# Another Weird Fact List: How many of these are true? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 30, 2002, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-weird-fact-list-how-many-of-these-are-true/106581 "2002-04-30T23:20:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![FriendRob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecc23a/32.png) [@FriendRob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriendRob)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2002, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-weird-fact-list-how-many-of-these-are-true/106581/21 "2002-05-01T18:58:58Z")
> [@](#): > > Thrity-five percent of the people who use personal ads for dating are > already married. How would you know? Does anyone give out grants for the support of research into the statistics of personal ads? > [@](#): > > All polar bears are left-handed. Again, how would you know? I suppose if you see them fishing with their left paws… Still, I doubt a comprehensive survey has been done. > [@](#): > > Americans eat 18 acres of pizza on average every day. Here’s one with numbers! I love them… well, 18 acres of pizza is about 100 million square inches. A 16 in pie has pi (ha!) times 8 squared = 200 square inches. So we are talking 100 million sq. in. divided by 200 sq. in. per pizza = 500,000 pizzas per day. With about 300 million people in the US, that’s a pizza for every 600 people. That sounds perfectly reasonable - maybe even a bit low (at least if I’m representative!) ---
**Author:** ![welby1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/838e76/32.png) [@welby1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/welby1)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2002, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-weird-fact-list-how-many-of-these-are-true/106581/22 "2002-05-01T19:39:42Z")
Balor, I would think that the rhyming word would have to actually be a word for it to county. Quick check of [dictionary.com](http://dictionary.com) and of the [poetry.com](http://poetry.com) rhyming engine shows that oneth ain’t a word and there isn’t one that rhymes with month. ---
**Author:** ![Largo62](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/45deac/32.png) [@Largo62](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Largo62)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2002, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-weird-fact-list-how-many-of-these-are-true/106581/23 "2002-05-01T20:35:27Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by SPOOFE \* > \*\* > Sure there is. The word “Ponth”. A “Ponth” is defined by Merriam-SPOOFE as “Any word that rhymes with the word ‘month.’” \*\* …which would include “gunth,” defined as a description of two firearms by a person with a lisp. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Sofa\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/58956e/32.png) [@Sofa\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sofa_King)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2002, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-weird-fact-list-how-many-of-these-are-true/106581/24 "2002-05-01T22:04:23Z")
…or that same person with a lisp yelling invective at an ERA rally. ---
**Author:** ![Reeder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Reeder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reeder)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2002, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-weird-fact-list-how-many-of-these-are-true/106581/25 "2002-05-02T00:30:06Z")
Month isn’t the only word there is no rhyme for… Try rhyming orange, purple or silver. And I don’t want to hear that maple syrple poem either. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Tars\_Tarkas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Tars\_Tarkas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tars_Tarkas)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2002, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-weird-fact-list-how-many-of-these-are-true/106581/26 "2002-05-02T01:05:22Z")
What, is nurple not a word? I trided [dictionary.com](http://dictionary.com) but got an error. ---
**Author:** ![Redboss](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8baadc/32.png) [@Redboss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Redboss)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2002, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-weird-fact-list-how-many-of-these-are-true/106581/27 "2002-05-02T01:28:59Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by cmkeller \* > \*\*In the obituary article for Barbie’s creator earlier this week, my newspaper said she’d have measurements of 39-21-33 if scaled up to 5 feet, 6 inches tall. \*\* Not my Barbies. As mentioned in my post above, 5 foot seven and a half inches. And bust, waist and hip measurements of 35, 23, 34. These numbers are rounded up slightly for tidiness (ie from 34 and three quarter inches etc), and are an average of the three nicest looking Barbies in the collection. YBMV. And yes, Waylon **is** a sort of role model. Anything wrong with that? Redbarbieboss ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2002, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-weird-fact-list-how-many-of-these-are-true/106581/28 "2002-05-02T02:14:28Z")
> [@](#): > > The cigarette lighter was invented before the match. I remember reading one of Isaac Asimov’s SF&F columns that confirmed this. Actually, it makes sense: the first version of an invention tends to be big and cumbersome, and then it gets refined to smaller and more compact. The original lighters were designed for cigars, actually, and came on the market around 1810-1820, if I recall correctly. They worked, but weren’t very efficient. The problem with matches was to make them easy to light, and yet not liable to light spontaneously or inadvertently. There were also difficulties with using white phosphorous, which is quite poisonous over the long run. Eventually, matchmakers found a way to use red phosphorous, which is not as volatile or dangerous, by the invention of the friction strip. ---
**Author:** ![Major\_Feelgud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3be4f8/32.png) [@Major\_Feelgud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Major_Feelgud)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2002, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-weird-fact-list-how-many-of-these-are-true/106581/29 "2002-05-02T03:30:08Z")
I can think of many animals that can’t jump: crocodiles, aardvarks, hedgehogs, snakes, sloths, etc. And I don’t think elephants would break their knees if they jumped. If you ever saw any circus shows, you’d see in some stunts where their front legs would be on a ball or another elephant’s back, then they’d jump off and onto the ground. That’s about a 4-5 ft drop and the impact would be the same as jumping. Barbie is not a scale model, i.e. it is not sold as 1/6 scale, or 1/5th scale, so her height can be anything scaled up, 5’6", 6’0" etc. Her measurements would then be scaled according to her height. Bumf rhymes with month. ---
**Author:** ![Major\_Feelgud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3be4f8/32.png) [@Major\_Feelgud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Major_Feelgud)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2002, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-weird-fact-list-how-many-of-these-are-true/106581/30 "2002-05-02T03:38:46Z")
Welby1. You forgot to check [Jewishpoetry.com](http://Jewishpoetry.com): Month schmonth, orange schorange purple schpurple silver schsilver You can find a rhyme to anything here. ---
**Author:** ![Motog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85e7bf/32.png) [@Motog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Motog)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2002, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-weird-fact-list-how-many-of-these-are-true/106581/31 "2002-05-02T03:43:44Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Reeder \* > \*\*Month isn’t the only word there is no rhyme for… > > Try rhyming orange, purple or silver. > > And I don’t want to hear that maple syrple poem either. > > 🙂 \*\* Purple: Roses are red Violets are purple I couldn’t get the cork out of the bottle So Sue had her pull I’ll think about the others ---
**Author:** ![Motog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85e7bf/32.png) [@Motog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Motog)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2002, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-weird-fact-list-how-many-of-these-are-true/106581/32 "2002-05-02T04:12:33Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Reeder \* > \*\*Month isn’t the only word there is no rhyme for… > > Try rhyming orange, purple or silver. > > And I don’t want to hear that maple syrple poem either. > > 🙂 \*\* Orange does have a rhyme: citrange Citrange is a citrus hybrid (Citrus sinensis Osbeck x Poncirus trifoliata) otherwise known as bitter orange or rootstock orange. The ‘range’ part is pronounced the same as in orange. How about ‘doorhinge’? ---
**Author:** ![Motog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85e7bf/32.png) [@Motog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Motog)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2002, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-weird-fact-list-how-many-of-these-are-true/106581/33 "2002-05-02T04:28:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Our eyes are always the same size from birth, but our nose and ears never stop growing. Crap. Our eyes do continue to grow after birth - they just don’t grow as much as the rest of us because they start of diproportionately big. In fact, excessive eye growth due to overstimulation (from reading, prolonged exposure to light etc) is one of the main causes of short-sightedness (refer [http://www.nature.com/nsu/990513/990513-1.html](http://www.nature.com/nsu/990513/990513-1.html)). ---
**Author:** ![BlackKnight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/eb8c5e/32.png) [@BlackKnight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlackKnight)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2002, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-weird-fact-list-how-many-of-these-are-true/106581/34 "2002-05-02T05:00:51Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Reeder \* > \*\*Month isn’t the only word there is no rhyme for… > Try rhyming orange, purple or silver. > \*\* “pilfer” is a very close rhyme with “silver”. There’s also apparantly a word “chilver”, which has something to do with sheep. “month” rhymes pretty well with “millionth”, “billionth”, etc. “orange” rhymes with “door-hinge”, “sporange”, almost-kinda-maybe rhymes with “syringe” and “arrange” (if you say the words with certain accents), rhymes pretty well with “blancmange”, and definitely rhymes with Blorenge (a 1,833 ft. hill near Abergavenny, Wales). I also found a few suggestions for rhymes with “purple”, but I don’t think they were true English words. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Largo62](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/45deac/32.png) [@Largo62](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Largo62)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2002, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-weird-fact-list-how-many-of-these-are-true/106581/35 "2002-05-02T06:14:23Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Northern Piper \* > \*\*I remember reading one of Isaac Asimov’s SF&F columns that confirmed this. Actually, it makes sense: the first version of an invention tends to be big and cumbersome, and then it gets refined to smaller and more compact. The original lighters were designed for cigars, actually, and came on the market around 1810-1820, if I recall correctly. They worked, but weren’t very efficient. > > The problem with matches was to make them easy to light, and yet not liable to light spontaneously or inadvertently. There were also difficulties with using white phosphorous, which is quite poisonous over the long run. Eventually, matchmakers found a way to use red phosphorous, which is not as volatile or dangerous, by the invention of the friction strip. \*\* I’m pretty sure you mean a tinderbox, an ungainly device that used a flint-on-steel spark, like that used to ignite powder in a musket, to ignite shavings in a little box, creating a small fire from which to light a pipe or cigar. Hans Christian Anderson wrote a tale called _The Tinder-Box_, which was published in 1835 and described the device, which was referred to in the story as “old.” ---
**Author:** ![MarkyDeSade](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/35a633/32.png) [@MarkyDeSade](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MarkyDeSade)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2002, 6:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-weird-fact-list-how-many-of-these-are-true/106581/36 "2002-05-02T06:24:33Z")
> [@](#): > > No word in the English language rhymes with “MONTH”. Wrong. How about “Lumps,” with a lisp? ---
**Author:** ![kniz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c37758/32.png) [@kniz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kniz)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2002, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-weird-fact-list-how-many-of-these-are-true/106581/37 "2002-05-02T13:19:57Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Major Feelgud \* > **I can think of many animals that can’t jump: crocodiles, aardvarks, hedgehogs, snakes, sloths, etc.** I did a long search but could not find confirmation to my idea that a rhino cannot jump. I did find out that the rhino in the game “Spiderman” can jump, but not very well. I also for some reason cannot pass up the chance to add the turtle to the list. I have never wanted to be a civil engineer, but it seems to me obvious that adding books to the library would have nothing to do with the library sinking. What were they supposed to have built the library on? Quicksand? Permafrost? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Balor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/45deac/32.png) [@Balor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balor)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2002, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-weird-fact-list-how-many-of-these-are-true/106581/38 "2002-05-02T14:20:56Z")
Welby1 - note the 😃 on my previous post. Anyway, I have remembered another rhyme for “month”. I cannot remember all the verse but the last line went something like this > [@](#): > > “yea, as the swift moon runn’th” ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2002, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-weird-fact-list-how-many-of-these-are-true/106581/39 "2002-05-02T14:46:04Z")
As for purple, are contractions valid as words? “Nothing’ll make you seem as rude as a burp’ll or a slurp’ll.” “Watch what you say. I wouldn’t beat you up for a comment like that, but I bet that little twerp’ll.” Chaim Mattis Keller [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-weird-fact-list-how-many-of-these-are-true/106581.md?page=1)