Nothing Rhymes with Orange. Other useless facts needed...

In My Humble Opinion
21

WHat rhymes with purple?

22

  1. The 1970 Texas Longhorns were the last all-white team to win the NCAA football championship.

  2. Grasshoppers are kosher (John the Baptist lived on them).

  3. “Alcatraz” takes its name from the Spanish word for “pelicans.”

23

Here’s a Dave Carter quote (from “The River, Where She Sleeps”:

It works better if you read it out loud. :slight_smile:

My obscure facts:
Catnip works on all members of the Felidae family, lions and tigers NOT excluded.

The northernmost, easternmost, and westernmost points in the US are all in Alaska.

Reno, NV is farther west than Los Angeles, CA.

24

nerple! ever had a purple nerple?

25

wtf? it quoted wrong!

26

I was told that it was Kurt Vonnegut who came up with the sort-of rhyme “orange”/“door hinge”. But he’s been the subject of a lot of not-true factoids.
Ripley’s Believe it or Not claimed that there’s no rhyme for “Silver”, either. Or “Oblige”.

27

slurple…of course…

28

I also heard that there’s no rhyme for Month.

There are like those snapple “real facts” (www.snapple.com has them all). Some of them are wrong though.

29

There was an old man who said “Bilver!”,
And “Dilver!” and “Gilver!” and “Nilver!”;
His daughter said "Dad!
“Have you suddenly gone mad?”:
He said, “No, but what does rhyme with ‘silver’?”

30

You have to wonder about a site that lists these facts in succession:

A fetus acquires fingerprints at the age of three months.
(Source: N/A) (Added: Thu Oct 31 2002)

A fetus develops fingerprints at eighteen weeks.
(Source: Verified) (Added: Thu Oct 31 2002)

31

The word “gullible” is not in the dictionary.

32

Felis domesticus has no clavicle, or it is vestigial (depending on the animal).

And next time I visit a zoo, I’m bringing Catnip. MUAHAH!

33

maple surple, of course.

Roses are red
Violets are purple
Sugar’s sweet
and so is maple surple

Roger Miller - Dang Me

34

It happens to be true. The rhyme appears in his story “Welcome to the Monkey House.”

Or, as Ogden Nash put it:
“There is no rhyme for silver
Unless liberties you pilfer.”

The first person to have a pie in the face on film was Ben Turpin. It was thrown by Mabel Normand.

On the same subject, in silent movies custard/cream pies were never thrown. They used blueberry, which showed up better. Further, the studios baked specially designed pies for throwing, all with a uniform size and weight.

The Sacramento Kings are the U.S. pro sports franchise that has played in the most home cities: Rochester, Cincinnati, Kansas City, Omaha, and Sacramento.

Isaac Asimov wrote a story predicting that no one would ever reach the top of Mt. Everest. It was published six months after Mr. Everest had been climbed.

President John Tyler has at least one grandson still alive.

35

The kangaroo and the emu were chosen for the Australian coat of arms because neither is able to take a step backwards in retreat.

36

I know this was in no way meant to vouch for the site, but it’s so fun rip into so-called “fact” sites. I spent a couple of minutes in the “Health & Body” section, and about 40% of the facts are either urban legends (“Humans use only about 10% of their brains”), misleading (“Human thighbones are as strong as concrete.” [It depends on the direction of the stress.]), of dubious research (“In the United States, five million teeth are knocked out annually.”), or just plain wrong (“Intelligent people have more zinc and copper in their hair.”).

It’s a fun site, though . . .

37

Don’t forget whore binge, fellas. Vonnegut never woulda thought of that one.

38

Here are a few trivia threads from a while back. You should find some interesting stuff here:

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=29576
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=20133

39

There’s a bunch here: What’s the most obscure thing you know?

40

Reality Chuck’s entries remind me …

- In black-and-white films, chocolate syrup was used as fake blood.

Astorian’s story about the 1970 Texas Longhorns football team reminds me …

**- The first all-black starting five to win the NCAA basketball title was the 1966 Texas Western squad (now Texas-El Paso). The team Texas Western beat in the finals – the University of Kentucky – did not have a black player on the roster and would not recruit one until three years later. NBA coaching legend Pat Riley was a member of this Kentucky team.

  • Former baseball star Dave Winfield was drafted in three professional sports out of college – by the San Diego Padres, Atlanta Hawks, and Minnesota Vikings.

  • The aforementioned Riley was an 11th-round draft pick of the Dallas Cowboys in 1967.**