Little Known Facts . . .

Did you know?

*A duck's quack doesn't echo, and no one knows why.
*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 only 15 letter word that can be spelled without repeating a letter is uncopyrightable.
*Cats have over one hundred vocal sounds, while dogs only have about ten.
*The word "Checkmate" in chess comes from the Persian phrase "Shah Mat," which means, "the king is dead".
*Pinocchio is Italian for "pine head."
*In every episode of Seinfeld there is a Superman somewhere.
*The United States has never lost a war in which mules were used.
*All porcupines float in water.
*The airplane Buddy Holly died in was called "American Pie." (Thus the name of the Don McLean song.)
*The only nation whose name begins with an "A", but doesn't end in an "A" is Afghanistan.
*The longest word in the English language, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, is pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis. The only other word with the same amount of letters is pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconioses, its plural.
*An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain.
*Al Capone's business card said he was a used furniture dealer.
*Wilma Flintstone's maiden name was Wilma Slaghoopal, and Betty Rubble's Maiden name was Betty Jean Mcbricker.
*Dueling is legal in Paraguay as long as both parties are registered blood donors.
*The characters Bert and Ernie on Sesame Street were named after Bert the cop and Ernie the taxi driver in Frank Capra's "Its A Wonderful Life."
*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.
*"Stewardesses" is the longest word that is typed with only the left hand.
*A group of unicorns is called a blessing. Twelve or more cows are known as a "flink." A group of frogs is called an army. A group of rhinos is called a crash. A group of kangaroos is called a mob. A group of whales is called a pod. A group of ravens is called a murder. A group of officers is called a mess. A group of larks is called an exaltation. A group of owls is called a parliament.
*Every time you lick a stamp, you're consuming 1/10 of a calorie.
*The phrase "sleep tight" derives from the fact that early mattresses were filled with straw and held up with rope stretched across the bedframe. A tight sleep was a comfortable sleep.
*Studies show that if a cat falls off the seventh floor of a building it has about thirty percent less chance of surviving than a cat that falls off the twentieth floor. It supposedly takes about eight floors for the cat to realize what is occurring, relax and correct itself.
*111,111,111 x 111,111,111=12,345,678,987,654,321
*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. (note: if the rider's head is up the horse's rear, the rider died a politician.)
*No word in the English language rhymes with month, orange, silver, and purple.
*Clans of long ago that wanted to get rid of their unwanted people without killing them used to burn their houses down - hence the expression "to get fired."
*There are two credit cards for every person in the United States.
*A snail can sleep for 3 years.
*If you were to spell out numbers, how far would you have to go until you would find the letter "A"? -- One thousand
*What do bullet proof vests, fire escapes, windshield wipers and laser printers all have in common?-- All were invented by women.
*Married men revealed that they change their underwear twice as often as single men.
*40% of all people who come to a party in your home snoop in your medicine cabinet.
*The first couple to be shown in bed together on prime time television were Fred and Wilma Flintstone.
*Coca-Cola was originally green.
*Every day more money is printed for Monopoly than the US Treasury.
*It is possible to lead a cow upstairs but not downstairs.
*The reason firehouses have circular stairways is from the days of
old when the engines were pulled by horses. The horses were stabled
on the ground floor and figured out how to walk up straight staircases.
*State with the highest percentage of people who walk to work: Alaska
*Percentage of Africa that is wilderness: 28%
Percentage of North America that is wilderness: 38%
*Average number of people airborne over the US at any given hour: 61,000
*Iceland consumes more Coca-Cola per capita than any other nation.
*First novel ever written on a typewriter: Tom Sawyer.
*Each king in a deck of playing cards represents a great king from history.
Spades - King David, Clubs - Alexander the Great,
Hearts - Charlemagne, and Diamonds - Julius Caesar.
*The term "the whole 9 yards" came from W.W.II fighter pilots in the South Pacific. When arming their airplanes on the ground, the .50 caliber machine gun ammo belts measured exactly 27 feet, before being loaded into the fuselage. If the pilots fired all their ammo at a target,it got "the whole 9 yards."
*The Eisenhower interstate system requires that one mile in every five must be straight. These straight sections are usable as airstrips in times of war or other emergencies.