I’m properly chastised.
However, “Cecil’s admirers,” numerous though they may be, are still an elite, good looking, brilliant, clever, witty, and intelligent-beyond-compare itsy bitsy minority of the English speakers of the world’s population.
Therefore by any definition that makes a bit of sense, the definition of “merkin” is obscure.
Besides, the question was what’s the most obscure thing I know, and “merkin” is in the running by that standard.
A “rant” is, among other things, a war tune played on the Great Highland Bagpipes. Rants have wonderful lyrics like:
Oh, come you dogs
And spawn of dogs,
Oh, come ye here
On flesh to feed.
The piper squalled away on stuff like this until the moment of the onset then handed the pipes to a boy who came along for that purpose, drew his broadsword and joined in the charge. The Bard, on the other hand, was expected to stay out of the fight and to carefully observe so that he could compose suitable poetry praising the valor and strength and general ferocity of the chieftain and his clansmen.
Of course, obscure is always withing frame of reference to your normal circle of friends, co-workers and well-wishers.
I know the origin of the term Hermetically Sealed
I know how to play Mah Jong by Hong Kong and Japanese rules (and not the bastardized tile matching game)
I know 90% of the lyrics to the entire catolog of the 80’s dance band Shriekback
I know Danny Elfman’s home phone number
I know the name of the oldest Hindu temple in Singapore
I know the correct medical term for the surgical removal of both overies, fallopian tubes and the uterus
I know all the words to every Oingo Boingo song (including rare unreleased sogs)
i’m sure i know more but that’s all for now.
I know why Wally’s Harley was fouling plugs.
I know why you must use only Motorola IC chips to repair a Xonics.
I know the location of an abandoned talc mine.
I know where the most spectacular chile rellenos in the the 48 states can be found.
I know where the best Mexican restaraunt in the United States is located. (This and the chile rellenos place are two different places)
I know what cadmium is used for in a hospital.
I know what the most valuable thing in an average dentist office is.
I’m shocked to see three references to ragtime music in this thread. Prompting me to say that I know:
Scott Joplin’s St. Louis address (one of them) was 2658 Morgan Street (now Delmar Blvd).
And I can play the Magnetic Rag from memory (and a dozen others) - it’s written in 4/4 time, unlike the vast majority of Joplin’s other stuff, in 2/4.
Perhaps I’m missing something here, but the “Belle of Louisville” sails on the Ohio River, not the Mississippi.
no! no! aggh!!! i really did mean to write 0!!! i did know! ya gotta believe me!
but, yes, the 99.96 was just me getting facts wrong. nuts. do i get to choose where i get deported to? how about a country with no sport?
well, i’ve been shamed properly.
how about this?
i know that you can form a legitimate sentence by repeating the world ‘buffalo’ five times.
Buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.
(i have read that you can put as many buffaloes as you want in, but i doubt it. i think after five it would have to become ‘Buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffaloing buffalo…[etc]’
It depends what you mean. They both died on the same date - April 23, 1616. But Spain had changed to the Gregorian calendar and England was still using the Julian, so Cervantes died 10 days before Shakespeare.
The fifth power of any real number has the same last digit as the original.
Actor Jack Webb (1920-1982) “washed out” of Army Air Force pilot training in November of 1943 at Tulare, CA.
One of Michael Collins’ (1890-1922) girlfriends, Pre-Kitty Kiernan, was one Madeline “Dilly” Dicker. She was fond of wearing her muskrat coat and played piano for silent films.
Collins himself was fond of the book “Mill on the Floss.” He identified with Tom. He also bit ears when he won at wrestling.
I know where the word “Tomatoes” first appears in Ulysses.
Padraig Pearse also opened a girl’s school in Dublin called St. Ita’s- the boy’s school, St. Enda’s, was longer lived.
Cyn 
Actually, it’s Worcestershire sauce. No ‘h’.
2 things come to mind:
1 - the meaning of life
2 - whats in the center of the universe
Sounds like good things to know but when you tell people they don’t believe you - so it’s useless
OK how’s this: Hundreds of times a day people are born who have no discernable gender.
They are not hermaphrodites they just, have no specific sex organs at all. In fact some of them have both XX AND XY chromosonal patterns in their DNA. THis is why the international olympic committee says that it has no sure way of telling if an athlete is male or female. “Aaaah but these are merly freaks!” I hear you cry. Well I am not going to raise that point but I will point out that this phenomenon happens often enough that “gender assignment surgery” (the controversial process of supposedly ‘correcting’ this ‘disorder’) is performed about a dozen times a DAY in the USA alone! and so far not ONE of them has been happy with the result of the surgery, but they still keep doing it.
How do you like them apples?
Ellen Cherry, since you’re a Kentuckian (I myself hail from Mt. Sterling) you might know that the last undefeated boys basketball state champion in Kentucky was Brewers High School, in 1948. Millersburg Military Institute (now Millersburg Military Academy) has the longest state championship draught. They won the state championship in 1927 and have yet to win another. To my knowledge, they haven’t even been to the state tournament since then. Two schools, Edmonson County (1976) and Logan County (1984) won state titles in their only appearance.
What you might not know is that the first American performance of “Waiting for Godot” took place at Georgetown College in Georgetown, Kentucky in the fall of 1955. It is commonly believed that the first performance took place in Miami in January 1956, but this simply isn’t true. Orlin Corey, the head of the drama department at the time, saw the play in Europe and staged a performance by the Maskrafters, the Georgetown drama troupe.
I know what “welt cord”, “tack strip” and “paper covered wire” are, how they are made and how they are used. My company made them for 25 years.
If that doesn’t count, I know the words to Short Fat Fanny. 
Curses! My bit of obscure knowledge has been trumped by an ever more obscure bit of knowledge.
Moses H. Gulesian saved the U.S.S. Constitution from being used for target practice. His wife, Grace Warner Gulesian, was the first female composer to perform at the White House.
And, chalk me up for another Jabberwocky recitation. Oh, and Goodnight Moon too.
I humbly apologise :o .
what if i rephrase the remark: It is impossible for me to lick my elbow!
And auRa , I think you’re just showing off 
Actinium is the second most rare naturally ocurring element.
I do not know the most rare.
Miguel Indurain Larraya’s resting heart rate at his prime was 28 bpm.
Lance Armstrong’s is 32bpm.
(instead of saying “I know xyz” why can’t you inform us if it’s short enough?")