Checks clock – nah, still Tuesday. Bummer.
I feel like this day is grinding on at a painfully slow rate, so how about we just throw some random facts at your face? You can use them to impress friends, co-workers, in-laws and even strangers on the street.
Scratch that last one – leave strangers alone, it’s bad enough having to interact with people you already know.
The folks at Mental Floss have put together a list called “135 Amazing Facts for People Who Like Amazing Facts”, so shall we pick 20 that stand out?
That panda picture above will make sense once you get to the end, but file all of these away for later use:
- During Prohibition, moonshiners would wear “cow shoes.” The fancy footwear left hoofprints instead of footprints, helping distillers and smugglers evade police.
- Guinness estimates that 93,000 litres of beer are lost in facial hair each year in the UK alone.
- Some cats are allergic to humans.
I have to break there, and offer you the chance to read more about cats (and dogs) being allergic to humans on National Geographic.
- Central Park’s lampposts contain a set of four numbers that can help you navigate. The first two tell you the nearest street, and the next two tell you whether you’re closer to the east or west side of the park (even numbers signal east, odd signals west).
- In Japan, letting a sumo wrestler make your baby cry is considered good luck.
- Neil Armstrong’s astronaut application arrived a week past the deadline. A friend slipped the tardy form in with the others.
- If drivers adhere to the 45 mph speed limit on a stretch of Route 66 in New Mexico, the road’s rumble strips will play a rendition of “America the Beautiful.”
Shut up, that cannot be true. Uh, yeah it is:
Read more on that here.
- Before settling on the Seven Dwarfs we know today, Disney considered Chesty, Tubby, Burpy, Deafy, Hickey, Wheezy, and Awful.
- The ampersand symbol is formed from the letters in et—the Latin word for “and.”
- Bubbles keep your bath water warmer longer.
- Goats have rectangular pupils.
- Fredric Baur invented the Pringles can. When he passed away in 2008, his ashes were buried in one.
- The plural of cul-de-sac is culs-de-sac.
- Before he became president, Abraham Lincoln was wrestling champion of his county. He fought in nearly 300 matches and lost only one.
- Relative to their bodies, Chihuahuas have the biggest brain in the dog world.
Look at this smug little prick:
Kidding, relax – five more to go. I should have just gone with 10 facts but I’m committed now:
- A reindeer’s eyes change colour through the seasons. They’re gold during the summer and blue in the winter.
- There’s a Nikola Tesla statue in Palo Alto that provides free Wi-Fi.
- Elvis Presley’s manager sold “I Hate Elvis” badges as a way to make money off of people who weren’t buying his merchandise.
- Salvador Dali avoided paying restaurant tabs by using checks. He would draw on the back as the waiter watched, knowing no one would ever cash the art.
- China owns all of the pandas in the world. They rent them out for about $1 million a year.
20 – we made it. Also, you should read more about that panda rental system here.
You can find an additional 115 facts over here, if you’re not satisfied. I’m going for a lie down.
[source:mentalfloss]
