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Unnecessary Information

My mom forwarded me a message that contained a bunch of "unnecessary information." It is, indeed, but some of it is flat out wrong! See if you can't debunk a few of these puppies. I've gotten a few myself.

Many years ago in Scotland, a new game was invented. It was ruled "Gentlemen Only… Ladies Forbidden." And thus the word GOLF entered into the English language.

Not true. Golf comes from a bunch of words like "kolf" and "golff" and so on.

The first couple to be shown in bed together on prime time TV were Fred and Wilma Flintstone.

Every day more money is printed for Monopoly than the US Treasury.

Men can read smaller print than women can; women can hear better.

This one just seems like something people are likely to believe, but it's possible that, across genders, a slight differential exists here. Men, for example, typically have better spatial relations and math skills while women exceed in language and the arts (again, in general).

Coca-Cola was originally green.

Uhhh…

It is impossible to lick your elbow.

Duh.

The State with the highest percentage of people who walk to work: Alaska.

Almost everything I've seen in Alaska caters to sportsmen, and everyone simply lives at the resort/lodge/hunting cabin. But maybe that's just the kind of TV I watch… 🙂

The percentage of Africa that is wilderness: 28%. The percentage of North America that is wilderness: 38%.

Define "wilderness" I'd say…

The cost of raising a medium-size dog to the age of eleven: $6,400.

Flint is sometimes an expensive little bastid, that's for sure! 🙂 Wouldn't trade him for $6,400 though, that's for sure.

The average number of people airborne over the US any given hour: 61,000.

And the average number of those that die within an hour of landing? 0.03. Okay, I made that up, but you'd believe it if I hadn't included this sentence.

Intelligent people have more zinc and copper in their hair.

You get a lot of zinc in cough drops, right? Does this mean smarter people get sick more frequently?

The first novel ever written on a typewriter: Tom Sawyer.

The San Francisco Cable cars are the only mobile National Monuments.

Each king in a deck of playing cards represents a great king from history: Spades is King David, Hearts is Charlemagne, Clubs is Alexander the Great (not Colin Farrell), and Diamonds is Julius Caesar.

Was Julius Caesar technically a king, though? I don't think so...

111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321

Duh.

If a statue in the park of a person on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle. If the horse has one front leg in the air the person died as a result of wounds received in battle. If the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes.

That, or the guy doing the statue really likes to look at the undersides of horses.

Only two people signed the Declaration ofIndependenceon July 4th, John Hancock and Charles Thomson. Most of the rest signed on August 2, but the last signature wasn't added until 5 years later.

Q. Half of all Americans live within 50 miles of what?
A. Their birthplace

Damn. I put myself right back into that category recently.

Q. Most boat owners name their boats. What is the most popular boat name requested?
A. Obsession

Q. If you were to spell out numbers counting upwards from zero, how far would you have to go until you
would find the letter "A"?
A. One thousand

Can't disprove that one.

Q. What do bulletproof vests, fire escapes, windshield wipers, and laser printers all have in common?
A. All invented by women.

Wasn't the laser printer invented at Xerox PARC? Not too many women worked at Xerox PARC back in those days. I swear I read this in "Dealers of Lightning" or "Crystal Fire" or some book about PARC.

Q. What is the only food that doesn't spoil?
A. Honey

And fruitcake.

Q. Which day are there more collect calls than any other day of the year?
A. Father's Day

Is that because we have so many men locked up? Or because fathers who abandon their children more frequently come from poorer families?

In Shakespeare's time, mattresses were secured on bed frames by ropes. When you pulled on the ropes the mattress tightened, making the bed firmer to sleep on. Hence the phrase "goodnight, sleep tight."

It was the accepted practice in Babylon 4,000 years ago that for a month after the wedding, the bride's father would supply his son-in-law with all the mead he could drink. Mead is a honey beer and because their calendar was lunar based, this period was called the honey month… which we know today as the honeymoon.

It's also known to many as "the last time you'll ever have sex more than two days in a row."

In English pubs, ale is ordered by pints and quarts… So in old England, when customers got unruly, the bartender would yell at them "Mind your pints and quarts, and settle down." This is where we get the phrase "mind your Ps and Qs."

Many years ago in England, pub frequenters had a whistle baked into the rim, or handle, of their ceramic cups. When they needed a refill, they used the whistle to get some service. "Wet your whistle" is the phrase inspired by this practice.

At least 75% of people who read this will try to lick their elbow.

That one's probably true.

14 Responses to "Unnecessary Information"

  1. the one about statues on men on horses is false.

  2. Kevlar was invented by DuPont researcher Stephanie Kwolek but the actual application as a vest wasn't hers.

  3. The one about 'The Flintstones" is true. For some reason, TV had some really wacky rules against reality. For instance, during 'I Love Lucy''s run, they couldn't use the word 'pregnant' they couldn't even show her stomach getting larger as the pregnancy progressed. Heck, Lucy and Ricky even slept in separate bed for cryin' out loud! I've always found it odd that Americans were againt natural reality.

  4. I was off to commission a statue of myself sitting on a horse with all its feet on the ground until I read Jeremy's comment.

    Thanks guy.

  5. here's another useless piece: Twelve Plus One is an anagram of Eleven Plus Two

  6. "It is impossible to lick your elbow."

    And there's a 50% probability that persons who read this then try to lick their elbow.

  7. Note to self: finish reading post before commenting.

  8. Don't forget that there is a 25% probability that someone'll comment before finish reading these useless "facts"

    and you thought i was going to say something about licking elbows didn't you? 😉

  9. I always heard (perhaps because I worked in printing services for a while) that "mind your p's and q's" had to do with manually setting type. Either one is a fine explanation, methinks.

  10. The printing explanation is a better one. Drinking quarts is unheard of. Walk in to a pub and order a quart of beer. I bet you, you won't be served. Pints and half-pints. Fine. But I've never seen anybody drinking a quart in a pub. Perhaps I just go to the wrong sort of pubs. But I remain sceptical.

  11. my mom also sent me that. what a coincedence(or how ever to spell it)

  12. which are true and which arent?????????! :mrgreen:

  13. what about one hundred and one?

  14. [quote comment="49649"]what about one hundred and one?[/quote]

    That would be fine if the proper name for it wasn't "one hundred one."