Did You Know? – A Foolish Fact Filled Tuesday!

“Fight Against Stupidity And Bureaucracy”

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A foolish fact filled Tuesday?

I don’t know about that, but it is April Fool’s Day so anything is possible.

Nevertheless I hope there are at least a few things of interest in this lot.

Enjoy.

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Will Smith is now older than Uncle Phil

was at the beginning of “The Fresh Prince.”

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There are more than 1,700 references to gems and

precious stones in the King James translation of the Bible.

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Turning a clock’s hands counterclockwise

while setting it is not necessarily harmful.

It is only damaging when the timepiece

contains a chiming mechanism.

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Cleopatra lived closer to the building

of Pizza Hut than the pyramids.

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Dentists have recommended that a toothbrush

be kept at least 6 feet (2 m) away from a toilet

to avoid airborne particles resulting from the flush.

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South Africa has 11 official languages

– the most for a single country.

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The US has no official language.

(Comprende?)

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The citrus soda 7-UP was created in 1929;

“7” was selected because the original containers were 7 ounces.

“UP” indicated the direction of the bubbles.

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The highest point in Pennsylvania

is lower than the lowest point in Colorado.

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France was still executing people by guillotine

when Star Wars came out.

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The earliest recorded case

of a man giving up smoking was on April 5, 1679,

when Johan Katsu, Sheriff of Turku, Finland, wrote in his diary

“I quit smoking tobacco.”

He died one month later.

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“Goodbye” came from “God bye”

which came from “God be with you.”

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Charlie Brown’s father was a barber.

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Every continent begins and ends in the same letter.

(I bet you never noticed that.)

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Every continent has a city called Rome.

(I bet you never noticed that either.)

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Did You Know? Facts, Facts And More Facts.

“Fight Against Stupidity And Bureaucracy”

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Fact day again on the fasab blog.

Another twenty things you probably don’t know now, but not to worry, you will do soon if you read on.

Enjoy.

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Before Gmail, “G-Mail” was the name of a free

email service offered by Garfield’s website.

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In America the bonnets and caps of city fire hydrants

are painted certain colors to alert firefighters

to the amount of water pressure available from that hydrant.

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It isn’t water itself that conducts electricity,

but the impurities found in it.

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Richard Hollingshead of Camden, N.J., built the first

drive-in theater in his driveway.

The idea was inspired by his mother who was a large woman

who found the seats at regular movie theaters uncomfortable.

He made it with a sheet strung between two trees and

a movie projector mounted to the hood of his car.

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Washington state’s Mt. Rainier is the tallest

volcano in the contiguous United States,

measuring nearly 14,500 feet in height.

It last erupted in 1854.

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Despite their menacing appearance and fierce name,

dragonflies cannot sting and are harmless to human beings.

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When referring to China, make sure

to say the People’s Republic of China.

Leave off “People’s” and you’re talking about Taiwan.

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Approximately one quarter of the United States’

homeless population are war veterans.

(Shameful statistic!)

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The inventors of bubble wrap,

Alfred Fielding and Marc Chavannes,

were originally trying to make plastic wallpaper.

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The toilet featured in Hitchcock’s Psycho

was the first flushing toilet to appear on-screen.

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Frankincense, one of the precious items

the wise men gave the baby Jesus,

was actually an ancient form of chewing gum

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The poinsettia is named after former

congressman and ambassador Joel Poinsett,

who introduced the plant to the United States in the 1800s.

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Peridots are the only gems that

have been found in meteorites.

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The longest jellyfish on record measured 160 feet,

more than half the length of a football field.

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All holly trees are gender specific – male or female.

Only the female holly tree bears fruit (berries),

and in order to do so there must be a male

pollinated tree within a two mile radius of her.

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Two-thirds of the world’s lawyers live in the United States.

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The Hard Rock Café got its name from a now-defunct bar that

appeared on the back of the Doors’ album Morrison Hotel.

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When cranberries are ripe, they bounce like a rubber ball.

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Due to the “naughty” dancing of the can-can girls and

the scantily clad models on 1800s French postcards,

the British equated anything risqué with France.

In fact, that’s how the phrase “pardon my French” entered the vernacular.

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Scott Joplin’s famous piano song, “Maple Leaf Rag,”

was not named for the leaf or for Canada:

it was named for the Maple Leaf Club,

a social gathering place in Sedalia, Missouri.

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