Trivia 9 Answers
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- Which country has the most soda pop?
Japan is one of the most competitive soft drink markets in the world.
Approximately 1,000 new soft drinks are launched in Japan every year, of
which only a small number survive. There are more than 7,000 different soft
drinks sold in the country
- What's a three dog night?
The expression "three dog night" originated with the Eskimos
and means a very cold night - so cold that you have to bed down with three
dogs to keep warm.
- How dangerous was it to be a cowboy?
From the 1850s to the 1880s, the most common cause of death among cowboys
in the American West was being dragged by a horse while caught in the
stirrups.
- Are most diamonds made into rings or necklaces?
Only about 20 percent of diamonds are made into jewels of any sort. Because
they are so hard, most diamonds are used to make tools such as dental
drills and metal cutters.
- Did the French really do studies with decapitated heads?
At the time the guillotine was invented, scientists were fascinated by
whether any of the executed continued to feel after their heads were
removed. When Charlotte Corday, who killed revolutionary leader Jean-Paul
Marat, was executed, the executioner's assistant Francois le Gros picked up
her head by the hair and slapped her cheek. Several eyewitnesses saw not one
but both cheeks flush red, as though in anger. And so for the next 200 years
French doctors devoted a lot of time and effort to researching whether
the head lived on after it was cut off. This involved such scientific
endeavors as shouting loudly in the ears of decapitated heads and watching
to see if there was any flicker of recognition on their features, and
pumping blood from a living dog through a three hour old head and watching
its eyelids flicker.
- What are the only two Disney movies to have traditional families?
101 Dalmatians and Peter Pan are the only two Disney cartoons that
feature two-parent families in which neither parent dies during the course
of the movie.
- Can a sunset really flash green?
A green flash is sometimes seen just as the sun sets or rises. This occurs
because green light is bent most strongly by the atmosphere. So the green
is seen before other colors at sunrise, and after the other colors have
vanished at sunset.
- When did minimum wage become the law?
In 1938, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed into law the first
minimum wage in the United States. The new law, considered controversial at
the time, established a 25 cent-per-hour minimum wage and a maximum 44-hour
work week for minors.
- Where did April Fools Day come from?
The origins of designating April the 1st as a day for pranks and jollity are
the subject of some debate, but there are generally two schools of thought
on the matter:
- Originally, New Year's Day was April 1. In 1564,
King Charles IX decreed that with the adoption of the Gregorian calendar,
New Year's be moved to January 1. However, some people continued using April
1 as the date of the new year. These people were referred to as "April
Fools"
- In the early Roman calendar, April 1 was the first
day of spring, and before 154 B.C. it was New Year's Day. Many
celebrations of many cultures observed this day as the coming of the renewal
of the earth and life. When the Christians came into power in the Roman
empire, they created a celebration we call Easter that replaced the spring
rituals. The old celebrations were ridiculed and made fun of. And people who
observed these celebrations were persecuted. This was a chance to make fun
of these "April Fools" who did not follow the correct beliefs.
In France today, April first is called "Poisson
d'Avril." French children fool their friends by taping a paper fish to
their friends' backs. When the "young fool" discovers this trick,
the prankster yells "Poisson d’Avril!" (April Fish!)
North Americans play on this day with pranks and practical
jokes, springing tricks on family and friends, then shouting out "April
Fools!" Of course, the most clever April Fool joke is the one where
everyone laughs, especially the person upon whom the joke is played.
- Who was the first President of the United States?
John Hanson - not George Washington - was the first president of the
U.S.. When the Congress met in 1781, the U.S. was governed by the Articles
of Confederation, which were adopted in 1777 and ratified by the states in
1781. At that meeting Congress elected John Hanson its "President of
the U.S. in Congress assembled." George Washington became the first
president of the U.S. under the U.S. Constitution in 1789.
- How long can lightning be?
The longest lightning flashes measured have been 20 miles in length. Long
flashes occur most often by high clouds. The smallest flashes may measure
less than 300 feet.
- Can you freeze a frog?
Wood frogs are freeze-tolerant and spend winters frozen on land, only
to thaw in the spring and begin their breeding process in vernal ponds.
- Could a teddy bear be bad for you?
At the height of the teddy bear's huge popularity in the early 1900s, there
is record of one Michigan priest who publicly denounced the teddy as an
insidious weapon. He claimed that the stuffed toy would lead to the
destruction of the instincts of motherhood and eventual racial suicide.
Of the priest, it could be said that he felt that teddys weren't stuffed
with moral fiber.
- Should you freeze that Hershey bar?
Avoid keeping chocolate too cold. If stored at temperatures below 55
degrees F, chocolate will sweat when brought to room temperature too
quickly.
- Is Easter a pagan or Christian celebration?
Like many of our most cherished holidays, a little bit of both. The
word Easter is derived from Eostre (also known as Ostara), an ancient
Anglo-Saxon Goddess. She symbolized the rebirth of the day at dawn and the
rebirth of life in the spring. The arrival of spring was celebrated all over
the world long before the religious meaning became associated with Easter.
As Christianity grew and spread throughout the world, it was common practice
to adopt, modify, convert or take over existing non-Christian festivals,
sacred locations and even names, and assimilate them into the Christian
theology. Since the Resurrection was already celebrated in the spring, it
was merged with the existing pagan celebration and thus were the roots of
our modern Easter celebration born.
- What does a rabbit have to do with Easter?
The Easter bunny has its origin in pre-Christian fertility lore, the Hare
and the Rabbit being obvious fertility symbols of the new life during the
Spring season. The bunny as the Easter symbol we know today seems to
have its origins in Germany in the 1500s. The first edible Easter bunnies
were made in Germany during the early 1800s. The Easter bunny was introduced
to American folklore by the German settlers who arrived in the Pennsylvania
Dutch country during the 1700s. The arrival of the "Oschter Haws"
was considered "childhood's greatest pleasure" next to a visit
from Christ-Kindel on Christmas Eve. The children believed that if they were
good the "Oschter Haws" would lay a nest of colored eggs.
- Why do we color eggs for Easter?
Eggs are another Pagan symbol of Easter, the egg being something of a symbol
of immortality. The egg is the World Egg, laid by the Goddess and opened by
the heat of the Sun God. The hatching of this World Egg was celebrated each
year at the Spring festival of the Sun. As Spring is the season of nature's
rebirth, the symbol of the egg was particularly significant. Druids dyed
eggs scarlet to honour the Sun, and Pagan Anglo-Saxons made offerings of
their coloured eggs to the Goddess Eostre. They also (like many Pagan
cultures before them) placed patterned eggs in tombs or on fresh graves, to
ensure the rebirth of the deceased.
- Why wear an Easter bonnet?
It's thought that the Easter bonnet and new clothes on Easter symbolizes
the end of the dreary winter and the beginning of the fresh, new spring.
At the turn of the century it was popular for families to stroll to church
and home again to show off their "Sunday best".
- Why do we put all the treats in a basket?
The Easter Basket shows roots in a Catholic custom. Baskets filled with
breads, cheeses, hams and other foods for Easter dinner were taken to mass
Easter morning to be blessed. This evolved in time to baskets filled
with chocolate eggs, jellybeans, toys and stuffed bunnies for children left
behind by the Easter Bunny.
- How quickly do your fingernails grow?
Fingernails have a life span of three to six months. That's how long it
takes them to grow from base to tip, progressing at the pace of 1.5
inches a year -- or 0.000000047 inches a second.
- Will we ever run out of room?
If the population of the Earth continued to increase at its present rate
indefinitely, by 3530 A.D. the total mass of human flesh and blood would
equal the mass of the Earth. By 6826 A.D. it would equal the mass of the
known universe.
- Does anything prey on piranha?
In South America a fish known as the payara has saber teeth that are two
inches long. A common bait used to catch these freshwater fish is a
small piranha.
- Is Friday bad luck to sailors?
In the 19th century, the British Navy attempted to dispel the superstition
that Friday is an unlucky day to embark on a ship. The keel of a new ship
was laid on a Friday, she was named H.M.S. Friday, commanded by a Captain
Friday, and finally went to sea on a Friday. Neither the ship nor her
crew were ever heard of again
- Was the Queen Victoria a pothead?
Queen Victoria eased the discomfort of her menstrual cramps by having her
doctor supply her with marijuana.
- What's the rule of horse statues?
If a statue in the park of a person on a horse has both front legs in the
air, the person died in battle; if the horse has one front leg in the air,
the person died as a result of wounds received in battle; if the horse has
all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes.
