# 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:** 3
**Author:** ![if6was9](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e47c2d/32.png) [@if6was9](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/if6was9)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2003, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/useless-fact-athon/186358/41 "2003-07-05T23:54:19Z")
Jimi Hendrix was in the 101st Aiborne Dirtiest thing ever said on TV: “Gee Ward, you were mighty hard on the Beaver last night.” On a Top-40 hit: “Tighten up on my organ now!” A baseball has 131 stitches SNAFU means Situation Normal, All Fucked Up Kent Brockman’s real name is Kenny Brocklestein ---
**Author:** ![Flamsterette\_X](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/41988e/32.png) [@Flamsterette\_X](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flamsterette_X)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2003, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/useless-fact-athon/186358/42 "2003-07-06T01:00:06Z")
There is a town in Texas called Ding Dong. In 1990, the population was only twenty-two people. ---
**Author:** ![moejuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/57b2e6/32.png) [@moejuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moejuck)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2003, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/useless-fact-athon/186358/43 "2003-07-06T01:00:28Z")
There are no rhymes in the English Language for Month, Purple, Orange, or Silver. Barbie’s last name is Roberts. It took 214 crates to ship the Statue of Liberty to the U.S. The three notes in the famous N.B.C. triad are G, E, and C used because NBC was originally owned by the General Electric Corporation. R2D2 was named for the abbreviation of Reel Two, Day Two. HAL, from 2001: A Space Odyssey, was a spoof on IBM, each letter in HAL being one previous to the letters in IBM. It takes an average of 1 hour to boil an ostrich egg. There are an average of 1,250 “O’s” in a can of Spaghettios. The longest sausage ever made was 68 feet in length. The largest male waist ever measured was 118 inches around. (Make sure you read as waist, not waste!) And just for fun, You can’t lick the back of your head. ---
**Author:** ![Baldwin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baldwin/32/7264_2.png) [@Baldwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baldwin)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2003, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/useless-fact-athon/186358/44 "2003-07-06T02:35:06Z")
> [@](#): > > It is impossible to keep your eyes open when you sneeze. Not true. > [@](#): > > By the time you’re 60, you’ll have spent 5 years waiting in lines. Bullshit. That’s an average of two hours a day, every day of those 60 years. > [@](#): > > HAL, from 2001: A Space Odyssey, was a spoof on IBM, each letter in HAL being one previous to the letters in IBM. Arthur Clarke denies this, and I tend to believe him. HAL, as I recall, stands for either “Heuristically designed Algorithm” or simply “Heuristic Algorithm”. ---
**Author:** ![Duderdude2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/cdc98d/32.png) [@Duderdude2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duderdude2)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2003, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/useless-fact-athon/186358/45 "2003-07-06T02:52:28Z")
It’s the latter Baldwin. ---
**Author:** ![saramamalana](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/74df32/32.png) [@saramamalana](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saramamalana)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2003, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/useless-fact-athon/186358/46 "2003-07-06T03:00:37Z")
Cat pee glows under blacklight. Cats have over 100 vocal sounds. _(thanks, Snapple facts!)_ Flamingoes are pink from all the shrimp they eat. _(thanks again!)_ A golf ball has 336 dimples on it (there’s a specific word for that dimple, isn’t there?) Someone mentioned earlier that “strengths” is the longest one-syllable word. So is “screeched.” Oh, and correct me if I’m wrong, but I remember hearing once that the Eiffel Tower grows and shrinks roughly 6 inches each year due to the expansion/contraction of the metal in heat and cold. ---
**Author:** ![jesleigh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/58f4c7/32.png) [@jesleigh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jesleigh)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2003, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/useless-fact-athon/186358/47 "2003-07-06T03:31:37Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by bouv \* > \*\*What about monkies and other primates? I’m could of sworn those little buggers just love sex as much as we do (Hell, maybe even more.) \*\* Here is the [source](http://www.snopes.com/critters/wild/pleasure.htm) where I got that tid bit ---
**Author:** ![Reeder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Reeder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reeder)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2003, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/useless-fact-athon/186358/48 "2003-07-06T03:50:08Z")
Spam…the email kind…got it’s name from “The Spam Song” by Monty Python. ---
**Author:** ![IUHomer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/90db22/32.png) [@IUHomer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IUHomer)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2003, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/useless-fact-athon/186358/49 "2003-07-06T04:54:39Z")
Babies are not really born with “half a brain”. All the parts are there, its just over time you develop more interneurons between different parts. This is hardly the same as “half a brain” ``` Willard Scott was the first Ronald McDonald (in a sense). Ray Kroc and Walt Disney served in the same army troop in WWI. (Hey, I'm reading Fast Food Nation) Ken Norton, Jr. is the only NFL player to play on three straight SB champions. (49ers and Cowboys). Tiger Woods is the perfect name for one of the greatest golfers in history. OK, thats opinion, but come on, could he have a better sounding and more descriptive name? ``` ---
**Author:** ![hebesphenomegacorona](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b9e5f3/32.png) [@hebesphenomegacorona](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hebesphenomegacorona)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2003, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/useless-fact-athon/186358/50 "2003-07-06T05:41:54Z")
The Straight dope kicks ass. ---
**Author:** ![furt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/439d5e/32.png) [@furt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furt)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2003, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/useless-fact-athon/186358/51 "2003-07-06T05:46:47Z")
The plastic thing at the end of a shoelace is an aglet. The prongs on a fork are tines. ---
**Author:** ![Flamsterette\_X](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/41988e/32.png) [@Flamsterette\_X](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flamsterette_X)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2003, 7:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/useless-fact-athon/186358/52 "2003-07-06T07:33:52Z")
The average person spends two weeks of their life kissing. ---
**Author:** ![fizzygoodmakefeelnice](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8491ac/32.png) [@fizzygoodmakefeelnice](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fizzygoodmakefeelnice)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2003, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/useless-fact-athon/186358/53 "2003-07-06T15:12:32Z")
You can’t lick the Steaight Dope ---
**Author:** ![fizzygoodmakefeelnice](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8491ac/32.png) [@fizzygoodmakefeelnice](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fizzygoodmakefeelnice)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2003, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/useless-fact-athon/186358/54 "2003-07-06T15:14:04Z")
oops. You can’t like the _Straight_ Dope either ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2003, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/useless-fact-athon/186358/55 "2003-07-06T15:21:01Z")
The “G” in Maynard G. Krebs stands for “Walter”. Hey, don’t ask me; the guy was a beatnik. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2003, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/useless-fact-athon/186358/56 "2003-07-06T15:43:31Z")
Shinobu Sekine won the 1972 All Japan judo tournament (a no-weight divisions tournament) at a bodyweight of 172 pounds. He also won a bronze medal in the 1971 Open division (also no weight divisions) in the World Championships, and the gold medal in the 1972 Olympics (middleweight). Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Splanky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b2d939/32.png) [@Splanky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Splanky)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2003, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/useless-fact-athon/186358/57 "2003-07-06T15:46:33Z")
> [@](#): > > The three notes in the famous N.B.C. triad are G, E, and C used because NBC was originally owned by the General Electric Corporation Cool, that would be an inverted C Major Triad. On November 29, 2000, Pope John Paul II was named an Honorary Harlem Globetrotter ---
**Author:** ![Fionn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Fionn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fionn)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2003, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/useless-fact-athon/186358/58 "2003-07-06T16:55:19Z")
The word “algebra” comes from an Arabic word meaning “the reunion of broken parts.” According to my Webster’s Concise Encyclopedia, the national tongue of Singapore is Malay, and Chinese, Tamil and English are official languages. I mention this only because some friends and I wondered about it over lunch yesterday and I was looking it up anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Bruce\_Daddy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/85f322/32.png) [@Bruce\_Daddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bruce_Daddy)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2003, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/useless-fact-athon/186358/59 "2003-07-06T17:50:54Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by SnoopyFan \* > \*\*The most common day to be born is October 5th. > The least common is May 22nd. \*\* You sure it’s not Feb 29th? ---
**Author:** ![irish\_bill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ac91a4/32.png) [@irish\_bill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/irish_bill)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2003, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/useless-fact-athon/186358/60 "2003-07-06T18:26:10Z")
The digits of any number that is multiplied by nine, either add up to nine or consist of nines, or consist of nines and zeroes. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/useless-fact-athon/186358.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/useless-fact-athon/186358.md?page=4)