Uncle John's Bathroom Reader Extraordinary Book of Facts: And Bizarre Information (12 page)

Indian Ocean

7 Days of the Week

Sun’s day, Moon’s day, Tiw’s day,

Woden’s day, Thor’s day,

Frig’s day, Saturn’s day

7 Virtues

Faith, Hope, Charity, Fortitude,

Prudence, Justice, Temperance

7 Sages of Greece

Solon of Athens, Pittacus of

Mytilene, Bias of Priene,

Cleobulus of Lindus, Periande of

Corinth, Chilon of Sparta,

Thales of Miletus

7 Japanese Gods of Happiness

Laughing Buddha, Watchman,

God of longevity, God of scholarship,

God of nutrition, God of

fishing, Goddess of music

7 Hills of Rome

Palatine, Capitoline, Quirinal,

Viminal, Esquiline, Caelian,

Aventine

7 Metals of Alchemy

Gold, Silver, Lead, Quicksilver,

Copper, Iron, Tin

7 Muslim Heavens

Pure silver, Pure gold, Pearl,

White gold, Silver, Ruby and

garnet, Divine Light

7 Sisters (Pleaides)

Alcyone, Asterope, Celaeno,

Electra, Maia, Merope, Taygete

7 Ancient Rivers

Nile, Tigris, Oxua, Euphrates,

Indus, Yaksart, Arax

7 Taxonomic Classifications

Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order,

Family, Genus, Species

CLINKING GLASSES AFTER A TOAST

Nobles and knights were sometimes assassinated by enemies who’d poisoned their wine. So when they got together socially, each poured a little of his own wine into everyone else’s goblet, as a precaution. That way, if one man poisoned another, he poisoned everyone—including himself. Over the years the tradition of exchanging wine has been simplified into clinking glasses as a gesture of friendship.

BUTTONS ON COAT SLEEVES

Researchers credit this to Napoléon Bonaparte. Apparently, while inspecting some troops, he spotted a soldier wiping his nose on his jacket sleeve. Disgusted, Napoléon ordered new jackets for his army—this time with buttons on the sleeves, to prevent a recurrence.

WEARING BLACK FOR MOURNING

Until King Charles VIII of France died in the late 15th century, Europeans in mourning wore white (for hope or renewal). But when Anne of Brittany, Charles’s widow, went into mourning, she donned black. The result: a funeral fashion that continues today.

BUSINESS CARDS

Until the early part of the 20th century, “calling cards” were used by the upper class exclusively for social purposes. Presenting a calling card when you met or visited someone indicated that you didn’t have to work for a living. But as the middle classes got into the act, the calling card became another means of making a business contact.

STRIPED BARBER POLES

Barbers were once a lot more versatile than they are today. They not only cut hair, but performed surgery as well. When the barbers finished, the towels used to soak up excess blood were hung outside to dry on a pole. As the wind dried them, they wrapped around the pole, making a design, so to speak, of red and white stripes.

APRIL FOOLS’ DAY

Until 1564 it was a tradition to begin the New Year with a weeklong celebration, ending with a big party. But the calendar was different then; the new year began on March 25—which meant the annual party was held on April 1. In 1564 a new calendar was instituted, making January 1 the New Year. People who forgot and still showed up to celebrate on April 1 were called April fools.

TIPPING

Some think it began in the 17th century, when restaurants had boxes labeled T.I.P.—To Insure Promptness—on the wall beside their entrances. Patrons who wanted their food in a hurry deposited a few coins in the box before they sat down.

AN APPLE FOR THE TEACHER

Now an outmoded custom, it stems from the days when public schoolteachers were paid with whatever the community could afford. Often they were given food or goods in lieu of cash.

THE TOOTH FAIRY

In Germany, where the idea apparently originated, the tooth was not placed under a pillow. Instead, it was put in a rat hole, because it was thought that the new tooth growing in would take on the “dental quality” of the animal who found it.

COVERING A YAWN

People once thought that their souls could escape during a yawn. They covered their mouths to prevent this and, since yawns can be contagious, to try to keep people around them from “catching” the yawn. The apology after a yawn originated as an expression of regret for having exposed people to mortal danger.

Christmas tree light set (eight bulbs): 88¢

Motor oil: 49¢ a gallon

Electric toaster: $1

Washing machine: $58

If you could tap the energy released by an average-size hurricane, it would be enough to satisfy all U.S. energy needs for six months.

In any given year, about 26,000 meteorites land on the earth’s surface, the vast majority dropping into the oceans. Only seven people in recorded history have been hit by one.

When glass breaks, the cracks travel faster than 3,000 mph.

Gold is so rare that all of the pure gold produced in the last 500 years would fit inside a 50-foot cube.

At least 100,000 separate chemical reactions occur in the human brain every second.

About 70 percent of the earth is covered with water, but only 1 percent of that water is drinkable.

Sound travels through steel 15 times faster than it travels through air.

To escape Earth’s gravitational pull, a spacecraft has to move faster than seven miles per second—a speed that would take you from New York to Philadelphia in under 20 seconds.

Rain contains vitamin B12.

According to a University of Michigan study, men are six times more likely to be struck by lightning than women are.

If you could capture a comet’s entire 10,000-mile vapor trail in a container, the condensed vapor would occupy less than one cubic inch of space.

Earth travels through space at 66,600 miles per hour—eight times faster than the speed of a bullet.

Japan has more than 13 million golfers, but only 1,200 golf courses.

Fewer people golf on Tuesday than on any other day of the week.

Eight percent of all money spent on sporting goods in the United States is used to buy golf equipment.

Before 1850, most golf balls were stuffed with feathers.

Golf was banned in England in 1457 because it was a distraction from archery.

It’s about 10 times easier to shoot a hole in one while golfing than it is to score a perfect 300 game while bowling.

Amount Tiger Woods’s caddie made in 2000: $1 million.

Golf probably comes from the Dutch word
kolf
, which means “club.”

Golf club Alan Shepard used on the moon: six iron.

The world’s first golf rule book was published in Scotland in 1754.

The first golf course with 18 holes was St. Andrews in Scotland, in 1764.

When it was introduced in 1848, the modern golf ball was called a “gutta-percha” ball.

A golf club remains in contact with the ball for half a thousandth of a second.

More people die playing golf than any other sport. Leading causes: heart attacks and strokes.

A 7.0 magnitude earthquake is 900 times more powerful than a 5.0 earthquake.

How much would you weigh at the exact center of the earth? Nothing.

Space dust increases the earth’s weight by as much as six tons a day.

Which goes up, stalactites or stalagmites? Try this: “When the mites go up, the tights come down.”

Geologically speaking, we live in the Cenozoic era, which began 65 million years ago.

Due to the rotation of the earth, an object can be thrown farther if it’s thrown west.

The earth is turning to desert at a rate of 40 square miles per day.

The earth spins 1,000 mph faster at the equator than at the poles.

If the earth had no space between its atoms, it would be about the size of a baseball.

Odds that a polished diamond weighs more than a carat: one in 1,000.

In a typical diamond mine, you have to dig 23 tons of ore to find a single one-carat diamond.

An ounce of gold can be beaten thin enough to cover an entire acre of ground.

The largest gold nugget ever found weighed 172 pounds, 13 ounces.

There’s enough gold in the ocean to give every human nine pounds.

Diamonds are up to 90 times harder than corundum, the next-hardest mineral.

The number one use of gold in the United States: class rings.

Only 20 percent of diamonds are considered high enough quality to be classified as gems.

Diamonds will not dissolve in acid.

The thinnest man-made thread is a gold filament.

It takes about a ton of ore to provide the gold for one wedding ring.

Diamonds have been worth more than pearls for only about a century.

About 75 percent of all the gold mined each year is made into jewelry.

The diamond is the only gem composed of a single element (carbon).

A cubic foot of gold weighs more than half a ton.

Pound for pound, radium is worth more than gold.

South Africa mines almost half of the world’s gold.

Ants have five noses. Each one smells a different odor.

Each year insects eat a third of the world’s food crop.

In a single day, a pair of termites can produce as many as 30,000 offspring.

Leaf-cutter ants can build anthills 16 feet deep and one acre square.

The horsefly can pierce a horse’s hide with its mouth.

The longest earthworm ever found was 22 feet long.

Fire beetles fly into forest fires to lay their eggs.

A common housefly beats its wings about 20,000 times per minute.

Only the female mosquitoes eat blood. Males eat sap.

A queen honeybee can lay as many as 1,500 eggs a day.

A bee has 5,000 nostrils. It can smell an apple tree two miles away.

It takes three minutes for a fresh mosquito bite to begin to itch.

Animal responsible for the most human deaths worldwide: the mosquito.

TYCOON

Meaning:
A wealthy and powerful business person

Origin:
“A trumped-up Japanese title,
taikun
was a word used to magnify the role of the shogun or military commander of the country, especially when he was addressing foreigners, the point being to suggest that he was more potent and important than the emperor himself. The word meant ‘emperor’ or ‘great prince,’ borrowed from the Chinese
t’ai kiuen
(‘great prince’).” (
The Secret Lives of Words
, by Paul West)

THIRD DEGREE

Meaning:
Intense, often brutal, questioning, especially by police

Origin:
“Dating to the 1890s in America, it has no connection with criminal law. The third degree is the highest degree in Freemasonry. Any Mason must undergo very difficult tests of proficiency before he qualifies for the third degree and it is probably from these ‘tests’ that the exhaustive questioning of criminals came to be called the third degree.” (
QPB Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins
, by Robert Hendrickson)