A Bunch of Things you Did Not Know


  1. The first couple to be shown in bed together on TV: Fred and Wilma Flintstone.
  2. Coca-Cola was originally green.
  3. Every day more money is printed for Monopoly than the US Treasury.
  4. Men can read smaller print than women can.
  5. Women can hear better than men.
  6. The state with the highest percentage of people who walk to work: Alaska
  7. The percentage of Africa that is wilderness: 28% now get this... The percentage of North America that is wilderness: 38%
  8. The cost of raising a medium-size dog to the age of eleven: $6,400
  9. The average number of people airborne over the US any given hour: 61,000
  10. Intelligent people have more zinc and copper in their hair.
  11. The world's youngest parents were 8 and 9 and lived in China in 1910.
  12. The youngest pope was 11 years old.
  13. The first novel ever written on a typewriter: Tom Sawyer.
  14. Those San Francisco Cable cars are the only mobile National Monuments.
  15. Each king in a deck of playing cards represents a great king from history:

    Spades - King David
    Hearts - Charlemagne
    Clubs-Alexander the Great
    Diamonds - Julius Caesar
  16. 111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321
  17. 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. the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes.
  18. 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.
  19. "I am." is the shortest complete sentence in the English language.
  20. Hershey's Kisses are called that because the machine that makes them looks like it's kissing the conveyor belt.
  21. 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.
  22. The nursery rhyme "Ring around the Rosy" is a rhyme about the plague. Infected people with the plague would get red circular sores ("Ring around the rosy..."), these,sores would smell very bad, so common folks would put flowers on their bodies somewhere (inconspicuously) so they 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!").
  23. What occurs more often in December than any other month? Conception.
  24. What separates "60 Minutes," on CBS from every other TV show? No theme song.
  25. Half of all Americans live within 50 miles of what? Their birthplace.
  26. Most boat owners name their boats. What is the most popular boat name requested? Obsession
  27. If you were to spell out numbers, how far would you have to go until you would find the letter "A"? One thousand
  28. What do bulletproof vests, fire escapes, windshield wipers, and laser printers all have in common?. All invented by women.
  29. What is the only food that doesn't spoil?. Honey
  30. There are more collect calls on this day than any other day of the year? Father's Day
  31. What trivia fact about Mel Blanc (voice of Bugs Bunny) is the most ironic? He was allergic to carrots.
  32. What is an activity performed by 40% of all people at a party? Snoop in your medicine cabinet.
  33. In Shakespeare's time, mattresses were secured on bed frames by ropes when you pulled on the ropes the mattress tightened, making the bed firmer to sleep on. Hence the phrase "goodnight, sleep tight".
  34. It was the accepted practice in Babylon 4,000 years ago that for a month after the wedding, the bride's father would supply his son-in-law with all the mead he could drink. Mead is a honey beer and because their calendar was lunar based, this period was called the honey month or what we know today as the honeymoon.
  35. In English pubs, ale is ordered by pints and quarts. So in old England, when customers got unruly, the bartender would yell at them mind their own pints and quarts and settle down. It's where we get the phrase "mind your P's and Q's".
  36. Many years ago in England, pub frequenters had a whistle baked into the rim or handle of their ceramic cups. When they needed a refill, they used the whistle to get some service. "Wet your whistle" is the phrase inspired by this practice.
  37. Money isn't made out of paper, it's made out of cotton..
  38. The Declaration of Independence was written on hemp (marijuana) paper.
  39. The dot over the letter i is called a "tittle".
  40. A raisin dropped in a glass of fresh champagne will bounce up and down continuously from the bottom of the glass to the top.
  41. Susan Lucci is the daughter of Phyllis Diller.
  42. 40% of McDonald's profits come from the sales of Happy Meals.
  43. 315 entries in Webster's 1996 Dictionary were misspelled.
  44. The 'spot' on 7UP comes from its inventor, who had red eyes. He was albino.
  45. On average, 12 newborns will be given to the wrong parents, daily.
  46. Warren Beatty and Shirley MacLaine are brother and sister.
  47. Chocolate affects a dog's heart and nervous system; a few ounces will kill a small sized dog.
  48. Orcas (killer whales) kill sharks by torpedoing up into the shark's stomach from underneath, causing the shark to explode.
  49. Most lipstick contains fish scales (eeww).
  50. Donald Duck comics were banned from Finland because he doesn't wear pants.
  51. Ketchup was sold in the 1830's as medicine.
  52. Upper and lower case letters are named 'upper' and 'lower' because in the time when all original print had to be set in individual letters, the 'upper case' letters were stored in the case on top of the case that stored the smaller, 'lower case' letters.
  53. Leonardo DA Vinci could write with one hand and draw with the other at the same time (hence, multi-tasking was invented.)
  54. Because metal was scarce, the Oscars given out during World War II were made of wood.
  55. There are no clocks in Las Vegas gambling casinos.
  56. The name Wendy was made up for the book Peter Pan; there was never a recorded Wendy before!
  57. Leonardo DaVinci invented scissors. Also, it took him 10 years to paint Mona Lisa's lips.
  58. A tiny amount of liquor on a scorpion will make it instantly go mad and sting itself to death.
  59. The mask used by Michael Myers in the original "Halloween" was a Captain Kirk's mask painted white.
  60. 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
  61. make change for a dollar (good to know.)
  62. By raising your legs slowly and lying on your back, you can't sink in quicksand (and you thought this list was completely useless.)
  63. 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.
  64. The first product Motorola started to develop was a record player for automobiles. At that time, the most known player on the market was the Victrola, so they called themselves Motorola.
  65. Celery has negative calories! It takes more calories to eat a piece of celery than the celery has in it to begin with. It's the same with apples!
  66. Chewing gum while peeling onions will keep you from crying!
  67. The glue on Israeli postage stamps is certified kosher.
  68. Guinness Book of Records holds the record for being the book most often stolen from Public Libraries.
  69. Astronauts are not allowed to eat beans before they go into space because passing wind in a space suit damages it.
  70. If you yelled for 8 years, 7 months and 6 days you would have produced enough sound energy to heat one cup of coffee. (Hardly seems worth it.)
  71. If you farted consistently for 6 years and 9 months, enough gas is produced to create the energy of an atomic bomb. (Now that's more like it!)
  72. The human heart creates enough pressure when it pumps out to the body to squirt blood 30 feet.
  73. A pig's orgasm lasts 30 minutes.
    (In my next life, I want to be a pig.)
  74. A cockroach will live nine days without its head before it starves to death! (Creepy)
    (I'm still not over the pig.)
  75. Banging your head against a wall uses 150 calories a hour
    (Don't try this at home,maybe at work)
  76. The male praying mantis cannot copulate while its head is attached to its body. The female initiates sex by ripping the male's head off.
  77. The flea can jump 350 times its body length. It's like a human jumping the length of a football field.
  78. The catfish has over 27,000 taste buds.
  79. Some lions mate over 50 times a day.
    (I still want to be a pig in my next life...quality over quantity)
  80. Butterflies taste with their feet.
  81. The strongest muscle in the body is the tongue.
  82. Right-handed people live, on average, nine years longer than left-handed people.
  83. Elephants are the only animals that cannot jump.
  84. A cat's urine glows under a black light.
  85. An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain.
  86. Starfish have no brains.
  87. Polar bears are left-handed, according to Inupiaq (IN-yoo-pack) elders. The Inupiaq dwell in the icy wastelands on the North Slope of Alaska near present-day Barrow. These Inuits have lived with such creatures over the past several thousand years. They know.
  88. Humans and dolphins are the only species that have sex for pleasure. (What about that pig??)
  89. An espresso has less caffeine than a cup of coffee!
    A cup of drip brewed coffee has about 115 milligrams of caffeine, an espresso (and percolated coffee) about 80mg, while instant coffee has about 65mg of caffeine. Decaffeinated coffee is not totally caffeine free, containing about 3mg of caffeine. A can of Coca-Cola has about 23mg of caffeine, Pepsi Cola 25mg, Mountain Dew 37mg, and TAB 31mg. Tea has about 40mg of caffeine, while an ounce of chocolate contains about 20mg.
  90. The human head contains 22 bones.
  91. There are more than 20,000 brands of beer.
  92. In 10 minutes, a hurricane releases more energy than all the world's nuclear weapons combined.
  93. Ninety percent of the taxi drivers in New York City are recently arrived immigrants.
  94. Mosquito repellents don't repel. They hide you. The spray blocks the mosquito's sensors so they don't know you're there.
  95. Dentists have recommended that a toothbrush be kept at least 6 feet away from a toilet to avoid airborne particles resulting from the flush.
  96. The liquid inside young coconuts can be used as substitute for blood plasma.
  97. No piece of paper can be folded in half more than 7 times.
  98. Donkeys kill more people annually than plane crashes.
  99. You burn more calories sleeping than you do watching television.
  100. Oak trees do not produce acorns until they are fifty years of age or older.
  101. Butterflies taste with their feet.
  102. The first product to have a bar code was Wrigley's gum.
  103. A Boeing 747s wingspan is longer than the Wright brother's first flight.
  104. American Airlines saved $40,000 in 1987 by eliminating 1 olive from each salad served in first-class.
  105. Venus is the only planet that rotates clockwise.
  106. Apples, not caffeine, are more efficient at waking you up in the morning.
  107. Most dust particles in your house are made from dead skin.
  108. Barbie's full name is Barbara Millicent Roberts.
  109. Michael Jordan makes more money from Nike annually than all of the Nike factory workers in Malaysia combined.
  110. Marilyn Monroe had six toes.
  111. All US Presidents have worn glasses. Some just didn't like being seen wearing them in public.
  112. Pearls melt in vinegar.
  113. The three most valuable brand names on earth: Marlboro, Coca Cola, and Budweiser, in that order.
  114. The first owner of the Marlboro Company died of lung cancer.
  115. A duck's quack doesn't echo and no one knows why.
  116. The reason firehouses have circular stairways is from the days when the engines were pulled by horses. The horses were stabled on the ground floor and figured out how to walk up straight staircases.
  117. A raisin dropped in a glass of fresh champagne will bounce up and down continuously from the bottom of the glass to the top.
  118. A female ferret will die if it goes into heat and cannot find a mate.
  119. A 2 X 4 is really 1-1/2 by 3-1/2.
  120. During the chariot scene in "Ben Hur," a small red car can be seen in the distance.
  121. On average, 12 newborns will be given to the wrong parents daily! I knew it!
  122. Because metal was scarce, the Oscars given out during World War II were made of wood.
  123. The number of possible ways of playing the first four moves per side in a game of chess is 318,979,564,000.
  124. There are no words in the dictionary that rhyme with orange, purple and silver.
  125. The name Wendy was made up for the book "Peter Pan." There was never a recorded Wendy before.
  126. The very first bomb dropped by the Allies on Berlin in World War II killed the only elephant in the Berlin Zoo.
  127. Bruce Lee was so fast that they actually had to s-l-o-w film down so you could see his moves. That's the opposite of the norm.
  128. The first CD pressed in the US was Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the USA."
  129. The original name for butterfly was flutterby.
  130. The first product Motorola started to develop was a record player for automobiles. At that time, the most known player on the market was Victrola, so they called themselves Motorola.
  131. Roses may be red, but violets are indeed violet.
  132. Charlie Chaplin once won third prize in a Charlie Chaplin look-alike contest.
  133. Chewing gum while peeling onions will keep you from crying.
  134. Sherlock Holmes NEVER said "Elementary, my dear Watson."
  135. An old law in Bellingham, Washington, made it illegal for a woman to take more than 3 steps backwards while dancing. ??
  136. The Guinness Book of Records holds the record for being the book most often stolen from Public Libraries.
  137. Bats always turn left when exiting a cave!!
  138. A crocodile cannot stick its tongue out.
  139. Did you know that crocodiles never outgrow the pool in which they live? That means that if you put a baby croc in an aquarium, it would be little for the rest of its life.
  140. A snail can sleep for three years.
  141. Babies are born without kneecaps. They don't appear until the child reaches 2 to 6 years of age.
  142. February 1865 is the only month in recorded history not to have a full moon.
  143. If the population of China walked past you in single file, the line would never end because of the rate of reproduction.
  144. In the last 4,000 years, no new animals have been domesticated.
  145. Leonardo DaVinci invented the scissors.
  146. Our eyes are always the same size from birth, but our nose and ears never stop growing.
  147. No word in the English language rhymes with "month".
  148. Shakespeare invented the word 'assassination' and 'bump'.
  149. The only 15-letter word that can be spelled without repeating a letter is "uncopyrightable".
  150. The cruise liner, Queen Elizabeth II, moves only six inches for each gallon of diesel that it burns.
  151. The name of all the continents end with the same letter that they start with.
  152. Women blink nearly twice as much as men.
  153. If you are an average American, in your whole life, you will spend an average of 6 months waiting at a red light.
  154. The winter of 1932 was so cold that Niagara Falls froze completely solid.
  155. A group of geese on the ground is a gaggle; a group of geese in the air is a skein.
  156. A "jiffy" is an actual unit of time for 1/100th of a second.
  157. You Think A Gallon Of Gas Is Expensive?
  158. A honey bee must tap two million flowers to make one pound of honey
  159. A typical American eats 28 pigs in his/her lifetime.
  160. Americans spend approximately $25 billion each year on beer.
  161. Americans spent an estimated $267 billion dining out in 1993.
  162. An etiquette writer of the 1840's advised, "Ladies may wipe their lips on the tablecloth, but not blow their noses on it."
  163. Astronaut John Glenn ate the first meal in space when he ate pureed applesauce squeezed from a tube aboard Friendship 7 in 1962.
  164. Aunt Jemima pancake flour, invented in 1889, was the first ready-mix food to be sold commercially.
  165. Caffeine: there are 100 to 150 milligrams of caffeine in an eight-ounce cup of brewed coffee, 10 milligrams in a six-ounce cup of cocoa, 5 to 10 milligrams in one ounce of bittersweet chocolate, and 5 milligrams in one ounce of milk chocolate.
  166. California's Frank Epperson invented the Popsicle in 1905 when he was 11-years-old.
  167. Capsaicin, which makes hot peppers "hot" to the human mouth, is best neutralized by casein, the main protein found in milk.
  168. China's Beijing Duck Restaurant can seat 9,000 people at one time.
  169. Chocolate contains phenylethylamine (PEA), a natural substance that is reputed to stimulate the same reaction in the body as falling in love.
  170. Chocolate manufacturers currently use 40 percent of the world's almonds and 20 percent of the world's peanuts.
  171. During the Alaskan Klondike gold rush, (1897-1898) potatoes were practically worth their weight in gold. Potatoes were so valued for their vitamin C content that miners traded gold for potatoes.
  172. During World War II, bakers in the United States were ordered to stop selling sliced bread for the duration of the war on January 18, 1943. Only whole loaves were made available to the public. It was never explained how this action helped the war effort.
  173. Fortune cookies were invented in 1916 by George Jung, a Los Angeles noodle maker.
  174. Fried chicken is the most popular meal ordered in sit-down restaurants in the US. The next in popularity are: roast beef, spaghetti, turkey, baked ham, and fried shrimp.
  175. Goulash, a beef soup, originated in Hungary in the 9th century AD.
  176. Haggis, the national dish of Scotland: take the heart, liver, lungs, and small intestine of a calf or sheep, boil them in the stomach of the animal, season with salt, pepper and onions, add suet and oatmeal. Enjoy!
  177. Hostess Twinkies were invented in 1931 by James Dewar, manager of Continental Bakeries' Chicago factory. He envisioned the product as a way of using the company's thousands of shortcake pans which were otherwise employed only during the strawberry season. Originally called Little Shortcake Fingers, they were renamed Twinkie Fingers, and finally "Twinkies."
  178. In 1860, 'Godey's Lady's Book' advised US women to cook tomatoes for at least 3 hours.
  179. In 1926, when a Los Angeles restaurant owner with the all-American name of Bob Cobb was looking for a way to use up leftovers, he threw together some avocado, celery, tomato, chives, watercress, hard-boiled eggs, chicken, bacon, and Roquefort cheese, and named it after himself: Cobb salad.
  180. In 1976, the first eight Jelly Belly® flavors were launched: Orange, Green Apple, Root Beer, Very Cherry, Lemon, Cream Soda, Grape, and Licorice.
  181. In 1990, Bill Carson, of Arrington, Tennessee, grew the largest watermelon at 262 pounds that is still on the record books according to the 1998 edition of the Guinness Book of World Records.
  182. In 1995, KFC sold 11 pieces of chicken for every man, woman and child in the US.
  183. Americans consumed over 3.1 billion pounds of chocolate in 2001, which is almost half of the total world's production.
  184. In an authentic Chinese meal, the last course is soup because it allows the roast duck entree to "swim" toward digestion.
  185. In the United States, a pound of potato chips costs two hundred times more than a pound of potatoes.
  186. Large doses of coffee can be lethal. Ten grams, or 100 cups over 4 hours, can kill the average human.
  187. Laws forbidding the sale of sodas on Sunday prompted William Garwood to invent the ice cream sundae in Evanston, IL, in 1875.
  188. Mayonnaise is said to be the invention of the French chef of the Duke de Richelieu in 1756. While the Duke was defeating the British at Port Mahon, his chef was creating a victory feast that included a sauce made of cream and eggs. When the chef realized that there was no cream in the kitchen, he improvised, substituting olive oil for the cream. A new culinary masterpiece was born, and the chef named it "Mahonnaise" in honor of the Duke's victory.
  189. McDonald's "Big Mac" slogan, introduced in 1975, is: "Two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions, and a sesame seed bun."
  190. McDonalds and Burger King sugar-coat their fries so they will turn golden-brown.
  191. Mushrooms have no chlorophyll so they don't need sunshine to grow and thrive. Some of the earliest commercial mushroom farms were set up in caves in France during the reign of King Louis XIV (1638-1715).
  192. Nabisco's "Oreo's" are the world's best-selling brand of cookie at a rate of 6 billion sold each year. The first Oreo was sold in 1912.
  193. Per capita, the Irish eat more chocolate than Americans, Swedes, Danes, French, and Italians.
  194. Persians first began using colored eggs to celebrate spring in 3,000 B.C. 13th century Macedonians were the first Christians on record to use colored eggs in Easter celebrations. Crusaders returning from the Middle East spread the custom of coloring eggs, and Europeans began to use them to celebrate Easter and other warm weather holidays.
  195. Pine, spruce, or other evergreen wood should never be used in barbecues. These woods, when burning or smoking, can add harmful tar and resins to the food. Only hardwoods should be used for smoking and grilling, such as oak, pecan, hickory, maple, cherry, alder, apple, or mesquite, depending on the type of meat being cooked.
  196. Potato chips are American's favorite snack food. They are devoured at a rate of 1.2 billion pounds a year.
  197. Potato chips were invented in Saratoga Springs in 1853 by chef George Crum. They were a mocking response to a patron who complained that his French fries were too thick.
  198. Refried beans aren't really what they seem. Although their name seems like a reasonable translation of Spanish frijoles refritos, the fact is that these beans aren't fried twice. In Spanish, refritos literally means "well-fried," not "re-fried."
  199. Research show that only 43% of homemade dinners served in the US include vegetables.
  200. Rice is the staple food of more than one-half of the world's population.
  201. Saffron, made from the dried stamens of cultivated crocus flowers, is the most expensive cooking spice.
  202. Since Hindus don't eat beef, the McDonald's in New Delhi makes its burgers with mutton.
  203. Sliced bread was introduced under the Wonder Bread label in 1930.
  204. Swiss Steak, Chop Suey, Russian Dressing, and a Hamburger all originated in the US.
  205. Tequila is made from the root of the blue agave cactus.
  206. The Agen plum which would become the basis of the US prune industry was first planted in California in 1856.
  207. The average child will eat 1,500 PB sandwiches by high school graduation.
  208. The bubbles in Guiness beer sink to the bottom rather than float to the top as in other beers.
  209. The California grape and wine industries were started by Count Agoston Haraszthy de Moksa, who planted Tokay, Zinfandel, and Shiras varieties from his native Hungary in Buena Vista in 1857.
  210. The color of a chile is no indication of its spiciness, but size usually is - the smaller the pepper, the hotter it is.
  211. The daughter of confectioner Leo Hirschfield is commemorated in the name of the sweet he invented: Although his daughter's real name was Clara, she went by the nickname Tootsie, and in her honor, her doting father named his chewy chocolate logs Tootsie Rolls.
  212. The difference between apple juice and apple cider is that the juice is pasteurized and the cider is not.
  213. The dye used to stamp the grade on meat is edible. It's made from grape skins.
  214. The English word "soup" comes from the Middle Ages word "sop," which means a slice of bread over which roast drippings were poured. The first archaeological evidence of soup being consumed dates back to 6000 B.C., with the main ingredient being Hippopotamus bones!
  215. The FDA allows an average of 30 or more insect fragments and one or more rodent hairs per 100 grams of peanut butter.
  216. The first ring donuts were produced in 1847 by a 15 year old baker's apprentice, Hanson Gregory, who knocked the soggy center out of a fried doughnut.
  217. The fungus called truffles can cost $800 to $1,500 per pound. They are sniffed out by female pigs, which detect a compound that is in the saliva of male pigs as well. The same chemical is found in the sweat of human males.
  218. The hamburger was invented in 1900 by Louis Lassen. He ground beef, broiled it, and served it between two pieces of toast.
  219. The herring is the most widely eaten fish in the world. Nutritionally its fuel value is that equal to that of a beefsteak.
  220. The hottest chile in the world is the habanero.
  221. The ice cream soda was invented in 1874 by Robert Green. He was serving a mixture of syrup, sweet cream and carbonated water at a celebration in Philadelphia. He ran out of cream and substituted ice cream.
  222. The largest item on any menu in the world is probably the roast camel, sometimes served at Bedouin wedding feasts. The camel is stuffed with a sheep's carcass, which is stuffed with chickens, which are stuffed with fish, which are stuffed with eggs.
  223. The largest living organism ever found is a honey mushroom, Armillaria ostoyae. It covers 3.4 square miles of land in the Blue Mountains of eastern Oregon, and it's still growing
  224. The Pillsbury Bake-off has been held every year since 1948.
  225. The pound cake got its name from the pound of butter it contained.
  226. The sandwich is named for the Fourth Earl of Sandwich (1718-92), for whom sandwiches were made so that he could stay at the gambling table without interruptions for meals.
  227. The vintage date on a bottle of wine indicates the year the grapes were picked, not the year of bottling.
  228. The white part of an egg is the albumen.
  229. The white potato originated in the Andes mountains and was probably brought to Britain by Sir Francis Drake about 1586.
  230. The world's first chocolate candy was produced in 1828 by Dutch chocolate-maker Conrad J. Van Houten. He pressed the fat from roasted cacao beans to produce cocoa butter, to which he added cocoa powder and sugar.
  231. The world's costliest coffee, at $130 a pound , is called Kopi Luwak. It is in the droppings of a type of marsupial that eats only the very best coffee beans. Plantation workers track them and scoop their precious poop.
  232. The world's deadliest mushroom is the Amanita phalloides, the death cap. The five different poisons contained by the mushroom cause diarrhea and vomiting within 6 to 12 hours of ingestion. This is followed by damage to the liver, kidneys, and central nervous system - and, in the majority of cases, coma and death.
  233. To determine the percentage of alcohol in a bottle of liquor divide the proof by two.
  234. Truffles, or mushrooms that grow below the ground, are one of the world's most expensive foods. One variety, Tuber melanosporum, can cost between $800 and $1,500 a pound.
  235. Van Camp's Pork and Beans were a staple food for Union soldiers in the Civil War.
  236. Vanilla is the extract of fermented and dried pods of several species of orchids.
  237. Watermelon is grown in over 96 countries worldwide. Over 1,200 varieties of watermelon are grown worldwide. There are about 200 varieties of watermelon throughout the US.
  238. Watermelon, considered one of America's favorite fruits, is really a vegetable (Citrullus lanatus). Cousin to the cucumber and kin to the gourd, watermelons can range in size from 7 to 100 pounds.
  239. When Catherine de Medici married Henry II of France (1533) she brought forks with her, as well as several master Florentine cooks. Foods never before seen in France were soon being served using utensils instead of fingers or daggers. She is said to have introduced spinach (which "à la Florentine" usually means) as well as aspics, sweetbreads, artichoke hearts, truffles, liver crépinettes, quenelles of poultry, macaroons, ice cream, and zabagliones.
  240. When honey is swallowed, it enters the blood stream within a period of 20 minutes.
  241. When potatoes first appeared in Europe in the seventeenth century, it was thought that they were disgusting, and they were blamed for starting outbreaks of leprosy and syphilis. As late as 1720 in America, eating potatoes was believed to shorten a person's life.
  242. When Swiss cheese ferments, a bacterial action generates gas. As the gas is liberated, it bubbles through the cheese leaving holes. Cheese-makers call them "eyes."
  243. Only about 5% of the salt produced end up on the dinner table. The rest is used for packing meat, building roads, feeding livestock, tanning leather, and manufacturing glass, soap, ash and washing compounds.
  244. The yo-yo originated in the Philippines, where it was used as a weapon in hunting.
  245. 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.
  246. Blimp useless facts. There are fourteen blimps in the world.Ten of the fourteen blimps are in the United States. The biggest existing blimp is the Fuji Film blimp.
  247. The top layer of a wedding cake, known as the groom's cake, is usually is a fruit cake so it will last until the couple's first anniversary, when they will eat it.
  248. Months that begins with a Sunday will always have a "Friday the 13th."
  249. The dial tone of a normal telephone is in the key of "F".
  250. Easter is the first Sunday after the first Saturday after the first full moon after the equinox. (The equinox is quite often March 21, but can also occur on the March 20 or 22.)
  251. The San Fransisco Cable cars and the St. Charles streetcar line in New Orleans are the nation's two mobile National Monuments
  252. Libra, the Scales, is the only inanimate symbol in the zodiac.
  253. The ashes of the average cremated person weigh nine pounds.
  254. In the 1940s, the FCC assigned television's Channel 1 to mobile services (two-way radios in taxicabs, for instance) but did not re-number the other channel assignments. That is why your TV set has channels 2 and up but no channel 1.
  255. The average sixty minute audio cassette tape has 562.5 feet of tape in it.
  256. If you told someone that they were one in a million, you'd be saying there were about 1,800 of them in China.
  257. The launching mechanism of a carrier ship that helps planes to take off, could throw a pickup truck over a mile.
  258. The reason firehouses have circular stairways is from the days of yore when the engines were pulled by horses. The horses were stabled on the ground floor and figured out how to walk up straight staircases.
  259. The quartz crystal in your wristwatch vibrates 32,768 times a second.
  260. The side of a hammer is a cheek.
  261. The bread slots in a toaster are toast wells.
  262. A canton is the blue field behind the stars.
  263. A bonnet is the cap on the fire hydrant.
  264. Non-dairy creamer is flammable.
  265. If you put a raisin in a glass of champagne, it will keep floating to the top and sinking to the bottom.
  266. Before Prohibition, Shlitz Brewery owned more property in Chicago than anyone else, except The Catholic Church.
  267. Figlet, an ASCII font converter program, stands for Frank, Ian and Glenn's LETters.
  268. There are 1,929,770,126,028,800 different color combinations possible on a Rubik's Cube.
  269. The world's largest K-Mart is on the island of Guam.
  270. The first Bowie knife was forged at Washington, Arkansas.
  271. A standard grave is 7'8" x 3'2" x 6"
  272. All gondolas in Venice, Italy must be painted black, unless they belong to a high official.
  273. You can make a glass of apple cider with three apples.
  274. More money is printed daily for the Monopoly game than by the U.S. Treasury.
  275. In the game Monopoly, the most money you can lose in one travel around the board (normal game rules, going to jail only once) is $26,040. The most money you can lose in one turn is $5070.
  276. A man named Ed Peterson is the inventor of the Egg McMuffin.
  277. Liquid paper was invented by Mike Nesmith (of the Monkees)'s mother, Bette Nesmith Graham, in 1951.
  278. Every male over the 18 is considered part of the Arizona Militia according to state constitution.
  279. Craven Walker invented the lava lamp, and its contents are colored wax and water.
  280. In order for a deck of cards to be mixed up enough to play with properly, it should be shuffled at least seven times.
  281. The Main Library at Indiana University sinks over an inch every year because when it was built, engineers failed to take into account the weight of all the books that would occupy the building.
  282. The national average ACT score is 17.
  283. The bubbles in Guiness Beer sink to the bottom rather than float to the top like all other beers. No one knows why.
  284. The right side of a boat was called the starboard side due to the fact that the astronavigators used to stand out on the plank (which was on the right side) to get an unobstructed view of the stars. The left side was called the port side because that was the side that you put in on at the port. This was so that they didn't knock off the starboard!
  285. The now retired architect, then a draftsman, who drew the plans for the original "Golden Arches" (McDonalds) building in Fontana, California, in the early 1950s, was Charles W. Fish.
  286. The next-to-last event is the penultimate, and the second-to-last event is the antepenultimate.
  287. Everyone in the Middle Ages believed -- as Aristotle had -- that the heart was the seat of intelligence.
  288. Nearly 50% of all bank robberies take place on Friday.
  289. It costs more to buy a new car today in the United States than it cost Christopher Columbus to equip and undertake three voyages to the New World.
  290. A device invented as a primitive steam engine by the Greek engineer Hero, about the time of the birth of Christ, is used today as a rotating lawn sprinkler.
  291. There are at least a half-million more automobiles in Los Angeles than there are people.
  292. In the next seven days, roughly 800 Americans will be injured by their jewelry.
  293. Personal letters make up only 4.5 percent of the mail delivered by the U.S. Postal Service.
  294. During the time that the atomic bomb was being hatched by the United States at Alamogordo, New Mexico, applicants for routine jobs like janitor were disqualified if they could read. Illiteracy; in other words, was a job requirement. The reason: The authorities didn't want their trash or other papers read.
  295. The Pilgrims refused to eat lobsters because they believed they were really big insects.
  296. The foundations of the great European cathedrals go down as far as forty or fifty feet. In some instances, they form a mass of stone as great as that of the visible building above the ground.
  297. A person uses more household energy shaving with a hand razor at a sink (because of the water power, the water pump and so on) than he would by using an electric razor.
  298. According to the Recruitment Code of the U. S. Navy, anyone "bearing an obscene and indecent" tattoo will be rejected.
  299. There are only thirteen blimps in the world. Nine of the thirteen blimps are in the United States.
  300. The United States government keeps its supply of silver at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, NY.
  301. The familiar piece of wood known as a "two-by-four" is not two inches by four inches. Its actual size is one and one half by three and one half. The reason it's smaller than two-by-four is a long standing custom to measure wood before it's seasoned and planed.
  302. Artificial Christmas trees have outsold real ones every year since 1991.
  303. The college degree is called a "Bachelor's" degree after the original meaning of bachelor which was a young apprentice. Since the Bachelor's is the first degree issued, coming before a Master's or Doctor's degree, that first degree became known as a Bachelor's degree.
  304. In Turkey the color of mourning is violet. In most Moslem countries and in China it is white.
  305. If a family had 2 servants or less in the U.S. in 1900, census takers recorded it as "lower middle-class."
  306. Although people in the majority of countries of the world drive on the right side of roads, there are some fifty nations in which people drive on the left. These include England and many of the former English colonies such as Australia and New Zealand -- but not the U.S. or Canada. There are several non-English countries where people also drive on the left including Japan.
  307. Ever wondered where the phrase "two bits" came from? Some of the coins used in the American colonies before the Revolutionary War were Spanish dollars, which could be cut into pieces, or bits. Since two pieces equaled one-fourth of a dollar, the expression "two bits" came into being as a name for 25¢.
  308. Coca-Cola contains neither coca nor cola.
  309. Pepsi originally contained pepsin, therefore the name!
  310. Ivory bar soap floating was a mistake. They had been over mixing 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.
  311. The YKK on the zipper of your Levis stands for Yoshida Kogyo Kabushibibaisha, the worlds largest zipper manufacturer.
  312. You use an average of 43 muscles for a frown.
  313. You use an average of 17 muscles for a smile.
  314. Every two thousand frowns creates one wrinkle.
  315. The average human blinks his eyes 6,205,000 times each year.
  316. The average human produces a quart of saliva a day or 10,000 gallons in a lifetime.
  317. The average human's heart will beat 3000 million times in their lifetime.
  318. The average human will pump 48 million gallons of blood in their lifetime.
  319. You burn 26 calories in a one minute kiss.
  320. There are 26 calories in a Hershey Kiss.
  321. Hershey's Kisses are called that because the machine that makes them looks like it's kissing the conveyor belt.
  322. The average person will consume one hundred tons of food and twelve thousand gallons of water in a lifetime.
  323. If you toss a penny 10,000 times, it will not be heads 5,000 times, but more like 4,950. The heads picture weighs more, so it ends up on the bottom.
  324. 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.
  325. There are four cars and ten light posts on the back of a ten-dollar bill.
  326. 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.
  327. A quarter has 119 grooves around the edge.
  328. A dime has 118 ridges around the edge.
  329. The ridges on the sides of coins are called reeding or milling.
  330. 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.
  331. The face of a penny can hold about thirty drops of water.
  332. Nine pennies weigh exactly one ounce.
  333. The U.S. Mint in Denver, Colorado is the only mint that marks its pennies
  334. 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.
  335. Pocahontas appeared on the back of the $20 bill in 1875.
  336. Woodpecker scalps, porpoise teeth and giraffe tails have all been used as money.
  337. The Australian $5, $10, $20, $50 and $100 notes are made out of plastic.
  338. The car in the foreground on the back of a $10 bill is a 1925 Huptmobile.
  339. Money is made of woven linen, not paper.
  340. The first U.S. coin to bear the words "United States of America," was a penny piece made in 1727. It was also inscribed with the plain-spoken motto: "Mind Your Own Business."
  341. 97% of all paper money in the US contains traces of cocaine.
  342. How valuable is that penny you found laying on the ground? If it takes just a second to pick it up a person could make $36.00 per hour just picking up pennies!
  343. Since 1874 the mints of the United States have been making coins for foreign governments, whose combined orders have at times exceeded the volume of domestic requirements
  344. Vietnamese currency consists only of paper money; no coins.
  345. The U.S. shreds seven thousand tons of worn-out currency each year
  346. Americans spend $10 million each day on potato chips.
  347. Over 30 million people in the US "suffer" from Diastima. Diastima is having a gap between your front teeth.
  348. Seventy percent of the dust in your home consists of shed human skin.
  349. Each square inch of human skin contains seventy-two feet of nerves.
  350. The letters KGB stand for Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti.
  351. Glass flutes do not expand with humidity so their owners are spared the nuisance of tuning them.
  352. Neck ties were first worn in Croatia.That's why they were called cravats (CRO-vats).
  353. Urea is found in human urine and dalmatian dogs and nowhere else.
  354. Sarsaparilla is the root that flavors root beer.
  355. Cranberry Jello is the only jello flavor that comes from real fruit, not artificial flavoring.
  356. Soldiers from every country salute with their right hand.
  357. 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.
  358. Moisture, not air, causes super glue to dry.
  359. A wedding ring is generally exempt by law from inclusion among the assets in a bankruptcy estate. That means that a wedding ring can't be seized by creditors, no matter how much the bankrupt person owes.
  360. Cranberries are sorted for ripeness by bouncing them; a fully ripened cranberry can be dribbled like a basketball.
  361. To "testify" was based on men in the Roman court swearing to a statement made by swearing on their testicles.
  362. Benito Mussolini would ward off the evil eye by touching his testicles.
  363. Both Hitler and Napoleon were missing one testicle
  364. 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.
  365. There is no such thing as naturally blue food, even blueberries are purple.
  366. The tango originated as a dance between two men (for partnering practice).
  367. White Out was invented by the mother of Mike Nesmith (Formerly of the Monkees)
  368. 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.
  369. Venetian blinds were invented in Japan.
  370. Welsh mercenary bow men in the medieval period only wore one shoe at a time.
  371. 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.
  372. The A&W of root beer fame stands for Allen and Wright.
  373. A peanut is not a nut; it is a legume.
  374. It's impossible to sneeze with your eyes open.
  375. The plastic things on the end of shoelaces are called aglets.
  376. A Boeing 747 jumbo jet weighs 55 times as much as an average African elephant.
  377. Marcel Prousthave had a swordfish at home.
  378. The traditional symbol of the pawnbroker -- three golden balls -- is thought to be derived from the coat of the arms of the Medici family, who ruled the Italian city of Florence between the 15th and 16th centuries. The symbol was spread by the Lombards -- Italian bankers, goldsmiths and moneylenders who set up businesses in medieval London.
  379. There is actually a word for a 64th note --a hemidemisemiquaver.
  380. Carnegie Mellon University offers bag piping as a major. The instuctor is James McIntosh, who is a member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, and who began bag piping at age 11.
  381. A large flawless emerald is worth more than a similarly large flawless diamond.
  382. The most sensitive finger is the forefinger.
  383. The metal part at the end of a pencil is twenty percent sulfur.
  384. The metal part of a lamp that surrounds the bulb and supports the shade is called a harp.
  385. Duelling is legal in Paraguay as long as both parties are registered blood donors.
  386. More people are killed annually by donkeys than die in air crashes.
  387. The growth rate of some bamboo plants can reach three feet (91.44 cm) per day.
  388. When your sink is full, the little hole that lets the water drain, instead of flowing over the side, is called a "porcelator".
  389. The guards of some of the emperors of Byzantium were Vikings.
  390. Canola oil is actually rape seed oil but the name was changed in Canada for marketing reasons.
  391. 7.5 tons of gold is used each year in the US to make class rings.
  392. Before 1800 there were no separately designed shoes for right and left feet.
  393. One cord of wood -- that's a 4x4x8 foot stack -- produces only 250 copies of the Sunday New York Times.
  394. It takes one fifteen-to twenty-year-old tree to produce seven hundred paper grocery bags.
  395. The world's smallest tree is the dwarf willow, which grows to two inches tall on the tundra of Greenland.
  396. There are three times as many households in the United States without telephones as there are without television sets.
  397. The Ramses brand condom is named after the great phaoroh Ramses II who fathered over 160 children.
  398. 'Crack' gets it name because it crackles when you smoke it.
  399. Heroin is the brand name of morphine once marketed by Bayer.
  400. Marijuana is Spanish for 'Mary Jane.'
  401. The biggest bell is the "Tsar Kolokol" cast in the Kremlin in 1733. It weighs 216 tons, but alas, 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 as the water hit the superheated metal and a giant piece immediately cracked off, destroying the bell forever.
  402. Grapes explode when you put them in the microwave.
  403. The microwave was invented after a researcher walked by a radar tube and a chocolate bar melted in his pocket.
  404. Thomas Edison got patents for a method of making concrete furniture and a cigar which was supposed to burn forever.
  405. Velcro was invented by a Swiss who was inspired by the way burrs attached to clothing.
  406. The amount of tropical rain forest cut down each year is an area the size of Tennessee.
  407. The hieroglyph for 100,000 is a tadpole.
  408. The concerti on the two Voyager probes' information discs are performed by famed Canadian pianist Glenn Gould.
  409. The Phillips-head screwdriver was invented in Oregon.
  410. The Red sea was originally named the Reed Sea.
  411. A group of officers is called a mess.
  412. The raised reflective dots in the middle of highways are called Botts dots.
  413. The Amazon rain forest produces half the world's oxygen supply.
  414. Tomb robbers believed that knocking Egyptian sarcophagi's noses off would stall curses.
  415. Trivia is the Roman goddess of sorcery, hounds and... the crossroads
  416. The physically smallest post office in the United States is in Ochopee, Florida in the heart of the everglades.
  417. 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.
  418. There are eight different sizes of champagne bottles and the largest is called a Nebuchadnezzar (after the Biblical king who put Daniel's three friends into the oven).
  419. Turnips turn green when sunburnt.
  420. Impotence is legal grounds for divorce in 24 American states.
  421. In 1969, the last Corvair to come off the assembly line was painted gold.
  422. 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.
  423. 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!
  424. The Soviet Sukhoi-34 is the first strike fighter with a toilet in it.
  425. The only social fraternity founded during the Civil War was Theta Xi fraternity, at Rensselear Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York in 1864.
  426. The Hudson River along the island of Manhattan flows in either direction depending upon the tide.
  427. The "heat" of peppers is rated on the Scoville scale.
  428. Ketchup was once used as a medicine in the United States. In the 1830s it was sold as Dr. Miles's Compound Extract of Tomato.
  429. 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.
  430. 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.
  431. In most advertisements, including newspapers, the time displayed on a watch is 10:10 because then the hands of the watch frame the brand name on the watch face.
  432. The number of minutes of telephone calling in an average business day is 9,500,000,000.
  433. There are currently more than thirty thousand people in the United States that are one hundred years of age or older.
  434. Only one person in two billion will live to be 116 or older.
  435. The longest time someone has typed on a typewriter continuously is 264 hrs., set by Violet Gibson Burns.
  436. US Airlines owes their passengers 870,000,000,000 frequent flyer miles.
  437. 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.
  438. A full seven percent of the entire Irish barley crop goes to the production of Guinness beer.
  439. In medieval England beer was often served with breakfast.
  440. Everytime you lick a stamp, you're consuming 1/10 of a calorie.
  441. Images for picture stamps in the United States are commissioned by the United States Postal Service Department of Philatelic Fulfillment.
  442. Great Britain was the first country 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.
  443. The housefly hums in the middle octave, key of F.
  444. The international telphone dialing code for Antarctica is 672.
  445. Each year there is one ton of cement poured for each man, woman, and child in the world.
  446. At McDonalds in New Zealand, they serve apricot pies instead of cherry ones.
  447. Pickled herrings were invented in 1375.
  448. 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.
  449. A family of six died in Oregon during WW II as a result of a Japanese balloon bomb.
  450. Jet lag was once called boat lag, back before jets existed.
  451. The world's second largest pipe organ is located at the Organ Grinder on 82nd Avenue in Portland, Oregon.
  452. Games Slayter, a Purdue graduate, invented fiberglass.
  453. One of the reasons marijuana is illegal today is 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.
  454. 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.
  455. Cephalacaudal recapitulation is the reason our extremeties develop faster than the rest of us
  456. 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."
  457. In-grown toe nails are hereditary.
  458. The expression "What in tarnation" comes from the original meaning: "What in eternal damnation"
  459. 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."
  460. Yucatan, as in the peninsula, is from Maya "u" + "u" + "uthaan," meaning "listen to how they speak," what the Mayasaid when they first heard the Spaniards.
  461. The term, "It's all fun and games until someone loses an eye" is from Ancient Rome.The only rule during wrestling matches was, "No eye gouging." Everything else was allowed, but the only way to be disqualified was to poke someone's eye out.
  462. Only 1/3 of the people that can twitch their ears can twitch only one at a time.
  463. If you lace your shoes from the inside to the outside the fit will be snugger around your big toe.
  464. Nutmeg is extremely poisonous if injected intravenously
  465. 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.
  466. If you were born in Los Alamos, New Mexico during the Manhattan project (where they made the atomic bomb), your birth place was listed as a post office box in Albequerque.
  467. In Irian Jaya exists a tribe of tall, white people whose parrots are a warning sign against intruders
  468. Ballroom dancing is a major at BrighamYoung University.
  469. Professional ballerinas use about twelve pairs of toe shoes per week.
  470. M&M's were developed so that soldiers could eat candy without getting their fingers sticky.
  471. M&M's stands for the last names of Forrest Mars, Sr., then candymaker, and his associate Bruce Murrie.
  472. The estimated number of M&M's sold each day in the United States is 200,000,000.
  473. The term "the whole 9 yards" came from WW II 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."
  474. The symbol on the "pound" key (#) is called anoctothorpe.
  475. 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).
  476. 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..
  477. The world's largest four-faced clock sits a top the Allen-Bradley plant in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
  478. Almonds are members of the peach family.
  479. The antifungal, nystatin, which is sometime used for treating thrush, is named after New York State Institute for Health (Acronym)
  480. It takes about a half a gallon of water to cook macaroni, and about a gallon to clean the pot.
  481. The wheat that produces a one-pound loaf of bread requires two tons of water to grow.
  482. The top three cork-producing countries are Spain, Portugal and Algeria. (Cork comes from trees.)
  483. Only thirty percent of the famous Maryland blue crabs are actually from Maryland, the rest are from North Carolina and Virginia.
  484. 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).
  485. The average ear of corn has eight-hundred kernels arranged in sixteen rows.
  486. Kerimski Church in Finland is world's biggest church made of wood.
  487. The St. Louis Gateway Arch had a projected death toll while it was being built. No one died.
  488. The word "noon" came from an old church term "none" meaning three. There was a monastic order that was so devout that they declared they would not eat until that time. Since they rang the bells indicating time, "none" came earlier and earlier. The towns people called mid-day "noon" to ridicule them.
  489. Tribeca in Manhattan stands for TRIangle BElow CAnal street. Soho stands for SOuthof HOuston street.
  490. Columbia University is the second largest land owner in New York City, after the Catholic Church.
  491. The world's largest wine cask is in Heidleberg, Germany.
  492. Because their work was so physically demanding, slave sugar-cane cutters were the South's most costly field hands. At one point, their price became so high on the New Orleans slave market that the Louisiana planter tried to hire Irish and German immigrants instead. This plan backfired when the hired workers went on strike for double pay right in the middle of the sugar harvest.
  493. Bananas do not grow on trees, but on rhizomes.
  494. The Statue of Liberty's tablet is two feet thick.
  495. There are two credit cards for every person in the United States.
  496. 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?"
  497. A coat hanger is 44 inches long if straightened
  498. The cruise liner, Queen Elizabeth II, moves only six inches for each gallon of diesel that it burns.
  499. The smallest mushroom's name is "Hop-low."
  500. 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."
  501. Residents of the island of Lesbos are Lesbosians, rather than Lesbians. (Of course, lesbians are called lesbians because Sappho was from Lesbos.)
  502. A-1 Steak Sauce contains both orange peel and raisins.
  503. 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.
  504. A Chinese checkerboard has 121 holes.
  505. The lot numbers for the cyanide-tainted Tylenol capsules scare back in 1982 were MC2880 and 1910MD.
  506. The ball assembly on top of a flagpole is called the truck.
  507. Dirty Harry's badge number is 2211.
  508. Most Americans' car horns beep in the key of F.
  509. The first fossilized specimen of Austalopithecus afarenisis was named Lucy after the palentologists' favorite song, Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds, by the Beatles.