AWESOME FACTS ABOUT EVERYTHING - CXXXV

1. The Cure for Insomnia is a 1987 experimental film directed by John Henry Timmis IV, which is, according to Guinness World Records, the longest running film in history. At 87 hours long, the film has no plot, instead consisting of artist L.D. Groban reading his 4,080-page poem A Cure for Insomnia over the course of three and a half days, spliced with occasional clips of heavy metal and pornographic videos.

It was first played in its entirety at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, from January 31  to February 3, 1987, in one continuous showing. It has not been released on DVD or other home video formats, and all known copies are considered to be lost.

2. The state song of Florida is "Swanee River" and the state song of Louisiana is "You Are My Sunhsine."

3. Joe DiMaggio was the first athlete to earn $100,000 a year in a major sport (baseball) in 1949.

4. Diners Club issued the original credit card in 1950. It was cardboard with the owner's name embossed on it.

5. The panda "bear" is not a bear but a member of the raccoon family.

6. In his movie, 2001:A Space Odyssey, Stanley Kubrick chose the name HAL for the computer - the three letters respectively being one letter before I-B-M in the alphabet.

7. DUMBO is an acronym for Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass - a waterfront neighborhood located on the East River between the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges. It is one of Brooklyn's most visited neighborhoods, famous for its iconic view of the Manhattan Bridge and the New York skyline, its trendy shops and restaurants, and a thriving art and performance scene.

8. The street names in the original Monopoly game were the names of real streets in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

9. According to the OED, publicly is the most commonly misspelled word in the English language.

10. There are an estimated 20 quadrillion ants worldwide (20,000,000,000,000,000,000).