BS: Useless Trivia

Subject: BS: Useless Trivia
From: susu
Date: 04 Jan 05 - 06:51 PM

I thought I would start this to see what useless trivia others know. I will start.

A piece of gold with the dimensions of a matchbox can be flattened out to a sheet the size of a tennis court.

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: Shanghaiceltic
Date: 04 Jan 05 - 06:57 PM

If all the sheep could be laid end to end, there would be a very happy shephard.

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: Sttaw Legend
Date: 04 Jan 05 - 06:58 PM

The results of an experimental study on the grain coarsening behavior, M23C6 carbide precipitation, and secondary MC carbide precipitation kinetics in UDIMET 520 are presented. Primary MC carbides and M(C, N) carbonitrides strongly influence the grain growth, with their dissolution near 1190 7C and 1250 7C, respectively, resulting in two distinct grain coarsening temperatures (GCTs). M23C6 carbides precipitate in the alloy over a wide range of temperatures varying between 600 7C and 1050 7C. A discrete M23C6 grain boundary carbide morphology is observed at aging temperatures below 850 7C. Secondary MC carbides formed at temperatures ranging between 1100 7C and 1177 7C, in specimens in which primary MC dissolution had been obtained at solution treatment temperatures of 1190 7C to 1250 7C. A schematic time-temperature-transformation (TTT) diagram for understanding the microstructure and precipitation inter-relationships in UDIMET 520 alloy is also presented.

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: Bill D
Date: 04 Jan 05 - 07:02 PM

"peanut butter & jelly sandwiches are insoluble in gasoline"

(from the men's room wall at the U. of Kansas, 1970) I always wondered at the origin of the data.)

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: pdq
Date: 04 Jan 05 - 07:08 PM

The biomass of insects on planet earth exceed all other animal life combined by a factor of 10.

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: susu
Date: 04 Jan 05 - 07:15 PM

Here is my next one : "Kemo Sabe" means "soggy shrub" in Navajo

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 04 Jan 05 - 07:42 PM

Palmolive soap was so called because it was originally made from palm oil and olive oil. I don't think you can buy Palmolive soap any more. The only thing I've seen recently with the Palmolive name is liquid dishwashing detergent.

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: Cluin
Date: 04 Jan 05 - 08:08 PM

In space no one can hear you scream.

So shut up.

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: Kaleea
Date: 04 Jan 05 - 08:13 PM

Depending upon where you live, this may or may not be useless:
   If you place Tiger doo-doo around the perimiter or your garden, elephants will be deterred & thus will not trample (or eat) your lovely vegetables & other foliage.

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: open mike
Date: 04 Jan 05 - 08:20 PM

http://earth.rice.edu/mtpe/hydro/hydrosphere/hot/freshwater/FreshWater_OCP06.html
Earth's largest aquifer, the Ogalalla Aquifer, is located under the U.S. Midwest.For more info: http://www.umac.org/ocp/freshwater/ and here:
http://www.hpwd.com/ogallala/ogallala.asp

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: Rapparee
Date: 04 Jan 05 - 09:18 PM

Ludwig von Beethoven was 21 when Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart died.

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: mack/misophist
Date: 04 Jan 05 - 09:24 PM

God loved beetles more than anything else because he made more of them than anything else.

                                                          JBS Haldane

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: Bobert
Date: 04 Jan 05 - 10:06 PM

A bumble bee is faster than a John Deer tractor...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: Sorcha
Date: 04 Jan 05 - 10:09 PM

A sneeze can be over 200 MPH

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: Metchosin
Date: 04 Jan 05 - 10:11 PM

You can tell whether a dragonfly is a virgin or not by the scratches on her eyeballs

And avacado comes from an old Incan or Myan word meaning testicle tree because of the pairs of fruit hanging from the end of the branch.

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: susu
Date: 04 Jan 05 - 10:23 PM

Okay, here's another one.
The 'spot' on 7-Up comes from its inventor who had red eyes. He was an albino.

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: Peace
Date: 04 Jan 05 - 10:23 PM

The average human produces 25,000 quarts of spit in a lifetime, enough to fill two swimming pools.

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: susu
Date: 04 Jan 05 - 10:36 PM

7-UP was created in 1929; "7" was chosen because the original containers were 7 oz. "UP" indicated the direction of the bubbles.

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: Shanghaiceltic
Date: 04 Jan 05 - 11:39 PM

If you mix Pernod or Pastis with water it goes cloudy, if you mix it with whiskey it does not...

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: Peace
Date: 05 Jan 05 - 12:29 AM

www.funtrivia.com/quizzes/ music/music_mixture/folk_music.html

There are eleven edges on the sides of the Canadian Loonie (one dollar coin).

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: Metchosin
Date: 05 Jan 05 - 12:47 AM

Ramses condoms were named after Ramses II, who fathered over 150 children.

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: mack/misophist
Date: 05 Jan 05 - 01:55 AM

Excaliber was not the name of the sword King Arthur is supposed to have carried in battle. His lance, by the way, was named Ron (or Ran, pronounced the same), and his war hound was Cavell.

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: Metchosin
Date: 05 Jan 05 - 02:29 AM

That's an interesting piece of trivia mack/misophist, because my grandfather named one of my uncles, Cavell. My grandmother was most upset with my grandfather, because she thought it meant "coward". My grandfather finally put her a bit at ease by telling her he had named him for part of a ship.

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: fat B****rd
Date: 05 Jan 05 - 03:16 AM

If you mix pernod with whisky you become incoherent......

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: open mike
Date: 05 Jan 05 - 03:46 AM

what are Pernod or Pastis ?

dragon flies have 4 wings and keep their wings out stretched when they land.
damsel flies are daintier, and the fold thier 2 wings along side their body when at rest.

if not for dung beetles processing it, the earth surface would be entirely covered in manure 5 feet deep or more.

hooray for dung beetles to save us from such a situation.

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 05 Jan 05 - 04:13 AM

Mike, Pernod and Pastis are liquers made from aniseed.

If an elephant stands on a grape, it would give a little whine!
Best wishes.
Mike

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: Seamus Kennedy
Date: 05 Jan 05 - 04:14 AM

Brucie, Why doe the Loonie have 11 sides?







So you can get it out of a Scotsman's hand with a spanner. (Wrench.)


And only female sea-otters have scratches on their noses, because the males bite for grip when they mate. Ouch!

Seamus

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: JennyO
Date: 05 Jan 05 - 07:01 AM

If you want to swat a fly, sneak up on it from behind, because a fly takes off backwards at an angle of 60 degrees. I've tried it too, and it works! (the swatting that is, not the taking off)

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: sian, west wales
Date: 05 Jan 05 - 07:36 AM

The electric chair was invented by a dentist.

Although I'm not sure that is, in actual fact, useless. It gives weight to my dislike of dentists.

I favour that way of working: form an opinion and work out the details later.

sian

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: GUEST,James
Date: 05 Jan 05 - 08:15 AM

Goethe last words were"More Light".

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: Sttaw Legend
Date: 05 Jan 05 - 08:28 AM

There are four synthetics which compromise more than 98% of the face yarns used in carpet.

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: GUEST,Mingulay
Date: 05 Jan 05 - 08:32 AM

A wench is a female spanner.

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: Amos
Date: 05 Jan 05 - 08:40 AM

I think the word is Senorita, Minguulay....

A

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: Metchosin
Date: 05 Jan 05 - 10:02 AM

I stand corrected, the avocado derives from the "Aztec" word "ahuacatl" meaning testicle tree. It was considered such a potent aphrodisiac that young women were kept indoors during its harvesting and the tree was not permitted to be grown on the grounds of the early missions, although I'm not certain who actually needed protection from the sight of it, the priests or the young women.

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 05 Jan 05 - 10:08 AM

Wow what a pear!

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: Flash Company
Date: 05 Jan 05 - 10:29 AM

Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote 24 Tarzan books without ever visiting Africa, (Actually, when I think about that, it's obvious!)

FC

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: Peace
Date: 05 Jan 05 - 10:30 AM

. . . but he went to Mars and Venus, right?

I keep getting info like this and I am in for a baaaaad day.

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: GUEST,Mrr
Date: 05 Jan 05 - 10:34 AM

If you eat meat and then pee around your garden, the deer will be deterred. Vegetarian pee doesn't work.

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: Metchosin
Date: 05 Jan 05 - 10:37 AM

Never deterred the deer around our garden....

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: GUEST,Mingulay
Date: 05 Jan 05 - 10:44 AM

Yes Amos, senorita is definately a word.

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: GUEST,Raggytash
Date: 05 Jan 05 - 10:59 AM

Surely Mum's the word?

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: Peace
Date: 05 Jan 05 - 11:09 AM

The odds of hitting the 6/49 lottery in Canada are one in

49 x 48 x 47 x 46 x 45 x 44.

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: Peace
Date: 05 Jan 05 - 11:09 AM

"Surely Mum's the word?"

Mum's the champagne.

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: mack/misophist
Date: 05 Jan 05 - 11:17 AM

Oscar Wilde's last words were "Either that wallpaper goes or I go."
      Goethe's last words are in dispute.

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: Leadfingers
Date: 05 Jan 05 - 11:17 AM

If your nose runs and your feet smell , youve got serious problems cos you're built upside down !

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: Rapparee
Date: 05 Jan 05 - 11:31 AM

A nurse lit a candle and Voltaire spoke his last words: "What? The flames already?"

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: Peace
Date: 05 Jan 05 - 12:25 PM

And then there was WC Fields.

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: fat B****rd
Date: 05 Jan 05 - 12:59 PM

"Bloom, ya bastards" W. C. Fields talking to his plants (allegedly)

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: mack/misophist
Date: 05 Jan 05 - 01:42 PM

Living in southern Califorina, W C Fields missed the rain storms of the east and mid-west. The day he died, his mistress spend the day on the roof, aiming a hose at his window while his friends came to pay their last respects.*


*He had bullied his doctor into giving him enough stimulants to keep him lucid for a day, knowing it would kill him.

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 05 Jan 05 - 01:50 PM

Lady Astor told Winston Churchill "Mr Churchill, I were your wife I would put poison in your drink!

Winston replied "Madam, if you were my wife, I would drink it"!!!!
Best wishes.

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: Peace
Date: 05 Jan 05 - 01:54 PM

From the movie, "WC Fields and Me." Great movie.

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: susu
Date: 05 Jan 05 - 02:00 PM

Ok this is trivia but it is also helpful. Dentists once instructed patients to keep their toothbrushes at least 7 feet from the comode so no airborne contaminants would get on it when flushing. Why don't they still do that? Have we evolved to the point where we have that much common sense?

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: Sttaw Legend
Date: 05 Jan 05 - 02:01 PM

Wood grows on trees.

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: susu
Date: 05 Jan 05 - 02:03 PM

Sttaw, you're the genius in your family huh? Just kidding!

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 05 Jan 05 - 02:34 PM

Brucie:
The odds of hitting the 6/49 lottery in Canada are one in
49 x 48 x 47 x 46 x 45 x 44.
Try one in 49*48*47*46*45*44/(6*5*4*3*2) i.e. 49!/((43!)*(6!))
As you do not need to predict the order in which the numbers will come out. The first number out is one of 49 and you have 6 chances at it.

Nigel

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: Rapparee
Date: 05 Jan 05 - 03:39 PM

Raymond Burr was the only North American in the US version of Godzilla.

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: mack/misophist
Date: 05 Jan 05 - 03:59 PM

Julian the Apostate, the last pagan emperor of Rome, could listen to a report, read another report, and write a third and fourth (ambidextrous) simultaneously. But not very fast, Im sure. One of the US presidents could do something similar but the details escape me.

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: mack/misophist
Date: 05 Jan 05 - 04:19 PM

The Danish astronomer, Tycho Brahe, lost his nose in a duel over long division. He wore a silver prosthetic to replace it. If any one nows what aspect of long division they fought over, please PM me with the details.

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: Metchosin
Date: 05 Jan 05 - 04:30 PM

jeez, Julian the Apostate too! I once observed my eldest daughter when she was younger, simultaneously practice the piano, listen to some completely different music on her walkman and read a book. I just thought she was a scatterbrain like me.

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: susu
Date: 05 Jan 05 - 05:27 PM

Mack, The argument with Manderup Parsbjerg was stated to be over Fermat's Next-to-Last Theorem, which speculates that 2 + 2 = 5 for very large values of 2. (although I do not get this myself, if I could somehow make $2 + $2 =$5 then I could make more money huh?) There is also speculation that it was over a simple matter of who was the better mathematician. Also when his body was exhumed in 1901 there was evidence of copper in the metal due to the green rim found on the opening of the skull where the nose had been.

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: mack/misophist
Date: 05 Jan 05 - 06:55 PM

susu: You are a rogue! Brahe lived before Fermat! Besides, Fermat's Next to Last Theorem was about whether the fleas on Schroedinger's cat would be alive or dead. You're confusing it with Dilbert's Expository Lemma to the Pointy Haired Rule.

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: Shanghaiceltic
Date: 05 Jan 05 - 07:05 PM

Dr Guillotine the inventor of the guillotine became one of its victims in the French Revolution.

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: pdq
Date: 05 Jan 05 - 07:40 PM

If all of the world's virgins were laid end-to-end,






















Bill Clinton would have something to to with it. You can count on it!

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: susu
Date: 05 Jan 05 - 07:57 PM

Mack, I stand corrected! My friend was the one who told me that, and I like a goofball, took it at face value as she knows alot about that junk. SORRY! Susu

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: Peace
Date: 05 Jan 05 - 08:17 PM

Nigel: Really?

Thank you. I kept wondering why--if the odds were one in 10068347520--all these people kept hitting all six numbers. Did I ever mention that I failed math all the way through school? I didn't have to mention that though, did I.

So that number then gets divided by 720. So the real odds are one in 13983816. Now, that makes sense.

Thank you again.

Bruce

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 05 Jan 05 - 08:23 PM

Very useful information: Your chances of winning the lottery are about the same whether you buy a ticket or not.

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: susu
Date: 05 Jan 05 - 08:35 PM

After spending hours working at a computer display, look at a blank piece of white paper. It usually appears to be pink in color.

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: mack/misophist
Date: 05 Jan 05 - 09:51 PM

There are more deer in the US today than there were when Columbus landed.

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: Peace
Date: 05 Jan 05 - 10:27 PM

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you the chemical name for the Tobacco Mosaic Virus.

ACETYLSERYLTYROSYLSERYLISOLEUCYL-
THREONYLSERYLPROLYLSERYLGLUTAMINYL-
PHENYLALANYLVALYLPHENYLALANYLLEUCYL-
SERYLSERYLVALYLTRYPTOPHYLALANYL-
ASPARTYLPROLYLISOLEUCYLGLUTAMYLLEUCYL-
LEUCYLASPARAGINYLVALYLCYSTEINYL-
THREONYLSERYLSERYLLEUCYLGLYCYL-
ASPARAGINYLGLUTAMINYLPHENYLALANYL-
GLUTAMINYLTHREONYLGLUTAMINYLGLUTAMINYL-
ALANYLARGINYLTHREONYLTHREONYL-
GLUTAMINYLVALYLGLUTAMINYLGLUTAMINYL-
PHENYLALANYLSERYLGLUTAMINYLVALYL-
TRYPTOPHYLLYSYLPROLYLPHENYLALANYL-
PROLYLGLUTAMINYLSERYLTHREONYLVALYL-
ARGINYLPHENYLALANYLPROLYLGLYCYL-
ASPARTYLVALYLTYROSYLLYSYLVALYLTYROSYL-
ARGINYLTYROSYLASPARAGINYLALANYLVALYL-
LEUCYLASPARTYLPROLYLLEUCYLISOLEUCYL-
THREONYLALANYLLEUCYLLEUCYLGLYCYL-
THREONYLPHENYLALANYLASPARTYLTHREONYL-
ARGINYLASPARAGINYLARGINYLISOLEUCYL-
ISOLEUCYLGLUTAMYLVALYLGLUTAMYL-
ASPARAGINYLGLUTAMINYLGLUTAMINYLSERYL-
PROLYLTHREONYLTHREONYLALANYLGLUTAMYL-
THREONYLLEUCYLASPARTYLALANYLTHREONYL-
ARGINYLARGINYLVALYLASPARTYLASPARTYL-
ALANYLTHREONYLVALYLALANYLISOLEUCYL-
ARGINYLSERYLALANYLASPARAGINYLISOLEUCYL-
ASPARAGINYLLEUCYLVALYLASPARAGINYL-
GLUTAMYLLEUCYLVALYLARGINYLGLYCYL-
THREONYLGLYCYLLEUCYLTYROSYLASPARAGINYL-
GLUTAMINYLASPARAGINYLTHREONYL-
PHENYLALANYLGLUTAMYLSERYLMETHIONYL-
SERYLGLYCYLLEUCYLVALYLTRYPTOPHYL-
THREONYLSERYLALANYLPROLYLALANYLSERINE

Woulda just called it Alicia if'n it had been up to me.

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: susu
Date: 05 Jan 05 - 11:14 PM

Why Alicia? Although I knew an Alicia once and she was EVIL!

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: open mike
Date: 05 Jan 05 - 11:47 PM

i thought that avocado (aquacate) was because the tree grows
where there is water and if you find a tree, you find water.
it means water search. so i heard.

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: mack/misophist
Date: 06 Jan 05 - 11:58 AM

Could you pronounce that for us, please. brucie?

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: Micca
Date: 06 Jan 05 - 12:35 PM

You can detect if a person is a Chemist or has studied chemistry by the way in which they pronounce these two chemical terms

UNIONISED

PERIODIC ACID

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: GUEST,Sidewinder
Date: 06 Jan 05 - 04:54 PM

A famous film producer was once asked at a press conference "why do you drink so much". To which he replied "to make people like you seem interesting".

WC Fields was told by his agent that he had to play golf with a certain film director in the hope that he would get a casting call for an upcoming film. Fields refused saying "if I wanted to play with a prick I'd play with my own".

Best Wishes.

Sidewinder.

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: mack/misophist
Date: 06 Jan 05 - 05:45 PM

Since WC Fields is popular, here's another. He was not only a world class juggler but also a master lock picker and insomniac. Often, the only place he could fall asleep was in the barber's chair. Thus, it was not uncommon for some hotel barber to open up in the morning and find Bill asleep in one of his chairs.

And let's not forget the fameous occasion when he deducted $100 on his taxes for a "new subterfuge." They allowed it. Being who he was, he didn't rejoice but cursed all the years when he hadn't thought to do it.

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: Peace
Date: 06 Jan 05 - 09:30 PM

In the movie, "WC Fields and Me", he was deducting money from his income tax (payable) by claiming two cases of gin each month. When questioned about that by the Feds, he replied, "I'm a comedian, and when I'm not drunk I'm not funny!"



toe-back-oh moe-zai-ick vie-russ.

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: susu
Date: 07 Jan 05 - 12:33 PM

The average human body contains enough: iron to make a three inch nail, sulfur to kill all fleas on an average dog, carbon to make 900 pencils, potassium to fire a toy cannon, fat to make 7 bars of soap, phosphorous to make 8 match heads, and water to fill a ten gallon tank.

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 07 Jan 05 - 12:39 PM

So are you leaving your body to science when you die or perhaps one of the multiple stores.......
Best wishes.

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: susu
Date: 07 Jan 05 - 12:48 PM

Georgiansilver, I said 'average' body, not irregular. I would horrify med students if I left my body to science, and as far as any other organization, I do not want to end up some sick picture on the internet.

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: Micca
Date: 07 Jan 05 - 01:35 PM

Right the answers,
non chemists would say " youn-yon-ised
Chemists say Un-eye-on-ised
Non chemists would say " peer-e-odd-ic acid"
Chemists would say " per-eye-o-dic acid

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: Auggie
Date: 07 Jan 05 - 07:02 PM

One of my many useless trivia stories

It's 1877, in Germany.
Otto von Bismark is a conservative statesman and politician, known for (among other things) his observation to the effect that "it is better that men do not know how their laws or sausages are made".

Rudolph Virchow is a famous physician and also a very liberal social reform politician who served in the opposite party to Bismark in the Reichstag (German Parliment).
Virchow wanted a law passed requiring the examination of slaughtered hogs for trichinosis parasites. Bismark opposed and, eventually becoming enraged at Virchow's legislative tactics, challenged him to a duel.

As custom dictated, Virchow had his choice of weapons. He knew Bismark to be big, strong, an accomplished swordsman and a deadly shot. But, being a sly,clever and crafty science nerd he choose to duel by eating sausages, one of which would be identified as being loaded with deadly trichinosis germs. Since Bismark would get to choose first, and given his public scorn of trichinosis, he would be forced to eat the infected one-or be ridiculed.

Bismark wisely withdrew his challenge and in 1878 a bill requiring meat inspection passed.

Now, aren't you glad I didn't get on this thread earlier?

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: Peace
Date: 07 Jan 05 - 07:12 PM

That is really interesting. I will pass that on to the Social Studies teacher in our school. Thank you.

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: mack/misophist
Date: 08 Jan 05 - 09:38 PM

That wasn't interesting. It was beautiful! Thank you.

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: GUEST
Date: 09 Jan 05 - 07:01 PM

Ray Kroc, onetime owner of McDonald's Hamburger chain and the San Diego Padres hired Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll to play "Sam and Henry" on WGN Chicago radio in 1926. The show was later renamed Amos n Andy.

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: mack/misophist
Date: 11 Jan 05 - 02:21 AM

As a teenager, Julius Caesar was constantly in trouble for speeding in his chariot.

Like the German word 'kaiser', the Thibetan word for king, 'gesar', is also derived from caesar.

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 11 Jan 05 - 11:37 AM

And so is the Russian word czar.

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 11 Jan 05 - 11:46 AM

Edward De Vere accidentally farted while bowing to Queen Elizabeth I. He was so embarrassed that he left England for seven years. After his return, the Queen was reported to have reassured De Vere: "My Lord, I had forgot about the fart."

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: Splott Man
Date: 11 Jan 05 - 11:47 AM

"ACETYLSERYLTYROSYLSERYLISOLEUCYL-
THREONYLSERYLPROLYLSERYLGLUTAMINYL-
PHENYLALANYLVALYLPHENYLALANYLLEUCYL-
SERYLSERYLVALYLTRYPTOPHYLALA..." etc

Sorry to be pedantic Brucie, but to quote one of my bosses (as if one wasn't enough)

"all that is is a list of the building blocks that make up a
protein - they're amino acids. So, I imagine they've taken an important
protein within TMV and then named each amino acid along its length. It's
not proper nomenclature and wouldn't mean anything to us biochemists if (God
forbid) we had to read it in a paper!"

However, I enjoyed it,

Do you know it from memory?

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: Sttaw Legend
Date: 11 Jan 05 - 12:20 PM

Black is not white.

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: Peace
Date: 11 Jan 05 - 12:54 PM

And the German word, "Kaiser."

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: susu
Date: 11 Jan 05 - 02:35 PM

Sttaw, huh? or should I say duh. And red is not blue.

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 11 Jan 05 - 02:39 PM

Elephants can't jump.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: SINSULL
Date: 11 Jan 05 - 02:57 PM

Greyhounds can't sit.

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: TheBigPinkLad
Date: 11 Jan 05 - 03:27 PM

Grasshoppers can't play piano.

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: Strollin' Johnny
Date: 11 Jan 05 - 04:12 PM

White men can't sing the blues. (Or can they?)

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: SINSULL
Date: 11 Jan 05 - 04:13 PM

Or jump

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: jeffp
Date: 11 Jan 05 - 05:30 PM

Elephants are the only animals with four knees.

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: GUEST
Date: 11 Jan 05 - 07:08 PM

4+4=20



in a base four numerical system

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: Sttaw Legend
Date: 11 Jan 05 - 07:14 PM

"Sttaw, huh? or should I say duh. And red is not blue"

susu, then blue is not red.

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: Sttaw Legend
Date: 11 Jan 05 - 07:15 PM

Flamenco Ted, this is post 100

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: GUEST,Sidewinder
Date: 11 Jan 05 - 08:27 PM

The Irish poet Brendan Behan was visiting Canada in the dim and distant past and was asked to appear on a talk show. He agreed and answered all the questions put to him quite amiably then he was asked "Why had he come to Canada?" to which he replied " I was in a bar in Ireland drinking and when I picked up my glass there was a beer mat under it that said Drink Canada Dry so I thought I'd give it a try".

Best Wishes.

Sidewinder.

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: GUEST,Harmoni
Date: 12 Jan 05 - 01:30 AM

It's impossible to lick your elbow

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: mack/misophist
Date: 12 Jan 05 - 01:26 PM

One of San Francisco's earliest, most beloved oddities was Norton I, Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico; a man of infinite gravitas and charisma. He not only printed his own currency, people accepted it. You try doing that.

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: Bunnahabhain
Date: 12 Jan 05 - 02:48 PM

>>It's impossible to lick your elbow

And undignified to try....

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: George Papavgeris
Date: 12 Jan 05 - 02:55 PM

A cangaroo's penis is bifurcated (split in two) at the end.
I guess they can two-time at the same time?

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: LilyFestre
Date: 12 Jan 05 - 07:33 PM

The safety pin was invented on April 10, 1849 by Walter Hunt of New York, New York.

:) Michelle

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: GUEST,Sidewinder
Date: 12 Jan 05 - 07:38 PM

The Five Marx Brothers were Groucho,Chico, Harpo, Gummo and Zeppo and contrary to popular belief Harpo was not a mute. Groucho once refused membership of an exclusive club saying "I wouldn't want to be a member of any club that would have me as a member".

Best Wishes.

Sidewinder.

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: Jeep man
Date: 12 Jan 05 - 07:46 PM

Things are more like they are now than they have ever been before. Jim

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: Bert
Date: 12 Jan 05 - 07:52 PM

Interesting LilyFestre, at school (a hundred years ago) our Latin master showed us a picture of a safety pin excavated from Ancient Rome.

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: GUEST,Sidewinder
Date: 12 Jan 05 - 08:41 PM

Dick Rowe of Decca Records turned The Beatles down after they did an audition saying "groups with guitars are on their way out".Jim Denny of The Grand Ole Opry told Elvis Presley he should "go back to driving a truck" after his first and only appearance on the show.Bob Dylan played harmonica on a Harry Belafonte album. Pete Townsend played harmonica on Little Millies "My Boy Lollipop".Rod Stewart sang backing vocals on "Hi Ho Silver Lining" by The Jeff Beck Group.Mick Jagger sang backing vocals on "You're So Vain" by Carly Simon.Paul McCartney produced both Those Were The Days by Mary Hopkins and I'm The Urban Spaceman by The Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band. John Lennon produced the album "Pussycats" for Harry Nielsen. Alan Klein managed both The Beatles and The Stones at different times.Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Jim Morrison all died within a year and all before the age of 30.Leonard Cohen spent the night with Joplin in The Chelsea Hotel where years later Sid Vicious reportedly murdered his girlfriend.Buddy Holly,Richie Valens, J P Richardson, Rick Nelson,John Denver,Aliyah all died in plane crashes.David Bowie called his son Zowie and Marc Bolan called his son Rolan.

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: Auggie
Date: 12 Jan 05 - 09:37 PM

Wisconsin's automobile license plates read "America's Dairyland".

That sobriquet is taken very seriously. State statute 97.18(5) prohibits the serving of oleo or margarine to any student, inmate or resident of a State Institution or University as a substitute for table Butter under threat of penalty.
Violaters may be fined not less than $100 nor more than $500 nor imprisoned longer than 3 months... or both.

Fines and incarceration times double for those found guilty of subsequent offenses.

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: mack/misophist
Date: 12 Jan 05 - 10:40 PM

Vikings didn't get scurvy. Their sauer kraut kept them healthy.

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 13 Jan 05 - 12:34 AM

I once knew a woman who could lick the tip of her own nose.

My first wife could take the stem from a maraschino cherry, put it in her mouth, and tie it in a knot with her tongue.

She also could hear high-pitched sounds that supposedly only dogs can hear.

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: JennyO
Date: 13 Jan 05 - 12:39 AM

I CAN lick the tip of my own nose. I don't do it too often tho, cos it grosses people out.

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: LadyJean
Date: 13 Jan 05 - 12:54 AM

Lillian Russell was married at the Schenley Hotel. (Now the University of Pittsburgh Student Union.) Elenora Duse died there (and is alleged to haunt the place.)
Andy Warhol was born Andrew Wahola, he lived for a while in Pittsburgh's Hill district, which August Wilson uses for the setting for his plays about African Americans. (Wilson lived in Pittsburgh's Homewood section, as did John Edgar Wideman.)
Mary Cassat, Gertrude Stein and Martha Graham were all born in the city of Allegheny, now Pittsburgh's North Side.
Pittsburgh's oldest industry wasn't steel, it was glass.
George Washington's first military command was at Fort Necessity outside of Pittsburgh. He came back as president, leading troops to put down the Whiskey Rebellion in 1794.
My home is in a borough named for Jane Gray Swisshelm, an early suffragist.
Nobody knows where knitting originated, or when.
Single point knitting needles were originally called knitting pins.
The last battle of the English Civil war was fought at St. Marye's Citye Maryland. (Tye roundheads won.)
Kentucky was almost named Transylvania.
Jefferson Davis went to Transylvania College in Lexington Kentucky.
C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien and Dorothy L. Sayers were good friends.
Hans Christian Anderson was dyslexic. He had a half sister who was a prostitute. He went to Copenhagen at the age of 14 to become a performer, and danced in a ballet. He played a troll.
Holly plants are male and female.
Had enough yet? I've got an eidetic memory. I can go all day.

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: pdq
Date: 13 Jan 05 - 11:54 AM

The only language in which every word ends in a vowel is...






















Japanese

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: beadie
Date: 13 Jan 05 - 12:15 PM

Auggie:

Wisconsin also (in the same statute) specifies in elegant detail how margarine must be packaged when sold at retail. It is also illegal to place margarine on the table at any public eating establishment unless specifically requested by the customer.

These regulations stem from a huge battle in the state's Legislature during the middle sixties (before it was legal to even possess margarine in the state). The "dairy defenders" who violently opposed the attack on the state's primary agricultural industry dreamed up all manner of reasons why the "synthetic" substitute for pure, wholesome butter should not be allowed to invade America's Dairyland. It would cause all manner of ailments, it would dull young children's senses to the point of distraction in school, it would devastate the agricultural economy; . . . take your pick.

As an interesting aside, after this battle was decided (resulting in the passage of the statute you cite to), one of the prime advocates for butter, a Senator from the Southern Wisconsin hill country, began a similarly passionate opposition to the trend toward open display and sale of contraceptives in pharmacies. Heretofore, such items were available only behind the counter. The Senator famously argued (and this is on the state's legislative record) that if these things are made more widely available, the poor people will start to use them and we won't have enough young men to meet the needs of our military draft.   -    Remember, this was during the VietNam War era.

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: susu
Date: 13 Jan 05 - 12:18 PM

someone reading all these posts will actually try to lick their elbow.

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: mack/misophist
Date: 13 Jan 05 - 12:28 PM

My high school trig teacher could lick her elbow. Of course, she had an artificial arm.

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: Bassic
Date: 13 Jan 05 - 12:31 PM

If my tongue was an inch longer then I could.;-)

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: ToulouseCruise
Date: 13 Jan 05 - 01:30 PM

I've got new socks on.

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: LilyFestre
Date: 13 Jan 05 - 01:40 PM

Hiya Bert,

   About the safety pin....here's what I found:

Walter Hunt. Hunt was a mechanic from New York, whose other inventions include a forerunner of the Winchester repeating rifle, a successful flax spinner, knife sharpener, streetcar bell, hard-coal-burning stove, artificial stone, road sweeping machinery, velocipedes, ice ploughs and mail making machinery. In 1834, Walter Hunt built America's first sewing machine, which was also the first eye pointed needle sewing machine. He later lost interest in patenting his sewing machine, because he believed the invention would cause unemployment.

The safety pin was invented while Walter Hunt was twisting a piece of wire, trying to think of something that would help him pay off a fifteen dollar debt. On April 10, 1849, the safety pin was patented. Walter Hunt also thought little of his safety pin as an invention and soon sold the patent for four hundred dollars.

****I have seen other articles that say this date is when he had the idea patented.....I wouldn't be a bit surprised if ancient cultures had safety pins though! They are the most useful little things!

:) Michelle

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: Mrrzy
Date: 13 Jan 05 - 01:47 PM

OK - it was Guillotin, not Guillotine, who invented the guillotine.

Female kangaroos have three vaginas and two uteri.

Japanese doesn't HAVE vowels - they use a syllabary, not an alphabet.

Elephants are also the only non-primate mammals to have breasts (nipples between the FRONT limbs) rather than udders (between the back limbs) or multiple nipples running the length of the body (like cats and dogs and other animals who have litters).

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 13 Jan 05 - 01:56 PM

On the 'Bounty', Captain Bligh wasn't a Captain, he was only a 1st Lieutenant and he ordered a four hour dancing session every evening to improve the mens fitness and morale.

He sailed from Spithead in the UK, to Cape Horn (South America) where the weather was so bad he turned and went across the Atlantic to the Cape of Good Hope (South Africa) and on to Adventure Bay, Van Diemens' Land (Tasmania) before he had to issue a single punishment, mroe than 9 months into the trip.

The first death on board was 2 months out of Adventure, and that from an infection picked up there.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: Bert
Date: 13 Jan 05 - 03:04 PM

Thanks Michelle,

here's something that I found about the Roman version.

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: mack/misophist
Date: 13 Jan 05 - 04:16 PM

The fibula used by the Romans, and the Celts, had no cover over the point. It could be made entirely of one piece of wire. The modern safety pin does have a cover, which is why it's a "safety" pin.

Fibulae should not be confused with pin-annular brooches, which had two parts and were not meant to bend.


More trivia: Roman shields were made of plywood.

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: Auggie
Date: 13 Jan 05 - 07:33 PM

Beadie
Was the Wisconsin senator you refered to that inexhaustable treasure trove of insipid ideas, the one and only Odie Fish?

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 13 Jan 05 - 08:06 PM

Mrrzy: Written Japanese might not have special symbols for vowels, but spoken Japanese certainly has vowel sounds, don't you think?

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: Bert
Date: 13 Jan 05 - 08:12 PM

Mack,

Some did cover the point

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: pdq
Date: 13 Jan 05 - 08:23 PM

...from Merriam-Webster OnLine:

"Main Entry:        vow·el
Pronunciation:        'vau(-&)l
Function:        noun
Etymology:        Middle English, from Middle French vouel, from Latin vocalis -- more at VOCALIC
1 : one of a class of speech sounds in the articulation of which the oral part of the breath channel is not blocked and is not constricted enough to cause audible friction; broadly : the one most prominent sound in a syllable
2 : a letter or other symbol representing a vowel -- usually used in English of a, e, i, o, u, and sometimes y "

A vowel is a sound first, the symbol for that sound second.

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: GUEST
Date: 13 Jan 05 - 08:51 PM

William Bligh was involved in three mutinies, none of which were through his fault.

The famous 'Mutiny on the Bounty' came about because Fletcher Christian was a pretentious wimp who couldn't deal with being treated as a junior officer (he was only a warrent officer *acting* as an officer for the cruise+) and by the mens' reluctance to leave Tahiti.
The second was the 'Spithead' mutiny, where the whole fleet effectively went on strike for better conditions (When other Captains were being replaced as part of the settlement, Bligh was welcomed back on board his ship with cheers from the crew).
A third 'mutiny' related to trying to stamp out corruption in the Military as Governor of New South Wales (something to do with rum IIRC).

Bligh was a cartographer, partly trained by Cook (and present on Cook's last voyage, I believe)and some of his maps were still in use late into the 19th Century.

Walrus


+The early accounts of the Mutiny were published by friend/members of the Christian family who naturally pushed the blame elsewhere.

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: mack/misophist
Date: 14 Jan 05 - 01:05 AM

On rare occasions, 'w' may also be a vowel; such as 'cwm'.

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: HuwG
Date: 14 Jan 05 - 12:47 PM

The word "cwm" is Welsh (meaning vale, or glacial corrie). In Welsh, "w" is always a vowel, pronounced as "oo" or "u".

(In Welsh, "u" is usually pronounced as "i". "y" is pronounced either as an "i" or a "u".)

Where Welsh words have been borrowed by English, half the vowels have usually been discarded e.g. "glib", meaning slippery, insincere or superficial, derives from the Welsh "gwlyb" (f. "wleb"), meaning wet.

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: Maija
Date: 14 Jan 05 - 02:54 PM

>>It's impossible to lick your elbow

The youngest son in the house just proved this theory wrong.

>>And undignified to try....

That's why I made him try and didn't try it myself ;)


Shane MacGowan once tried to eat a Beach Boys vinyl record.

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: beadie
Date: 14 Jan 05 - 04:05 PM

Actually, Auggie, it was the esteemed Gordie Roseleip of Darlington . . . the farmers' friend and the bane of welfare mothers.

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: mack/misophist
Date: 15 Jan 05 - 02:15 PM

To pdq, in re Japanese:

You are incorrect, I fear. For example, the Japanese word for foreigner, stranger, "other-person" is gaijin. Most do seem to end in vowels, though.

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: GUEST
Date: 16 Jan 05 - 04:31 AM

When counting in Japanese, "three" = "san"

Doug c

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: Cluin
Date: 17 Jan 05 - 12:40 AM

Norville Rogers was the real name of "Shaggy" from the Scooby Doo cartoon (voice by Casey Kasem).   

"Like WOW, man!"

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: Teresa
Date: 17 Jan 05 - 01:25 AM

Using one to six dots for each character, Braille has a maximum of sixty-three possible characters. There are "shorthand" type characters that make up the balance in addition to the alphabet.

Teresa

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: Auggie
Date: 17 Jan 05 - 11:25 AM

Lipstick

Never 'Banned in Boston', but once the New York Board of Health considered making it illegal (the year was 1924) because at the time its composition, mainly beeswax for stiffness, olive oil for flow, and crushed, dried insect corpses for color was thought by some to be a health hazard, and not to just the wearer, but even to those who were kissed.

Still ache to kiss those ruby red lips? Well, Fear Not. By the late 20th century, Modern Science had completely reformulated the product.

Today's product contains a weak acid which actually reddens the lips, castor oil to carry the acid, animal &/or vegetable oils and soap to allow the first two to be smeared around, petroleum based wax to make it rigid enough to be sold as a stick rather than a cream, food preservatives to keep the oils from going rancid, perfume to mask the caster oil smell, and synthetic dyes (often aluminum and coal tar among others)to color the product itself.

Oh yeah, one more thing. The shiny iridescent quality? It's from dried, ground fish scales soaked in ammonia.

Ain't modern life grand?

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: Bert
Date: 18 Jan 05 - 12:16 AM

If blind people changed Braille to eight dots then they could use extended ASCII and computer people would be able to read it.

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: GUEST
Date: 18 Jan 05 - 01:26 AM

Some reports have it that in 1865, Otto von Bismarck challenged Virchow to a duel, but Virchow declined. (This would have given him 12 years to think up what he SHOULD have said, and then actually get the chance to use it in 1877)

(Posting anonymously so as not to appear a would-be know-it-all, trivia-hounding freak, looking for an upset... The Virchow anecdote about trichinosis *is* published, in Bartlett's Book of Anecdotes. This other version (about rearmament and forced unification), I have only seen on the web.)

I leave resolution of the discrepancy to other useless-truth seekers.

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: Teresa
Date: 18 Jan 05 - 02:05 AM

Indeed, there is eight-dot computer braille.

Teresa

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: GUEST,Auggie
Date: 18 Jan 05 - 08:51 AM

Actually Guest, the other account is published as well, and not on the web. But since you're the would be know it all trivia freak, I'll let you go find the source. Have fun.

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: GUEST
Date: 18 Jan 05 - 09:00 AM

It's about time I had a cuppa tea

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: Crystal
Date: 18 Jan 05 - 12:08 PM

on being told that it is impossible to lick your elbow a significant proportion of people will try.

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: Bunnahabhain
Date: 18 Jan 05 - 12:29 PM

The impossibility of licking elbows is clearly a fascinating subject for the entirley normal section of the poulation reperesented by mudcat users....


and the rest of us

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: GUEST
Date: 18 Jan 05 - 04:44 PM

I'm sorry Auggie. It was a fascinating anecdote, and, as I said, you were entirely justified in relaying it. I just thought that you, I, and anyone else who might be likely to relay it further would want to know there was something fishy about that sausage story, even though it could be true.

If you already knew that the guy had weinered out of an earlier duel challenge from the very same von Bismarck, I'm sorry for submitting a useless fact, but I'm surprised you would deem that unworthy of mention in the clever weiner duel.

(I spent a much longer time researching and learning about Roman plywood, BTW, which amazed me just as much.)

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: Auggie
Date: 18 Jan 05 - 09:16 PM

Dear Guest
No Harm, No foul.
Actually it's been a great day. Passed my 4 year post-cancer surgery check up today with no problems, so very little on the web could upset me. As to the veracity of my version, I've found it published my way twice (now that you've had me looking) but perhaps both were in error as one seems to have been cribbed from the other just as I cribbed it from the first source.
After all, if all it took to ensure veracity was repetition, I would be repeating "I won the lottery" over and over till it was true. Actually, after my MD's report today, I do feel like I've won the lottery.
I bow to your trivia expertise (but don't begin to challenge an ex-chemist on lipstick).

Best Regards

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: GUEST
Date: 18 Jan 05 - 09:42 PM

If it's trivial, I'm interested. And congratulations!

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: mack/misophist
Date: 18 Jan 05 - 11:59 PM

To get back on the trivia track: even though jade is intimately associated with Chinese culture, there are no notable jade deposits within Chine. None closer than the Amur river at the border.

Jadite, the good looking, colourful stuff, was only introduced in 1748, IIRC, and came primarily from Myanmar (Burma). It first appeared at the Imperial Jade Market in Peking and immediately put nephrite out of the running.

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: GUEST
Date: 19 Jan 05 - 12:15 AM

Well, that one was boring. But usually I'm interested!

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: mack/misophist
Date: 19 Jan 05 - 04:30 PM

Australia has more deadly creatures than any other continent.

Bill Gates said spam will cease to be a problem by the end of this year.

There is one operating system that boasts of a perfect security record.

Roman soldiers were exempt from most battlefield diseases because they were forbidden to drink water. It was wine or vinegar.

For almost a century, the czar owned the rarest gemstones in the world, the only ones of their type.

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: GUEST,Sidewinder
Date: 19 Jan 05 - 09:08 PM

Laurel & Hardy made almost a hundred films together but only won 1 Oscar for a comedy short titled "The Music Box" were they transport a piano up a flight of stairs with hilarious consequences.

Regards.

Sidewinder.

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 19 Jan 05 - 10:01 PM

The scientific name for Yaupon Holly is Ilex vomitoria, so named because some American Indian tribes used it to brew a tea which was used to induce ritual vomitting. It has no known psychotropic effect. It just makes you puke.

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: Cluin
Date: 19 Jan 05 - 10:11 PM

Saliva causes cancer.

But only when swallowed in small amounts over a long period of time.

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: GUEST,Sidewinder
Date: 20 Jan 05 - 07:59 AM

It took the Pharoah Snefaru three attempts to build his burial pyramid finally locating at Giza where his son and grandsons pyramids are located nearby.

Regards

Sidewinder.

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: susu
Date: 20 Jan 05 - 09:44 AM

Cluin, where did you get that? Everyone swallows trace amounts of saliva several times a day most people are not even aware they are doing it, otherwise you would choke. Not only that but you have to swallow saliva when you eat or drink. Your saliva (along with chewing)is the first step to digestion. I am pretty sure that saliva is no match for the acid in your stomach that begins the next chemical step of digestion. I never heard that in nursing school, the only ting I remember about any link to saliva and cancer was that saliva may be used to detect oral cancer and that RNA from saliva ofter show biomarkers for head and neck cancer.

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: Torctgyd
Date: 20 Jan 05 - 10:43 AM

Shah also comes from Ceasar

Bananas growing on a banana tree have the fingers pointing upwards

10CC and The Lovin' Spoonfull got there names from the volume of ejaculate of a man at orgasm

Steam is invisible (what you see is condensed steam - water)

America is named after a Welsh born Bristolian called John Americk not Amerigo Vespucci (who else who wasn't a saint or a monarch had something named after their first name since surnames came into being - no one!!) controversial but true!!!

In the Wild West the Colt 45 was used more often as a hammer than anything else.

Father Christmas/Santa Claus now wears red rather than green thanks to Coke adverts from the 1920's

New York is further south than Rome

If George Washington hadn't been turned down for a commision in the British Armed Forces he would have fought on the Loyalist side.

Canadians really do like being called Americans

Having one great great great great grandparent from Ireland makes you Irish and eligible to play for their soccer team

London used to have a thoroughfare where prostitutes plied their trade as Grope C**t Lane, was this derived from the need to check the sex of the prostitute first?

Golf is definitely a good walk ruined

The swastika is a symbol of peace and good luck

Hurricanes shot down almost twice as many enemy aircraft as Spitfires in the Battle Of Britain

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: GUEST,Bill the Collie
Date: 20 Jan 05 - 10:59 AM

The medicinal-tasting throat-sweety thingy "Fishermens friends" used to contain chloroform.

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: Bert
Date: 20 Jan 05 - 11:34 AM

The Duke of Wellington was pro American so they didn't send him to fight in the war of 1812.

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: Cluin
Date: 20 Jan 05 - 12:22 PM

susu, I got the saliva fact from George Carlin.

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: pdq
Date: 20 Jan 05 - 12:28 PM

The earth is not round. It is more acurately termed an 'oblate spheroid'.

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: open mike
Date: 20 Jan 05 - 01:42 PM

those crushed insects said to have colored lipstick were most likely cochineal, which are a form of "scale" . Cochineal is ofen used in dyeing wool and other fibers. http://www.botgard.ucla.edu/html/botanytextbooks/economicbotany/Cochineal/
http://www.allfiberarts.com/library/howto/ht00/how_dye_cochineal.htm
http://www.bell.lib.umn.edu/Products/cochinea.html
oh by the way, " natural dye obtained from an extract of the bodies of the females of the cochineal bug (Dactylopius confusus)"

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: Bert
Date: 20 Jan 05 - 01:49 PM

The earth is not round, around here in Colorado either, it's kinda bumpy.

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: mack/misophist
Date: 21 Jan 05 - 12:48 AM

The first notable use of a pre-fab structure was when Willie the Conqueror's boys landed in Pevensey. They assembled a wooden fort to protect the horses.

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: ToulouseCruise
Date: 21 Jan 05 - 09:59 AM

Torctgyd -- No, Canadians do NOT like being called Americans. It is both because of our own pride in our own nation, along with SOME (not all) negative feelings on a global scale associated with the US.

okay, maybe I generalized... *I* am a Canadian who doesn't like being called an American.

Brian

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: mack/misophist
Date: 21 Jan 05 - 10:50 AM

And I am an American who doesn't mind being called a Canadian. After all, they're nice people, eh?

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: Torctgyd
Date: 21 Jan 05 - 11:20 AM

Toulousecruise,

Couldn't resist putting that one in, a best friend at university was Canadian and she was so easy to wind up by being called American but as I used to point out to her she is, beyond dispute, American as I am European (boo hiss)

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: ToulouseCruise
Date: 21 Jan 05 - 11:42 AM

Explanation accepted... hell, it got the reaction you wanted too, so Cheers eh!

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 22 Jan 05 - 10:53 AM

Torctgyd:
Hurricanes shot down almost twice as many enemy aircraft as Spitfires in the Battle Of Britain

Please be a little more precise, how many spitfires did the hurricanes shoot down? and how many enemy aircraft?

Nigel

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: RangerSteve
Date: 22 Jan 05 - 12:59 PM

There is an obsolete French word (I don't know what it is) for white squirrel fur that is very similar to the french word for glass. Charles Perrault (sp?) got the two words confused while writing down the tale of Cinderella, which explains how she ended up with those impossible slippers.

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 22 Jan 05 - 01:40 PM

Ranger Steve:

Somewhat debunked at This Site
One reads on occasion that the slipper was mis-translated from Charles Perrault's original tale which formed part of his Mother Goose tales. (Contes de ma mere l'oye -1697). But Perrault writes clearly of a pantoufle de verre (glass slipper). So it appears that Perrault knew of what he wrote: Glass (verre) not fur (vair).

Rawson in his book Devious Derivations says that the word, vair, was not used when Perrault was spinning tales. So, he says, it is doubtful that it was a mis-translation from some oral account of the story. Which doesn't mean that Perrault didn't know of the fur connection. If he did he was having a grand time playing a word game.

CHEERS

Nigel

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 23 Jan 05 - 05:21 AM

Pigs can orgasm for 40 minutes.

Lions can copulate up to 80 times a day.

Which would you rather be?

LTS



Oink

Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
From: Cluin
Date: 23 Jan 05 - 12:11 PM

Depends how lazy you are.

Me, I'd go for the workout.