# Your SINGLE favorite piece of information **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 4, 2005, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-single-favorite-piece-of-information/306907 "2005-06-04T18:04:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2005, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-single-favorite-piece-of-information/306907/41 "2005-06-05T16:32:47Z")
According to the OED, “Hello” derives for “hallo,” which was used as a greeting as early as 1840, long before the telephone. OED’s first cite for “hello” is from 1883, and not given as Edison. Edison’s use was probably just a nonce coinage or even a misspelling (or misreading) of "hallo); a single private letter is hardly likely to cause the widespread adoption of a usage. I have many favorites. For instance: There are two “Empire State Buildings” in New York City: 350 Fifth Avenue and 640 Broadway (at Bleeker St.). Two members of the baseball Hall of Fame wore #3 for the New York Yankees (Babe Ruth, of course, but before the number was retired, it was assigned to Joe Medwick when he tried out for the Yankees during spring training of 1947). The team colors of the NY Knicks and NY Mets can be traced back to the colors of the flag of the Dutch East India Company when it founded New Amsterdam. The Great Pyramid of Gaza was the tallest structure in the world up until the completion of the Cologne Cathedral in 1880. Its reign only lasted until the completion of the Washington Monument in 1884, and that was surpassed by the Eiffel Tower in 1889. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2005, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-single-favorite-piece-of-information/306907/42 "2005-06-05T16:56:16Z")
What? Nobody’s mentioned the \*\*Marianas Trench \*\*yet? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![CBCD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9fc348/32.png) [@CBCD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CBCD)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2005, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-single-favorite-piece-of-information/306907/43 "2005-06-05T16:58:24Z")
Man has landed on the moon six times and spent almost 300 hours on the moons surface (not all EVA). Yet man has visited the deepest part of the worlds oceans, Challenger Deep in the Mariana’s Trench, just once. In 1960. For 20 minutes.[Man has visited the deepest part of the worlds oceans, Challenger Deep in the Mariana’s Trench, just once. In 1960. For 20 minutes.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Trieste) She runs out of the room, guffawing and chortling, barely able to breathe, as she is laughing so hard at her little joke… ---
**Author:** ![CBCD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9fc348/32.png) [@CBCD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CBCD)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2005, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-single-favorite-piece-of-information/306907/44 "2005-06-05T16:59:32Z")
> [@Shoeless](#): > > What? Nobody’s mentioned the \*\*Marianas Trench \*\*yet? 😃 Shoeless meets her outside the door, also helpless with laughter. ---
**Author:** ![Typically\_Sunday](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7ba0ec/32.png) [@Typically\_Sunday](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typically_Sunday)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2005, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-single-favorite-piece-of-information/306907/45 "2005-06-05T17:11:36Z")
Damn, that’s what I came in here to mention! ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Bean](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_bean/32/1760_2.png) [@Green\_Bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Bean)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2005, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-single-favorite-piece-of-information/306907/46 "2005-06-05T17:42:43Z")
Scooby Doo is a Great Dane. ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2005, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-single-favorite-piece-of-information/306907/47 "2005-06-05T18:08:08Z")
> [@Thudlow Boink](#): > > Did you know that a duck’s quack doesn’t… Sorry, sorry! > > I like that one! Your “when famous people died” factoid reminded me of a couple that I’d at least consider if I had to narrow it down to my single favorite: that John Adams and Thomas Jefferson both died on the same day: July 4, the 50-year anniversary of Independence Day; and that Samuel Clemens’s (aka Mark Twain) birth corresponded with one arrival of Halley’s Comet and his death with the next. Darn it, I was going to use the John Adams-Thomas Jefferson one. You can make it really dramatic, too; all about how they were friends and comrades during the Revolution; fell out and became bitter political enemies; were reconciled and became friends again in the last years of their life; and finally both men died on the very same day, the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence (which of course both men had signed). Oh, well. Here’s another one I like. Just to be pedantic, I like to put it in the form of a multiple choice question: If the history of the planet Earth from its formation until the present day is represented as one year, then the extinction of the dinosaurs took place closest to which popular U.S. holiday? a.) Valentine’s Day (February 14) b.) Independence Day (July 4) c.) Halloween (October 31) d.) Christmas (December 25) D. The extinction of the dinosaurs actually took place on about December 26. And life didn’t emerge onto the dry land until sometime in November. Incidentally, I just found a nifty web site for playing with such metaphors, [Geological Time Scale Metaphors.](http://www.athro.com/geo/hgfr1.html) ---
**Author:** ![Tracy\_Lord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@Tracy\_Lord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tracy_Lord)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2005, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-single-favorite-piece-of-information/306907/48 "2005-06-05T19:03:53Z")
> [@Miss Purl McKnittington](#): > > With a curriculum vitae like that, could ninja-hood be far behind? Coming soon to a theatre near you: Kenneth Branagh’s Life of Marlowe. The action packed adventures of the ninja-poet who crossed Lady Fate one too many times. _gasp_ Sure thing! Just wait until the dramatic climax, when in crossing the Channel with vital information for Her Majesty (well, Her Majesty’s spymaster/sidekick), his small boat is attacked by none other than… ANGRY PIRATES! I like the Jefferson/Adams trivia, too, although I couldn’t say exactly why – it just makes me feel sort of warm and happy. ---
**Author:** ![Brynda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e79b87/32.png) [@Brynda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brynda)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2005, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-single-favorite-piece-of-information/306907/49 "2005-06-05T19:34:28Z")
The Adams/Jefferson thing is the best, but since someone already posted it, I will give my second favorite piece o’ info: (in spoiler box for those who like to play along) Who is the only president to be born on July 4th? Calvin Coolidge I got this as a question in Trival Pursuit, guessed, and got it right. I have loved it ever since. ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2005, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-single-favorite-piece-of-information/306907/50 "2005-06-05T19:47:40Z")
> [@Case Sensitive](#): > > Urchin, an archaic name for hedgehogs, is derived from the Latin _ursinus_, which means “little bear”: from hedgehogs, which look like little bears, we get sea-urchins and spiky-haired street urchins. How cool is that? Interesting, but the dictionaries don’t support this. [http://www.merriam-webster.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=urchin](http://www.merriam-webster.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=urchin) > [@](#): > > Etymology: Middle English, from Middle French herichon, heriçon, from (assumed) Old French eriz, from Latin ericius, from eris; akin to Greek chEr hedgehog ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_One](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/45deac/32.png) [@Evil\_One](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_One)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2005, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-single-favorite-piece-of-information/306907/51 "2005-06-05T19:54:46Z")
The Pulmonary Vein is the only vein in the human body that carries oxygenated blood. It runs from the lungs back to the heart. I wouldn’t call this a favorite piece of information, but it’s one that hasn’t been mentioned yet. ---
**Author:** ![Loopus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loopus/32/15343_2.png) [@Loopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loopus)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2005, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-single-favorite-piece-of-information/306907/52 "2005-06-05T20:22:09Z")
> [@Thudlow Boink](#): > > and that Samuel Clemens’s (aka Mark Twain) birth corresponded with one arrival of Halley’s Comet and his death with the next. Not only that, but Twain correctly predicted that he would die when Halley’s Comet returned. He didn’t cheat by committing suicide either; he died of natural causes with a doctor present. According to one book I have, Twain’s doctor reported that his last words were, “If we meet…” ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2005, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-single-favorite-piece-of-information/306907/53 "2005-06-05T21:05:03Z")
Some of my favs: 1. There’s more hydrogen in gasoline than in liquid hydrogen. 2. A telegraph cable was installed between Ireland and Newfoundland in 1866. 3. The United States doesn’t have a national government. It has a federal government. 4. After taking various distance measurements and measuring the length of a stick’s shadow, an Egyptian named Eratosthenes used geometry to calculate the diameter and tilt of the earth. In 200 B.C. ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2005, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-single-favorite-piece-of-information/306907/54 "2005-06-05T22:07:10Z")
> [@](#): > > basset hounds are prone to schizophrenia. How can they tell? In other news of mundania: The elephant is the only mammal which has four knees. [Hippo’s are one of the most dangerous animals on the african continent.](http://www.on-the-matrix.com/africa/hippo.asp) View their savageness here. The largest population of polar bears in the world are in Churchill, Canada. ---
**Author:** ![Nawth\_Chucka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c57346/32.png) [@Nawth\_Chucka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nawth_Chucka)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2005, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-single-favorite-piece-of-information/306907/55 "2005-06-05T22:17:44Z")
When you stand in downtown Detroit, you are actually North of Canada’s closest point. ---
**Author:** ![Neurotik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/91b2a8/32.png) [@Neurotik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neurotik)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2005, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-single-favorite-piece-of-information/306907/56 "2005-06-05T22:37:23Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > The team colors of the NY Knicks and NY Mets can be traced back to the colors of the flag of the Dutch East India Company when it founded New Amsterdam. Nope. The Mets colors of blue and orange come from the Dodgers (blue) and Giants (orange). They combined them to symbolize the return of National League baseball to the city. ---
**Author:** ![Leviosaurus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/439d5e/32.png) [@Leviosaurus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leviosaurus)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2005, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-single-favorite-piece-of-information/306907/57 "2005-06-05T22:47:59Z")
Another interesting fact from Michigan: possibly the largest living organism is a fungi spread across 38 acres of forest near Crystal Falls, MI. Called the “[Humongous Fungus](http://www.crystalfalls.org/humongou.htm)”, the organism is from a strain called Armillaria bulbosa. It’s estimated to be between 1,500 and 10,000 years old and weight over 100 tons. Full Disclosure: Since its discovery, there have been competing claims of similar organisms which are much larger (one in Washington State is supposed to be spread over 1500 acres,) but there’s some [question about the validity of these claims](http://fungus.org.uk/nwfg/mycapr97.htm). ---
**Author:** ![Nawth\_Chucka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c57346/32.png) [@Nawth\_Chucka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nawth_Chucka)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2005, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-single-favorite-piece-of-information/306907/58 "2005-06-05T23:02:33Z")
That’d look great on our license plates - ‘There’s A Fungus Among Us!’ ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2005, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-single-favorite-piece-of-information/306907/59 "2005-06-06T00:00:29Z")
> [@ZipperJJ](#): > > Neither kangaroos nor emus can walk backwards. That’s why they were chosen for the Australian coat of arms - Australia can only advance. I think this “fact” may be a bit suspect. I’m not sure, but I’d guess that the kangaroo and emu were chosen for the coat of arms simply because they were uniquely Australian animals. I suspect that the “can’t walk backwards” interpretation was a subsequent development. The interpretation certainly doesn’t get a mention at the [Commonwealth government site](http://www.dfat.gov.au/facts/coat_of_arms.html) discussing the coat of arms. ---
**Author:** ![Scissorjack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2005, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-single-favorite-piece-of-information/306907/60 "2005-06-06T00:30:11Z")
> [@LucyInDisguise](#): > > After a few years of trying to disprove this, I’ve given up… : > > There is no word in the English language that rhymes with Orange. 🆒 Consider it disproven: Blorenge is a hill in Wales. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-single-favorite-piece-of-information/306907.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-single-favorite-piece-of-information/306907.md?page=4)