I don't know when I'll get back to this.. but I will try to keep up with a thought for the day.. I'll miss you all!
12/31/00 - America once issued a 5 cent bill.
12/30/00 - You'll eat about 35,000 cookies in your lifetime.
12/29/00 - No publisher would finance the "Wizard of Oz." L. Frank Baum and his illustrator had to pay all the book's printing costs.
12/28/00 - If a plant's roots or leaves emit chemicals that prevent other plants from growing close by, that plant is "allelopathic." Some examples are sunflowers, black walnut trees, and crab grass. It's not merely that they grab all the water and nutrients, they actually spread their own poisons.. sort of.
12/27/00 - That the bridal veil started out as a sack over the brides's head is widely known, but rarely mentioned.
12/26/00 - It was once believed that mistletoe came from bird dung because it often appeared on branches covered with bird droppings. Because of this, the Anglo-Saxon words mistel for "dung" and toe for "twig" were combined to form mistletoe, which means "dung on a twig."
12/25/00 - During the Middle Ages, mistletoe was hung from ceilings and over doors to ward off evil spirits and prevent witches from entering.
12/24/00 - The post office closes at noon on Saturdays.
12/23/00 - The Great Fire of Chicago destroyed 17,450 buildings in 27 hours.
12/22/00 - In a wrestling match between a female and male beaver, the female wins.
12/21/00 - The oceans average out to be four times deeper than the land is high.
12/20/00 - On Dec. 20, 1860, South Carolina became the first state to secede from the Union.
12/19/00 - The body temperature of a hibernating bear is 91 degrees F.
12/18/00 - It's a matter of record that Friedrich Buschman invented one sort of accordian in 1822, but escaped prosecution.
12/17/00 - The quaking aspen quivers not just during a storm, but before. A naturalist says the trees know. They feel the barometric pressures.
12/16/00 - The dot over the letter 'i' is called a tittle.
12/15/00 - The 57 on Heinz ketchup bottles represents the number of varieties of pickles the company once had.
12/14/00 - 315 entries in Webster's 1996 Dictionary were misspelled.
12/13/00 - Grizzly bears need a large home range (50 to 300 square miles for females; 200 to 500 square miles for males), encompassing diverse forests interspersed with moist meadows and grasslands in or near mountains.
12/12/00 - All five United States Presidents with beards were Republicans.
12/11/00 - Great horned owls can't make nests.
12/10/00 - The first known Christmas card was produced by English businessman Henry Cole in 1843 as a way to offer seasonal greetings without having to write out hundreds of personal messages.
12/09/00 - Decking the halls is as old a tradition as honoring the tree. It stems from the same ancient belief that won the tree it's special place... the idea that evergreens must have magical powers to thrive all year round. To the ancients, this quality recalled the renewal of life. Romans would welcome the approach of the new year by nailing laurel to their door posts and bringing branches inside to hasten blossoming. In northern Europe, people thought that fir boughs harbored friendly spirits. They would twist the boughs into circles and place them on the door or in the house to ward off witches.
12/08/00 - The best-known benefactor of the needy at Christmas was the fourth-century Bishop of Myra, better known as St. Nicholas. Born into a wealthy family, the legendary figure who has come down to us as "Santa Claus" was the patron saint of children and is said to have given his money secretly to the poor. The gifts that Santa brings to children each year are a reminder of the anonymous generosity of St. Nicholas.
12/07/00 - Before nuclear bombs, uranium was used to color glassware.
12/06/00 - Agricultural students know cows devour and digest their hay better when fed on the ground instead of from raised hay racks.
12/05/00 - Your chances of getting Rocky Mountain fever are a lot more in the Adirondaks or in the Great Smokies than they are in the Rockies.
12/04/00 - Opossums eat rattlesnakes.
12/03/00 - Robert Frost, the poet, couldn't spell worth a darn. Bothered him all his life.. tough handicap for a word mechanic.
12/02/00 - Death by lightning is usually an afternoon tradgedy. Only one out of 10 lightning fatalities occurs in the morning.
12/01/00 - The Declaration Of Independence was written on hemp paper.
11/30/00 - Baker's in early England were fined for short-weighting bread loaves, so they tossed in an extra loaf for each dozen to legalize the average loaf weight.. this is were the "bakers dozen" (13) came from.
11/29/00 - Wyatt Earp fined cowboys $2.50 for shooting their guns in good old Dodge City!
11/28/00 - Nineteen out of twenty gout sufferers are men.
11/27/00 - "pH" stands for "Potential of Hydrogen."
11/26/00 - Rats have collapsible skeletons allowing them to squeeze through dime sized holes.
11/25/00 - If typical, you'll gain from four to seven pounds between Thanksgiving and Christmas.
11/24/00 - Research has shown that neither horses or rabbits can vomit.
11/23/00 - The average man has 66 pounds of muscle and 3 pounds of brain.
11/22/00 - Some of Canada is south of some of Nevada.
11/21/00 - About half the countries that use coins they don't mint have them minted in Canada.
11/20/00 - An average glass of London (England) tap water has passed through nine other people.
11/19/00 - President Harry Truman's mother refused to sleep in the Lincoln Bedroom when she visited the White House because she had been a Confederate.
11/18/00 - Because metal was scarce, the Oscars given out during World War II were made of wood.
11/17/00 - Susan Lucci is the daughter of Phyllis Diller.
11/16/00 - The American opossum is known for it's short gestation period... bearing it's young 12 to 13 days after conception.
11/15/00 - The "bald" in "bald eagle" is short for "piebald"... black and white.
11/14/00 - Egg producers in Germany feed their chickens paprika and marigold petals to get bright orange yolks.
11/13/00 - Male cooks rarely share recipes.
11/12/00 - Traditionally in China, it was the men who did the knitting.
11/11/00 - The only American battleship not named after a state was the Kearsarge... built in 1900.
11/10/00 - Even roosters brought up entirely in dark cellars crow in the early morning.
11/09/00 - Animal trainers claim it's far easier to teach a pig just about anything than it is to teach a horse.
11/08/00 - Eskimos call themselves "Inuits." "Eskimo" is a Norwegian word that when freely translated means "stupid people who eat raw meat."
11/07/00 - A porcupine has about 30,000 quills.
11/06/00 - Among the original Henry Ford's 40,000 employees in 1919 were 9,000 handicapped.
11/05/00 - It takes 10 days for an aphid to grow up.
11/04/00 - The ridges on the sides of coins are called reeding or milling.
11/03/00 - You can't taste anything in the center of your tongue.
11/02/00 - Some medical researchers contend caffeine in a cup of strong coffee seems to relax the bronchial tubes better than most asthma medicines.
11/01/00 - Halloween traditions of trick-or-treating and jack-o-lanterns were brought to America in the 1840s by Irish escaping the Great Potato Famine. On Halloween, Irish peasants begged the rich for food and played practical jokes on those who refused. To avoid being tricked, the rich handed out cookies, candies, and fruit - a practice that turned into our present day trick-or-treating. (So I'm a day late!!)
10/31/00 - Riding camels are females, pack camels are males.
10/30/00 - The older you get, the slower your fingernails grow.
10/29/00 - Male reindeer normally live six years longer than a female reindeer, but why is a mystery.
10/28/00 - Real gypsies never eat horsemeat.
10/27/00 - Bacteria never dies of old age.
10/26/00 - The Ross Ice Shelf, afloat at Antartica's edge, is as big as Texas.
10/25/00 - Jackrabbits frequently stampede sheep.
10/24/00 - Those little discs of paper left by a paper punch are called "chad."
10/23/00 - If a vegetable is yellow it contains vitmin A, if green, vitamin C.
10/22/00 - Pure iodine is solid.
10/21/00 - If it has hooves, it eats plants.
10/20/00 - Most spiders have eight eyes.. two rows across the front of the head.
10/19/00 - The world's largest railway yard is in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
10/18/00 - A poll among teachers indicates 38 out of 100 would never go into that line of work, if they had it to do over again.
10/17/00 - Ontario is Iriquois for "glittering waters".
10/16/00 - More women than men play poker.
10/15/00 - It used to be against the law in San Jose, Ca., to sleep in your neighbor's outhouse without permission. The law is no longer enforced.
10/14/00 - The Nile is the longest river in the world, flowing 4,132 miles. (6,650 kilometers) It flows out of the Mediterranean Sea.
10/13/00 - If a strawberry shines it's fresh.
10/12/00 - A female cockroach has an average of 37 little cockroaches per litter.
10/11/00 - Your own body, pound for pound, produces more heat than the sun.
10/10/00 -A Hamlet is classified as a "grouping of houses smaller than a village", and itusually has around 20 people. It has no mayor or any form of central or municipal government. Sherwood Park, Alberta is the largest hamlet in the world with a population of 45,000 and no government.
10/09/00 - A marijuana plant can grow 10 feet in three months.
10/08/00 - In Jamaica, a speed bump is called a sleeping policeman.
10/07/00 - The tendency to be easily bored is said to be inherited.
10/06/00 - "The Wizard Of Oz" was a Broadway musical 37 years before the MGM film version was made. It had 293 performances and then went on a tour that lasted 9 years.
10/05/00 - Mt. St. Helens was named in honor of Baron St. Helens, a British diplomat who negotiated a treaty between Britain and Spain. It gave the Pacific Northwest to England.
10/04/00 - Two American presidents, Andrew Jackson and Herbert Hoover, were both orphans.
10/03/00 - In England, if it's shipped by land, it's "goods," if by water, it's "freight."
10/02/00 - One ostrich egg is equal to about 40 chicken eggs.
10/01/00 - A coyote can outrun a wolf... no contest.
09/30/00 - Capsaicin is the substance that makes chile peppers hot, and it is used in isolated form in many pain-relief ointments for arthritis and muscle soreness and after surgical procedures.
09/29/00 - Not everyone realizes that those who use sign language can do so with regional accents.
09/28/00 - Researchers at the Department of Agriculture say laboratory rats that drink beer live six times longer than rats that drink only water.
09/27/00 - Soldiers of ancient Rome were given daily rations of garlic as part of their pay. It was thought to protect them from military enemies and black magic. At one bulb a day, it's hard to imagine their enemies, supernatural or not, facing them for any length of time. Today, garlic is said to prevent heart disease.
09/26/00 - Coffee cherries are red and are a delicious fruit that can't be sold because they spoil quickly after picking. It is the only fruit that is discarded while the seed (the coffee bean) is used.
09/25/00 - Dentists say a silver amalgam filling can be expected to last from five to eight years.
09/24/00 - The U.S. Navy still uses wooden ships as minesweepers.
09/23/00 - The word "butter" comes from the Greek for "cow cheese."
09/22/00 - Most flowers have markings visable only under ultraviolet light. These markings act as a runway or bulls-eye for pollinating bees, wasps and flies searching for nectar.
09/21/00 - If you look at a starling through binoculars, you can see little "stars" in it's otherwise dark plumage. Thus the name starling.
09/20/00 - Chickens go to roost at dusk because they can't see in the dark.
09/19/00 - Records of recent decades indicate about 10 out of every 100,000 U.S. citizens commit suicide, but among farmers in Montana, about 65 out of every 100,000 do so.
09/18/00 - More than 2/3 of the earth's land surface lies north of the equator.
09/17/00 - With an ounce and a half of wax, the bees can build a comb to hold four pounds of honey.
09/16/00 - Salt Lake City, Utah gets far more snow ( 65.6 inches) than Fairbanks, Alaska.(25.3 inches)
09/15/00 - The final episode of "Mash" was the first TV show to be watched by more than 50 million households.
09/14/00 - Tomatoes were grown in 16th century gardens for their foliage, not their fruit. A member of the deadly nightshade family, the tomato was believed to be extremely poisonous, although occasionally of value as an aphrodisiac if eaten in tiny portions.
09/13/00 - A wife who is the youngest child in her own family is less likely to have a successful marriage. This was a study by sociologists of more than five hundred married couples. The youngest daughter at home tends to be babied. She may expect it to continue, they say, and it may not. (I don't have a chance!*L* All of this is not my fault!!)
09/12/00 - In Switzerland, the cuckoo, not the rabbit brings the Easter eggs.
09/11/00 - You're most likely to be shot, strangled or poisoned in December. (I've thought about doing that every December!)
09/10/00 - You can clear up the water in your pond by throwing in a bale of hay.
09/09/00 - Spanish moss is neither moss nor Spanish. It's a flowering plant of the pineapple family.
09/08/00 - Greater London with about as many people as New York City only uses a fourth as much water.
09/07/00 - The only Zodiac sign without a living creature as its symbol is Libra.. with a balance scale.
09/06/00 - Antlers grow from the tip.
09/05/00 - As soon as an insect gets wings, it stops growing.
09/04/00 - A cat can jump the height of up to five times the length of its tail.
09/03/00 - Of all wild animals, it's said, the baby elephant is the most difficult to raise. This has to do with feeding every four hours day and night for more than a year.
09/02/00 - Chilled bees don't sting.
09/01/00 - Catfish eat in the dark. Most fish don't.
08/31/00 - Women who marry younger men live longer.. according to statisticians.
08/30/00 - Elephants adopt orphans.
08/29/00 - No dust.. no clouds. No clouds.. no rain. (My house is due for a big rainstorm!)
08/28/00 - The lower the sun behind you , the greater the rainbow in front of you.
08/27/00 - "Teen" is a Scottish word for grief.
08/26/00 - It's a breeze if it blows more than 4 miles per hour but less than 31 miles per hour.
08/25/00 - Fifty miles per hour is the typical speed of a migrating duck.
08/24/00 - Spring and Autumn come from opposite directions... Spring up from the south, Autumn down from the north at about 17 1/4 miles a day.
08/23/00 - Babies are born farsighted.
08/22/00 - If a caribou still has antlers come winter, it's a female.
02/21/00 - Collectors of meteorites have auctioned off pieces of their finds for as much as $25,000 a gram.
08/20/00 - It has been reported that 30 times as many people are killed on average every year by falling airplane parts as by shark attacks.
08/19/00 - A blood vessel in an elephant's leg can be as thick as a garden hose.
08/18/00 - The word "honcho" only dates back to World War II hereabouts. In Japanese, "hon" is "squad" and "cho" is "leader."
08/17/00 - If you are having a nightmare and cannot move, just blink your eyes or wiggle your tongue to break the paralysis.
08/16/00 - Even when extremely tired, most people have great difficulty sleeping between 9 and 11 A.M. and between 7 and 9 P.M.
08/15/00 - No piece of square dry paper can be folded more than 7 times in half.
08/14/00 - Two thirds of your body and three fourths of your brain are water.
08/13/00 - Of all the water on earth, only one percent is available for human consumption.
08/12/00 - The volume of water on the earth today is the same as it was 3 billion years ago.
08/11/00 - Christopher Columbus's ship the Santa Maria weighed less than the rudder of the Titanic.
08/10/00 - In 1639 the first public mailbox was installed in Burbank's Tavern in Boston, Massachusetts.
08/09/00 - In the White House, there are 13,092 knives, forks and spoons.
08/08/00 - Your ribs move about 5 million times a year, every time you breathe.
08/07/00 - When brushing your teeth, hold your toothbrush like how you would hold a pen. This makes brushing more thorough and easier on your gums. (I tried this.. maybe this person holds his pen different than I do, but I thought it was impossible.)
08/06/00 - Fingernails grow nearly 4 times faster than toenails.
08/05/00 - The longest place name in the United States is that of a lake near Webster, Massachusetts. The lake is called Lake Chargoggagoggmmanchauggauggaoggchaubunagungamaugg. It is a Nipmuck Indian word freely translated as "You fish on your side, I fish on my side, nobody fishes in the middle." The name has 49 letters, of which 17 are the letter g.
08/04/00 - Recycling one glass jar, saves enough energy to watch T.V for 3 hours.
08/03/00 - A hedgehog's heart beats 300 times a minute on average.
08/02/00 - The first product to have a bar code was Wrigleys gum.
08/01/00 - Porcupines float in water.
07/31/00 - Tokyo has had 24 recorded instances of people either killed or receiving serious skull fractures while bowing to each other with the traditional Japanese greeting.
07/30/00 - Typewriter is the longest word that can be made using the letters on only one row of the keyboard.
07/29/00 - One cubic foot of gold weighs about 1,000 pounds.
07/28/00 - Human thigh bones are stronger than concrete.
07/27/00 - If you counted 24 hours a day, it would take 31,688 years to reach one trillion.
07/26/00 - Peppers are a rich source of vitamin C. Green bell peppers have twice as much vittamin C as a citrus. A hot pepper contains 3.5 times as much vitamin C as an orange.
07/25/00 - The United States is the ice cream capital of the world. Each citizen eats an average of 23 quarts per year.
07/24/00 - American pale lager beer has fewer calories than an equivalent amount of 2 percent milk or apple juice.
07/23/00 - Most Amish speak 3 languages: Pennsylvania Dutch (a German dialect) at home, High German during worship services, and English.
07/22/00 - An adult male has about 12 pints of blood in his body, while an adult female has only 9 pints.
07/21/00 - Although fish do drink water, their primary method of obtaining water is through osmosis. The water seeps into their body through tiny holes in their skin.
07/20/00 - All of the world's coffee is grown within 1,000 miles of the equator.
07/19/00 - In 1929 the average U.S. citizen earned $750 a year while farmers earned an average of $273 a year. Henry Ford earned $14 million that year.
07/18/00 - Because it has no collarbone, a cat can squeeze through an opening that's no larger than the size of its head.
07/17/00 - Seahorses are monogamous and stay with one partner for their entire lives. Every morning they perform a greeting dance to reaffirm their pledge to each other. If a partner dies, it is a long time before the seahorse will search for a new partner.
07/16/00 - At birth a dalmation is always pure white. The spots appear later as the dog grows.
07/15/00 - The only white Koala bear in captivity was born at the San Diego Zoo. The koala has white fur, a pink nose, and pink eyes. He is called Onya-Birri, which means "ghost boy" in the language of the Australian aborigines.
07/14/00 - No matter how much Jell-O you put in a swimming pool you still can't walk on water.
07/13/00 - Although it took the experimenters from 75 to 200 licks to reach the center, standard statistical methods were used to determine the 142-lick average.
07/12/00 - It takes approximately 142 licks to reach the center of a Tootsie Pop... no sucking allowed.
07/11/00 - Taphephobia is the fear of being buried alive.
07/10/00 - Marbles in gas tanks make lots of noise when driving.
07/09/00 - A rhinoceros horn is made of compacted hair.
07/08/00 - A six-year-old can start a fire with a flint rock even though a 36-year-old man says they can only do it in the movies.
07/07/00 - Dolphins sleep with one eye open.
07/06/00 - A company in Taiwan makes dinnerware out of wheat, so you can eat your plate.
06/30/00 - The penguin is the only bird who can swim, but not fly.
06/29/00 - Of all the words in the English language, the word set has the most definitions.
06/28/00 - During World War II, copper was needed for bullets and cartridges. In 1943 pennies were made from zinc-coated steel and were referred to as "war pennies."
06/27/00 - The first coin with the words "United States of America" was a penny coined in 1727. It also had the simple motto "Mind Your Own Business."
06/26/00 - If you hook a dog leash over a ceiling fan, the motor is not strong enough to rotate a 42 pound boy wearing Batman underwear and a superman cape. It is strong enough, however, to spread paint on all four walls of a 20X20 foot room.
06/25/00 - VCR's do not eject PB&J sandwiches even though TV commercials show they do.
06/24/00 - The glass in windows (even double pane) doesn't stop a baseball hit by a ceiling fan.
06/23/00 - You should not throw baseballs up when the ceiling fan is on. When using the ceiling fan as a bat, you have to throw the ball up a few times before you get a hit. A ceiling fan can hit a baseball a long way.
06/22/00 - If you spray hair spray on dust bunnies and run over them with roller blades, they can ignite.
06/21/00 - A grapefruit tree is 15 to 20 feet tall with dark-green glossy leaves. The grapefruit got it's name because the fruit hangs in clusters on the tree, just like grapes.
06/20/00 - Dry ice is really not ice at all but is compressed carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide has the unique property of changing directly from a solid to a gas. Dry ice can be purchased as either rectangular or square blocks, or as disks, pellets, or snow.
06/19/00 - During your lifetime, you'll eat about 60,000 pounds of food, that's the weight of about 6 elephants.
06/18/00 - The name of the RCA dog was Nipper... he was a mongrel, part bull terrier with some fox terrier. He was born in Bristol, England in 1884.
06/17/00 - Chocolate kills dogs. True, chocolate effects a dogs heart and nervous system, a few ounces enough to kill a small sized dog.
06/16/00 - George Washington was not the first president of the United States. The first president was John Hanson, Maryland's representative at the Continental Congress. On November 5,1781, Hanson was elected by the Constitutional Congress to the office of "President of the United States in Congress Assembled." He served for one year.
06/15/00 - Four people played Darth Vader: David Prose was his body, James Earl Jones was his voice, Sebastian Shaw was his face and some other person did the breathing.
06/14/00 - Lightning strikes about 6,000 times per minute on this planet.
06/13/00 - The average American/Canadian will eat about 11.9 pounds of cereal per year.
06/12/00 - In the USA there is a law against sending buildings by mail. A man posted a 40,000 ton brick house across the state of Utah in 1916.
06/11/00 - Over 40% of consumers dunk Oreo cookies al of the time. If everyone dunked every cookie they ate, cows would have to produce over 42 million extra gallons of milk just to satisfy the additional dunkers.
06/10/00 - If you count the chirps of a tree cricket for 15 seconds and then add 37, it will be almost exactly the true temperature in degrees fahrenheit.
06/09/00 - Apache is actually a Zuni Indian word meaning "enemy."
06/08/00 - President Lyndon Johnson liked the grapefruit-flavored soda Fresca so much that he had a fountain installed in the Oval Office from which he could dispense the beverage by pushing a button on his desk chair.
06/07/00 - The elephant is the only mammal that can't jump.
06/06/00 - The ferry between Hollis and Ketchikan is not running on June 8th, 9th or 10th! Dang!!
06/05/00 - The lowest place on land is the shoreline of the Dead Sea in Isreal, which is 1,310 feet below sea level. The southern shore of the Dead Sea has salt caves which are thought to be in the area where the biblical cities of Sodom and Gomorrah were once located.
06/04/00 - It was once believed that mistletoe came from bird dung because it often appeared on branches covered with bird droppings. Because of this, the Anglo-Saxon words mistel for "dung" and toe for "twig" were combined to form mistletoe, which means "dung on a twig."
06/03/00 - Big Ben has four faces, or dials, each facing in a different direction and each having 365 panes of glass, one for each day of the year. Each dial is 23 feet in diameter, the numbers are almost 2 feet high, and the minute hands are 14 feet long.
06/02/00 - The names of our months are derived from Roman names. The first six months are named after gods(Janus, Mars, Aprilis, Maia, and Juno) or festivals (Februa), the next two months are named after emperors (Julias and Augustus), and the last four are simply the Latin names for seven, eight, nine, and ten (septum, octo, novem, and decem).
06/01/00 - Constant bell ringing will drive away vampires. A wind chime is quite effective.
05/31/00 - To protect yourself from vampires, sprinkle mustard or poppy seeds around your house. Vampires have an obsession about counting seeds and will become so involved in the task that they'll lose interest in you or will keep counting until the sun comes up. Sprinkling grain, such as oats or millet, will have the same effect.
05/30/00 - The Japenese pay 80 cents and the Germans pay 64 cents for first-class mail. America's 33 cents for first-class mail is the lowest in the industrialized world.
05/29/00 - A king size waterbed holds enough water to fill a 2,000 sq. foot house 4 inches deep.
05/28/00 - Americans eat the equivalent of 100 acres of pizza each day, or about 350 slices each second.
05/27/00 - The expression "Gesundheit" (German for "God Bless You") began in the Middle Ages when the bubonic plague was ravaging Europe. In the final stages of the disease, the afflicted had fits of sneezing. When others heard someone sneeze, they knew the person was about to die so they said, "God Bless You."
05/26/00 - The shortest war in history was between Zanzibar and England in 1896. Zanzibar surrendered after 38 minutes.
05/25/00 - People who are blind from birth do dream, but they don't have visual images as we do. In fact, it's difficult for blind persons to describe their dreams because they have a different frame of reference. You cant ask them, "What did you see in your dream?" Blind people do dream, but rather than see shapes and colors, they feel and hear the dream. Because of this, their dreams probably are much more real than those of sighted people.
05/24/00 - Babe Ruth wore a cabbage leaf under his cap to keep him cool. He changed it every 2 innings.
05/23/00 - Flecks of gold are suspended in seawater. If all of it were mined and distributed, every person on earth would get about nine pounds of gold.
05/22/00 - Most of the salt in the oceans comes from rocks containing various salts. Wind, rain, and erosion gradually wear down mountains and rocks. Rain then dissolves the salts into streams that eventually reach the sea. This has been going on for millions of years and that's why the oceans are salty.
05/21/00 - In spite of what many people think, the Treasury Department still prints two-dollar bills. However, when a new bill is created it often takes quite some time for people to adjust to it. For some reason, the two-dollar bill has never become popular. Many people consider it unlucky, while others still believe it's not valid currency.
05/20/00 - The Statue of Liberty was a gift from the people of France to commemorate the U.S. Centennial. The torch represents "Liberty Enlightening the World," which was the original name of the statue. The crown of 7 spokes represents the 7 seas and the 7 continents. The 25 windows in the crown represent the 25 gemstones found on earth. Broken chains symbolizing the overthrow of tyranny lie at the statue's feet.
05/19/00 - The only survivor of Custer's Last Stand was a horse, Comanche. Although severely wounded, he eventually recovered and was officially retired with an order that no one would ever ride him again. In later years he developed a likeing for beer and the troopers often obliged. He died at age 28, was stuffed and mounted, and is still on display at the University of Kansas.
05/18/00 - 7% of Americans don't know the first 9 words of the American anthem, but know the first 7 of the Canadian anthem.
05/17/00 - The oldest pair of Levi's jeans in the world were found in an abandoned silver mine in the California Mojave Desert. They had been made in 1890, and the woman who found them patched them up and wore them for sometime before selling them back to Levi Strauss & Company. They are known today as the "Calico Mine Pants."
05/16/00 - The origin of the roller coaster dates back to the 1700's when Russians created "ice slides" at county fairs. The slide was a steep drop made entirely of ice with a series of small bumps at the end. Riders sat on a straw patch on top of a block of ice and hung on to a rope tied to the ice block.
05/15/00 - If all the blood vessels in the average human body were put end to end, they would be 60,000 miles long.
05/14/00 - A form of darts was a training game for English archers in the Middle Ages. The indoor dart game became popular in English inns and taverns in the nineteenth century. It is also known how the "bull's-eye" originated. When darts were first played they were thrown at the end of a keg. There is a cork in the kegs center where it was tapped. The cork center eventually became the "bull's-eye."
05/13/00 - "Diddle for the middle" is a slang expression used for the start of a dart game. The opposing players each throw a single dart at the bull's eye. The person who is closest starts the game.
05/12/00 - In football, the term "down" has been used since the late nineteenth century when the game was more rowdy than it is today. If the runner fell to one knee he could get up and run again. When a ball carrier was tackled, he would yell "Down" to let his opponents know that he couldn't go any farther. This kept the players from piling on the downed ball carrier.
05/11/00 - Hockey players talk about "fast ice" and "slow ice." When the ice is fast it means that it is harder, colder, and smoother. Soft ice is warm, soft, and rough. Scientists have recently found that ice has a semifluid layer that coats the surface and makes it slippery. When the ice is minus 250 degrees Fahrenheit, this layer is only the thickness of a molecule. As ice temperature rises, the number of these slippery layers increases.
05/10/00 - The ice in a hockey arena is made by pumping freezing salt water through a system of pipes embedded in a large piece of concrete. When the concrete is cold enough, water is poured onto it's surface. After a few layers have been laid down, the hockey markings and advertisements are painted on and another eight to ten layers of ice added on top. When finished, the ice is only an inch thick.
05/09/00 - In Arizona it is illegal to hunt camel.
05/08/00 - A quarter has 119 grooves on its edge, a dime has one less groove.
05/07/00 - Clinophobia is the fear of beds.
05/06/00 - Like fingerprints, everyone's tongue print is different.
05/05/00 - America once issued a 5-cent bill.
05/04/00 - Despite the fact that no unknown dead existed in the Vietnam war, cemetery planners at Arlington county cemetery went ahead with a tomb to America's unknown dead worth $15,000 , "just in case any turn up".
05/03/00 - Nose prints are used to identify dogs, just like humans use fingerprints.
05/02/00 - Men are 6 times more likely to be struck by lighting than women.
05/01/00 - The beetle population outnumbers any other species in the world. Chances are, there's a beetle only a few feet away from you.
04/30/00 - There was a prehistoric horse breed (called eohippus) that was about the size of a housecat.
04/29/00 - A sneeze travels out your mouth at over 100 m.p.h.
04/28/00 - If Barbie were life-size her measurements would be 39-23-33. She would stand seven feet, two inches tall and have a neck twice the length of a normal human's neck.
04/27/00 - There are more than 10 million bricks in the Empire State Building.
04/26/00 - One ragweed plant can release as many as one billion grains of pollen.
04/25/00 - There are two credit cards for every person in the United States.
04/24/00 - In the movie, Babe, it took 48 pigs to play as the main character. (This was because pigs normally grow fast.)
04/23/00 - If you were freeze-dried, 10% of your body weight would be from the microorganisms on your body.
04/22/00 - A human being loses an average of 40 to 100 strands of hair a day.
04/21/00 - The largest pumpkin ever recorded weighed 377 lbs., largest cabbage 114 lbs., and the largest tomato weighed over 4 lbs.
04/20/00 - A hard working adult sweats up to 4 gallons per day. Most of the sweat evaporates before a person realizes it's there though.
04/19/00 - If you had $1 billion in dollar bills and for every second would put down one dollar on the table, it would take you approximately 32 years to finish putting down the last dollar bill.
04/18/00 - In Alaska it is illegal to look at a moose from the window of an airplane or other flying vehicle.
04/17/00 - China has more English speakers than the United States.
04/16/00 - If you fart consistently for 6 years and 9 months, enough gas is produced to create the energy of an atomic bomb. *LOL*
04/15/00 - In Lebanon it is legal to have sex with a female animal, but illegal with a male one.
04/14/00 - Your heart beats over 100,000 times a day.
04/13/00 - Camels have three eyelids to protect themselves from blowing sand.
04/12/00 - Donald Duck comics were banned in Finland because he doesn't wear trousers.
04/11/00 - Walt Disney named Mickey Mouse after Mickey Rooney.. whose mother he dated for some time.
04/10/00 - According to a British law passed in 1845, attempting to commit suicide was a capital offence. Offenders could be hanged for trying.
04/09/00 - President Ulysses S. Grant was once arrested during his term of office. He was convicted of exceeding the Washington speed limit on his horse and was fined $20. President Franklin Pierce was Arrested while in office for running over an old woman with his horse, but the case was dropped for insufficient evidence in 1853.
04/08/00 - Q is the only letter in the alphabet that does not appear in the name of any of the United States.
04/07/00 - A crocodile always grows new teeth to replace the old teeth.
04/06/00 - Duelling is illegal in Uruguay unless both participants are registered blood donors then it is encouraged.
04/05/00 - Until 1796, there was a state in the United States called Franklin. Today it's known as Tennessee.
04/04/00 - In Disney's Fantasia the sorcerer's name is "Yensid" (Disney backwards)
04/03/00 - In the 1700's you could purchase insurance against going to hell, in London England.
04/02/00 - Until the 1950's it was rare for coffins to be made to measure. If you were too tall for your box, the undertaker would normally break both ankles and bend your feet back.
04/01/00 - A hummingbird weighs less than a penny.
03/31/00 - The world's termites outweigh the world's humans 10 to 1.
03/30/00 - One quarter of the bones in your body, are in your feet.
03/29/00 - Slugs have four noses.
03/28/00 - Gateway internet service sucks. Their mandatory mail program sucks worse.
03/27/00 - Taphephobia is the fear of being buried a live.
03/26/00 - The little known fact for today is that I'm doing this from my sister's computer and don't have access to my files.. so.. maybe tomorrow I will have a fact to add..
03/25/00 - A cockroach will live nine days without its head, before it starves to death.
03/24/00 - In the Wizard of OZ Dorothy's last name is Gale.
03/23/00 - The state of Florida is bigger than England.
03/22/00 - The strongest muscle in the body is the tongue.
03/21/00 - One of the reasons marijuana is illegal today is because cotton growers in the 30s lobbied against hemp farmers-they saw it as competition.
03/20/00 - No war has been fought where both countries had a McDonalds.
03/19/00 - The Sanskrit word for war translates as "wanting more cows"
03/18/00 - The male praying mantis cannot copulate while its head is attached to its body. The female initiates sex by ripping the male's head off. *S*
03/17/00 - Fortune cookies were actually invented in America, in 1918, by Charles Jung.
03/16/00 - A Kansas law reads "When trains meet at a crossing, both shall come to a full stop and neither shall proceed until the other has gone.
03/15/00 - The average person has over 1,460 dreams a year.
03/14/00 - There are more plastic flamingos in the U.S, than real ones.
03/13/00 - Thomas Edison, lightbulb inventor, was afraid of the dark.
03/12/00 - A cockroach can live several weeks with its head cut off - it dies from starvation.
03/11/00 - Humans and dolphins are the only species that have sex for pleasure. (I think a man must have come up with this one!)
03/10/00 - The cruise liner, Queen Elizabeth II, moves only six inches for each gallon of diesel that it burns.
03/09/00 - A mole can dig a tunnel 300 feet long in just one night.
03/08/00 - You're born with 300 bones, but when you get to be an adult, you only have 206.
03/07/00 - Before discovering Elvis, Colonel Tom Parker's most successful act was "Colonel Parker's Dancing Chickens". This act involved encouraging chickens to dance by placing them on an electric plate.
03/06/00 - Pinocchio is Italian for "pine eye".
03/05/00 - In space, astronauts cannot cry, because there is no gravity, so the tears can't flow.
03/04/00 - IN Minnesota you may not hang male and female underwear next to each other on a clothesline.
03/03/00 - Most dust particles in your house are made from dead skin.
03/02/00 - Baby robins eat 14 feet of earthworms every day!
03/01/00 - Soybean products help lower cholesterol levels.
02/29/00 - The position of a rabbit's eyes allow it to see in front and behind.
02/28/00 - American Airlines saved $40,000 in 1987 by eliminating one olive from each salad served in first-class.
02/27/00 - The average ice berg weighs 20,000,000 tons.
02/26/00 - 4 Pope's have died during sex. Leo VII (936-9) died of a heart attack, John VII (955-64) was bludgeoned to death by the husband of the woman he was with at the time. John XIII (965-72) was also murdered by a jealous husband. Last and most surprising was Pope Paul II (1467-71) who allegedly died whilst being sodomized by a page boy.
02/25/00 - A snail can sleep for 3 years.
02/24/00 - In 1983, Mrs. Carson of Lake Kushaqua, N.Y., was laid out in her coffin, presumed dead of heart disease. As mourners watched, she suddenly sat up. Her daughter dropped dead of fright.
02/12/00 - Windmills always turn counter-clockwise. Except for the windmills in Ireland.
02/11/00 - The poison-arrow frog has enough poison to kill about 2,200 people.
02/10/00 - The Pentagon, in Arlington, Virginia, has twice as many bathrooms as is necessary. When it was built in the 1940s, the state of Virginia still had segregation laws requiring separate toilet facilities for blacks and whites.
02/09/00 - Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM said in 1943, "I think there is a world market for about 5 computers".
02/08/00 - Marilyn Monroe had six toes.
02/07/00 - Ants don't sleep.
02/06/00 - A group of geese on the ground is a gaggle, a group of geese in the air is a skein.
02/05/00 - Yet another banana fact: You're more likely to be a target for mosquitoes if you consume bananas.
02/04/00 - Flying once around the moon is the equivalent with a round trip from New York to London. (Earth is about four times the size of the moon.)
02/03/00 - Over 2,500 left handed people a year are killed from using products made for right handed people.
02/02/00 - To make all the guys out there feel insignificant, a elephant has an erection of about 5-6 feet.
02/01/00 - More people are killed by donkeys annually than are killed in plane crashes.
01/31/00 - The scent of cinnamon buns sexually arouse men. Pumpkin pie works, too.
01/30/00 - If you have hiccups that just won't go away, massage your ear lobes.
01/29/00 - A lump of pure gold the size of a matchbox can be flattened into a sheet the size of a tennis court.
01/28/00 - After eating, a housefly regurgitates its food and then eats it again. (Now you know what those little dirty spots on the windows are!)
01/27/00 - In Idaho a citizen is forbidden to give another citizen a box of candy larger than 50lb.
01/26/00 - The list of ingredients that make up lipstick include...fish scales.
01/25/00 - In October 1973 a Swedish sweet maker was buried in accordance with his last wish. Roland Ohisson of Falkenberg was buried in a coffin made of nothing but chocolate.
01/24/00 - Kemo Sabe, the name Tonto called the lone ranger means "Soggy Shrub" in Navajo Indian.
01/23/00 - A polar bear's skin is black. Its fur is not white, but actually clear.
01/22/00 - An average mosquito has 47 teeth.
01/21/00 - When you eat meat and drink milk in the same meal, your body does not absorb any of the milk's calcium. It is best to have 2 hours between the milk and meat intake. (Meat from animals, not peanuts or eggs.)
01/20/00 - A typical bed usually houses over 6 billion dust mites. (Not bedbugs.)
01/19/00 - A sneeze travels at more than 100mph out your nose/mouth.
01/18/00 - Dolphins sleep with one eye open.
01/17/00 - Smelling bananas and/or green apples (smelling, not eating) can help you lose weight.
01/16/00 - Apples are more efficient than caffeine in keeping people awake in the mornings.
01/15/00 - Blue toothbrushes are used by people more than red toothbrushes.
01/14/00 - Bananas are actually herbs. Bananas die after fruiting, just like how all herbs do.
01/13/00 - Bulls are colorblind, therefore will usually charge at a matador's waving cape no matter what color it is.. be it red or neon yellow.
01/12/00 - Ernest Vincent Wright wrote a novel, "Gadsby", which contains over 50,000 words... none of them with the letter E.
01/11/00 - Bats always turn left when exiting a cave.
01/10/00 - The soldiers of World War I were the first people to use the modern flushing toilet. The inventor: Thomas Crapper.
01/09/00 - A can of SPAM is opened every 4 seconds.
01/08/00 - The electric chair was invented by a dentist.
01/07/00 - The plastic lawn flamingos out number real live flamingos in the United States.
01/06/00 - St. Stephan is the patron saint of bricklayers.
01/05/00 - The United States has never lost a war in which mules were used.
01/04/00 - The first telephone book ever issued contained only fifty names. It was published in New Haven, Connecticut, by the New Haven District Telephone Company in February, 1878.
01/03/00 - Tommy Lee Jones and Al Gore were freshman roomates at Harvard.
01/02/00 - Catherine de Medici was the first woman in Europe to use tobacco. She took it in a mixture of snuff.
01/01/00 - The new milenium doesn't actually start until 2001. We have another year to worry about all of this stuff!
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