Uncle John's Bathroom Reader Extraordinary Book of Facts: And Bizarre Information (35 page)

8 1/2-oz. box of Rice Crispies: 25¢.

Pound of steak: 43¢

Avis Rental Car: $5 a day, plus 8¢ a mile

RCA color TV: $795–$895

Median income for men: $3,400

For women: $1,100

The Detroit Tigers major league baseball team:

$5.5 million (a record at the time)

Your brain operates on the same amount of power that would light up a 10-watt light-bulb.

There are about as many nerve cells in your brain as there are stars in the galaxy.

Gesturing with your hands while speaking improves your memory.

Living brain cells are bright pink, not gray. They’re about the color of cotton candy.

A newborn baby’s brain weighs only three ounces. The average adult’s brain weighs three pounds.

Your brain uses 40 percent of the oxygen that enters your bloodstream.

Brain waves have been used to run an electric train.

Your brain is only 2 percent of your body’s weight, but uses 20 percent of your energy.

The brain can record about 86 million bits of information each day.

Brain cells are the only human cells that don’t reproduce.

Every second, 100,000 chemical reactions occur in your brain.

Every second, your senses send about 100 million different messages to your brain.

It takes about 8/1000 of a second for a human nerve impulse to reach the brain.

The human brain can hold 500 times the information found in a set of
Encyclopaedia Britannica
.

Most types of lipstick contain fish scales as an ingredient.

The heel of a sock is called the “gore.”

The first watches (portable clocks) were known as Nürnberg eggs.

In the 1600s in Europe, “fashion” wigs were often made of plaster of paris.

Watches get their name because they were originally worn by night watchmen.

Sneakers get their name because they don’t squeak like leather shoes do.

How did Levi’s 501 jeans get their name? The new denim’s lot number was 501.

Americans spent approximately $250 billion on fashion, apparel, shoes, and accessories in 2000.

The
G
in
G-string
stands for “groin.”

Clothing is the third most popular item purchased at yard sales.

The trial of O.J. Simpson revealed that there were only 299 pairs of size 12 Bruno Magli shoes ever sold.

The average ten-gallon hat can hold only three quarts of water.

A bolt of cloth is 120 feet long.

It takes between 35 and 60 minks to make a single coat.

Some people in Siberia make clothes out of halibut skins.

The average bra is designed to last for only 180 days of use.

It takes four hours to weave a hula skirt from 60 ti plants. The skirt will only last about five days.

According to a garment industry study, 75 percent of women wear the wrong size bra.

Most common first name in the world: Muhammad. Most common last name: Li. About 108 million people have it.

The five most common American surnames: Smith, Johnson, Williams, Jones, Brown.

Twenty-eight percent of Southerners refer to their mothers as Mama. Nine percent of non-Southerners do.

More than 1,000 people belong to the Society of Jim Smiths. All of them are named Jim Smith.

Three percent of all English surnames are derived from animal names.

The name Ann is used as a middle name 10 times more often than as a first name.

When pronounced correctly, many Chinese surnames have only one syllable.

The most common name for male dogs and cats in the United States is Max.

The most popular names for American children born in 1970 and 1980 were Michael and Jennifer. By 2005 Michael had dropped to 12th place, and Jennifer didn’t even make it into the top 100.

The name of the city we call Bangkok is 155 letters long in the Thai language and the longest place name in the world. The people of Thailand shorten it to Krungthep for everyday use.

The most common street name in America is Second Street.

Binney & Smith, makers of Crayola, own the rights to Silly Putty and produce about 500 pounds of it every day.

Silly Putty comes in 16 different colors including glow-in-the-dark, glitter, and hot fluorescent colors. There’s even Silly Putty that changes color depending on the temperature of your hands.

One of the original Silly Putty eggs is on display at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History.

Over 300 million eggs have been sold since its inception in 1950—enough to form a ball of Silly Putty the size of a Goodyear blimp.

In 1968
Apollo 8
astronauts used a new adhesive to fasten down tools during their voyage into weightlessness: Silly Putty.

In 1989 a grad student at Alfred University wanted to find out what would happen to a ball of Silly Putty dropped from a roof. He dropped a 100-pound ball from the top of a three-story building. The ball first bounced about eight feet into the air, but it shattered into pieces on the second bounce.

In 2000 Binney & Smith sponsored a “Silliest Uses for Silly Putty Contest.” The winner: Replace your stockbroker by throwing a ball of Silly Putty at the stock page in the newspaper and investing in whatever stock it lifts from the newsprint. (Second place went to the woman who suggested it could be used to form a fake swollen gland to get out of an unwanted date.)

In 2001 Silly Putty was inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame, taking its place beside such classics as G.I. Joe, Lincoln Logs, and Monopoly.

If you’re west of the Ural Mountains, you’re in Europe; east of them, you’re in Asia.

Damascus, Syria, is the oldest continuously occupied city in the world.

India has an estimated 550 million voters.

At its peak, the Persian empire was roughly two-thirds the size of the United States.

Siberia contains more than 25 percent of the world’s forests.

World’s highest city: Lhasa, Tibet, at 12,087 feet above sea level.

The only four countries on earth with one-syllable English names: Chad, France, Greece, and Spain.

China has a longer border than any other country in the world: 13,700 miles.

Twice as many people live in Shanghai, China, as in New York City.

Mongolia is the only country in the world where horses outnumber people.

Most visited mountain on earth: Mount Fuji, in Japan.

Russia’s Lake Baikal is deep enough to hold four Empire State Buildings stacked atop each other.

Mississippi Bay is off the coast of Yokohama, Japan.

There are more English speakers in China than in the United States.

What’s a hooker? An Irish fishing boat with a single mast.

The abbreviation for pound,
lb
., comes from the astrological sign Libra.

An erythrophobe is someone who blushes easily.

A gnomon is the thing that casts a shadow on a sundial.

In some parts of England garbage collectors are known as swill solicitors.

An exocannibal is a cannibal who eats only enemies. An indocannibal eats only friends.

According to one expert, the most frequently used English noun is
way
.

Illegible handwriting is known as griffonage.

A singulthus is a hiccup.

A gozzard is a person who owns geese.

Mediterranean
means “middle of the world.” That’s what people used to think it was.

Dividing something into squares is known as graticulation.

The handle of a bucket or a kettle is called the bail.

An algologist studies seaweed.

What does genitofemoral neuropathy mean? “Jeans are too tight.”

Another word for the crater caused by a meteor: astrobleme.

Siberia
means “sleeping land.”

Literally translated, hors d’oeuvre means “outside of work.”

E Pluribus Unum
means “from many, one.”

A pulicologist studies fleas.

Bimonthly can mean every other month or twice a month.

In ancient Greece, tossing an apple to a girl was a marriage proposal. Catching it meant yes.

In ancient Rome, wedding guests wished a bride good luck by breaking the cake over her head.

At Old English weddings, guests threw shoes at the groom.

In the Middle Ages, you were supposed to throw eggs at the bride and groom.

The parents of the groom pay for weddings in Thailand.

Moroccan brides keep their eyes closed during a wedding to avoid the “evil eye.”

According to
Brides
magazine, an average wedding costs nearly $19,000.

Impotence is grounds for divorce in 24 states.

The United States is the only western country with restrictions of marriage between cousins. Twenty-four states do not allow first cousins to marry each other.

Five percent of Americans never get married.

Forty percent of Americans say they believe in love at first sight.

Fifty-two percent of soon-to-be grooms and 39 percent of future brides say they’ll include the phrase “to honor and obey” in their wedding vows.

Average age of a first-time American bride in 1970: 20.8. In 2003: 27.

States with the three highest divorce rates: Nevada, Arkansas, and Wyoming, in that order.

Line:
“That government is best which governs least.”

Supposedly Said By:
Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)

Actually:
William F. Buckley used this quote in a 1987 newspaper column. He probably took it from Henry David Thoreau, who used it in his 1849 essay “Civil Disobedience.” But Thoreau didn’t attribute it to anyone in particular. Why did Buckley attribute it to Jefferson? Who knows. Anyway, it was first said by the early American pamphleteer, Thomas Paine.

Line:
“Here I stand—warts and all.”

Supposedly Said By:
Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)

Actually:
Vice President George Bush “quoted” this line in a 1988 campaign speech, but Lincoln never said it. When the
New York Times
called Bush headquarters to question the reference, one of Bush’s speechwriters admitted having made up the quote.

Line:
“Build a better mousetrap, and the world will beat a path to your door.”

Supposedly Said By:
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882), American essayist, philosopher, and poet

Actually:
Sarah Yule, a writer, took it from an Emerson lecture and included it in her 1889 book,
Borrowings
, but she got it wrong. What Emerson actually said: “If a man has good corn, or wood, or boards, or pigs to sell, or can make better chairs, or knives, crucibles or church organs, than anybody else, you will find a broad, hard-beaten road to his house, though it be in the woods.”

Line:
“I can answer you in two words, ‘im-possible.’”

Supposedly Said By:
Sam Goldwyn (1882–1974), movie mogul

Actually:
This is often quoted as one of his famous “Goldwynisms,” but he didn’t say it. Charlie Chaplin did.

Line:
“I wish I’d studied Latin at school so I could talk to you in your own language.”