AWESOME FACTS ABOUT EVERYTHING CLXIII

1. In secular song, the lute was used to accompany the voice for centuries before keyboard instruments became common.

2. A right triangle with sides of 1 has a hypotenuse = the square root of two - which is an irrational number (1.41421356 ........). Its decimal places go on forever. This was extremely upsetting to the ancient Greeks who valued exactness and symmetry.

3. While traditional Western pizza toppings like pepperoni are also found in Russia, the most distinctively popular and iconic pizza style is the Mockba. The Mockba features a topping of cold-served fish, including sardines, mackerel, tuna, and salmon - along with onions. 

4. A shark is born with a full set of teeth. 

5. According to Google Data - Word Searches, the most commonly confused word pair is AFFECT and EFFECT.  

6. The word MANDARIN is made up four consecutive U.S. state postal abbreviations. 

7. English is the most widely spoken language in the world when considering both native and non-native speakers - with around 1.5 billion speakers in 2025. This is due to its global influence and use as the language of finance. Mandarin Chinese has the most native speakers with over 918 million people speaking it as their first language.  

8. You are never farther than 30 steps from a trash can at Disney World.

9. Pilots and co-pilots are required to eat different meals before flights to prevent food poisoning.  

10. Tug-of-War was an official sport at the Summer Olympics from 1900-1920, appearing in five Olympic Games.  

AWESOME FACTS ABOUT EVERYTHING CLXII

1. Hurricane Bob in 1979 was not a particularly destructive storm, but it stands out as the first ""HIMicane". Until Bob, all hurricanes were given women's names.  

2. A one-block stretch of Ninth Ave. between 15th and 16th Streets in Manhattan is named Oreo Way. The first Oreo cookies were manufactured in 1912 in the former Nabisco headquarters on that block.

3. Mozambique is the only country in the world whose name contains all five vowels.

4. Next to Warsaw, Chicago has the largest Polish population in the world.

5. More than half of the entire US coastline is in Alaska.

6. The national anthem of Spain has no words.

7. The cardinal is the state bird of seven US states.

8. Newly-elected Pope Leo XIV (Robert Prevost) graduated from Villanova University in Pennsylvania in 1977 with a BS degree in mathematics. 

 

AWESOME FACTS ABOUT EVERYTHING CLXI 

1. The Channel Islands (not the ones off the coast of Southern California) are an archipelago in the English Channel off the Normandy coast of France. They are independent territorial dependencies of the British Crown, but do not identify as either French or British. The two main islands are Jersey and Guernsey - namesakes of the two breeds of cows native to these two islands.

2. The Choctaw Native American Indian Nation shares a unique and enduring bond with Ireland. Despite their own hardships following the Trail of Tears, the Choctaw Nation raised money to send to Ireland during the devastating potato famine of 1847. Impoverished and marginalized themselves, with no connection to Ireland, they gave of their want to relieve the suffering of starving men, women an children in Ireland. This act of compassion has been commemorated and celebrated by both nations, fostering a lasting connection and mutual respect. The Kindred Spirits monument in Midleton, County Cork, Ireland is specifically dedicated to the Choctaw, but also serves as a broader symbol of the enduring connection between the Irish and Native American peoples, particularly their shared values of compassion and generosity. The monument features nine stainless steel feathers arranged in a circle resembling an empty bowl. 

3. The city of Santa Fe was founded by the Spanish on 1610 - 20 years before Boston. The Palace of the Governors, situated on the north side of the historic Santa Fe plaza, is the oldest standing public building in the United States.

4. Sigmatism is the speech impediment known as the lisp. It takes its name from the Greek letter S - Sigma. 

5. A goat rodeo is a metaphor for chaos and pandemonium

6. The voice organ of birds and the musical instrument know as the panpipes are both called syrinx.

7. There is no word in the Chinese language equivalent to the word THE in English.

8. Provo, Utah is named after Etienne Provost, a French-Canadian fur trapper and explorer. 

9. A needle drop, in the context of film or television, refers to the use of a pre-existing, licensed song in a scene - often to enhance the emotional impact or establish a specific mood. The term originates from the physical act of dropping a needle on a vinyl record to play music.

AWESOME FACTS ABOUT EVERYTHING CLX

1. A lover of words and wordplay is a logophile.

2. A lover of rainy days is a pluvophile.

3.  Phonopobia is the fear of loud sounds.

4. Salt was a term for wit in ancient Athens, and the Romans coined the phrase attic salt to describe the kind of elegant, clever, and understated wit the Athenians were known for.

5. Jackie Robinson's iconic #15 was retired across all of Major League Baseball in his honor in 1997, making him the first professional athlete in any sport to receive this distinction. April 15 is Jackie Robinson Day - celebrating April 15, 1947 - the day Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier and ended 80 years of racial segregation in baseball. It is celebrated in every major league park hosting a game that day.

6. Stir is another word for prison, and the basis of the expression "stir crazy".

7. "Pink collar" is a term used to describe jobs traditionally associated with women

8. "The Green Monster" in baseball is the 37'2" high wall in left field at Fenway Park, home of the Boston Red Sox. The wall significantly affects play, as many hits that would be home runs in other parks bounce off the wall and become doubles or singles.

9. TIM the Beaver is the mascot of MIT - because the beaver is nature's engineer. 

10. In the context of books and documents, "recto" and "verso" refer respectively to the front and back sides of a sheet of paper, single page, or leaf of a book.  Recto refers to the right-hand page of an open book, and verso to the left-hand page. 

AWESOME FACTS ABOUT EVERYTHING CLIX

1. Cherophobia is the fear of happiness

2. An arctophile is a collector and lover of teddy bears

3. Norma McCorvey (1947-2017) was the Jane Roe in the landmark 1973 American legal case Roe v. Wade.

4. An adult male kangaroo is called a boomer - making its young (joey) a baby boomer.

5. Edgar Allan Poe rhymed 19 different words with "Lenore" in his poem, "The Raven".

6. Quito, Ecuador is 9,350 feet above sea level - making it the second highest capital city in the world. (The highest - by far - is La Paz, Bolivia at 11,942 feet.) 

7. According to various polls and surveys and Instacart Research Grocery Shopping Data, the three most hated foods in America are (in order of most hated): 

     1. Anchovies

     2. Black licorice

     3. Oysters

Among the other most hated foods are: beets, blue cheese, okra, mushrooms, brussel sprouts, and liver. 

 

8. A trolley problem is a thought experiment in ethics and moral philosophy. It presents a scenario where a runaway trolley is headed for five people, and the only way to save them is to switch the trolley to another track, where it will kill one person instead. The dilemma forces individuals to confront difficult questions about moral obligations, the value of life, and the consequences of their actions. 

 

9.  Minuscule means extremely small or tiny, but it also means the letters of the alphabet printed in lower case. The letters when printed in upper case (capitals) are referred to as majuscule.

 

10. The Mazda Miata MX-5 is the best-selling two-seat sports car in history, a distinction recognized by Guinness World Records. 

 

  

AWESOME FACTS ABOUT EVERYTHING CLVIII

1. 40% of all insects are beetles.

2. Female mules are sterile.

3. President Warren Harding's middle name was Gamaliel.

4. Issei, Nisei, and Sansei are Japanese terms to describe generations of immigrants. Issei refers to the first-generation Japanese immigrants who were born in Japan and later emigrated. Nisei are the second generation, born in the new country to Issei parents, and are thus native-born citizens. Sansei are the third generation, born to Nisei parents.

5. Swedish DIY giant IKEA is headquartered in The Netherlands.

6. The Iliad by Homer is a poem of 16,000 lines. 

7. Steve Jobs and Simon Biles are adoptees.

8. Presidents Truman, Reagan, Clinton, and Obama were all left-handed.

9. The final words on Martin Luther King Jr.'s gravestone are Free At Last. 

10. "Shoulder seasons" are the months in which fewer people travel and the prices are lower - Spring (before the summer rush) and Fall (before the Christmas season).

 

AWESOME FACTS ABOUT EVERYTHING CLVII

1. Babe Ruth played his last major league season in 1935 for the Boston Braves. He played a few games for them after leaving the New York Yankees following the 1934 season.

2. One third of The Netherlands is below sea level.

3. Gretna Green is the Las Vegas of Scotland - known for its tradition of "runaway marriages" dating back to the 18th century. 

4. Sunni Islam is the world's largest religious denomination.

5. Halal and haram are the Muslin equivalent of kosher and non kosher (tref) to Jews.

6. The odds of being dealt a royal flush are 1 in 2,598,960 

7. One of the Three Magi would be a Magus.

8. Charlie Chaplin was essentially deported from the United States during the Red Scare of 1952. The FBI accused him of having Communist sympathies and being "a menace to womanhood." Though all charges were dropped, Chaplin refused to appeal his case. He and his family settled in Switzerland and did not return to the United States for twenty years.

9. Senegal is the western-most country in Africa.

10. Superman's birth name was Kal-El. His adoptive parents on Earth, Martha and Jonathan Kent, gave him the name Clark Kent.

 

AWESOME FACTS ABOUT EVERYTHING CLVI

1. According to Food Industry News, the top pizza seller is Pizza Hut, followed by Domino's and Papa Johns.

2. The aptly named swift is a superb flyer. Sleeping, eating, bathing, and even mating on the wing, swifts rarely touch the ground. They are the fastest birds in level flight, with a top speed of 69 miles per hour

3. "I gotta talk to a man about a horse" is a discreet way for a man to excuse himself to go to the bathroom.  It's associated with Texans today, but its origin is murky - thought by many to have originated in the United Kingdom.

4. Blue Zones are regions of unusually high concentrations of people who live 100 years or more. Researchers have identified five main Blue Zones: 

Okinawa, Japan

Ikaria, Greece

Loma Linda, California

Sardinia, Italy

Nicoya Peninsula, Costa Rica

People in these areas exhibit longer lifespans and lower rates of chronic diseases, often attributed to factors like diet, community, and lifestyle. 

5. Add Samuel Plimsoll (1824-98) to the list of unsung heroes.  The English politician's efforts led to the Merchant Shipping Act of 1876, ending the practice of sending to sea over-loaded and heavily insured old ships, from which the owners profited if they sank. The Plimsoll line is a reference mark locate on a ship's hull that indicates the maximum depth to which a vessel may be immersed to prevent them from being over-loaded and sinking. It is thought that Plimsoll saved the lives of thousands of sailors.

 

6. Japan's total area is about the size of California. It has 14,125 islands, 80% of them covered by mountains.

 

7. Margaret Hamilton, the Wicked Witch in The Wizard of Oz, was a kindergarten teacher before she began her acting career.  

8. Toto, Dorothy's dog in The Wizard of Oz, was a female cairn terrier. 

9. The colon is the monetary unit of Costa Rica, named after Christopher Columbus (Cristobal Colon in Spanish). 500 colones = 1 US dollar.

10. Pan Am was the first carrier of trans-Atlantic airmail - in 1939.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

AWESOME FACTS ABOUT EVERYTHING CLV

1. Janette Rankin was the first woman ever elected to Congress in the United States - to the House of Representatives in 1916 from Montana. A life-long pacifist and advocate for the rights of women and children, she was one of 50 members of Congress who voted again entry into WW I. Re-elected in 1940, she was the only member of Congress to vote against entering WWII (suspecting as others did that Roosevelt had ulterior motives). She said, "I may be the first woman elected to Congress, but I won't be the last." She was right about that, but ironically not a single woman from Montana has been elected to Congress since Janette Rankin.

2. The title Czar refers back to Julius Caesar.

3. Abraham Lincoln was a highly-regarded wrestler - losing only one of 300 matches.

4. The Continental Plates generally move at a rate of a few centimeters per year - roughly the speed at which fingernails grow.

5. The Florida Keys Overseas Highway is considered by some to be the Eighth Wonder of the World - spanning 800 keys over 113 miles of open ocean - from the mainland to Key West. 

6. The "belly button" of the surface of the Earth is where the Equator meets the Prime Meridian - located in the South Atlantic Ocean at an imaginary place called Null Island (0 degrees latitude - 0 degrees longitude - hence the Null). Null Island is not an actual land mass, but a point used in geospatial data (there's a buoy floating there to mark the spot). The point on the Earth closest to everyone in the world, on average, is in Central Asia. The farthest point from everyone on earth is near Easter Island in the South Pacific.7

7. Hurricane names are chosen from six, pre-determined rotating lists maintained by The National Hurricane Center and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). Each list contains names starting with 21 letters of the alphabet, alternating between male and female names. The letters Q, U, X, Y, and Z are not used because of the shortage of names starting with those letters. The lists are rotated every six years, so the names used in 2024 will be re-used in 2030. The names of particularly devastating hurricanes, like Andrew and Katrina, are taken off the list and never used again.

8. The 1913 Gettysburg Reunion commemorating the 50th anniversary of the historic battle and turning point of the Civil War (July 1-3, 1863), drew 54,407 veterans (about 8,750 Confederate). Despite concerns "that there might be unpleasant differences, at least, between the blue and the gray", the peaceful reunion was characterized by Union-Confederate camaraderie. President Wilson's July 4th address summarized the spirit: "We have found one another again as comrades and brothers in arms, enemies no longer, generous friends rather, our battles long past, the quarrel forgotten - except that we shall not forget your splendid valor."

In either creating or literally fulfilling the idiom, two veterans left the reunion and went into town and bought a hatchet. They walked to where their regiments had met and buried it.

 

 

AWESOME FACTS ABOUT EVERYTHING CLIV 

1. Tootsie Rolls played a major part in the Korean War. During the brutal battle of Chosin Reservoir in the winter of 1950, the Marines were vastly outnumbered by Chinese Communist forces. In desperate need of supplies and out of ammunition, they requested 60mm mortar rounds by radio using the code word "Tootsie Rolls". The Air Force, misunderstanding the code, sent an airdrop of actual Tootsie Roll candies. While not the ammunition they needed, the Tootsie Rolls were a life-saving gift for the Marines. Able to survive the freezing temperatures, they provided sustenance and energy for the Marines and were a huge morale boost from home. They were even used to plug bullet holes in radiators, so equipment could be moved out of harm's way. The Chosin Reservoir Tootsie Roll airdrop is a legend in Marine history. To this day, the men of the 1st Marine Division who fought there (The Chosin Few) have an abiding affection for "the best candy in the world" and a representative of the Tootsie Roll company attends their annual re-unions to honor their service.

2. San Jose is the most popular place name in the world - 1,700+

3. The three most common city names in the United States are Washington, Franklin, and Springfield.

4. Harry Burnett Reese invented the Reese's Peanut Butter Cup. Formerly with Hershey, he invented the iconic candy when in business by himself in Pennsylvania in 1928.  He and his wife Edna had 16 children (8 sons and 8 daughters). The six surviving sons sold the company to Hershey in 1963. Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and Snickers are the two most popular candy bars in the world.

5. The name Molly Pitcher is the nickname associated with Mary Ludwig Hays McCauley. Her story tells of a woman who delivered water to soldiers during the Battle of Monmouth in the Revolutionary War, and later took her husband's place at a cannon when he was wounded. Truth or myth, the name Molly Pitcher is one given to all women who did the exhaustive work of supplying water to soldiers in the heat of combat and otherwise served with courage in the Revolutionary War. 

6. The K in K-rations stands for Ancel Keys, a physiologist and public health scientist, who developed the compact and nutritious meal ration used by the U.S. military during World War II. 

7. Ed Lowe invented cat litter in 1947. He named his product Kitty Letter - a phrase that has become generic for cat litter. Before Lowe's invention, people had to keep their cats outside where they did their business using sand and ashes - which they then tracked through the house. Cat litter allowed owners to keep their cats inside.

8. Sara Lee is Sara Lee Lubin, namesake daughter of Charles W. Lubin, who organized the Kitchens of Sara Lee in 1950.

9. Digitalis is a plant commonly known as the foxglove. Digoxin and digitalis are medicines made from the digitalis (foxglove) plant. They are used to treat certain heart conditions.

10. The beloved image of Cinderella slipping her delicate foot into the glass slipper has a brutal history. The Cinderella story is found in many cultures, one of the oldest being that of China. In the Chinese Cinderella, her small feet were the result of foot binding - a tradition practiced in China for centuries. It involved binding the feet of young girls to restrict their growth and create smaller, more delicate feet - considered a symbol of beauty and status. A size of 4 inches (10 centimeters) was considered ideal - the golden lotus. (A woman who wears a size 6 American shoe [relatively small feet] has a foot length of about 8 inches.) A foot length longer than 13 centimeters (a little over 5 inches) was called an iron lotus. Chinese men did not like "big" feet on women.

AWESOME FACTS ABOUT EVERYTHING CLIII

1. Reno, Nevada is west of Los Angeles.

2. The umbrella is 3,000 years old.

3. A freeegan is a person who opposes consumerism and waste and, as a protest, eats discarded food - as from dumpsters.

4. The difference between people who have easy access to computers and those who don't is called the Digital Divide.

5. An episode of Peppa Pig, a children's animated cartoon, was pulled from Australian TV because it taught children not to fear spiders. (Australia has some of the world's most venemous spiders.)

6. Barcelona, Spain has hundreds of play areas for seniors - to promote fitness and combat loneliness.

7. The Lego House is a 12,000-square-meter building filled with 25 million Lego bricks in Billund, Denmark. Under the house is a temperature-controlled vault containing every Lego set ever made. 

8. In 1999, the U.S. government paid 16 million dollars to the Zapruder family for the film of John F. Kennedy's assassination, on November 22, 1963 - calling it a "unique historical archive of unprecedented worth."

9. Wisconsin is called the Badger State because lead miners spent winters in tunnels burrowed into hills - like badgers.

10. The expression "care package" means a box or package of goodies sent or given to another, often one who is away - as a college student or one in the military. In the original care package, CARE was an acronym for Co-operative for American Remittances to Europe, a relief organization which arranged aid packages after World War II - also known as Co-operative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere. The project began in 1945 and the boxes included powdered milk, cheese, rice, and beans - also carpentry tools, blankets, clothes, books, school supplies and medicine. CARE packages were sent as personal contributions toward world peace in a language all could understand. CARE later expanded to other regions in need, including Asia and Latin America. As the need for aid lessened, the idea of the CARE package as a gift of necessities slipped into common parlance as the "care package" - a gift of  treats.

AWESOME FACTS ABOUT EVERYTHING CLII

1. Salvador Dali paid his restaurant bills by check, always making a little drawing on the back. The checks were never cashed.

2. TSUNDOKU is the Japanese word for the stack of books you've purchased but not yet read. It can also mean a person who buys books but has no intention of reading them. 

3. In Japan, it's good luck if a Sumo wrestler makes your baby cry.

4. The ampersand symbol (&) is made up of the letters E and T. ET means "and" in Latin.

5. Boring, Oregon and Dull, Scotland are sister cities.

6. Tipping in Japan is not customary and is actually considered rude. Waitstaff and other workers often politely refuse tips, as exceptional service is viewed as part of the job and not something that warrants extra payment.

7. "Venezuela" means "little Venice" in Spanish, derived from the Italian "Veneziola" - which was inspired by the stilt houses on Lake Maracaibo. They reminded explorer Amerigo Vespucci of Venice - his home city. 

8. There is a name for an ice cream headache (brain freeze):

    SPHENOPALATINE GANGLIONEURALIA

 

9. Before Goosebumps, author R.L. Stine wrote jokes for Bazooka Joe wrappers.

 

10. The Hawaiian alphabet has 13 letters: the vowels A, E, I, O, U, the consonants H, K, L, M, N, P, W, and the OKINA. The okina (represented by a reverse apostrophe) is a break in the flow of sound and is considered a consonant. The okina can be seen in the longest Hawaiian word - which is also the name of Hawaii's state fish: HUMUHUMUNUKUNUKUAPUA`A.

    

 

 

AWESOME FACTS ABOUT EVERYTHING CLI

1. St. Helena is a group of three profoundly remote islands in the south Atlantic Ocean. The islands are St. Helena, Ascension, and Tristan da Cunha. The three British territories are located roughly midway between the east coast of South America and the west coast of Africa. Tristan da Cunha is considered the most remote inhabited island on earth. It is considered more remote than Hawaii because the Hawaiian islands are fairly close to other islands. Tristan da Cunha stands alone. 

2. In terms of distance from major land masses, Hawaii is the most remote archipelago on earth - 2,930 miles form the U.S. and 4,000 miles form Japan. 

 

3. The Pacific Ocean extends form Indonesia to Colombia, South America - a distance of 12,300 miles. It covers an area of 63,800,000 square miles - 46% of the earth's surface - an area greater than all the land masses combined.

 

4. The fourth state of matter, after solid, liquid, and gas is plasma.

 

5. After the first roll in bowling, a pin that is partially concealed by another pin right in front of it is called a sleeper.

 

6. Correct pronunciations:

    NUTELLA - NEW TELL UH

    PORSCHE - PORSH - UH

    HYUNDAI - HUN - DAY

 

7. A 19-mile long dam has protected the Netherlands for more than 90 years by sealing off the Zuiderzee from the North Sea. Its name - AFSLUITDIJK

 

8. SPAM - meaning unsolicited electronic communication - is generally agreed to have originated with a Monty Python sketch televised on December 25, 1970. In the sketch, a man and his wife are lowered by wires into a greasy spoon where a group of Vikings with horned helmets are eating. When the man asks for the menu, every dish (and there a lot of them) contains SPAM. The Vikings then begin chanting SPAM, SPAM, SPAM. SPAM is repeated at least 132 times in the sketch. The repetition mirrors the intrusive nature of unwanted emails.

 

AWESOME FACTS ABOUT EVERYTHING CL 

1. A scull is not a racing boat. The boat is called a shell and a scull is one of a pair of oars used by each rower.

2. Gethsemane means olive press.

3. The age limit for Little League Baseball is 16. 

4. The diocese that include the Vatican is called the Holy See.

5. SNOG is the British word for kissing and cuddling.

6. In parts of Canada, a corn dog is called a POGO.

7. The only Olympian to win a Nobel Prize was Philip Noel-Baker - silver medal in the 1500 meter race in the 1920 Olympics and the Nobel Peace Prize in 1959 for his work as a British diplomat for nuclear disarmament.

8. Gum Arabic is derived from the bark of the Acacia tree of Africa, and its uses go back to Biblical times. It's edible, tasteless, and odorless, and is still used today in many industries - including food, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics - and postage stamps. 

9. James Christopher Harrison (12/27/36 - 2/17/2025) was an Australian blood plasma donor who is credited with saving the lives of 2 million babies. In 1951, at the age of 14, he underwent major chest surgery that required a large amount of donated blood. Despite his fear of needles, he made a pledge to give back by donating blood as soon as he reached the required age of 18. After his first few donations, it was discovered that his blood contained unusually strong and persistent antibodies that, when processed, could provide life-saving protection against Rh disease in the fetus and new-born babies. Over 57 years Harrison donated his plasma an average of every three weeks. On May 11, 2018 he made his 1,173rd and final donation, in compliance with Australian policy prohibiting blood donations from those past the age of 81. Harrison's dedication may have saved the life of his first grandson, when his own daughter Tracey received injections of her father's antibodies during her pregnancy.

AWESOME FACTS ABOUT EVERYTHING CXLIX

1. The worst nuclear accident in U.S. history occurred on July 16, 1979 in Church Rock, New Mexico when United Nuclear Corporation's tailings disposal pond  at its uranium mill in Church Rock breached its dam. The spill remains the largest release of radioactive material in U.S. history, having released more radioactivity than the Three Mile Island accident four months earlier. The accident received relatively little media attention - being located in a remote area of the Navajo Nation.

2. A guinea pig is not from Guinea and it's not a pig. It's a rodent native to the Andes in South America.

3. The state of Rhode Island touches the water on only one side. 

4. St. Peter's Square is an ellipse.

5. According to the OED (Oxford English Dictionary) the most commonly misspelled word in English is PUBLICLY.

6. POGONOPHOBIA is the fear of beards. 

7. In Botswana, Africa the word for money is the same as the word for rain.

8. The Ninety-Nines (99s) is an international organization of women pilots. Named for its original 99 members, Amelia Earhart was its first president.

9. Arabic numerals originated in India in the 1st-4th century,  were adopted by Arab mathematicians in the 9th century, and introduced to Europe in the  12th century through writings of Middle Eastern mathematicians.

10. Hasbro released a version of Monopoly in 2019 called Ms Monopoly. It features inventions and contributions of women and gives female players "an advantage often enjoyed by men." Women are given $1900 dollars at the beginning of the game and get $240 for passing Go - compared to $1500/200 for men. The Boardwalk is chocolate chip cookies. The game has been highly criticized for being ridiculous and actually demeaning  to women.

AWESOME FACTS ABOUT EVERYTHING CXLVIII

1. Mexico's Independence Day (from Spain) is September 16th (1821) - not May 5th, 1862. May 5th - or Cinco de Mayo - is a celebration of the Mexican victory at the Battle of  Puebla over the French Army, which had invaded Mexico seeking to expand its influence and taking advantage of the distraction caused by the American Civil War.  Cinco de Mayo is widely celebrated in the United States.

2. Abner Doubleday did not invent baseball, and never claimed he had. The long-time theory that Doubleday invented the game in 1839 in his hometown of Cooperstown, NY at the age of 20 has been thoroughly debunked by baseball historians. The reason the National Baseball Hall of Fame is located in Cooperstown is because of the efforts of a local philanthropist, Stephen C. Clark, who wanted to celebrate baseball and boost the economy of the small village. The real "father of baseball" according to historians of the sport is Alexander Cartwright, who published the earliest known rules for the NYC "base ball" club called the Knickerbockers in 1845. 

3. Move over Disneyland and Disney World - the National Amusement Park Historical Association's annual members' survey (Nov. 2024) shows that Dollywood was top in the "amusement park experience"category - followed by 2nd place Disney Parks. Disneyland still has a higher attendance due to its larger scale and wider recognition. Dollywood is named after Dolly Parton, who grew up in the area and invested in the park. It is located in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee - 35 miles SE of Knoxville.

4. The highest and lowest points in the contiguous United States are within 107 miles of each other. Mt. Whitney (14,505 ft. in the Eastern Sierra Nevada near Lone Pine, California) and Badwater Basin, Death Valley (282 feet below sea level).

5. After leaving office, former Presidents are not allowed to:

    a. drive on public streets (the Secret Service drives them),

    b. receive un-inspected mail 

    c. buy their own electronics

 

6. All automobile tail lights are a specified shade of red, with a certain color wave length and intensity mandated by the federal government.

 

7. Excessive and/or unnecessary government regulations and bureaucracy causing delays - RED TAPE - comes from the literal red tape used to bind important documents in the 16th century and earlier. The red tape was used to separate the most important documents and to [ironically] indicate that they required immediate attention.

 

8. The five pillars of Islam:

    Faith (in Allah)

    Prayer

    Fasting

    Almsgiving

    Pilgimmage to Mecca (Hajj) 

9. Window Rock, Arizona is the capital of the Navajo Nation.

 

10. Beatrice Straight won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for five minutes two seconds of screen time in Network - 1976 - delivering a four-minute monologue about her husband having an affair with a much younger woman. Dame Judi Dench won the same award for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth in Shakespeare in Love - 1998 - with eight minutes of screen time.

 

 

AWESOME FACTS ABOUT EVERYTHING CXLVII

1. MIT has an 823-foot hallway that runs through its main buildings. Twice a year the hallway perfectly aligns with the sunset, illuminating its entire length. MIT calls the hallway the Infinite Corridor and they celebrate the alignment twice a year - calling it MIThenge.

2. (Ludwig) Mies van der Rohe (1886-1969), a German-American architect, was a pioneer in the development of modern architecture, epitomizing the International Style. His guiding principle was "Less is more" - encapsulating the essence of minimalism in design and architecture - that simplicity and restraint can often have a more powerful impact than excessive ornamentation or complexity.

3. Mt. Ararat, the Biblical resting place of Noah's Ark, is in present-day Armenia.

4. The "E" in Wile E. Coyote stands for Ethelbert.

5. Folk and country singer John Denver's real name was Henry John Deutschenforf, Jr. He changed his name at the suggestion of Randy Sparks of the New Christy Minstrels who noted that Deutschenforf would not fit comfortably on a marquee

6. The vote to adopt the Declaration of Independence passed on July 2, 1776 - technically making that our Independence Day. Revisions were made and the document was completed on July 4th. The signatures were not collected until August 2, 1776. 

7. Paul Revere did not shout, "The British are coming!" on his famous ride. Many of the colonists still considered themselves British, so this would have been confusing. Historians believe Revere shouted, "The Regulars are coming out!" - that is, the British Army was marching on Lexington. Revere's warning on April 18, 1775 saved John and Samuel Adams whom the British were coming to arrrest.

8. Botanically, the tomato is a fruit, not a vegetable, but it is considered a vegetable by nutritionists.

9. In Tchaikovsky's ballet Swan Lake, the white swan is named Odete and the black swan is Odile. The two roles are traditionally performed by the same dancer.

10. Unsung hero Sylvan Goldman, a grocer and owner of the Humpty Dumpty supermarket chain in Oklahoma, invented the grocery shopping cart in 1937 - changing our world for the better in a practical way.

AWESOME FACTS ABOUT EVERYTHING CXLVI

1. Only married Amish men are allowed to grow beards.

2. The flight deck of an aircraft carrier is one of the most dangerous work places on earth. At 65 feet above the water, a single mistake can cause a sailor to be blown off the deck by the jet blast or sucked into a jet engine.  The catapult cables that launch the jets thrust a 48,000-pound aircraft 300 feet, from zero to 165 miles per hour in two seconds. The ship is always pitching and rolling, and the noise level during takeoff can cause immediate eardrum rupture (without protection) at 150+ decibels.

3. The Great Wall of China was largely funded through a tax on salt.

4. The city and country with the largest number of homeless people is Manila (3,000,000) and its country, the Philippines (4,500,000). 

5. Mel Blanc, known as The Man With 1,000 Voices, voiced Bugs Bunny, Elmer Fudd, Daffy Duck, Wile E. Coyote, Yosemite Sam, and Pepe Le Pew. His epitaph reads "That's All Folks", which was his sign-off at the end of the Looney Tunes cartoons.

6. The Hindu trinity of gods: SHIVA - the destroyer, BRAHMA - the creator, and VISHNU - the preserver,

7. The Bodhi Tree or "tree of awakening" or "tree of enlightenment" refers to the original tree under which Siddhartha Gautama, the spiritual teacher who became known as the Buddha, is said to have attained enlightenment. According to Buddhist texts, the Buddha meditated without moving from his seat for seven weeks (49 days) under this tree. The Bodhi Tree remains a powerful symbol in Buddhism since it represents a human being's capacity to attain enlightenment and find the joy and peace of Nirvana.

8. A "tomato can" is a boxer or fighter with less or diminished skills. A top tier boxer can easily defeat him, and often schedule fights to build up a history of victories.

9.  Q: What do the following philosophers have in common? Plato, Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, Kant, Hume, Hobbes, Locke, Kierkegaard, and Spinoza?

     A: They had no children.

     

 

AWESOME FACTS ABOUT EVERYTHING CXLV

1. Geographically, China spans five time zones. But in 1949, in a symbolic move to unify the country, the Communist party "eliminated" the five zones in favor of "Beijing time" which is still the single time zone in China.

2. Lemurs live in Madagascar and nowhere else on earth. The world's oldest living primates, scientists think lemur ancestors floated across the ocean on islands of vegetation when Madagascar separated from Africa 70 million years ago. 

3. The Mason-Dixon Line is an eponymous demarcation line separating four U.S. states - Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, and West Virginia. It was originally drawn by surveyors Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon between 1763-1767 to settle a border dispute between the British colonies of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Delaware. It was regarded as the symbolic dividing line between the free and slave states before the  Civil War, and may also be the origin of the word "Dixie" for the South.

4. Joining Kleenex, Levi's, and Zipper,  Q-TIP has become generic for any cotton swab.

5. The Mandela Effect is a social phenomenon in which a large number of people believe something that is not true or did not happen - a collective false memory. Coined by paranormal researcher  Fiona Broome, the term reflects Broome's own experience. She was certain that Nelson Mandela died in prison in the 1980's. When she learned this was not true, she dismissed the idea. But she later learned that many people had the same misconception. In fact, Mandela was imprisoned for 27 years (1963 - 1990), but he was released in 1990 and went on to become the first President of South Africa (1994-1999). He died in 2013 at the age of 95. Another example of the Mandela Effect is the common belief that the Wicked Witch in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs says "Mirror, mirror on the wall". In fact, she says "Magic mirror, on the wall.

6. You may never have heard of Richard Drew, but without doubt you have used the product he invented - Scotch tape. Drew invented Scotch tape in 1930 while working as a research assistant at 3M. Drew's invention was the first transparent sticky tape and stands as one of the most practical and pervasive inventions of all time. ("Scotch" is a trademark and refers to the founders of 3M who were of Scottish descent.) 

7. The word "tip" meaning a gratuity may have come from the taverns of 17th-century England. T-I-P might have stood for "To Insure Promptitude."

8.  Few of us keep gloves in the glove compartments of our cars, but the glove compartment goes back to the earliest days of the automobile. Driving the first automobiles could be a dirty business. Steering wheels could become sticky and oily, the roads were rutted and dusty,  there was no climate control, and the cars could break down. Early drivers really needed gloves. The first glove compartments were glove boxes, located on the floor by the driver's seat. With the advent of dashboards, and the improving of automobiles and driving conditions, glove boxes  became glove compartments - and are still with us today.

AWESOME FACTS ABOUT EVERYTHING CXLIV

1. Hamburger University was created by McDonald's founder Ray Kroc in 1961 - demonstrating his commitment to training and educating McDonald's employees. It still exists and functions at McDonald's Corporation Global Headquarters in Chicago, Illinois. Hamburger U offers an intensive five-day crash course in restaurant management, leadership, and company culture.

2. The term "bar" in the context of the bar exam and bar association comes from the physical barrier in a courtroom that separates the court participants from the spectators. In the traditional English courtroom a wooden railing would set off the working area of the court from those watching the proceedings. When a student became a certified lawyer, he would be "called to the bar" - the origin of our current phrase "passing the bar." 

3. Spa is the name of a city in eastern Belgium known from the 14th century for its mineral-rich thermal springs used by Roman soldiers to treat aching muscles and wounds from battle. Spa, Belgium has become an eponym for mineral baths with supposed curative properties. 

4. The song "Unchained Melody" was originally written and sung in the 1955 low-budget movie "Unchained." It is about life in prison.

5.  The screenplay for "Casablanca" is based on the unproduced play "Everybody Comes to Rick's" by Murray Burnett and Joan Alison.

6. After Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in Major League Baseball in 1947, Satchel Paige became the first African American to pitch in the major leagues - in 1948, for the Cleveland Indians. He was also the first African American to pitch in the World Series (Game 5 - 1948).

7.  Q. What do Rock Hudson, Walt Disney, and Bing Crosby have in common?

     A. They all worked for the Post Office - Hudson was a letter carrier, Disney an assistant letter carrier, and Crosby was a clerk.

 

8. Jayne Mansfield could speak five languages and was a classically trained violinist and pianist. 

9. MENSA is an international society for people who score in the top 2% of an approved intelligence test. It is the largest and oldest high-IQ society in the world. The word MENSA is the Latin word for "table." - so named because MENSA is a round-table organization where all members are equal. Ethnicity, color, creed, national origin, age, politics, educational and social background are all completely irrelevant.

10. Earth is the only planet not named after a god.