Ramses condoms are named after Ramses II, an Egyptian pharaoh who fathered more than 160 children.
Original name for the Bank of America: the Bank of Italy.
The millionth trademark issued by the U.S. Patent Office: Sweet’N Low.
Weird Plants
Welwitschia mirabilis, from the deserts of Namibia, can live for over 2,000 years, yet its central trunk never grows more than three feet in height. Instead, the energy is transmitted into its two huge leaves that never fall and continue growing throughout the plant’s life. The leaves can be as long as 20 feet.
The banyan tree (Ficus benghalensis) of India has more than one trunk. When the tree reaches a certain size, it sends down ropelike roots, which, when they reach the soil, take root and thicken to form additional trunks. The tree can spread outward almost indefinitely. A 200-year-old specimen in the Calcutta Botanic Gardens had more than 1,700 trunks. During Alexander the Great’s Indian campaign, 20,000 soldiers are said to have sheltered under a single banyan tree.
As a defense mechanism, the merest touch causes the sensitive plant (Mimosa pudica) to collapse in a tenth of a second. The wilting pose deters grazing animals from eating it. A few minutes later, when the danger passes, the plant reverts to its upright position.
Puya Raimondii of Bolivia can take up to 150 years to bloom. But once it flowers, it promptly dies. Although it is an herbaceous plant, it is built like a tree, with a stem strong enough to support a human adult.
The grapple tree (Harpagophytum procumbens) of South Africa produces a fruit called the Devil’s Claw. The fruit is covered in fierce hooks, which latch on to passing animals. In trying to shake the fruit off, the animal disperses the seeds but at the same time, the hooks sink deeper into the creature’s flesh. If the animal touches the fruit with its mouth, the fruit will attach itself to the animal’s jaw, inflicting great pain and preventing it from eating. Antelopes are the usual victims, but it has been known to kill a lion.
Twisters
A tornado swept a toddler out of his bed and set him down safely 50 feet away without removing his blankets.
After a tornado a woman walked into her front yard to find a sturdy, 40-foot tree uprooted—even though the lawn furniture remained exactly where she had left it.
A tornado picked up a tie rack with 10 ties attached and carried it for 40 miles without removing one tie.
While a couple slept, a tornado lifted their cottage then dropped it into a nearby lake. They remembered only a loud bang before they woke up in deep water.
A tornado scooped up five horses that were hitched to a rail, then set the whole arrangement down, intact, horses uninjured, a quarter-mile away.
In 1987, in China, 12 children walking home from school were sucked up by a tornado and safely deposited 12 miles away in sand dunes.
After a tornado killed migrating ducks at a migratory bird refuge, it rained dead ducks 40 miles away.
TV: The Culture
Most common place to lose the remote control: under furniture.
Average length of time a child watches an episode of Sesame Street: eight minutes.
If you’re an average American, you spend four to six hours every day watching TV.
Approximately 14 percent of U.S. homes have a TV in the kitchen.
The average color TV lasts for eight years.
In 1959 former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt made a TV commercial for Good Luck margarine.
For years the globe on the NBC Nightly News spun in the wrong direction.
Mr. Ed’s real name was Bamboo Harvester.
Twenty percent of men say their TV has taught them more about life than their parents have.
First animated characters on TV commercials: the Ajax pixies. They sold cleanser.
An average American seven-year-old watches 20,000 commercials a year—about 55 every day.
The world’s first animated TV ad was created by Dr. Seuss in 1949, for the Ford Motor Co.
Words most frequently used in U.S. advertisements: new and improved.
The first time live models advertised (Playtex) bras on TV was in 1987.
Third graders with TV sets in their bedrooms score lower on standardized tests. With computers, they score higher.
Founding Fathers
RICHARD REYNOLDS
The nephew of cigarette mogul R. J. Reynolds. He spent 10 years working for his uncle’s tobacco company, then in 1912 struck out on his own. After several setbacks, he went back to his uncle and borrowed enough money to start the U.S. Foil Company—which made foil cigarette packaging for R.J. Reynolds Co. In the mid-1930s Richard learned of a new type of foil made from aluminum. Sensing the product’s potential, he built a plant to manufacture it. He began selling it as Reynolds Wrap.
WARREN AVIS
In the 1930s he was a Ford salesman. Then during World War II he joined the air force and became a combat flying officer. He found that, often, the hardest part of flying was figuring out how to get from the airport to his final destination. In 1946 he started a car rental company at Detroit’s Willow Run Airport. He talked Ford into selling him cars at a discount by convincing them that having renters “test-drive” new Fords would help the automaker sell its cars. By the time he sold Avis Rent-A-Car in 1954, the chain had expanded to 154 locations around the country.
ARTHUR PITNEY AND WALTER BOWES
In 1901 Pitney created a machine that could stick postage stamps on letters. In 1920 he joined forces with Bowes. Because of World War I, there was a letter-writing boom, and the post office needed a machine to keep up. In 1920 Congress passed a bill allowing the Pitney-Bowes machine to handle the mail.
GLEN W. BELL
After he got out of the marines in 1946, Bell sold his refrigerator for $500 and used the money to start Bell’s Drive-In in San Bernardino, California. San Bernardino is also the birthplace of McDonalds, and when Bell realized how well the McDonald brothers were doing, he decided it would be easier to switch to Mexican food than it would be to compete against them directly. His first restaurants were called Taco Tia. But after a while he renamed them Taco Bell, after himself.
DR. KLAUS MAERTENS
In the 1940s he made orthopedic support shoes for older women. He expanded his line to include shoes for people suffering from skiing injuries, and simple, functional work boots that could stand up to almost anything. In 1959 Maertens licensed his designs to a small British shoe company, R. Griggs, which began selling English versions of the shoes under the anglicized trade name Dr. Marten’s.
JASPER NEWTON DANIEL
He was born in Tennessee in 1850, the youngest of 13 children, and ran away when he was only six years old. Little Jasper ended up living with a neighbor named Dan Call and earned his keep by helping him make moonshine whiskey. In 1863 Call sold his still to Jasper, who was then only 13. Known as Jack, Jasper Daniel had a knack for making—and selling—whiskey, and distributed it to both sides during the Civil War. He used his war profits to build a real distillery. A slight man at 5 feet 2 inches and 120 pounds, Daniel relied on his personality as much as the quality of his whiskey to make sales. He always wore a mustache and goatee, a planter’s hat, and a knee-length frock coat. He never appeared in public without his “costume.” When postwar liquor laws changed, Daniel was the first man to register a distillery in the United States, which he called Jack Daniel Distillery No. 1.
CHARLES HENRY DOW AND EDWARD D. JONES
Journalists at the turn of the century, Dow and Jones created the first index of U.S. stock prices—the Dow Jones average. It later appeared in the newspaper they founded, the Wall Street Journal.
GABRIEL DANIEL FAHRENHEIT
German scientist of the late 17th and early 18th centuries. Invented a new thermometer that used mercury instead of alcohol. Its new scale—which marks water’s freezing point at 32° and its boiling point at 212°—was named Fahrenheit after him and became popular in English-speaking countries.
Our Solar System
Only 48 percent of the sun’s energy actually reaches Earth.
Uranus has 21 moons.
Approximately 26,000 meteorites crash to Earth each year.
There are more than 7,000 asteroids in the solar system. Only one (Vesta) is visible to the naked eye.
Number of stars in the Seven Sisters (the Pleiades): about 250.
It takes Pluto 25 years to receive as much solar energy as Earth receives in one minute.
Mercury is 800°F at its equator, but has ice at its north and south poles.
An astronaut orbiting Earth can see as many as 16 sunrises and sunsets every 24 hours.
The footprints on the moon will last forever—or until a meteor hits them.
On average, every square meter of the surface of Earth receives 240 watts of sunlight.
The three most common elements in the universe: hydrogen, helium, and oxygen.
Wind speeds on Neptune can reach 1,500 mph.
Scientists think there’s gold on Mars, Venus, and Mercury.
Neptune’s summer is 40 years long.
The sun spews out more than a million tons of matter every second.
Earth is closest to the sun on January 3.
Presidential Firsts
George Washington was the first and only president elected by a unanimous electoral vote.
The first president to shake hands in greeting was Thomas Jefferson. Earlier presidents bowed.
James Madison was the first president to wear long pants instead of knee breeches.
John Quincy Adams was the first president with a pet reptile. He kept a pet alligator in the East Room of the White House. He enjoyed “the spectacle of guests fleeing from the room in terror.”
Andrew Jackson was the first president to ride a train.
Jackson was also the first president to be handed a baby to kiss during his campaign. He refused to kiss the infant and handed it over to his secretary of war.
Martin Van Buren was the first president actually born in the United States.
The first U.S.-born president to be born outside the original 13 states: Abraham Lincoln (Kentucky).
The first president to have a “First Cat” at the White House: Abraham Lincoln.
Abraham Lincoln was the first president to wear a beard in office.
James Garfield was the first president to use a phone in the White House. His first words to inventor Alexander Graham Bell, who was on the other end, were “Please speak a little more slowly.”
The first president to act in a movie was Teddy Roosevelt. He starred as himself in a 1908 comedy.
Richard Nixon was the first president to host a rock concert at the White House. He invited the Guess Who and the Turtles to play for his daughters.
Looney Laws
In Brooklyn, New York, it’s illegal to let a dog sleep in your bathtub.
In Atlanta, it’s illegal to tie a giraffe to a streetlight or telephone pole. Dogs are OK.
Whale harassment is a federal offense punishable by up to $10,000 in fines.
A monkey was once tried and convicted for smoking a cigarette in Indiana.
In St. Louis, Missouri, it’s illegal to drink beer from a bucket when you’re sitting at the curb.
Snoring is legal in Massachusetts only when all bedroom windows are closed and locked.
Kentucky citizens are required by state law to bathe at least once a year.
It’s illegal to ship live mice through the U.S. mail.
In Downey, California, more than two police officers are prohibited from gathering at the same doughnut shop at the same time.
In Cleveland, Ohio, it’s illegal to catch mice without a hunting license.
In Kentucky, it’s illegal to marry your wife’s grandmother.
In Yukon, Oklahoma, it’s illegal for patients to pull their dentist’s teeth.
In Sarasota, Florida, it’s illegal to wear a swimsuit while singing in a public place.
In Oklahoma, you can be fined for making funny faces at dogs.
In some states, it’s illegal to dance to the “Star Spangled Banner.”
It’s against the law to drink beer in Cedar City, Utah, if your shoelaces are untied.
More Oxymorons
Half Dead
Inside Out
Even Odds
Baby Grand
Fresh Frozen
Upside Down
Original Copy
Random Order
Irrational Logic
Business Ethics
Jumbo Shrimp
Tax Return
Good Grief
Open Secret
Baked Alaska
Plastic Glasses
Friendly Takeover
Unofficial Record
United Nations
Science Fiction
Peacekeeping Missiles
Somewhat Addictive
Truth in Advertising
Stormy Weather
Most raindrops are round or doughnut shaped, not “raindrop” shaped.
Clouds don’t float—they fall very, very slowly.
Lightning is more likely to strike the same place twice than it is a new place once.
Wettest place on earth: Tutunendo, Colombia. Average rainfall: 38.6 feet per year.
The average lightning bolt is only an inch in diameter.
An estimated 16 million tons of rain falls to earth every second.
Less than a gallon of water is in a cubic mile of fog.
Half of all forest fires are started by lightning.
The odds are good that the Empire State Building will be struck by lightning twice this month.
Foggiest place on the West Coast: Cape Disappointment, Washington (107 days per year).
In ancient Rome, any house hit by lightning was considered consecrated.
Take 1 million cloud droplets and squish them together to form a single raindrop.
About 75,000 umbrellas are lost every year on buses and subways in London.
Thunder is caused when air rushes into the vacuum created by a bolt of lightning.
Danger Ahead
Nearly 1,000 people every year die as a direct result of volcanic activity.
A British newspaper reported that 60,000 people a year are treated for injuries caused by opening canned goods.
About 8,000 Americans are injured by musical instruments each year.
The annual odds of dying by falling from your bed: two in a million.
Every year about 8,000 people die from food poisoning in the United States.
On average, 100 people choke to death on ballpoint pens every year.
Twenty-eight percent of household injuries in the summer are caused by yard work.
Odds of getting hit by a meteor this year: one in five billion.
PRESIDENTIAL STATISTICS
On an average day, the president of the United States receives 20,000 letters.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt was the only “only child” ever elected president of the United States.
Five U.S. presidents have had the first name James, more than any other name.
Eleven presidents have been military generals.
Sixty-three percent of U.S. presidents have been members of a fraternity of some kind.
Baby Talk
More babies are conceived in December than in any other month.
Babies are born without kneecaps.
More boys are born during the day. More girls are born at night.
One out of every 270 pregnancies results in identical twins.
A newborn’s skin is wrinkled because it’s too big for its body.
On average, babies born in May are seven ounces heavier than those born in other months.
The longest recorded interval between the birth of twins was 136 days.
A newborn baby’s heart beats twice as fast as an adult’s.
The average newborn cries 113 minutes a day.
A newborn baby’s body contains 26 billion cells. An adult
has about 100 trillion cells.
For every 100 girls born, there are 105 boys born.
A newborn’s brain will triple in weight during its first year.
The navel divides the body of a newborn baby into two equal parts.
If a child ate as much, comparatively, as a growing bird, he or she would eat three lambs and one calf each day.
Three things pregnant women dream of most during their first trimester: frogs, worms, and potted plants.
The average baby spends 27.5 months in diapers.
More babies are born in the month of September than in any other month.
Toy Origins
SCRABBLE
Created in 1931 by an out-of-work architect named Alfred Botts. He hoped he could support his family by inventing a successful word game, but before the game was refined, he had his job back. That was just as well; when he finally showed his handmade Criss-Cross to toy companies, they insisted it had no potential—it was too intellectual.
In 1948 Botts and a friend went into business manufacturing the game—now called Scrabble—in an old schoolhouse. It was an unsophisticated cottage industry that enabled the friend to barely eke out a living. But in the summer of 1952, for no apparent reason, Scrabble suddenly became a fad. In two years the partners went from selling fewer than 10,000 games a year to selling more than 4 million. To meet the growing demand, the rights were sold to Selchow-Righter, and 30 years later, Scrabble ranks as the second-best-selling game in history.
Uncle John's Bathroom Reader Extraordinary Book of Facts: And Bizarre Information (Bathroom Readers) Page 14