The word tomato comes from the Nuhautl word, tomatl. The language is indigenous to central Mexico.
Tomatoes are high in Lycopene, an antioxidant that helps protect against cancer.
Tornado
The funnel-shaped whirling winds that make up a tornado can reach a speed of 300mph.
Though they can potentially move in any direction, the average tornado moves southwest to northeast.
According to FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency), if you’re outside and without shelter, the best way to protect yourself is to lie flat in a nearby ditch or depression and cover your head with your hands. Also, pay close attention to potential flooding.
The funnel clouds generally last less than ten minutes before dissipating. Occasionally, the cyclones can last for more than an hour, as reported in the early twentieth century.
In the U.S., May is the most popular month for tornadoes with an average of 176 each year between 1950 and 1999. However, April has the most fatalities with an average of 26 tornado-related deaths over that time period.
Tornado Alley is a flat stretch of land between west Texas and North Dakota. This is a prime region for tornadoes as the dry polar air from Canada meets the warm tropical air from the Gulf of Mexico.
Trains
With a gradient of 48%, the steepest Cogwheel railway in the world is in Switzerland.
Skunk Trains are vintage locomotives that were first designed with gasoline engines (they run on diesel today), and used a potbelly stove for heating. The smell would drift into town on the breeze and locals would call out, “You can smell ’em before you can see ’em!!” Hence the name.
The single longest journey on one train can be taken on the Trans-Siberian Express between Moscow and Vladivostok in Russia.
According to the official Amtrak Web site, Amtrak is short for “American Track.”
The Huey Long Bridge over the Mississippi River just above New Orleans is the longest railway-highway bridge of steel and concrete in the U.S. It is 4.4 miles in length, including approaches.
Trump, Donald
Donald Trump does not smoke or drink alcohol and has a terrible fear of baldness and of disease.
He was voted “Ladies’ Man” by classmates of New York Military Academy’s class of 1964 at Cornwall-on-Hudson, NY.
He is a longtime fan of wrestling and close friends with wrestling personality, Vince McMahon. Trump hosted Wrestlemania IV and V at Trump Plaza, and appeared in a ringside seat at a few others.
Trump declared bankruptcy in 1990 and has built his fortune since. In fact, he is currently thought to be worth around $1.6 billion.
Many developers pay Donald Trump to license his name on projects; therefore, Trump does not own many of the buildings that feature his name. According to Forbes, this portion of Trump’s empire is run by his children and the most valuable by far, at $562 million.
Turner, Tina
Tina Turner was born Anna Mae Bullock to a mixed race couple. When Tina was just 10, her mother abandoned both her and her sister. At 13, her father left them too. She was raised by her grandmother and extended family.
Tina has sold more concert tickets than any other solo performer in the history of music.
The constant abuse by Ike Turner during their marriage forced Tina to have reconstructive surgery to her nose.
In 2001, the Tina Turner Highway became part of the Tennessee State Route 19 between Brownsville and Nutbush.
In the film Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, the character Aunt Entity was scripted to drive. Unfortunately, all the cars were stick shifts, which Tina couldn’t drive, so a special automatic vehicle was constructed for her.
In the film biopic What’s Love Got to Do with It, both Angela Bassett and Laurence Fishburne were nominated for Oscars for their roles depicting Tina Turner and Ike Turner.
Turtles and Tortoises
At top speed, a giant tortoise can only manage to travel at about five yards a minute, or .17mph.
The Kemp’s Ridley turtle is the smallest, rarest sea turtle. They are so protected that the Mexican government sends Marines to guard the only beach on which they lay their eggs.
In warm summer water, the average turtle’s heart will beat up to 40 times a minute; whereas in winter when the water is cold, the turtle’s heart beats only once every ten minutes.
A desert tortoise can survive an entire year on what a cow eats in one day.
Turtles and tortoises are unlike any other vertebrates because their hipbones and shoulder bones are inside their rib cage.
The Wood Turtle emits a courting whistle which sounds like a teakettle. It can be heard 40 ft away.
Twain, Mark
“Always acknowledge a fault. This will throw those in authority off their guard and give you an opportunity to commit more.”—Mark Twain
Mark Twain’s real name was Samuel Langhorne Clemens. Twain got the idea for the name after hearing the leadsman on the paddle steamers calling out “mark twain” to indicate the depth of the river. “Mark” described the knots and “twain” is an old-fashioned way of saying “two” and a fathom is six ft.
To pay off accrued debts from failed business investments, Twain traveled the world as a lecturer and published his experiences in Following the Equator.
Before he became Mark Twain, he wrote under the pen name “Thomas Jefferson Snodgrass” for three humorous pieces he contributed to the Keokuk Post.
The American Library Association ranked Huckleberry Finn as the fifth most frequently challenged book in the United States.
Twain loved cats. When he was older and summering in New Hampshire, he would rent kittens from a nearby farm to have as companions until he returned home.
Twix®
First introduced in 1979, the Twix® candy bar was known as a “Raider” bar in France and Germany until Mars decided to standardize the name in 1991.
Peanut Butter Twix® was available in North America from 1983 to 1997, and made a permanent return in 2000. The peanut butter replaces the caramel in this version.
Introduced in 2005, the White Chocolate Twix® was available in Australia, Ireland, and the UK. White Twix® is currently available in the United States as a limited edition.
200 calories of Twix® Cookie Bars can be burned off with a mere 30 minutes of swimming, 18 minutes of running, 22 minutes of crosstraining, or 38 minutes of bicycling.
As of 2007, Mars announced that Twix® bars in Europe are no longer vegetarian. The whey in Twix®—as well as Celebrations, Bounty, and the Milky Way bar—are still made from animal rennet.
U
Uganda
Half the population of Uganda is under the age of 15. In 2008, the estimated life expectancy of a citizen in Uganda was only 52.
Almost half of the world’s remaining mountain gorillas live in the Virunga Mountains of central Africa, where Uganda, Rwanda, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo intersect.
English became the official language of Uganda after independence, but there are nearly forty different languages that are regularly and currently in use in the country.
Matoke, the Ugandan plantain or banana, is a staple crop in the country. The bananas are often wrapped in plantain leaves and steamed until tender and then served with or without meat.
Uganda will only accept foreign U.S. dollar bills that are printed on and after 2001. In addition, they must be in good condition, not torn and preferably in large denominations of the new style bills. Many bureaus refuse the old bills because they’re considered suspect.
Grassroots organizations are raising awareness about the children who were kidnapped by the Lord’s Resistance Army and exploited as young soldiers or wives. Thousands of children as young as eight were captured and forced to kill. The film Invisible Children documents the tragic lives of the children, known as night commuters, who fled their villages at night to avoid abduction.
Ukulele
The word “ukulele” is a rough translation of the Hawaiian word fo
r “jumping flea.”
Though the ukulele is most commonly linked with Hawaii, the instrument was derived from two different Portuguese instruments: the braguinha and the cavaquinho.
With new strings, the ukulele will not hold a tune for more than a few seconds, because the strings require up to two weeks to stretch out. So if you should ever play out of tune, just blame it on the strings.
In the film Fifty First Dates, actor Adam Sandler played a custom 6-string Kamaka ukulele designed to his specifications. The instrument appears in the movie’s official poster and on the cover of the DVD and soundtrack, although the ukulele was digitally modified to resemble a 4-string.
The late musician George Harrison, who was known primarily as a guitarist, was a huge fan of the ukulele and would take one wherever he went. According to a store in Maui, Harrison bought out all the ukuleles in stock to give as gifts to friends.
United Nations
On October 24, 1945, the United Nations officially came into existence when its Charter was given consent by the five permanent members of the Security Council (France, the Republic of China, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom and the United States) as well as a majority of 46 other member countries.
A different type of toilet humor…President Franklin Roosevelt pitched the name “United Nations” to Winston Churchill back in 1942. At the time, Churchill was in Washington, DC, sitting in the bathtub when Roosevelt was wheeled into the bathroom with his pitch. They both thought the name sounded better than “Alliance,” a name they were first considering.
The UN Headquarters building in New York City was designed by Le Corbusier and Oscar Niemeyer, and built with an interest-free loan from the U.S.
Even though the land and the building of the UN Headquarters is in New York City, the area is considered international territory so it doesn’t necessarily need to meet all of the city’s fire safety and building codes.
The United Nations has its own post office and its own postage stamp, though the stamp is mostly used as a collectible.
In 2006, Montenegro became the 192nd member of the United Nations. In addition to the member states, there is one non-member observer state: Holy See in Vatican City.
Uranus
Uranus is very cold. Unlike other large planets in the solar system, it emits less heat than it absorbs from the sun. The temperature is about -355°F (-215°C).
True blue…The methane in Uranus’s atmosphere filters out the color red which is what cause its pale blue appearance.
In Greek mythology, Uranus was the god of the skies and husband of Earth.
Uranus has a 17-hour day, but the tilt of the planet is designed so that only one pole faces the Sun. In fact, a day at the north pole will last half a Uranian year, or 84 Earth years.
Uranus can be seen without a telescope…at magnitude 5.3, the planet is just within the brightness range that a human eye can perceive. To see it, all you need is a pair of binoculars and some very dark skies.
Utah
Feet first! Utah boasts the largest dinosaur footprints. The prints belonged to a hadrosaurid (duckbill).
Great Salt Lake is several times saltier than seawater. It is so salty that swimmers float above the water.
The federal government owns 60% of Utah’s land.
About 70% of Utahans are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which has its headquarters in Salt Lake City.
The name “Utah” comes from the Native American Ute tribe and translates as “people of the mountains.”
V
Valentine’s Day
In 270 AD, Roman emperor Claudius II believed married men were bad soldiers and decreed that all young men were barred from marriage. Ignoring the emperor, Bishop Valentine continued to marry young lovers in secret until his disobedience was discovered, and he was sentenced to death.
Saint Valentine’s Day is still celebrated in the same fashion today as it was in the 14th century.
In Minsk, Belorussia, 6,000 people participated in a simultaneous Valentine’s Day kiss.
In Japan and Korea, it has become a near obligation for women to give chocolates, known as giri-choco, to all of their co-workers on Valentine’s Day.
The first Valentine’s Day card was sent in 1415. While imprisoned in the Tower of London following the Battle of Agincourt, France’s Duke of Orléans sent one to his beloved wife.
Vatican
Vatican City may be the world’s smallest independent nation, but it is the spiritual capital for the world’s one billion Catholics.
Almost all of Vatican City’s 890 citizens live inside the Vatican’s walls. The citizens include highranking dignitaries, priests, nuns, guards, as well as about 3,000 lay workers.
“Holy See” is a term used to describe the composite of the authority, jurisdiction, and sovereignty vested in the Pope and his advisers to direct the worldwide Roman Catholic Church. The Holy See is the “central government” of the Roman Catholic Church and has legal authority to enter into treaties as the juridical equivalent of a state.
Vatican City has a press that can print books or pamphlets in any language, from Old Ecclesiastical Georgian to the Tamil language of India and Sri Lanka.
Vatican City gained independence from Italy on February 11, 1929.
Vaudeville
Similar to the English music hall, American vaudeville was a stage entertainment consisting of unrelated songs, dances, acrobatic and magic acts, as well as humorous skits and sketches. It branched out further to include the concert saloon, minstrelsy, freak shows, dime museums, and literary burlesque.
There are a few theories about the origination of the word “vaudeville,” but one of the explanations is that it is a derivation from the French expression voix de ville, or “voice of the city.”
Palace Theatre, the most prominent vaudeville venue of its time, was built by California vaudeville entrepreneur Martin Beck, who created the Palace to be the ‘Valhalla of Vaudeville.”
Famed acts including the Three Stooges, Abbott and Costello, Kate Smith, Bob Hope, Judy Garland, and Rose Marie all used vaudeville purely as launching pads for later careers, leaving live performance before they had ever risen to their respective heights of fame.
For years, Harry Houdini was the highest grossing performer in vaudeville.
Vegetables
Carrots, as most of us know, are orange. However, carrots come in a spectrum of colors such as purple, red, yellow, and even white.
In Europe, the eggplant—also known as aubergine—was once thought to cause insanity and was known as the Mad Apple.
The word broccoli is derived from brachium, the Latin word for “arm”. It is a good source of Vitamin A and C, potassium, folacin, iron, and fiber.
The ancient Egyptians worshipped the onion, and believed that the spherical shape and concentric rings embodied eternity. The onion was the only vegetable at the time to be crafted out of gold by Egyptian artists.
In 1995, potatoes were taken into space aboard the shuttle Columbia, which marked the first time food had been grown in space.
Venice
The “official” birth date of Venice is March 25, 421 when the city was built upon a salty marshland at the mouth of the Adriatic Sea.
The Utterly, Completely, and Totally Useless Fact-O-Pedia Page 19