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A series of a colliding train of thoughts

Lexy

Alexis Sanchez


Last Updated: 11/17/2009

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Gender: Female
Status: In a Relationship
Age: 22
Sign: Libra

City: Chicago
State: Illinois
Country: US
Signup Date: 1/5/2005

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Monday, July 07, 2008 

Current mood:  okay

So i'm reposting this and editing it a little.

i'm such a dork

I'm totally a dork

And because i'm such a dork, i'm going to complete the following using ONLY incubus songs :ooooooooooooohhhhhhhhh:

My Life: The Soundtrack

Opening credits: "privilege" -make yourself 
Waking up: "shaft"-fungus amongus 
Average day: "Redefine"- S.C.I.E.N.C.E.
Being in love:  "Dig" - Light Grenades
Love scene: "Stellar" - Make yourself 
Fight scene: "Glass" S.C.I.E.N.C.E.
Heroic moment:  "Blood on the ground" - Morning View
Mental breakdown: Under my umbrella - Morning View
Driving: "nowhere fast"- make yourself 
Snoozing:  "aqueous transmission" morning view
Learning a lesson: "Earth to Bella pt 1" Light Grenades  
Flashback: "Crowded Elevator" when incubus attacks
Partying: "are you in" morning view
Happy dance: "I'm turning Japanese [cover]" Serpent Temptation 
Regreting: "Make Yourself" Make Yourself 
Crying:  "sick sad little world" a crow left of the murder
Death scene: "warning" morning view
Closing credits: "smile lines" a crow left of the murder

Thursday, July 03, 2008 

Well i'm feeling better today.  A little more optimistic.  I think i just need to go through the sadness instead of thinking about going through it or planning on how i'm going to go through it, or making sure i have everything done before i go through it because everything will never be done.

i've also decided: no dating til i lose weight. I think i'm attracting weirdo's and i wanna stop being the cute girlfriend [although i'll never stop being cute] amongst other things.

also. after reading 2's blog, i've realized that i haven't been madly-in-love-all-is-right-in-the-world with someone since steve months 1-3.  it's doesn't suck because i definitely love steve an kelvin after that, but i didn't get those i-love-you-so-much-i-can't-breath-when-i-look-at-you feelings.

 

maybe i'm too cynical for mad-love.  It's just cheesyness irks me. or maybe i need the right type of cheese. cheese that makes me smile, not squirm.

 

actually, i think i need to shut up when i meet guys.

Sunday, March 30, 2008 

since i’m humoring the idea of getting cards read. here’s what was said.

first card spread: it’s all about work and money. i’m going to be so great at work and be obsessive about it but i’m gonna be great.  whoo hoo, make that money.

second: i’m not sure if i put myself in this social situation or if this is where i need to be right now and that confuses and bother me. i’m happy about being happy that i’m single- which makes me wonder if i’m really happy.  regardless i’m going to meet a guy or girl and i’ll be content. happy enough, not euphoric and not miserable.

third: we don’t know if i can keep my promise to vera or keisha about staying in those positions because i will have an oppourtunity that i will consider

fourth: i really need school to make it up there on my list of priorities.  school is going to send me a letter and i need to succeed in it and get my degree.  if i don’t make school a priority i’m going to feel like i’ve lost a piece of myself and because all my friends are in school it will cause them to [naturally] fall out of my life.

fifth: spirituality will find me in a full-circle sort of way.  it might even take me places in the form of a scholarship leading to travel.

singles:
1-the letter about school. news is coming
2- i’m not as balanced as previously mentioned because school balances me and i’m not doing it.
3-but i am going to be happy and successful

 

it’s not like i wasn’t aware of all of this but it seems more like the things i’ve been thinking about have risen to the surface.

Currently listening:
She Wants to Move Pt. 1
By N.E.R.D.
Release date: 15 March, 2004
Saturday, February 09, 2008 

Current mood:  animated

how the fuck does one say "i love you so much i'm willing to stop helping you" with out seeming negligent or like a freak..

 

maybe i'm the only one fighting for something and you aren't. if thats the case, then why the fuck am i even bothering..

 

^^prime example of an anger spike.

oh and fyi guys, i haven't caved. He's been left alone and i'm just waiting.

 

blargh. waiting sucks.

Saturday, February 09, 2008 

Current mood:  pissed off
Category: Romance and Relationships

When relationship shit goes down me, being the anal retentive person that i am, realized that i deal with stuff in stages and then explosions. i.e. indifference, worry, hope, sadness, depression, anxiety, desperation and now we've hit anger spikes. 

 

You want this, fine but i need my own shields just in case. it's not like i'm not willing to wait for you, just know i won't be here forever so i hope you find out what you want.  soon.

Currently watching:
Mistress of Spices (Aishwarya Rai)
Wednesday, December 05, 2007 

25 Skills Every Man Should Know: Your Ultimate DIY Guide

By The Editors of Popular Mechanics
Photo: Burcu Avsar

1. Patch a Radiator Hose

Steam hissing from a ruptured radiator hose? Here's a relatively easy, temporary fix with duct tape.

Wait for the engine to cool off. Open the hood and locate the source of the steam — i.e., the rupture. Clean and dry the area around the fissure; the tape won't stick as well on a damp, dirty surface.

Wrap 2 to 3 in. of duct tape around the hose over the hole; press firmly.

Overwrap the patch (the hose will be under intense pressure) from 2 to 3 in. above the original piece to about 2 or 3 in. below, then work your way back. Check your radiator level before cranking the engine. "If it's seriously low and you don't have a can of coolant, use water or, in an emergency, diet soda," says Tony Molla of the National Institute of Automotive Service Excellence and former pro wrench jockey. "Avoid using fruit juice or anything with sugar or acids in it. It'll corrode the radiator and hoses."

2. Protect Your Computer

Viruses and spyware can unleash a host of evils upon your PC, ranging from annoying pop-ups to a zombie system takeover. Security expert John Pironti of the nonprofit security agency ISACA suggests a layered approach to safeguarding your computer.

Lock it down: "Go to the security section of your Control Panel and enable the firewall before your PC ever touches the Internet," Pironti advises. Then install a virus protection program and set it to download virus signatures every week.

Clean it up: Once a week, do a full virus scan with a program like Symantec's Norton AntiVirus (symantec.com), McAfee VirusScan (mcafee.com) or AVG Anti-Virus (free.grisoft.com). Pironti also says you should run a free spyware checker, such as SpyBot-S&38;D (safer-networking.org) or CCleaner (ccleaner.com).

3. Rescue a Boater Who Has Capsized

When you come upon a capsized boat, approach with caution: The cause of the accident or debris in the water could render you a victim as well. Before attempting to rescue a boater in the water, phone or radio the police or Coast Guard, then approach the victim by putting the bow into the current and the wind; swing the bow toward him and, when you get close, put the engine in neutral to minimize danger from the propellers. If the swimmer is conscious, tie a rope at the middle and stern of your boat and put it in the water; the victim can use the loop as a step. If the victim is unconscious, position him at the stern and maneuver him so he faces away from the boat, arms in the air. Grab his wrists and bob him up and down; on the third bob, use the momentum to pull him into the boat. Elevate his legs and cover him with a blanket — this will help treat him if he's in shock. Stay at the scene until help arrives.

TIP: "Don't get into the water to get someone out. If you get into the water, you put yourself at risk for hypothermia or injury. You don't want to become part of the recovery." —Executive Petty Officer Patrick Blakeley, Coast Guard Air Station, San Diego, Calif.

4. Frame a Wall

It's the basic partition — an interior, non-load-bearing wall with a door opening. Here's how to frame it, so you can divide your basement into a really useful storage area and a totally indulgent man space — say, a big-screen sports den.

Hold the base and top plates together with their ends aligned, then measure 15 1/4 in. from the end farthest from the door opening. Draw a line across the edge of the plates and mark an X right of the line. From here, mark a series of lines — one for each stud — spaced 16 in. apart, with an X to the right of each. Mark the plates to indicate a door opening.

Separate the plates and nail studs to the right of each line. Use two common 16d nails driven through the plate at the top and bottom of each stud.

Single-frame door openings require four pieces of lumber. Measure your door; then make the opening 2 in. higher and wider. To remove the sill plate in the opening, use an eight-point crosscut saw to cut almost through. (Protect the floor with masking tape.) Knock out the piece with a hammer and clean it up with a chisel.

TIP: "Each stud has a slight arch known as a crown. Position studs with crowns facing the same way when you nail the wall together. This prevents the wall from looking wavy after it's complete." —Merle Henkenius, PM contributing editor

5. Retouch Digital Photos

Some shots are too flawed to fix with a click on autocorrect. Here's how to perform surgery on digital images with nearly any photo-editing software.

Color temperature: If the color adjustment can't fix unnatural colors, such as a sickly green from fluorescent lights, and there's no time to tweak the red, green and blue levels, there's a last resort: Declare yourself an artist and switch the image's mode to black and white.

Cropping: Even a small spot of deep black or bright color can throw off a program's ability to balance an image's light or color levels. Crop out unwanted elements before making image-wide adjustments.

Lighting: Too much flash? Reduce the brightness and increase the contrast. For poorly lit images, do the opposite, boosting the brightness and reducing the contrast. To avoid gray, hazy images, make sure the photo's black elements are still black and the whites still white.

Red-eye: If your software doesn't have a red-eye-reduction feature, zoom in on the offending eyes until you can see individual pixels. Select the desaturation tool and dab at the red portion of each eye. This drains the color, turning reds into grays, while retaining highlights so the irises don't look artificial. The results probably won't be pretty, but boring gray beats demonic red.

6. Back Up a Trailer

If you're doing this without a spotter, put your left hand at six o'clock on the steering wheel, and drape your right hand over the seatback. As you back up, move your steering hand in the direction you want the trailer to go.

TIP: "If the trailer is too low to see, tape sticks or flags to the rear corners." —Mike Allen, PM senior auto editor

7. Build a Campfire

To find dry fuel, look for standing deadwood and broken branches stuck in tree limbs, says Tom Laskowski, director of Midwest Native Skills Institute. Place the material next to your cheek; if it feels cool, it's too wet to burn efficiently. To fuel a 1-hour fire, gather two large fistfuls of tinder — such as cattail down and crushed pine needles — and about 30 twigs, 20 pencil-size sticks and 10 wrist-thick pieces. Form a tepee with three 6-in.-tall sticks and place smaller sticks on the floor as a platform for the tinder. Lean the smallest sticks on the tepee, leaving a doorway to face the wind. Place the next size of sticks on top; repeat twice. Pack the tepee with the tinder and light it. Slowly add the 10 largest sticks in a star pattern.

TIP: If it's raining, Laskowski uses a cotton ball smeared with Vaseline (or ChapStick) as a foolproof fire starter.

8. Fix a Dead Outlet

If the lamp goes out, but the bulb's not fried, it's time to check the outlet. Once you turn off the breaker, here's how to fix the usual suspects.

Detached wire: Cut the damaged wire 1/8 in. from the end, strip 1/2 in. of insulation; reattach by bending the wire clockwise under the terminal screw and tighten.

Loose push-in connection: Reattach the loose wire on the back of the outlet under the appropriate terminal screw.

Loose splice: Remove the wire connector and replace it with a pro-quality Ideal 341 or 3M Super Tan. Hold the stripped wires so their ends are even and tighten the new connector.

TIP: To ensure that the splice is secure, gently tug on each wire.

9. Navigate with a Map and Compass

Though GPS may seem ubiquitous, it doesn't work everywhere. Mountains and dense tree cover can knock out sat signals — and batteries can die. Here's how to roam the backcountry with a compass and topo map.

Orient the map by aligning its magnetic north (MN) indicator with your compass's reading of MN.

Pencil the MN line across the map, then anchor the map in this north-facing position; instead of turning the map as you head toward your destination, pivot around it as if switching seats at a table.

Draw a line between where you are and where you want to go. Once you turn toward the destination, the line of travel should be perpendicular to your chest.

Fold the map parallel to your line of travel, leaving a 2-in. margin on the side that you hold. Place the map between thumb and index finger and begin "thumbing the map" — use your thumb to check off terrain features as you travel so you can look away from the map without losing your bearings.

TIP: "Estimate how long it will take to get to your destination. Then, as you pass landmarks, see if your estimate is holding up. It will give you confidence in your location. An adult male hiker takes 20 to 40 minutes per mile on flat to moderately sloping terrain." —Eric Bone, winner of multiple U.S. orienteering championships

10. Use a Torque Wrench

Using a torque wrench the wrong way leads to incorrectly tightened fasteners, which can spell trouble for your machinery. To do it right, first screw the fasteners on by hand. Some are torqued dry, some lightly oiled — check your shop manual. Next, pick a wrench — a beam-type is less expensive, but the click-type can be easier to use. To use a beam wrench, first make sure it zeros; bend the pointer if necessary. Turn the wrench steadily, holding the plastic handle so it floats on the pivot to the beam to avoid influencing the readings with your hands. With a click wrench, twist the handle until you see the desired torque in the indicator window. Tighten the wrench until you feel the mechanism click, but no farther. With both wrenches, tighten all fasteners gradually, starting in the middle of the assembly and working in a widening spiral. Begin with one-third of the final torque; return to the first fastener and tighten all to two-thirds of the final torque. Repeat, in sequence, to the final torque.

TIP: "For something like an oil pan with multiple fasteners, turn them all on two threads before finger-tightening any of them, or the last ones will be hard to start." —Mike Allen, PM senior auto editor

11. Sharpen a Knife

A knife may be the most elemental of all human tools — but only if it's sharp. Hone it the way your grandfather did, with a steady hand and a combination stone that has a coarse side and a fine side. The trick is to hold the blade at the correct angle. According to Bob Montagno, an expert sharpener and plant manager at Norton Pike (the first American sharpening-stone maker), most European blades have a 22- to 25-degree blade. "That's about the angle of a book of matches," Montagno says. "Japanese knives and fillet knives are 12 to 15 degrees."

First, lubricate the coarse side of the stone with mineral oil or water; then push the blade across in a sweeping motion, like you're cutting a thin slice off the stone. "Flip the knife and work the other side until a slight burr forms along the edge," Montagno says. "Switch to the fine side of the stone, lift the blade to a slightly higher angle and hone off the burr to create a razor-sharp micro bevel."

TIP: Stroking each side of the beveled edge at the honed angle on a steel (the rodlike tool in carving sets) straightens microscopic distortions.

12. Perform CPR

Most people have an idea of how to perform cardio­pulmonary resuscitation (CPR) on a person whose heart has stopped, but you may not have taken a course in years. Here's a refresher that will help you prolong signs of life until medics arrive.

Phone for help, then look and listen for the victim's breathing. Open the airway by tilting the head back and lifting the chin so the teeth almost touch.

Pinch both nostrils closed; bend your head over his face and fully cover his mouth with yours. Give two full rescue breaths, making sure to breathe deeply.

Place your dominant hand on the middle of the victim's chest. Put your other hand on top and interlock your fingers. Straighten your arms and begin compressing the chest 1 1/2 to 2 in. with the heels of your hands. Continue the compression/breathing cycle, compressing 30 times and then breathing twice, until the person starts breathing or help arrives.

13. Fillet a Fish

Set the scene with a flat surface and an appropriate knife — any long, thin, flexible and sharp blade will do, but for larger fish you might need a stiffer blade. Make your first cut behind the pectoral fin or gill cover, angling the tip of the knife slightly toward the head.

Cut down to the spine, but not through it.

Next, turn the fish end to end and run your knife head to tail along the dorsal fin and backbone, pushing the knife deep enough to bounce the blade off the fish's rib cage.

Then run the knife carefully over the rib cage until you reach the spine. Pull the fillet back as you cut, which will help you see what you're doing.

Repeat the process through the bottom half of the fish, and you're done with that side. Flip and repeat for two boneless fish fillets.

TIP: "One side of the fish is always easier to cut than the other. It's a matter of physiology: Right-handed people find it easier to cut from left to right; lefties, vice versa. Do the harder side first. The fullness of the fish will make it easier to control on the cutting board." —John Steadman, owner and operator of Point to Point Outfitters, a charter boat service on Long Island, N.Y.

14. Maneuver a Car out of a Skid

Although there isn't much you can do when your car is pirouetting out of control, you can maneuver out of two basic types of skids before things get messy.

When the front tires slip, you're understeering or plowing. This occurs when a motorist takes a turn too fast, at too sharp an angle or uses the brake or throttle excessively. The tires lose grip and the car's momentum pushes it straight instead of through the curve. When you lose traction up front, steering has no effect; so slow down by gently reducing throttle. The tires will eventually grip and pull you in the direction you want to go.

Rear-wheel slippage is called oversteering or fishtailing. It happens during cornering when your rear wheels exceed the limit of their lateral traction before the front tires do, causing the rear of the vehicle to head toward the outside of the corner or front of the car. For rear-wheel slippage, you need to apply "CPR" — correction, pause and recovery. Correct by steering into the direction of the skid. Pause to let the unsprung weight of the car settle and the tires grip. Recover by steering the car straight; make your movements slow but sure.

TIP: "Look where you want the car to go. Stare at the pole, and you will hit the pole." —Jeff Robillard, Skip Barber Racing School, Braselton, Ga.

15. Get a Car Unstuck

When you're stuck, don't gun the engine to get out — the tires will only dig in deeper. Instead, straighten the steering wheel, then dig out as much sand, snow or mud from around the front or rear of the tires as you can, depending on the direction you want to go. Place a floor mat snugly under a portion of each drive wheel (if your vehicle is 4wd, position a mat under each wheel). Ease the vehicle onto the mats. If there's a passenger, have him push the vehicle in the direction you want to go. Repeat the procedure as needed, slowly progressing in the direction of travel until the vehicle is free.

TIP: "To maximize traction, lower the tires' air pressure by 10 to 15 psi or until the sidewall begins to bulge. This spreads out the footprint of the tire, helping the vehicle float over terrain. Drive slowly and air the tires back up as soon as possible." —Ben Stewart, PM auto editor

16. Back Up Data

Don't put off backing up your files until it's too late. Bombproof backup: Install an external hard drive the same size as your primary hard drive or larger. When your computer is new, make a drive image with a utility such as R-Drive (drive-image.com), then schedule regular backups using the external drive's software. Multiple computers? Save money with a single network-attached storage drive, which backs up all of your PCs over the network. Online solution: If you have a small number of files, consider online storage solutions like xdrive.com and mozy.com.

17. Paint a Room

Good paint jobs start before the first can of paint is opened.

Prepare the room by removing all hardware (door latch sets, receptacle and switch plates). Don't just fill small holes in the plaster or drywall; enlarge them first so the compound can be pushed in place, and wet the hole to slow drying. Sand rough spots, wash dirty areas, then prime.

Paint the ceiling, then the walls. Use a 2 1/2-in. brush to cut in the finish color at all corners and against the trim. Switch to a roller, apply paint in a W pattern and fill it in. After you dip the roller in the paint tray, 70 percent of the paint comes off on the first downstroke; avoid splatters by starting at least 9 in. from the corner. Apply two coats.

Finish by painting the woodwork and trim with a gloss or semigloss paint. It's safest to mask off the walls beforehand, although pros often skip this step. If you do mask, use a tape designed for the purpose so the adhesive doesn't pull the paint from the wall. Once the final coat dries, reinstall hardware.

18. Mix Concrete

If you're going to use more than a cubic yard of concrete — a 9 x 9-ft. pad, 4 in. thick — call a Redi-Mix vendor. But for smaller jobs like a deck landing or fencepost footings, you can do it yourself with a hoe, shovel and wheel-barrow. Rule of thumb: A bag of portland cement makes about one-sixth of a cubic yard — or about a 44-in. square, 4 in. thick.

Mix 2 1/2 shovels of sand and 2 1/2 of gravel to each shovel of cement. (Exact proportions vary with the size of the aggregate — a.k.a. sand and gravel.)

Shovel the aggregate and cement into a wheelbarrow. Mix in water cautiously; a drier mix makes stronger concrete. When the mixture is gray/green, form a handful into a 3-in. ball. Toss it from one hand to the other. Too dry, and it will crumble; if it splatters, it's too wet. Correct the consistency with the appropriate ingredient. Don't let the concrete dry for more than an hour between loads.

Cure the poured concrete by keeping it moist for three to seven days — cover it with plastic or sprinkle water on it so the surface stays damp.

19. Clean a Bolt-Action Rifle

A. Make sure the rifle is not loaded.

B. Lay the rifle in a gun vise or cradle that will hold it securely during cleaning.

C. Remove the bolt and insert a bore guide in the action to protect it from being dinged by the cleaning rod. If the rifle has a scope, keep the scope covers on.

D. Spray foaming cleaner down the bore; let it stand for 10 to 15 minutes.

E. Screw a pointed jag that matches the rifle's caliber on the end of the cleaning rod. Soak a cloth cleaning patch in a bore cleaner or solvent, then place it on the jag. Push the patch all the way through the bore from the action end. Always clean your rifle in only one direction —from the action to the muzzle. Never scrub back and forth. When the patch exits the muzzle, unscrew it, carefully draw the rod back out and screw on a fresh patch. Repeat at least twice.

F. Attach a bore brush to the cleaning rod and push it down the barrel three times to push grime and dirt out of the rifling grooves.

G. Replace the jag and run dry patches down the bore until they come out clean.

H. Spray a cleaner/lubricant on a cloth and wipe down the bolt body, bolt face and the interior of the receiver. Before you replace the bolt, look through the barrel from the action end to be sure that it is clear of obstructions.

20. Change Oil and Filter

Every 3000 miles you can commune with your car when you change the oil. Warm the engine to stir up any sediment in the crankcase, then raise the car on stands or ramps. Put a pan under the drain and remove the plug; let it drain for 10 minutes. Remove the filter, and let it drain into the pan; make sure the O-ring comes off. Use your finger to coat the new filter's O-ring with a little oil. If the angle of the new filter allows, prefill it with oil and screw it on. Tighten a three-quarter turn after the gasket touches. Reinstall the drain plug with a new crush washer or seal. Add all but the last quart of oil, start the engine and check for leaks. Turn off the car, let it sit for a few minutes, then check the oil level. Top off to the fill mark.

21. Hook Up an HDTV

Hi-def televisions have the potential to produce some staggeringly bad images if hooked up incorrectly. In the era of digital television, resolution is quantifiable, but high-res has to be coaxed into its glory through a combination of the proper cables, components and source material. The top prize: A breathtakingly crisp 1080p (1920 x 1080 pixels) widescreen picture and multichannel sound. You can't always get picture perfection, but by following the below chart (click on image) you can hook up components the right way — ensuring that your set is squeezing the most resolution possible out of any video source.

HDTV chart

Note the TV's maximum resolution, then check the chart (click on image at right) for the maximum resolution of each source. When connecting these components to the TV, use the cable that matches the resolution you're dealing with. If your TV's resolution is less than the source's, or you're using a cable that downgrades the signal, you won't get the best picture. For example, if you have a 1080p TV, and a Blu-ray player (also 1080p), but you use a component cable to connect them, the best you'll get is 1080i. HDMI is almost always the best choice, since it handles video as well as audio. Finally, don't buy into pricey HDMI cables. The price increases for extra-long cables, but otherwise, go for the cheapest ones. Your TV won't know the difference ... because there isn't any.

22. Bleed Brakes

When the brake pedal starts to feel spongy, it's time to bleed your brakes. Make sure all four bleeder bolts at the wheels turn readily, then use a turkey baster to suck old brake fluid out of the reservoir. Clean the reservoir and fill to the brim with fresh fluid. Put a small hose on the bleeder to route the fluid into a container. Have an assistant depress the brake pedal. Open the bolt farthest away from the master cylinder a quarter-turn, then close it. Ask the helper to slowly lift his foot off the pedal, then depress it again, repeating until fresh fluid comes through the hose. Top off the reservoir regularly. Repeat the process at the other three corners, then do all four corners again. ABS pumps may require bleeding as well; check the manual.

23. Paddle a Canoe

For flat-water cruising, the sternman's J-stroke is key: It keeps the canoe tracking in a straight line. Reach forward so the "catch" — the start of the blade's pull through the water — is well in front of your knees. At midstroke, the blade should be vertical and fully immersed. The upper arm extends diagonally across your body as though delivering a cross-punch and finishes on the outside of the gunwale (top edge of the canoe). The motion delivers power through a lever action; use the shaft hand initially as a fulcrum, then pull back on the shaft. The second half of the stroke traces the hook of the letter "J." When you draw the blade out of the water, the power face (the side pulling against the water) is parallel to the canoe, with the thumb of your top hand pointing down. Your paddle is acting as a part-time rudder.

24. Fix a Bike Flat

Glass, nails, thorns — when a sharp object takes the air out of your cycling plans, here's what to do. Once you remove the wheel, force the deflated tire off the rim, starting opposite the valve, then separate tire and tube. If the leak is a large tear, throw the tube out. To locate a pinhole leak, inflate the tube and feel for escaping air. If necessary, dunk the tube in water and look for bubbles. Apply a patch from the kit you always bring along when biking. The repair should last the life of the tire. Before remounting the tire, wipe the inside of it clean with a dry cloth to remove any sharp objects that might puncture the tube. Then work the lip of the tire onto half of the rim. Tuck the tube inside the tire, and insert the valve into its rim hole. Pump some air into the tube to reduce its chances of getting pinched between rim and tire. Then work the tire onto the rest of the rim, starting at the valve. Split the wheel into quarters. Work one-quarter down either side from the valve. Then repeat the process on the other half of the tire. This final step may require two bike levers.

25. Extend Your Wireless Network

You've got a laptop that, ideally, you'd like to use anywhere in your house. But the strength of your wireless Internet fades between floors and behind thick walls. If moving the access point to the center of your home and eliminating all interior walls isn't an option, increase the range of your Wi-Fi by upgrading your equipment. Standard 802.11b and g access points can distribute a computer network to a radius of 130 to 300 ft. But you can squeeze 30 to 80 more feet of range by using an 802.11g access point with MIMO (multiple input, multiple output) technology, or up to 150 extra feet of coverage with an 802.11n access point.

If you don't want to replace your equipment, stretch the network through your electrical wiring. Powerline networking hubs (available from Netgear and Linksys) transmit your Internet connection from one outlet to any other in your house. Use them to move your access point to an ideal spot, or to set up a second hot spot for more coverage.

Tuesday, October 02, 2007 

Current mood:The Nasty

The cure for divorce

..> ..>
..>

Lose your fear of commitment with this formula for pain-free matrimony

By: Tad Low, Illustrations by: Joseph Heidecker
-->Article Body-->

I'm 38 and have never been married. And it's not happening until they change the rules. It's not like I haven't enjoyed satisfying companionship with long-term girlfriends or entertained fuzzy-focused fantasies of toasting cans of Ensure at my 50th wedding anniversary. It's just that my gut instinct tells me our marital system is woefully broken.

 

Well, gut instinct and these facts: The U.S. Census Bureau predicts that if you're married and under 45, there's about a 50 percent chance it won't last. What happens, statistics show, is that growing discontent leads to separation at the 7-year mark.

 

You spend 9 months "trying to work things out," perhaps even enjoying the separation sex, but ultimately this fails. One of you, most likely she, files for divorce. A few months before your eighth anniversary (bronze, so no biggie), your marriage is erased from the public record.

 

Quickly, probably within 6 months, you meet someone else. This time, you promise yourself, you'll take things slowly. You flirt, court, and date seemingly forever, making sure she's The Real One, then dive into your second marriage 3 years and a few months after your divorce was final. Good luck. You'll need it. There's a one-in-five chance this one will fail, too.

 

And so it goes.

 

I know, I know: Your marriage is different. Except that it's not. There are no statistical anomalies here--it's not like those grass-is-greener Massachusettsians are bringing down the national average. No, across this great land of ours, marriages like yours are failing half the time. Look over at the guy in the next cube: Odds are, one of you is doomed.

 

Perhaps now you understand my position: I see people all around me readying themselves for a huge leap of faith, ignoring the fact that the person who packs the parachutes gets it right less than half the time.

 

That's me on the tarmac with neon flares, shouting, "Don't get on that plane!"


I work in TV. I invent programs and try to sell them to networks. If they like my pitch, we draw up a contract. If it works out, I get paid and the show hits the air. If not, we all walk away. No hurt feelings or lost friends. Everyone knows going in that it's a short-term experiment.

 

By contrast, think about all the misery engendered by your standard broken marriage: hurt, animosity, psychological damage to the kids, money down the drain, private investigators. It also leaves both partners saddled with the stigma of "failure," and keeps an army of divorce lawyers in BMWs.

 

But still we pretend marriage is permanent. The tented receptions, calligraphy-scripted invites, Vivaldi-playing string quartets . . . they're props on a set of make-believe. Your odds are better at a rigged carnival arcade, and yet we, as a culture, continue to throw dollars at the barker for more basketballs.

 

Most of my friends and family have stepped right up. My two brothers are married with kids, and my parents have been together for 40 years, so it's not that I haven't had a chance to view "successful" unions up close. What I see is a lot of compromise fading the color of each partner's distinctiveness, leaving behind a bland blob of comfort and routine. It's this loss of self that either gets subsumed as acceptance or explodes in defiance (a.k.a. divorce).

 

When a good friend of my parents recently walked out on his wife of 35 years, he was vilified as a rake and a cad, a boorish lout for upsetting the permanence of married suburbia. No support or admiration was afforded this man who, under great societal pressure to shut up and sit down, blew apart his staid existence and reinvented his life.

 

Maybe it's cultural brainwashing that we choose to support traditional marriage despite overwhelming evidence that it doesn't work. Or maybe we're not brave enough to engage in alternative thinking. Or maybe it's that the marriage route is lined with wedding planners, caterers, florists, travel agents, parents, and friends who, when standing together and cheering us on, do an admirable job of hiding the elephant in the middle of the dance floor.

 

The pressure's greater for men like me: "He has commitment issues." "He's gay." "He's never really been in love." I've heard them all. No, I'm not gay (though I'll admit Colin Farrell's cute). Yes, I've fallen in love hard enough to know that those euphoria-inducing endorphins will make you agree to just about anything. And I'll cop to the commitment issues. It's just that I'm not going to invest time and money in something that's doomed from the start, okay?

 

As the only holdout in my posse of pals, I do feel like the last guy at the poker table, dealing myself solitaire at what was once a rousing house party. I can't have a beer in a bar past midnight with a man my age without his calling his wife to tell her he'll be home soon.

 

I mostly socialize with single twentysomethings now--surely I look like the oldest Mouseketeer. I don't get many of their O.C. jokes, but at least I know enough to wear wide-legged jeans.

 

My current girlfriend is 25 and, thankfully, not wedding planning yet. But when I start finding Bridal Guide under the couch, she's out. It's inevitable, and it'll put me back on the market.

 

And let me tell you, it's no picnic for a never-been-married guy like me. Women would rather date a divorcee than a nuptialphobe. He may have bungled it once or twice, but he's still demonstrated the willingness to commit. Me? Why waste the time?


My point: We need a fundamental rethinking of the concept of marriage. I propose a new approach, one more akin to the legal contracts in the TV world.

 

Let's say you've successfully dated a girl for a while. Rather than agreeing to "till death do you part," you agree to a "time-limited marriage": At regular intervals, you either renew or walk away . . . and remain friends. You still have the fancy ceremony, the heartfelt toasts from college roommates, and the slew of candlesticks and Calphalon. But you don't have the pressure of permanence or the soul-draining despair of divorce.

 

Sometimes, it's being told we're not allowed to stray that actually makes us stray. If, on the other hand, there's always the chance to walk away, I bet more couples would opt to stay together. It's human nature. Free will is sexy. Forced togetherness is not.

 

Most young lovers would probably sign up for an initial 3-year TLM and graduate to a 5-, 7-, then 10-year contract if the marriage was working. Ultimately, this new matrimonial paradigm keeps both partners on their toes. They have to remain focused, working hard for a renewal, which means treating each other with respect and keeping the fire burning with the creative intensity of a first date.

 

This motivational tool works well in business: If you perform well, we won't fire you. If, however, you're told you can never be fired, well, that's communism.

 

Along the way, if you meet someone who might make a better partner--or if you're just craving some variety--hang tight until your contract expires. Then you can take a whack without breaking your vows. If you don't decide to renew, no sweat. No legal bills, lingering animosity, or social stigma. You instead thank each other for the privilege of cohosting your patch of planetary existence and move on.

 

Every man and woman who has successfully honored his or her contract receives a handsome certificate, suitable for hanging. This way, when a new prospect comes over for the first time, she'll see your impressive history of fair-minded commitment: "Oh, you had a 5-year TLM with Jenny? That's awesome."

 

You both decide to renew? Congratulations! Now you can throw another party! Your friends and relatives will fly in all over again (bearing more gifts) to celebrate not just the prospect of a fruitful marriage but an actual one in progress. Your cubicle-mates and college chums will take to the microphone, armed with soul-strengthening words of love and support.

 

Who couldn't use the occasional morale boost? I want my dad to stand up and tearfully talk about how proud I've made him. I want my best friend to recount the crazy adventures of yesteryear. I want an iPhoto slide show of my most embarrassing haircuts set to my favorite songs. These tributes are my favorite parts of weddings, but so far, I've never been a recipient, because I won't play by the rules.

 

I've loved so many amazing women over the years. There was med student Gail, who went from roommate to girlfriend one tequila-fueled night and lasted a good 3 years. And sexy psychotherapist Jen, with whom I had a 5-year, globe-trotting romp. I'll always remember fondly my 3 years with Viv, the tumultuous, top-heavy portraitist who loved as enthusiastically as she drank.

 

I thought about marrying each of these women, but as the relationships ticked past casual, a big fight would break us up--a big fight about my "I do" aversion. Because I wouldn't drop to one knee, they all end up lumped into the "ex-girlfriend" category, which doesn't come close to defining their importance in my life. I would have TLM'd any of them, and I'd happily display my certificates of achievement today.

 

Still, everybody asks, "What about the kids?" To which I explain: Who cares? If their parents' contract ends, they're still better off than being stuck in the middle of a traditional divorce.

 

I'd much rather be the spawn of two civil people who didn't renew than see the two genetic codes that created me locked in battle. On the playground, I'd much rather hear "My mommy and daddy didn't renew" than "My mommy and daddy don't talk to each other."


As I write this, about half of my friends' first marriages are, predictably, coming to an end, leaving behind an aftermath of ugliness. It's time to bring some innovation to the sanctity. Let's leave the 19th century behind. It's great to value tradition and all, but slavish adherence in the face of irrefutable evidence of failure is foolish.

 

So who's in? We just need a few couples to choose a TLM over the traditional route and soon we'll have a wave of converts. I can hear the ceremony now: "Do you, Jack, take Jill to be your lawfully wedded wife for at least 3 wonderful years with the best intention of more, but with the mutual understanding that these forthcoming 3 might be all?"

 

Let's rock the nation with a resounding chorus of "I do!"


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Currently listening:
Bricolage
By Amon Tobin
Release date: 03 June, 1997
Monday, October 01, 2007 

TPM = The Philosophers Magazine. I subscrbe to it online and liked this article.

Provocations: Mild or Wild?

Michael LaBossiere

Michael LaBossiere takes a provocative look at the issues of the day...

While the antics of Paris Hilton and other "girls gone wild" grab headlines, there is recent movement that aims at discouraging such wildness. In place of wild behavior, responsible and more subdued behavior is encouraged. In place of clothing that leaves little (if anything) to the imagination, more modest attire is encouraged. Such aptly named web sites such as ModestApparelUSA.com, ModestByDesign.com, ModestyZone.net and DressModestly.com encourage the wearing of more modest clothing and more conservative behavior. While this movement is being partially driven by conservative religious groups and values, some women are electing to go (or stay) mild for other reasons.

Of course, this cycle from wild to mild is nothing new. In fairly recent Western history, the time of the flappers (the wild women of the 1920s) gave way to a period of more conservative social norms. The women's liberation movement arose after this time of conservative social values and this movement helped start the sexual revolution. The sexual revolution was pushed back a bit by a resurgence of conservative values. Then the era of girls gone wild arrived-only to be countered by a new conservative response: girls gone mild.

Naturally enough, the emerging shift from wild to mild raises many issues that are philosophically interesting. One rather interesting matter is that of empowerment.

The rise of the girls going wild phenomena can reasonably be taken as being tied to the empowerment of women. When women became more empowered to make choices, especially those relating to sexuality and reproduction, some women exercised that power by choosing to express their sexuality in more dramatic ways. In contrast, mild behavior is often associated with times that involve far less freedom and empowerment for women. Thus, on the face of it, going wild would appear to be a sign of empowerment while going mild would appear to be a sign of a loss of empowerment. Interestingly enough, the opposite is actually true.

While it women do choose to go wild, these choices (especially those involving revealing attire and licentious behavior) do more to objectify women than empower them. Such choices also reduce the power and freedom of women in other ways. For example, irresponsible behavior (as exemplified by famous "party girl" celebrities) tends to limit a person's liberty and reduces their options. After all, while some like girls going wild at a party, most prefer not to hire them for corporate positions or to recruit them for academic programs. Thus, even if women are freely choosing to go wild, such wild behavior robs them of power, severely limits their options and serves to contribute to their objectification. As such, wildness seems inconsistent with empowerment.

It might be objected that such women are truly empowered and that others are trying to rob them of their rightful power by holding their choices against them. However, in such cases it is not their empowerment that is being held against them. Rather, they are being held accountable for their poor decisions. While being opposed to freedom is morally questionable, it is quite reasonable to hold people accountable for poor choices. After all, freedom and empowerment do not liberate a person from responsibility or accountability.

Thus, while empowerment does present women with the option to go wild, that choice is inconsistent with fully maintaining their empowerment. What remains to be seen is how compatible going mild is with the empowerment of women.

On the face of it, going mild seems consistent with women being empowered. Behaving and dressing with modesty and engaging in responsible behavior certain seems to avoid the pitfalls of being wild. A woman acting in this manner seems much less likely to be seen as a sexual object and she will have more options (and thus more freedom) than someone who is best known for being drunk and naked.

One obvious concern is that mildness seems to go against the notion of empowerment. After all, mildness can be seen as an option that involves accepting many limitations such as having to wear more modest attire and behaving with more restraint. Some versions of mildness involve accepting even more severe limitations-such as remaining a virgin until marriage. Thus, it can be objected that mildness is not empowering because it restricts the choices available to a woman. True empowerment, it might be claimed, involves being able to choose without being so limited.

The obvious reply to this is that choice almost always involves accepting limitations. At the very least, choosing one option almost always means forgoing other options. It is true that someone who chooses to dress modestly has limited her choices to modest apparel. But, it is also true that a person who chooses to dress provocatively has limited her choices to clothing that is provocative. A person who elects to be sober and avoid wild parties does limit her options. But, so does a person who chooses to be a drunken party girl. She has limited her options to ones that do not include being sober and restrained. Thus, being empowered does not mean being able to chose without being limited. If it did mean that, empowerment would be impossible. Thus, a choice to be mild is consistent with being empowered.

In light of the preceding discussion, it might be suspected that mildness and wildness are on equal footing because both choices involve limits on behavior. However, the choice to be mild leaves many more options available relative to choice to be wild. After all, a sober and restrained person has many more options than someone who elects to be drunken and wild. In part, this is because the drunken and wild state involves so many mental and physical impediments. Thus, while either way of life does involve limits, the mild life provides many more options and is thus far more compatible with empowerment than the wild life. This, naturally enough, assumes that the range of choices is a factor that is relevant to empowerment. Given that empowerment is about the freedom and capacity to make choices, this seems to be a reasonable assumption.

One very serious concern about mildness is that it might be a religiously or morally based imposition on women and not a free choice on their part. Not surprisingly, some of the organizations involved in the mildness movement are associated with religious groups or conservative cultural values (or both). For example, Pure Fashion (which claims to be helping young women with making better choices) is associated with Regnum Christi-a Roman Catholic organization. Given that the major religions and conservative value groups tend to have bad records in regards to women, there are good reasons to worry about their involvement. If mildness is being imposed in order to set limits on women's choices based on religious and conservative values, then this certainly appears inconsistent with empowerment.

In reply, it must be acknowledge that this is a perfectly reasonable objection. However, it is not the mild behavior that is the problem. Mild behavior itself is, as argued above, quite consistent with empowerment. It is, rather, the imposition of the behavior that is the problem. This is because such imposition is inconsistent with empowerment. After all, in terms of empowerment it does not greatly matter whether a woman is compelled to strip while pole dancing or compelled to wear a burqa and behave modestly: either way she is not free to make her own choices.

In light of the above arguments, a woman who freely chooses to go mild is more empowered than a woman who freely chooses to go wild. Both are, however, clearly more empowered than a woman who is denied such a choice.

Currently listening:
Toxicity
By System of a Down
Release date: 04 September, 2001
Wednesday, September 26, 2007 
So i was hospitalized on sunday 9/23 at about 9pm for sever cramps and abdominal pain. they drew blood put me on an iv with antibiotics and morphine for pain [which is the shit. my mom said i mumbled something about [you know...ttheeey... should reeeally thinnk about marketing....this shit.] Because it was intravenous the relief was instant but i was in an out of consciousness and i'd jump out of sleep whenver i though someone was talking to me. i got a cat scan, x-rays and a pelvic exam. they also took blood for blood cultures.

thoughts for possible pain:
pregnancy/miscarriage
appendix
gas

nope none of those so i was fully admitted but they didin't have a room for me so i hung out in the er til the next day[monday].

my sister sammy didn't leave my side which was great because she was working as my eyes, ears, and coherent voice and by this time mommy carlos, sasha, dough, danny, and jackie had visited me.

eventually they found me a room [in the maternity ward lol] and it had a view [yay] but i still wasn't allowed food and mobility hurt.

more blood work, antibiotics and morphine as well as visitors

[tuesday]
around lunch time the GI specialist said it wasn't intestinal and that i could eat food [hoooray! after 48 hours of apple juice and jello you'd be ecstatic too]
my IV began to leak at the point of penetration so my nurse removed it and i was free!!

later that night i saw the infectious disease dr. who gave me the run down:
x-ray:negative
cat scan:negative
blood cultures:negative
urine:negative
pelvic exam:negative

everything is fucking negative i.e. THEY NEVER KNEW WHAT WAS WRONG WITH ME!

all they know is that my white blood cells were at an insane level [23k when normal is 11k signaling some infection that has now disappeared]

so last night they discharged me with follow-ups and some great rx meds that i have to continue.

i guess i'm just one of those medical enigmas..

but as for memorial west:
nurses :A+
they're so nice and they found my veins which is close to impossible for everyone else!
doctors:C
yea i'm sure you guys did shit but you crappy ways of explaining them to me that the nurses had to translate because you;re all arrogant in your white lab coat.
front line staff:C-
bitch you see me crying and cold. gget some me fucking socks be hospitible! i think she treated me this way ebcause i didn't immediately hand over my insurance card. i swear if sammy weren't there i don't know what i'd do. she's so assertive and gets shit done for me when i physically can't. someone's getting a kick ass x-mas gift.
my room:A
it was clean, had a great view, and a tv. yea the maternity ward was noisy at times but sam was just happy she got to see some new borns being rolled by.


oh and thanks for the birthday wishes and get better messages eveyone :)
Wednesday, July 25, 2007 

Current mood:  blah

 

ok i've always want to be an art major but everything takes work. Problem is sometimes you aren't paid for the amount of work you do so now i'm thinking of becoming an occupational therapist.  I can rub people, i like it, it helps them, they like me, they pay me. now we are divided in 2 lines : money & passion

money makes the world go round. you use it for everything, hate it as much as you want but you cannot live without it.  the classes are a little harder but it just might mold me into the person i used to/need to be. yanno i used to be driven and only tried my hardest to be the best i can be instead of skimming by.

then there's the passion or just love for art.  i love it. i need it in my like just about everyday but lets think about it.  i haven't been in an art class since may and i haven't prduce anything.  is it my job?  it is full time. has that been keeping me from art/ what about my weekends?  why haven't i done anything art related during that time?  maybe i'm tired. but artists don't get tired. art is what keeps 'em awake.  am i going to be able to keep up being an artist / art teacher / whatever forever? 

[yea but what if i die tomorrow then POOF that whole argument is gone so forever is never a good time reference.]

is money everythign because it seems to eb the determining factor in all. i mean, i don't have a problem being above the poverty lone but well below rich. i just want to be comfortable.  will i need 2 jobs? but what if it's somethign i love doing then it won't seem like work at all!

that's it! Art teacher by day! Illustrator by moonlight! Masseuse on the weekends!

[where did masseuse come from?  well i'm pretty good at it and it pays well and not nearly as much work as an occupational therapist]

maybe i'll enjoy the extra cash and busy schedule.  i'll never be able to sit down and give birth but that's not a priority in my life anyways.

not to mention health issues.  my weight keeps going up. i can't say no to food. in the past 5 years i've gotten 4 reccomendations for the gastric bypass surgery and finally when i decide you know what i will go through with it, my insurace doesn't accept it. crap. i don't havw 17k to pay for it. i don't even have a fucking car. i'd pretty much be investing 17 grand in me, my health, and that my legs will take me everywhere for the next 5years.

i just don't know.

blargh. i'm such a libra because i know that tomorrow will be sunshine and rainbows but for the moment i don' know where to move. FUCK for 2 days i wanted to change my major and then for 15 minutes this mormnign i was going to move to atlanta to the art institute to get a bachelors in illustration.

wishy washy, flip flopper, flaky, capricious -> me.

 :sigh: why do i do this to myself?

Saturday, June 30, 2007 
my aunt got a helio so here's me updating from the woods
--Sent from my Helio
Sunday, April 15, 2007 

Happy, Healthy
Fit and Wealthy

Thanks to jessi, thats going to be my mantra for a few until i can come up with one that is at least equally as catchy. What is this nonsense?  Why it's positive thinking!

See as some, most, or all of you may know i'm a much happier person than i used to be in recent years and a lot of it is because i think much differently than i used to.  I used to be the suuuuuuuuuper judgemental self loathing bitch for lack of better terms and now i'm just.... not. yea, i can be all of those things at some points in time, but not all at once and no longer than an hour.  That used to be all that encompassed Alexis, while now, i'm Alex. Alex is a lot more fun and understanding. She can make you laugh, laugh at her self and understand that she looks pretty damn cute [and sometimes down right hot] in her size 26 jeans.. Yea, she's akward most of the time but it's because she's kinda spent the past 18 years being Alexis.

So this is me now.  What changed all this? Positive thinking! how?  Well, just do it! Sitting down or standing up, do it! i don't think there are many words i can write to explain all of this [which is clearly stating that this blog is now deemed useless] but those of you who knew me then as well as now can vouch for the big change

 

but back to the mantra, if you say it, you will be it and if you want it just ask for it so:

     I'm completely happy with lover lying next to me in bed as i wake up in my adorable apartment.  I can hear my roommates making breakfast and it smells like pancakes.  I get dressed in my healthy sized clothes and in my closet are photgraphs of all the places i've been to with my friends.
     I think back to when i was in college and finished with my degree in art, minor in philosophy and a 3.2 GPA while i talk to my highschool students. During my lunch break i open my ibook and keep up my wonderful relationship with my family by communicating with them.
      After work, i call my roommates so we can all agree on a place to meet up for dinner and drinks and by the end of my day i lie back in be with my lover.

the end.

so i've already put the gears to work to make sure that i get to where i want to be.

 

:sigh: the universe rocks. :-D

Friday, April 06, 2007 
Your dating personality profile:

Liberal - Politics matters to you, and you aren't afraid to share your left-leaning views.  You would never be caught voting for a conservative candidate.
Outgoing - You can liven up any party.  You've got a way with people and have little difficulty charming your dates.
Sensual - You are not particularly shy when it comes to your sexuality.  You know what you like and do not feel inhibited.
Your date match profile:

Outgoing - Shy and timid people are not who you are after.  You need someone with a vibrant personality to breathe life into a relationship.
Funny - You consider a good sense of humor a major necessity in a date.  If his jokes make you laugh, he has won your heart.
Adventurous - You are looking for someone who is willing to try new things and experience life to its fullest.  You need a companion who encourages you to take risks and do exciting things.
Your Top Ten Traits

1. Liberal
2. Outgoing
3. Sensual
4. Adventurous
5. Funny
6. Big-Hearted
7. Athletic
8. Stylish
9. Wealthy/Ambitious
10. Practical
Your Top Ten Match Traits

1. Outgoing
2. Funny
3. Adventurous
4. Athletic
5. Practical
6. Big-Hearted
7. Sensual
8. Wealthy/Ambitious
9. Intellectual
10. Romantic

Take the Online Dating'>http://www.datingdiversions.com/">Dating Profile Quiz at Dating'>http://www.datingdiversions.com/">Dating Diversions
Thursday, March 29, 2007 
  • Barbie's measurements if she were life size: 39-23-33.
  • The dollar symbol ($) is a U combined with an S (U.S.)
  • Our eyes are always the same size from birth, but our nose and ears never stop growing.
  • The Statue of Liberty's tablet is two feet thick.
  • There are two credit cards for every person in the United States.
  • The slogan on New Hampshire license plates is 'Live Free or Die'. These license plates are manufactured by prisoners in the state prison in Concord.
  • The straw was probably invented by Egyptian brewers to taste in-process beer without removing the fermenting ingredients which floated on the top of the container.
  • 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.
  • 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 the thirteen blimps are in the United States.
  • The existing biggest blimp is the Fuji Film blimp.
  • Naugahyde, plastic "leather" was created in Naugatuck, Connecticut.
  • The Swiss flag is square.
  • 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.
  • Sames 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).
  • The three largest land-owners in England are the Queen, the Church of England and Trinity College, Cambridge.
  • The monastic hours are matins, lauds, prime, tierce, sext, nones, vespers and compline.
  • If you come from Manchester, you are a Mancunian.
  • No animal, once frozen solid (i.e., water solidifies and turns to ice) survives when thawed, because the ice crystals formed inside cells would break open the cell membranes. However there are certain frogs that can survive the experience of being frozen. These frogs make special proteins which prevent the formation of ice (or at least keep the crystals from becoming very large), so that they actually never freeze even though their body temperature is below zero Celsius. The water in them remains liquid: a phenomenon known as 'supercooling.' If you disturb one of these frogs (just touching them even), the water in them quickly freezes solid and they die.
  • The white part of your fingernail is called the lunula.
  • Madrid is the only European capital city not situated on a river.
  • The name for fungal remains found in coal is sclerotinite.
  • 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.
  • Emus cannot walk backwards.
  • It is believed that Shakespeare was 46 around the time that the King James Version of the Bible was written. In Psalms 46, the 46th word from the first word is shake and the 46th word from the last word is spear.
  • The shopping mall in Abbotsford, British Columbia, Canada has the largest water clock in North America.
  • Both writer Edgar Allen Poe and LSD advocate Timothy Leary were kicked out of West Point.
  • The word posh, which denotes luxurious rooms or accomodations, originated when ticket agents in England marked the tickets of travelers going by ship to the Orient. Since there was no air conditioning in those days, it was always better to have a cabin on the shady side of the ship as it passed through the Mediterranean and Suez area. Since the sun is in the south, those with money paid extra to get cabin's on the left, or port, traveling to the Asia, and on the right, or starboard, when returning to Europe. Hence their tickets were marked with the initials for Port Outbound Starboard Homebound, or POSH.
  • The top layer of a wedding cake, known as the groom's cake, traditionally is a fruit cake. That way it will save until the first anniversery.
  • The German Kaiser Wilhelm II had a withered arm and often hid the fact by posing with his hand resting on a sword, or by holding gloves.
  • The forward pass was created by the football team at Saint Louis University.
  • In every show that Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt (The Fantasticks) wrote, there is at least one song about rain.
  • A kind of tortoise in the Galapagos Islands has an upturned shell at its neck so it can reach its head up to eat cactus branches.
  • The only city whose name can be spelled completely with vowels is Aiea, Hawaii, located approximately twelve miles west of Honolulu.
  • Parthenogenesis is the term used to describe the process by which certain animals are able to reproduce themselves in successive female generations without intervention of a male of the species. At least one species of lizard is known to do so.
  • Cats have over one hundred vocal sounds, while dogs only have about ten.
  • The word "Checkmate" in chess comes from the Persian phrase "Shah Mat", which means "the king is dead".
  • The ship, the Queen Elizabeth 2, should always be written as QE2. QEII is the actual queen.
  • "Quisling" is the only word in the English language to start with "quis."
  • All of the cobble stones that used to line the streets in New York were originally weighting stones put in the hulls of Belgian ships to keep an even keel.
  • Nepal is the only country without a rectangular flag (it looks like two pennants glued on on top of the other)
  • Libya has the only flag which is all one color with no writing or decoration on it
  • The only borough of New York City that isn't an island (or part of an island) is the Bronx.
  • The 1957 Milwaukee Braves were the first baseball team to win the World Series after being relocated.
  • The tune for the "A-B-C" song is the same as "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star."
  • When a coffee seed is planted, it takes five years to yield it's first consumable fruit.
  • The common goldfish is the only animal that can see both infra-red and ultra-violet light.
  • Linn's Stamp News is the world's largest weekly newspaper for stamp collectors.
  • Tennessee is bordered by more states than any other. The eight states are Kentucky, Missouri, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia.
  • Des Moines has the highest per capita Jello consumption in the U.S
  • The Western-most point in the contiguous United States is Cape Alava, Washington.
  • There are only three animals with blue tongues, the Black Bear, the Chow Chow dog and the blue-tongued lizard.
  • The first fossilized specimen of Austalopithecus afarenisis was named Lucy after the palentologists' favorite song, Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds, by the Beatles.
  • Pinocchio is Italian for "pine head."
  • The geographical center of North America is near Rugby, North Dakota.
  • The infinity sign is called a lemniscate.
  • Hacky-sack was invented in Turkey.
  • If you stretch a standard Slinky out flat it measures 87 feet long.
  • There are six five words in the English language with the letter combination "uu." Muumuu, vacuum, continuum, duumvirate and duumvir, residuum.
  • The "Calabash" pipe, most often associated with Sherlock Holmes, was not used by him until William Gillette (an American) portrayed Holmes onstage. Gillette needed a pipe he could keep in his mouth while he spoke his lines.
  • Most Americans' car horns beep in the key of F.
  • Dirty Harry's badge number is 2211.
  • The pupil of an octopus' eye is rectangular.
  • The shortest French word with all five vowels is "oiseau" meaning bird.
  • Camel's milk does not curdle.
  • "Mr. Mojo Risin" is an anagram for Jim Morrison.
  • The ball on top of a flagpole is called the truck.
  • A person from the country of Nauru is called a Nauruan; this is the only palindromic nationality.
  • The word "modem" is a contraction of the words "modulate, demodulate."
  • Oliver Cromwell was hanged and decapitated two years after he had died.
  • In the last 4000 years, no new animals have been domesticated.
  • Iowa has more independent telephone companies than any other state.
  • Many hamsters only blink one eye at a time.
  • Hamsters love to eat crickets.
  • The only "real" food that U.S. Astronauts are allowed to take into space is pecan nuts.
  • The word "queueing" is the only English word with five consecutive vowels.
  • The first Eagle Scout west of the Mississippi is buried in San Marcos, Texas.
  • In every episode of Seinfeld there is a Superman somewhere.
  • Roberta Flack wrote "Killing Me Softly" about singer Don McLean.
  • The Greek version of the Old Testament is called the Septuagint.
  • Spencer Eldon was the name of the naked baby on the cover of Nirvana's album
  • All three major 1996 Presidential candidates, Clinton, Dole and Perot, are left-handed.
  • The Madagascan Hissing Cockroach is one of the few insects who give birth to live young, rather than laying eggs.
  • The book of Esther in the Bible is the only book which does not mention the name of God.
  • Sheriff came from Shire Reeve. During early years of feudal rule in England, each shire had a reeve who was the law for that shire. When the term was brought to the United States it was shortned to Sheriff.
  • An animal epidemic is called an epizootic.
  • Dracula is the most filmed story of all time, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is second and Oliver Twist is third.
  • The silhouette on the NBA logo is Jerry West.
  • The silhouette on the Major League Baseball logo is Harmon Killebrew.
  • The name Jeep came from the abbreviation used in the army for the "General Purpose" vehicle, G.P.
  • The little lump of flesh just forward of your ear canal, right next to your temple, is called a tragus.
  • Soweto in South Africa ws derived from SOuth WEst TOwnship.
  • Murphy's Oil Soap is the chemical most commonly used to clean elephants.
  • The Andy Griffth Show was the first spin-off in TV history. It was a spin-off of the Danny Thomas Show.
  • Goat's eyes have rectangular pupils.
  • Walt Disney's autograph bears no resemblance to the famous Disney logo.
  • Other than humans, black lemurs are the only primates that may have blue eyes.
  • The United States has never lost a war in which mules were used.
  • The two longest one-syllable words in the English language are "screeched" and "strengths."
  • Great Britain was the first county to issue postage stamps. Hence, the postage stamps of Britain are the only stamps in the world not to bear the name of the country of origin. However, every stamp carries a relief image or a silhouette of the monarch's head instead.
  • Images for picture stamps in the United States are commissioned by the United States Postal Service Department of Philatelic Fulfillment.
  • Artist Constantino Brumidi fell from the done of the U.S. Capitol while painting a mural around the rim. He died four months later.
  • Since 1896, the beginning of the modern Olympics, only Greece and Australia have participated in every Games.
  • There were no squirrels on Nantucket until 1989.
  • Cathy Rigby is the only woman to pose nude for Sports Illustrated. (August 1972)
  • Blueberry Jelly Bellies were created especially for Ronald Reagan.
  • Will Clark of the Texas Rangers is a direct descendant of William Clark of Lewis and Clark.
  • When ocean tides are at their highest, they are called "spring tides." When they are at their lowest, they are call "neep tides."
  • February 1865 is the only month in recorded history not to have a full moon.
  • The last NASCAR driver to serve jail time for running moonshine was Buddy Arrington.
  • Many Japanese golfers carry "hole-in-one" insurance, because it is traditional in Japan to share one's good luck by sending gifts to all your friends when you get an "ace." The price for what the Japanese term an "albatross" can often reach $10,000.
  • The difference between male and female blue crabs is the design located on their apron (belly.) The male blue crab has the Washington Monument while the female apron is shaped like the U.S. Capitol.
  • It takes a lobster approxiamately seven years to grow to be one pound.
  • The ridges on the sides of coins are called reeding.
  • The lot numbers for the cyanide-tainted Tylenol capsules scare back in 1982 were MC2880 and 1910MD.
  • Montpelier, Vermont is the only U.S. state capital without a McDonalds.
  • The Roman emperor Caligula made his horse a senator.
  • At latitude 60 degrees south you can sail all the way around the world.
  • A Chinese checkerboard has 121 holes.
  • The hyoid bone, in your throat, is the only bone in the body not attached to another bone.
  • Mice, whales, elephants, giraffes and man all have seven neck vertebra.
  • Sunbeams that shine down through the clouds are called crespucular rays.
  • Very small clouds that look like they have been broken off of bigger clouds are called scuds.
  • On a dewy morning, if you look at your shadow in the grass, the dew drops shine light back to your eye creating a halo called a heilgenschein (German for halo.)
  • The correct response to the Irish greeting, "Top of the morning to you," is "and the rest of the day to yourself."
  • Giraffes have no vocal cords.
  • Joe DiMaggio had more home runs than strikeouts during his career.
  • All porcupines float in water.
  • Hang On Sloopy is the official rock song of Ohio.
  • A-1 Steak Sauce contains both orange peel and raisins.
  • Many northern parishes (counties) of Louisiana did not agree with the Confederate movement. To show their disapproval, they changed their names. That's why there is a Union Parish, Jefferson Parish, etc.
  • 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.
  • Residents of the island of Lesbos are Lesbosians, rather than Lesbians. (Of course, lesbians are called lesbians because Sappho was from Lesbos.)
  • The Chinese ideogram for 'trouble' symbolizes 'two women living under one roof'.
  • German has a wood for the peace offerings brought to your mate when you've committed some conceived slight. This is "drachenfutter" or dragon's food.
  • In Chinese, the words for crisis and opportunity are the same.
  • No word in the English language rhymes with month.
  • Clans of long ago that wanted to get rid of their unwanted people without killing them use to burn their houses down - hence the expression "to get fired."
  • The poisonous copperhead smells likefresh cut cucumbers.
  • In Disney's "Fantasia", the Sorcerer's name is "Yensid" (Disney backwards.)
  • The smallest mushroom's name is "Hop-low."
  • Anne Boleyn had six fingernails on one hand.
  • Mustard gas was invented in the McKinley Building on the American University campus. Additionally, preliminary work on the Manhattan Project was done in that building. The government used the McKinley Building because of its unusual archticture. If there would be any type of large explosion inside the building, the building would implode onto itself, containing any lethal gas or nuclear material. The building now houses the Physics Department.
  • When angered, the ears of Tazmanian devils turn a pinkish-red.
  • The cruise liner, Queen Elizabeth II, moves only six inches for each gallon of diesel that it burns.
  • The naval rank of "Admiral" is derived from the Arabic phrase "amir al bahr", which means "lord of the sea".
  • The Les Nessman character on the TV series WKRP in Cincinnati wore a band-aid in every episode. Either on himself, his glasses, or his clothing.
  • A coat hanger is 44 inches long if straightened
  • The roads on the island of Guam are made with coral. Guam has no sand. The sand on the beaches is actually ground coral. When concrete is mixed, the coral sand is used instead of importing regular sand from thousands of miles away.
  • Mt. Vernon Washington grows more tulips than the entire country of Holland.
  • Jamie Farr (who played Klinger on M*A*S*H) was the only member of the cast who actually served as a soldier in the Korean war.
  • The southern most city in the United States is Na'alehu, Hawaii.
  • Alaska was the only part of the United States that was invaded by the Japanese during WWII. The territory was the island of Adak in the Aleutian Chain.
  • Woodward Ave in Detroit, Michigan carries the designation M-1, named so because it was the first paved road anywhere.
  • Michigan was the first state to plow it's roads and the first to adopt a yellow dividing line.
  • Canada is an Indian word meaning "Big Village".
  • The longest chapter in the Bible is Psalm 119.
  • The shortest verse in the Bible is "Jesus wept."
  • Way back when they were using marble columns, the people selling the columns would carve out the centers and fill it with wax.So the people buying them started asking "Is it without wax?" Or in other words "Are you sincere?"
  • Zaire is the world leader in cobalt mining, producing two-thirds of the world's cobalt supply.
  • No modern language has a true concept of "I am." It is always used linked with are in reference of another verb.
  • Little known Cathedral Caverns near Grant, Alabama has the world's largest cave opening, the largest stalagmite (Goliath), and the largest stalagmite forest in the World.
  • The only person ever to decline a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction was Sinclair Lewis for his book Arrowsmith.
  • Maine is the only state that borders on only one state.
  • There are almost twice as many people in Rhode Island than there are in Alaska.
  • Kudzu is not indigenous to the South, but in that climate it can grow up to six inches a day.
  • Did you know that there are coffee flavored PEZ?
  • The word 'byte' is a contraction of 'by eight.'
  • The word 'pixel' is a contraction of either 'picture cell' or 'picture element.'
  • Ralph Lauren's original name was Ralph Lifshitz.
  • Bananas do not grow on trees, but on rhizomes.
  • Astronauts in the Space Shuttle are weightless not because there is no gravity in space, but because they are in free fall around the Earth.
  • St. Augustine was the first major proponent of the "missionary" position.
  • Lizzie Borden was acquitted.
  • Alexander Hamilton was shot by Aaron Burr in the groin.
  • 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.
  • A scholar who studies the Marquis de Sade is called a Sadian, not a Sadist (of course).
  • Tribeca in Manhattan stands for TRIangle BElow CAnal street. Soho stands for SOuth of HOuston street.
  • Columbia University is the second largest landowner in New York City, after the Catholic Church.
  • Theworld's largest wine cask is in Heidleberg, Germany.
  • Lorne Greene had one of his nipples bitten off by an aligator while he hosted "Lorne Greene's Wild Kingdom."
  • Cat's urine glows under a blacklight.
  • Seven Olympic gold medal winners eventually went on to win the Heavyweight Championship of the World
  • Kerimski Church in Finland is world's biggest church made of wood.The St. Louis Gateway Arch had a
  • projected death toll while it was being built. No one died. The average ear of corn has eight-hundred kernels arranged in sixteen rows.
  • A cat has four rows of whiskers.
  • Vincent Van Gogh comitted suicide while painting Wheat Field with Crows.
  • An iguana can stay under water for 28 minutes.
  • Jelly Belly jelly beans were the first jelly beans in outer space when they went up with astronauts in the June 21, 1983 voyage of the space shuttle Challenger (the same voyage as the first American woman in space, Sally Ride).
  • Baseballer Connie Mack's real name was Cornelius McGilicuddy.
  • If you were standing in the northernmost point in the contiguous (48) states, you'd be standing in Minnesota.
  • Only thirty percent of the famous Maryland blue crabs are actually from Maryland, the rest are from North Carolina and Virginia.
  • Back in the mid to late 80's, an IBM compatible computer wasn't considered a hundred percent compatible unless it could run Microsoft's Flight Simulator.
  • Not all of West Virginia voted to go with the North. When the State of West Virginia was formed from Virginia in 1863 the three western counties in Virginia voted to go with West Virginia, but West Virginia didn't take them because they were poor. Instead they took three counties that voted to stay with Virginia, because they were richer and they had the B&O railroad. Those counties since split and are 5 Jefferson, Hampshire, Berkley, Mineral, and Morgan.
  • The first Ford cars had Dodge engines.
  • The Dodge brothers Horace and John were Jewish, that's why the first Dodge emblem had a star of David in it.
  • Studebaker was the only major car company to stop making cars while making a profit from them.
  • Studebaker still exists, but is now called Worthington.
  • Chrysler built B-29's that bombed Japan, Mitsubishi built Zeros that tried to shoot them down. Both companies now build cars in a joint plant call Diamond Star.
  • On the new hundred dollar bill the time on the clock tower of Independence Hall is 4:10.
  • The top three cork-producing countries are Spain, Portugal and
  • Algeria. (Cork comes from trees.)
  • In the Wizard of Oz Dorothy's last name is Gail. It is shown on the mail box.
  • If you bring a raccoon's head to the Henniker, New Hampshire town hall, you are entitled to receive $.10 from the town New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner and the late M*A*S*H star McLean Stevenson were both once assistant football coaches at Northwestern University.
  • The letter W is the only letter in the alphabet that doesn't have 1 syllable... it has three.
  • All swans and all sturgeons in England are property of the Queen. Messing with them is a serious offense.
  • Michael Di Lorenzo, who plays Eddie Torres on New York Undercover is one of the lead dancers in Michael Jackson's "Beat It" video.
  • Only two people signed the Decleration of Independence on July 4th, John Hancock and Charles Thomson. Most of the rest signed on Augest 2, but the last signature wasn't added until 5 year later.
  • October 4, 1957 is a historic date to be remembered, it is the day both "Leave it to Beaver" and the Russian satellite Sputnik 1 were launched.
  • Leonardo Da Vinci invented the scissors.
  • It takes about a half a gallon of water to cook macaroni, and about a gallon to clean the pot.
  • The antifungal, nystatin, which is sometime used for treating thrush, is named after New York State Institute for Health (Acronym)
  • QANTAS, the name of the Australian national airline, is a (former) acronym, for Queensland And Northern
  • Territories Air Service.
  • The world's largest four-faced clock sits atop the Allen-Bradley plant in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
  • Almonds are members of the peach family.
  • The first video ever played on MTV Europe was "Money For Nothing" by Dire Straits.
  • If you add up the numbers 1-100 consecutively (1+2+3+4+5 etc) the total is 5050
  • The "Grinch" singer and voice of Tony the Tiger is a charming man named Thurl Ravenscroft.
  • The famous split-fingered Vulcan salute is actually intended to represent the first letter ("shin," pronounced "sheen") of the word "shalom." As a small boy, Leonard Nimoy observed his rabbi using it in a benediction and never forgot it; eventually he was able to add it to "Star Trek" lore.
  • The symbol on the "pound" key (#) is called an octothorpe.
  • Ham radio operators got the term "ham" coined from the expression "ham-fisted operators", a term used to describe early radio users who sent Morse code (i.e. pounded their fists).
  • While the Chinese invented gunpowder, they were not the first to develop firearms. Sam Colt invented the
  • "revolving pistol." Therefore, all revolvers are correctly called pistols.
  • A 12 gauge "rifled slug" does not spin, even though there are grooves on it's bearing surface. A slug actually travels like a dart.
  • Revolvers cannot be silenced, due all the noisy gasses which escape the cylinder gap at the rear of the barrel.
  • A bullet fired from the 7.62x51mm NATO cartridge (also called the .308 Winchester) is still supersonic at 1000 yards.
  • 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 home team must provide the referee with 24 footballs for each National Football League game.
  • The maximum weight for a golf ball is 1.62 oz.
  • A flea expert is a pullicologist.
  • A bear has 42 teeth.
  • M&M's stands for the last names of Forrest Mars, Sr., then candymaker, and his associate Bruce Murrie.
  • The only domestic animal not mentioned in the Bible is the cat.
  • The dot over the letter 'i' is called a tittle.
  • Table tennis balls have been known to travel off the paddle at speeds up to 105.6 miles per hour.
  • In Irian Jaya exists a tribe of tall, white people who use parrots as a warning sign against intruders.
  • In the Dutch province of Twente people live on average half a year shorter than in the rest of the Netherlands.
  • Spiral staircases in medieval castles are running clockwise. This is because all knights used to be
  • right-handed. When the intruding army would climb the stairs they would not be able to use their right hand which was holding the sword because of the difficulties in climbing the stairs. Left-handed knights would have had no troubles except left-handed people could never become knights because it was assumed that they were descendants of the devil.
  • Duddley DoRight's Horses name was "Horse."
  • If the Spaceship Earth ride at EPCOT was a golf ball, to be the proportional size to hit it, you'd be two miles tall.
  • On Sesame Street, Bert's goldfish were named Lyle and Talbot, presumably after the actor Lyle Talbot.
  • The word "hangnail" comes from Middle English: ang- (painful) + nail. Nothing to do with hanging.
  • Louis IV of France had a stomach the size of two regular stomachs.
  • Samuel Clemens aka Mark Twain smoked forty cigars a day for the last years of his life.
  • Samuel Clemens aka Mark Twain was born on a day in 1835 when Haley's Comet came into veiw. When
  • He died in 1910, Haley's Comet came into view again.
  • Pepsi originally contained pepsin, thus the name.
  • Babies are born without knee caps. They don't appear until the child reaches 2-6 years of age.
  • The highest point in Pennsylvania is lower than the lowest point in Colorado.
  • If you were born in Los Alamos, New Mexico during the Manhattan project (where they made the atomic bomb), your birthplace was listed as a post office box in Albequerque.
  • Robert Kennedy was killed in the Ambassador Hotel, the same hotel that housed Marilyn Monroe's first modelling agency.
  • Ronald Regan sent out the army phoyographer who first discovered Marilyn Monroe.
  • Carbonated water, with nothing else in it,can dissolve limestone, talc, and many other low-Moh's hardness minerals. Coincidentally, carbonated water is the main ingredient in soda pop.
  • Ethernet is a registered trademark of Xerox, Unix is a registered trademark of AT&T.
  • The newest dog breed is the Bull Boxer, first bred in the United states in 1990-91.
  • The first hard drive available for the Apple ][ had a capacity of 5 megabytes.
  • South of Tucson, Arizona, all road signs are in the Metric System.
  • In many cases, the amount of storage space on a recordable CD is measured in minutes. 74 minutes is about 650 megabytes, 63 minutes is 550 megabytes.
  • The real name of Astro (the dog fromThe Jetsons) is "Tralfaz" -- his real owner appeared one day to claim him but wound up giving him back to the Jetsons.
  • Charlie Brown's father was a barber.
  • The original story from Tales of 1001 Arabian Nights begins, "Aladdin was a little Chinese boy."
  • Nutmeg is extremely poisonous if injected intraveinously
  • When a film is in production, the last shot of the day is the "martini shot", the next to last one is the "Abby Singer".
  • Of the six men who made up the Three Stooges, three of them were real brothers (Moe, Curly and Shemp.) Ohio is listed as the 17th state in the U.S., but technically it is number 47. Until August 7, 1953, Congress forgot to vote on a resolution to admit Ohio to the Union.
  • It is a misdemeanor to kill or threaten a butterfly -- so says City Ordinance No. 352 in Pacific Grove, California.
  • 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.
  • Other than fruit, honey is the only natural food that is made without destroying any kind of life! What about milk, you say? A cow has to eat grass to produce milk and grass is living!
  • When Saigon fell the signal for all Americans to evacuate was Bing Crosby's "White Christmas" being played on the radio.
  • The Fort George Point in Belize City was formed by the silt runoff of Hurricane Hattie.
  • If you lace your shoes from the inside to the outside the fit will be snugger around your big toe.
  • Only 1/3 of the people that can twitch their ears can twitch only one at a time.
  • The expression "What in tarnation" comes from the original meaning: "What in eternal damnation"
  • Gary Burgough who played Walter Radar O'Reily on M*A*S*H has a deformed left thumb. If you watch closely you will see that he never shows his left hand.
  • Only two states' names begin with double consonants: Florida and Rhode Island.
  • The volume of the Earth's moon is the same as the volume of the Pacific Ocean
  • Ingrown toenails are hereditary.
  • The Cincinnati Reds baseball team name was officially changed to the Redlegs during the anti-communist movement.
  • Winston Churchill was born in a ladies' room during a dance.
  • "Xmas" does not begin with the Roman letter X. It begins with the Greek letter "chi," which was used in medieval manuscripts as an abbreviation for the word "Christ" (xus = christus, etc.)
  • The ampersand (&) is actually a stylised version of the Latin word "et," meaning and."
  • The largest city in the United States with a one syllable name is Flint, Michigan.
  • The most common name in the world is Mohammed.
  • Michael Jordan makes more money from Nike annually than all of the Nike factory workers in Malaysia combined.
  • On the cartoon show 'The Jetsons', Jane is 33 years old and her daughter Judy is 15.
  • In Mel Brooks' 'Silent Movie,' mime Marcel Marceau is the only person who has a speaking role.
  • Only humans and horses have hymens.
  • No NFL team which plays it's home games in a domed stadium has ever won a Superbowl. (Texas Stadium, home of the Cowboys, is not a dome, there is a large hole in the roof.)
  • The word "set" has more definitions than any other word in the English language.
  • The first toilet ever seen on television was on "Leave It To Beaver". Wally and Beaver had a baby alligator which they kept in the toilet.
  • In the great fire of London in 1666 half of London was burnt down but only 6 people were injured
  • The most eastern part of the western world is located in Ilomantsi, Finland.
  • "Hara kiri" is an impolite way of saying the Japanese word "seppuku" which means, literally, "belly splitting."
  • The term the "Boogey Man will get you" comes from the Boogey people,who still inhabit an area of Indonesia. These people still act as pirates today and attack ships that pass. Thus the term spread "if you don't watch out the Boogey man will get you."
  • The Saturn V moon rocket consumed 15 tons of fuel per second.
  • The state with the longest coastline in the US is Michigan.
  • Race car is a palindrome.
  • We will have 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 Basset Horn, a kind of alto clarinet, was named after its inventor -- a man named Horn. "Basset" is from "Basetto," or "little bass" in Italian.
  • There are more bald eagles in the province of British Columbia then there are in the whole United States.
  • Lincoln Logs were invented by Frank Lloyd Wright's son.
  • The "second unit" films movie shots that do not require the presence of actors.
  • Pulp Fiction cost $8 million to make - $5 million going to actor's salaries.
  • The world's second largest pipe organ is located at the Organ Grinder on 82nd avenue in Portland, Oregon.
  • Games Slayter, a Purdue graduate, invented fiberglass.
  • One of the reasons marijuana is illegal today because cotton growers in the 30s lobbied against hemp farmers -- they saw it as competition. It is not chemically addictive as is nicotine, alcohol, or caffeine.
  • Olympic Badminton rules say that the bird has to have exactly fourteen feathers
  • The music group Simply Red is named because of its love for the football team, Manchester United, who have a red home strip.
  • In case you ever find yourself piloting a dogsled, shout "Jee!" to make the dogs turn left and "Ha!" to go right.
  • Richard Nixon left instructions for "California, Here I Come" to be the last piece of music played at his funeral ("softly and slowly") were he to die in office.
  • The earliest document in Latin in a woman's handwriting (it is from the first century A.D.) is an invitation to a birthday party.
  • Spot, Data's cat on Star Trek: The Next Generation, was played by six different cats.
  • Captain Jean-Luc Picard's fish was named Livingston.
  • Hydrogen gas is the least dense substance in the world, at 0.08988 g/cc
  • Hydrogen solid is the most dense substance in the world, at 70.6 g/cc
  • The longest U.S. highway is route 6 starting in Cape Cod, Massachusetts going through 14 states, and ending in Bishop, California...
  • The movie "Paris, Texas" was banned in the city of Paris, Texas, shorty after its box office release.
  • The 'y' in signs reading "ye olde.." is properly pronounced with a 'th' sound, not 'y'. The "th" sound does not exist in Latin, so ancient Roman occupied (present day) England use the rune "thorn" to represent "th" sounds. With the advent of the printing press the character from the Roman alphabet which closest resembled thorn was the lower case "y".
  • Pickled herrings were invented in 1375.
  • The number of the trash compactor in Star Wars (20th Century Fox, 1977) is 3263827.
  • Each year there is one ton of cement poured for each man, woman, and child in the world.
  • At McDonalds in New Zealand, they serve apricot pies instead of cherry ones.
  • The word "samba" means "to rub navels together."
  • The only two days of the year in which there are no professional sports games (MLB, NBA, NHL, or NFL) are the day before and the day after the Major League Baseball All-Star Game.
  • The international telphone dialing code for Antarctica is 672.
  • A byte, in computer terms, means 8 bits. A nibble is half that: 4 bits. (Two nibbles make a byte!)
  • A full seven percent of the entire Irish barley crop goes to the production of Guinness beer.
  • Bank robber John Dillinger played professional baseball.
  • If you toss a penny 10000 times, it will not be heads 5000 times, but more like 4950. The heads picture weighs more, so it ends up on the bottom.
  • The airport in La Paz, Bolivia is the world's highest airport.
  • The glue on Israeli postage stamps is certified kosher.
  • The housefly hums in the middle octave, key of F.
  • Chicago is closer to Moscow than to Rio de Janeiro.
  • Original copy of the Declaration of Independence is lost. The copy in Washington D.C. is what is referred to as a holograph. That is a term for a handmade copy of a document and is not the same as a laser produced hologram.
  • Singpore is the only country with one train station.
  • The little bags of netting for gas lanterns (called 'mantles') are radioactive--so much so that they will set of an alarm at a nuclear reactor.
  • When measuring fonts 'point size' refers to the height of capital letters (one point being one 72nd of an inch). 'Pitch' is a horizontal measurement of the number of letters which can be printed in an inch.
  • The only capital letter in the Roman alphabet with exactly one endpoint is P.
  • In the movie "the Right Stuff" there is a scene where a government recruiter for the Mercury astronaut program (played by Jeff Goldblum) is in a bar at Muroc Dry Lake, California. His partner suggests Chuck Yeager as a good astronaut candidate. Jeff proceeds to badmouth Yeager claiming they need someone who went to college. During the conversation the real Chuck Yeager is playing a bartender who is standing behind the recruiters eavesdropping. General Yeager is listed low in the movie credits as 'Fred.'
  • "Speak of the Devil" is short for "Speak of the Devil and he shall come". It was believed that if you spoke about the Devil it would attract his attention. That's why when your talking about someone and they show up people say "Speak of the Devil"
  • Maine is the only state whose name is just one syllable.
  • There are only four words in the English language which end in "-dous": tremendous, horrendous, stupendous, and hazardous.
  • Nauru is the only country in the world with no official capital. (Its government offices are all in Yaren
  • District, but there's no official capital.)
  • South Africa is the only country with three official capitals: Pretoria, Cape Town, and Bloemfontein.
  • Lucy Ricardo's maiden name was McGillicudy.
  • Mickey Mouse is known as "Topolino" in Italy.
  • The red giant star Betelgeuse has a diameter larger than that of the Earth's orbit around the sun.
  • If your eyes are six feet above the surface of the ocean, the horizon wil be about three statute miles away.
  • The one-hundred eleventh element is known as "unnilenilenium"
  • The longest muscle name is the "levator labii superioris alaeque nasi" and Elvis popularized it with his lip motions.
  • The longest time someone has typed on a typewriter continuously is 264 hrs., set by Violet Gibson Burns.
  • The Dutch town of Leeuwarden can be spelled 225 different ways.
  • There was once a town named "6" in West Virginia.
  • Only one person in two billion will live to be 116 or older
  • A cat has 32 muscles in each ear
  • An ostrich's eye is bigger than it's brain.
  • The oldest word in the English language is "town"
  • The sea wasp is half an inch long at best and more poisonous than any other jellyfish known to man.
  • Tigars have striped skin, not just striped fur.
  • Gerald Ford pardoned Robert E. Lee posthumously of all crimes of treason.
  • The band Duran Duran got their name from an astronaut in the 1968 Jane Fonda movie Barbarella.
  • There are 22 stars surrounding the mountain on the Paramount Pictures logo.
  • After human death, post-mortem rigidity starts in the head and travels to the feet, and leaves the same way it came -- head to toe.
  • Police dogs are trained to react to commands in a foreign language; commonly German but more recently
  • Hungarian or some other Slavic tongue.
  • A Laforte fracture is a fracture of all facial bones. It would allow one to pull on another face and remove it like a mask if not held on by skin.
  • Debra Winger was the voice of E.T.
  • Winston Churchill, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt and Eleanor Roosevelt were all cousins through one connection or another. (FDR and Eleanor were about five times removed.)
  • The Earth-Moon size ratio is the largest in the our solar system, excepting Pluto-Charon.
  • Each unit on the Richter Scale is equivalent to a power factor of about 32. So a 6 is 32 times more powerful than a 5! Though it goes to 10, 9 is estimated to be the point of total tetonic destruction (2 is the smallest that can be felt unaided.)
  • Most snakes have either only one lung, or in some cases, two, with one much reduced in size. This apparently serves to make room for other organs in the highly-elongated bodies of snakes.
  • A twelve-foot anaconda can catch, kill, and eat a six-foot caiman, a close relative of crocodles and alligators. While these snakes are not usually considered to be the *longest* snake in the world, they are the heaviest, exceeding the reticulated python in girth.
  • Cinderella's slippers were originally made out of fur. The story was changed in the 1600s by a translator.
  • It was the left shoe that Aschenputtel (Cinderella) lost at the stairway, when the prince tried to follow her.
  • Cinderella is known as Tuhkimo in Finland.
  • If you come from Birmingham, you are a Brummie.
  • The names of all the continents end with the same letter that they start with, e.g. Asia, Europe.
  • There is a word in the English language with only one vowel, which occurs six times: Indivisibility.
  • The dome on Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's home, conceals a billiards room. In Jefferson's day, billiards were illegal in Virginia.
  • According to Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity, it is possible to go slower than light and faster than light, but it is impossible to go at the speed of light.
  • In most advertisments, including newspapers, the time displayed on a watch is 10:10 because then the arms frame the brand of the watch.
  • Cleo and Caesar were the early stage names of Cher and Sonny Bono.
  • Ben and Jerry's send the waste from making ice cream to local pig farmers to use as feed. Pigs love the stuff, except for one flavor: Mint Oreo.
  • The "heat" of peppers is rated on the Scoville scale.
  • 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 *this* was the day of the changeover.
  • In left hand drive countries, such as the UK, Ireland, Japan, and Australia, drivers sit on the right hand side of the car. Except for Sweden, where drivers sat on the left, as in North-America.
  • Japan is the third most densely populated country in the world. First is the Netherlands, followed by Belgium.
  • Alfred Hitchcock didn't have a belly button. It was eliminated when he was sewn up after surgery.
  • The "D" in D-day means "Day". The French term for "D-Day" is "J-jour".
  • Female orcas live twice as long as male orcas. The larger numbers of female orcas in a pod are because of the female's longer lifespan, not because the males have collected a harem.
  • Most spiders belong to the orb weaver spider family, Family Aranidae. This is pronounced "A Rainy Day."
  • The Mongol emperor Genghis Khan's original name was Temujin.
  • Genghis Khan started out life as a goatherd.
  • The type specimen for the human species is the skull of Edward Drinker Cope, an American paleontologist of the late 1800's. A type specimen is used in paleontology as the best example of that species.
  • The first word spoken by an ape in the movie Planet of the Apes was "Smile".
  • The two lines that connect your top lip to the bottom of your nose are known as the philtrum.
  • Facetious and abstemious contain all the vowels in the correct order.
  • The name Wendy was made up for the book "Peter Pan"
  • Hummingbirds are the only animals able to fly backwards
  • All the dirt from the foundation to build the World Trade Center in NYC was dumped into the Hudson River to form the community now known as Battery City Park.
  • The Holland and Lincoln Tunnels under the Hudson River connecting New Jersey and New York are an engineering feat. The air circulators in the tunnels circulate fresh air completely every ninety seconds.
  • The dirt road that General Washington and his soldiers took to fight off General Clinton during the Battle of Monmouth was called the Burlington Path.
  • The only social fraternity founded during the Civil War was Theta Xi fraternity, at Rensselear Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York in 1864.
  • The Hudson River along the island of Manhattan flows in either direction depending upon the tide.
  • Several buildings in Manhattan have their own zip code! The World Trade Center has several.
  • Lucifer is latin for "Light Bringer". It is a translation of the Hebrew name for Satan, Halael. Satan means
  • "adversary", devil means "liar".
  • A cat's jaws cannot move sideways.
  • Geller and Huchra have made three-dimensional maps of the distrubution of galaxies. In each layer of the map some galaxies are grouped together in such a way that they resemble a human being.
  • Avocado is derived from the Spanish word 'aguacate' which is derived from 'ahuacatl' meaning testicle.
  • The company providing the liability insurance for the Republican National Convention in San Diego is the same firm that insured the maiden voyage of the RMS Titanic.
  • Telly Savalas and Louis Armstrong died on their birthdays.
  • Donald Duck's middle name is Fauntleroy.
  • Al Capone's business card said he was a used furniture dealer.
  • The smallest port in Canada is Port Williams, Nova Scotia.
  • The Canadian province of Newfoundland has its own time zone, which is half an hour behind Atlantic standard time.
  • Cats in Halifax, Nova Scotia, have a very high probability of having six toes.
  • The second longest word in the English language is "antidisestablishmenterianism".
  • Rats like boiled sweets better than they like cheese. Big Ben was slowed five minutes one day when a passing group of starlings decided to take a rest on the minute hand of the clock.
  • The Velvet Underground was named after a book on the S&M culture.
  • The Velvet Underground's first manager was Andy Warhol, who also produced their first album and designed the cover artwork. The cover artwork for the album (called "The Velvet Underground and Nico") featured a bright yellow banana that could be peeled off to reveal a bright pink banana underneath, with the label "Peel Slowly and See." "Peel Slowly and See" is the title of the Velvet Underground comprehensive boxed set, which is the only currently-available Velvet Underground recording to feature a peelable banana. The peelable banana caused substantial delays in the production of the VU's first album and contributed to Lou Reed's firing Andy Warhol as the group's manager.
  • The "wild" horses of western North America are actually feral, not wild.
  • Native speakers of Japanese learn Spanish much more easily than they learn English. Native speakers of English learn Spanish much more easily than they learn Japanese.
  • New Zealand kiwis lay the largest eggs with respect to their body size of any bird.
  • Elephants have been found swimming miles from shore in the Indian Ocean.
  • When two words are combined to form a single word (e.g., motor + hotel = motel, breakfast + lunch = brunch) the new word is called a "portmanteau."
  • Sting got his name because of a yellow-and-black striped shirt he wore until it literally fell apart.
  • Every photograph of an American atomic bomb detonation was taken by Harold Edgerton.
  • The topknot that quails have is called a hmuh.
  • Dr. Samuel A. Mudd was the physician who set the leg of Lincoln's assassin John Wilkes Booth ... and whose shame created the expression for ignominy, "His name is Mudd."
  • The longest recorded flight of a chicken is thirteen seconds.
  • The muzzle of a lion is like a fingerprint -- no two lions have the same pattern of whiskers.
  • There is a type of parrot in New Zealand that likes to eat the rubber strips that line car windows.
  • New Zealand is also the only country that contains every type of climate in the world.
  • Cockroaches' favorite food is the glue on envelopes and on the back of postage stamps
  • In 1969, the last Corvair was painted gold.
  • Ralph Kramden made 62 dollars a week.
  • The only way to stop the pain of the flathead fish's sting is by rubbing the same fish's slime on the wound it gave you.
  • 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.
  • Devo's original name was going to be De-evolution. They shortened it to Devo.
  • Steely Dan got their name from a sexual device depicted in the book 'The Naked Lunch'.
  • Bob Dylan's real name is Robert Zimmerman.
  • Andy Warhol created the Rolling Stone's emblem depicting the big tongue. It first appeared on the cover of the 'Sticky Fingers' album.
  • Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr were the two left-handed Beatles.
  • Chris Ford scored the first ever NBA three-point shot.
  • Of all the East Coast States, New Hampshire has the shortest coastline, about fourteen miles.
  • New Hampshire is also the only State name the has four consecutive consonants in it (in the same word).
  • Ontario is the only Canadian Province that borders the Great Lakes.
  • Alaska has the longest border with Canada of all the fifty states.
  • Montana has the longest border with Canada of the lower forty-eight States.
  • Montana also borders the most Canadian Provinces of all the fifty states. It borders three of them.
  • Arkansas is the only US State that begins with "a" but does not end with "a". All the other States that begin with "a", Arizona, Alabama and Alaska, also end with "a".
  • Only three angels are mentioned by name in the Bible: Gabriel, Michael, and Lucifer.
  • Dr. Seuss pronounced "Seuss" such that it rhymed with "rejoice."
  • Wilma Flinestone's maiden name was Wilma Slaghoopal, and Betty Rubble's Maiden name was Betty Jean Mcbricker.
  • Lenny Kravitz's mother played the part of "Helen" on "The Jeffersons."
  • The term "devil's advocate" comes from the Roman Catholic church. When deciding if someone should
  • become a saint, a devil's advocate is always appointed to give an alternative view.
  • Compact discs read from the inside to the outside edge, the reverse of how a record works.
  • The term "Mayday" used for signaling for help (after SOS), it comes from the French term "M'aidez" which is pronounced "MayDay" and means, "Help Me"
  • Grapes explode when you put them in the microwave.
  • The Great Chicago Fire of 1871 did start in a barn belonging to Patrick and Katherine O'Leary. The O'Leary's house was one of the few that survived the fire. The O'Leary's house had to be guarded by soldiers for weeks afterwards, however, because many enraged residents wanted to burn it down.
  • The biggest bell is the "Tsar Kolokol" cast in the Kremlin in 1733. It weighs 216 tons, but alas, it is cracked and has never been rung. The bell was being stored in a Moscow shed which caught fire. To "save" it the caretakers decided to throw water on the bell. This did not succeed in -- the water hit the superheated metal and a giant piece immediately cracked off, destroying the bell forever.
  • A pregnant goldfish is called a twit.
  • The smallest mountain range in the world is outside of Marysville, California and is named the Sutter Buttes.
  • The Ramses brand condom is named after the great phaoroh Ramses II who fathered over 160 children.
  • Many species of bird copulate in the air. In general, a couple will fly to a very high altitude, and then drop. During their descent, the birds mate. Sometimes the couple gets too involved and SPLAT!
  • If NASA sent birds into space they would soon die because they need gravity to swallow.
  • There is a seven letter word in the English language that contains ten words without rearranging any of its letters, "therein": the, there, he, in, rein, her, here, here, ere, therein, herein.
  • You would have to count to one thousand to use the letter "A" in the English language to spell a whole number.
  • The only member of the band ZZ Top without a beard has the last name Beard.
  • Ants cannot chew their food, they move their jaws sidewards, like a scissor, to extract the juices from the food.
  • The letters H I O X in the latin alphabet is the only ones that look the same if you turn them upside down or see them from behind.
  • The little hole in the sink that lets the water drain out, instead of flowing over the side, is called a "porcelator".
  • When the University of Nebraska Cornhuskers play football at home to a sellout crowd, the stadium becomes the state's third largest city.
  • In Casablanca, Humphrey Bogart never said "Play it again, Sam."
  • Sherlock Holmes never said "Elementary, my dear Watson."
  • Captain Kirk never said "Beam me up, Scotty," but he did say, "Beam me up, Mr. Scott".
  • Duelling is legal in Paraguay as long as both parties are registered blood donors.
  • More people are killed annually by donkeys than die in air crashes.
  • The metal part of a lamp that surrounds the bulb and supports the shade is called a harp.
  • The metal part at the end of a pencil is twenty percent sulfur.
  • John Larroquette of "Night Court" and "The John Larroquette Show" was the narrator of "The Texas
  • Chainsaw Massacre."
  • Vietnamese currency consists only of paper money; no coins.
  • Vincent Van Gogh sold exactly one painting while he was alive, Red Vineyard at Arles.
  • A pig's orgasm lasts for 30 minutes.
  • A pig's penis is shaped like a corkscrew.
  • It is physically impossible for pigs to look up into the sky.
  • Skin is thickest is at the back -- 1/6 of an inch.
  • The most sensitive finger is the forefinger.
  • Alaska is the most northern, western and eastern state; it also has the highest latitude,the most eastern longitude and the most western longitude.
  • Some of Beethoven's symphonies were performed in Kentucky before they were performed in Paris, France.
  • The word denim comes from 'de Nimes', or from Nimes, a place in France.
  • Dublin comes from the Irish Dubh Linn which means Blackpool
  • Scottish is the language called Gaelic, whereas Irish is actually called Gaeilge.
  • The characters Bert and Ernie on Sesame Street were named after Bert the cop and Ernie the taxi driver in Frank Capra's "Its A Wonderful Life"
  • A penguin only has sex twice a year.
  • Mr. Spock's (of Star Trek) blood type was T-Negative
  • The Dutch town of Abcoude is the only reasonably sized town/city in the world whose name begins with ABC.
  • A dragonfly has a lifespan of 24 hours.
  • A goldfish has a memory span of three seconds.
  • New Jersey has a spoon museum featuring over 5,400 spoons from every state and almost every country.
  • Eleven square miles of southwest Kentucky (Fulton County) is cut off from the rest of the state by the
  • Mississippi River. If you wish to travel from this cut off section to the rest of the state or vice-versa, you must first cross a bordering state.
  • Point Roberts in Washington State is cut off from the rest of the state by British Columbia, Canada. If you wish to travel from Point Roberts to the rest of the state or vice versa, you must pass through Canada, including Canadian and U.S. customs
  • A quarter has 119 grooves around the edge.
  • A dime has 118 ridges around the edge.
  • The only city in the United States to celebrate Halloween on the October 30 instead of October 31 is
  • Carson City, Nevada. October 31 is Nevada Day and is celebrated with a large stret party.
  • On an American one-dollar bill, there is an owl in the upper left-hand corner of the "1" encased in the
  • "shield" and a spider hidden in the front upper right-hand corner.
  • No words in the English language rhyme with orange, silver or purple.
  • A peanut is not a nut; it is a legume.
  • It's impossible to sneeze with your eyes open.
  • "Evian" spelled backvards is naive.
  • The plastic things on the end of shoelaces are called aglets.
  • Maine is the toothpick capital of the world.
  • "Bookkeeper" and "bookkeeping" are the only words in the English language with three consecutive double letters.
  • Paul McCartney's mother was a midwife.
  • The flag of the Philippines is the only national flag that is flown differently during times of peace or war.
  • The phrase "sleep tight" originated when mattresses were set upon ropes woven through the bed frame. To remedy sagging ropes, one would use a bed key to tighten the rope.
  • It was discovered on a space mission that a frog can throw up. The frog throws up it's stomach first, so the stomach is dangling out of it's mouth. Then the frog uses it's forearms to dig out all of the stomach's contents and then swallows the stomach back down again.
  • The A&W of root beer fame stands for Allen and Wright.
  • A baby eel is called an elver, a baby oyster is called a spat.
  • Bingo is the name of the dog on the Cracker Jack box.
  • The arteries and veins surrounding the brain stem called the "circle of Willis" looks like a stick person with a large head.
  • Welsh mercenary bowmen in the medieval period only wore one shoe at a time.
  • On a trip to the South Sea islands, French painter Paul Gauguin stopped off briefly in Central America, where he worked as a laborer on the Panama Canal.
  • The Ganges River in India boasts the only genuine fresh-water sharks in the entire world.
  • The gene for the Siamese coloration in animals such as cats, rats or rabbits is heat sensitive. Warmth produces a lighter color than does cold. Putting tape temporarily on Siamese rabbit's ear will make the fur on that ear lighter than on the other one.
  • There are only 12 letters in the Hawaiian alphabet.
  • Charles de Gaulle's final words were, "It hurts."
  • The words 'sacrilegious' and 'religion' do not share the same etymological root.
  • "John has a long moustache" was the coded-signal used by the French Resistance in WWII to mobilize their forces once the Allies had landed on the Normandy beaches.
  • Gatorade was named for the University of Florida Gators where it was first developed.
  • Brooklyn is the Dutch name for "broken valley"
  • There are four states where the first letter of the capital city is the same letter as the first letter of the state: Dover, Delaware; Honolulu, Hawaii; Indianapolis, Indiana; and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
  • There are four cars and eleven lightposts on the back of a ten-dollar bill.
  • Venetian blinds were invented in Japan.
  • The Battle of Bunker Hill was fought at neighbouring Breed's Hill.
  • Former US Senator Barry Goldwater attended the opening night ceremonies and festivities at Bugsy Siegel's famous Las Vegas casino. They left him out of the movie Bugsy. He is pissed.
  • Armored knights raised their visors to identify themselves when they rode past their king. This custom has become the modern military salute.
  • ABBA got their name by taking the first letter from each of their first names (Agnetha, Bjorn, Benny, Anni-frid.)
  • The first electric Christmas lights were created by a telephone company PBX installer. Back in the old days, candles were used to decorate Christmas trees. This was obviously very dangerous. Telephone employees are trained to be safety concious. This installer took the lights from an old switchboard, connected them together, strung them on the tree, and hooked them to a battery.
  • White Out was invented by the mother of Mike Nesmith (Formerly of the Monkees)
  • The "huddle" in football was formed due a deaf football player who used sign language to communicate and his team didn't want the opposition to see the signals he used and in turn huddled around him.
  • There is no such thing as naturally blue food, even blueberries are purple.
  • In the 1983 film "JAWS 3D" the shark blows up. Some of the shark guts were the stuffed ET dolls being sold at the time.
  • Walt Disney had wooden teeth.
  • The hundred billionth crayon made by Crayola was Perriwinkle Blue.
  • Montana mountain goats will butt heads so hard their hooves fall off.
  • The coast line around Lake Sakawea in North Dakota is longer than the California coastline along the
  • Pacific Ocean
  • Sylvia Miles had the shortest performance ever nominated for an Oscar with "Midnight Cowboy." Her entire role lasted only six minutes.
  • The legbones of a bat are so thin that no bat can walk.
  • Kitsap County, Washington, was originally called Slaughter County, and the first hotel there was called the Slaughter House.
  • Seattle, Washington, like Rome, was built on seven hills.
  • Dinosaur droppings are called coprolites, and are actually fairly common.
  • School busses in the United States are Chrome Yellow and used to be Omaha Orange.
  • The Beatles song "Dear Prudence" was written about Mia Farrow's sister, Prudence, when she wouldn't come out and play with Mia and the Beatles at a religious retreat in India.
  • The tailless dinner jacket was invented in Tuxedo Park, New York. Thus it is called the "tuxedo dinner jacket" and is named after the town...not the other way around.
  • The state of Maryland has no natural lakes.
  • Cranberries are sorted for ripeness by bouncing them; a fully ripened cranberry can be dribbled like a basketball.
  • The giant squid has the largest eyes in the world.
  • Rhode Island is the smallest state with the longest name. The official name, used on all state documents, is Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.
  • The chemical formula for Rubidium Bromide is RbBr. It is the only chemical formula known to be a palindrome!
  • St. Paul, Minnesota was originally called Pigs Eye after a man who ran a saloon there.
  • The first letters of the months July through November, in order, spell the name JASON.
  • The first letters of the names of the Great Lakes spell HOMES.
  • 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.
  • Soldiers from every country salute with their right hand.
  • Moisture, not air, causes superglue to dry.
  • Charles Lindbergh took only four sandwiches with him on his famous transatlantic flight.
  • Sarsaparilla is the root that flavors root beer.
  • The U.S. Mint in Denver, Colorado is the only mint that marks its pennies.
  • A full moon always rises at sunset.
  • If you are locked in a completely sealed room, you will die of carbon dioxide poisoning first before you will die of oxygen deprivation.
  • Moon was Buzz Aldrin's mother's maiden name. (Buzz Aldrin was the second man o n the moon in 1969.)
  • The only two Southern state capitals not occuppied by Northern troops during the American Civil War were Austin, Texas and Tallahasse, Florida.
  • Rabbits love licorice.
  • Ogdensburg, New York is the only city in the United States situated on the St. Lawrence River.
  • Rene Descartes came up with the theory of coordinate geometry by looking at a fly walk across a tiled ceiling.
  • Kelsey Grammar sings and plays the piano for the theme song of Fraiser.
  • Alan Thicke, the father in the TV show GrowingPains wrote the theme songs for The Facts of Life and Diff'rent Strokes.
  • If a statue in the park of a person on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle; if the horse has one front leg in the air, the person died as a result of wounds recieved in battle; if the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes.
  • In 1963, baseball pitcher Gaylord Perry remarked, "They'll put a man on the moon before I hit a home run." On July 20, 1969, a few hours after Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon, Gaylord Perry hit his first, and only, home run.
  • The language Malayalam, spoken in parts of India, is the only language whose name is a palindrome.
  • Panama hats come from Ecuador not Panama.
  • Urea is found in humnan urine and dalmatian dogs and nowhere else.
  • Human birth control pills work on gorillas.
  • The Earl of Condom was a knighted personal physician to England's King Charles II in the mid-1600's. The Earl was requested to produce a method to protect the King from syphillis.(Charles the II's pleasure-loving nature was notorious.) The result should be obvious.
  • Cheryl Ladd (of Charlie's Angels fame) played the voice, both talking and singing, of Joise in the 70s Saturday morning cartoon "Josie and the Pussycats."
  • Lynyrd Skynard was the name of the gym teacher of the boys who went on to form that band. He once told them, "You boys ain't never gonna to nothin'."
  • M & M's were developed so that soldiers could eat candy without getting their fingers sticky.
  • Richard Nixon's favorite drink was a dry martini.
  • The Grateful Dead were once called The Warlocks.
  • The license plate number of the Volkswagon that appeared on the cover of the Beatles Abbey Road album was 281F.
  • Pinocchio was made of pine.
  • An ant lion is neither an ant nor a lion.
  • Jethro Tull is not the name of the rock singer/flautist responsible for such songs as "Aqualung" and "Thick as a Brick." Jethro Tull is the name of the band. The singer is Ian Anderson. The original Jethro Tull was an English horticulturalist who invented the seed drill.
  • Gilligan of Gilligan's Island had a first name that was only used once, on the never- aired pilot show. His first name was Willy.
  • The skipper's real name on Gilligan's Island is Jonas Grumby. It was mentioned once in the first episode on their radio's newscast about the wreck.
  • The Professor's real name was Roy Hinkley, Mary Ann's last name was Summers and Mrs. Howell's maiden name was Wentworth.
  • Neck ties were first worn in Croatia. That's why they were called cravats (CRO-vats).
  • Alma mater means bountiful mother.
  • A Holstein's spots are like fingerprints -- no two cows have the same pattern of spots.
  • Glass flutes do not expand with humidity so their owners are spared the nuisance of tuning them.
  • Jersey (in the Channel Islands, UK) was the only place that the Nazi's occupied in Great Britain during
  • World War II.
  • Top English soccer club Liverpool were formed because their local enemies, Everton, couldn't pay the rent for their stadium. Therefore Liverpool took over at the stadium (Anfield) and became England's top soccer team ever.
  • The male gypsy moth can "smell" the virgin female gypsy moth from 1.8 miles away.
  • In England, the Speaker of the House is not allowed to speak.
  • Playing cards were issued to British pilots in WWII. If captured, they could be soaked in water and unfolded to reveal a map for escape.
  • The "Hallelujah Chorus" fits into the Easter portion of Handel's Messiah, not Christmas.
  • Over 30 million people in the US "suffer" from Diastima. Diastima is having a gap between your front teeth.
  • In 1976 Sarah Caldwell became the first woman to conduct the Metropolitan Opera in New York City.
  • Carnivorous animals will not eat another animal that has been hit by a lightning strike.
  • Reindeer milk has more fat than cow milk.
  • The "L.L." in L.L. Bean stands for Leon Leonwood.
  • Libya is the only country in the world with a solid, single-colored flag -- it's green.
  • Seoul, the South Korean capital, just means "the capital" in the Korean language.
  • Ivory bar soap floating was a mistake. They had been overmixing the soap formula causing excess air bubbles that made it float. Customers wrote and told how much they loved that it floated, and it has floated ever since.
  • The original fifty cent piece in Australian decimal currency had around $2.00 worth of silver in it before it was replaced with a less expensive twelve sided coin.
  • "Studies show that if a cat falls off the seventh floor of a building it has about thirty percent less chance of surviving than a cat that falls off the twentieth floor. It supposedly takes about eight floors for the cat to realise what is occuring, relax and correct itself. At about that height it hits maximum speed and when it hits the ground it's rib cage absorbs most of the impact. So throw your cat off a building today!"
  • There are eight different sizes of champagne bottle and the largest is called a Nebuchadnezzar (after the Biblical king who put Daniel's three friends into the oven).
  • The letters KGB stand for Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti.
  • The female ferret is referred to as a `jill'.
  • The word rodent comes from the Latin word `rodere' meaning to gnaw.
  • Australian Rules Football was originally designed to give cricketers something to play during the off season.
  • Alexander the Great was an epileptic.
  • The lead singer of The Knack, famous for "My Sharona," and Jack Kevorkian's lead defense attorney are brothers, Doug & Jeffrey Feiger.
  • Elizabeth Bacon Custer, wife of "The Boy General" is one of the few women buried at the U.S. Military academy at West Point, New York.
  • "Freelance" comes from a knight whose lance was free for hire, i.e. not pledged to one master.)
  • The only bone not broken so far during any ski accident is one located in the inner ear.
  • 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."
  • There are ten human body parts that are only three letters long: Eye, Ear, Leg, Arm, Jaw, Gum, Toe, Lip, Hip and Rib.
  • Michigan was the first state to have roadside picnic tables.
  • Elvis had a twin brother named Jesse Garon, who died at birth, which is why Elvis' middle name was spelled Aron; in honor of his brother.
  • Fitchburg, Massachusetts is the second hillest city in the US.
  • During WWII the city of Leningrad underwent a seventeen month German seige. Unable to access the city by roads, the Russians built a railroad across the ice on Lake Lagoda to get food and supplies to the citizens.
  • The microwave was invented after a researcher walked by a radar tube and a chocolate bar melted in his pocket.
  • Thomas Edison got patents for a method of making concrete furniture and a cigar which was supposed to burn forever
  • Elton John's real name is Reginald Dwight. Elton comes from Elton Dean, a Bluesology sax player. John comes from Long John Baldry, founder of Blues Inc. They were the first electric white blues band ever seen in England--1961
  • Elton John's uncle was a professional soccer player. He broke his leg playing for Nottingham Forest in the 1959 English FA Cup Final.
  • The saying "it's so cold out there it could freeze the balls off a brass monkey" came from when they had old cannons like ones used in the Civil War. The cannonballs were stacked in a pyramid formation, called a brass monkey. When it got extremely cold outside they would crack and break off... Thus the saying.
  • Horses cannot vomit.
  • Rabbits cannot vomit.
  • The word "Boondocks" comes from the Tagalog (Filipino) word "Bundok," which
  • means mountain.
  • Your stomach has to produce a new layer of mucus every two weeks otherwise it will digest itself.
  • The "chapters" of the New Testament were not there originally. When monks in medieval times translated it
  • from the Greek, they numbered the pages in each "book."
  • Coca-Cola contains neither coca nor cola.
  • Yucatan, as in the peninsula, is from Maya "u" + "u" + "uthaan," meaning "listen to how they speak," what the Maya said when they first heard the Spaniards.
  • 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 is to poke someone's eye out.
  • The original plan for Disneyland included a Lilliputland.
  • S.O.S. doesn't stand for "Save Our Ship" or "Save Our Souls" -- It was just chosen by an 1908 international
  • conference on Morse Code because the letters S and O were easy to remember and just about anyone could key it and read it, S = dot dot dot, O = dash dash dash..
  • The word "moose" was originally Algonquin.
  • The Sanskrit word for "war" means "desire for more cows."
  • The "ZIP" in Zip Code stands for "Zone Improvement Plan."
  • Pocahontas appeared on the back of the $20 bill in 1875.
  • When a female horse and male donkey mate, the offspring is called a mule, but when a male horse and female donkey mate, the offspring is called a hinny.
  • The way to get more mules is to mate a male donkey with a female horse.
  • A donkey will sink in quicksand but a mule won't.
  • Crickets hear through their knees.
  • Turnips turn green when sunburnt.
  • Pigs, walruses and light-colored horses can be sunburned.
  • A type of jellyfish found off the coast of England is the longest animal in the world.
  • When Voyager 2 visited Neptune it saw a small irregular white cloud that zips around Neptune every sixteen hours or so now known as "The Scooter".
  • Crows have the largest cerebral hemispheres, relative to body size, of any avian family.
  • Martha's Vineyard once had its own dialect of Sign Language. One deaf person arrived in 1692 and after that there was a relatively large genetically deaf population that had their own particular dialect of sign language. From 1692-1910 nearly all hearing people on the island were bilingual in sign language and English.
  • Mr. Rogers is an ordained minister.
  • Hugh "Ward Cleaver" Beaumont was an ordained minister.
  • Sir Isaac Newton was an ordained priest in the Church of England.
  • St. Bernard is the patron saint of skiers.
  • The Old English word for "sneeze" is "fneosan."
  • John Lennon's first girlfriend was named Thelma Pickles.
  • According to the ceremonial customs of Orthodox Judaism, it is officially sundown when you cannot tell the difference between a black thread and a red one.
  • A 'jiffy' is an actual unit of time for 1/100th of a second.
  • Woodpecker scalps, porpoise teeth and giraffe tails have all been used as money.
  • Cyano-acrylate glues (Super glues) were invented by accident. The researcher was trying to make optical coating materials, and would test their properties by putting them between two prisms and shining light through them. When he tried the cyano-acrylate, he couldn't get the prisms apart
  • Most of the little schoolhouses in the U.S. of yesteryear were painted red because red was the least expensive paint color.
  • Elizabeth I of England suffered from anthophobia, a fear of roses.
  • Almost half the bones in your body are in your hands and feet.
  • A flamingo can eat only when its head is upside down.
  • Dalmatian dogs are born pure white, they don't start getting spots until they are three or four days old.
  • The growth rate of some bamboo plants can reach three feet (91.44 cm) per day.
  • The Los Angeles Rams were the first U.S. football team to introduce emblems on their helmets.
  • The average person falls asleep in seven minutes.
  • The average garden variety caterpillar has 248 muscles in its head.
  • An elephant can be pregnant for up to two years.
  • The two quickest goals scored in the NHL were three seconds apart.
  • Dartboards are made out of horsehairs.
  • Your left lung is smaller than your right lung to make room for your heart.
  • 'Crack' gets it name because it crackles when you smoke it.
  • (This useless fact is dedicated, with love, to A.G.)
  • Heroin is the brand name of morphine once marketed by Bayer.
  • Marijuana is Spanish for 'Mary Jane.'
  • One of the many Tarzans, Karmuela Searlel, was mauled to death on the set by a raging elephant.
  • Slinkys were invented by an airplane mechanic; he was playing with engine parts and realized the possible secondary use of one of the springs.
  • U.S. Interstates which go north-south are numbered sequentially starting from the west with odd numbers, and Interstates which go east-west are numbered sequentially starting from the south with even numbers.
  • Today's cattle are descended from two species: wild aurochs -- fierce and agile herd animals that populated
  • Asia, North Africa and Europe -- and eotragus -- an antelope-like, Asian forest creature.
  • Ballroom dancing is a major at Brigham Young University.
  • Professional ballerinas use about twelve pairs of toe shoes per week. The anteater, aardvark, spiny anteater (echidna), and scaly anteater (pangolin) are completely unrelated - in fact, the closest relatives to anteaters are sloths and armadillos, the closest relative to the spiny anteater is the platypus, and the aardvark is in an order all by itself.
  • There are 336 dimples on a regulation golf ball.
  • Octopi have gardens.
  • The Beatles song "Martha My Dear" was written by Paul McCartney about his sheepdog Martha.
  • "Ever think you're hearing something in a song, but they're really singing something else? The word formis-heard lyrics is 'mondegreen,' and it comes from a folk song in the '50's. The singer was actually singing "They slew the Earl of Morray and laid him on the green," but this came off sounding like 'They slew the Earl of Morray and Lady Mondegreen.'"
  • A walla-walla scene is one where extras pretend to be talking in the background -- when they say "walla-walla" it looks like they are actually talking.
  • The phrase "rule of thumb" is derived from an old English law which stated that you couldn't beat your wife with anything wider than your thumb.
  • The youngest letters in the English language are "j," "v" and "w."
  • The Australian $5, $10, $20, $50 and $100 notes are made out of plastic.
  • Cranberry Jello is the only jello flavor that comes from real fruit, not artificial flavoring.
  • The oldest exposed surface on earth is New Zealand's south island.
  • John Lennon's assassin was carrying a copy of "The Catcher in the Rye" when he shot the famous Beatle in 1980.
  • Don MacLean's song "American Pie" was written about Buddy Holly, The Big Bopper, and Ritchie Valens. All three were on the same plane that crashed.
  • A game of pool is referred to as a "frame."
  • Impotence is legal grounds for divorce in 24 American states.
  • The Declaration of Independence was written on hemp paper.
  • Some biblical scholars believe that Aramaic (the language of the ancient Bible) did not contain an easy way
  • to say "many things" and used a term which has come down to us as 40. This means that when the bible -- in many places -- refers to "40 days," they meant many days.
  • 101 Dalmatians and Peter Pan (Wendy ) are the only two Disney cartoon features
  • with both parents that are present and don't die throughout the movie.
  • The Soviet Sukhoi-34 is the first strike fighter with a toilet in it.
  • They Might Be Giants is the first modern band with an Accordion and a Glockenspiel
  • Napoleon constructed his battle plans in a sandbox.
  • 'Strengths' is the longest word in the English language with just one vowel.
  • 'Stewardesses' is the longest word that is typed with only the left hand.
  • One of the longest English words that can be typed using the top row of a typewriter (allowing multiple uses of letters) is 'typewriter.'
  • When a giraffe's baby is born it falls from a height of six feet, normally without being hurt.
  • Virgina Woolf wrote all her books standing.
  • The tango originated as a dance between two men (for partnering practice).
  • Leon Trotsky, the seminal Russian Communist, was assassinated in Mexico with an ice-pick.
  • The Bronx, New York got its name from explorer Henry Bronk.
  • The Kentucky Derby is the oldest continually held sports event in the United States (1875); the second oldest is the Westminister Kennel Club Dog Show (1876.)
  • "Video Killed the Radio Star" was the very first video ever played on MTV.
  • The pitches that Babe Ruth hit for his last-ever homerun and that Joe DiMaggio hit for his first-ever homerun where thrown by the same man.
  • The native tribe of Tierra del Fuego has a language so guttural it cannot have an alphabet.
  • A family of six died in Oregon during WWII as a result of a Japanese balloon bomb.
  • AM and PM stand for "Ante-Meridian" and "Post-Meridian," respectively, and A.D. actually stands for "Anno Domini" rather than "After Death."
  • The penguins that inhabit the tip of South America are called jackass penguins.
  • To "testify" was based on men in the Roman court swearing to a statement made by swearing on their testicles.
  • During conscription for WWII, there were nine documented cases of men with three testicles.
  • Avocado is derived from the Spanish word 'aguacate' which is derived from 'ahuacatl' meaning testicle.
  • Benito Mussolini would ward off the evil eye by touching his testicles.
  • Both Hitler and Napoleon were missing one testicle
  • Stalin was only five feet, four inches tall.
  • Stalin's left foot had webbed toes, and his left arm is noticably shorter than his right.
  • Scientists found a whole new phylum of animal on a lobster's lip.
  • The Baby Ruth candy bar was actually named after Grover Cleveland's baby daughter, Ruth.
  • Grover Cleveland's real first name is Stephen, Grover is his middle name.
  • Every two thousand frowns creates one wrinkle.
  • During WWII, Americans tried to train bats to drop bomb.
  • Swans are the only birds with penises.
  • A whale's penis is called adork.
  • Some carnivores, rodents, bats and insectivores have a penis bone, called a baculum.
  • A barnacle has the largest penis of any other animal in the world in relation to its size.
  • Iguanas, koalas and Komodo dragons all have two penises.
  • "I'd like clarify the comment about iguanas and komodo dragons having two penises. In fact, they have a single penis, but it is split in two (pretty much 'Y'-shaped.) This organ is known as a hemipenes. Snakes also share this interesting feature. Apparently, the dual penis is for ease of left-handed or right-handed mating.
  • Opossums have forked penises.
  • Some female hyenas have a pseudo-penis.
  • A winged penis was the city symbol of Pompeii, the ancient Roman resort town destroyed by Mt. Vesuvius' eruption.
  • One way to tell seals and sea lions apart is that, sea lions have external ears and testicles.
  • Swahili is a combination of African tribal languages, Arabic and Portuguese.
  • A person from Glasgow, is called a Glaswegian.
  • An enneahedron is solid with nine faces.
  • Most armadillos seen dead on the road did not get hit by the wheels. When an armidillo is frightened it jumps
  • straight into the air.
  • Armadillos can be housebroken.
  • Armadillos have four babies at a time, always all the same sex. They are perfect quadruplets, the fertilized cell split into quarters, resulting in four identical armadillos.
  • Armadillos get an average of 18.5 hours of sleep per day.
  • Armadillos can walk underwater.
  • Armadillos are the only animal besides humans that can get leprosy.
  • Jet lag was once called boat lag, back before jets existed.
  • Sirimauo Bandranaike of Sri Lanka became the world's first popularly elected female head of state in 1960.
  • There are more beetles than any other kind of creature in the world.
  • Velcro was invented by a Swiss guy who was inspired by the way burrs attached to clothing.
  • The hieroglyph for 100,000 is a tadpole.
  • The Phillips-head screwdriver was invented in Oregon.
  • Tomb robbers believed that knocking Egyptian sarcophagi's noses off would and therefore forstall curses.
  • The allele for six fingers and toes is dominant in humans. (Watch out Inigo Montoya...)
  • Polar bears' fur is not white, it's clear. Polar bear skin is actually black. Their hair is hollow and acts like fiber optics, directing sunlight to warm their skin.
  • Polar bears camouflage themselves more completely during a hunt by covering their black noses with their
  • paws.
  • The amount of tropical rainforest cut down each year is an area the size of Tennessee.
  • The face of a penny can hold about thirty drops of water.
  • Medieval knights put sharkskin on their swordhandles to give them a more secure grip; they would dig the sharp scales into their palms.
  • Orcas (killer whales) kill sharks by torpedoing up into the shark's stomach from underneath, causing the shark to explode.
  • The only planet without a ring is earth.
  • Wayne's World was filmed in two weeks.
  • Cleopatra used pomegranate seeds for lipstick.
  • Cleopatra's last name was Ptolemy, and she was Greek rather than Egyptian.
  • The Red sea in the Bible is a long-perpetuated mistranslation of the Reed sea.
  • If you feed a seagull Alka-Seltzer, its stomach will explode.
  • The raised reflective dots in the middle of highways are called Botts dots.
  • The Amazon rainforest produces half the world's oxygen supply.
  • The concerti on the two Voyager probes' information discs are performed by famed Canadian pianist Glenn Gould.
  • Reindeer like to eat bananas.
  • Chia Pets are only sold in December.
  • Between 1947 and 1959, 42 nuclear devices were detonated in the Marshall Islands.
  • Boris Karloff is the narrator of the seasonal television special "How the Grinch Stole Christmas."
  • A group of unicorns is called a blessing.
  • Twelve or more cows are known as a "flink."
  • A group of frogs is called an army.
  • A group of rhinos is called a crash.
  • A group of kangaroos is called a mob.
  • A group of whales is called a pod.
  • A group of geese is called a gaggle.
  • A group of ravens is called a murder.
  • A group of officers is called a mess.
  • A group of larks is called an exaltation.
  • A group of owls is called a parliament.
  • Hershey's Kisses are called that because the machine that makes them looks like it's kissing the conveyor
  • belt.
  • The physically smallest post office in the United States is in Ochopee, Florida in the heart of the everglades.
  • Physicist Murray Gell-Mann named the sub-atomic particles known as quarks for a random line in James Joyce, "Three quarks for Muster Mark!"
  • Samuel Clemens's pseudonym "Mark Twain" was the nickname of a riverboat pilot about whom Clemens wrote a needless nasty satirical piece. Apparently, Clemens felt guilt later and adopted the name as a nom de plume as some sort of expiation. The phrase does not mean measuring the depth of the river; it means a specific depth, to wit, two fathoms (twelve feet.)
  • Steve Young, the San Francisco 49ers quarterback, is the great-great-grandson of Mormon leader Brigham Young.
  • Money is made of woven linen, not paper
  • A rhinoceros's horn is made of hair.
  • Every time you lick a stamp, you're consuming 1/10 of a calorie.
  • The 80s song "Rosanna" from the Eighties was written about Rosanna Arquette, the actress.
  • Warren Beatty and Shirley MacLaine are brother and sister.
  • Jean Harlow was the first actress to appear on the cover of Life magazine.
  • Sylvia Plath was a famous poet who killed herself at age 31 by sticking her head in an oven.
  • Sylvia Plath's husband, Ted Hughes, was married three times, and two of the women he married committed suicide.
  • Jesus Christ died at age 33.
  • Starfish don't have brains.
  • Shrimps' hearts are in their heads.
  • The derivation of the word trivia comes from the Latin "tri-" + "via", which means three streets. This is because in ancient times, at an intersection of three streeets in Rome (or some other Italian place), they would have a type of kiosk where ancillary information was listed. You might be interested in it, you might not, hence they were bits of "trivia."
  • The first couple to be shown in bed together on prime time television were Fred and Wilma Flintstone.
  • Coca-Cola was originally green.
  • Every day more money is printed for Monopoly than the US Treasury.
  • Hawaiian alphabet has 12 letters.
  • Men can read smaller print than women; women can hear better.
  • City with the most Rolls Royce's per capita: Hong Kong
  • State with the highest percentage of people who walk to work: Alaska
  • Percentage of Africa that is wilderness: 28%
  • Percentage of North America that is wilderness: 38%
  • Barbie's measurements if she were life size: 39-23-33
  • Cost of raising a medium-size dog to the age of eleven: $6,400
  • Average number of people airborne over the US any given hour: 61,000.
  • Intelligent people have more zinc and copper in their hair.
  • The world's youngest parents were 8 and 9 and lived in China in 1910.
  • The youngest pope was 11 years old.
  • First novel ever written on a typewriter: Tom Sawyer.
  • The San Francisco Cable cars are the only mobile National Monuments
  • 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.
  • If a statue in the park of a person on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle; if the horse has one front leg in the air, the person died as a result of wounds received in battle; if the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes.
  • 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.
  • Hershey's Kisses are called that because the machine that makes them looks like it's kissing the conveyor belt.
  • No NFL team which plays its home games in a domed stadium has ever won a Superbowl. (Guess that explains the Saints!)
  • The nursery rhyme Ring Around the Rosey is a rhyme about the plague. Infected people with the plague would get red circular sores ("Ring around the rosey..."), these sores would smell very badly so common folks would put flowers on their bodies somewhere (inconspicuously), so that it would cover the smell of the sores ("...a pocket full of posies..."), People who died from the plague would be burned so as to reduce the possible spread of the disease ("...ashes, ashes, we all fall down!")
    Now the Test

    Write down your answers to check them at the end.

    1. On a standard traffic light, is the green on the top or bottom?
    2. How many states are there?
    3. In which hand is the Statue of Liberty's torch?
    4. What 6 colors are on the classic Campbell's soup label?
    5. What 2 letters don't appear on the telephone dial?
    6. What 2 #'s on the telephone dial don't have letters by them?
    7. When you walk does your left arm swing w/ your right or left leg?
    8. How many matches are in a standard pack?
    9. On our flag, is the top stripe red or white?
    10. What is the lowest # on the FM dial?
    11. Which way does water go down the drain, clockwise or counter-clockwise?
    12. Which way does a "no smoking" sign's slash run?
    13. How many channels on a VHF TV dial?
    14. Which side of a woman's blouse are the buttons on?
    15. On a NY license plate, is New York on the top or bottom?
    16. Which way do fans rotate?
    17. Whose face is on a dime?
    18. How many sides does a stop sign have?
    19. Do books have even # pages on the right or left side?
    20. How many lug nuts are on a standard car wheel?
    21. How many sides are there on a standard pencil?
    22. Sleepy, Happy, Sneezy, Grumpy, Dopey, Doc. Who's missing?
    23. How many hot dog buns are in a standard package?
    24. On which card in a deck, is the cardmaker's trademark?
    25. On which side of a venetian blind is the cord that adjusts the opening between the slats?
    26. On the back of a $1 bill, what is in the center?
    27. There are 12 buttons on a touch tone phone. What 2 symbols bear no digits?
    28. How many curves are in a standard paper clip?
    29. Does a merry-go-round turn clockwise or counter-clockwise?

    Answers:

    1. Bottom
    2. 50
    3. Right
    4. Blue, red, white, yellow, black, and gold
    5. Q, Z
    6. 1, 0
    7. Left
    8. 20
    9. Red
    10. 88
    11. Counter-clockwise (unless you happen to be south of the equator)
    12. Towards the bottom right
    13. 12 (no #1)
    14. Left
    15. Top
    16. Clockwise as you look at it
    17. Roosevelt
    18. 8
    19. Left
    20. 5
    21. 6
    22. Bashful
    23. 8
    24. Ace of spades
    25. Left
    26. ONE
    27. *, #
    28. 3
    29. Counter-clockwise

    Scoring:

      30-28 Genius...Mensa is calling!
      25-27 Not too shabby!
      20-24 You could do better!
      16-19 McDonald's is calling!
      15 or below.. Being blind wouldn't affect you one bit!!
Monday, March 26, 2007 

Current mood:  bored
So i totally called in blind to work yesterday. It sounded like:

''hi it's alexis. I was out last night and my eyes were irritated and they still are now. I don't have my glasses, and cannot put on my contacts so at the moment i cannot see past my nose. When i can see, I'll come into work.''

yep. No one will be surprised when i am fired.
Currently listening:
Colour the Small One
By Sia
Release date: 10 January, 2006