By Jeeves! (c) Sophie
once again, we close the month with a bang! it has been awhile since i've last posted a trivia -- so, might as well bombard the mind with 'wholesome, humorous' facts about life, the universe and everything, erm right, jeeves? Very good, Miss Sophie... uh-ahem, meet my imaginary butler... till i'm able to afford a real-life, bona fide "jeeves."
Trivial facts are often the best hints to what is going on.
-- J.M. Roberts
20. X-ray technology has shown there are 3 different versions of the Mona Lisa under the visible one.
19. Honey is the only food that does not spoil. Honey found in the tombs of Egyptian pharaohs has been tasted by archaeologists and found edible.
18. The city of Chicago has the only post office in the world where you can drive your car through.
17. The shortest war on record, between Britain and Zanzibar in 1896, lasted just 38 minutes.
16. A bibliophile is a collector of rare books. A bibliopole is a seller of rare books.
15. A poem written to celebrate a wedding is called an epithalamium.
14. In 1945 a computer at Harvard malfunctioned and Grace Hopper, who was working on the computer, investigated, found a moth in one of the circuits and removed it. Ever since, when something goes wrong with a computer, it is said to have a bug in it.
13. Fourteenth century physicians didn't know what caused the plague, but they knew it was contagious. As a result they wore an early kind of bioprotective suit which included a large beaked head piece. The beak of the head piece, which made them look like large birds, was filled with vinegar, sweet oils and other strong smelling compounds to counteract the stench of the dead and dying plague victims.12. "Ough" can be pronounced in eight different ways. The following sentence contains them all: "A rough-coated, dough-faced ploughman strode through the streets of Scarborough, coughing and hiccoughing thoughtfully.
11. Barbers at one time combined shaving and haircutting with bloodletting and pulling teeth. The white stripes on a field of red that spiral down a barber pole represent the bandages used in the bloodletting.
10. The last thing to happen is the ultimate. The next-to-last is the penultimate, and the second-to-last is the antepenultimate.
9. The symbol on the "pound" key (#) is called an octothorpe.
8. The word "assassination" was invented by Shakespeare.
7. Sherlock Holmes never said 'Elementary, my dear Watson.'
6. The Hoover Dam was built to last 2,000 years. The concrete in it will not even be fully cured for another 500 years.
5. Dueling is legal in Paraguay as long as both parties are registered blood donors.
4. A Saudi Arabian woman can get a divorce if her husband doesn't give her coffee.
3. The two lines that connect your top lip to the bottom of your nose are known as the philtrum.
2. Aztec emperor Montezuma drank 50 golden goblets of hot chocolate every day. It was thick, dyed red and flavored with chili peppers.
and finally,
1. In the late 19th century, millions of human mummies were used as fuel for locomotives in Egypt where wood and coal was scarce, but mummies were plentiful.
... morbidly clever, eh? excusez-moi while i philosophize.
my top 3 newsmakers of the month:
oh and before i say 'adieu', On average women say 7,000 words per day. Men manage just over 2000. how utterly... true.
since 2004.10