Useless Facts
It is impossible to sneeze with your eyes open.
The plastic things on the ends of shoelaces are called aglets.
Maine is the toothpick capital of the world.
"Bookkeeper" and "bookkeeping" are the only words in the English language with three consecutive double letters.
The name of the dog on the Cracker Jack box is Bingo.
Welsh mercenary bowmen in the medieval period only wore one shoe at a time.
New Jersey has a spoon museum featuring over 5400 spoons from every state and almost every country.
The characters Bert and Ernie on Sesame Street were named after Bert the cop and Ernie the taxi driver in Frank Capra's "It's A Wonderful Life".
Alaska is the most northern, western and eastern state; it also has the highest latitude, the most eastern longitude and the most western longitude.
It is physically impossible for pigs to look up into the sky.
The metal part at the end of a pencil is twenty percent sulfur.
Duelling is legal in Paraguay as long as both parties are registered blood donors.
When the University of Nebraska Cornhuskers play football at home to a sellout crowd; the stadium becomes the state's third largest city.
The only member of the band ZZ Top without a beard has the last name Beard.
There is a seven letter word in the English language that contains eleven words without rearranging any of its letters; "therein": therein, herein, there, rein, her, here, ere, the, he, in, re.
You would have to count to one thousand to use the letter "a" in the English language to spell a whole number.
111 111 111 x 111 111 111 = 12 345 678 987 654 321.
The statue of George Washington in London's Trafalgar Square stands on imported Virginian soil in respect for Washington's wishes never to stand on British soil.
Québec and Newfoundland are the only two Canadian provinces that do not allow personalised licence plates.
Pluto, the astrological sign for death, was directly above Dallas, Texas when JFK was born.
All fifty states of the U.S. have a city named Greenville (spelling varies).
The Titanic had four smokestacks. Only three worked, but it is good luck to have four so they built one for show.
The zip code 12345 is assigned to General Electric in Schenectady, N.Y.
The letter J does not appear anywhere on the periodic table of the elements.
The cells that make up the antlers of a moose are the fastest growing animal cells in nature.
If Brooklyn, NY became independent of New York City; it would be the third largest city in the United States, after the remainder of New York and Los Angeles.
An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain.
The longest intra-continental flight in the world is from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia to Manila, Philippines.
A Boeing 747s wingspan is longer than the Wright brothers' first flight.
Hippopotamuses do eighty percent of their vocalisations under water.
It would take a one kilogram weight one hour to fall to the bottom of the Marianas Trench, the deepest part of the ocean (35 839 feet).
I, Q, and X are the only letters that don't start a city that ends in -ville in the state of Ohio. i.e. Brownsville, Zanesville, etc.
The billionth digit of pi is 9.
Women blink nearly twice as much as men do.
The province of Alberta in Canada has been completely free of rats since 1905.
Illinois has the most personalised licence plates of any state.
The Dalmatian is the only dog that gets gout.
The only person to be elected to both the baseball and football Hall of Fame's is Cal Hubbard.
The movie playing at the drive-in at the beginning of "The Flintstones" was "The Monster".
142 857 is a cyclic number; the numbers of which always appear in the same order but rotated around when multiplied by any number from 1 to 6. 142 857 * 2 = 285 714; 142 857 * 3 = 428 571; 142 857 * 4 = 571 428; 142 857 * 5 = 714 285; & 142 857 * 6 = 857 142.
"King Kong" is the first movie to have its sequel ("Son of Kong") released the same year (1933).
The real name of the "Loony Tunes" music is "The Merry-Go-Round Broken Down".
"Rhythms" and "syzygy" are the longest English words without vowels.
Pennsylvania was the first colony to legalise witchcraft.
The distance between an alligator's eyes, in inches, is directly proportional to the length of the alligator, in feet.
Beaver Cleaver's locker number was 9.
Giraffes have no vocal chords.
The lifespan of a tastebud is ten days.
A, H, I, M, O, T, U, V, W, X, & Y are the symmetric capital letters in the Roman alphabet. i, l, o, t, u, v, w & x are the symmetric lower case letters in the Roman alphabet.
In order for a deck of cards to be mixed up enough to play with properly, it should be shuffled at least seven times.
Vanilla Ice's real name is Robert Van Winkle.
2 and 5 are the only prime numbers that end in 2 or 5.
1 and 2 are the only numbers where they are the values of the numbers of factors they have.
Switching letters is called spoonerism. For example, saying "clag of Fanada", instead of "flag of Canada".
Mike Nesmith's (of the Monkees) mother, Bette Nesmith Graham invented Liquid paper, in 1951.
Felix the Cat is the first cartoon character to ever have been made into a balloon for a parade.
More money is printed daily for the Monopoly game than by the U.S. Treasury.
The only continent without reptiles or snakes is Antarctica.
It is possible to lead a cow upstairs but not downstairs, because cows' knees can't bend properly to walk back down.
A golden razor removed from King Tut's Tomb was still sharp enough to be used.
You can make a glass of apple cider with three apples.
All gondolas in Venice, Italy must be painted black, unless they belong to a high official.
The word "karate" means "empty hand".
A standard grave is 7'8" x 3'2" x 6'.
Howdy Doody had forty-eight freckles.
There is a city called Rome on every continent.
More Hollywood films have been made about boxing than about any other sport.
The names of the three wise monkeys are; Mizaru: See no evil; Mikazaru: Hear no evil; and Mazaru: Speak no evil.
The name of the asteroid that was believed to have killed the dinosaurs was named Chixalub (Pronounced Sheesh-uh-loob).
John Wilkes Booth shot Lincoln in a theatre and was found in a warehouse. Lee Harvey Oswald shot Kennedy from a warehouse and was found in a theatre.
Santa Fe, New Mexico is the highest state capital at 7000 feet above sea level.
Stewardesses and reverberated are the two longest words (12 letters each) that can be typed using only the left side of the keyboard.
Skepticisms is the longest word that alternates sides.
Alaska could hold the 21 smallest states within its borders.
The sport with the highest ratio of officials to participants is tennis. A singles match should have 13; ten linesmen, one net, one foot-fault, plus an umpire.
49.6% of US residents live in Eastern time zone, 29.3% live in the Central time zone, 5.3% live in the Mountain time zone, 15.0% live in the Pacific time zone and 0.8% live in any other time zone.
Camels have three eyelids to protect themselves from blowing sand.
It takes forty minutes to hard-boil an ostrich egg.
There are 2 598 960 five-card hands possible in a 52-card deck of cards.
There are 1 929 770 126 028 800 different colour combinations possible on a Rubik's Cube.
Every Swiss citizen is required by law to have a bomb shelter or access to a bomb shelter.
In 1986 Danny Heep became the first player in a World Series to be a designated hitter (DH) with the initials "D.H."
If you put a raisin in a glass of champagne, it will keep floating to the top and sinking to the bottom.
International Pi Day is March 14, at 1:59. (3/14 1:59)
Shortest Intercontinental Commercial Flight in the world is from Gibraltar (Europe) to Tangier (Africa). Distance: 34 miles, flight time: 20 minutes.
In the game Monopoly, the most money you can lose in one travel around the board (normal game rules, going to jail only once) is $26 040. The most money you can lose in one turn is $5070.
Drinking water after eating reduces the acid in your mouth by 61 percent.
The cheetah is the only cat in the world that can't retract its claws.
Only 7% of the world's population is left-handed.
Des Moines is the city with the highest jelly consumption rate in the USA.
"Queuing" is the word with the most consecutive vowels in the English language.
Eyelashes live for about 4 months.
The shortest street in the world is only 5.7 metres long.
If you lined up all the cans of SPAM in the world (new and used), it would encircle the Earth 300 times.
SPAM is really machined separated pork shoulder.
More cans of SPAM are consumed everyday than any other meat.
Every second, somewhere in the world, a can of SPAM is consumed.
Woodwind instruments push teeth out, while brass instruments push teeth in.
The bottled water "Evian" is "naive" (ex: a naive person) spelt backwards.
Somewhere, every second, someone in the world is watching "Star Trek".
4" x 2" wood does not exactly measure 4" x 2".
It has been calculated that in the last 3500 years, there have only been 230 years of peace throughout the civilised world.
Animators drew nearly 6.5 million black spots for the film "101 Dalmatians".
By the end of the Civil War, between one-third and one-half of all U.S. paper currency in circulation was counterfeit.
India, not the United States, is the country which produces the most films yearly.
*TALLIES OF RECURRING EVENTS/REFERENCES (as of Episode 168)
Meetings at Monk's Cafe... 286
Kramer entrances... 284 times (both feet must be over doorstep)
Opening of Jerry's fridge... 125
Jerry on the phone... 120
Jerry, George, Elaine or Kramer driving a car... 105 (not including LA scenes)
Rings of Jerry's buzzer... 56
Baseball references... 51
Jerry, Kramer, George, or Elaine watching TV... 44
Superhero references... 37 (including Superman, Batman, Green Lantern, Elastic Man, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, and Rubber Man)
Scenes in a Doctor's Office/Hospital... 34
Chinese food references... 26
Cigars smoked by Kramer... 22
Scenes at an airport/on a plane... 21
Bowls of cereal eaten... 19
Jacket-related incidents... 16
"Get Out!" shoves from Elaine... 14
Nazi/Hitler references... 13
Kennedy references... 10 (including JFK, JFK JR, Ethel & Jackie O)
Subway scenes... 8
Art Vandelay references... 7
Three Stooges references... 4
George has sex in an inappropriate place... 4
Jerry's and George's boardwalk epiphanies... 3
Bus scenes... 1
Approximate amount of money lost by Jerry... $34 275.50 (Plus: TV, Stereo Receiver, 2 charter tickets to Paris, a BMW, 2 meals at Mendy's, and numerous amorous visits from a maid)
*REASONS FOR JERRY BREAKING UP WITH GIRLFRIENDS (as of Episode 168)
For not laughing at all.
For laughing too strangely.
For having bad taste in commercials.
For having "Man Hands".
For appearing to wear the same dress every day.
For being too altruistic.
For not kissing on the 3rd date.
For possibly having fake breasts.
For not giving him a massage.
For not tasting his pie.
For "shushing" him in front of the TV.
For suggesting he share her toothbrush.
For having been with (and getting dumped by!) Newman.
For being his soul mate.
For being liked by his parents.
For eating peas one at a time.
For being too nice.
For apparently having no friends.
For not letting him play with her toys.
For having "two faces"- attractive in one light, ugly in another.
For believing she got gonorrhea from a tractor seat.
For making him choose between seeing her and speaking in an imaginary voice inspired by her belly button.
For finishing his sentences.
*KRAMER'S BIG IDEAS (as of Episode 168)
A pizza place where you can make your own pie (to be owned and operated by Kramerica Industries). (Episode 4)
A roll-out tie dispenser. (Episode 5)
Levels - a radical design concept that will transform his apartment into a pillow-strewn "ancient Egypt" (later used as a scene in the NBC pilot, Jerry). (Episode 7)
The invisible coffee table, a transparent piece of furniture he builds out of a windshield; he and his then girlfriend (Elaine's roommate) shatter it while making love. (Episode 19)
A cologne that smells like the beach (co-opted by "the real" Calvin Klein as "Ocean"). (Episode 31, 51)
Faking a ski lodge in his appartment with ersatz wood wallpaper. (Episode 58)
A coffee-table book about coffee tables, with legs and a built-in coaster on the cover. (Episode 71)
Dispensing with his fridge and eating only fresh food. (Episode 89)
The Bro (or "Manssiere") - a bra for chesty men. (Episode 98)
Turning his appartment into a Swedish spa via a hot tub. (Episode 109)
Da Vinci sleep - 20 minutes every three hours, based on Leonardo's supposed slumber patterns. (Episode 121)
PB&J's, serving only peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches. (Episode 121)
Wearing only hot-out-of-the-dryer (or pizza oven) clothes. (Episode 123)
A car equipped with a periscope for urban navigation. (Episode 126)
Using butter in place of shaving cream and suntan lotion. (Episode 149)
A particularly fruitful episode found him dreaming up a spill-preventing bladder system for oil tankers and a bottle to dispense both mustard and ketchup (at the same time), plus taking credit for renovating the Chrysler Building's Cloud Club and 2.9 percent interest rates on Toyota one-tonne trucks. (Episode 150)
Realising lengthy showers cut into productivity, he adds a garbage disposal to his drain, thus allowing for tub-time food prep. (Episode 157)
Asserting that 94 percent of communication is nonverbal, he resolves never to speak again. (Episode 161)
A fleet of rickshaws pulled by New York City's homeless. (Episode 165)
* = Courtesy of "Entertainment Weekly", issue #430, 05/04/98 - "The Definitive Viewer's Guide".