More Useless Stuff

More Useless Trivia:

Charles Lindbergh achieved great fame for being the first man to fly non-stop across the Atlantic Ocean. What most people don’t know, however, is that two men had achieved the same goal eight years earlier! Flying for sixteen and a half hours from June 14 to June 15, 1919, Captain John Alcock and Lieutenant Arthur Whitten-Brown had co-piloted a Vichers-Vimy twin-engine plane non-stop from Newfoundland across the Atlantic to Ireland. Lindbergh was just the first person to do it alone.

Contrary to popular belief, only one alligator has ever been found in the New York City sewer system. The 125-pound (57 kilogram) alligator was pulled out by four boys way back in 1935.

A South Korean movie theater owner decided that the movie The Sound of Music was too long. His solution? He shortened the movie by cutting out all of the musical scenes!

In four separate instances between October 1987 and February 1988, small pink frogs rained down from the sky on to various parts of Great Britain. Scientists are still uncertain as to where these frogs originated, although some have traced them back to the Sahara desert.

The Malaysian government decided to solve their disease-carrying mosquito problem by spraying the infested areas with DDT. This worked, but the cockroaches then devoured the dead mosquitos. This was followed by the region’s gecko lizards consuming the roaches. The geckos did not die from the residual poison (surprisingly), but their central nervous systems were greatly affected, causing the lizards to slow down. Moving up the food chain, the cats ate the slow-moving lizards and started to die off in large quantities. Of course, fewer cats mean more rats, and the country’s rat population soared. As a result, the World Health Organization was forced to step in and ban the DDT. In an effort to restore the ecological balance, they flew in planeloads of cats to kill the rats.

Two hundred and twenty six soldiers lost their lives way back in 1850 when they crossed a suspension bridge that spanned the Maine at Angers, France. It turns out that they were all marching in step and had caused an increased resonance (vibration) to the bridge. Ever since, troops are ordered to rout step (march out of step) when crossing a bridge.

The phrase “Often a bridesmaid but never a bride” actually comes from an advertisement for Listerine mouthwash. The text was written by Milton Feasley and first appeared in 1925. The advertisement was so successful that it ran for more than ten years.

A man named Angus McDonald was a lookout man for an explosives company in Johannesburg, South Africa. One April Fool’s Day, he decided to pull the ultimate prank. He put on an oversized uniform and hid his head inside. To the casual passer-by, it appeared that his head had been blown off. McDonald’s joke blew up in his face, however. The story (and photo) was picked up by the newswires and McDonald was fired from his job.

Did you ever wonder what the WD in WD-40 stands for? The name was lifted right out chemist Norm Larsen’s laboratory notebook. Way back in 1953, he was trying to concoct an anti-corrosion formula, which worked on the basic principle of displacing water. On his 40th try, Larsen finally got it right. Hence the name WD-40. It literally means Water Displacer, 40th try.

Back in 1956 recording artist Johnny Mathis was forced to make the decision between trying out for the United States Olympic team (his specialty was track) and recording his first album for Columbia Records. He chose the latter and went on to become the eighth biggest selling album artist of all time. His 1958 album, Johnny’s Greatest Hits, was the first Greatest Hits album ever marketed, spending three weeks at #1 and 490 consecutive weeks on Billboard’s Pop Album chart (that’s almost 9 ½ years!).

The Bank of Vernal, in Vernal, Utah (where else?) is the only bank in the world that was built from bricks sent through the mail. Way back in 1919 the builders realized that it was cheaper to send the bricks through the United States Postal System (seven bricks to a package) than to have them shipped commercially from Salt Lake City.

Before the invention of anaesthesia, speed was a highly regarded trait in a surgeon. Dr. Robert Liston of London was among the fastest. But, speed comes with some cost. In one particular operation, Liston killed three people. The patient actually survived, but later died of gangrene. During the operation, Liston accidentally cut of the fingers of his surgical assistant, who soon died from an infection. Liston even managed to slash through the coattails of a colleague who was observing the operation – he was so sure that his vital organs had been punctured that he died of fright!

Way back on August 13, 1903, police entered the Liverpool, England home of William and Emily Shortis. Worried friends had contacted the authorities because the couple had not been seen for several days prior. There they found William near death. Oddly, he was pinned under the dead body of his 224-pound wife. Did she die during a moment of passion? Not at all. The coroner concluded that William was following Emily up the stairs of their home when she lost her balance and tumbled down the steps, pulling him down with her. Emily immediately died from a blow to the head, trapping William under her body for over three days. Sadly, William did not survive his injuries, either.

Frenchman Michel Lotito has a very unusual diet. Born on June 15, 1950, he has been consuming large quantities of metal and glass since he was nine years old. To date, he has eaten supermarket carts, television sets, bicycles, chandeliers, razor blades, bullets, nuts and bolts, lengths of chain, phonograph records, computers, and an entire Cessna 150 light aircraft (which took him nearly two years to consume). It seems that his body has adjusted to this unusual diet, as he eats nearly two pounds of metal every day. His technique includes lubricating his digestive tract with mineral oil, cutting the parts into bite-size pieces, and then consuming a large quantity of water while eating this junk. Most people would prefer a nice glass of wine with their dinner.

Madame Marie Curie was the first person ever to win two Nobel Prizes. Her first was in Physics (1903) and the second in Chemistry (1911). So what did she do with the money? She used part of the prize to both change the wallpaper and to put a modern bathroom into her Paris home.

Marijuana was not illegal in the United States until October 1, 1937, when Congress passed the “Marijuana Tax Act”. Total debate time on the House of Representatives floor concerning this issue: 90 seconds. This act did not actually ban the substance – it simply said that one could not sell marijuana without a license. Of course, Congress refused to issue any licenses. Congress finally banned marijuana outright in 1970.

Everyone knows that spinach is loaded in iron and makes you stronger – Just look what it has done for Popeye’s career. Well, Popeye was wrong. So were all of those parents that stuffed it down their kids’ throats. In reality, spinach has no more iron in it than any other vegetable. This spinach misconception dates back to the 1950’s when a food analyst made an error while calculating the iron in spinach. His decimal place was off by one place, suggesting that spinach had ten times as much iron content than it really did.

Updated: October 6, 2002 — 4:18 pm