GEN: Interesting trivia

[Joyce Conklin <jconkli@SMCOE.K12.CA.US>]

I cannot vouch for the complete accuracy of these but the ones with three
*s are the ones which struck me as particularly interesting (1,2) or
"ouch" (3). Bits of trivia often impress kids when they ask a question
and you can come up with the answer without even looking in a reference
book!! (Altho' of course, after impressing them, you should show them how
to find the answer(s)!!)


---------------- Begin Forwarded Message ----------------
Date:        07/21  8:46 PM
Received:    07/22  12:57 PM

* A duck's quack doesn't echo, and no one knows why.
* The save icon on Microsoft Word shows a floppy disk, with the shutter on
  backwards.
* Cats have over one hundred vocal sounds, while dogs only have about ten.
* Pinocchio is Italian for 'pine head.'
* Camel's milk does not curdle.
* In every episode of Seinfeld there is a Superman somewhere.
* An animal epidemic is called an epizootic.
* Murphy's Oil Soap is the chemical most commonly used to clean elephants.
* The United States has never lost a war in which mules were used.
* Blueberry Jelly Bellies were created especially for Ronald Reagan.
* All porcupines float in water.
* Hang On Sloopy is the official rock song of Ohio.
* Did you know that there are coffee flavored PEZ?
* Cat's urine glows under a blacklight.
* Non-dairy creamer is flammable.
_____________________________________________________________________
The airplane Buddy Holly died in was the 'American Pie.'
(Thus the name of the Don McLean song.)
_____________________________________________________________________
Texas is also the only state that is allowed to fly its state flag at the
same height as the U.S. flag.
_____________________________________________________________________
The only nation whose name begins with an 'A', but doesn't end in an A' is
Afghanistan.
_____________________________________________________________________
Pamela Anderson Lee is Canada's Centennial Baby, being the first baby born
on the centennial anniversary of Canada's independence.
_____________________________________________________________________
When opossums are playing 'possum, they are not 'playing.'
They actually pass out from sheer terror.
_____________________________________________________________________
*** The Main Library at Indiana University sinks over an inch every year
because when it was built, engineers failed to take into account the
weight of all the books that would occupy the building.
_____________________________________________________________________
In the 1940s, the FCC assigned television's Channel 1 to mobile services
(two-way radios in taxicabs, for instance) but did not re-number the other
channel assignments. That is why your TV set has channels 2 and up, but no
channel 1.
_____________________________________________________________________
*** The combination 'ough' can be pronounced in nine different ways.
The following sentence contains them all:
'A rough-coated, dough-faced, thoughtful ploughman strode through the
streets of Scarborough; after falling into a slough, he coughed and
hiccoughed.'
_____________________________________________________________________
The verb 'cleave' is the only English word with two synonyms which are
antonyms of each other: adhere and separate.
_____________________________________________________________________
The only 15 letter word that can be spelled without repeating a letter is
uncopyrightable.
_____________________________________________________________________
Facetious and abstemious contain all the vowels in the correct order, as
does arsenious, meaning 'containing arsenic.'
_____________________________________________________________________
Emus and kangaroos cannot walk backwards, and are on the Australian coat
of
arms for that reason.
_____________________________________________________________________
The word 'Checkmate' in chess comes from the Persian phrase 'Shah Mat,'
which means 'the king is dead'.
_____________________________________________________________________
*** Lorne Greene had one of his nipples bitten off by an alligator
while he was host of 'Lorne Greene's Wild Kingdom.'
_____________________________________________________________________
If you bring a raccoon's head to the Henniker, New Hampshire town hall,
you
are entitled to receive $.10 from the town.
_____________________________________________________________________
The reason firehouses have circular stairways is from the days of yore
when
the engines were pulled by horses. The horses were stabled on the ground
floor and figured out how to walk up straight staircases.
_____________________________________________________________________

----------------- End Forwarded Message -----------------

Joyce Conklin       jconkli@smcoe.k12.ca.us
San Mateo Union High School District librarian (ret.)
KidsConnect Volunteer
San Mateo, CA
Mac 8600/OS 8.0 Netscape 4.6.1(128 bit)/Claris Emailer

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