Uncle John's Bathroom Reader Extraordinary Book of Facts: And Bizarre Information (Bathroom Readers)
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IT LOOKS LIKE: Eyeglasses
BUT IT’S REALLY: A dagger
DESCRIPTION: Concealed in the temple arms of these CIA glasses are two sharp blades. Disguised as the reinforcing wire found in most eyeglass frames, the daggers are designed to be used once and broken off at the hilt, inside the victim. The lenses are cutting tools, too. The lower edges are ground to razor sharpness and can be removed by heating or breaking the frames.
IT LOOKS LIKE: A felt-tip marker
BUT IT’S REALLY: A blister-causing weapon
DESCRIPTION: Don’t mistake this pen for your Sharpie, and be careful: You wouldn’t want it leaking in your pocket. A little over three inches long, the marker distributes an ointment that creates blisters on the skin. In order to activate the applicator, press the tip down on a surface for one minute—then simply apply a thin coating of the colorless oil over any area, such as a keyboard or door handle. The ointment will penetrate clothing and even shoes, and will cause temporary blindness if it comes in contact with the eyes. Blisters will cover the skin wherever contact is made within 24 hours and will last for about a week.
Fruits & Vegetables
CABBAGE
Originated in Asia and introduced to Europe by Alexander the Great about 325 B.C. The name comes from the Latin caput, meaning “head.” It’s high in vitamin C, but contains sulfurous compounds that, when cooked, give off odors similar to rotten eggs or ammonia.
SCALLIONS
These tiny green onions owe their name to the biblical city of Ashkelon. When the Romans conquered the city, they called the tiny onions caepa Ascolonia or “onions of Ashkelon.” This became “scallions.”
JERUSALEM ARTICHOKES
These sweet, starchy roots did not grow in Jerusalem and they are not artichokes. Native Americans used them as bread. The mix-up came when a Spanish explorer thought they were some kind of sunflower. Girasol (“turn to the sun”) is the Spanish word for sunflower. An American heard it as “Jerusalem.” No one knows why he also added “artichoke.”
BROCCOLI
The word comes from the Latin bracchium, or “branch.” It was developed about 2,500 years ago on the island of Cyprus and was a popular dish at ancient Roman banquets. (The Roman emperor Tiberius, who ruled from A.D. 14 to 37, once publicly scolded his son for eating all the broiled broccoli at a state banquet.) It was popularized in the United States by Italian immigrants.
KIWIFRUIT
Originally from China, it was imported to New Zealand in the early 1900s and renamed Chinese Gooseberry. After it arrived in the United States in 1962, a Los Angeles distributor named Frieda Caplan named it after the New Zealand national bird, the kiwi. It took 18 years before the American public started buying it.
CANTALOUPE
A type of muskmelon brought to Italy from Armenia in the 1st century A.D., and grown in the town of Cantalupo, which is where it gets its name.
George
George Washington was named after King George of England.
George Washington and Abraham Lincoln were both descended from England’s King Edward I.
George Washington’s name has been given to one state, seven mountains, eight streams, nine colleges, 10 lakes, 33 counties, and 121 towns across the world.
The autographs of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln are more valuable than any other presidents’.
George Washington’s second inaugural address was the shortest, at just 135 words.
When he didn’t wear a pocket watch, George Washington used a small sundial to tell the time.
George Washington’s favorite tooth whitener: household chalk.
George Washington’s feet were size 13.
When George Washington was president, there were about 350 federal employees. Today there are about 2.5 million.
REMEMBER 1980?
Ronald Reagan elected 40th U.S. president
John Lennon assassinated
Mount St. Helens erupted
#1 movie: The Empire Strikes Back
U.S. hockey team beat the Soviet Union at the Olympics
One percent of American homes had a PC
The Film Industry
Most expensive movie poster in history: Metropolis (1927), auctioned for $690,000 in 2005, edging out the previous record holder. The Mummy (1932), auctioned for $453,000 in 1977.
American author with the most feature films made of his work: Edgar Allan Poe.
Thirty-one percent of American adults say they won’t watch a film with subtitles “no matter how good it is.”
Toto the dog was paid $125 a week for his work in The Wizard of Oz.
James Bond, the spy, is named after James Bond, the real-life ornithologist.
Five names considered for the Seven Dwarfs: Snoopy, Dippy, Blabby, Woeful, and Flabby.
Thirty-two percent of Americans say they never go to the movies.
“What’s up, Doc?” was first uttered by Bugs Bunny in the 1940 cartoon A Wild Hare.
Average cost of a movie ticket in 1940: 24¢.
Gone With the Wind is the only Civil War epic ever filmed without a battle scene.
In Gone With the Wind, Clark Gable worked 71 days and made $120,000. Vivien Leigh worked 125 days and made $25,000.
Terminator II cost $647,000 per minute of film to make.
Story most often made into a movie: Cinderella (59 times).
In 1915 someone made a silent movie version of the opera Carmen.
The movie Grease was released in Venezuela under the name Vaselina.
Average American
It takes the average American 2.6 days to feel relaxed on a vacation.
Per capita, more Americans volunteer their time than people of any other country.
Eighty-nine percent of Americans don’t have a valid passport.
The average American will use two thirds of an acre’s worth of trees in wood products this year.
Twenty-four percent of Americans say the world “was in better shape a thousand years ago.”
Nearly 6 percent of all marriage proposals are made over the telephone.
There are 33 vampire fan clubs in the United States.
Eight percent of Americans twiddle their thumbs. Fifteen percent bite their fingernails.
Ten percent of Americans have at least one college degree.
Twelve percent of Americans think they’ve seen UFOs.
According to florists, America’s favorite flower is the rose. Next: the daisy.
OFFICIAL REQUIREMENTS OF THE PILLSBURY DOUGHBOY:
His skin must look like dough: “off-white, smooth, but not glossy”
Slightly luminous, but no sheen
No knees, elbows, wrists, fingers, ears, or ankles
Rear views do not include “buns”
Walks with a “swagger”
Stomach is proportional to the rest of his body
Skin and Bones
The first vertebra of your neck is called the atlas because it holds up your head.
Every seven years your body grows the equivalent of an entirely new skeleton.
The thyroid cartilage is more commonly known as the Adam’s apple.
Pygmy refers to “any human group whose males are less than 4'11" in average height.”
Nearly all boys grow at least as tall as their mothers.
More than half of the 206 bones in your body are in your hands and feet.
If you’re a healthy, full-grown adult, your thigh bones are stronger than concrete.
Physicians in the United States treat an estimated 4 million broken bones every year.
Your big toes have only two bones. The rest of your toes have three.
Short people have fewer back problems than tall people do.
Take your weight and divide by three. That’s how much your legs weigh.
The average person’s skeleton accounts for about 20 percent of his or her body weight.
After spending 84 days in Skylab, astronauts were two inches taller.
Most Americans say that if they had to resort to cannibalism, “they’d eat the legs first.”
Eggshells are proportionately as strong as bone.
It’s impossible to lick your elbow. Try it.
Antarctica
If Antarctica were to melt, the sea level would rise over 200 feet.
Aristotle first posed the idea that there was a continent at the South Pole.
Antarctica is the only continent without reptiles.
Antarctica doesn’t have a permanent population. In summer about 4,000 people live there; in winter, around 1,000.
In Antarctica, sunsets can be green.
Antarctica is the only continent that has never seen a war.
The temperature in Antarctica once dropped 65 degrees in 12 minutes.
Antarctica is actually a desert, with about the same precipitation (less than two inches a year), as the Sahara.
Coldest place on earth: Vostok, Antarctica. Average annual temperature: –72°F.
The first sighting of Antarctica was in 1820; the first verified landing was in 1821 by a Russian expedition.
Only 2 percent of Antarctica is ice free.
It’s been as cold as –128.5°F, the lowest temperature ever recorded in the world.
Emilio Marcos Palma was the first person born in Antarctica on January 7, 1978. He’s the only person in history known to be the firstborn on a continent.
The Antarctic Treaty, signed in 1959, prohibits anything of a military nature in Antarctica.
Dogs are banned from Antarctica to protect the seal population.
Bloodstream
A pumping human heart can squirt blood as far as 30 feet.
You can lose up to a third of your blood and still survive.
The jugular vein is an artery, not a vein.
The human body has about 60,000 miles of blood vessels.
In the time it takes to turn a page, you’ll lose 3 million blood cells and make 3 million more.
Red blood cells live four months. In that time they make 75,000 trips to the lungs and back.
The most nutritious “food” in the world is blood.
The Rh-ve factor in blood occurs much more frequently (40–45 percent) in Europeans and people of largely European ancestry.
Blood is thicker than water: blood has a specific gravity of 1.06, water’s is 1.00.
Identical twins always have the same blood type.
The average number of industrial compounds and pollutants found in an American’s blood and urine: 91.
SHOWBIZ BLOOD
The blood in movies is inserted into a “squib,” a blood pack taped to a small explosive charge that’s triggered remotely at the appropriate time. The charge blows the blood pack contents through a hole in the costume.
Strange Bird Feats
The Hummingbird is the only bird that can fly backward. It achieves this feat by beating its wings up and down at great speed. (Some species have a wing speed of 80 beats per second.)
The home of the Great Indian Hornbill is a prison. When the female is ready to lay her eggs, she hides in a hole in a tree. The male then seals up the hole, leaving just a narrow slit through which he passes food. The female stays in there until the chicks are a few months old, then she breaks out and helps the male with feeding duties.
The eyes of the Woodcock are set so far back in its head that it has a 360-degree field of vision, enabling it to see all round and even over the top of its head.
The Quetzal, of Central America, has such a long tail (up to three feet) that it can’t take off from a branch in the normal way without ripping its tail to shreds. Instead, it launches itself backward into space like a parachutist leaving an aircraft.
The Wandering Albatross has the largest wingspan of any bird and can glide for six days without beating its wings. It can also sleep in midair.
The Male Bowerbird of Australia attracts a female by building an elaborate love bower. After building a little hut out of twigs, he decorates it with flowers and colorful objects such as feathers, fruit, shells, and pebbles, even glass and paper if the nest is near civilization. One particular species (the atlas bowerbird) actually paints the walls by dipping bark or leaves into the blue or dark green saliva he secretes. The entire bower-building procedure can take months, and the bird will often change the decorations until he is happy with them. When finally satisfied, he performs a love dance outside the bower, sometimes offering the female a pretty item from his collection.
Immutable Laws
Zappa’s Law: There are two things on Earth that are universal: hydrogen and stupidity.
Baruch’s Observation: If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.
Lowe’s Law: Success always occurs in private, and failure in full public view.
Todd’s Law: All things being equal, you lose.
Thompson’s Theorem: When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.
The Unspeakable Law: As soon as you mention something . . . if it’s good, it goes away. If it’s bad, it happens.
Green’s Law of Debate: Anything is possible if you don’t know what you’re talking about.
Hecht’s Law: There is no time like the present to procrastinate.
The Queue Principle: The longer you wait in line, the greater the likelihood that you are standing in the wrong line.
Issawi’s Law of Progress: A shortcut is the longest distance between two points.
Ginsberg’s Theorem: 1. You can’t win; 2. You can’t break even; 3. You can’t even quit the game.
The Salary Axiom: The pay raise is just large enough to increase your taxes and just small enough to have no effect on your take-home pay.
Wellington’s Law of Command: The cream rises to the top. So does the scum.
Todd’s Two Political Principles: 1. No matter what they’re telling you, they’re not telling you the whole truth. 2. No matter what they’re talking about, they’re talking about money.
Kirby’s Comment on Committees: A committee is the only life form with 12 stomachs and no brain.
Phobias
The average American develops his or her first phobia at age 13.
Most common phobia in the world: odynophobia—the fear of pain.
Experts say that the most common phobia in the United States is arachnophobia: fear of spiders.
Arachibutyrophobia: the fear of having peanut butter stuck to the roof of your mouth.
Fear of lawsuits: liticaphobia
Fear of clowns: coulrophobia
What’s a suriphobe? Someone who’s afraid of mice.
An anemophobic person is someone who’s afraid of high winds.
Fear of making decisions: decidophobia
Fear of slime: myxophobia
How would you know a cherophobe if you met one? He or she would be afraid of having fun.
Fear of constipation: coprastasophobia
If you have keraunothnetophobia, you’re afraid of satellites falling to earth.
Fear of France: Francophobia
A fear of ventriloquist dummies: automatorsophobia
Fear of the moon: selenophobia
A cremnophobe is someone who is afraid of falling down the stairs.
Telesphobia is the name given to “the fear of being last.”
A fear of becoming bold: phalacrophobia
An ergasiophobe is someone who’s afraid of work.
It’s Just Business
Biggest civilian employer in America: the U.S. Postal Service.
Wal-Mart is the world’s largest private employer. It had over 1.6 million employees in 2005.
Ninety percent of U.S. businesses are family owned.
The original Macy’s made a total of $11.06 on its first day of business in 1858.
The Ford Motor Company earned an average two-dollar profit on every Model T it manufactured.
Three names considered before picking “Nike” for their shoe company: Falcon, Bengal, and Dimension 6.
IBM holds
the most U.S. patents.
Harley-Davidson tried to trademark its engine sound and the word hog. Both attempts failed.
In the 1940s the Bich pen was changed to Bic. The company thought Americans would call it Bitch.
Each employee at Ben & Jerry’s headquarters gets three pints of free ice cream a day.
Every time a box of Wheaties with Tiger Woods on the front was sold, he got a dime. The farmer who grew the wheat got a nickel.
Miller Brewing donated $150,000 to its Thurgood Marshall Scholarship Fund in 1993, and spent $300,000 promoting the donation.
BIG WORD, LITTLE OBJECT
The scientific name for any object that’s shaped like a football: a prolate spheroid.
It’s a Living
When Confucius was 16, he worked as a grain inspector.
Before he became an explorer, Amerigo Vespucci (for whom America is named) was a pickle merchant.
Benjamin Franklin gave guitar lessons.
Benjamin Franklin was America’s first newspaper cartoonist.
Will Rogers once served as honorary mayor of Beverly Hills.
Margaret Hamilton, who played the Wicked Witch of the West, was once a kindergarten teacher.
Bob Hope and Billy Joel were once boxers.
Frank Sinatra once boxed under the name Marty O’Brien.
Rod Stewart once worked as a gravedigger.
Johnny Carson, Michael Douglas, and Clint Eastwood were all once gas station attendants.
Sean Connery once had a job polishing coffins.
Dustin Hoffman used to type entries for the Yellow Pages.
Danny DeVito once studied to be a hairdresser.
Drew Carey once worked in Las Vegas—as a waiter at Denny’s.