Uncle John’s Did You Know? Read online

  • People wish on a falling stars, rainbows, a new moon, or the first star they see at night.

  • A sure way to make a wish come true is to kiss your elbow. Go ahead, try it!

  • In medieval England, mincemeat pie was a common Christmas dish. People believed if you made a wish on your first bite of pie, it would come true.

  ALPHABET

  SOUP

  • If the English alphabet were lined up in the order from the most frequently used letters to the least used, it would look like this: E T A I S O N H R D L U C M F W Y P G V B K J Q X Z.

  • Q is the only letter in the alphabet that does not appear in the names of any of the 50 United States.

  • Longest entry in Webster’s dictionary: the word “set,” with 75 definitions.

  • The only 15-letter word that can be spelled without repeating a letter is “uncopyrightable.”

  • The longest place name in the world is Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu, in New Zealand. In Maori it means: “The brow of the hill where Tamatea—the man with the big knees, who slid down, climbed up and swallowed mountains, traveled the land and is known as the Land Eater—played his nose flute to his loved one.”

  • A tilde (~) over an n in Spanish changes the sound from “n” to “nya.” So mañana is pronounced “mah-NYAH-nah.”

  • You’d think the last letter of the Greek alphabet should be zeta, but it’s not—it’s omega.

  LOST & FOUND

  • Certain species of mice build “signposts” out of leaves and twigs to keep themselves from getting lost.

  • In 2001 archaeologists in Syria found a 3,800-year-old recipe for beer.

  • It is estimated that, on average, one of the world’s languages disappears every two weeks.

  • A gardener in Germany lost his driver’s license for driving a lawn mower while intoxicated.

  • Some of the items found during California’s annual Coastal Cleanup Day: two phone booths, a styrofoam Tiki god, Scooby-Doo underwear, a plastic eyeball, a “Just Married” sign, half a bowling ball, fuzzy dice, a check written to Taco Bell for $8.78, Dracula teeth, and porcupine bones.

  • Mountain climber George Mallory—who, when asked why he wanted to climb Mount Everest, uttered the famous line “Because it is there”—disappeared on the mountain in 1924. His body was recovered in 1999 at 21,300 feet.

  • In 2005 the most valuable buried treasure in history was found on an island off the coast of Chile. The booty, buried by pirates in 1715, included gold and jewels now worth more than $10 billion.

  WORD-OLOGY

  Bat around some big words and show everybody how smart you are.

  • The study of ants is called myrmecology.

  • Compulsive nose picking is called rhinotillexomania.

  • Scatologists are scientists who study poop. When most people use the word “scatological,” they mean obscene.

  • A flea expert is a pullicologist.

  • Vomiting is also called emesis, from the Greek word for puking.

  • Snap your fingers. That’s called a fillip.

  • The last word in many English dictionaries is zyzzyva, the name of a tropical weevil. It’s also sometimes used to mean “the last word” in any situation.

  • If you’ve never had a haircut, that makes you acersecomic.

  • Sounds like a fun job: People who study laughter are called gelotologists.

  • Taphephobia is the fear of being buried alive.

  • Plutology is the study of wealth. A plutocrat is a wealthy person.

  • Mammonism is the greedy pursuit of riches, “mammon” being the biblical word for material wealth.

  FOOD & DRINK

  • Think pizza: America’s best-selling herb is oregano.

  • Americans eat 75% of their raisins at breakfast.

  • The world’s longest sushi roll measured 328 feet in length.

  • The most valuable lunchbox in the world? A 1954 Superman lunchbox that sold for $13,500 at auction.

  • The Incas used to create highly prized pots in the shape of peanuts.

  • There are five basic flavors: sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and umami—the savory taste of meat.

  • No one knows how 7UP got its name.

  • Gelatin, an important ingredient in Jell-O, marsh-mallows, and Gummy Bears, is made from cow (or pig) bones, hooves, and connective tissues.

  • Iodine is added to salt because most people don’t get enough iodine in their diet. Lack of it can lead to a goiter, a swelling of the thyroid gland (on the neck).

  • Germany’s 1,300 breweries produce more than 5,000 varieties of beer.

  • Three billion people eat rice as the main staple in their diets.

  • The coffee crop is so important to Colombia’s economy—they’re the second largest producer of coffee after Brazil—that every car that enters the country is sprayed for bacteria that might damage the crop.

  • About half the processed food in grocery stores contains genetically modified ingredients.

  • The clementine, a cross between a tangerine and a sour orange, was an accidental hybrid said to have been discovered by, and named for, Father Clement Rodier in the garden of his orphanage in Algeria.

  • Cocoa contains caffeine.

  • The average American will eat 880 chickens, 14 cows, 23 pigs, 770 pounds offish, 35 turkeys, and 12 sheep in his or her lifetime.

  • Recipe for a Shirley Temple: a glass of ginger ale and a dash of grenadine, a non-alcoholic syrup made from pomegranates.

  • If bottled mineral water were sold in oil barrels, it would sell for around $500 a barrel—about eight times the price of oil in 2006.

  • Kool-Aid has been around since 1927, when its inventor changed the recipe for a soft-drink syrup called Fruit Smack into a powder to make it easier to ship.

  ANIMAL

  RECORDS

  • Highest skydive by a dog: 4,572 feet, by a dog named Brutus in 1997.

  • Look who’s gaining on you: The cheetah is the fastest land animal, with a top speed of 65 mph. (The fastest a human can run is 23 mph.)

  • The blue whale has two claims to fame: It’s the largest creature that’s ever lived on Earth—bigger than any known dinosaur—and it’s also the loudest. Its call, measured at 188 decibels, is louder than a commercial jet taking off.

  • The Tanzanian parasitic wasp, the world’s smallest winged insect, is smaller than a housefly’s eye.

  • Gray whales migrate farther than any other mammal—they travel about 12,000 miles every year.

  • The world’s smallest mammal? The bumblebee bat of Thailand. It weighs less than a penny.

  • Sailfish are the fastest fish in the sea, clocked at 68 miles per hour.

  • Weighing in at 100 pounds plus, the capybara, an Amazon mammal that looks like a huge guinea pig, is the world’s largest rodent.

  FLAGS

  • The only national flag that’s a solid color with no decoration: the green flag of Libya.

  • The American colonies flew a flag during the American Revolution featuring a rattlesnake and the warning “Don’t Tread on Me.”

  • The color most commonly found in national flags? Red.

  • Napoleon designed the Italian flag; all he did was change the French red, white, and blue design to red, white, and green (his favorite color).

  • “I give up!” A white flag is the universal symbol for surrender.

  • Most pirate ships flew the Jolly Roger—a skull and crossbones on a black background—but Blackbeard the Pirate’s flag showed a skeleton holding a spear pointed at a bleeding heart. Arrrrgh!

  • A black flag in a car race is the signal for a driver to make a pit stop.

  • In ancient Rome, a red flag was the signal for battle.

  • When Russia stopped flying the Communist flag in 1991, it went back to its old flag—three horizontal stripes of white, blue, and red—designed
in the 17th century during the reign of Czar Peter the Great.

  STRANGE

  MUSEUMS

  • The Cockroach Hall of Fame in Plano, Texas, features dead bugs dressed as celebrities and historical figures.

  • The Burlingame Pez Museum in California will custom build a Pez dispenser in your image. All they need is a photo and $14.95.

  • Don’t miss the Inmate Art Collection at the Texas Prison Museum, in Huntsville. Uncle John’s favorite? A bouquet of roses made out of toilet paper.

  • The Beer Can Museum in East Taunton, Massachusetts, boasts a collection of 2,500 different beer cans, along with beer-can art and crafts, beer-can clothing, not to mention beer-can telephones and radios.

  • The Lunchbox Museum in Columbus, Georgia, chronicles the TV-themed lunchboxes that kids carry to school. The collection includes over 3,500 boxes—from TV cowboy Hopalong Cassidy, who started it all, to the Brady Bunch Disco Fever lunchbox.

  • Aw, nuts! The Nut Museum in Old Lyme, Connecticut, has closed its doors. But if you’re nuts about nuts, you can still catch some of the museum’s exhibits at the Connecticut College library in New London.

  STUDIES SHOW…

  • Weight lifters working out in gyms with blue walls can handle heavier weights.

  • The first dinosaurs walked on their hind legs.

  • Mosquitoes are more apt to bite people with smelly feet.

  • Just like plants? Children grow faster in the spring.

  • Nearly a third of Americans say they believe in reincarnation.

  • Prairie dogs have a sophisticated language of short sounds, each equivalent to a sentence. Scientists have identified 10 nouns, including “hawk,” “human,” and “elk,” and other words that describe the size, shape, and color of the intruder.

  • Sorry to bug you, but your body probably contains traces of common pesticides like roach, termite, and flea killers.

  • The average Japanese 11-year-old today is six inches taller than an average 11-year-old in 1950.

  • Christmas countdown: On December 15, 2005, 85 toys were sold every minute on eBay.

  • There is only one doctor for every 5,000 people in the world.

  TRAVEL TIPS

  • In Pakistan, it’s impolite to show the soles of your feet or to point your foot when you’re sitting on the floor.

  • In Sri Lanka, shaking your head means “yes” and nodding your head means “no”—exactly the opposite of what Americans do.

  • Japanese women cover their mouths when they laugh because showing one’s teeth is considered rude.

  • In Chile, slapping your right fist into your left palm is obscene, and an open palm with the fingers separated means “stupid.”

  • Never point at your head while you’re behind the wheel in Italy. That gesture is offensive because it signals that you think another driver is stupid.

  • In northern Germany, it’s disrespectful to smile at a stranger on the street, since smiling is considered a demonstration of affection.

  • In Japan, it’s customary to study someone’s business card carefully after they hand it to you; it’s rude to look up too soon.

  • In restaurants in Germany and Switzerland, don’t be surprised if a stranger sits at an empty chair at your table. (And it’s perfectly okay not to talk to your new tablemate.)

  KNIGHTS IN

  SHINING ARMOR

  • Knighthood is also known as “chivalry,” which comes from the French word for knight, chevalier.

  • The modern military salute comes from the days of chivalry (the 5th through 16th centuries), when armored knights would raise their visors to identify themselves when they rode past the king.

  • Knights operated under a strict code of bravery, loyalty, and generosity.

  • In medieval times, any man who trained to fight could become a knight. But the knight had to buy his own armor and weaponry—which were expensive—so most knights came from wealthy families.

  • At seven years old, a boy could become a “page”—a knight’s servant. From the knight he learned manners, religion, and how to handle horses and weapons.

  • At 14, a page became a “squire,” a personal aide and servant who went into battle with his knight. When a squire was fully trained, at 18 to 21 years old, he could become a knight.

  • Any knight could bestow knighthood. The ceremony, a tap on the shoulder with a sword and the words “I dub thee knight,” was called an “accolade,” which today means praise or honor.

  • Many medieval kings awarded land to knights who helped defend the kingdom. To keep their land, knights had to serve in the king’s army for 40 days per year.

  • Today in Great Britain, the queen bestows knighthood on men and women who’ve served England in outstanding ways. Men take on the title “Sir” and women are called “Dame.” Here are some knights you might know:

  Sir Sean Connery

  Sir Paul McCartney

  Dame Julie Andrews

  Sir Ian McKellen

  Sir Anthony Hopkins

  Dame Elizabeth Taylor

  Sir Elton John

  SUGARY STUFF

  • Sucralose, better known as Splenda, was discovered by a chemist who was trying to invent a new insecticide.

  • All cats and most dogs cannot taste sugar.

  • On average, Americans consume more that 140 pounds of cane sugar, corn syrup, and other natural sugars per year—50% more than the Germans and French, and nine times more than the Chinese.

  • Saccharin, used in Sweet’N Low, is banned in Canada.

  • Almost 300 billion pounds of sugar was consumed worldwide in 2005.

  • A study to see if people would lose their taste for sugar if they gradually ate less and less of it had to be abandoned: The subjects couldn’t stay off sugar. (The experiment did work for salt, though.)

  • Newborn babies love sugar; in fact, a little sugar in water relaxes them.

  • Scientists are trying to develop a way to increase the sweetness of sugar—without increasing the calories—so that less of it can be used in recipes.

  • Aspartame, used in the sugar substitute Equal, causes cancer in rats—but not in people.

  ODORAMA

  Fascinating facts about farts.

  • Another name for farting: flatulence.

  • Burp, burp, fart, burp, fart, fart, burp, fart, burp, fart—10 down, 5 to go. Most of us (including you) burp or fart as least 10 to 15 times per day.

  • Beans are famous for making you fart, but cauliflower, broccoli, apples, milk, raisins, and popcorn can make you fart even more than beans do.

  • A fart smells the same to the farter and the farted-at. But since the fart blasts away from the farter, the other guy usually smells it first.

  • A fart can take 30 to 45 minutes to travel through your body. Bon voyage, and be sure to let us know (loudly) when it gets to the end of its trip.

  • If farts could be measured like water, the gas you pass each day would amount to between one cup and one half gallon.

  • Picture this: You’re up in space without a spacesuit. And you fart. Hang on, because the force is enough to propel you forward through space.

  • If you soak dried beans in water for twelve hours before cooking, they’ll produce less flatulence.

  • It may not be ladylike, but the fact is that women fart three times more often than men.

  WEIRD WEATHER

  • Hailstones the size of bowling balls fell on Coffeyville, Kansas, on September 2, 1970.

  • Great balls of fire: Thousands of people have reported seeing what’s called “ball lightning”—glowing balls that are as bright as light bulbs—flying though the sky, or even entering their houses.

  • In 1979 a thunderstorm in Norwich, England, generated 2- to 4-inch flakes of ice that fluttered out of the sky like falling leaves.

  • Whirlwinds (or “dust devils”) usually just carry sand and debris, but they’ve also been kn
own to suck up flames from nearby forest fires and carry them away.

  • Golf-ball-size hailstones fell in Alberta, Canada, in 1953, killing 36,000 ducks—not to be confused with a 1933 storm in Worcester, Massachusetts, that generated huge hailstones that contained freshly frozen ducks.

  • The secondary rainbow in a double rainbow is the exact reverse of the primary rainbow: The red is on the inner edge and the blue is on the outer edge.

  • An 1877 issue of Scientific American reported a rain of snakes, some as big as 1 ½ feet long, that fell out of the sky in Memphis, Tennessee.

  • A “sun dog” is a bright spot in the sky that’s 22 degrees to the left or right of the sun.

  PLACES OF

  INTEREST

  • Where are they? “Land of the Midnight Sun,” “Land of Enchantment,” and “Land of 10,000 Lakes,” are the nicknames of Alaska, New Mexico, and Minnesota, respectively.

  • What city has the most telescopes in the world? Tucson, Arizona.

  • The first log cabins in North America were built in 1683 by Swedish immigrants in Delaware.

  • Coolest state? It could be Florida. In 1851 Dr. John Gorrie of Apalachicola, Florida, patented the process of manufacturing ice.

  • In a competition for “Longest Main Street in the United States,” Island Park, Idaho, would win: Its main street is 33 miles long.

  • In 1928, Baltimore, Maryland, became the home of the first umbrella factory in America.

  • Visit the Elephant Hall in the University of Nebraska State Museum in Lincoln, Nebraska, and you’ll see the world’s largest collection of elephant skeletons.

  • The next time someone you know gets a parking ticket, tell them to blame it on Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. That’s where, in 1935, the first parking meter was installed.

  CREEPY QUIZ