The most expensive military aircraft in the world is the U.S. B-2 Spirit stealth bomber, priced at $1.3 billion.
In spring 2001 the United States lost seven members of an MIA search team in a helicopter crash in Vietnam.
As of January 1, 2006, the cost of the war in Iraq in dollars: $230 billion; in American lives: 2,178.
Just for Dentists
The patron saint of dentists: St. Apollonia. Why? She reportedly had her teeth pulled out in A.D. 249 by an anti-Christian mob.
Despite the popular myth, George Washington didn’t have wooden teeth—his four sets of dentures were made of hippopotamus bone, elephant ivory, and eight human teeth from dead people, held together with gold palates and springs.
Thanks to fluoride and other preventives, baby boomers are probably the last generation to have a lot of cavities in their permanent teeth.
Fancy a tooth tattoo? Tiny gold hearts, butterflies, and other images have become popular among certain trendy groups. The downside is that from a distance of more than about three feet it just looks like you have food stuck in your teeth.
Getting dentures was once considered a natural step in aging, but no longer. In 1959, dentists performed 34 extractions for every 100 people; now it’s half that rate.
Drugs can cause cavities. Antidepressants, antihypertensives, antihistamines, decongestants, and muscle relaxants all inhibit production of saliva, a natural bacteria destroyer.
Hard to believe, but Colgate claims Tooth Fairy as a registered trademark.
BRILLIANCE IN THE BATHROOM
Playwright Edmond Rostand (1868–1918) didn’t like to be rude to his friends, but he didn’t like to be interrupted when he was working, either. Rather than risk having to turn away any friends who might drop by to visit, “he took refuge in his bathtub and wrote there all day.” His biggest bathroom success: Cyrano de Bergerac.
America Eats
Chance that a peanut grown in the United States will end up as peanut butter: 33 percent.
Only 6 percent of grocery coupons printed are ever redeemed.
On average, you’ll spend about five years of your life eating.
The average American makes 3.4 trips to the grocery store each week. Most popular day: Friday.
On average, grocery shoppers spend eight minutes waiting in line at the supermarket.
Estimated number of people who could be fed for a year by the food Americans waste in one day: 240,183.
Most popular seafood in America: tuna. The average American eats 3.6 pounds a year.
The average New Englander eats twice as much ice cream per year as the average Southerner.
Americans eat 4 million pounds of bacon and 175 million eggs every day.
The average American eats four pounds of artificial flavorings, colorings, and preservatives each year.
Language Worldwide
If you flash the thumbs-up sign in a German beer garden, it will get you another beer.
If you want to signal “no” in Albania, nod. If you want to say “yes,” shake your head. The same goes for Bulgaria, and parts of Greece, Turkey, Iran, Bengal, and the former Yugoslavia.
In some Middle Eastern countries, belching during meals is considered a compliment to the cook.
To us, pointing one finger toward the side of the head and making a circle means “you’re crazy.” In Argentina, it means you’ve got a phone call.
In Germany, making the shhhh sound means “hurry up.”
In Pandhurna, India, people celebrate the new moon by hurling stones at each other.
Middle Easterners think a strong, firm handshake is a sign of aggression.
Some Eskimos still rub noses when they’re feeling romantic; when the Maoris of New Zealand do it, they’re just saying hello.
That Italian chin flick you’ve seen on The Sopranos? It means “Fuhgeddaboudit!” with a vengeance.
The most offensive signal in Ireland? Failing to buy a round of drinks when it’s your turn. Turning down the offer of a drink is almost as bad.
The Earth Is Round?
In the Cherokee nation, people believed that mud rose from under the waters and formed an island with four corners—the earth. The sun went underneath the island at night, and rose again the next day.
Ancient Babylonians thought the earth was inside a hollow mountain, floating on a sea. Everything—the sun, moon, sky, stars, water—was inside this mountain.
Ancient Egyptians believed that the whole earth was part of their god, Keb. The stars were the jewels of a goddess in the sky and their god of air held her aloft.
Ancient Hindus thought the earth was in an upside-down bowl being carried by elephants. The elephants stood on the back of a turtle that was standing on top of a snake. They hadn’t quite worked out what the snake stood on.
Polynesian creation stories set the earth in a basket with a lid. A hole cut in the top by a god lets in light. The woven grass at night lets light peek through in the form of stars.
SLIPPERY WHEN WET
Ice isn’t slippery. What makes people and things slip on ice is water. A thin layer of ice melts when pressure is applied to it and it is this wet layer on top of the ice that is slippery.
Hello Kitty
Belgians once tried to deliver mail using cats. (It didn’t work.)
A can of cat food contains as much meat as five adult mice.
Oldest cat ever: Ma, an English tabby, who was 37 when she died in 1957.
Cats sweat through their paws.
Three thousand out of every 3,001 calico kittens are female.
The average cat has 24 whiskers—12 on each side of its nose.
Feline experts estimate that 70 million feral cats live in the United States today.
Domestic cats have 18 claws.
Cats have two sets of vocal chords: one for purring and one for meowing.
Austrians are the world’s number one cat lovers. Thirty percent of Austrian households have at least one cat.
Experts say cats watch more TV than dogs do. (Cats are more visual. Dogs rely more on smell.)
Hyenas are more closely related to cats than dogs.
Albert Einstein was convinced his cat suffered from depression.
Catnip can affect lions and cougars as well as house cats.
Siamese cats really are from Siam (now Thailand). In ancient days, they guarded the temple when a person of high rank died; the cat was considered a receptacle for the dead person’s soul.
Tigers can be taught to use litter boxes. Big litter boxes.
The Cost of Things
Christopher Columbus’s fee for “discovering” America: about $300.
Average wage for the workmen who dug the Erie canal: $1 and 1 quart of whiskey per day.
The Erie Canal was built for $7 million, equal in cost today to a few miles of interstate highway.
The United States bought Alaska from Russia in 1867 for 2¢ an acre.
Price of a Stradivarius copy advertised in the 1909 Sears, Roebuck & Co. catalog: $6.10.
It cost $3 million to build the Titanic and $100 million to make the movie.
A first-class ticket for the Titanic in 1912 cost more than a crew member would earn in 18 years.
A three-minute phone call from New York to San Francisco cost $20.70 in 1915.
In 1920 the average check at a diner was 28¢.
Price of a box of Girl Scout Cookies when they debuted in 1936: 25¢.
America’s first minimum wage, in 1938, was 25¢ an hour.
Cellular phones sold for $4,195 in 1984.
Daily salary of a U.S. senator in 1789: $6. Daily salary in 2001: $627.
Babe Ruth’s salary in 1932 was $80,000. In 2005 Sammy Sosa’s salary was $17 million.
Cost of tickets to the last live Beatles concert in 1966: $4.50–$6.50. Cost of tickets to a U2 concert in 2005: $49.50–$160.
Pop Music
Ozzy Osbourne has said that when he’s lonely, he talks to his knees.
S
onny and Cher originally called themselves Cleo and Caesar.
Sheryl Crow’s two front teeth are fake—the real ones got knocked out when she tripped onstage.
The Rolling Stones made their American TV debut on The Red Skelton Show.
None of the Beatles knew how to read music. (Paul McCartney eventually taught himself.)
The first CD to sell 1 million copies: Dire Straits’s Brothers in Arms.
The number of Grateful Dead concerts right-wing columnist Ann Coulter claims to have attended: 67
In July 2004 Colin Powell sang and danced to “YMCA” for foreign ministers at an Asian security summit in Indonesia.
A synesthete is a person whose senses are cross-wired; there’s one in Switzerland who tastes music—and reports that Bach is creamy.
Under a 1996 UK copyright law, the London schoolchildren who sang on the Pink Floyd hit “Another Brick in the Wall” in 1979 became eligible for royalties. It’s estimated that each student is owed around £500 (about $850).
THE COST OF THINGS: 1926
Pound of steak: 37¢
Dozen eggs: 45¢
New York to Philadelphia on the Pennsylvania Railroad: $3
RCA Radio: $150
Frigidaire Refrigerator: $395
1926 Chevrolet: $510
Grand piano: $625
Building Boom
There are about 10 million bricks in the Empire State Building.
The first skyscraper was the 10-story Home Insurance Building in Chicago. Built: 1885. Torn down: 1931.
It takes 6,000 gallons of paint, 60 people, and four months to paint the Eiffel Tower.
The George Washington Bridge, spanning the Hudson River in New York City, is almost 3 feet longer on the hottest day of summer than on the coldest day of winter.
Greek temples were originally painted in bright colors. Over time they have been bleached white.
The geodesic dome is the only structure that becomes stronger as it increases in size.
The Eiffel Tower (at 984 feet) is more than three times taller than the Statue of Liberty. (Lady Liberty is 305 feet tall.)
Metal shrinks when it gets cold. That’s why the Eiffel Tower is six inches shorter in winter.
California’s Golden Gate Bridge isn’t golden—it’s “International Orange.”
Tallest monument in the world: the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, at 630 feet.
The temple of Siva in Madura, India, is adorned with 30 million separate carved idols.
The Great Wall of China is long enough to stretch from New York City to Houston.
Windmills originated in Iran.
Crime Time
Twenty thousand silver teaspoons are stolen from the Washington, D.C., Hilton each year.
Odds that someone caught shoplifting is a teenager: 50 percent.
U.S. shoplifters steal an estimated $2 billion worth of merchandise every year.
The retail industry loses more inventory to employee theft than it does to shoplifting.
Items most likely to be shoplifted from a supermarket: cigarettes, beauty aids, and batteries.
Al Capone’s business card said he was a used furniture dealer.
Justice Department prediction: one in 20 babies born today will serve time in prison.
Half of all crimes are committed by people under the age of 18.
According to criminal law, only three people are necessary for a disturbance to be called a riot.
A 15-year-old burglar was charged with armed robbery after pointing his pet boa constrictor at a man and ordering him to hand over all his cash.
More Americans are arrested for drunk driving than for any other crime.
Russia has almost twice as many judges and magistrates as the United States; the United States has eight times as much crime.
Nearly 50 percent of all bank robberies take place on Friday.
When burglars break into a home, they usually go straight for the master bedroom.
Ransom paid for a kidnap victim can be tax-deductible.
Blame Canada
Canada has the longest national coastline in the world: 151,400 miles.
More than 50 percent of all the lakes in the world are in Canada.
Thirty-six percent of the Great Lakes lie within Canadian territory.
Forty percent of the world’s newspapers are printed on paper that comes from Canadian forests.
Per capita, Canadians buy more diamonds than anyone on earth.
Both English and French are official languages of Canada.
The first North American YMCA opened in 1851 in Montreal, Quebec.
The name Canada is derived from the Huron-Iroquois kanata language and means a “village or settlement.”
Per capita, the cities of Winnipeg and Calgary drink the most Slurpees in the world.
Canada has more doughnut shops per capita than any other country.
Canada has six time zones.
Canada is the largest importer of American automobiles.
Canadian citizens consume more Kraft Macaroni & Cheese per capita than any other nation.
In 2004 alone, UFO sightings in Canada increased by 31 percent.
Artfully Done
Roman statues were often made with heads that could be removed and replaced with other heads.
The actual title of Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa is La Gioconda.
It took Leonardo da Vinci about five years to paint the Mona Lisa.
X-rays of the Mona Lisa show that there are three different versions underneath.
The Mona Lisa has no eyebrows. Shaved eyebrows were the fad when she was painted.
A pietà is any representation of the Virgin Mary mourning over the dead body of Christ, not just the famous one by Michelangelo.
It took Michelangelo four years to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.
Rembrandt was his first name; his last name was van Rijn.
Rembrandt painted more self-portraits than any other world-famous artist: 62.
Whistler’s Mother (which James McNeill Whistler called Arrangement in Grey and Black) is in Paris at the Musée d’Orsay, a branch of the Louvre. The painting is about five feet by five feet.
Henri Rousseau, famous for his exotic jungle scenes, never left Paris. He would go to the park, lie down among the grass and weeds, and sketch the plants hundreds of times their size.
Matisse coined the term cubism in 1908 as an insult to another painter’s work.
The most expensive painting ever auctioned: Pablo Picasso’s Garçon a la Pipe (Boy With a Pipe). It fetched $104 million in 2004.
Take This Job
Two most dangerous jobs in the United States: commercial fishing and logging.
The average computer worker types 90,000 keystrokes in an eight-hour shift.
One in six employees says they got so mad at a coworker last year that “they felt like hitting them, but didn’t.”
Fifty-three percent of Americans think they’re paid “the right amount.”
A cashier entering digits by hand will average one error for every 350 characters.
The Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas has 12 gardeners on its staff to care for artificial plants.
An estimated 12 percent of U.S. businessmen wear their ties so tight that they restrict the blood flow to their brain.
Six in ten Americans say they would continue to work if they won $10 million in the lottery.
Bathroom Break
The Pentagon uses up 666 rolls of toilet paper on an average day.
Most-requested care package item by U.S. troops in Iraq: toilet paper.
Buculets are those little bumpers on the underside of your toilet seat.
On average, Americans buy 1.5 toothbrushes a year.
If you took a shower today, you used about 30 gallons of water.
The average water temperature for showers in the United States is 105°F.
A doniker is circus slang for “toilet.”
REMEMBER 1982?
Fir
st issue of USA Today hits stands
Graceland opens to the public (adults: $6.50; kids: $4.50)
First permanent artificial heart transplant performed
Time magazine man of the year: Pac-Man
Falklands War begins and ends
Late Night with David Letterman debuts on NBC
#1 movie: E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial
South America
It is common in Brazil to take 3 or 4 showers a day; visitors may be asked if they would like to shower before a meal.
The Amazon River is visible from space.
The Andes are the longest mountain range in the world, stretching more than 4,000 miles through seven countries.
São Paulo, Brazil is the fifth-largest city in the world and the largest in South America.
Quibido, Colombia, receives more than 350 inches of rain annually.
According to tradition, Brazilian cats have seven lives, not nine.
Ninety percent of Brazilian women classify beauty products as an essential rather than a luxury.
Brazil produced a coffee-scented postage stamp in 2001.
Before the arrival of the Spanish, the Incan Empire covered 35,000 square miles, almost twice the size of California.
La Paz, Bolivia, is the highest capital city in the world.
The first settlers of Patagonia were Welsh.
The Amazon River basin is the largest contiguous tropical rain forest in the world.
Peru’s Inca Indians were the first to cultivate potatoes, around 200 B.C.
The native people of the Andes Mountains have 2 to 3 more quarts of blood in their bodies than people who live at lower elevations.
Uncle John's Bathroom Reader Extraordinary Book of Facts: And Bizarre Information (Bathroom Readers) Page 25