Completely useless but interesting trivia

[Art_from_Ark]

The winner of the 1997 Eurovision Song Contest was an English group named...

Katrina and The Waves

http://www.eurovision.tv/english/history_united_kingdom.htm

Know any good trivia?

[azmouse]

1. I have to admit I've never tried this but...

An apple, onion, and potato all have the same taste. The differences in flavor are caused by their smell. To prove this - pinch your nose and take a bite from each. They will all taste sweet.

[Art_from_Ark]

6. "Gift" means "present" in English, "married" in Norwegian,

and "poison" in German!

[edbermac]

2. Months that begin on Sunday always have a "Friday the 13th."

[Art_from_Ark]

3. The northernmost natural habitat of a non-human primate

is the Shimokita Peninsula of northern Honshu Island, Japan

[RubyDuby in GA]

4. One of the 7 people actually being held prisoner when the Bastille

was stormed during the French Revolution was the Marquis de Sade.

[RedG1]

5. TYPEWRITER is the longest word...

TYPEWRITER is the longest word that can be made using only the letters on the top row of a computer keyboard

[nutsnberries]

44. that's great! seriously...

me likey. :hi:

[Art_from_Ark]

48. In an earlier age, you could have said that

TYPEWRITER is the longest word that can be made using only the letters on the top row of a TYPEWRITER keyboard

[underpants]

7. The dot on a "i" is called a Tittle

Edgar Allen Poe still holds at least one swimming record at West Point

[trackfan]

16. Hey, are you trying to get this thread locked!?

[ghostsofgiants]

8. On the first day of filming "sex, lies, and videotape"...

A producer called up Steven Soderbergh and jokingly said that he heard Soderbergh couldn't direct traffic. 11 or 12 years later, Soderbergh won an Oscar for directing "Traffic".

[Art_from_Ark]

9. The word "dollar" comes from the German word "taler"

which was a large silver coin produced in German-speaking lands from about the 15th to 19th centuries. The United States' first dollar coins were actually the famous "Pieces of 8" produced at Spanish Empire mints in Mexico City, Guatemala, Bolivia, Colombia, Peru, and Chile, among other places.

[Blue-Jay]

10. The billionth digit of Pi is 9.

[eyesroll]

18. And today is 3.14!

Happy Pi Day!

[BrotherBuzz]

43. The first four digets of Pi add up to nine!

[Art_from_Ark]

50. And speaking of 9,

if the digits of any number add up to 9 or a multiple of 9, then that number is divisible by 9

[meegbear]

11. When Cesar Romero played the Joker on Batman he didn't shave ...

in closeups of his face, you can see his moustache under the makeup.

[azmouse]

19. I remember that!

I watched the show when I was a kid and even then I thought it looked gross.

[AllegroRondo]

12. The elephant is the only mammal that cannot jump

[Art_from_Ark]

29. Can hippos jump?

Or rhinos?

[AllegroRondo]

33. Surprizingly, yes.

if jumping is defined as "getting all 4 feet of the ground at the same time". They cant jump for long, but they can.

[patcox2]

46. I've seen a rhino jump. My dog startled it.

I made the mistake of taking my dog on a ride through a safari park. This rhino ambled up right beside the car and my dog suddenly barked, and the rhino jumped straight up in the air for a split second.

Never take a dog in a safari park, lots of animals do not like dogs at all. They had to escort us out of the bear area.

[begin_within]

13. Every page of a Thomas Brothers map book contains one deliberate mistake

They do this to protect their copyrights

[Art_from_Ark]

22. I've heard the same about classical music recordings

[tjwash]

25. And DaVinci's inventions.

[begin_within]

30. And BushCo's policy decisions.

[Art_from_Ark]

31. In the case of bu$hCo's policy decisions

they try to deliberately make one NON-mistake--
often without success!

[ps1074]

14. Leonardo Da Vinci

Leonardo Da Vinci invented the scissors...

Leonardo da Vinci could write with one hand and draw with the other at the same time...

[Roon]

15. He also invented the parachute

he was something else!

[tjwash]

26. delete

doh..

[underpants]

17. I thought that was Chuck Norris

:bounce:

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

20. No, he rights wrongs with one hand and draws blood with the other. -nt

[edbermac]

21. Sophia Loren's childhood nickname was 'Toothpick'

For obvious reasons...

[Art_from_Ark]

40. That picture...

must... restrain... myself

O8) :evilgrin: O8) :evilgrin: O8) :evilgrin: O8) :evilgrin: O8) :evilgrin: O8) :evilgrin: O8) :evilgrin: O8) :evilgrin: O8) :evilgrin: O8) :evilgrin: O8) :evilgrin: O8) :evilgrin: O8) :evilgrin: O8) :evilgrin: O8) :evilgrin: O8) :evilgrin: O8) :evilgrin: O8) :evilgrin: O8) :evilgrin: O8) :evilgrin: O8) :evilgrin: O8) :evilgrin:

[Cocoa]

23. Andy Garcia was a conjoined twin

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_Garcia

He had a partially formed Siamese twin, which appeared as a tennis ball-sized growth on his shoulder. The twin was successfully removed.

[Monkey see Monkey Do]

35. Great fact

(I watched "How to Get Ahead in Advertising" the other day so have rather weird mental images going through my head)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_Get_Ahead_in_Advertising

[TroubleMan]

24. Penny Toler scored the first basket in the WNBA.

I was watching the game, too.

[tjwash]

27. Elvis and Liberace both had stillborn twin brothers.

[Aristus]

28. The "switched twins" story fom "The Man In The Iron Mask" is

pure fiction. But it is true that there WAS a 'Man in the iron mask' (it was actually black velvet stiffened with whalebone, he was confined in comfort and luxury, and his identity was never revealed.) AND Louis XIV DID have a younger brother who might have been a rival to the throne. He was no secret, though. His name was Phillipe, Duke of Orleans. To keep him from rivaling Louis, their mother raised Phillipe as a girl; dresses, makeup, dolls, the whole works. Nature won over nuture, however. Phillipe fought in Louis's various wars, was noted for his bravery (although he worried that the sun and dust would harm his smooth, creamy skin),and he fathered a number of children by his wife and numerous mistresses.

History is SO much more fun than fiction! B-)

[Art_from_Ark]

32. In 1866, the US Mint made 16 different coins for circulation

Indian Head cent
2c piece
3c piece (silver)
3c piece (copper-nickel)
5c piece (copper nickel)
Half dime (silver 5c)
Dime
Quarter
Half Dollar
Silver dollar
Gold dollar
Gold $2.50
Gold $3.00
Gold $5.00
Gold $10.00
Gold $20.00

[underpants]

34. The "Dixie" was a coin

fromt he Louisiana area mostly. The "Land of Dixie" is just that-Louisiana

[Art_from_Ark]

38. I'm thinking that the "Dixie" was a 10-dollar bill

issued in the New Orleans area some time after the Louisiana Purchase which showed the value in French, as "Dix" (for "Ten")

[underpants]

39. D'oh!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dixie

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the origins of this nickname remain obscure. According to A Dictionary of Americanisms on Historical Principles (1951), by Mitford M. Mathews, three theories most commonly attempt to explain the term:

The word "Dixie" refers to a privately-issued currency from banks in Lousiana. These banks issued ten-dollar notes, labeled "Dix" (French for "ten") on the reverse side. These notes are now highly sought-after for their numismatic value. The notes were known as "Dixies" by English-speaking southerners, and the area around New Orleans and the Cajun-speaking parts of Louisiana came to be known as "Dixieland". Eventually, usage of the term broadened to refer to most of the Confederacy.

[Monkey see Monkey Do]

36. William S Burroughs uncle Ivy lee did public relations work for Hitler

(along with Ed Bernays he's often cited as the founder of the industry)

[Richard Steele]

53. Actor Woody Harrelson's father is a mob hitman serving life for murder.

[Monkey see Monkey Do]

54. ... and has been accused by some of involvement in the JFK assassination

namely as one of the so-called "3 tramps" arrested that day.

[BlueJazz]

37. On the Hit Song "My Boy Lollipop" by Millie Small the....

..Harmonica Solo was played by a very young Rod Stewart.

[NoPasaran]

41. In the pre-decimalisation British LSD currency

The abbreviation for penny was "d" because it referred back to the Roman silver coin called the denarius. The English penny had originally been a silver coin of the same value; silver pence were replaced by copper in the 1790s due to the hoarding of specie during the French Revolutionary Wars.

[Art_from_Ark]

42. And the symbol for "pound",

a fancy "L" with a line through it, was derived from the Roman name for pound, "libra".

[patcox2]

45. Fatboy Slim was guitarist for The Housemartins.

Not that anyone knows who either of them are anymore.

[Lautremont]

49. I thought he was the bassist,

which, of course, is a guitar, so you're not wrong and forgive my nitpicking. Really I just wanted to reassure you that at least one person knows who they are. The Housemartins were a darn good band, and near-radical in their progressive politics, too.

[patcox2]

55. Hey, I was close.

Love the Housemartins. Downright socialist, if I read "me and the farmer" right.

[Art_from_Ark]

47. The lowest denomination paper money ever issued by the US

was a 3-cent note issued in 1864 to deal with a severe coin shortage during the Civil War

[Hissyspit]

52. Cool.

[Hissyspit]

51. The Middle of Nowhere is...

Nemo means nowhere ... so if you are at Point Nemo you will be in the middle of Nowhere. (Funny, I could have sworn it was in South Carolina...)

Q) What place on earth is the farthest from land? — Mike McNeilly, Portsmouth, NH

A) Like many escapists before you, the locale you seek is Point Nemo, a watery coordinate in the South Pacific so dubbed by Hrvoje Lukatela, of the Calgary, Alberta, software company Geodyssey Limited. To pinpoint Nemo (named for the headstrong captain in Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea), Lukatela input some ten million map points into the company's Hipparchus program and "found the one whose distance to the closest point on land is the maximum." That spot turns out to be 48"52'32" south, 123"23'33" west—or exactly 1,670 miles from each of three landfalls: Maher Island, off the coast of Antarctica; Ducie Island, 325 miles east of Pitcairn Island; and Motu Nui, right next door to Chile's Easter Island.

[Art_from_Ark]

56. Cool

And all this time I had thought the Middle of Nowhere was Newton County, Arkansas!

[Hissyspit]

59. Well, speaking as someone who used to live in Russellville...

I liked the drives up into the mountains to go to the L'il Abner theme park, but anyplace with mountains is not the middle of nowhere to me. So, no, definitely South Carolina.

[Art_from_Ark]

62. Ahhh, Dogpatch USA

Just off of beautiful Arkansas Highway 7. I went there twice when I was 13, once with the junior high band. My only happy band experience!

And speaking of Russellville, I once won a scholarship to attend Arkansas Tech, but decided that the tech route wasn't right for me. I often wonder what would have happened if I had accepted that scholarship.

[gkdmaths]

57. Theobromine, the

'stimulating' alkaloid in chocolate, contains no bromine.

no source, just a chemistry nerd.

/gkd

[Hissyspit]

60. I don't care whether it has any bromine in it or not, just give me more!

[Art_from_Ark]

58. And now for the most completely worthless bit of trivia

In the five years that I have been an active poster on DU, this is the only thread I have started that has ever gotten more than 20 replies!

Kampai! :toast:

[Taxloss]

61. "St John's Wood" is the only station on the London Underground

that contains none of the letters of the word "mackerel".

Only two people have colleges named after them in both Oxford and Cambridge - Isaac Wolfson and Jesus Christ.

There are no exact rhymes for the words "orange" and "chimney".