Read Uncle John’s Did You Know? Online
Authors: Bathroom Readers’ Institute
Uncle John’s Did You Know? (29 page)
• The old Spanish peso was sometimes cut into bits to make change. That’s where the terms “pieces of eight” and “two bits” come from.
• The largest bank in the United States, the Bank of America, was originally called the Bank of Italy.
• Coin collectors are called
numismatists
. But they don’t just collect coins—they collect medals, paper money, and tokens, too.
• When the French first settled Quebec in 1685, they sent troops to keep law and order, but forgot to send money to pay them. Instead, they paid the troops with playing cards. Even when real money finally arrived from France, the troops liked the card money so much that they continued to use it for another 30 years.
• The life expectancy of paper money is only about 18 months. Coins can stay in circulation for 30 years.
• The difference between the face value of a coin and the value of the metal in it is called
seigniorage
.
• Two nicknames for silver dollars: the Ferris wheel and the cartwheel.
• One billion dollars in $1 bills weighs a little more than 2,048 pounds. A billion dollars in $100 bills weighs just 20.4 pounds.
• A process known as “pasteurization” is used to kill all the
pathogens
(disease-causing bacteria) in milk. The milk is heated to at least 161°F for about 15 seconds and then rapidly cooled.
• Some harmless bacteria survive the pasteurization process, which is why you still need to refrigerate milk.
• When Louis Pasteur, the man who developed the pasteurization process, discovered those invisible germs, he became obsessed with cleanliness. He washed and rewashed his hands all day—and when he was done he washed the soap!
• Grade A milk—even if it’s pasteurized—can have almost five million germs per 8-ounce glass.
• Ever been pouring milk when a big goober of cream plopped on top of your cereal? Buy
homogenized
milk the next time. It’s been sprayed through a small hole at high pressure, a process that chops the butterfat globules so tiny they can’t clump together anymore.
• The first “Got Milk?” TV ad was “Aaron Burr”—or “Awooon Buuuh,” as pronounced by the peanut-butter-eating history buff who was trying to answer a radio quiz question. In the 10+ years since then, the California Milk Processor Board has used the “Got Milk?” gimmick in over 60 commercials.
• In the 1800s, Iroquois began selling souvenirs to tourists at Niagara Falls.
• In 1846, Philadelphia city officials chipped off tiny pieces of the Liberty Bell to give as souvenirs to visiting dignitaries.
• The first snow globe, made in France in the late 1880s, contained a tiny Eiffel Tower.
• The gladiator games of ancient Rome drew such large crowds that street vendors sold all sorts of cheesy souvenirs—even pots of sweat from gladiator superstars. (Ewww!)
• In the early 1900s, reports of the shrunken heads made by the native tribes of Ecuador started a frenzy for the odd souvenirs among well-to-do Europeans. While there were collectors who really lost their heads searching for shrunken heads, most tourists unwittingly returned with fakes made from goatskin.
• Astronaut James Irwin had to leave his jacket on the Moon to lighten the spacecraft for the trip home, but he cut out his NASA name tag to bring home. The moon dust-covered souvenir sold at auction for $310,500.
• In the first year after its demolition, 59 tons of rubble from the Berlin Wall were shipped to the United States and sold as souvenirs.
• In 1998, John Evans of Sheffield, England earned the world record for book balancing. He balanced a column of 62 identical books on his head that weighed 217 pounds and measured over six feet tall.
• The world record for standing on one leg: 71 hours.
• Go, Granny, go! The official world record for rocking in a rocking chair is 480 hours.
• In 1991, Pringles baked the largest potato chip on record. The monster chip contained 920 calories and measured 23 inches by 14.5 inches.
• Britain’s Scott Day spun a coin for 19.37 seconds.
• In April 1992, the staff at Cadbury Red Tulip of Australia made the world’s largest chocolate Easter egg—it weighed 10,482 pounds, 14 ounces.
• Weighing in at more than 3,000 pounds, the largest serving of guacamole was made during the Fiesta con Sabor a Mexico at the Latino Cultural Center in Dallas, Texas, in 2005.
• The smallest kite ever flown—smaller than one inch square—was designed and built by a member of the International Friends of Small Kites organization.
• An alligator has about 80 teeth. As they wear down, new ones grow in to replace them.
• Goats have no upper front teeth.
• Ancient Mexicans wore dentures made from wolves’ teeth—for decorative purposes only.
• Watch out! Some police departments replace their police dogs’ teeth with teeth made of titanium.
• The longest teeth in the world are elephant tusks.
• The Etruscans invented false teeth about 2,700 years ago.Their version was made of bone and ivory, and laced together by gold bands.
• Giraffes have just as many teeth as humans: 32.
• A New Orleans dentist invented modern dental floss—a piece of silk thread—in 1815.
• Where are your eyeteeth? They’re the two upper canines—the pointy teeth under your eyes.
• A male babirusa pig’s teeth are deadly…to itself. The upper canines develop into tusks that grow through the snout and curve back toward the eyes. Eventually they will pierce the skull, killing the animal.
• Some dolphins have over 200 teeth, making it the mammal with the most teeth in the world.
“Any smoothly functioning technology gives the appearance of magic.”
—
Arthur C. Clarke
“I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it.”
—
Pablo Picasso
“The future is something which everyone reaches at the rate of 60 minutes an hour, whatever he does, whoever he is.”
—
C. S. Lewis
“A little nonsense now and then is relished by the wisest men.”
—
Roald Dahl
“The most wasted of all days is one without laughter.”
—
e.e. cummings
“What you give comes back to you.”
—
Oprah Winfrey
“It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.”
—
Albus Dumbledore
,
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
“Do not go where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path…and leave a trail.”
—
Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Just play. Have fun. Enjoy the game.”
—
Michael Jordan
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Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader
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