Little Known Facts

As I've mentioned before, I love trivia. I love to hoard facts that may never be of any use to my life. Regardless, here are some random things you may not know:

1. Jennifer Grey (Baby from "Dirty Dancing") played Mindy on Friends. Didn't recognize her? She had a nose job that was said to be a career ending move on her part.

2. When 26-year-old Eddie Gaedel suited up for the St. Louis Browns on August 19, 1951, and had an official at-bat, he became the shortest player in Major League Baseball history, standing 3 feet, 7 inches tall and weighing 65 pounds. Gaedel wore No. 1/8 on his jersey and was walked on four straight pitches --all of them high-- in his only plate appearance.
The tallest player in MLB history is current Miami Marlins pitcher Jon Rauch, who stands at 6-foot-11 --or just a shade under two Gaedels tall.

3. Driest Place on Earth is tha Atacama Desert in Northern Chile, this place has only had one recorded rainfall in the last 400 years. The Atlantic Ocean actually borders this desert.

4. Percentage of Africa that is wilderness: 28%
Percentage of North America that is wilderness: 38%

5. A duck's quack doesn't echo, and no one knows why.

6. Coca Cola was originally green.

7. The reason firehouses have circular stairways is from the days of old when the engines were pulled by horses. The horses were stabled on the ground floor and figured out how to walk up straight staircases.

8. The airplane Buddy Holly died in was the "American Pie." (Thus the name of the Don McLean song.) Richie Vallens and The Big Bopper also died in this crash after a shoe at the Clear Lake Ballroom in Clear Lake, IA.

9. Tricycles were originally made by a man named Herbert McFinnial. He had vertigo, and couldn't ride a proper bicycle.

10. "I am." is the shortest complete sentence in the English language.

11. The phrase "rule of thumb" is derived from and old English law
which stated that you couldn't beat your wife with anything wider than your thumb.

12. The first toilet ever seen on television was on "Leave It To Beaver".

13. Every person has a unique tongue print.

14. Henry Ford named Lincoln Motor Company after Abraham Lincoln, whom Ford had a fascination with.

15. Marilyn Monroe had a twin brother named Marty. He was a cross dresser.

16. One of the ingredients in Meth is "Lye" or sodium hydroxide. Lye is one of the main chemicals in drain cleaner. It’s also used by ranchers and city workers who must dispose of road kill and dead bodies by dissolving them. Carcasses are placed in a sealed chamber with sodium hydroxide and water, turning the body into a coffee-like liquid. Serial killers are also know to use this method.

17. A sneeze can exceed the speed of 100 mph.

18. All penguins are born male. At two months, the ones that are genetically female lose their male sex organs.

Did you learn anything? Pretty interesting little factoids here, huh? Well, unless you read numbers 9, 15, and 18. My friend, Anne, made those up for me. They're totally fake.