# Bogus trivia list **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 7, 2001, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bogus-trivia-list/92014 "2001-11-07T15:43:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Edward\_The\_Head](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ce73a5/32.png) [@Edward\_The\_Head](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Edward_The_Head)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2001, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bogus-trivia-list/92014/21 "2001-11-07T19:47:19Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Ironikinit \* > > 1. The first couple to be shown in bed together on prime time TV were Fred and Wilma Flintstone. From what I remember they had seperate beds. > [@](#): > > 1. The state with the highest percentage of people who walk to work: Alaska maybe. only cause not many people live there. > [@](#): > > 1. The percentage of Africa that is wilderness: 28% now get this… > > 2. The percentage of North America that is wilderness: 38% what’s wilderness? plus you have to remember Canada, tons of “wilderness” there. > [@](#): > > 1. The cost of raising a medium-size dog to the age of eleven: $6,400 this is pretty easy to believe, bag of food costs around 20 bucks and lasts me around 2 months or so. plus all the vet costs etc. got no real proof but sounds good. > [@](#): > > 1. Those San Francisco Cable cars are the only mobile National Monuments. I guess it depends on who defines a National Monument. I don’t know for sure but I don’t think that they fall under the NPS. > [@](#): > > 1. The only two days of the year in which there are no professional sports games (MLB, NBA, NHL, or NFL) are the day before and the day after the Major League Baseball All-Star Game. Guess golf and soccer don’t count as professonal? Golf is played for 33-34 weeks a year with no brakes until around now. > [@](#): > > 1. How about this… The nursery rhyme “Ring around the Rosy” is a rhyme about the plague. Infected people with the plague would get red circular sores (“Ring around the rosy…”), I’ve heard this before, but I think it was in a book. > [@](#): > > 1. In English pubs, ale is ordered by pints and quarts. So in old England, when customers got unruly, the bartender would yell at them mind their own pints and quarts and settle down. It’s where we get the phrase “mind your P’s and Q’s”. In all my time in England I never ordered a Quart. > [@](#): > > 1. In Scotland, a new game was invented. It was entitled Gentlemen Only Ladies Forbidden… and thus the word GOLF entered into the English language. Actaully they believe that golf as invented by people hitting pebbles around the cattle to pass time. > [@](#): > > The multiplication one checks out, at least. I hope this hasn’t been posted before. guess some people didn’t see he had address this one. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2001, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bogus-trivia-list/92014/22 "2001-11-07T19:57:30Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Ironikinit \* > \*\* > I’ve no luck finding out about the youngest parents, either. > \*\* According to [this site](http://www.sexualrecords.com/WSRprev.html), the youngest mother on record was 5 years 7 months old, in Peru in 1939. (I have heard this record cited previously.) IIRC, the father was a much older cousin. The site says the oldest father on record was 12, in England in 1998. So it would seem item #9 is incorrect at least as far as the age of the father. (I assume the factoid means the youngest couple to produce a child, not just the youngest ages of a father or mother.) ---
**Author:** ![JThunder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e95f7d/32.png) [@JThunder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JThunder)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2001, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bogus-trivia-list/92014/23 "2001-11-07T20:37:18Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by sjc \* > **13. I believe I have read this in several sources. I would like to hear evidence refuting this. Did Mark Twain write Tom Sawyer on a typewriter?** I’m pretty sure that he wrote it on a wooden fence, using whitewash. ---
**Author:** ![mske](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ccd318/32.png) [@mske](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mske)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2001, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bogus-trivia-list/92014/24 "2001-11-07T20:53:12Z")
> [@](#): > > 1. In English pubs, ale is ordered by pints and quarts. So in old England, when customers got unruly, the bartender would yell at them mind their own pints and quarts and settle down. It’s where we get the phrase “mind your P’s and Q’s”. > > 2. Many years ago in England, pub frequenters had a whistle baked into the rim or handle of their ceramic cups. When they needed a refill, they used the whistle to get some service. “Wet your whistle” is the phrase inspired by this practice. Wait a minute. Don’t these two statements seems to contradict each other? Were the whistles “baked” into the pints, or the quarts? Wouldn’t it be easier to keep patrons in line by not allowing them to have noisemakers as beverage containers? ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2001, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bogus-trivia-list/92014/25 "2001-11-07T20:59:58Z")
Regarding [Mark Twain and the typewriter](http://www.boondocksnet.com/twaintexts/biography/paine_bio099.html), it appears that Twain himself made the claim in his autobiography. Twain remembered the first manuscript as being “Tom Sawyer,” but it may actually have been [Life on the Mississippi.](http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/railton/yankee/cymach4.html) ---
**Author:** ![Sweet\_Sota\_Girl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@Sweet\_Sota\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sweet_Sota_Girl)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2001, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bogus-trivia-list/92014/26 "2001-11-08T00:08:03Z")
I wonder if there were any of those sports that played during the days following the events of September 11th when MLB and NFL halted all of their games? And truly… why don’t the count golf? After all, it is considered a professional sport. ---
**Author:** ![mnemosyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@mnemosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mnemosyne)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2001, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bogus-trivia-list/92014/27 "2001-11-08T00:32:43Z")
[QUOTE] \*Originally posted by Edward The Head \* \*\* > [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Ironikinit \* > > > [@](#): > > > > 1. The state with the highest percentage of people who walk to work: Alaska > > maybe. only cause not many people live there. \*\* You know, they say that 5/4ths of the population don’t understand fractions… 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Achernar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e274bd/32.png) [@Achernar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Achernar)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2001, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bogus-trivia-list/92014/28 "2001-11-08T04:02:02Z")
I love these kinds of threads. If I might summarize… 1. FALSE ([OP](#1797779)) 2. FALSE ([OP](#1797779)) 3. FALSE ([zut](#1798192)) 4. TRUE ([Colibri](#1798480)) 5. TRUE ([Colibri](#1798480)) 6. FALSE ([Colibri](#1798621)) 7. FALSE ([Colibri](#1798406)) 8. TRUE, PROBABLY ([Colibri](#1798793)) 9. PARTLY TRUE ([RealityChuck](#1790862)) 10. TRUE, SOMEWHAT ([Ironikinit](#1798568)) 11. TRUE ([OP](#1797779)) 12. FALSE, PROBABLY ([tc](#1797885)) 13. FALSE ([Ethilrist](#1797886), [Spirtle](#1797985), [DrMatrix](#1798179)) 14. UNKNOWN ([Mystery Dog](#1797910)) 15. FALSE ([ElvisL1ves](#1797813)) 16. FALSE ([KneadToKnow](#1797845)) 17. FALSE ([Floater](#1798078)) 18. FALSE ([zut](#1798192)) 19. UNKNOWN ([tc](#1797885)) 20. FALSE ([RealityChuck](#1790862)) 21. FALSE ([RealityChuck](#1790862)) That leaves: 22. Men can read smaller print than women can; women can hear better. 23. The state with the highest percentage of people who walk to work: Alaska 24. The cost of raising a medium-size dog to the age of eleven: $6,400 25. The average number of people airborne over the US any given hour: 61,000 26. Intelligent people have more zinc and copper in their hair. 27. Only two people signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4th, John Hancock and Charles Thomson. Most of the rest signed on August 2, but the last signature wasn’t added until 5 years later. 28. In Shakespeare’s time, mattresses were secured on bed frames by ropes when you pulled on the ropes the mattress tightened, making the bed firmer to sleep on. Hence the phrase goodnight, sleep tight". 29. Many years ago in England, pub frequenters had a whistle baked into the rim or handle of their ceramic cups. When they needed a refill, they used the whistle to get some service. “Wet your whistle” is the phrase inspired by this practice. ---
**Author:** ![Achernar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e274bd/32.png) [@Achernar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Achernar)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2001, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bogus-trivia-list/92014/29 "2001-11-08T04:05:37Z")
Shoot. Please ignore all those links. I’m an idiot. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2001, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bogus-trivia-list/92014/30 "2001-11-08T04:24:32Z")
> [@](#): > > Yes, Twain did become the first person to submit a novel in typed form to the publisher, but that wasn’t until much later ("Life on the Mississippi,"1883) , and he didn’t type it himself… it was a typed copy of his handwritten manuscript. Twain fans, by the way, might cite his autobiography, which says “Tom Sawyer” was his first book submitted in typescript. Not so. The old fella remembered it wrong, and careful research by Twain historians has proven otherwise. From [this site](http://home.earthlink.net/~dcrehr/firsttw.html). ---
**Author:** ![JS\_Princeton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/57b2e6/32.png) [@JS\_Princeton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JS_Princeton)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2001, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bogus-trivia-list/92014/31 "2001-11-08T06:03:34Z")
According to [this site](http://www.williams.edu/resources/chapin/exhibits/founding.html), the Declaration of Independence signing fact is slightly true. The original printed document WAS signed by just the two mentioned Forefathers, only later was the ceremonial document found in the National Archives signed by them all (including the big 'ol John Hancock). Could not find anything about the five years later business, though it sounds fishy to me. ---
**Author:** ![APB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8e8cbc/32.png) [@APB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/APB)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2001, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bogus-trivia-list/92014/32 "2001-11-08T12:20:02Z")
> [@](#): > > \*\*27. Many years ago in England, pub frequenters had a whistle baked into the rim or handle of their ceramic cups. When they needed a refill, they used the whistle to get some service. “Wet your whistle” is the phrase inspired by this practice. \*\* Not according to this. [http://www.xrefer.com/entry/638582](http://www.xrefer.com/entry/638582) ---
**Author:** ![Floater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/dc4da7/32.png) [@Floater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Floater)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2001, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bogus-trivia-list/92014/33 "2001-11-08T12:44:30Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Edward The Head \* > > > [@](#): > > > > 1. In English pubs, ale is ordered by pints and quarts. So in old England, when customers got unruly, the bartender would yell at them mind their own pints and quarts and settle down. It’s where we get the phrase “mind your P’s and Q’s”. > > In all my time in England I never ordered a Quart. I second that (why haven’t I thought of it earlier?). Beer is ordered by pint and half pint. As is stated in the Weights and Measures Act: “Draught beer must be sold in half pints and multiples thereof”. ---
**Author:** ![Sanjak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eada6e/32.png) [@Sanjak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sanjak)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2001, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bogus-trivia-list/92014/34 "2001-11-08T14:02:53Z")
interesting to see Snopes treat this as false. Over here in the UK this rhyme is generally accepted as being about the plague. The words over here are slightly different to the ones mentioned, with the second last line being Atishoo, atishoo. I have seen tv programmes by several historians where this has been repeated as fact. Very confusing indeed. As for the beer in pints and quarts. They are both imperial measurements so the fact that you don’t buy a quart of beer these days imo doesn’t make this necessarily untrue. ---
**Author:** ![Kendo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eb9ed0/32.png) [@Kendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kendo)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2001, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bogus-trivia-list/92014/35 "2001-11-08T14:41:20Z")
I’d have to agree with **sanjak** about this. The English version which I know is: \*Ring a ring of roses, a pocket full of posies. Atishoo, atishoo, we all fall down. We take a pinch of snuff and we all jump up!\* Now - this seems to link all too directly with it being about the plague - snuff apparently another thing (other than posies) that ‘helped’ keep plague away. One would imagine that the English version of the rhyme would be the more accurate if we accept that it is pertaining to the 1665(ish) Black Death in London. (Probably the most important “factette” to question in this particular scenario.) Perhaps one could suggest that this version of the rhyme has been altered in more recent centuries to ‘fit’ with the plague. But God knows why someone would do this. Again, although Snopes clearly is a fantastic resource, I’ve heard this too many times on documentaries, and read it too many times for me to believe that Snopes is definitive on this one. ---
**Author:** ![APB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8e8cbc/32.png) [@APB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/APB)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2001, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bogus-trivia-list/92014/36 "2001-11-08T15:15:27Z")
It’s not just Snopes who thinks it bogus. [http://www.ualberta.ca/~imunro/versions.html](http://www.ualberta.ca/~imunro/versions.html) [http://www.gbalc.org/MotherGooseSociety/rhymes/ringaround.html](http://www.gbalc.org/MotherGooseSociety/rhymes/ringaround.html) [http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Forum/3041/rosie.html](http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Forum/3041/rosie.html) (this has its own, very weird, alternative explanation.) [http://www.bikwil.zip.com.au/Vintage14/Ring-a-Ring-o’-Roses.html](http://www.bikwil.zip.com.au/Vintage14/Ring-a-Ring-o'-Roses.html) The rough impression one gets from a Google search is that both explanations are now equally prevalent. The non-plague theory seems to derive from Iona and Peter Opie (eds.), _The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes_ (Oxford University Press, 1951), which is, it has to be said, still widely regarded as _the_ definitive reference work on the subject. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2001, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bogus-trivia-list/92014/37 "2001-11-08T15:18:16Z")
> [@](#): > > Again, although Snopes clearly is a fantastic resource, I’ve heard this too many times on documentaries, and read it too many times for me to believe that Snopes is definitive on this one. And how many times have you read that Millard Fillmore was the first to install a bathtub in the White House? Repetition of a legend does not make it true. > [@](#): > > 1. In Shakespeare’s time, mattresses were secured on bed frames by ropes when you pulled on the ropes the mattress tightened, making the bed firmer to sleep on. Hence the phrase goodnight, sleep tight". Cecil actually discussed this, but he didn’t answer it. Yes, beds were once made of rope, but that doesn’t mean the phrase has anything to do with it. According to “Listening to America” by Stuart Berg Flexner: “As they had done in England, early colonists bid each other ‘good night,’ ‘sleep soundly,’ ‘have a good night,’ and ‘God give you a good night.’ Our American admonition ‘sleep tight’ became common in the 1880s, as did our breezier ‘nighty-night’ (1888)…” According to this: [http://www.quinion.com/words/qa/qa-sle1.htm](http://www.quinion.com/words/qa/qa-sle1.htm) the phrase is even newer, dating from the 20th century. I think you have to put this down as bogus. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2001, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bogus-trivia-list/92014/38 "2001-11-08T15:23:25Z")
> [@](#): > > 1. Many years ago in England, pub frequenters had a whistle baked into the rim or handle of their ceramic cups. When they needed a refill, they used the whistle to get some service. “Wet your whistle” is the phrase inspired by this practice. [The same site](http://www.takeourword.com/TOW113/page1.html) also tackles this. They point out that: 1. No such cup has ever been found 2. “Whistle” is a slang term for throat. Bogus. ---
**Author:** ![SCSimmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e495f1/32.png) [@SCSimmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCSimmons)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2001, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bogus-trivia-list/92014/39 "2001-11-08T15:23:39Z")
You don’t have to believe them just because they’re [snopes.com](http://snopes.com), of course. But read the details of their research before you judge! It’s quite clear that (a) the rhyme dates from the 19th century, not the 12th or 13th, and (b) the ‘plague’ interpretation is a modern invention. If you don’t agree, then read the details of their argument at [http://www.snopes.com/language/literary/rosie.htm](http://www.snopes.com/language/literary/rosie.htm) and tell us what they got wrong-but don’t just say that you’ve heard a lot of people say they disagree and therefore you don’t trust the Mikkelsons’ research! ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2001, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bogus-trivia-list/92014/40 "2001-11-08T15:29:39Z")
[Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable](http://www.bootlegbooks.com/Reference/PhraseAndFable/data/385.html) (see entry for “dry”) confirms that “whistle” is slang for “throat.” Definitely bogus. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bogus-trivia-list/92014.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bogus-trivia-list/92014.md?page=3)