George Washington and Thomas Jefferson both grew hemp. Ben Franklin owned a mill that made hemp paper. The US Declaration of Independence was written on hemp paper.

 

About one-third of recorded CDs are pirated.

 

The gland responsible for producing the hormone that regulates growth is called the pituitary gland. It is the size of a pea.

 

In the early days of film making, people who worked on the sets were

called movies. The films were called motion pictures.

 

 

In 1994 Ramon Barrero, a Mexican musician famous for playing the world's

smallest harmonica, inhaled the harmonica and choked to death.

 

 

The harmonica is the world's best-selling music instrument.

 

 

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

 

Eskimos use refrigerators to keep food from freezing.

 

 

The sentence "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" uses

every letter of the alphabet.

 

 

Lightning strikes men about seven times more often than it does women.

 

 

Women make up 49% of the world population.

 

 

The words "electronic mail" might sound new but was introduced 30 years ago.

Queen Elizabeth of Britain sent her first email in 1976.

 

 

Tokyo was once known as Edo.

 

 

A piano covers the full spectrum of all orchestra instruments, from below the

lowest note of the double bassoon to above the top note of the piccolo.

 

 

The most populated city in the world is Tokyo, with 30 million residents.

 

Dionysis Exeguus - the 6th century monk whose task it was to pivot the

calendar around the birth of Jesus Christ - miscalculated the founding of

Rome by about 6 years (and left out the year 0), thus the Third Millennium

actually started on 31 December 1995.

 

 

The heart of a blue whale is the size of a small car.

 

 

The tongue of a blue whale is as long as an elephant.

 

 

Our eyes are always the same size from birth.

 

 

Earth is not round, it is slightly pear-shaped.

 

 

On average, people move house every 7 years.

 

 

Elvis was an avid gun collector. His collection of 40 weapons included

M-16s and a Thompson submachine gun.

 

 

Do you know the names of the three wise monkeys?

Mizaru (See no evil), Mikazaru (Hear no evil), and Mazaru (Speak no evil).

 

 

There are more TV sets in the US than there are people in the UK

 

 

After the French Revolution of 1789 selling sour wine was

considered against national interest and the merchant was promptly executed.

 

 

On the night "The Exorcist premiered in Rome, Italy a

bolt of lightning struck the steeple on the church next

door and knocked the crucifix into the street.

 

 

Mel Blanc (voice of Bugs Bunny) was allergic to carrots.

 

Donald Duck's middle name is Fauntleroy.

 

 

To "testify" was based on men in the Roman court swearing to a

statement made by swearing on their testicles.

 

 

Tigers have striped skin, not just striped fur.

 

 

 

Dueling is legal in Paraguay as long as both parties are

registered blood donors.

 

 

It's impossible to sneeze with your eyes open.

 

 

Women blink nearly twice as much as men.

 

 

There are more collect calls on Father's Day than any other

day of the year?

 

Q. What is the only food that doesn't spoil?

A. Honey

 

Q. What do bulletproof vests, fire escapes, windshield wipers

and laser printers all have in common?

A. All invented by women.

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