Fun_People Archive
31 Aug
Interesting "Facts" (Possibly true)...

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From: Peter Langston <psl>
Date: Sun, 31 Aug 97 23:27:53 -0700
To: Fun_People
Subject: Interesting "Facts" (Possibly true)...

[Another in our continuing series of suspect "fact" compilations.  The expert  
fact-checkers at Fun_People_Central assure me that at least one of these  
facts is, in fact, true; they didn't seem to be able to agree on which fact it  
was, though...  -psl]

Forwarded-by: Gerry Pollack <pollack@conxion.com>


A duck's quack doesn't echo, and no one knows why.

In the 1940s, the FCC assigned television's Channel 1 to mobile services
(two-way radios in taxicabs, for instance) but did not re-number the other
channel assignments. That is why your TV set has channels 2 and up, but no
channel 1.

The "save" icon on Microsoft Word shows a floppy disk, with the shutter on
backwards.

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 verb "cleave" is the only English word with two synonyms which are
antonyms of each other: adhere and separate.

The only 15 letter word that can be spelled without repeating a letter is
uncopyrightable.

Facetious and abstemious contain all the vowels in the correct order, as
does arsenious, meaning "containing arsenic."

Emus and kangaroos cannot walk backwards, and are on the Australian coat of
arms for that reason.

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."

Camel's milk does not curdle.

In every episode of Seinfeld there is a Superman somewhere.

An animal epidemic is called an epizootic.

Murphy's Oil Soap is the chemical most commonly used to clean elephants.

The United States has never lost a war in which mules were used.

Blueberry Jelly Bellies were created especially for Ronald Reagan.

All porcupines float in water.

Hang On Sloopy is the official rock song of Ohio.

Did you know that there are coffee flavored PEZ?

Lorne Greene had one of his nipples bitten off by an alligator while he was
host of "Lorne Greene's Wild Kingdom."

Cat's urine glows under a blacklight.

If you bring a raccoon's head to the Henniker, New Hampshire town hall, you
are entitled to receive $.10 from the town.

The reason firehouses have circular stairways is from the days of yore when
the engines were pulled by horses. The horses were stabled on the ground
floor, and figured out how to walk up straight staircases.

Non-dairy creamer is flammable.

The airplane Buddy Holly died in was the "American Pie." (Thus the name of
the Don McLean song.)

Texas is also the only state that is allowed to fly its state flag at the
same height as the U.S. flag.

The only nation whose name begins with an "A", but doesn't end in an "A" is
Afghanistan.

Pamela Anderson Lee is Canada's Centennial Baby, being the first baby born
on the centennial anniversary of Canada's independence.

When opossums are playing 'possum, they are not "playing." They actually
pass out from sheer terror.

The Main Library at Indiana University sinks over an inch every year because
when it was built, engineers failed to take into account the weight of all
the books that would occupy the building.

© 1997 Peter Langston