MPSIMS about your country that you have to share

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
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Let’s share some bizarre, interesting, mundane, trivia that just make your country unique. I will, of course, begin.

In Argentina the President is by law the Godfather of the seventh son. The custom started in 1907 when a Russian inmigrant petitioned President José FIgueroa Alcorta to be his seventh son godfather. Appartently that was the tradition of his homeland, Zarist Russia.-
That was how the custom was created. For years, it was a defacto custom, untill, in 1976, President Peron passed a law to reglament theinstitution (also he change it a bit, from that moment onward the President was instaurated as the seventh son or daughter godfather).
How that is work? When you have your 7 child, you sent a letter to the president, if you match the criteria, a goverment official (it can be a Post Office Chief, a Provincial Governor, etc), is sent with a gold medal, that has the inscription “To xxxxx from his Godfather Argentina’s President”.
I think it is a pretty cool custom.
So what makes your country unique?

2

I can’t think of one for the US but I just wanted to say Thanks, Estilicon, for a totally cool bit of trivia about Argentina.

3

Estilicon, do you have an on-line cite for this practice in Argentina that doesn’t involve the werewolf mythos? All I can find are connections to this:

4

Estilicon Thanks! That’s so cool.

Some Dutch trivia:

The Spanish Inquisition once condemned the entire Netherlands to death for heresy.

Het Wilhelmus,” the Netherlands national anthem, is the world’s oldest, dating back to 1590

We have more bikes than inhabitants

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It appears to be true. Those who can read Spanish can check out this article about César Agustín Alanis, who has the president for godfather.

7

I wasn’t questioning that the law exists, jovan, just asking for cites giving info as to why the law is in place. Other than something from the X-files.

8

Marsupials! I know everyone knows they exist but they do my head in! Kangaroos, wombats, koalas, bilbies, numbats, platypusses, wallabies… woo hoo! Did you know that although modern kangaroos are herbivores there were once carnivorous roos?

9

While I don’t really have anything bizarre or mundane to tell about the U.S. in general, I would like to share some pitiful tidbits that recently appeared in News of the Weird about the lovely “Sunshine State”:

Another Geographic Center of Weird
Tampa, Fla.: Driver Terry Lee Crouch, 29, accidentally ran over his 6-year-old son while, he told police, playing a game in which the boy tries to cling to the rear bumper while Crouch starts and stops the car attempting to dislodge him (November). And in nearby New Port Richey, Fla., a 400-pound man fell to his waist through the floor of his home at the Orangewood Lakes Mobile Home Community and said he had been trapped there for two days; a neighbor had called on him during his ordeal, but the man declined help (October). And in nearby Largo, Fla., according to police, a 41-year-old woman offered to pay three teenagers $20 to come beat up her son (but told them to be careful with the furniture) (January).

Info originally from the St Petersburg Times.

I literally AM surrounded by idiots. It seems Florida has this never-ending spring from which embarassment flows, from voting issues to teaching Al Quaida members how to fly…and now this crap. :rolleyes:

10

Actually, a platypus is a monotreme, same as the echidna.

http://www.nationalparks.nsw.gov.au/npws.nsf/Content/The+platypus

is a good place to go for more info.

Kangaroos need a lot of protein. Normally they get it from plant shoots. My mother had a pet kangaroo when she was growing up and being restricted to the yard it lacked that protein. Her family investigated to find out why it was doing poorly and were told to give it meat as a dietary supplement … and it thrived.

Knowing that, I’m guessing that if kangaroos get stuck without their fresh shoots to eat, they must turn to grubs and suchlike to get their protein. Doesn’t exactly make kangaroos a killer carnivore, but I thought it was an interesting trivia tid-bit. :slight_smile:

11

Israel (and, to be fair, Jordan as well) - home(s) of The Lowest Place On Earth (the shores of the Dead Sea, more than 400 meters below sea level and still receding…)

Dani

12

Well, sort of. :slight_smile:

Its lyrics indeed date back to around 1570, but it didn’t become the national anthem until 1932. IIRC, the music was written somewhere in the 18th century - before that it was a mere poem.

Some more Dutch trivia!

KLM is the oldest continuous operating airline in the world, having been founded in 1919.

The most common reason coffee shops in Amsterdam are fined is the illegal sale of alcohol. An alcohol permit costs money, both in fees and in training of staff, so a lot of the smaller coffee shops don’t have them. You’ll get an empty non-alcoholic beer bottle in front of you, and a glass filled with actual beer from a bottle, poured out behind the bar. So, you can be sitting in a place smoking a joint, and the cops bust the place to fine the owner for selling booze without a permit. :smiley:

Holland was the first nation in the world to allow gay marriages.

The city of Amsterdam, whilst old-looking, is actually fairly young, being about 800 years of age. The oldest city in the current Netherlands is Maastricht, founded by the Romans around 0 BC.

The Amsterdam Stock Exchange is the oldest in the world, dating back to the 16th century.

Tulips are NOT from Amsterdam, or from the Netherlands to begin with. They’re originally from Turkey. Like with so many things, all we did was buy cheap and sell dear. Now, they’re synonymous with the country like windmills and wooden shoes are.

Heineken is the second largest brewing conglomorate in the world, right after Anheuser Bush.

The Delta Works protect the Dutch province of Zeeland from being flooded during severe storms. It is undoubtedly one of the greatest masterpieces in modern engineering, worldwide.

The Dutch are the second most sexually active people in Europe, behind the French. Don’t be misled by our stoic Northern demeanor and looks. :smiley:

The Dutch are the tallest people in the world, on average, trumping even the Swedes and Danes. We also have one of the highest life expectations.

The Netherlands is twice the size of New Jersey, yet 16 million people call it home. Apart from a few freak states like Monaco, it is the second most densely populated country in the world, after Singapore.

And the best bit of trivia from a tourist’s perspective: the Dutch love to show of their language skills, and like nothing better than to be complimented on it. Seriously. :slight_smile:

13

twere a Belgian that invented plastic!

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There are more people in New York City than there are in the states of Alaska, Vermont, Wyoming, South Dakota, New Hampshire, Nevada, Idaho, Utah, Hawaii, Delaware, and New Mexico combined. (As of 11/02 the pop. was 8,008,278)

The largest landowner in NYC is the Catholic Church. The second largest landowner is Columbia University.

The only thing connecting New York City to the rest of the country is The Bronx.

15

Ah, Thanks, Coldfire

You forgot to mention we have the largest feet. :smiley:

Also: The Belgian women cry the most. [no connection, as far as I can see]

16

Well, if that’s the case, the Japanese anthem, Kimi ga yo might qualify for oldest. Its lyrics are found in the Kokin wakashu poem collection compiled in 905. It was put to music in 1869 and only officially adopted in 1999, although it had been the de-facto anthem since its creation.

MPSIMS about Japan: Pachinko
There are an estimated 30,000,000 pachinko players in Japan. The gross revenue of the pachinko industry accounts for 4% of Japan’s GNP.

17

Heh. Europeans. :slight_smile:

18

You have more bicycles than people?

I need a bike.

Mail me a good one. And be quick about it,

I’ll swap you a pocket knife for it. :smiley:

19

Here’s some mundane stuff about the State of New York:

New York has the largest public university in the country, consisting of some 64 campuses with more than 410,000 enrolled students.

The New York City Watershed Area includes 19 reservoirs and three lakes. It has a total storage capacity of 600 billion gallons, and is almost entirely controlled by gravity (instead of pumps.)

In the middle of the Hudson River you can find a genuine castle.

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Bosda Di’Chi of Tricor I can use a pocket knife. But then; I can use a bike as well. Mine has been stolen [again]

I think that the majority of our bikes are in our canals. See? They steal a bike, try to sell it and if that doesn’t work, they throw it in the canal. Have you ever noticed those cute little bus/boats struggling through the canals? Well, That’s why.

So; Come on over, have a swim and pick your bike. :slight_smile: