The Trivia Library
The Trivia Library
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Companion piece to the YouTube Playlist and the Internet Archives; yet another document I can delete from my desktop.
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Henry Heimlich (of the choking maneuver fame) and Paul Winchell (the voice of Tigger) were the first people to patent the artificial heart
Asbestos is derived from the Greek for “inextinguishable”.
The name “Barbara” originally meant “a Barbarian woman” and carried a pejorative meaning, given that Barbarian women in Greco-Roman society were of low social status (i.e. slaves).
The novel “Ben Hur” was written in 1880 by the governor of New Mexico.
Before Billboard magazine devoted itself to record sales, it carried news of traveling fairs and carnivals.
Because so many of the slaves in brothels of the Roman Empire were from Gael and Germany and were blonde, Roman law required all prostitutes, regardless of heritage, to dye their hair blonde to distinguish them from “proper,” upper-class women.
“Bonnie and Clyde Syndrome” (known scientifically as hybristophilia) refers to a sexual attraction to violent criminals. Bonnie herself may have possessed the condition. The Manson Family is the most notorious example.
Charles Dickens invented the work “boredom”.
In 18 months, Buffalo Bill killed 4,280 bison to feed the construction crews of the Kansas Pacific Railway.
Painters’ canvases were originally made from hemp. The word “canvas” is derived from the Latin word for “cannabis”.
As a rule, European carousels rotate clockwise, while American carousels spin counterclockwise.
Drop a cat out the window on any floor above the seven floor, and it will survive: it will fall long enough for its fur to stretch out and increase the cat’s drag, acting as a parachute.
Charlemagne owned a tablecloth made of asbestos and would often impress his guests by throwing it in the fireplace.
If chicken had no bacteria in it, it would be completely tasteless.
Dachshunds were bred to have short legs and long bodies so they could squeeze through badger tunnels. “Dachshund” means “badger dog” in German.
When Disneyland opened in the summer of 1955, the 110-degree temperatures melted the recently-poured asphalt on Main Street and caused many high-heeled shoes to sink into the pavement.
You are more likely to die at work than you are at war.
The Dodo bird had no ground level predators in its native habitats, so when humans arrived, its friendliness ultimately led to its extinction.
In terms of ecological footprint, having a dog as a pet is equal to two Toyota Land Cruisers (manufacturing them as well as driving them), because of the amount of meat the dog consumes. A cat is equal to a Volkswagen Golf.
As a joke, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle once sent five letters to five friends that read, “We are discovered, flee immediately,” to see what they would do. One of them disappeared and Doyle never saw him again.
Dr. Pepper was originally marketed as a cure for impotence.
The phrase “e pluribus unim” originally appears in a recipe for a cheese and butter spread in the poem “Moretum” by Virgil.
Thomas Edison invented the word “hello”. The original word was “hullo” and was an exclamation of surprise.
Fingernails and hair do not continue to grow after you die; the skin tightens, making it look as though they’re growing.
Ian Fleming wrote the book Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, though the film adaptation has little in common with his original story.
New Jersey and Oregon are the only two states in which it is illegal to pump your own gas.
There is a story from the French Revolution about two members of the National Assembly who were guillotined. Following the execution, their heads were placed in a bag, and one bit the other so hard they couldn’t be separated.
Woody Harrelson’s father was a freelance contract killer.
In America, the mere mention of a house being haunted reduces its sale value by one-third.
High heels were first invented for soldiers on horseback in the 1500s who needed a way to keep their feet in their stirrups.
The Hotel Del Coronado, aside from being reputedly haunted, was built without a single nail, instead using wooden pegs.
Moments before dying of hypothermia, victims often feel unbearably hot and – ironically – take off their clothes. The blood vessels near the skin have at that point given up and opened, releasing blood and producing the sensation of heat. The term for the phenomenon is “paradoxical undressing”.
The Diomede Islands (Big Diomede and Little Diomede) in the Bering Strait straddle the International Date Line, meaning Big Diomede is almost a full day ahead of Little Diomede; Thursday on the latter is Friday on the former.
A kangaroo has three vaginas.
After Superman was pitted against the Klu Klux Klan in episodes of the 1940s radio show, the Klan’s recruitment dropped to zero.
In the 1950s, a small town in the Nevada desert was exactly the right distance (65 miles) to watch the atomic bomb tests being performed in the middle of the desert. The nuclear tests became tourist attractions: people flocked to the city to watch the mushroom clouds from hotels that were built to accommodate the crowds. The city? Las Vegas.
When lightning strikes a beach, it fuses the sand into a hollow, glass-lined tube.
Before being marketed as a mouthwash, Listerine was shilled as an antiseptic, a floor cleaner, and a cure for gonorrhea – all without changing the formula.
Malaria comes from the Latin for “bad air” (“mal” + “aria”).
The phrase “Mr. Mojo Risin’” heard in the Doors song “L.A. Woman” is an anagram of “Jim Morrison”.
The man who first calculated the height of Mount Everest found it to be exactly 29,000 feet. Knowing no one would believe such a lucky number, he announced it to be 29,002 feet instead, and everyone marveled at his precision.
The multiple-choice exam was invented by the U.S. Army in World War I to test recruits.
The word “orchid” comes from the Greek “orkhis,” meaning “testicle”.
Olympic gold medals are made of gilded silver, not gold.
The original use of the Ouija board was not to communicate with the dead, but with one’s own unconscious. In the first World War, it was even used to contact troops abroad.
Pablo Picasso was held, questioned, and then released in 1911 for his suspected role in the theft of the Mona Lisa, which turned up months later.
Pandas only have one facial expression. Their teeth are so enormous that they constrict the facial muscles, preventing any movement.
The word “pansy” comes from the French word for “thought” or “idea”.
The sewers in Paris are perfectly lined up with the streets above them.
There were no penalties for perjury until the 1600s. Prior to then, it was thought that the fear of God’s wrath was enough to keep witnesses honest.
In 1897, Indiana tried to pass a bill stating that pi is equal to 3.2, as opposed to its truly infinite value, but it never became law due to intervention by a Purdue University professor
The Spanish Dollar was split into eight pieces, leading to the phrase, “pieces of eight”. Two pieces equaled a quarter of an American dollar, leading to the phrase “two bits” to describe 25 cents.
John Fiedler – the voice of Piglet – died one day after Paul Winchell – the voice of Tigger.
Pineapples contain the enzyme bromelain, which is corrosive enough to erase one’s fingerprints.
The city of Pompeii was hit by a 7.5 earthquake in 62 A.D. and suffered smaller quakes for the next 17 years. It was still being repaired in 79 A.D. when the eruption of Mount Vesuvius destroyed the city again… permanently.
The Pony Express lasted only a year before the telegraph rendered it obsolete.
All food gifts given to the President of the United States must be destroyed, no matter who gave them, as per Secret Service protocol.
Pretzels were invented by an Italian monk who used the treats as a bribe to get kids to memorize scripture. The twisted shape is supposed to represent the folded arms of children in prayer.
Reindeer were the second animal to be domesticated, after dogs.
If you put a sea sponge through a sieve, the tiny pieces will reform and rebuild the sponge. If you put three different sponges through a sieve together, the pieces of each sponge will separate and reform the three sponges.
A Siamese cat has a white body and black extremities, but its fur has a colorant that is affected by body temperature. Put a Siamese in the cold, it will turn entirely black. Bring it back into warmth, and it will revert to its normal color scheme.
Sitting Bull’s real name was Jumping Badger. He acquired his father’s name – Sitting Bull – as a teenager.
Technically and legally, slavery wasn’t illegal in England until April 2010, because it was never actually recognized as a state of being.
The Spanish national anthem is the only national anthem with no words.
The penis of a sperm whale is nine feet long and one foot in diameter.
What time is it at the South Pole? Every time, technically, though inhabitants generally set their clocks to GMT.
Building a house out of bales of straw makes it fire-resistant, earthquake-resistant, inhospitable to insect and rodents, allergy-proof, eco-friendly (below zero carbon rating), heat insulated, soundproof, biodegradable, and easier to build than with wood or bricks.
The only people legally allowed to carry switchblades are those with only one arm.
Turkeys are called turkeys because the first merchants to sell them were Turkish. They were called “Turkey cocks”.
The dimensions of a 2×4 are rarely 2×4. The measurements have changed over the years, but the name has stuck.
The word “upset” came into use after a horse named Upset became the first ever to beat the legendary Man O’ War.
All gondolas in Venice are required by law to be painted black.
When you crack a whip, the tip is moving faster than the speed of sound. The “crack” of the whip is a small sonic boom.
William Marston, creator of the Wonder Woman comic, is credited as the creator of the systolic blood pressure test used to detect deception, which became one component of the modern lie detector.
After leaving the Marx Brothers, Zeppo Marx started an engineering company that designed the clamps that held the atomic bombs inside the Enola Gay and released them over Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
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If you want more, take a look at a show called QI; it’s well worth your time.
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