Take time to deliberate, but when the time for action has arrived, stop thinking and go in.
- Napoleon

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Totally Useless Trivia

Since I'm a bit scattered... I wish I could claim revision brain, but I'm not there yet... I decided to give you some totally useless trivia.

For instance, did you know that...

Oldsmobile Achievas, without fail, will blow a gasket between 50-60K miles. Yep, something about the fabulous design of the Quad4 engine and antifreeze getting into the oil. Mine blew at 56K. Nothing like $1500 for repairs. And now we know why the Achieva was discontinued.

The sperm whale has a penis that's 12 ft long and 2 ft in diameter at the base. Something I heard on a nature program back when I was in college. It led to several interesting discussions, let me tell ya.

There was once a war in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. My college resident advisor was doing her Masters thesis on it. It was between the Finnish immigrants and the Italian immigrants. Several people were killed, if I remember correctly.

And of course, a skirmish occurred between Ohio and Michigan over the strip of land that is only notable because it held Toledo. I don't know who won. LOL

Jack Benny was married to Mary Livingston. She was on his show, but they didn't really talk about it. (Caught that on a PBS special the other night.)

Speaking of TV, did you know that Star Trek was the first show to show an inter-racial kiss? Kirk and Uhura.

Oh, and even though you probably don't think that rabbits make noise, they do. They have the most horrific scream. I'd tell you the story of how I know, but it was upsetting 23 years ago, and I'm still not over it. Silence of the rabbits, perhaps?

People used to believe that you could see ghosts by looking at them through the space between the ears of a cat. Try and find a cat who'll hold still long enough for that. They also thought you could see them by looking through the hole in your wedding ring.

If you're into football, did you know QB Ben Rothlisberger now has a punt to add to his stats? Last weekend, he kicked one. I don't remember how far it went, but probably far enough to get him into the record books. (QBs don't kick... at least not any more. I think they might've back in the old days, but I don't know.)

Okay. Your turn. Have any totally useless trivia? Who knows when it might come in handy.

Oh, and one last one. Do you know how a fly lands on the ceiling? I once spent an afternoon in college watching to find out. They hover just below the ceiling and then reach up with their front legs. Once their front legs touch, they swing the rest of their body around. Heh. I told you it was totally useless.

;o)

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4 comments:

Kristen Painter said...

It's going to be a long time before I get the image of the sperm whale's appendage out of my head. Thanks. lol

B.E. Sanderson said...

LOL, then thank your lucky stars you didn't actually see it. That sight will be burned into my brain forever.

Louisa Edwards said...

Sorry, all my useless trivia is currently coming from The Big Bang Theory. Example: Did you know that if you change the height of a standard stair tread by just an eight of an inch, most people will trip?

Travis Erwin said...

Manatees and elephants have nearly the exact same DNA structure.