Total Trivia

[fire_breeze]

"Because it's French" can't argue with that

Here's a true (and trivial) French story...

Several years ago we, as a family, visited Paris and did all the usual touristy things. My french is minimal but more than my ex-husband's and my two children's knowledge of the language. So, here we are at the ticket booth for the Eiffel Tower and I'm embarking on a conversation to purchase the tickets. I translate it into english for comprehension...

Me: Three adults and one child to the third level please.
Lady: How old is the child?
Me: It's eleven o'clock.

Oops!

*laugh* It happens more often than you realised... and besides, she was probably happy that you made the effort.

 

[smotherman]

You use 200 muscles to take one step.

 

[smotherman]

The average human dream lasts 2-3 seconds.

 

[smotherman]

The average woman is 5 inches shorter than the average man.

 

[Gaia_Lorraine]

The world's first microwave oven was built in America after a chance discovery by Percy Spencer in 1946. He noticed that a magnetron had melted a chocolate bar in his pocket , then proceeded to test this out on some popcorn watching in amazement as it popped.
The first microwave constructed weighed 750lb, stood 6 feet tall and cost $5,000.

 

[fire_breeze]

A 2x4 is actually 1-1/2" x 3-1/2"

 

[fire_breeze]

Dr. Seuss actually pronounced Seuss such that it sounded like Sue-ice.

 

[fire_breeze]

Upper and lower case letters are named 'upper' and 'lower', because in the time when all original print had to be set in individual letters, the 'upper case' letters were stored in the case on top of the case that stored the smaller, 'lower case' letters. The proper term for upper case letters is "majuscule" and for lower case it's "minuscule".

 

[fire_breeze]

In Gulliver's Travels Jonathan Swift described the two moons of Mars, Phobos and Deimos, giving their exact size and speeds of rotation. He did this more than one hundred years before either moon was discovered.

 

[fire_breeze]

Francis Bacon died in his attempt to find a better way to serve food. He caught a case of pneumonia while attempting to stuff a chicken with snow. Ironically, the chicken survived the ordeal.

 

[fire_breeze]

Escalator is one of many words that were originally trademarks but have become ordinary words found in dictionaries. Some other words which were originally trademarks and have now passed into common use are aspirin, autoharp, band-aids, breathalyzer, cellophane, Coke (in some areas, at least), corn flakes, cube steak, ditto, dry ice, dumpster, formica, Frisbee, granola, gunk, jeep, kerosene, Kleenex, mace, nylon, ping-pong (also an onomatopoeia), popsicle, Q-tip, rollerblade, rolodex, Scotch tape, sheetrock, spandex, styrofoam, tabloid, thermos, trampoline, yo-yo, xerox, and zipper.

 

[fire_breeze]

A Boeing 747's wingspan is longer than the Wright brother's first flight.

 

[Gaia_Lorraine]

Food & Wine magazine reported that in Japan, squid is the most popular topping for Domino's pizza.

 

[Gaia_Lorraine]

Turtles survived the upheavals of the last 200 million years, including the great extinction episode that eliminated the dinosaurs. Now, about half of the world's turtle species face possible extinction — due in large part to a growing demand for turtles as a popular dining delicacy and a source of traditional medicines.

 

[Gaia_Lorraine]

The movies, The Turning Point (1977) and The Color Purple (1985) both share the record of receiving the most Oscar nominations (11) and no Oscar wins.

 

[desideratum]

The term cuckold comes from the cuckoo bird which lays eggs in other bird's nests. The young, when hatched, are bigger than the others and toss them out of the nest.

 

[Gaia_Lorraine]

The term cuckold comes from the cuckoo bird which lays eggs in other bird's nests. The young, when hatched, are bigger than the others and toss them out of the nest.

Crafty little buggers aren't they?

 

[desideratum]

Crafty little buggers aren't they?

ohhh yeahhhhh lol

 

[Gaia_Lorraine]

According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, with 20.7 divorces out of every 1,000 married people, the U.S. leads the world in broken marriages. The closest "rival" for this dubious title is Denmark, with 13.1 divorces per 1,000 marriages.

 

[desideratum]

According to discovery channel, couples with children have a slightly lower rate of divorce than childless couples.
duh! lol

 

[Gaia_Lorraine]

The clitoris is a quarter-inch bud of sexually responsive tissue located just above the vaginal entrance, where the labia minora join. The seat of much sexual pleasure in the female, the clitoris may be hidden under a hood of flesh called the clitoral prepuce. The clitoris is analogous to the penis. Kleitoris in ancient Greek means literally "the man with the key" or "the gatekeeper." A playful origin of names for this organ is repeated in many languages. Compare a British folk term, ‘the little man in the boat.’ The word is pronounced KLIT-or-iss.

 

[desideratum]

whilst sort of on topic hehe
the largest cell in the human body is the female reproductive cell, the ovum.

 

[Gaia_Lorraine]

So as to cut short – or all together avoid – time-consuming encounters with the press, U.S. President Ronald Reagan often took reporters' questions with his helicopter roaring in the background.

 

[Gaia_Lorraine]

Before a wrist injury changed her career plans, Marlene Dietrich had wanted to become a professional concert violinist.

 

[Gaia_Lorraine]

The name "Crayola" is a combination of the French word for chalk ("craie") and "ola" from the "oleanginous," which means "oily."