Knowing my love of useless information, a friend sent me a list of strange facts. Just so ya know--I have not verified their authenticity.
1. Your stomach has to produce a new layer of mucus every two weeks or it will digest itself.
2. The dot over the letter "i" is called a tittle.
3. A raisin dropped in a glass of fresh champagne will bounce up and down continuously from the bottom of the glass to the top.
4. A female ferret will die if it goes into heat and cannot find a mate.
5. Chewing gum while peeling onions will keep you from crying.
6. A 2 X 4 is really 1-1/2" by 3-1/2" (actually, this is a pretty useful fact if you're in the building business).
7. During the chariot scene in "Ben Hur," a small red car can be seen in the distance (and Heston's wearing a watch).
8. On average, 12 newborns will be given to the wrong parents daily. (Perhaps this explains a few things!)
9. Sherlock Holmes NEVER said, "Elementary, my dear Watson." (Tell me this ain't so!)
10. Because metal was scarce, the Oscars given out during World War II were made of wood.
11. The number of possible ways of playing the first four moves per side in a game of chess is 318,979,564,000.
12. There are no words in the dictionary that rhyme with orange, purple and silver. (You mean to tell me that "nurple" isn't a real word?)
13. Astronauts are not allowed to eat beans before they go into space because passing wind in a spacesuit damages them. (I'm not sure I believe this one. Surely, beans or not, astronauts fart on occasion)
14. The very first bomb dropped by the Allies on Berlin in World War II killed the only elephant in the Berlin Zoo.
16. If one places a tiny amount of liquor on a scorpion, it will instantly go mad and sting itself to death. (Who wants to test this out?)
17. Bruce Lee was so fast that they actually had to s-l-o-w film down so you could see his moves.
18. The first CD pressed in the US was Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the USA." (BRROOOOOS!)
19. The original name for butterfly was flutterby.
20. The phrase "rule of thumb" is derived from an old English law which stated that you couldn't beat your wife with anything wider than your thumb.
