# useless fact-athon!! **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 5, 2003, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/useless-fact-athon/186358 "2003-07-05T06:51:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Nanu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/dec6dc/32.png) [@Nanu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nanu)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2003, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/useless-fact-athon/186358/1 "2003-07-05T06:51:17Z")
Over the years, I have discovered that useless facts are very good for starting conversations in social events, and thus I have filled my head with endless amounts of utterly useless facts in order to be prepared and never encounter an uncomfortable silence in said events. I have looked far and wide for useless facts all over the world in search of the perfect one. The perfection of a useless fact is measured in it’s ability to contain no possible knowledge, or any possible use what so ever, yet for some unknown reason it is still very interesting. The doping community I figure is a perfect place to learn more useless facts in my never ending quest to come up with the perfect one, so I have created this post to hear everyone’s favorite useless fact, starting with my own: The longest word you can type on a typewriter using only one row of keys is “typewriter” and also: The last year an official execution was carried out in France using the Guillotine was 1974 feel free to add your own favorites ---
**Author:** ![Syntropy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/65b543/32.png) [@Syntropy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Syntropy)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2003, 7:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/useless-fact-athon/186358/2 "2003-07-05T07:39:16Z")
a flea can jump 260 times its body length. rubber bands last longer if they are refrigerated the male preying mantis is unable to inseminate the female until it is decapitated. Talk about a once in a lifetime sexual experience. Giraffes, while their tongues may be 18" long and prehensile (yes, my good friend Giraffe, I do pay attention), have no vocal cords. And; most bizarrely: Texas’ Department of Criminal Justice posts last meals of death row inmates on its website. ---
**Author:** ![biqu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7feea3/32.png) [@biqu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/biqu)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2003, 8:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/useless-fact-athon/186358/3 "2003-07-05T08:14:37Z")
> [@](#): > > _Originally posted by Nanu_ > The longest word you can type on a typewriter using only one row of keys is “typewriter”. Other possibilities for the QWERTY keyboard, each ten letters long, and confined to the top row, are: perpetuity prerequire proprietor repertoire repetitory On the Dvorak keyboard, I can beat ten letters without leaving the home row. For example: destinations (12 letters). ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2003, 11:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/useless-fact-athon/186358/4 "2003-07-05T11:02:21Z")
This sentence is false. This sentence no verb. The Intel 8086’s NOP instruction was 0x90. ---
**Author:** ![Wolfian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/7ea924/32.png) [@Wolfian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wolfian)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2003, 11:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/useless-fact-athon/186358/5 "2003-07-05T11:27:14Z")
Catherine the Great was not a Russian and her name wasn’t origanally Catherine. She was a member of German royalty named Sofia (I think). The melody of the alma mater of Syracuse University is also the melody of the alma maters of Cornell, Shippenburg, the Citadel, Michigan State, and Clemson to name a few. The Cairn terrier comes in every color except for white. A white Cairn is a West Highland Terrier. ---
**Author:** ![green\_bladder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/73ab20/32.png) [@green\_bladder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/green_bladder)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2003, 11:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/useless-fact-athon/186358/6 "2003-07-05T11:41:06Z")
Coconuts kill more people each year than sharks do. ---
**Author:** ![Vastard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Vastard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vastard)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2003, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/useless-fact-athon/186358/7 "2003-07-05T12:13:13Z")
Armadillos give birth to quadruplets. The first time all of the Seven Sisters colleges had female presidents was 1978. ---
**Author:** ![Pebbles131](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/eada6e/32.png) [@Pebbles131](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pebbles131)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2003, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/useless-fact-athon/186358/8 "2003-07-05T12:58:19Z")
You cant lick your elbow ---
**Author:** ![fizzygoodmakefeelnice](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8491ac/32.png) [@fizzygoodmakefeelnice](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fizzygoodmakefeelnice)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2003, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/useless-fact-athon/186358/9 "2003-07-05T13:40:34Z")
You can’t lick your eye ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2003, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/useless-fact-athon/186358/10 "2003-07-05T14:02:00Z")
A Perfect number is a number whose sum of proper divisors equals itself. The first perfect number is 6 (1, 2, 3) The 4th perfect number 8128 ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2003, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/useless-fact-athon/186358/11 "2003-07-05T14:05:16Z")
There are 119 ridges around the edge of a U.S. quarter. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2003, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/useless-fact-athon/186358/12 "2003-07-05T14:26:30Z")
The longest word you can type only using one hand is “stewardesses.” A close second is the first show composed of ABBA tunes ABBACADABRA. Which is also a useless fact-athon in itself. ---
**Author:** ![Fretful\_Porpentine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fretful_porpentine/32/2873_2.png) [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2003, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/useless-fact-athon/186358/13 "2003-07-05T14:57:59Z")
Odd things you learn in grad school: One of the bestsellers in Shakespeare’s day was a Puritan treatise entitled “The Plain Man’s Pathway to Heaven” – by Arthur Dent. Douglas Adams later claimed never to have heard of the man. Sir Walter Raleigh had a cousin named Butshead Gorges. Spain once had a king called Henry the Impotent. A sixteenth-century poet named Barnabe Barnes wrote a rather bizarre sonnet sequence in which the speaker fantasizes about raping his lady-love as she rides backward on a goat. In real life, Barnes was accused of trying to murder a man with a poisoned lemon. A man known as Roland Le Fartere received a land grant from England’s Edward III for giving “a leap, a whistle, and a fart” before the king. ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2003, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/useless-fact-athon/186358/14 "2003-07-05T15:03:46Z")
It is impossible to keep your eyes open when you sneeze. Babies are born with only half a brain. Their neural pathways don’t become connected unti a few months after birth. ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2003, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/useless-fact-athon/186358/15 "2003-07-05T15:04:48Z")
Oh, one more…the opposite sides of a die always add up to seven. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2003, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/useless-fact-athon/186358/16 "2003-07-05T15:25:45Z")
The longest single-syllable English language word is _strengths._ Rats can’t vomit. There are many exceptions to the “i before e except after c” rule. The only thing that all _living_ human beings share is birth. Every living person’s ancestry goes “all the way back.” ---
**Author:** ![green\_bladder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/73ab20/32.png) [@green\_bladder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/green_bladder)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2003, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/useless-fact-athon/186358/17 "2003-07-05T15:55:20Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by fizzygoodmakefeelnice \* > \*\*You can’t lick your eye \*\* Unless you’re a giraffe, of course. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Tiger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6de8d8/32.png) [@Mama\_Tiger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Tiger)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2003, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/useless-fact-athon/186358/18 "2003-07-05T16:00:09Z")
The only word in the English language with the combination of letters U-F-A is manufacture. ---
**Author:** ![jesleigh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/58f4c7/32.png) [@jesleigh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jesleigh)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2003, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/useless-fact-athon/186358/19 "2003-07-05T16:02:20Z")
Dolphins are the only other animals that have sex for pleasure It took three blows to chop off Mary Queen of Scots’ head Anne Boylen (I think), one of King Henry’s wives, had three nipples Native Americans where considered savages by colonists becuase they bathe religiously (so I’ve been told, never seen it written though) I’m full of 'em, I had a very interesting Western Civ class ---
**Author:** ![Second\_Guest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/87869e/32.png) [@Second\_Guest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Second_Guest)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2003, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/useless-fact-athon/186358/20 "2003-07-05T16:07:48Z")
While scientists at the Geodetic Survey have stopped calculating the centers of land masses due to the imprecise nature of such an undertaking, the geographical center of the lower 48 states (not taking into account the curvature of the Earth) is believed to be in the middle of a hog farm just outside of Lebanon, Kansas. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/useless-fact-athon/186358.md?page=2)