Bought a 2024 TIL calendar and never actually got a chance to enjoy the random WTFs throughout, thought be nice to share.
So here: have some useless facts. Very welcome.
1. Corn will always have an even number of rows on each cob.
(How can they know all the corn?)
2. The king of hearts is the only king in a deck of cards without a moustache.
3. Lemons float. Limes sink.
(which explains tequila)
4. German chocolate cake was invented in Texas, USA.
(no wonder the frosting looks like vomit)
5. Canada – oh, Canada – eats more mac’n cheese than any other country in the world.
(and they like fries smothered in gravy … and why is ‘Murrica fatter?)
6. The “M” in M&Ms stands for “Mars” and “Murrie.”
7. Humans share 50-percent of their DNA with bananas.
(Evolution says we are the monkey and the banana – circle of life)
8. Riding “Sweet Kiss,” dead jockey Frank Hayes won a 1923 Belmont horse race;
apparently, he suffered a fatal heart attack just before crossing the finish line.
(guess he had … the ride of his life [bah-dum-bum] sorrynotsorry)
9. When a female sloth starts looking for a mate, she will just sit still and scream until a male shows up.
10. Cotton candy – aka “fairy floss” – was invented in 1897 by William Morrison, D.D.S.
(talk about job security … that, Starburst, and caramel are the bane of toothdocs e’erwhar)
11. Both camels and giraffes can go long periods without water, walk by moving both legs on one
side then alternating, and (despite the obvious disparity in length) have the same number of
neck bones (total: 7 vertebrae).
12. At seminary the good Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. got C’s in Public Speaking.
(guess he got better)
13. King Kong was the first movie to have a sequel.
(… and endless remakes … and the KongVerse … Rampage was a sweet, sweet mess …)
14. Elephants not only have great memories but also pass down knowledge (e.g. watering holes,
trails, changing of seasons) from generation to generation, and are known to mourn their dead.
(Back in 2022 Pachyderm Wick trampled a woman to death in India then crashed the funeral to savage her corpse … Boss)
15. Chicago is named after the garlic that once grew in the area. (ummm … deep dish … )
16. The world’s largest diamond (the Cullinan Diamond, currently sitting in the crown jewels), the world’s highest deposit of platinum, and 50-percent of the world’s gold are all mined out of
South Africa.
17. The sky holds more stars than grains of sand on the entire Earth.
18. Shaking hands began as a social custom to demonstrate that a person was unarmed.
(guess that’s why nobody trusts lefties)
19. A flipped coin has a greater statistical chance of landing on the side it started on.
(prolly had a $100K research grant to find that out)
20. Men are four times more likely to be struck by lightning than women.
(prolly the extra iron … Not-so-fun fact: Roy Sullivan, U.S. park ranger, was struck seven times, had his hair catch fire five times, and died from a self-inflicted headshot at the age of 71.)
Hmmm …
… well THAT was a bummer.
But visions of horny screaming sloths doth bring a smile.