trivia

The word trivia comes from combining two Latin words. It roughly translates to three roads. In ancient times, when three roads crossed one another, you would usually find a market place. In the market place, people would exchange not only goods and services, but also knowledge.

If you toss a penny 10000 times, it will not be heads 5000 times, but more like 4950. The heads picture weighs more, so it ends up on the bottom.

In Harrisburg, Pennsylvania it is illegal to have sex with a truck driver inside a toll booth. What do you bet this law has to do with people trying to get out of paying for a toll?

A Tremonton, Utah law states that no woman is allowed to have sex with a man while riding in an ambulance. In addition to normal charges, the woman's name will be published in the local newspaper. The man does not receive any punishment, which is a shame: Most men I know would love to have their name in the paper for breaking that law.

In Detroit, a couple can make love in a vehicle providing it is parked on property the couple owns.

There is a law in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, that police officers are not allowed to walk up to a car if a couple is making love in the vehicle. If the officer suspects that a couple is possibly engaging in a sexual act, that officer must drive up from behind, honk his horn three times, then wait approximately two minutes before getting out of the vehicle and investigating.

During lunch breaks in Carlsbad, New Mexico no couple should engage in a sexual act while parked in their vehicle, unless their car has curtains.

Any couple making out inside a vehicle, and accidentally sounding the horn during their lustful act, may be taken to jail according to a Liberty Corner, New Jersey law.

If your eyes are six feet above the surface of the ocean, the horizon will be about three statute miles away.

The longest word in the English language, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, is pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis. The only other word with the same amount of letters is pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconioses, its plural.

Hydroxydesoxycorticosterone and hydroxydeoxycorticosterones are the largest anagrams.

Facetious and abstemious contain all the vowels in the correct order, as does arsenious, meaning "containing arsenic."

The phrase "rule of thumb" is derived from an old English law which stated that you couldn't beat your wife with anything wider than your thumb.

In Los Angeles, California, a man is legally entitled to beat his wife with a leather belt or strap, but the belt cannot be wider than 2 inches, unless he has his wife's consent to beat her with a wider strap. Consent should be given prior to the event, as is carefully stipulated.

Los Angeles's full name is "El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de los Angeles de Porciuncula."

Ben and Jerry's send the waste from making ice cream to local pig farmers to use as feed. Pigs love the stuff, except for one flavor: Mint Oreo.

The company providing the liability insurance for the Republican National Convention in San Diego is the same firm that insured the maiden voyage of the RMS Titanic.

Dr. Samuel A. Mudd was the physician who set the leg of Lincoln's assassin John Wilkes Booth... and whose shame created the expression for ignominy, "His name is Mudd."

The very first bomb dropped by the Allies on Berlin during World War II killed the only elephant in the Berlin Zoo.

Wilma Flintstone's maiden name was Wilma Slaghoopal, and Betty Rubble's Maiden name was Betty Jean Mcbricker.

The Ramses brand condom is named after the great pharaoh Ramses II who fathered over 160 children.

If NASA sent birds into space they would soon die, they need gravity to swallow.

Dueling is legal in Paraguay as long as both parties are registered blood donors.

The characters Bert and Ernie on Sesame Street were named after Bert the cop and Ernie the taxi driver in Frank Capra's "Its A Wonderful Life"

It was discovered on a space mission that a frog can throw up. The frog throws up its stomach first, so the stomach is dangling out of its mouth. Then the frog uses its forearms to dig out all of the stomach's contents and then swallows the stomach back down again.

Armored knights raised their visors to identify themselves when they rode past their king. This custom has become the modern military salute.

Sylvia Miles had the shortest performance ever nominated for an Oscar with "Midnight Cowboy." Her entire role lasted only six minutes.

Charles Lindbergh took only four sandwiches with him on his famous transatlantic flight.

Goethe couldn't stand the sound of barking dogs and could only write if he had an apple rotting in the drawer of his desk.

If a statue in the park of a person on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle; if the horse has one front leg in the air, the person died as a result of wounds received in battle; if the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes.

Gilligan of Gilligan's Island had a first name that was only used once, on the never-aired pilot show. His first name was Willy. The skipper's real name on Gilligan's Island is Jonas Grumby. It was mentioned once in the first episode on their radio's newscast about the wreck.
An interesting poll was conducted a few years ago. The results of the nationwide survey of college students a revealed that the Professor and Maryann were voted the most likely couple to have "done it" on the island.

The first episode of "Joanie Loves Chachi" was the highest rated American program in the history of Korean television.
Why?
Because "chachi" is Korean for "penis".

Canada is the country with the highest doughnut consumption, and the most doughnuts consumed per capita than any other nation.

In England, the Speaker of the House is not allowed to speak. The Speaker may talk, of course, but must remain neutral on the issues being presented in Parliament.

You would think that as the ruler of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and the defender of the faith, Queen Elizabeth II could go anywhere in her country she darn well pleases. However, she is not permitted to set foot in the House of Commons. It is reserved for commoners.

Queen Elizabeth II has some pretty unique talents. If her Bentley were to develop a mechanical problem, she should be able to fix it herself. After all, she trained in World War II to be a automobile mechanic. She is the only reigning monarch that can completely strip a Jeep of all parts, then rebuild it. Of course, being the Queen of England, I suppose she would just call the auto club to have them come out and fix it for her.
The car shouldn't be too difficult to find, it will be the only car in the United Kingdom that has no license plate. As the reigning Monarch, She is the only person in the UK allowed to drive without a license plate on the car.

Playing cards were issued to British pilots in WWII. If captured, they could be soaked in water and unfolded to reveal a map for escape.

Ivory bar soap floating was a mistake. They had been overmixing the soap formula causing excess air bubbles that made it float. Customers wrote and told how much they loved that it floated, and it has floated ever since.

Studies show that if a cat falls off the seventh floor of a building it has about thirty percent less chance of surviving than a cat that falls off the twentieth floor. It supposedly takes about eight floors for the cat to realize what is occurring, relax and correct itself. [Who figured this out? --- msg]

The saying "it's so cold out there it could freeze the balls off a brass monkey" came from when they had old cannons like ones used in the Civil War. The cannonballs were stacked in a pyramid formation, called a brass monkey. When it got extremely cold outside they would crack and break off... Thus the saying.

Your stomach has to produce a new layer of mucus every two weeks otherwise it will digest itself.

A walla-walla scene is one where extras pretend to be talking in the background -- when they say "walla-walla" it looks like they are actually talking.

101 Dalmatians, Sleeping Beauty, Lady and the Tramp and Peter Pan (Wendy & the kids) are the only Disney cartoon features with both parents that are present and do not die during the movie. (It has been noted that "Hercules" has recently been added to the list...)

The Baby Ruth candy bar was actually named after Grover Cleveland's baby daughter, Ruth.

To escape the grip of a crocodile's jaws, push your thumbs into its eyeballs -- it will let you go instantly.

A group of unicorns is called a blessing.
Two to eleven cows are called a herd;
twelve or more cows are known as a flink.
A group of cats is called a clatter.
A group of frogs is called an army.
A group of rhinos is called a crash.
A group of kangaroos is called a mob.
A group of whales is called a pod.
A group of geese is called a gaggle;
in the air, they are known as a skein.
A group of ravens is called a murder;
a group of crows is called an unkindness.
A group of officers is called a mess.
A group of peacocks is called an ostentation.
A group of larks is called an exaltation.
A group of teal ducks is called a spring.
A group of owls is called a parliament.

Physicist Murray Gell-Mann named the sub-atomic particles known as quarks for a random line in James Joyce, "Three quarks for Muster Mark!"

Every time you lick a stamp, you're consuming 1/10 of a calorie. Every time you lick the envelope, add one more calorie.

The phrase "sleep tight" derives from the fact that early mattresses were filled with straw and held up with rope stretched across the bedframe. A tight sleep was a comfortable sleep.

"Three dog night" (attributed to Australian Aborigines) came about because on especially cold nights these nomadic people needed three dogs (dingos, actually) to keep from freezing.

The combination "ough" can be pronounced in nine different ways. The following sentence contains them all: "A rough-coated, dough-faced, thoughtful ploughman strode through the streets of Scarborough; after falling into a slough, he coughed and hiccoughed."

Many of our leaders say we should reject marijuana and anything associated with it. One wonders if that includes the Declaration of Independence. After all, it was written on the finest quality paper of the day, which in those days came from hemp.

The only fifteen-letter word that can be spelled without repeating a letter is uncopyrightable.

When opossums are playing 'possum, they are not "playing." They actually pass out from sheer terror.

Of all of the substances you can find on Earth, only water occurs naturally in a solid, gas and liquid form. It is also the only liquid that expands.

Iodine has no liquid form. It goes directly from a solid to a gas form. What you buy in the store is the solid particulates suspended in a liquid.

Big Ben is not the name of the clock, or the tower, but the bell inside of London's famous landmark. When the bell was installed it was named after Sir Benjamin Hall, the Commissioner of Works.

Texas is also the only state that is allowed to fly its state flag at the same height as the U.S. flag.

The names of the fifty states use every letter in the alphabet -- except the letter 'q'.

In Kentucky, 50% of the people who get married for the first time are teenagers.

In Kentucky, anyone who has been drinking is considered sober until he or she cannot hold onto the ground.

In Pennsylvania, no man may purchase alcohol without written consent from his wife.

The verb "cleave" is the only English word with two synonyms which are antonyms of each other: adhere and separate.

The reason firehouses have circular stairways is from the days of yore when the engines were pulled by horses. The horses were stabled on the ground floor and after a while they started to figure out how to walk up straight staircases.

The Main Library at Indiana University sinks over an inch every year because when it was built, engineers failed to take into account the weight of all the books that would occupy the building.

What is the difference between a wharf and a pier you ask? A pier runs perpendicular to the shoreline, while a wharf runs parallel to the shoreline.

The three best-known western names in China are Jesus Christ, Richard Nixon, and Elvis Presley.

How far can you go on a gallon of fuel? The pride of the Cunard fleet, the H.M.S. Queen Elizabeth II, moves six inches through the water for each gallon of diesel that it burns.
The M-1 Abrams tank on the other hand, gets 3 gallons to the mile.

One country has finally achieved a 100% literacy rate, and that country is Iceland. To get a job, every citizen must be able to read, and speak at least three different languages.
Finland has come close. You can attribute the success of Finland to a law that goes back three centuries that decrees a man and a woman must prove they can read and write before being married.

It seems no matter where you go in this world you find problems with ethnic tensions. In fact only two countries in the world have no such problems -- North Korea and Iceland.

Most people assume that it was the arrival of the railroad that put an end to the Pony Express, but it was actually arrival of the Telegraph. The first trains did not arrive on the scene until seven and a half years after the final pony made a mail run.

The standard gauge for the US Railroad is 4 feet, 8.5 inches. How did they come across this number? It was the standard gauge used in England, and the railroad was built by English expatriates.
The English based their design on the pre-railroad tramways. Those tramways were in turn based on the widths of the road ruts caused by English wagons, which if you trace back far enough, you will find were originally based on the wheel width used by Roman war chariots.
The reason that Romans built their chariots exactly 4 feet, 8.5 inches wide is to accommodate the width of the two horses that were used to pull the chariots.

Emus and kangaroos cannot walk backwards, and are on the Australian coat of arms for that reason.

A 'jiffy' is an actual unit of time. For those who are wondering, "I'll be there in a jiffy," means you will be there in 1/100th of a second.

Australia is home to the koala bear, the platypus, and the kangaroo, but not one active volcano or glacier. It is the only continent that lacks either one.

Like it or not, every U.S. Citizen has to pay income taxes, but only one group can do so without using U.S. currency. The Internal Revenue Service has granted the Inuit people of Little Diomede, Alaska the right to pay their taxes in ivory collected during seal hunts.

It is not a crime to deface a US coin. Of course, mutilating it or defacing it and passing it as currency could get you in a heap of trouble.

In his day, Benjamin Franklin was considered a great writer and statesman, and in fact served as the ambassador to France. However, his colleagues passed over him to write the Declaration of Independence because they were afraid Ben might slip a joke into the document. The more level headed Thomas Jefferson was chosen for the task. He was defeated in the Senate in 1858.

This man who failed so greatly was finally elected as the 16th President in 1861. His two terms in office were considered some of the most difficult times in American history, and it cost him his life, but Abraham Lincoln is considered one of the best men to ever hold the office.

During the heat of the space race in the 1960s, the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration decided it needed a ball point pen to write in the zero gravity confines of its space capsules. After considerable research and development, the Astronaut Pen was developed at a cost of about US $1 million. The pen worked and also enjoyed some modest success as a novelty item back here on earth. The Soviet Union, faced with the same problem, used a pencil.

State law in the great state of Illinois mandates that all bachelors should be called master, not mister, when addressed by their female counterparts.

The State of Maryland has decreed that it has an official sport. That official sport of course is Jousting.
You might have a hard time jousting on a meadow beside a lake in the honor of your fair lady, since the state of Maryland is the only state with no natural lakes.

That term, "It's all fun and games until someone loses an eye," is from Ancient Rome. The only rule during wrestling matches was, "No eye gouging." Biting, kicking and scratching was allowed, but the only way to be disqualified was to poke someone's eye out.

One interesting thing about Coca-Cola is that it contains neither coca nor cola.
Another interesting fact is that Coca-Cola used to be colored green.

"Live Free or Die" is the motto for the state of New Hampshire. This same slogan can also be found on the automobile license plates issued by the state.
The ironic thing is the license plates are manufactured by inmates currently incarcerated by the state of New Hampshire at a prison outside of the state capitol in Concord. I hear that the inmates get a big kick out of the irony as well.

If you told a wine connoisseur that French wines are made with American grapes, they would say you were sadly mistaken. But they would be wrong.
Many years ago, the French vineyards were infected by grape rot. The situation became so dire that if something was not done quickly, the rot would kill nearly all of the vines in France.
By pure chance it was discovered that American grape vines were immune to the same rot. The French imported the vines to be grafted on to the French vines and saved the wine industry.

One interesting difference between men and women is how much they tend to disagree on the same subject. Take marriage, for example. 80% of the men say they would marry the same woman if they had to do it all over again. Only 50% of the women they married would take them up on the offer.
For those who decide to split the sheets, 58% of the men say they were happier after their divorce. 85% of their former brides were happier as well.

The only acceptable sexual position in Washington D.C. is the missionary-style position. Any other sexual position is considered illegal.
However, screwing taxpayers is still legal.

In the state of Washington there is a law against having sex with a virgin under any circumstances, including the night of the wedding. This means that potentially most women in the state of Washington are criminals.

"Come on everybody, Samba!" is usually thought to mean come out and dance. The word actually means, "to rub navels together."

When Voyager II visited the planet Neptune, it found, as you might guess, a very cold vacation spot. It also saw a small irregular white cloud that zips around the planet every sixteen hours or so. This formation is now known as "The Scooter."

More people are killed annually by donkeys than die in air crashes. So watch your ass.

In every human society studied in both the past and present, an outstretched arm, wrist bent upwards, and palm facing forward has always meant "stop".

Years ago when the US Army was out in the field, they would run a communication wire to all of the sentry posts in a given area so they could keep in contact with one another. The posts that were not on the wire were considered 'out of the loop,' which is how we get the expression.

In Norfolk, Virginia, the law states that a woman cannot go out without wearing a corset. There was even a provision set aside for a civil service position as a corset inspector. This job was only handed out to men.

That stuff you find on the keyboard and covering your mouse ball is not called gunk, the technical name is candy.

Scorpions are easier to find in the dark. Just bring a black light with you. They become quite visible under the glow.
You can also add cat urine to your list of things that glow under a black light.

In the state of Washington there is a law designed to reduce crime that clearly states: 'It is mandatory for a motorist with criminal intentions to stop at the city limits and telephone the chief of police as he is entering the town.'
Also, if that city is Seattle, don't bring any lollipops with you. For some very good reason I am unaware of, lollipops are not allowed in the city of Seattle.

When people think of Paris, France, they usually think of the Eiffel Tower. However, if it wasn't for the radio antenna at the top, Parisians would have torn the structure down in 1909. It was due to he great importance of French radio telegraphy that the structure was saved.

They take speeding pretty seriously in Connecticut, just ask talk show host David Letterman. In that state you can be stopped by the police for biking over 65 miles per hour.

As a safety precaution, it is clearly illegal to make faces at a dog while in the state of Oklahoma. Violators can be fined, arrested or even jailed.

If Barbie was a real woman, she would be 38 years old and her measurements would be 39-23-33.

In Michigan, a woman isn't allowed to cut her own hair without her husband's permission.

The "save" icon on Microsoft Word and many Windows 95 programs shows a floppy disk, with the shutter on backwards. If a real disk had the window on the shutter in that position, the disk itself would still be blocked in the drive, which would prevent the disk from being read and possibly damage the disk drive read/write head. This could explain a lot...

MTV first went on the air on August 1, 1981. The first video to be played by MTV was, "Video Killed the Radio Star," by the Bugles. Later when they launched MTV Europe, the first video was "Money For Nothing" by Dire Straits.

Ever wonder how the group Devo decided on their name? The original name was De-evolution. At the last minute they shortened it down to Devo.

The band Duran Duran got their name from an astronaut in the 1968 Jane Fonda movie "Barbarella.

The only nation whose name begins with an "A", but doesn't end in an "A" is Afghanistan.

Clans of long ago that wanted to get rid of their unwanted people without killing them use to burn their houses down - hence the expression "to get fired."

I guess some consumers didn't find the thought of cooking with rape seed oil very appealing. So the growers of rape seed oil decided to market that particular can of oil as Canola.

On an average day, Parker Brothers prints more money for the game "Monopoly" than the U.S. Treasury prints for circulation.

Things can look pretty different and yet have much in common. Take for example a brick wall and a plate glass window. They look quite different, yet both of them are made from the same principal ingredient: sand.

When referring to a martini, the expression, "shaken, not stirred" means that the customer would like a martini using vodka, not gin. When gin is shaken, it becomes bruised and becomes cloudy, which changes the flavor. Vodka is immune to bruising.

In Ames, Iowa, you are not allowed to have more than three gulps of beer while lying in bed after making love to your wife, or while holding her in your arms.