The World's Greatest Book of Useless Information (7 page)

AROUND THE HOUSE

DEUCES ARE WILD

Each king in a deck of playing cards represents a great king from history: spades—King David, clubs—Alexander the Great, hearts—Charlemagne, and diamonds—Julius Caesar.

Each of the suits in a deck of cards represents the four major pillars of the economy in the Middle Ages: hearts represented the Church, spades represented the military, clubs represented agriculture, and diamonds represented the merchant class.

In every deck of cards, the King of Hearts is sticking his sword through his head. That’s why he’s often called the Suicide King.

For a deck of cards to be mixed up enough to play with properly, it should be shuffled at least seven times.

Playing cards became the first paper currency of Canada in 1685, when the French governor used them to pay off some war debts.

Playing cards in India are round.

The Nine of Hearts playing card is considered the symbol of love.

The Ace of Spades playing card symbolizes death.

COMMON CENTS

The ridges on the sides of coins are called reeding or milling. A dime has 118 ridges around the edge. A quarter has 119 ridges.

How valuable is the penny you found lying on the ground? If it takes just a second to pick it up, a person could make $36 per hour just picking up pennies.

It’s rumored that sucking on a copper penny will cause a Breathalyzer to read zero.

On the new U.S. $100 bill, the time on the clock tower of Independence Hall is 4:10.

The Australian $5, $10, $20, $50, and $100 notes are made of plastic.

The face of a penny can hold thirty drops of water.

The first coins issued by authority of the United States government were minted in 1787. These pennies were inscribed with the plainspoken motto, “Mind your own business.”

The original fifty-?cent piece in Australian decimal currency had around $100 worth of silver in it before it was replaced with a less-?expensive twelve-?sided coin.

At the height of inflation in Germany in the early 1920s, approximately two dollars were equal to a quintillion German marks.

KISSABLY FRESH

Colgate faced a big obstacle marketing toothpaste in Spanish-?speaking countries. Colgate translates into the command “go hang yourself.”

More people use blue toothbrushes than red ones.

Oral-?B is a combination of “oral hygiene” and the letter B, which stands for the word better.

Some toothpaste contains antifreeze.

Dentists recommended that a toothbrush be kept six feet away from a toilet to avoid airborne particles resulting from the flush.

Americans spend $1.5 billion every year on toothpaste.

JUST A SCRATCH

Four thousand people are injured by teapots every year.

A toothpick is the object most often choked on by Americans. Every year, more than 8,800 people injure themselves in some way with a toothpick.

On average, one hundred people choke on ballpoint pens every year.

Forty thousand Americans are injured by toilets every year.

In 1981, a man had a heart attack after playing the game Berserk—video gaming’s only known fatality.

In 1990, there were about fifteen thousand vacuum cleaner–related accidents in the United States.

THE ROYAL THRONE

A flush toilet exists today that dates back to 2000 B.C.E.

About a third of people flush while they are still sitting on the toilet.

Alaska has more outhouses than any other state.

In 1825, the first toilet was installed in the White House.

In true kingly fashion, Elvis passed away while sitting on the throne.

Most toilets flush in E flat.

Poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was the first American to have plumbing installed in his house, in 1840.

The first toilet ever seen on television was on Leave It to Beaver.

The Soviet Sukhoi-34 is the first strike fighter with a toilet in it.

Toilets in Australia flush counterclockwise.

SIMPLY SARTORIAL

Bill Bowerman, founder of Nike, got his first shoe idea after staring at a waffle iron. He got the idea of using squared spikes to make shoes lighter.

The plastic things on the end of shoelaces are called aglets.

If you lace your shoes from the inside to the outside, the fit will be snugger around your big toe.

North Americans spend almost $18 billion on footwear a year.

Jeans were named after Genoa, Italy, where the first denim cloth was made.

The YKK on the zipper of your Levi’s stands for Yoshida Kogyo Kabushibibaisha, the world’s largest zipper manufacturer.

Neckties were first worn in Croatia. That’s why they were called cravats (cro-?vats).

Most people button their shirts upward.

The armhole in clothing is called an armsaye.

The bra Marilyn Monroe wore in the movie Some Like It Hot was sold for $14,000.

In 1955, one-?third of all watches sold were Timexes.

The quartz crystal in your wristwatch vibrates 32,768 times a second.

TOYING AROUND

Since the Lego Group began manufacturing blocks in 1949, more than 189 billion pieces in 2,000 different shapes have been produced. This is enough for about thirty Lego pieces for every living person on Earth. Five-?thousandths of a millimeter is the tolerance of accuracy at the Lego mold factories.

Ninety-?four percent of all households in Belgium with children under the age of fourteen years old own Lego products.

Barbie’s full name is Barbara Millicent Roberts. Barbie’s measurements if she were life-?size would be 5 feet, 9 inches tall, 33-18-31½.

There are more Barbie dolls in Italy than there are Canadians in Canada.

Totally Hair Barbie is the best-?selling Barbie of all time.

Slinkys were invented by an airplane mechanic; he was playing with engine parts and realized the possible secondary use of one of the springs.

The Slinky is sold on every continent of the world except Antarctica. If you took a standard Slinky and stretched it out, it would measure eighty-?seven feet.

In 1946, the first TV toy commercial aired. It was for Mr. Potato Head.

In 1980, Namco released Pac-?Man, the most popular video game (or arcade game) of all time. The original name was going to be Puck Man, but executives saw the potential for vandals to scratch out part of the P in the game’s marquee and labeling.

It takes an average of 48 to 100 tries to solve a Rubik’s Cube puzzle. If done perfectly, any Rubik’s Cube combination can be solved in seventeen turns.

The hula hoop was the biggest-?selling toy in 1957.

The yo-?yo originated in the Philippines, where it is used as a weapon in hunting.

When the divorce rate goes up in the United States, toy makers say the sale of toys also rises.

The hundred billionth crayon made by Crayola was Periwinkle Blue.

In the 1985 Boise, Idaho, mayoral election, there were four write-?in votes for Mr. Potato Head.

WHAT DO YOU MEAN?

Camera shutter speed B stands for “bulb.”

Mosquito repellants do not repel. They hide you. The spray blocks the mosquito’s sensors so they do not know you are there.

Scotchgard is a combination of the words Scotch, meaning “Scotsman,” and a misspelling of guard, meaning “to protect.”

The holes in flyswatters are used to lower air resistance.

Scotch tape has been used as an anti-?corrosive shield on the Goodyear Blimp.

The Ramses brand condom is named after the great Pharaoh Ramses II, who fathered more than 160 children.

HAMMER TIME

The side of a hammer is called a cheek.

The end of a hammer, opposite the striking end, is called a peen.

THE IVORY TOWER

Ivory bar soap floating was the result of a mistake. The manufacturer had been mixing the soap formula and causing excess air bubbles that made it float. Customers wrote and told them how much they loved that it floated, and it has floated ever since.

Approximately thirty billion cakes of Ivory Soap had been manufactured by 1990.

FEELING A BIT AVERAGE

The average person looks at eight houses before buying one.

The average lead pencil can draw a line thirty-?five miles long or write approximately fifty thousand English words.

The average mouse pad is 8.75 inches by 7.5 inches.

The average woman consumes six pounds of lipstick in her lifetime.

The average woman’s handbag weighs three to five pounds.

ALTERNATIVE FUNCTIONS

Ketchup is excellent for cleaning brass, especially tarnished or corroded brass.

Kleenex tissues were originally used as filters in gas masks.

Mixing Sani-?Flush and Comet cleaners has been known to cause explosions.

People in China sometimes use firecrackers around their homes as fire alarms.

DISHING THE DIRT

Each of us generates five pounds of garbage a day; most of it is paper.

It takes a plastic container fifty thousand years to start decomposing.

According to a market research survey, 68 percent of consumers who receive junk mail actually open the envelopes.

MEASURING UP

A 60-minute cassette contains 565 feet of tape.

The diameter of the wire in a standard paper clip is 1 millimeter, or about 0.04 inches.

Aluminum is strong enough to support ninety thousand pounds per square inch.

KEEPING YOUR COOL

Rubber bands last longer when refrigerated.

Some Eskimos have been known to use refrigerators to keep their food from freezing.

HOME DÉCOR

A good-?quality Persian rug, which contains one million knots in every three square inches, can last as long as five hundred years.

A typical double mattress contains as many as two million house dust mites.

HISTORY’S MYSTERIES

HOW DO YOU PLEAD?

A Virginia law requires all bathtubs to be kept out in the yard, not inside the house.

According to a British law passed in 1845, attempting to commit suicide was a capital offense. Offenders could be hanged for trying.

Celebrating Christmas was once illegal in England.

Dueling is legal in Paraguay as long as both parties are registered blood donors.

Impotence is legal grounds for divorce in twenty-?four American states.

In a tradition dating back to the beginning of the Westminster system of government, the bench in the middle of a Westminster parliament is two-?and-?a-?half sword lengths long. This was so the government and opposition couldn’t have a go at each other if it all got a bit heated.

In Alaska, it is illegal to shoot at a moose from the window of an airplane or other flying vehicle.

In Athens, Greece, a driver’s license can be taken away by law if the driver is deemed either “unbathed” or “poorly dressed.”

In Baltimore, it is illegal to wash or scrub a sink, regardless of how dirty it is.

In Cleveland, Ohio, it is illegal to catch mice without a hunting license.

In England during Queen Victoria’s reign, it was illegal to be a homosexual but not a lesbian, the reason being that when the queen was approving the law, she wouldn’t believe that women would do that.

In Hartford, Connecticut, it is illegal for a husband to kiss his wife on Sundays.

In Helsinki, Finland, instead of giving parking tickets, the police usually deflate tires.

In Italy, it is illegal to make coffins out of anything except nutshells or wood.

In Jasmine, Saskatchewan, it is illegal for a cow to moo within three hundred kilometers of a private home.

In Kentucky, it is illegal to carry ice cream in your back pocket.

In Sweden, although prostitution is legal, it is illegal for anyone to use the services of a prostitute.

In Texas, it is illegal to put graffiti on someone else’s cow.

In the United Kingdom, there is no Act of Parliament making it illegal to commit murder. Murder is only illegal due to legal precedent.

It is against the law to stare at the mayor of Paris.

In Singapore, it is against the law to urinate in an elevator.

In Sweden, it is illegal to train a seal to balance a ball on its nose.

In California, it is illegal to eat oranges while bathing.

In Bladworth, Saskatchewan, it is illegal to frown at cows.

It is illegal to grow or sell pork in Israel.

In Arizona, it is illegal to hunt camels.

In Malaysia, it is illegal for restaurants to substitute toilet paper as table napkins. Repeat offenders go to jail.

It used to be law in France that children’s names had to be taken from an official government list.

In Iceland, it was once against the law to have a pet dog in a city.

In one city in Switzerland, it was once against the law to slam your car door.

Mailing an entire building has been illegal in the United States since 1916, when a man mailed a forty-?thousand-?ton brick house across Utah to avoid high freight rates.

Pennsylvania was the first colony to legalize witchcraft.

A monkey was once tried and convicted for smoking a cigarette in South Bend, Indiana.

According to the United States Refuse Act of 1899, every industrial discharge into bodies of water since 1899 has been a crime.

Every citizen of Kentucky is required by law to take a bath at least once a year.

If you live in Michigan, it is illegal to put a skunk in your boss’s desk.

In Hartford, Connecticut, you may not, under any circumstances, cross the street walking on your hands.

In Idaho, a citizen is forbidden by law to give another citizen a box of candy that weighs more than fifty pounds.

In Indiana, it is illegal to ride public transportation for at least thirty minutes after eating garlic.

In Minnesota, it is illegal for women to be dressed up as Santa Claus on city streets.

In Morrisville, Pennsylvania, women need a legal permit before they can wear lipstick in public.

In some parts of Alabama, it is illegal to carry a comb in your pocket.

In the Rhode Island legislature during the 1970s, it was proposed that there be a tax of $2 on every act of sexual intercourse.

In Oklahoma, it is against the law to hunt whale.

It is illegal for boys in ninth grade to grow a mustache in Binghamton, New York.

In Omaha, Nebraska, it’s against the law to burp or sneeze in a church.

In Kansas, it’s against the law to catch fish with your bare hands.

It’s against the law to ride down the streets of Brewton, Alabama, in a motorboat.

Most burglaries occur in the winter.

The state legislature in North Dakota has rejected a proposal to erect signs specifically warning motorists not to throw human waste on to the roadside. Maintenance workers report at least twenty incidents of road crews being sprayed with urine after rupturing urine-?filled plastic bottles that became swollen in the hot sun. Opponents of the measure say they’re afraid the signs would discourage tourism.

Under the law of Mississippi, there’s no such thing as a female Peeping Tom.

THAT’S WHAT WE CALL A MILESTONE

In 1976, a Los Angeles secretary named Jannene Swift officially married a fifty-?pound rock. The ceremony was witnessed by more than twenty people.